The Top 5 Skills Every Digital Marketer Needs to Succeed

Whether you're looking to break into digital marketing or you're well-seasoned in the industry, it's always important to brush up on your career skills. If you're interested in landing a digital marketing position, it’s key to have these skills listed on your cover letter and resume throughout the job application process. Embodying these 5 traits below will be a surefire way to stand out to any digital marketing agency.

1) Communication

At Perfect Search, our dedicated marketing teams manage both back-end implementation and performance reporting responsibilities. Basically, this means our analysts focus on client relationships by communicating with our clients externally to speak to our process while simultaneously performing our services.

At other agencies, this may be different, as both responsibilities may be broken into separate teams. However, communication is important regardless of company structure–and this is because it’s essential to both internal and external work. 

Internally, it’s vital to be able to communicate effectively with your teammates. For example, if you are working on a major client with another analyst with multiple deadlines, you must delegate tasks and share updates with your partner on the account. Externally, it’s important to be professional and clear when presenting reporting analytics to loop in your clients, so that they truly understand the benefit our services are bringing them on a granular level.

Here are some ways to practice and hone in on your communication skills:

Prepare as much as possible. It’s best to prepare in advance before a meeting or a presentation. The more familiar you are with your message, the easier time you will have recalling it in front of others and the more confident you will be. Taking 10–15 minutes before a client engagement to review your reports and data will go a long way!

Be concise and straightforward in all messaging. Be sure to ask yourself “is what I’m trying to ask myself clear?” and consider if you are saying all you need to in the shortest amount of words possible. It’s important to get straight to the point as best as you can!

Consider your audience. To better craft your message, think of who will be on the receiving end of what you have to say. If you are speaking to a group of other digital marketers, you can be very technical in your language. However, if you are speaking with a client who is less familiar with digital marketing terminology, you will want to be more explanatory.

2) Analytical abilities

Adding meaning to data is a crucial part of a digital marketer’s role. It is important to recognize patterns and trends based on data and reports.

Most digital marketers will work with Google Analytics heavily, and so an in-depth understanding of this tool is very helpful to one’s role or for one seeking a digital marketing position. Microsoft Excel is another tool relied on to break down trends and analyze data, so knowledge with pivot tables and other tools is important.

It’s also essential to have attention to detail in this line of work. Wondering how to practice your analytical abilities? Try focusing on the bigger picture first, then break down into understanding other key components. Instead of assuming things to be true, critically evaluate and challenge the fact first. Continuing to challenge yourself with these types of tasks will grow your abilities even more.

3) Agility

The digital marketing space moves fast. The software and tools used daily are frequently updated and are constantly changing. Updates frequently roll out that may change the way a digital marketer interfaces with the information given or may alter how they send through commands in the tool.

To embrace a work environment like this, a digital marketer must be agile and ready to adapt to changes quickly. This may require you to test a new tool on your own and teach your way through updates. Oftentimes there isn’t a “textbook” that can reference all these changes and updates to the industry in real time.

Because of this, it’s important to be able to seek out new ways of doing things quickly and to be comfortable doing so. Researching and following trends in digital marketing will enable you to do this better and faster. Sites like The Moz Blog, Search Engine Land, and Marketing Land are all solid starting points!

4) Teamwork

Working with others is essential for many positions, but this especially remains to ring true for digital marketers. Usually, you will be working on a team of many people, and you must share client responsibilities. 

At Perfect Search, our analysts will collaborate regardless of specialization. Our digital marketing team also works very closely with our design and content teams to provide a variety of customized services for our clients.

Communication comes into play here. Having the ability to relate to others empathetically always helps in being a part of a successful team. Giving feedback to your peers and being available to support someone is valuable too. Most importantly, the team should be able to be accountable for wins and losses (hopefully the latter are few and far between!) together.

5) Passion

Yep, this is another one of PSM’s core values! We have it on the wall for a reason. Passion keeps us engaged in what we do and excited for each day.

What do you love about digital marketing? What interests you or excites you about the industry? What do you hope to continue to learn? Asking yourselves these questions can help you channel your interest and passion in digital marketing in a job interview or an application. Additionally, your passion will bring extra energy to the team you’re on!

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Do you feel that you have a mastery of the above skills? Check out our open positions and apply to join our team!