Digital Marketing Blogs

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Digital Marketing Blogs

These blogs were written by Phil Williams on behalf of clients concerning digital marketing study and jobs.

7 characteristics every digital marketer needs

The attraction of online marketing, for any business or marketer, is how diverse the field can be. The extensive possibilities available to the digital marketer mean a range of

characteristics are necessary to get ahead. Here’s 7 of the most important: 1. Research skills

With so many tools and databases available online, you must be a resourceful researcher, knowing how to quickly find applicable information without getting swamped. And such research should be a passion – keeping up-to-date with the world of marketing in your spare time, not just when working, is crucial to success.

2. Content creation

Given the diversity of online content, as a digital marketer you need to be proficient in a wide range of content creation skills. Jobs in digital marketing will rarely focus on one area of content creation, so you should have at least rudimentary skills in writing, photo-editing, video editing, content management systems and web design.

3. Original thinking

The ability to create content is not enough, though - a successful digital marketer has to compete with the entire world, so original ideas matter. If you want to get noticed, even at the recruitment stage, your ideas must stand out. You must be willing to take risks and always be attempting to lead the market, rather than follow it.

4. Analytical skills

With online marketing, everything can be recorded and quantified. You are accountable for all your actions, so it’s important to be able to analyse these numbers yourself. You must understand what’s working (or not) and have the ability to demonstrate your successes to clients through clear figures.

5. Technical skills

You don’t have to be an expert in technology to be a digital marketer, but you do have to understand it. You have to be able to discuss the latest trends with web developers, with enough knowledge to develop appropriate strategies. An effective digital marketer can’t be confused, or put off, by technical language and acronyms such as CSS, CMS, HTML, SEO and PPC.

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All marketing requires long-term planning. You must consider where all the various

components of a campaign fit in, and why. You must be able to set clear business goals – the marketing ideas you create need to have a practical purpose.

7. Rounded social awareness

Finally, it is necessary to understand the full range of digital marketing techniques and how they fit into the real world. You should be able to plan on all fronts, through search engine, social media and email campaigns. Even more important, though, you must be able to think outside the digital sphere, to how these plans affect real people. Digital marketing may be based in the online world, but if it doesn’t reach out to the physical world it will not succeed – a multi-faceted approach to your campaigns is a must.

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The Best UK Digital Marketing Job Boards

This selection of the job boards for digital marketing should help you narrow down your options, and find the job that’s perfect for you:

Indeed

If you’ve got the time to spare, and are prepared to regularly revisit this site for frequent updates, Indeed is one of the most powerful ways to search different recruitment sites. Your search will return results from all the major jobs boards, and the site will remember what you looked for. Each time you return, it tells you how many new entries there are under each of your searches. You may have to do some careful tinkering to get the most out of Indeed, because it can turn up so many results, but when you know what you’re looking for and search for it effectively this is an invaluable job search tool.

Indeed can be too much information, though, or miss some of the specialist content you find on more specific job boards. It’s a good idea to regularly visit a selection of different boards, just in case, and to update your CV on all of them so potential recruiters can find you:

Brand Republic

Difficult to beat in size and scope for a job board that specifically focuses on marketing, advertising, design and media, Brand Republic is worth keeping an eye on. It caters for all fields in the marketing industry, from creative to management, so whatever role you’re looking for from the jobs in digital marketing, you’re likely to find it here.

Technojobs

The Technojobs job caters primarily for those working in IT and technical positions, so if you’re main interests are in the technical side of digital marketing it may be the place for you. As a niche job board, you are likely to find more specific results here than on the larger job searchers.

Marketing Week

Like Technojobs, the job board from the popular marketing publication, Marketing Week, has a narrower focus than general job boards. It covers all recruitment sectors for both online and offline marketing, and is especially good for higher end positions.

Wired Sussex

A local digital media network based in Brighton, Wired Sussex has an excellent example of a local job board where national jobs are often posted. Wired Sussex can compete with many of the larger boards for advertising specialist jobs in digital marketing. If you don’t find what

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you’re looking for there, consider checking your local digital media networking groups for similar boards.

