People who want to learn more about web marketing often look for instructions on how to do things like SEO research, social media implementation, and keeping up with changes in algorithms. They also want to know what successful web marketers are doing that is new or different from what they were doing in the past.
Although strategy is important, there is more to SEO than just that.
Successful web marketing isn’t all how-to-do, or even what-to-do. Although you may devote 80% of your time and energy to something, that only accounts for 20% of what it takes to be successful. You can’t just rely on your own knowledge and skills to succeed with SEO. SEOs who work together and share their knowledge are the most successful. The most successful businesses make it a priority to collaborate heavily with their web marketers.
The ten things listed in this post are very simple social skills that everyone should know. This means that they can be used by anyone, at any time, and in any place. I have used the following methods to web marketing, and they have worked well for me, specifically with SEO and clients working together on web marketing campaigns. Even though these tasks aren’t specifically about SEO, they’re still important. It is important to take the skills you have learned about interacting with people and use them in the areas of your life that are most important to you.
Successful web marketing cannot be done by the web marketer alone, but in conjunction with a willing client.
It’s a team effort and together, if both are doing the right things, they will find their web marketing efforts are exponentially more successful.
Soft Skills for Digital Marketers
Soft skills matter. Although it may not seem as important, it is still crucial for digital marketers to work on their people skills. This is often overlooked becauseTechnical skills tend to be more impressive and get more attention. Digital marketing is a team-oriented profession that requires good communication with your peers, target audience, and business leaders. It is especially important to develop soft skills if you want to become a marketing manager.
1) Listen to Others, Don’t Just Make Them Listen to You
The role of SEO is often to advise the client on what needs to be done to improve their website’s ranking in search engines. It is important for an SEO to do a lot of listening before they begin working. Before we begin a web marketing campaign, we ask our clients a set of questions to help us get a deeper understanding of what the client needs, wants, and enjoys. We cannot move forward with the client’s best interest in mind until we have this information.
Client: A lot of clients have a clear idea of what they want, and then they expect the SEO to work in complete harmony with them. But that’s not always the best way to success. Clients should listen to an SEO’s plan and then ask questions to help them understand it. Preventing the SEO from having full control over the web marketing campaign will limit their ability to make necessary changes and could ultimately hinder the success of the campaign.
2) Ask the Right Questions
SEO: It’s not enough just to ask questions. The SEO needs to ask the right questions. A lot of SEO is technical, but a lot of it is also about using the technical skills in a personal way. To be effective, the SEO must have a deep understanding of the target audience’s values, hot points, and objections. They need to ask the questions that will help them understand what is important to the client and why, including why certain decisions were made in the past.
The client said that it is very important to have the right expectations in order to be successful. Expectations don’t always match reality, but when a client is expecting something to happen and it doesn’t, that can influence their opinion. Make sure to ask questions if you don’t understand something about the process, a particular strategy, or when to expect certain results.
3) Accept Thoughts and Ideas That are Not Your Own
An experienced web marketer is necessary to optimize a website for search engine ranking. However experienced they may be, their solution is not always the ideal one for a given site. I will show you 100 differences between two sites built on the same platform in the same industry that will impact their marketing campaigns. The SEO should have a clear idea of what needs to be done in most cases, but they may need to adjust their plan to fit the client’s specific situation.
Client: Don’t be too attached to your website that you’re not willing to listen to criticism from your web marketing team. I couldn’t care less about how much your site cost you or how “successful” you’ve been up to this point, your SEO is supposed to help you surmount your difficulties. Be willing to implement some out-of-the-box thoughts and ideas. Everything is worth testing. Although the SEO may not be entirely accurate, it is still worth testing in a real-world setting.
4) Allow New Information to Influence Your Opinion
The SEO never has enough information. No matter how many questions they ask, there will always be something that they haven’t discovered while dealing with the client. The SEO’s opinions and plans should be influenced by this new information. The SEO should be able to make changes to the plan as needed so that everything does not go off track.
One constant in SEO is that things change. A decision that was made a month ago may need to be changed based on new information. Be open-minded to new information and be willing to let that information change your existing thoughts and beliefs. It is the job of the SEO to keep the client informed of any relevant developments to the campaign. If you feel like the people you’re talking to are making the same recommendations over and over again, try to understand where they’re coming from and let that guide your current ideas.
5) Be Willing to Admit When You’re Wrong
SEO: Yup, sometimes we get things wrong. We’re often surprised when the outcome of our actions turns out to be different from what we expected. Some mistakes may even be costly to the client. The best thing to do when you make a mistake is to admit it and quickly find a way to fix it. To prevent this mistake from happening again, systems must be put into place.
