If you had told a marketer in the 1970s that fifty-years from now, old-style marketing would fade, they wouldn’t believe you. This is because they wouldn’t have known what you were talking about because digital marketing didn’t start until the 1990s. So really, you can’t blame them. Since then, the most in-demand digital marketing skills in 2021 have changed significantly compared to what they were before.
Nowadays, marketers are expected to have much more varied and round skillsets. This is because there is more competition in the sector now. The advent of various new and integrative technologies has also likely played a part in this. So what are some of the most in-demand digital marketing skills? We’ll walk through just that on this list.
Social Media and Public Relations
Social media marketing is an absolute juggernaut that’s been building since the rise of platforms like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn. It’s true that in the early days, these sites didn’t have half of the tools that they do now. The rate of transformation is alarming. Nowadays, most businesses use social media in some form. This has caused people with social media marketing experience to grow in line with this use.
Similarly, the business environment has dramatically changed over the past twenty years in public relations. This is because businesses are expected to adhere to some form of corporate social responsibility more than ever now. More people will only buy things from ethical brands. PR mistakes are also happening more because of changes in social attitudes. This has made the demand for good PR professionals go up. Also, as consumers’ social side undergoes further change, there will be more pressure to have good PR. You’re going to have to take on more challenging situations.
Search Engine Optimisation
Website owners first started tweaking their sites for search engines during the mid-nineties. This was needed as search engines began to crawl the web and index pages. It’s believed that the first person to coin “SEO” probably did it in 1997. In the early days, keyword stuffing led to a great deal of abuse of the system. This meant that undeserving businesses and websites were getting to the top. This eventually led to changes in the ways that SEO works. Making it more in line with what you’d expect from the modern-day.
Nowadays, there are easily over 100 factors that impact your SEO. Having a good plan for it is critical to ensuring your success.
If you can show that you have a lot of experience and success with SEO, companies will want you. This will be particularly prominent for businesses that already understand SEO’s benefits. These businesses are thankfully increasing in number every day. SEO competition is also going to grow as these businesses change their plans. New companies will also factor in this.
Digital Marketing Copywriting
It can be tempting for you to see us copywriters as someone who writes content. I’ll forgive you if you haven’t worked with one before. Trust me. It’s a lot more complicated than that. If a copywriter is trying to make your SEO better, they may start posting about your business to get these backlinks. They may write content to get organic traffic for people who link back to the site. These both involve writing, but there are many different elements of how it works.
The copywriter needs to be wary about getting do-follow backlinks over no-follow backlinks. You’d also need to help optimise SEO content using keyword research to get the best out of it. The writer will have to speak with the guest posting sites to get the content on their site. This can take a long time.
Thankfully, business owners are starting to understand what copywriters do. This has resulted in more demand for copywriters’ services that have other skills. The number of copywriters is also increasing, meaning that competition will also align with the demand.
Digital Marketing Data Analytics
Data is king, and it will likely be for the rest of human time. Companies end up taking massive data from their digital marketing feeds. They’re always going to need someone that can make sense of the data. Furthermore, the types of available tools to track digital marketing data are becoming more advanced. This means that a business owner will need someone who can make sense of the tools for them and the data. Data is a part of life more than ever, with no end in sight.
It is beyond doubt that as the technology for data analysis develops further, the demand for highly-skilled analysts will increase. So, if you’re a data guy/gal, you should probably be keeping your skills sharp to make sure you’re ready for changes in your market. Most business will keep track of their analytics by using Google Analytics or other similar tools; the number of firms doing it will also increase further as the benefits of doing so become more apparent. Nowadays, the sayings talk about the fact that data is even more valuable in the modern age than oil. This already carries some weight.
Digital Marketing With Chatbots
Over the last few years, most chatbots have been janky, impersonal, and even a little off-putting. This is because they pop up on your page, and it’s evident that they aren’t real. This may not be the case for long. Chatbots are quickly becoming smarter. The best ones have AI that changes and learns from talking to people. Before long, it won’t surprise when companies start using AI chatbots as a standard.
When the technology develops even further, it’s unlikely that people will be manning the chatbots. They’ll be specialists in getting the best out of them. This will spell the end of the awkward automated chatbots too, which will be a bonus. The last time I used a chatbot was too narrow, and I didn’t get the answer I wanted. Creating chatbots will be one of the foremost digital marketing skills.
Market and Competition Research
The business environment faced by companies today is more challenging and more competitive than it used to be. This has made it so that businesses need to do more market research if they’re going to succeed. This makes it a critical digital marketing skill. This could be, for example, analysing the marketing campaigns of your competitors and gauging their effectiveness. With people’s social attitudes quickly changing, businesses need to understand the impact of their campaigns on that level. Of course, going into a market without conducting any research is foolish. Entering a market, succeeding and failing to do future research is merely short-sighted.
This current and future reliance on market research has already increased market researchers’ demand. As these needs continue to grow in the future, there will be even more demand for these services. Unfortunately, high demand will also mean that more people will try and secure that work. This will eventually lead to much higher competition for roles.
As a kid, I got told off not studying hard enough for my exams. I would liken not doing market research to something like that. It is similar to flying a plane without a pilot’s license or any form of training.
Pay Per Click Advertising
PPC advertising can be a very complicated and difficult beast to get right. Despite this, 34% of marketers have said that it’s one of their best tactics. There’s a reason for this. That reason is the fact that 64.6% of people will click on a Google Ad when they’re on the internet and want to buy something. This represents a massive reason why PPC marketing is so popular with businesses. Despite this, PPC is getting exceedingly more challenging to succeed amid competition. This is also why the demand for highly-skilled PPC marketers is currently so high.
As a PPC marketer, you’re going to find that competition for you will go up. As long as you keep building your skills and continue to take each day as a school day, you’ll be fine. You’re going to be consistently getting more PPC work from your customers. It would also help if you had some copywriting experience in your team. That way, you will optimise your PPC campaign to your target audience.
UX Design
At this moment in time for marketers in UX design, it is critical to have specific digital marketing skills. You have to be able to both sell the features/benefits of the product and use them to retain your customers after you’ve hooked them. You also need to know how to create an eye-catching and converting landing page. These UX designers should also enact the methodology of product-led growth.
Conclusion
It may be evident to you at this point, that digital marketers need to have a range of skills to succeed in 2021. Some of the most in-demand skills that have come to the forefront are social media and public relations skills. In addition to this, SEO has been on the warpath for many years and will continue to do for many more. Digital Copywriting is critical to communicating a message from your brand.
Data analytics has already gone a long way within digital marketing, and it’s projected to grow in demand for the future. Chatbots are beginning to increase in utility and functionality. Market research is still critical for any business and will become even more critical as competition increases in these markets. PPC is getting more difficult and needs a skilled hand to ensure success- whilst UX Design is also becoming increasingly complex with a rounded skillset required.