5 Digital Marketing Expertise You Might Not Have (However Positively Want If You Are Working Advertisements)
There is good news and there is bad news.
The bad news is that in order to be a master of modern day marketing, especially paid advertising, you need certain marketing skills. These skills are like a tool kit to help you survive in today’s business environment.
The good news is they aren’t difficult to master, and we all marketers are trying to figure it out too so you aren’t alone! And we have some great tips on how to get these skills straight to the point.
Modern marketing is the wild west and you can become the gunslinger you need to be to be successful using these 5 skills.
1. Text creation
Good writing skills are no longer just for the communications majors locked in the writer’s room. Every single marketer needs to be able to write a good line of text, whether or not they actually write copy every day.
Why copywriting? Because marketing is by nature based on selling something. And copywriting is about getting that click or making that sale. While other writing styles (like creative writing or prose writing) can be helpful, copywriting will take your marketing skills to the next level.
But this should be general, back to the basics, the basics of copywriting. You don’t need to know the perfect paragraph structure for an ecommerce landing page (although, if so, good for you). All you need is the basics.
You should be able to tinker:
- A convincing catch
- A series of advantage balls
- A convincing paragraph description
- A killer CTA
Once you’ve nailed these down, you can use them anywhere. And yes, I mean everywhere. Write an ad? Break your hook. Are you trying to increase your ad conversions? Try to make a better CTA.
Pro tip: keep a copy swipe file full of great copy samples from brands you love. Did an ad you saw converted you? Take a screenshot to remember their great font.
Copywriting is a skill that will take you a lot further than you might expect, so break out your typing fingers and start practicing.
2. Hopper construction
The marketing funnel is the basis of all marketing. No matter what you’re selling, you need to understand what makes an effective funnel and how to make one.
Your customers are all floating around online (and offline) in a living sea of other people’s content and products. So, to be successful, you need to get your potential customers to buy your stuff.
Not only do you need to know how to build a funnel, you also need to know how to optimize it. After all, a bad funnel is just as bad – and sometimes even worse – than no funnel at all. You should know how to diagnose a faulty funnel and then continue testing until you find the right solution.
Pro Tip: You can always A / B test different elements of your funnel if you’re not sure which is the best choice. And make sure you keep track of performance – more on that later in the post.
But if you know the basics of optimizing customer value, you have come a long way!
3. Budget management
If you work in paid advertising, budget management will be your actual life raft. If you run out of money too quickly, you will never survive.
They worked hours and hours to find the right listing, copy, and design. The last thing you want to do is set up the ad so that your money runs out way too quickly. But you also don’t want to over-correct and pull out your entire budget at once just to suppress your ad.
When you learn how to properly set up an advertising budget on Facebook and Google (or your favorite advertising platforms), it means your money goes much further and every dollar you spend is reaching its full potential.
But on a larger scale, you need to know how much of your marketing budget should be spent on advertising (note, it changes over time) so that you actually get new leads at the right time.
Pro tip: Do you remember the funnel structure just mentioned? That will come into play here too. You want to optimize your budget for each level of your marketing budget. It won’t just be an even division between the levels.
4. Metrics tracking and analysis
No matter how good your marketing is, you will never know if you are successful unless you measure your progress through tracking and metrics. This goes for running promotions, ads, new offers, and really every facet of marketing. You need to know when to hold them and when to fold them.
If you don’t know how your ads are performing, how do you know when to increase your budget if you have no idea how ad is performing? How do you know when to renew a sale if you don’t have a record of the amazing conversions?
And the only way to do that is to know your metrics and keep track of them on a regular basis. You can do this through Google Analytics or another similar platform. The trick is knowing which metrics are actually moving the needle for your business. Is it new leads? Maybe it’s a click through the ad. Whatever it is, make sure you follow it up regularly so that if you see something go wrong, you’ll be the first to be on the scene.
Pro Tip: Make sure you set and pursue SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
5. Customer research
None of the things I just listed are going to matter at all unless your customer research is on a T.
Whether you’re filling out your customer avatar worksheet or building a similar audience, you need to know who your audience is so that you can target them. That means you have to be really good at research.
You should regularly check the online areas your customers are in (and even offline areas such as events or conventions) so that you can keep up with your customers’ wants and needs.
Pro tip: Don’t know what your customers like or where they spend their time online? Ask her! Send out a survey or email your best customers in person. They can offer a discount or a gift in exchange for their time.
With the right information about your customers, you can perfectly time your offers and create ads that have to be clicked. But only if it fits. So make sure you know who your customers are.
Once you master all of these skills you are well on your way to some of the best marketing activity you have ever done. And you will be able to navigate the barrage of changes that always seem to be going on in the marketing world.