Digital marketing is a popular category in some of the less specialised job boards, too – such as the following strong selection:

Guardian Jobs

The Guardian job pages have a high standard of positions, and are regularly updated to fit in with the newspaper’s publication (Media Guardian, for instance, published on Mondays). The marketing section has its own digital marketing sub-category, whilst the board is also a good starting point for more general graduate positions.

Reed

Reed provide an all-round recruitment service – in addition to having a large selection of jobs in their digital marketing section, if you create an account with them they have staff actively working to match you to a suitable position.

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How to get a job in digital marketing from uni

Digital marketing is such a rapidly expanding field that the options for applying for jobs coming out of uni may seem daunting. The following tips should help you when thinking about breaking into the job market fresh out of university:

Graduate recruitment schemes

A solid degree gives you a route into one of the most effective ways to start employment, the graduate recruitment scheme. The companies that run these schemes nurture the talent they take on, with an emphasis on career development rather than just employment.

Research all the schemes carefully and you may find digital marketing positions in unexpected companies. The applications for these schemes take a long time, and can be very competitive, so look into them early (ideally think about applying a year before you finish university).

Use social media to look for jobs

Recruitment websites are becoming increasingly comprehensive, and are a great place to start searching for jobs, but they are not the last word in finding jobs online. If you have an effective social media presence, you will find jobs offered across networks such as LinkedIn, and even Twitter. You can also use these networks to research the companies and people you would like to work for, and to connect with them on a personal level.

Internships

To demonstrate that you have skills that you can apply, work experience is a must.

Internships are a good start. An internship with an established company will look great on your CV, and could lead to valuable contacts, and even actual employment, further down the road. But what if you can’t afford to do an internship?

Build a portfolio

You don’t have to be in employment to demonstrate your digital marketing skills. If you can’t find work experience, or don’t have the means to do an internship, complete digital marketing exercises for yourself in your spare time – you could do this for local smaller businesses, or for invented mock-up projects. The important thing is that you have demonstrative examples of your work.

Maintain your online presence

Always be aware that potential employers monitor your social media accounts. All your public online profiles need to be clean and professional, putting across the image you want employers to see. Think about your online presence as a brand. Use what you know about

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digital marketing to market yourself, and you’ll find that your use of social media alone could be enough to demonstrate your skills.

Immerse yourself in the digital marketing world

Digital marketing is constantly changing, and though the principles you learnt at uni are valuable, it’s important to keep up with new developments. Follow websites and social media accounts that offer digital marketing news. Interact with industry professionals online. It will give you valuable information to use in interviews, and an employer monitoring your online presence may notice your active involvement in the digital marketing world.

Specialise

It’s important to know as much as you can about everything, but it’s even more important to know where your particular strengths lie and focus on perfecting them. When you’re completing work experience or building a portfolio, don’t just do it for evidence of your skills, do it to improve and better understand your personal strengths. This will show when it comes to presenting your work and attending interviews.

Overall, when looking for jobs in digital marketing it is essential that you show yourself as a passionate practitioner of the skills you hope to be recruited for. If you don’t have prior work experience, your job search itself is an opportunity to put your marketing skills to use.

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Choosing your marketing specialisation

Starting out, the endless possibilities of digital marketing makes it tempting, and sometimes necessary, to take on a variety of roles. In order to reach an expert status, however, you should choose a specialisation most appropriate to your skill-set – for instance technical, creative, social or strategic. To help you decide, here is a list of some of the most common specialisations in digital marketing, with brief descriptions to explore how they might suit you:

Content creation

Working in content creation requires original thinking and an understanding of what people (i.e., your customers and clients) want. It is the most creative area of digital marketing, with scope for a variety of skills to suit the various mediums of the internet, for instance in images, video and (most important) writing. If you enjoy coming up with new ideas and translating them into content that will connect with customers and clients, content creation is for you.

Design

Design in digital marketing has to consider both front-end appearance and back-end

technical aspects. Recruiters will often be just as interested in a theoretical understanding of how design works as in the ability to make something look good. Online, this will require web development and programming skills. If you can combine artistic flare with technical know-how, this specialisation should interest you.

