Nowadays marketers continuously have to think on their feet to grab the attention of consumers. Last year we saw the rise of mobile consumers, so marketing efforts were focused on giving them the best experience through their mobile devices. But having a solid understanding of a specific channel or data analysis is no longer enough. Marketers are required to widen their skills set as we see more areas of online marketing overlap. Content creators should be designers and videographers, as well as being good copywriters. Having a wide set of skills helps marketers to be more successful in their job roles, understanding everything from segmentation to customer engagement and analytics. They need to act quickly in any situation to deliver results that are beyond what is expected of them.
Listed below are just a few of the main skills that have been trending this year. Digital marketers are becoming more rounded as a job role, with knowledge in a range of areas, rather than in just one. They need to be able to bring together all their skills to provide a new kind of customer experience.
Multi-Channel Marketing
As a digital marketer, the various social media channels of a brand should be thought of as completely different. Each social media channel has a different purpose and style of interaction with the consumer. Therefore they should each have their own strategy in place. They need to be working towards gaining that all important increased engagement level with the right audience for your brand.
A one-size-fits-all approach to your social media is never going to work. Twitter is understandably a fast paced channel, with messages being expected to have a response almost instantly, while LinkedIn has a completely different outlook. A successful digital marketer should understand the urgency of their audience and should be doing their utmost best to maintain their level of engagement throughout all social media channels.
Design & Video Production
The content experience you are providing your audience with is everything. In today’s digital world, design and video skills are more than essential. Digital marketers need to be giving their audiences even more in terms of content, through different medias. It has been predicted by Cisco that 80% internet traffic will come from streaming video content by 2019. Marketers are able to use this statistic to get on board the trend and start preparing for the influx of video content.
A lot of people still mistake the use of video content as viral content, but more recently we have seen how some of the most successful brands have used video to help build relationships with their audience. From videos focused on customer testimonials and product demonstrations, the levels of customer satisfaction have improved through education, which has resulted in more conversions.
Data Analysis
Understanding how to read and interpret the data you have acquired is a hugely important skill. Digital marketers need to invest more time into understanding the data they are collecting. Having a solid understanding can mean that communications being sent out can be more direct in who they are targeting and drive actions towards the outcomes the marketers are looking to achieve.
Data collecting tools makes it much easier for marketers to capture key details about their audience. This includes knowing their location, purchases and even reviews of products. With the evolution of technology, marketers have been able to get their hands on more data than ever before, so knowing how to organise and interpret that data to inform a strategic marketing plan is essential.
Content Targeting
Having the ability to effectively analyse and interpret data gives marketers the opportunity to offer personalised communications, resulting in better interaction with their audience. The on-going battle to grab your audience’s attention can be made that little bit easier through the data gathered on them. Content targeting allows this data to be used so an audience can be targeted with specific content just for them, dependant on their age, household income, browsing data and social media habits. Targeting tools look at the data management source and put together a population depending on the content chosen to provide. A tool like this allows tailored content to effectively reach the correct audience, which will encourage a response.
Newsjacking
A new term meaning to add your own ideas to breaking news stories to generate more media coverage. Newsjacking is a form of content creation, to be released at the right moment and when the audience it ready to receive it. It is about reacting quickly to relevant news stories, adding your own brands twist, to create something of value that has lots of shareability. Newsjacking can also be understood as an SEO tactic helping to achieving lots of invaluable back links. The only drawback is that you have no influence over the quality of backlinks.
All in all, being a successful digital marketer is not about being an expert in one specific area, but more about having a general understanding of them all so they can help boost one another. Having a knowledge of these different factors can influence decisions made in creating your digital marketing strategy. The importance of analytics and knowing how to interpret the data can open up a whole new realm of information to make your audience’s experience much more appealing and engaging.
