If you want to improve your digital marketing performance in 2019 significantly, one of the smartest moves you can make is to increase your skill level. Working on your skills not only allows you to enhance the quality of your marketing, but it also gives you an unfair advantage over competitors who aren’t upgrading their brand-building skills continually. If you’re a brand marketer, who hopes to leave competitors in the dust in 2019, following are seven essentials skills you should be upgrading.
Improve your data analysis skills
Marketing without data analysis is like fishing with your eyes closed and an empty hook. You might get lucky enough to land a fish or two, but your success rate is going to be severely limited. Marketers who make it their mission to become stellar data analysts have a much higher chance of increasing annual sales than those who market without data. If you do only one thing to increase your odds of marketing success in 2019, doubling down on data analytics might be your best bet.
Improve your data visualization skills
Just as data analysis is crucial for improved marketing ROI (return on investment), so too is visualization. Detailed data visualizations help the audience to understand the information you are providing and builds your reputation as a knowledgeable thought leader at the same time. There are plenty of data visualization tools you can use to showcase your data (capterra.com/data-visualization-software), or you can use something as simple as Google Charts (developers.google.com/chart).
Improve your news analysis skills
News analysis and news-jacking is a critical component of effective digital marketing. If you aren’t paying attention to what is happening in the news, chances are good, and you will miss numerous marketing opportunities throughout the year. Learn to make news analysis a core component of your brand marketing efforts, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your engagement rates rise.
Upgrade your social media marketing skills
For brand builders wanting to boost their digital marketing performance in 2019, upgrading their social media marketing skills is essential. Paying attention to what is happening within the social media marketing sector and understanding platform trends are crucial for increased ROI. If you’re not monitoring which platforms are gaining attention from younger audiences or which social networks are falling out of fashion with older users, you might be wasting your time on social media platforms with little chance of engagement.
SEO is more important than ever. With a growing number of social networks indexing social media content and an explosion of activity in the voice-computing sector, keywords and keyword placement are vital for brand success in 2019. Work on improving your search engine optimization skills across numerous platforms and using a variety of data inputs if you want enhanced digital marketing performance.
Copywriting skills are essential
Mediocre content won’t cut it. You can’t offer keyword-stuffed content with grammar and spelling mistakes if you want content marketing to work for your brand in 2019. Improve your copywriting skills (or hire an on-demand content writer), and you’ll be amazed at how much better your content performs with your target audience and search engines.
Video marketing skills will be crucial in 2019
For brand marketers who want to connect with more consumers in 2019, sharpened video marketing skills will be essential. From live-streamed video to video transcriptions and video blogging, anything you can do to ramp up your video marketing skills will pay dividends for your brand. With a growing number of content consumers viewing brand marketing on mobile devices, video outreach will continue to be a top performer for savvy brand marketers.
These are the top seven skills to improve if you want turbocharged digital marketing performance in 2019. Make a game plan to upgrade these critical skills, and you can significantly increase your brand marketing engagement with your target customers.
Jeff Shuford is president of Tech From Vets, an award winning veteran-owned technology company. Tech From Vets merges NFL veterans and military veterans in the tech industry and develops innovative websites and mobile applications for their clients nationwide.