Online Marketing
What Is and Why Online Marketing
0
Savannah

WHAT IS AND WHY ONLINE MARKETING

The presence of the internet has changed how businesses reach and interact with customers. The internet plays a big role in today’s business environment. The internet’s application to businesses is paramount if you are aiming at beating the competition and reaching a wider audience.

What is Online/Internet Marketing?

Online marketing is the use of the internet to propel your brand’s awareness. The word internet is crucial in this definition.

Digital Marketing vs Online Marketing

In this field, you will come across the term digital marketing and online marketing being used interchangeably. While these words mean more or less the same thing, there is a slight difference.

Digital marketing is the umbrella term that encompasses online marketing. Digital marketing is the use of any digital channels to market your brand regardless of their use of the internet or not. To expound it further, digital marketing could involve things such as; SMS, digital billboards, TV ads, or radio ads which may not use the internet in the process. Online marketing has to have the involvement of the internet in the process. That is the major difference between these two terms.

Why use internet marketing?

Reach

There are 5billion internet users worldwide.

One of the main reasons to use internet marketing is the reach the internet has. According to Datareportal, there are 5 billion internet users and the numbers increase with each passing second.

The internet is currently the largest data source and anything your audience might want or need is a click away. The most important thing to note is that your customers are online and anytime they are online and it is a chance to reach them. As a business always strive to meet your customers wherever they are. The majority of consumers’ journeys begin with an internet search before they can proceed to actually purchase. From the internet, consumers can identify businesses that have their need, their locations, prices, reviews, and more information associated with them.

Visibility

We like to use the phrase, “Out of sight, out of mind”. The more a consumer sees your business the easier it will be for them to recall your business when it’s time for a purchase. Social media platforms are the best places to get visibility. Unlike websites and emails, social media platforms give you the freedom to come up with creative content, jump on trends, engage with users and also take advantage of user-generated content. When the consumer is ready to convert, they will choose to associate themselves with brands that they are already familiar with. To summarise, social media gives you the benefit of going viral.

Communication

The internet made it very easy for us to communicate among ourselves and for businesses to communicate to their audiences. The internet has brought about open communication between consumers and businesses. It is easier to reach businesses and make inquiries through websites, social handles, and other channels.

The internet offers two-way communication where consumers and businesses can engage in one-on-one communication without much hustle. This kind of communication builds a rapport between businesses and consumers, and consumers like to go where they feel valued. It gives you the opportunity to address the customer on a personal scale as compared to traditional ways which addressed consumers as a whole group.

While trying to address your audience on any occurrence, offer, or solving a widespread issue, the internet is the best place to handle that. For example, if your business has Father’s Day sales planned, these offers could be marketed on your website and other social handles. They will reach your audience quicker than any other way.

Leads

The most important part of a marketing funnel is the creation of leads. Leads are potential consumers who you can convert into purchasing customers when the time comes. For example, if you are scrolling through a website that offers courses on digital marketing, a pop-up box appears and it is advertising a free trial for the first month to study for free and all you have to do is register with your email. Anyone who goes ahead and registers for the offer is a lead because down the line they could purchase a course or two after the free trial.

Cost

Internet marketing is basically a free marketing tool unless you are paying for ads. There are over a 200million small businesses on Facebook alone. How do you do free marketing? Just being on online platforms is the first step of internet marketing. Create quality and relevant content to appear before a larger audience, this goes for websites and social handles. People will always value quality and relevant content which will make them return audiences to your platforms.

An important part of marketing is the budget, you certainly don’t want to spend all your money on advertising and the returns are low. Ads on the internet are way cheaper than ads on other platforms. You can choose the type of marketing format and they are all supported by the internet from videos, graphics, product carrousel, images, graphics, and much more.  

Internet marketing allows you to do targeted marketing. You can do targeting according to several demographics such as age, location, gender, a combination of all those, and more other parameters. Targeted marketing will produce a better return on investment since you are reaching an audience that consists of people who have an interest in your products rather than a large audience that may or may not consist of people with interest in your brand.

