What Prior Knowledge And Skills Are Required To Engage In Digital Marketing?
The only way for the participants in the market to understand each other and finally learn to talk ‘digital’ is an education in the field of digital marketing. In order for the cooperation between the clients and the employees of the agency to take place to mutual satisfaction, understanding is needed. The same applies to freelancers and their clients, as well as to employees in the marketing sectors within smaller or larger companies.
The only way for the participants in the market to understand each other and finally learn to talk ‘digital’ is an education in the field of digital marketing. In order for the cooperation between the clients and the employees of the agency to take place to mutual satisfaction, understanding is needed – clear inputs, defined goals, equal expectations, and detailed reporting. The same applies to freelancers and their clients, as well as to employees in the marketing sectors within smaller or larger companies.
Descriptions and job titles in digital marketing agencies vary from agency to agency. It is often the case that two agencies have different job descriptions for the same position. Business or company owners place job ads in accordance with their wishes and needs. They usually look for a mix of knowledge and skills that are rarely (or almost never) found in one person. Digital marketing is still (not always and not in all countries) seen as a side activity that employees can perform in addition to other office activities.
Concerns About the Term Executive
The term executive is often mentioned, and those working in marketing agencies know exactly what this position refers to and what responsibilities it entails. However, for people who are not from the marketing area, this term can be confusing and does not give a clear picture of who is and what the executive means. In essence, it is the most direct operational position in marketing. When we say most direct, it means that an executive is a person who communicates directly with clients and he/she is the link between the agency and the client. So, from the point of view of communication, there is a great responsibility on the person who is in this position.
An executive is a person who needs to know the industry in which the client operates so well that he/she is able to understand the client’s market position, competition, and the client’s needs and expectations but, if he/she works in certain agencies, especially digital agencies, he/she must understand and has experience in digital marketing. Precisely for this reason, for the position of e.g. Account Executive, communication skills are highlighted as extremely important. That is because the Account Executive is the person who will communicate directly with the client, and coordinate campaigns and other marketing activities.
Those who write job advertisements for executive positions require from candidates a wide range of skills and knowledge that they themselves cannot define because the area in which they are looking for an employee is often unfamiliar to them. So, that is an explanation of how come there are job ads looking for a copywriter with design skills or vice versa. Or, for example, why would anyone expect from a person who built them a website – whether they are professional designers or they just used templates that are styled specifically for different types of web pages – to know how to perform a role of an executive?
This mix-up only indicates ignorance of the areas, knowledge, and skills necessary for certain positions, and a lack of understanding of what a person can do independently, and what a specialist or team is needed for. On the other hand, we have completely different names of positions and competencies that they imply.
Most common executive positions:
- Digital Account Assistant
- Digital Content Specialist
- Account Assistant
- Account Executive
- Digital Account Manager
- Social Media Manager
- Community Manager
However, for all these positions there are skills and knowledge or, in modern terms, soft skills and hard skills, which are necessary to perform executive positions in digital marketing.
Top 5 Knowledge and Skills for Executive Positions in Digital Marketing
Knowledge And Continuous Learning
The desire to learn and follow new trends in digital marketing is extremely important. The dynamics of change on social networks, as well as the emergence of new digital channels and tools, require permanent learning and informativity.
If you are already applying for one of the executive positions in digital marketing, knowledge of digital marketing, communication channels, and their nature, as well as marketing, in general, is something you should master. It is also necessary to know the technical aspects of publishing content on social networks, knowledge of the format and their purpose, nature of all social networks, as well as the possibilities of content promotion.
Communication Skills
It is important to know how to communicate, whether it is about digital channels or verbal communication. Being able to articulate thoughts in sentences, receive and give feedback, but also understand the wishes and goals of the client, and pass on the resulting briefings to designers – is only part of the communication challenges that a person in an executive position faces on a daily basis.
Contact with clients requires you to know business communication, and managing a project or team will require assertiveness, delegation, and briefing from a person in an executive position.
Spelling And Proper Writing
Every copy you publish and every sentence you write should, in addition to reflecting the values of the brand you represent, be consistent with the spelling and grammar of the language in which you write.
The responsibility you have is greater because someone has entrusted you with their communication channels.
Organizational Skills
Good organization is extremely important because you will take care of more than one client, with all having different needs and goals.
You will not just organize the working day and week, but you will also take care of the calendars of posts, content, and the time needed to create content. Here, it is extremely important to have a good estimate of the time for certain tasks and to include a few more hours/days for unforeseen situations, but also for overcoming these challenges.
Creativity
This really sounds like a cliché, but creativity is important whatever job you do. When we say creativity, we do not mean only design and beautiful writing, but something much more essential. At the core of all creativity is an idea, innovation, and finding a way to solve or overcome certain situations.
With creativity, there is always the danger of going to another extreme. Creativity is not a meaningless exaggeration and insistence on something that is not common just to draw attention to the content we create. Creativity in creating content for social networks is reflected in a meaningful and logical approach that is in line with the brand and which is based on strategy.
Executive Persona
Whether you are a freelancer or want to develop your career in a company/agency, it is important that you develop executive skills in digital marketing. They are extremely important for operational positions because you will perform these tasks on a daily basis. But these skills are also important for managers to better understand the processes they manage.
Who is the executive persona we are talking about and to what extent should he/she master the knowledge and skills we have previously pointed out? We can answer this question depending on the position because the knowledge of assistants and people in higher executive positions differs greatly. Here, we can use the often quoted Aristotle’s sentence “Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.”
For an executive position, it is extremely important that you know how to communicate and that you want to learn and progress in the field of digital marketing. Writing and Community Management are the basis for almost all positions that are further upgraded by understanding analytics, reporting, and presentation. Depending on the position, knowledge in the field of photo production and video production has a gradation from recognizing good photography, through knowing what a good shot, plan, sharpness and all the manipulations can be done with the original photo and image, to taking photos yourself or recording simple video formats.
In any case, responsibility, reliability, and patience are qualities you should cultivate if you want to swim the waters of digital marketing, whether you are starting to work independently or in an agency, whether for your own business or within a company or organization.
The importance of continuing education is not something that is inherent only in positions in digital marketing, but it is the reality in which we live. This should be kept in mind not only by those who are employed in agencies but also by freelancers, as well as employees in companies that deal with marketing.
The most valuable skill of today is the propensity to learn and research. The world around us is changing rapidly, and technology is advancing and changing all spheres of business, even life. To adapt means to know how to learn!