It’s almost impossible to have a successful business without an effective digital marketing strategy. Unfortunately, marketing can also take a significant amount of skill and time to perfect. From content development that requires exceptional writing skills to tracking that involves high-level analytics, marketing can be overwhelming for even the most effective business owners.
Many local business owners give up on marketing. That’s a huge mistake since marketing can be an incredible driver of leads and sales. Luckily, marketing doesn’t have to be an impossible task. With practice, a little patience, and a few tips, you can create a marketing strategy that works for your business.
We’ve compiled a list of the best marketing skills you can use to support your business goals. From ways to get a handle on analytics to mastering communication skills, you’ll get ideas on how to improve visibility and get your products in front of the right audience. Here’s a list of skills that will take your marketing strategy to new heights.
The top 10 marketing skills for business owners
Online marketing is all about getting your products and services in front of the people who need them the most. A successful marketing strategy should cover all the bases from creating content that shows off your industry know-how to offering exceptional customer service. These essential marketing skills will help make your marketing strategy more effective, helping to boost sales and profits.
Top 10 marketing skills for business owners:
- Customer knowledge
- Digital advertising
- Critical thinking and problem-solving
- Storytelling
- Writing skills
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Social media management
- Teamwork
- Time management
- Analytics
1. Customer knowledge
You can’t craft a good marketing campaign without understanding your customers. Identifying buying behavior and highlighting pain points for customers can help inform your product strategy. It can also help you see which products people love most and what needs improvement.
If you’re just starting out, use market segmentation to identify the different types of customers you have. This method involves dividing your customers into groups based on demographics, geography, purchasing power, and engagement level. Once you know who your customers are, you can craft advertising campaigns and email marketing campaigns to target their needs directly.
2. Digital advertising
Advertising is one of the best lead generation tools. It can help you drum up new business from consumers that your other marketing efforts may not be reaching. From video production for commercials to pay-per-click (PPC) ads, there are a lot of different ways you can advertise your business.
There are dozens of different advertising techniques you can use to get consumers to make a purchase. Try to focus on feel-good moments in your advertising campaigns. Use techniques like the bandwagon effect to show potential customers why everyone else uses your products and why they will love them too.
3. Critical thinking and problem-solving
Modern marketers are excellent problem solvers. They’re ready to handle crises at a moment’s notice and can come up with new ways to drive inbound marketing leads, all while juggling negative reviews and adjusting poor-performing marketing campaigns. The truth of the matter is, not all marketing campaigns will be successful. That doesn’t mean you did it wrong, it just means that method may not be the best choice for your business.
Use critical thinking skills to help identify what works and what doesn’t. Use problem-solving skills to adjust your focus and try new content marketing approaches. This applies to marketing tools and marketing automation as well. See what processes you can streamline and take a critical look at what tools work for your team.
4. Storytelling
LinkedIn has posted extensively about the importance of storytelling as part of marketing campaigns. Stories are the reason why we love movies, music, or books so much. They’re engaging and they draw you in. In marketing, telling stories is a great way to get customers invested in your business.
You can use storytelling to explain your brand and show people who you are as a business. Your storytelling should be relatable and interesting, not pushy or boring. You want people to read your content and come away feeling good about your brand and business. The key to storytelling is knowing who you are as a business and what you can offer people.
Storytelling doesn’t end with written content. Use graphic design to make your brand stand out from the crowd. Things like infographics, video content, and imagery can all help customers understand how to use your products. You can also use these mediums to tell your brand’s story and to introduce new customers to your company.
Don’t forget about mobile marketing. Make sure the user experience is just as good on mobile as it is on a desktop. You can use Google’s mobile-friendly tool to check your site’s mobile performance. The tool can tell you if content is unreadable because it’s too wide for a mobile screen, if text is too small, and if clickable links are too close together.
5. Writing skills
All marketers need to be good at writing. That’s because their whole job is getting people to understand why a business or product is so special. In terms of written content, you want your customers to know exactly what you have to offer. Try to be specific and to the point. Avoid copywriting fluff like long, drawn-out sentences and using too much jargon.