SEOs are often blamed for results that are out of their control or that are caused by client decisions. Web marketing cannot account for everything. If you make a bad decision that impacts your web marketing, be willing to admit it and take responsibility, rather than looking for someone else to blame. This will allow you to work together to find a solution to the problem so that you can get back on track.
6) Empathy
Exceptional marketing campaigns understand their target consumers. They know what motivates their target consumers to buy and they understand their audience’s primary concerns, feelings, and desires.
The key to that comprehensive and useful understanding? Empathy.
Empathy is when a person is able to understand and share the feelings of another person. Digital marketers use their ability to understand the needs and desires of their target consumers to create a branding campaign that presents their brand’s products as a solution. Content marketing relies heavily on a marketer’s ability to connect a brand with its consumers.
7) Curiosity
The key to being a successful marketer is always being willing to learn more about your products, customers, and new branding strategies. Innovation and effectiveness almost always go hand-in-hand with a love of learning and inquisitiveness. If you’re not interested in new ideas, it’ll be tough to be either innovative or effective. Customers are attracted to brands that they feel are interested in their ideas and wellbeing.
Showing interest in others is an attractive quality. Being interested in others provides opportunities to learn new things about them and creates deeper relationships.
Making connections is important in marketing.
Don’t be afraid to follow your interests! Encourage your curiosity; it will help you succeed as a digital marketer.
8) Persuasiveness
Persuasion is important because it is the basis for marketing communication. If you know how to get people to trust your brand and its products, you’re on your way to being a great marketer.
The power of persuasion doesn’t just end with making the sale, it extends to post-sale customer satisfaction as well. A satisfied customer is a happy customer. If you want to be successful in persuasive marketing, you need to make your customers feel like they are getting a great deal from a great business.
9) Communication
Communication is key. This is something that people often say because it is true. As a digital marketer, you need to have excellent communication skills in various contexts. You should be able to easily write both content marketing blog posts and email copy, and should be able to easily verbally convey a campaign plan to your teammates or superiors.
Strong communication skills are worth building, and building upon. You will have difficulty developing strong relationships with your coworkers, partners, and customers without strong communication skills. Moreover, employers strongly value communication. A survey conducted by GMAC Corporate Recruiters in 2017 found that hiring managers ranked oral communication and listening capabilities as the top two most important qualities for a candidate, and noted that interviewers expected ideal candidates to be an expert in both skills.
10) Adaptability
Modern marketing is in a constant state of flux. As new technologies develop, customer needs change, and social trends shift, businesses need to be able to adapt in an instant. As a digital marketer, you may one day need to update your strategies and change your campaigns on the fly.
Change is a constant in today’s business world, so digital marketers need to be adaptable and open to change. You need to be able to adapt to social changes and be ahead of the curve, even if that means making changes to existing plans and strategies. Don’t fear change; instead, embrace it when it comes. It is beneficial to have an open mind while working in marketing.
Hard Skills for Digital Marketers
Digital marketers need a strong foundation of practical skills, even if they are not technically oriented. Digital marketing jobs require a lot of creative work, and aspiring professionals learn how to do this by taking on various roles and responsibilities. They learn how to produce powerful creative work, and this allows them to check off the professional qualifications for digital marketing jobs.
Competitive Research
You can’t be a digital marketing expert unless you know how to research and analyze your competition. This type of research involves finding out who a brand’s main competitors are and learning more about them, such as how much they sell, what kinds of products they have, and what marketing methods they use. Marketers need to compare themselves to their competitors to show consumers that they are the better choice.
The digital marketer will investigate the online advertisements of their competitors, set up online alerts for media coverage of their brand’s rivals, and examine the content published by their competitors. They will also develop branding strategies and reports.
The purpose of all these efforts is to make sure the brand has the information it needs to create a marketing campaign that makes its products and services look better than its competitors’ products and services.
Content Strategy
Without an effective content marketing strategy, a marketer will be ineffective at driving results. A digital marketer without an effective content marketing strategy is ineffective at driving results. Although people generally think of marketing content as being excessively self-promoting, most of the material written for brands takes a more indirect route to attracting customer attention. Content marketing that is great does not just promote a product; it tells a story.
Data Analytics
Analytics allow digital marketing professionals to understand customer preferences and develop their brand more effectively. If you have a lot of data about your customers, it’s now easier than ever to figure out what they want and need.
AI and Machine Learning
A.I. and machine learning are new to marketing, but they have the potential to change the industry entirely. Some digital marketers are already using AI technologies to identify trends on social media, do customer research, and handle large amounts of data.
Digital marketers need to have a basic understanding of AI and machine learning. If you are interested in working in this area, you should spend some time learning about both of these topics.
Summary
SEO is more than technical strategies and implementation. It’s about having the wisdom to make sound decisions. No matter which route you eventually choose, a rewarding career in digital marketing will be your ultimate destination.
