We operate in a rapidly growing field that encompasses a wide range of skills and capabilities, which ultimately help our clients improve their online presence, get more sales and more customers.
We enlist both technical and creative skills to approach challenges in a way which is most effective and doesn’t just rely on one methodology of thinking. Whether you’re super tech savvy and want to learn to code or if you’re a creative individual, graphic or web design or social media might be more your bag.
Technical Skills
One of the key technical skills that are beneficial to those in digital marketing is a solid understanding of web development.
If you’re verging more on the side of SEO when it comes to technical, an understanding of HTML and how to edit the back-end of a website can come in very useful, when trying to optimise and make changes.
Knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as experience with content management systems such as WordPress not only make you more employable but actually help establish a solid foundation for learning new skills.
For those keen on coding and branching into web development, fine-tuning your technical understanding in both practice and theory, is essential.
Search
Search engine optimisation (SEO) or search engine marketing (SEM) comprises three elements, which are technical, content and offsite. SEO overlaps with many digital marketing functions and is important to remember when working on any website.
Technical is all the bits and bobs that go on, on a site, such as meta descriptions, title tags, alt text, schema markup, UX and more. Content is the onsite content that a user will utilise, whether this is text, video or multimedia, which is also ‘crawled’ by Google bots to establish the topic of your site. Offsite, sometimes referred to as Digital PR and consists of generating coverage in relevant publications, gaining citations and backlinks to help boost domain authority of your site.
There are a wealth of Google developed courses, that are free to access, that can help you springboard your knowledge of SEO.
Marketing Tools
The ability to use a variety of digital marketing tools, such as email marketing software, social media management tools, and marketing automation platforms, are crucial when starting out in digital marketing.
Developing the ability to use these tools to create, execute, and measure success of their campaigns can elevate a skillset and be appealing to employers. These pieces of software typically offer free trials, which will allow you to play around with functions and capabilities of each platform in a non-live setting.
Creative Skills
Creativity is essential for crafting engaging and effective marketing campaigns that resonate with target audiences.
Design
Whether you’re interested in advertising such as PPC or social ads, traditional outdoor advertising such as billboards, influencer and social media or website design, there are tonnes of opportunities to flex your creative skills in digital marketing.
Eventually, you’ll likely have a sector or department that you specialise within, this might be branding, website design, user experience or art working – just keep that portfolio up to date so as to impress potential clients or employers.
Copywriting
It’s not just about being able to create something that is visually appealing, creative copywriters who can combine SEO knowledge with their flair for well crafted copy are equally as important. From developing branding related copy such as tone of voice guidance to long form or website content, copywriting is an essential element of any digital marketing team.
Multimedia
If multimedia is more your speed, then becoming a videographer, editor or photographer could be a great fit for you. You could see yourself working with clients, filming ads, attending photoshoots or making micro-content for social media on a regular basis. If you’ve found your calling on Instagram or TikTok, you may well be suited to honing your creative video skills.
Diversify Your Skills
One of the best things you can do working in the digital industry is to diversify your skills, for example, if you are an excellent copywriter, expanding your knowledge of SEO can help you vary your skills to understand the technical component of copy alongside the creative component.
One of the best ways to increase your abilities is to understand the ‘why’ behind each task, rather than churning out content over and over, with no context as to why. Once you can understand the purpose of a task or piece of marketing material, alongside the desired outcomes or objectives, you can make your output more effective.
Digital marketing is a fast-paced and constantly changing industry, so it is essential to have the ability to adapt and learn quickly. This means staying up to date with the latest digital marketing trends and technologies, and being able to pivot strategies when necessary.
Looking to kickstart your career?
For more information on joining our team, job opportunities or to ask us a question about digital marketing careers, please contact our team.