Must-have Skills and Courses of a Digital Marketing Manager

The modern business world was built on an efficient division of labor and efficient management. That is why it shouldn’t be a wonder that as time goes by and we go down the corporate ranks we see a growing level of role separation and work specialization.

Digital marketing, which has steadily become one of the most important facets of any company, is one of the prime examples. As of lately, people have been putting an increasing emphasis on the position of digital marketing manager whose role is to translate the overall business necessities to specific marketing tasks suitable for a specialized workforce.

Taking into consideration the critical role digital marketing manager plays in the marketing process it is completely understandable why you should want to put a greater focus on this position. Here are a couple of skills and specializations your future candidate should possess.

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Strategic thinking and data analysis

This is one of the biggest obstacles the companies encounter when hiring the labor for the position of a digital marketing manager. Obviously, the person that is going to fill in this position should have an excellent background in actual digital marketing duties. However, this role also covers segmentation, budgeting, targeting, strategic thinking, and analysis that are not tied to the marketing duties. Therefore, you should require that the job candidate has senior staff experience or make the manager training a part of the onboarding process. Ideally, though, you should groom one of the established employees.

Social media marketing and paid advertising

We have put these two skill sets together since they essentially follow the same line of paid targeted advertising. When hiring or promoting, though, you should put a special focus on social media since these platforms have become an integral part of your everyday lives. According to recent surveys, as many as 90.4% Millennials, 77.5% of Gen X members, and 48.2% of Baby Boomers are active social media users. Furthermore, an average user spends a total of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media and messaging each and every day. A high level of expertise in this lucrative area is an absolute must.

Project management skills

In some previous times, project management was usually born out of necessity and to the best ability of the people in charge. These days, however, this important duty has become a highly refined process guided by an established set of principles and strategies designed to refine the process in question to the highest possible extent. Due to this complexity, the project management skills and certification are usually acquired by enrolling in PMP course. So, if you want to prepare one of the prospective employees for the role of digital marketing manager, take this critical expertise as a must.

Search engine optimization

SEO is and, as long as people use search engines, will remain one of the most important marketing channels available. Putting things into perspective, recent research says that 92.96% of global web traffic comes from the combined forces of Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps. Also, it is interesting to note that even in spite of social media dominance, SEO drives 1000%+ more traffic than organic social media. All these numbers paint the picture of SEO as one of the dominant forces in the present-day business landscape. Your digital marketing officer should have expertise in this area.

Excellent communication skills

Good communication was always cited as one of the most important soft skills required for filling in any kind of senior position, digital marketing sector included. Putting aside that all instructions need to be passed on in a very clear manner to avoid any eventual misunderstanding, knowing how to approach a person can go a great length in reducing the workplace tensions, building up the sense of cooperation and camaraderie, and establishing trust. Also, digital marketing managers usually engage in negotiations with clients so their ability to understand the clients’ needs is critical for the success of any project.

Basic design skills

This is one of the areas where labor division comes into play – the tasks of marketing design should, by all means, be left to the experts able to understand the nuances of the task at hand. But, as a supervisor, your future digital marketing manager should have at least a basic knowledge of the present-day trends, good practices, and design sensibilities to run the project successfully. This includes the basic knowledge of the most popular design tools like Photoshop, After Effects, InDesign, Illustrator, and Canva. This way, the managers, can kick in, make necessary suggestions and adjustments and leave the job to the pros.

We hope these few mentions gave you a general idea about the skillset your future digital marketing manager should possess to fill in this role successfully. The present-day business world requires a high level of efficiency and specialization at every instance of one company. That puts the pressure of digital marketing, one of the most important facets of the modern corporate world, on the shoulders of a digital marketing manager. Use all the tips we gave you above and make sure this position truly counts.