Long gone are the days that you could buy some air time on a radio station, place an ad in a newspaper, and wait for customers to call. Thanks to the advent of the digital age—and the internet in particular—marketing is much more complex. Which is why companies are hiring digital marketing specialists.
Who fills these digital marketing jobs? It’s a business professional who knows how to leverage many digital marketing strategies to generate interest, leads, and sales. It’s a dynamic, often multifaceted job requiring a wide set of skills. If you want to be a digital marketing specialist, you should be able to:
Analyze Data
The digital world creates endless streams of data. In the right hands, that data can offer deep insights into consumer habits and desires. The better you can analyze data gathered through your organization’s activities or purchased from data providers, the better you can position your product or service. Online marketing courses can teach you how to mine, interpret, and analyze data.
Choose the Right Channels
Should you buy advertising on Facebook? Expand your website? Invest in search engine optimization? Maintain an Instagram feed? Release an app? Should you do it all? As a digital marketing specialist, you have to know all the available marketing channels, what they offer, and which will give you the most bang for your buck. In a world full of digital marketing strategies and channels, it’s important to be able to pick the right ones for each business.
Use Common Software and Platforms
Digital marketing specialists are often expected to handle a lot of the basic tech work involved in digital marketing efforts. That can include updating websites, setting up e-mails, acquiring and interpreting Google analytics, and a lot more. The more platforms you know how to use, the better positioned you are to provide value to an employer. Online courses can help you hone these skills.
Write and Design
Just like you need to know the tech side of the digital marketing job, you need to have skills in the creative side, too. Often, you will be expected to write and design (or at least provide design direction for) marketing e-mails, Facebook posts, web pages, banner ads, etc. This requires you to know how to write brief yet impactful copy and how to make visual elements appealing.
Balance Enthusiasm With Objectivity
New digital marketing strategies and channels appear all the time. To succeed as a digital marketing specialist, you have to enjoy staying on top of all the changes and trends. And you have to be willing to embrace—and convince others to embrace—the best new opportunities. But you can’t allow your enthusiasm to outstrip your objectivity. No matter how much a new opportunity might excite you, you have to carefully analyze its value and make the marketing choices that are best for your organization’s goals.
Given that digital marketing requires you to possess so many skills, you may be pleased to know that you can gain many of them through Walden University’s Graduate Certificate in Digital Marketing program. You can also choose to advance all your marketing skills by enrolling in a graduate-level business degree program such as our MS in Marketing program.
Walden University offers online marketing degrees and certificates to help you acquire the digital marketing skills you need to excel in your career. You can complete digital marketing courses in a flexible, convenient format on a schedule that works for you.
Walden University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission, www.hlcommission.org.