The difference between a good and a great digital marketer can sometimes take time. While certifications, education, and training look great on a resume, soft skills are essential to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack. Many necessary digital marketing qualities aren’t learned in a set amount of time; instead, they’re innate or cultivated through years of hard work and experience. Here are nine soft skills to drive your digital marketing career forward. If you don’t have these skills now, don’t be discouraged; we’ll provide tips on cultivating them over time.
Intuition
You may think, “OK, you either have intuition, or you don’t.” But fear not; great intuition can be gained through experience! As a marketer, you will only sometimes have the data you need. And when you don’t have the information you need to support your decisions, you often have to make quick decisions based on your gut. In these situations, it doesn’t benefit you to fear the unknown; you must trust your intuition. If you deeply understand your industry and customers, your “intuition” becomes more than just a guess – it’s based on fundamental knowledge. Don’t worry if your ideas fail a few times; it happens. Instead, learn from your mistakes, and know your intuition will grow.
Curiosity
Perhaps the most critical soft skill for digital marketers is curiosity, which is not a “nice-to-have;” but a necessity. Marketing as a discipline is constantly changing, and every digital marketer needs to have the interest, passion, and hunger to ask questions and learn more about new marketing techniques, tools, and methods. For example, if you were an SEO expert in 2007 and you haven’t learned anything new since then, you would no longer be considered brilliant in this field. Your knowledge would need to be updated. The same would be true whether it’s social media or content marketing. To stay up-to-date on all the latest marketing news and trends, use a new aggregator application such as Feedly (shown below) to track your favorite online marketing publications. Then take ten minutes daily to read the most interesting articles.
Social Skills
Working within a digital marketing team without solid social skills can be a disaster. It’s vital that every team member, from content marketing to social media, lead generation, product marketing, and design, works together to meet overarching goals. You must communicate well with others to yield the best results for you and your company. In addition, if you work with social media in any capacity, you need special social skills to understand how individuals communicate with one another so you can create the most engaging content.
Persuasion Skills
Marketing is all about persuading people to buy a product so great marketers would have this skill in abundance. Persuasion means aligning yourself with organizational goals without compromising what you think is suitable for the brand. You must persuade your boss to run experiments and invest in technology to help you achieve your goals. Keep going if you fail; remember that marketing is about experimentation, and not everything you try will work the first time. When you persuade others, base your arguments on logic, not just your feelings alone.
Analytical Skills
Intuition and persuasion skills are essential, but backing up your words is also crucial. When you can, leveraging analytics can help you make your case. Analytical skills can range from setting up and understanding the output of social media campaigns, lead management systems, Google Analytics, and many other programs. But from a “soft skill” perspective, you should also be able to interpret these analytics, which doesn’t come naturally for some people. You can easily acquire analytical skills with practice if you don’t currently have analytical skills. Training programs are also available if you want to go beyond the “soft skills” level.
Comfort with Technology
Digital marketers must be comfortable with technology; it’s crucial to the job description. It would not be easy to run any digital campaign without understanding technology. Technology is an inescapable part of digital marketing, from analytics tools discussed above), to social media, Microsoft Office, project collaboration tools, and more. Fine-tune your skills with practice and helpful tutorials.
Ability to Adapt
Fantastic digital marketers always keep themselves relevant in the industry. This means they can adapt and change – even if that means editing some strongly-held beliefs. Any change’s result should be to meet better the needs of your customers and prospects, which may change year-over-year. Holding onto the same strategies, tactics, and beliefs doesn’t serve any marketer or business well. Be willing to unlearn what you “know” and to make new mistakes, then remember to learn from them! Don’t be afraid of change, and keep moving.
Multitasking Skills
As a digital marketer, likely, you’re only working on one project at a time. This job is about multitasking, so practice building your skills. Many marketers wear a lot of hats, especially on small teams. In addition to multitasking, you’ll need to prioritize the most essential duties. Ask yourself what will make the most considerable impact on the business, and do that first. You will be judged on the value you add, so make that your priority.
Creativity
What’s a marketer without creativity? Even though the Mad Men days of advertising are over, it’s still important to truly connect with potential customers via creative copy and images that shine. More than just sending any message or sharing any stock image is needed to differentiate your brand from its competitors. Online competition is fierce, and great creativity distinguishes between your content being ignored and being clicked on. Practice being more creative by brainstorming ideas and images and putting them into action.
If you need to be in the copywriting or design side of digital marketing, partner with these individuals to understand how they get their creative juices flowing, then try a few of their ideas and a few of your own.
Complement your soft skills with a digital marketing certification; our Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing will equip you with the skills necessary to understand and implement digital marketing campaigns confidently.