Top 8 Most Important Digital Marketing Skills for Businesses in 2022

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Digital Marketing Skills

 

At the height of the 2020 lockdown period, we had to stay at home and find creative ways to stifle our ennui and reduce our anxieties. While the Gen-Z’s were busy with their TikTok videos and the millennials were preoccupied with Instagram, most businesses took advantage of this unprecedented opportunity and took their businesses online, increasing the demand for digital marketing skills.

According to Statista, as of January 2021, there are 4.66 billion people who are active internet users out of the 7.7 billion global population. With the rise of new online platforms in 2021 and the trajectory of tech development pointing towards the heavy reliance on the Internet for communication, there’s no shadow of a doubt that digital marketing skills will continue to be in high demand in 2022, and perhaps even more in the years to come. 

Whether you’re an entrepreneur working to keep your business thriving, a digital marketer looking to stay relevant, or someone who is curious about making a living doing digital marketing, this article is for you. 

Here are the top 8 most important digital marketing skills for businesses in 2022:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you have dabbled in digital marketing, you’re probably familiar with search engine optimization (SEO). For those who aren’t, SEO is a big part of any digital marketing strategy. It is a process of optimizing content and websites in a way that make them rank high in the search engine results. 

Seasoned marketers know that consistently implementing a well-thought-out SEO plan is worth the effort because of the organic traffic that it generates. SEO includes content marketing, site usability, link building, Google Analytics, and technical SEO. SEO strategists abound for a reason—it’s a classic marketing strategy that is here to stay.

• Social Media Marketing

Today, about 70% of the 7.87 billion people in the world are using social media. Since its inception, social media has become very instrumental in empowering individuals, connecting communities, and driving sociocultural changes. There’s an abundance of platforms at the disposal of marketers, one only has to know which platforms their target audience is most likely to use. No wonder why more businesses have used social media for marketing.

Paid social media marketing is the process of posting scheduled social media ads and posts to promote products or services. Paid social is the tip of the iceberg; social media marketing’s real power lies in organic social media marketing. Through organic social media marketing, you can build brand awareness by showcasing your company’s culture and values, build an audience, gather customer feedback, and connect with your audience through memes and other relevant trends/news. Most importantly, social media platforms are perfect for collecting data on consumer behavior and gaining insight on your audience’s shifting needs.

• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Do you ever wonder why whenever you’re on any search engine results page, you will see ads of a product or service you just recently did a Google search on? This is because search engine marketing (SEM) experts know which search terms to use in their paid ads so that the search engine algorithm will automatically serve their ads to the right audience who will most likely buy their products.

Contrary to SEO, which relies on consistent optimization efforts to achieve long-term results (organic traffic), SEM depends on advertising budget in order to promote a product or service through paid advertisements. It perfectly supplements other marketing efforts by significantly increasing company reach, thus making it another essential marketing skill. 

• Data Analytics

To circumvent the noise that the immense data from different campaigns generate, data analytics come into play. Data analytics tools can provide marketers with metrics and reports on consumer behavior, search queries, audience location, and many more. 

Having these reports and metrics is not enough, a data analyst is essential in transforming these data reports into actionable insights so businesses can create data-driven strategies and make data-informed decisions. An expert data analyst is very vital to a solid marketing team. 

• Marketing Automation

Have you ever wondered how businesses are able to consistently post curated content? Or have you ever questioned how your favorite food delivery app is sending you emails for every promotion? The answer is automation. 

Marketing automation is the key to enhancing your marketing campaigns tenfold. By automating your campaigns, you can spend less time on certain tasks and focus more on improving your strategies. These tools are used in scheduling ads, Facebook posts, Instagram stories, emails, generating leads,and many more. Much like every tool, an expert marketing support specialist is needed to wield it effectively. 

• Mobile Marketing

According to a Boston Consulting Group (BGC) survey, 90% of buyers report that an excellent mobile experience is likely to convince them to make a repeat purchase from the same company. The statistics alone shows that mobile marketing is the next eye candy that marketers need to put more of their resources on in 2022. Apart from stats, heavy mobile Internet use can be seen in our daily lives—people glued to their phones while lining up at the grocery store, colleagues checking their phones each 15-minute break, or a family or friend taking a quick snap of your lunch date.

Mobile marketing is a strategy used to engage customers who are using their smartphones, tablets, or any mobile devices by sending out promotions such as in-app marketing, location-based promotions, SMS marketing, and mobile search ads.

• Copywriting

With the proliferation of analytics tools, marketing automation tools, web development tools, and other highly technical tools and systems used in marketing, one would be tempted to think that copywriting would be automated too or at least partially automated; hence, making copywriting an obsolete skill. The opposite couldn’t be more true: copywriting remains essential because content marketing is the bedrock in which most marketing campaigns are founded on.

Let’s say, you want to drive more traffic to your website through SEO strategies, this requires writing blogs, email outreach, and link building—all of which needs a copywriter. Meanwhile, social media marketing and SEM also require the magic touch of a copywriter who knows how to write an ad copy that can attract the attention of its target audience. A copywriter has the power to appeal to the emotions of potential customers to encourage them to buy a product or avail of a service.

• Brand Storytelling

Brand storytelling is the process of creating a narrative through multiple platforms that influences the customer’s view of a brand. People buy from businesses they can trust. Brand storytelling is anchored on the most basic human tendencies—fear of pain and bad experiences and the desire to find happiness. 

Through brand storytelling, a business can expand on their audience’s understanding of what their company is all about. At this point, it’s less important to highlight the features and benefits of their products or services. Brand development focuses more on creating a theme for your brand’s soul/core, allowing people to learn about your brand’s history, values, goals, and the standards used for delivering high-quality products and services. 

It is exactly this human element that allows your target audience to connect with your brand. When done right, the increase in customer engagement builds customer trust and allows your brand to evolve in a way that best fits your audience’s needs.

Now that you have a glimpse of the most important digital marketing skills in 2022, which one do you plan on investing in?

For digital marketing resources with exemplary work ethics that match their marketing expertise, look no further than RipeConcepts. Talk to us today at connect@ripeconcepts.com.

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