Digital Marketing Skills – A Pre-Requisite For Management Professionals

You’ve heard the statistics: according to salary data from indeed.com, there are over 220,000 digital marketing jobs in the United States alone. This number already seems small you, and that’s because it is. These days, it is very difficult to distinguish between who’s a digital marketer and who is not.

Globally, the amount of money spent on digital advertising is set to hit $278 billion in 2019; there will be 150,000 new digital marketing jobs in India by 2020, and Gartner’s 2015 CMO survey found that companies no longer think of digital marketing as a distinct domain of marketing – almost all marketing is now digital marketing.

This is great news if you are or want to become a digital marketer, but do these facts affect the rest of the corporate hierarchy?

The answer, as you may have expected, is yes.

Technology has disrupted the regular functioning of a variety of industries, and the companies and industries with intact and rising profit margins are those that adapted to the changing business landscape quickly.

But even those industries that were slow at the start are now catching on. They’re hiring social media marketers, PPC specialists, and conversion optimization experts. C-level executives have realized that being digitally savvy is no longer a nice-to-have feature, but is mission critical for the survival of a company.

Almost all marketing and sales campaigns are now conducted online and being able to accurately analyze the impact of these campaigns – whether they’re reaching the intended audience, if the conversion funnel is pulling enough people, and if the brand’s reputation is positive – is now the most important role of a business manager.

Younger managers might have a degree with digital marketing and communications as a core part of the curriculum, but most management professionals today have learned these skills on the job. They often have a practical understanding of certain aspects of digital marketing, but are in the dark about others.

Most managers will have worked in a few domains in teams that specialize in certain areas. But to compete effectively in today’s economy, they will need to be cutting-edge digital strategists. Managers have to know about more than just SEO and email marketing – they will need an entire range of skills at their fingertips.

A degree that introduces you to these skills can take you a distance, but most employers are looking for professionals with in-depth digital strategy experience. The problem is, even if you have directed digital strategy efforts in the past, it’s likely that you will be competing with people who have done the same.

So what can you do to stand out?

One thing that can help is getting a digital marketing certification. It can prove that you’re familiar with the metrics and terminology of multiple marketing disciplines – search, affiliate, mobile, display, email, and social media – and that you have specific project experience in a few key domains.

Digital marketing training programs are great for this; as they offer in-depth training in relevant skills and tools with real-world project experience. By the end of the training, you should be ready to ace the OMCA, Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Facebook Blueprint, and YouTube certification Exams.

Another way to pick up the digital strategy skills is by working at a digital marketing agency. At an agency, you’ll learn handle a number of different accounts and will learn what strategy works for which company, product, or content.

One you have a knowledge base in the field of digital marketing, you can chart your own path in the field. You can become an expert in a particular subfield, and more importantly, know how to learn the ropes quickly when that subfield is threatened by new technological disruptions!

(The article has been contributed by www.simplilearn.com )