Online resources and training courses make grasping basic digital strategies and techniques accessible. What does it take for a digital marketing manager to be successful? This is a demanding career that requires years of field experience and a unique set of skills.
Learn more to see if you fit this challenging and exciting role.
What is the role of a digital marketing manager
Digital marketing managers develop and supervise online marketing strategies for companies ranging in size from small start-ups to large corporations. They oversee projects and ensure that digital marketing campaigns run smoothly. In a B2B environment, they’d lead teams and act as a point of contact with clients.
They are business managers for the digital marketing agency. This means they must have excellent people skills and be able to manage content and build strategy. They require a good understanding of SEO, analytics, advertising, and business practices.
Skills Digital Marketers Must Have
Digital marketing encompasses both hard and soft skills. There are many other ways to get involved in the exciting digital marketing industry, even if you need to be more interested and skilled at managing people. Some jobs are for more technical people, others are for more creative individuals, and others are for business-oriented individuals.
A list of traits and skills anyone entering this field should have.
Adaptable
Learn new things and be interested
They are looking for versatility in their work
Does a leader have innate leadership qualities?
Takes initiative
Curious
Forward-thinking
Problem-solvers who are creative
Business-focused
People-centered
Understanding business and marketing strategies
Be True Leaders
Take the “content” out of it for a moment and think about what you need to do to lead a team or department within a business or as a consultant who has to be able to work with different clients.
To get things done, managers need to be able to communicate effectively and confidently. They must also know how to be manageable enough that they hinder their employees’ productivity. They need to be able to build solid relationships in both B2B and B2C situations.
The managers must also know the basics of strategy. This includes setting goals, creating procedures and processes, and forecasting how to achieve ROIs. It is essential to put only some of your eggs in a single basket and consider both the technical side of the business and the people.
Understand the Sales Funnel (Content Marketing)
As a member of a digital agency, it’s essential to understand the “sales funnel” and how to use this information to create marketing strategies and promotional campaigns.
Digital marketers will work in the “funnel,” as this role is business-oriented. For simplicity, we’ll reduce the sales funnel to four key phases:
Attracting new customers
Conversion: Convincing customers to purchase
Making the sale: Closing
Retention: building brand loyalty and returning clients
Digital marketers need to understand the buyer’s path to manage better and direct their efforts to increase ROI. The digital marketer will lead a team responsible for this work. They must also be able to communicate with their clients what exactly is happening. It will be a lot about building brand awareness at the top, but it can also include other marketing activities to close the sale—email campaigns or ad copies.
Be analytical
Digital marketing managers manage words and language as data. If you are more creative, stick to writing instead of working. Content managers will be buried in analytics software as they constantly monitor and track the progress of campaigns. They will be focusing their strategy on data such as SEO metrics.
Digital marketers must be well-versed in the latest tools to cover metrics and analyses effectively. The creative side of their brain will be engaged to deal with numbers and write them regularly.
Understanding Social Media
Social media has a significant impact on digital media. An excellent digital marketer can try different strategies and techniques without wasting too much time or effort. Data-based predictive models should allow them to see the results. This is not just true for primary content, such as a website, but also in terms of how social media tools work.
If you manage a team, you will likely have specialists in your department, including social media managers. You will be in charge of a few areas but only sometimes the whole thing.
Learn About SEO
SEO specialists monitor and build traffic for social media and websites. Managers of digital marketing agencies will often have teams of experts who are specialists in different departments. They may not be required to understand SEO or other key performance indicators (KPIs) in detail. They must understand the data in a way that allows them to share it with clients and team members. They also need to be able to explain how the data will influence their entire digital strategy.
Continue to Train
It’s impossible to stay up-to-date with all the digital marketing trends, so it’s best to focus on those that are relevant to you. It’s a good idea to focus on one aspect that will be popular (like how to integrate chatbots with your client’s site).
It is the same for your employees. The digital marketing manager must know the latest trends and their relevance to their business. They should also be a constant learner, not just for themselves but for their team.