If I ask you a question, how are you being aware of new products and services that are available today, probably one of your answers would be through Social Media. One thing we all agree on is that Social media has become a part of our everyday life. It has not just become a part of personal life but drastically changed how businesses are conducting their marketing strategies these days. So, if you are in a phase where you are thinking of working on an online business idea you have, then you have come to the right place. In this blog post, I am sharing the most in-demand marketing skills you need to know in 2021.
Why should you learn Digital Marketing Skills?
As I mentioned before, you want to work on your business then you should be promoting it so that the right people can know about your business and become your clients. With the majority of the people spending their time on Social media, you need to have the skills to hold their attention to what you have to offer them. Learning digital marketing skills will help you in understanding how things need to be done and then come up with your strategies to promote and scale your business.
Digital Marketing skills that are essential for entrepreneurs to know:
Content Marketing skills:
Although, all the skills mentioned in these posts are very essential, however, content marketing has to be the first one. If you have content that can grab people’s attention and become interested in your business and other marketing skills are cherry on top. When I say content marketing, I am talking about both, content creation & content strategy.
Why do you wanna create content? The answer is simple. You want people to know about your products or services and get them interested in signing up or buying the product. You won’t be achieving that if you just promote your offer, it will make you appear salesy. On the contrary, if you educate the people about what knowledge you have, and how you use that knowledge to solve their problem will make you appear knowledgeable and approachable. So you need the content creation skills to write content, create graphics, videos, or gifs that can grab the attention of your ideal audience in a world full of noise.
What is content strategy? Content strategy is a strategy about Who are our ideal clients? Why are you creating content? In which format is your content most well-received? Where will you promote your content? What should people do next after seeing your content? The long-term objective of pushing out regular content?
In short, it is like the blueprint about the why, where, and how of content creation.
A good understanding of platforms and the content
The second Digital marketing skill is having a good understanding of various social media platforms. Each social media platform that exists today, have their benefits when used to the optimum level. To have maximum benefits from a platform, you need to first understand the demographics (the ideal audience/ clients you want to attract) What kind of content talks to them? (is it video/ images/ memes/ articles/ short captions)Which platform do they use on the majority? How can I utilize the other platforms for my benefit? What kind of content I may have to create for other platforms?
To give you an example: You might be active on Instagram because the ideal clients that you are seeking for the service-based business are women coaches who are active on Instagram. So, you create content that performs well on Instagram. However, you also know that women coaches also spend time on Facebook and Pinterest. Hence, you create content for Pinterest that takes them either to your website or Instagram account. For Facebook, you create your business page, join groups and make genuine connections that can turn into your clients.
Good Researching skills:
Whether you are new to your business or have been for some time, you might have observed that researching is a very underrated yet essential skill of an entrepreneur.
You need research skills to
- Identify your competitors, their website, program/ service details, USPs, and other requirements.
- To understand the likes, dislikes, and needs of your customers
- To compare and explore the best platform for Project management, email marketing, or any other tool
Research skills are not just gathering the data in a raw form but putting them in a presentable and organized manner so that they are easily understood when you refer back anytime.
Analytics and SEO skills:
The digital marketing skills that can help you in getting more visibility and in front of the right audience are Analytics and SEO Skills.
Analytical skills refer to understanding the data about your business and your social media content performance to make the right decision that is important to achieve the business targets and goals. Almost every platforms and tool that we use today in our business provide us the insights on how our business or content is doing and that data help us in understanding whether we are on the right path to achieve our goals or we need to change something.
SEO skills refer to Search Engine Optimization skills. SEO is a digital marketing skill that is essential for your business or your content to appear in front of your ideal clients when they are looking for something over the internet similar to what you do. Every social media and Search engine platform have their own best practices that they have laid down for you. By following those best practices, you can ensure that your content keeps appearing on appropriate Search results.
The art of selling.
Among all the digital marketing skills mentioned in this blog, this might appear to look like it is the most difficult one to master but what it takes is some effort and mindset work.
The business that you have currently might be something your ideal client is looking for but somehow your content or website copy might be giving them signs that you aren’t confident about yourself and they might take a step back. Or they might be convinced that you are a good match but during the call you might either appear salesy or don’t talk about the transformation they will get after working with you then you will be losing clients.
To, master this art, you need to work on your mindset. You need to be confident that your business and the services you provide have the potential to transform the business or life of your clients.
Conclusion:
Times are changing and we have to adapt to the changing scenarios. You have a business then, being on digital marketing platforms has become almost inevitable. You have to learn these digital marketing skills either in the early stages or as your business progresses. Even if you outsource these tasks, you still need to learn them because it is your business and you cannot run it depending on a team that might leave you anytime or takes advantage of your less knowledge with marketing.
