- What are the top digital marketing skills
you need in 2021?
As a digital marketer, you have to master loads of skills.
Maybe you've got social media sorted,
but you need to know SEO.
What's this UX thing?
What about Pay Per Click ads?
And where do you even find the time to master those skills?
What courses should you do?
In this video, we're going to look at the top eight skills
I believe a digital marketer needs.
But don't worry, you don't have to master
each of these skills, you don't have to know everything.
In fact, having a really good basic knowledge
of a broad number of skills,
will make you a better digital marketer.
And if you're a freelancer,
you can totally specialise in one of these.
If you're working for a business,
whether it's your own or somebody else's,
it means that you'll be able
to outsource that stuff efficiently
and know what sort of results you should expect.
So let's get on with my list,
and if you think I'm missing any,
leave me a comment and let me know what skills I should add.
But first, if you'd like a digital marketing lesson
in under 10 minutes per week,
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Number one is empathy.
As a marketer, you need to be able
to step into someone else's shoes
and look at the world through their eyes.
By doing this, it'll help you understand your customer,
their needs and the problems that you'll solve for them.
But is empathy something that can be learned?
Some people think you either have it or you don't have it.
But studies have shown that empathy
is something that you can learn over time.
And according to the website task CASPer,
these are three things that you can do
to improve your empathy.
Firstly, seek out new perspectives and experiences.
Secondly, make an effort to emotionally connect with people.
And thirdly, put your biases aside.
If you want to read more,
I will leave a link in the description below.
Skill number two is copywriting.
Even if you've mastered graphic design and video production,
you still need words.
And the better the words, the easier it is to sell.
If you want to improve your copywriting skills,
I highly recommend that you get a copy
of Anne Handley's "Everybody Writes",
and read it cover to cover twice,
and take Stephen King's advice which is,
"If you want to be a better writer, just read,
"read more stuff."
And as a bonus, I highly recommend
using the tool NaturalReader
- [NaturalReader] It will read your text to you
so you can hear if it sounds good or just wrong.
- Number three is graphic design, and don't worry,
you don't need to master Photoshop or Illustrator.
You don't need to be an amazing graphic designer,
but understanding the basic principles
means that you will create better images
and better graphical content.
And this includes things like white space,
the rule of thirds, hierarchy, balance, and branding.
Start with a tool like Canva or Easil,
and you will find lots of online help
for understanding those basic principles.
I'll put some links in the description below.
Number four is video creation,
and this can be as simple
as creating a short video in Canva,
right up to scripting, shooting and editing a video.
These skills are becoming more and more important
in digital marketing.
I highly recommend Justin Brown's "Primal Video" channel.
Make sure you subscribe to that for tutorials and guides
on equipment and writing scripts, it's fabulous.
Don't go there yet, wait till this video is finished.
Number five is SEO, search engine optimization,
which people tend to think is very complex and geeky.
But having a really good base understanding
of how search engines work,
can help your website deliver more leads and more sales.
And to get started, you can use Google's Digital Garage
for online courses.
Number six is social ads.
Understanding how social ads work,
understanding how to put campaigns together
is a great skill to have.
It means that when you go and set up your campaigns,
you're gonna avoid the common mistakes that people make.
And the biggest social ad platform is Facebook
because it covers Facebook and Instagram.
And to learn about that, Facebook have some great courses
called Facebook Blueprint
that will take you through everything you need to know.
Number seven is Google and search engine ads.
And these can be amazing if you get them right,
because they reach people
when they are looking for your product
or looking for your service.
If you master this skill,
you'll be able to deliver qualified leads at a cost.
And again, the place to start with Google Ads
is Google's Digital Garage.
They have fantastic courses that are easy to follow,
but Google isn't the only search engine.
You can learn how to create ads
for the Microsoft Bing search engine in their Learning Lab.
Number eight is understanding analytics.
How do you know if your digital marketing is working?
The answer is analytics.
Being able to decode your Google Analytics for your website,
and your social analytics for your social media channels,
and even your email marketing analytics is vital
if you want to prove that what you're doing is worthwhile.
Google have a whole YouTube channel
dedicated to Google Analytics, so make sure you follow that.
And you'll also find courses in the Digital Garage
and on the various social networks.
And you can also subscribe to this channel,
that's part of what we do here.
We help you understand your analytics.
And that's it,
my top eight digital marketing skills for 2021.
What am I missing? What would you add?
Let me know in the comments.