Analytics

Business owners need to know if their efforts have borne any results, how to improve them and what to improve. The internet gives businesses the opportunity to see their reach, engagement, click-through rate, etc. On websites, you can use Google Analytics to see how you are performing. Social media platforms also offer analytics for business pages to see how you are performing. You can also generate reports from these analytics through the platforms, how cool is that.

Personalization

You might have received an email or message on your socials that starts with your name e.g. Peter, don’t miss the opportunity to learn photography for free. The offer lasts until the end of this month. How did that make you feel? Important, validated, and seen. Ensure your customers feel that you recognize them through these personalized emails and messages. This makes them feel that they are not just a statistic to your business but they matter. Giving your consumers and potential customers this feeling is one way to build customer loyalty and convert your potential customers to purchasing consumers.

Do you need online marketing?

Yes, you do. From the benefits stated above, online marketing will give your business a really big advantage. The reach, lead generation, and cost of online marketing will give your business the boost that it really needs. Work on your online strategies and watch your business blossom.

Social Media Platforms
10 Major Reasons You Need Social Media For Your Business
0
Savannah

10 MAJOR REASONS YOU NEED SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR BUSINESS

76% of consumers will search for a business online before physically visiting the business. The importance of online presence for a business cannot be emphasized enough. Being online means you can be found on the internet, through search engines, or on any social media platform.

Social media plays a big role in connecting consumers to businesses. Facebook and Instagram have over 200 million businesses each. There are over 20 social media platforms that a business can use, but remember, before signing up to any of these platforms, you have to know where your customers are. You don’t need to be on all of these platforms. As a business why should you join social media platforms? The benefits of joining these platforms are infinite. In this article, we will outline some of the main benefits you can get by simply being part of the online community.

1. Brand Awareness

Over 4 billion people use social media platforms

The majority of people use more than one channel. The main aim of businesses being on social media is to increase brand awareness. With a large number of users, the chances of new users discovering your business are very high. 83% of people surveyed said to have discovered new businesses on Instagram.

Social media algorithms can really help you get in front of new audiences. For example, if you went on Instagram to search for shoe vendors, the next time you refresh the application you will notice a change in suggestions where Instagram will show you other shoe vendors, shoe-related pages, and ADs. This happens a lot with the majority of social media platforms.

2. Competition

In the business world, competition is healthy. Every business wants to have a big chunk of the market share. Your competitors are on social media, so why aren’t you? Join social media to have an edge over your competitors.

Use these platforms to see what your competitors are up to, what content they post, content ideas, and how they interact with their audience.

The majority of social media platforms now have insights that allow you to see how your content is performing. From the insights, you can compare your business against your competitors and see how they are performing. In Meta for business, you can add competitors and see how much they post, the number of new followers and the number of followers they have.

3. Build Customer Rapport

Social media gives your business a chance to interact with customers on a not-so-serious basis. This gives you a chance to humanize your business and in return, it gets easier for customers to approach you. Building a rapport with your customers nurtures trust that forms a returning customer base. Give your customers a feel of interacting with individuals rather than a business.

KFC Social Media Interaction

In this example, you can see how KFC is interacting with customers on a light note. 

If this was an Email, KFC would have probably ignored since it is used to handle more professional matter.

On social media, interact in a creative and warm way.

4. Get Seen

There is a famous saying that goes, ‘Out of sight, out of mind’. This goes for businesses too. The more you post, the more engagement you get, the more your audience sees you and when it’s time for a consumer to purchase, they will remember you easily. Post more frequently but always remember, quality over quantity. Quality, relatable and informative content will have your audience coming back for more and engaging with you. Social media algorithms favour content that gets engagements and the more engagements you get, the more the social platforms will show your content to a larger audience.

5. Advertisement

Facebook has more than 10 million active advertisers.

Advertising will help you reach a newer and larger audience than the one you already got. 48% of marketers who have used advertising on social media have agreed it has a positive return on investment. ROI is calculated differently according to business goals. It necessarily doesn’t mean getting money but could mean more engagements, lead generation, etc.

