Top 7 Digital Skills To Consider In 2021

 Gone are the days when all you needed to secure a white-collar or good-paying job was a ‘paper’ certificate. History has it that before you even finish your university studies many companies will be on the line to hire you. Meaning getting jobs is a walk in the park.

However, in the realities of today, and with the level of unemployment in the country, getting a good-paying job has now become a thing between the rock and a hard place. People often say “no job anywhere”. The little ones offering employment are with ridiculous pays. In a clear word, it is becoming real day by day that certificates are “overrated”, don’t let me talk any further!

Website Design

Basic web design skills like HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, and WordPress among others is an amazing and unique digital marketing skill that brings someone a step further in this digital world. Experts have said that a good digital marketer must have knowledge of things like design simple landing pages for collecting leads and managing CMS websites like WordPress, Blogger among other things, this is because the initial impressions of any website are mostly design-related. Website design has shown to bring great opportunities in the digital world and lucrative skill that has come to stay.

Thankfully, there are many free tutorials available online that teach extensively and from scratch the nitty-gritty of website design. Please do well to leverage the opportunity to prepare for the future.

Web Data Analytics

Numbers (data) are very useful in our decision-making process and cannot be overemphasized, data is key in evaluating the success of any campaign or survey carried out. Data analytics essentially allow experts to make educated and data-driven decisions. Therefore, it is very relevant in our society today. The aforementioned makes it clear that web data analytics is also another critical skill that every great digital marketer must-have.

Furthermore, it needs to be stated that the key to analytics in the first place is knowledge of the right information (data) to collect or gather. Common analytic tools include Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Hotjar, etc. Nowadays, the ability to track, access, and analyze data through various tools and technologies in order to inform marketing decisions are sacrosanct skills for any marketer.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) goes along with analytics and are two complementary skills that help businesses to determine what consumers want and the best ways to get their attention as well as how to attract new ones. That said, SEM as a form of digital marketing deploys paid search ads to get more web traffic through desktop or mobile web search. It is more of paid ads on search engine websites like Google & Bing and one of the most influential disciplines that marketers find worthy.

SEM experience helps to increase the visibility of a company’s website on a search engine primarily via paid advertising, meanwhile, Google is an example of such search engines. The major purpose of SEM is to help businesses especially the ones selling products or services attract substantial and valuable web traffic from the search engine results page. Every profit-oriented business wants their brand to be easily seen and better found online than their competitors hence their every time hunt for someone an SEM whizz.

To set the context, managing an SEM campaign oftentimes requires constant monitoring, testing, tweaking, optimization, and learning which makes a vital skill for any digital marketer.

Email Marketing

Do you know that people might describe (based on reasons best known to them) to change social media accounts, mobile numbers, and even home addresses, but it is very rare to see people change their email addresses? That said, professionals who have understood this fact, leverage the power of email to directly connect to consumers. This makes this skill in high demand. Email marketing is all about sending commercial email messages probably to a group of people or stakeholders. Email marketing has been ranked to have one of the highest returns among several other digital marketing techniques. However, this digital skill needs constant updating meaning that the skill is on a constant evolution because what worked for email marketing a couple of years ago might become defunct today. Notwithstanding, email marketing is still a relevant skill and plays a key role in any marketing strategy. Additionally, the major target of email marketing is to help your client to acquire as many customers who need or might potentially need the product or service.

Even though the potency of email marketing as a marketing tool is often underestimated and almost doubted, it remains a trusted way to obtain and retain leads in the marketing industry. On several occasions research has shown that email markets have been a useful tool helping to launch a number of successful campaigns for small-scale and multi-national corporations.

However, email marketing needs creativity because it is seen as an art where each stage (signup page, welcome email, etc.) has to be innovatively and carefully planned as a way to attract and glue users and build deliberate engagements.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as opposed to Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a form of marketing that focuses on the growing visibility of a company in organic or non-paid search engine results. Search engines are basically the main method of website navigation for most internet users. This is independent of whatever the purpose of the website is, whether a content website, services, products, information, and the list continue, all use SEO for navigation.

SEO, in simple terms, is the process of increasing a website’s rankings in Search Engine Results Pages and one of the most important digital skills needed to drive traffic to a webpage, an important quest of all companies that have an online presence. It (SEO) covers both technical and creative elements of improving rankings, driving traffic, and increasing awareness in search engines.

Meanwhile, learning basic SEO which might come freely from free online classes can make you a hot cake for companies willing to promote anything from a website to even a single blog post. However, digital pros should know that an increasingly practical skill is imperative to the progressive development of all digital know-how even as the world and work go deeply digital.

Coding

Coding, hearing this word brings fear to our hearts, as we often think that it is a very difficult thing to learn. We, oftentimes than not, see it as a kind of skill that is demanding in nature. But the truth is coding is what you will find interesting once you get used to it and get a grip on it. We have seen many self-taught experts in the coding industry. You can also join the clique!

Coding is the process of assigning a code to something for classification or identification, it is a very relevant and sought-after skill. In fact, opportunities you can have as a coder are numerous to the least you can even become a resource to help other people learn coding whether in schools or tutorials.

Social Media Influencing and Marketing

The ability to understand and utilize social media effectively is a core skill that is widely needed in every business. A real understanding of the nexus between brands, consumers, and media space is critical if you like to sell this skill. It needs to be emphasized that social media marketing goes beyond posting on Twitter or facebook updates; it deals with the in-depth knowledge of the space because many businesses need it to grow their customer base, drive traffic to their website, and so on.

Data has it that there are over 2.7 billion active social media users worldwide of which 2.5 billion are active users on mobile devices. This is a powerful tool many businesses use to sell their products as well as gain popularity. It is fast becoming the primary and major source of information flow between the industry and its consumers (present and prospective)

A competent social media pro must know the specificities and uniqueness of each social media platform because what works for facebook might not yield similar results on Twitter, they are two different platforms. Graphics design knowledge is also a plus to any social media marketer because visuals are important in this space.