by Usman SheikhThe Most Powerful Digital Marketing Skills
The Most Powerful Digital Marketing Skills
Digital marketing is a rapidly changing field. It is a powerful combination of marketing and information technology that comes together seamlessly to deliver for businesses and brands everywhere.
There are a lot of skills digital marketing professionals are required to have these days. Any digital marketing agency will have lots of different experts in their team to deliver projects for their clients. At Web Worx Labs – we know how different experts need to come together to deliver beautiful products – be it social media posts, google ad copy, reporting/analytics, web design, development project or video editing.
Digital Marketing Skills Needed Today
Here is a breakdown of some of the different types of digital marketing skills that are a necessity in the field:
- Branding
- Web development
- Web Design
- Marketing Manager
- UX/UI Design
- Graphic Designer
- Copywriter
- Social Media Management
- Social Media Design
- Search Engine Optimization
- Pay Per Click Expert
- Content writer
- Copywriter
- Video Editing
- Video Shooting
HubSpot has a great blog that gets into the nitty-gritty of what, who and how is digital marketing practiced. Here is a link to their blog.
In our agency, we know that these diverse skills are required to deliver full-stack solutions. We have in-house expertise for most of these solutions and our team members come together to deliver for our clients.
And trust us – to deliver outstanding projects, you need specialists in the areas mentioned above.
That is why there are so many niches out there. Many companies either focus on back-end IT development, while others focus on Social Media Management and while others are solely SEO practitioners since these are distinct expertise on their own that provides a solution to one aspect of digital marketing.
Among all of this expertise, there is one skill and one skill from our point of view that trumps it all. Can you guess what that skill is?
The skill is writing.
Yes, you can say it is content writing or copywriting – but it’s essentially writing. This simple and fundamental skill that was powerful in the 17th century when running print ads (an example will be shown later) is still the most relevant one today.
Why is writing the most sought-after and needed skill in digital marketing?
It is simple – because it’s the one skill that connects every other digital marketing solution.
Why Content Writing Is The Number One Skill In Digital Marketing?
By content writing, we do not only mean writing blogs – we mean writing for ads, copy, email, web copy and anything in between (and yes it also covers blogs).
To us, a content writer and copywriting are almost interwoven disciplines. A good copywriter is a writer that can write blogs, ads or web copy.
One can argue that even in copywriting, there are areas of specialty. A copywriter can specialize in ads vs. another who is better at writing blogs while another can have their primary focus on writing social media copy.
A copy or content writer can have a preference – but intrinsically they are writers. Rules of engagement are slightly different, but the skills are very transferable.
Content is King
Ever heard of the saying – “Content is king”?
That phrase was written way back in 1996 by a famous entrepreneur named Bill Gates – the founder of Microsoft. He may not have coined the term as there is a debate that it pre-dates him, but he made it famous with his essay.
He wrote an essay on the subject and in it he emphasized that content will dominate the internet the same way it did in broadcasting.
His prediction has turned out to be right and will continue to be right in the foreseeable future.
Even Google – one of the biggest companies in the digital marketing industry and the biggest referral network relies on content to do its job. It ranks and answers millions of queries a day by scanning billions of sites with its sophisticated algorithm that scans the content on the sites to provide users the answers they need. All in milliseconds.
So yes, content drives the internet and digital marketing is marketing using the internet. Hence, content marketing is essentially digital marketing.
Related: Up for a technical read? Get to know a lot of the Technical Google Updates and why they happen.
Content is the Glue That Binds Every Other Skill
The great thing about content writing is that it is needed for every other digital marketing skill.
Does a web developer need content for his or her website? You bet! No matter how fast the website loads – she or he will not be able to do anything with it unless the content on the pages connects with the audience.
It is the fundamental marketing skill that is needed in every solution, skill or service to complete its delivery.
Let’s break down other digital marketing skills that need content writing to deliver their products:
- Search Engine Optimization – It’s a fundamental requirement. White hat SEO is about content creation, website optimization, on-page, meta tags, descriptions, and outreach.
- For all of those activities, we need great writing
- Reporting & Analytics also requires a writer who can articulate the work performed
- UX/UI Designer.
- For any web design, the content drives the design.
- Words are used as a direction to help guide the designer to create the WOW factor web experience begins with great writing initially
Web Developer – we already mentioned it earlier 😊
- Pay Per Click Specialist. Copywriting for PPC has been an age-old industry and professional since the direct mail days.
- Social Media Management. Whether it’s designing the posts or writing the caption, it starts with writing the content out for the design and then having to design them.
- Then you create the caption and call to action.
- Email marketing. This is more obvious. Writing great emails comes from well – great writing.
- Videography.
Everything from writing a great screenplay or script to editing and video call outs requires content to makes it all come together
Related: Read our blog on what is email marketing & how does it work.
Now it could be argued that many of the web designs, for example, can be mediocre at copywriting to get by and make up for it with their other skills. However, to go after the market and stand out, your copy and content writing is what will need to be consistent to beat out the competition.
Whether it’s through writing blogs, or running podcasts, hosting seminars or writing amazing copy – to market your business, you will need great writing. Period.
And that is the main point here. Once the website is developed and hosted – people will not show up to it. It will need to speak to people, it will need to be marketed. Content and great writing will be needed to drive traffic.
To showcase thought leadership in digital marketing – it begins with great words first getting organized to get the right message across to the right audience.
Great Writers Are Strategist & Marketers
To be a great writer, you have to understand your subject and your audience well. To entertain, engage and keep the reader turning the page or read the whole blog or finish the website copy, you need to understand your customer or reader at a deeper more psychological level.
This means that you are already getting into the mind of the audience and thinking like a marketer.
Does a web copy or ad copywriter know who they need to speak to? How about a great blogger?
To execute and come up with a plan to get great ideas, thought leadership or the target customer engagement is required to achieve the goals (whether it’s clicking on an ad or signing up for conversion) and this also requires a solid plan.
The development of the plan at this point means you think critically, look at the numbers and come up with a plan to achieve. This is, in a nutshell, is in fact strategy development. You need to think critically and write content that attracts, engages and converts.
The simple fact is that writing is the oldest marketing skill out there. It was true in the days of marketing in classifieds or newspaper ads published in the 17th century and it is true in today’s digital marketing age.
The copy used in the advertisement in the ca the 1740s
Source: V&A Collections UK
Related: Our Blog – Marketing Fundamentals 101
Closing Thoughts
If you are in the market for an ad agency or a digital marketing firm, ask them if they have copywriters or content writers? Who writes blogs for their SEO campaigns? Who writes the copy for the ads?
Or if you are a digital marketing professional that is not a natural writer, then we recommend take the time and brush up on your writing skills or partner with a professional writer to help create complete digital marketing solutions.
Writing captivating copy, engaging blogs, and awesome emails will only help in marketing digitally.
Now, we turn it over to you.
Do you agree with this assessment?
Do you feel that there is any other skill that is more important in digital marketing that is as important as writing?
Reach out or drop a comment below and let us know your thoughts!
From a start-up helping local small businesses, over a span of 5 years, Usman has built Web Worx Labs to be a leading provider of digital marketing solutions that employs 15+ full-time employees and has customers in over 30 countries.
Outside of work and his passion for all things digital, Usman is a proud father of three, loves running and is an avid reader.
Follow Usman on LinkedIn or Twitter as he is always sharing tips on strategy, branding, marketing and analytics.