If you need help improving your writing skills, try taking an online copywriting or creative writing class where you can practice and learn writing techniques. You can also jot down ideas or free-write using a journal. You can write about your day, your goals, or create a short fiction story. Free-writing is a writing technique where you let whatever ideas you have flow onto the paper. Don’t worry about formatting or editing, just use the technique to get used to writing.
If you just can’t seem to get the hang of writing, you can always hire a professional writer to create copy for your landing pages and informational tools like infographics. There are also content creation AI tools that can help you prioritize what efforts you need to write yourself.
6. Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is a process where you improve all of your content in order to drive organic traffic to your website. By optimizing your content, your site will appear higher in the rankings of search engines like Google and Yahoo. That means when a customer searches for products or services like yours, they’ll see your site before they see a competitor’s product.
Not only do they see your website, but they can also see Google reviews and other feedback about your business. Customers will be able to see what other people are saying about your business, whether it’s good or bad. That means SEO is also a key tool for your online reputation management plan.
To do SEO effectively, you need to create informative content that provides value to consumers. Think about what kinds of things your target audience may search for. Try to create content that helps them address pain points or answers their questions. You can use tools like Ahrefs and Moz to identify keywords associated with your business and products. Create content that focuses on those keywords and search terms.
7. Social media management
Nowadays, just about every business has a presence on social media. With more and more consumers heading to Facebook and other sites for buying advice, it’s important to include social media management as part of your marketing strategy. Social media marketing makes it easy for you to collect customer feedback through reviews. You can use the platforms to improve your customer service by addressing needs more quickly than through traditional channels.
In addition, social media is a powerful tool for visibility. You can work with influencers to help give your products and services more clout. You can also create viral campaigns that focus on industry trends to drive engagement.
It’s important to make a distinction between which marketing channels are most effective for your company. Instagram is a great choice if your products are visually pleasing while Medium and LinkedIn are a better choice for information-heavy content. Identify what types of social media content you’re creating and decide where to share each piece. Use a tool like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule content so you don’t forget to post.
8. Teamwork
Marketing is a team effort. Professional marketers work with many different departments including sales and IT to help craft an effective strategy. Don’t be afraid to delegate tasks to different team members.
Make sure to keep the lines of communication open so that everyone knows the latest goals and techniques to boost visibility. A messaging tool is a great way to manage internal communications so team members can collaborate and connect easily.
9. Time management
You can’t be an effective marketer without managing time efficiently. Most marketers juggle multiple projects at the same time. From targeted email campaigns to social media projects, marketing team members are always managing multiple projects. To make sure nothing falls through the cracks and all deadlines are met, marketers need to manage their time well.
Marketing tools can help. If you’re creating multiple pieces of content, use a project management tool or content management system like Asana. These tools can help you keep track of projects through every stage of the process. Scheduling software like Monday.com can also help you keep track of everyone’s schedules. Find out the different aspects of these softwares by reading this article on Asana vs. Monday
10. Analytics
Marketing is more than just great storytelling and communication skills. Data is essential to any successful marketing campaign. Data analysis enables marketers to see what types of content and campaigns perform well and what areas need to be improved.
Analytics tools like Google Analytics can help you track how well your content and campaigns perform. You can also use spreadsheets like Excel to keep track of all your campaigns and relevant metrics. Use marketing analytics to ask yourself what channels offer the best return on investment and which campaigns produce the most feedback or leads. Take this analysis and structure your future marketing efforts around what works best.
Use these essential skills to boost your marketing efforts
You don’t have to have experience in a marketing job to be a good marketer. With these marketing skills, you can reach your target audience and boost sales as effectively as marketing professionals.
Successful marketers use communication skills and time management to handle multiple projects at once. They pay close attention to metrics and analytics to see what advertising and marketing campaigns perform well. They’re constantly adjusting and using critical thinking skills to create more effective opportunities.
If you’re stepping into a marketing role or looking for ways to improve your business, these marketing skills are a great place to start. They can help make your marketing strategy more effective while driving sales and boosting company profits.
