06 Jun 10 Steps To Transition Into A Digital Marketer
Brands today have adopted the digital marketing practice and are engaging with their customers online. Traditional marketers who have not yet chosen to upgrade their skill sets to meet the demands of digital marketing are under risk. There is likelihood that they will be replaced by new age Digital Marketers. Who are internet savvy and can take new approaches to engage customers. If Traditional Marketers want to do some thing about it, here are 10 steps they can take to transition their skill sets:
- Improve writing skills
Marketing is an art to persuade a prospect to value what’s being sold. Writing plays a key role as part of persuasion, especially on the online medium. Thanks to increase in number of websites, blogs, engagement levels on social media, etc.
- Administering a website
A Marketer is expected to understand the persona of a customer and react accordingly. The communication, in line with the buyer’s persona also needs to be placed appropriately online. Most importantly on a brand’s virtual home i.e. it’s website.
A Digital Marketer is expected to administer a website and also optimize it to suit the buyer’s persona and keep a track of KPI’s which are in line with the brand’s overall business objectives.
- Editing Images
As part of communicating value to a prospect, it’s also important for a marketer to look in to the visual elements. Text will help in stimulating intellectual needs whereas visuals will help in drawing attention leading to an engagement between a brand and the prospect.
In terms of image editing skills a Digital Marketer is expected to atleast have functional knowledge on re-sizing an image to fit a blog post, insert captions wherever appropriate or insert call to action text to lead a prospect through a buyer’s journey.
- Coding
Digital Marketing has evolved from being done solely on a single device like a computer to multiple devices including laptops, ipods, tablets, mobile phones, etc. This has also provided opportunities to connect with a prospect on multiple devices and multiple channels. Resulting in advent of websites, online videos, email marketing, mobile applications, etc, increasing the scope of marketing from doing market research surveys, designing flyers, corporate videos, to beyond. What this has done is to ensure that the marketers are also expected to carry some basic level coding expertise to optimize websites (embedding & re-sizing images, videos, etc), formatting emails (especially if it’s of the HTML type), carrying out On-Page optimization, etc.
- Email Marketing
To connect and constantly keep in touch with prospects and customers most of the brands today use email marketing as it is targeted and also cost effective in comparison to other communication mediums. This has ensured that the marketers are expected to build and manage email lists, create appropriate subject lines, learn to use native mass mailing services like mail merge or use email management SaaS like MailChimp, Aweber, InfusionSoft, etc. Also keeping a track of email open rate, analyze the best time to send emails and most importantly track conversion rates for better email marketing management.
- Search Engine & Social Media Advertising
There is no optimal way to win and retain business online. Companies understand this and are adopting a healthy mix of building clients the organic and the inorganic way. Organic marketing includes being active on social media, engaging with the targeted audience on the website, forums, mobile apps, etc. Inorganic marketing includes being connected to audience through search engine advertising and social media advertising. Ensuring digital marketers to be skilled to run advertising campaigns on search engines like Google, Bing, etc. and on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Social Media Marketing
Unlike running campaigns on search and social media channels, social media marketing is about connecting with your target audience, retaining an engagement and building your organizations’ brand.
A digital marketer needs to understand the basics of brand building as well as how to use social media as a platform to create engagement with the audience, for current and future conversions. Hence it is important for a digital marketer to have expertise in specific social media platforms based on brand objectives and most importantly being present where their audience is present.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization gives insights to a marketer on how a website’s links are being indexed, how they have been presented to your audience and most importantly where they are placed.
A digital marketer is expected to know how an organizations website landing pages are presented on search engines based on elements like title tag, meta description, keyword density & link anchor text and optimize them.
- Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Online marketing is like an ocean with plenty of free resources and multiple social media channels available at a marketer’s disposal. With all the free resources including tools available, there is likelihood that a marketer will feel lost if he doesn’t know the best route to approach, convert and retain clients.
The best route to approach can be arrived at on the basis of multiple trials followed with testing (i.e. A/B testing). An example of a trial and test can be targeting your audience in two different geographies and using different versions of an ad as part of targeting your audience. Followed up with analyzing which geography and which ad version has provided the best conversion rate.
- Digital Analytics
In the digital space, a marketer can have access to customer data as part of the customer buying journey. This will help in analyzing how a group of customers have behaved throughout the purchase cycle.
A Digital Marketer is expected to analyze and understand customer behavior, anticipate the customer’s next move and also interpret the customer messages to attract & retain customer while enhancing overall customer experience. To carry out the above some of the tools like Google Analytics & Adobe Site Catalyst can be used.
Closing Thoughts: Though the steps mentioned above cover most of the areas that a Digital Marketer needs to master, there is no end to learning in Digital Marketing. Constant change in Google Algorithm updates, release of new tools, change in user interfaces of social media channels are some of the examples why learning doesn’t stop.
Image Credit: Google Images