Project management

Project management lets you work on fitting the different pieces of the technical and creative puzzle together. In part, this requires an understanding of overall strategy, and in part it requires excellent people skills, to communicate with and organise your team. Depending on your skills, it is possible to find management jobs in digital marketing either focusing on managing teams or managing strategy.

Analysis and Strategy

Analysis and strategy are ideal areas to specialise in if you enjoy working with numbers and can present the results of a campaign in a meaningful way. These are skills that are very desirable for recruitment in digital media, as they translate the theory into results. Analysis and strategy require long-term thinking and planning, rather than creative or social skills, so if you’re after a technical role this will suit you.

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Link-building sounds like networking, but the major requirement in this specialisation is an understanding of how the internet works. It will suit you if you find the technical aspects of strategies for inbound and internal links, analysis of link flow interesting, and would like to work across numerous websites.

Outreach

Outreach is, essentially, another word for online PR. Broadly speaking in digital marketing it involves social media management and networking – in general, connecting with people. It is the most likely area to get you out and about and meeting new people, so people skills are a must. To effectively perform outreach tasks, organisational skills are also necessary, as effective PR will often depend on seizing timely opportunities such as marketing alongside breaking news. If you’re more interested in connecting people through your marketing, rather than the technical or creative aspects of producing marketing content, outreach could be for you.

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E-commerce trends and online shopping over the holiday

period

The holiday period is upon us, and consumers the world over are vying for the best gifts to fill their shopping quota. But the experience is changing, as shoppers increasingly drop their over-laden bags in favour of comfortable internet browsing. This had led to a different set of considerations that retailers have to make, or else get left behind by e-commerce trends. Cyber Monday

First coined in 2005, Cyber Monday is a phenomenon that grows in popularity each year as consumers flock to start their online shopping for Christmas. Retailers know it as the busiest day of the year for internet shopping, usually falling on the first Monday of December in the UK (this year, on the 3rd). It marks the beginning of a two-week online shopping spree, and serves as a reminder that retailers have to be ready far in advance of December if they want to take advantage of the online boom.

Need retailers need to be aware of these popular trends if they are to take advantage of the wave created by Cyber Monday:

Search Engine Optimisation

The first step in selling any product online is being seen. Search Engine Optimisation is when websites are designed to be naturally found in search engines, using specific language and coding that will direct browsers towards the site. It’s as important in the holiday period as ever, when seasonal content that targets the Christmas shopper is more likely to get your products seen.

Mobile e-commerce

A recent eDigitalResearch and IMRG survey announced that 41% of smartphone users are considering purchasing their Christmas shopping from their mobiles this year, whilst online retailer eBay predict a third of all their holiday sales will be made through mobile devices. The impact on retailers is that even if those consumers don’t use their phone for the

purchase, they will use their phone to explore their options. Products that aren’t effectively represented in the mobile internet market are bound to miss out.

The survey also highlighted the increasing popularity of the ‘showrooming phenomenon’. Thanks to mobile internet, consumers may visit outlet shops to scout their desired products, then check on the internet for the best prices and to make actual purchases. The gap

between the retailer’s online and offline presence must be seamless, to ensure that an offline sale is completed online, and a strong mobile presence is a key bridge between the two. An examples of a way retailers can take advantage of this is click-to-reserve options in store.

Price Comparison Sites

Whilst SEO might make a site easy to find on search engines, shoppers using price

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purchases online, buyers are also becoming a lot more proficient at comparing prices, and using comparison sites instead of the search function. Price comparison sites demand additional marketing strategies from any serious retailer, such as setting genuinely competitive prices and budgeting to be included in the lists.

Pay-per-click

Another way to be seen this holiday season, and an excellent complement to other online strategies, is using pay-per-click advertising with seasonal messages. By targeting the search terms that shoppers are looking for, PPC campaigns are a popular way of getting online retailers on the front page of any search. With search-engines and price comparison sites swamped with seasonal offers, a strong PPC strategy may be your best bet to get seen.

Digital Marketing Blogs