The best thing about social media advertising is that it can be targeted. While setting up your ADs, you can decide which demographic should be the target for these ADs. This form of advertisement gives a better ROI.

Social media advertising is said to be cheaper than traditional advertising. The availability of insights is helpful in calculating your return on investment. Try different strategies and identify what works for you and you can stick with it for a period.

6. Generate Leads

Lead generation is very important in the marketing funnel. Lead generation is attracting potential customers and spiking their interest over time with an aim of converting them into purchasing customers. Social media is one of these platforms that will help with lead generation. Through engagement with your consumers online, you can spike their interest, and the more they see you, the more they trust you. Add a call to action to get their details and you can send them personalized offers through emails while still engaging with them online. 

7. Promote content and websites

You have probably seen businesses post snippets of content from their websites or other platforms on social media channels in a bid to drive their audience to those platforms to consume the content as a whole. Use social media to promote your amazing quality content, offers, and sales. Add links, use captivating snippets, and add awesome graphics or videos to attract the attention of your audience.

WebFX Twitter Social

A good example could be how WebFX post their blogs on their socials after uploading them on their websites. 

8. Online shops

Social media has evolved from just an entertainment platform to encompass many other things. Right now, you can make a purchase through Facebook, Instagram and TikTok with just a click. Integration of shops and marketplaces on these platforms is an amazing idea. You see it, you like it and with just a click of a button, the purchase is done. For a business, this means a boost in your sales. Once you register your page as a business, you can add the shop feature and enable your customers to make direct purchases.

Convere Store

9. Reputation management and damage control

Consumers will talk about your business to the online community whether you are online or not. Some of these mentions could be in a good way or a bad way. Social media is also used as a review platform by potential consumers. A simple search of your business name can bring up any mentions on the platforms.  

Appreciate good mentions and correct bad reputations in a good and professional way. Always be around these platforms to know how you are portrayed and aid in building your brand’s image. How a business handles itself in times of crisis could be a make or break point.

Popeyes handling a customer's complain.

10. Customer service and support

The majority of consumers discover new businesses via social media. Customers tend to reach out to businesses where they feel more comfortable. The non-serious environment of social media makes it easier for consumers to reach out through these platforms. Have good customer service and prompt responses to inquiries and complaints through these platforms.

Customers could reach you via direct messages or could tag you on the platform, and it’s advisable to be there to give a prompt and constructive response.

As a business, meet your customers where they are. In 2020, 80% of consumers worldwide shopped online. This indicates that customers rather get their products coming to them than go to get the products themselves. Go to your customers instead of waiting for them to come to you. Being a marketer on social media means you have to be on your toes with changes in algorithms to make the most out of these channels. Algorithms change almost four times a year with major changes being at least once a year. Stay vigilant and know what to change when the time comes.

Keyword Research Logo
KEYWORD RESEARCH
0
Savannah

KEYWORD RESEARCH

When writing a blog, you’re aim is to give quality content and reach out to a big audience. Less than 25% of people go past the first page of the search results. So, how do you ensure you appear on the first page? The secret lies within a quality website, quality content and keyword research.

Less than 25% of people go past the first page of the search results.

What is a Keyword?

A keyword is a word or phrase that is most likely to be used as a search term. For example, if you bake cupcakes, your audience will be those people who are looking for cupcakes and not just cakes. On your page, you will target keywords that lie along that subject such as, how to bake cupcakes, cupcakes in Nairobi/ target location, cupcake recipe, etc.

Keywords can be short-tail or long-tail. A short-tail keyword is something like, ‘Brown Chocolate’. This user could be looking for the origin, recipe, a chocolate cake, bakers, cake shop, health benefits or hazards, or manufacturers but it is too general. A short tail keyword is very competitive… more on that later, and it will be very hard for you to rank for it.

A long-tail keyword is more of a phrase and has intent and purpose. Let’s say you want to find a vanilla marble cake, what will you search for on the search engine? Vanilla marble cake, and then add the location to be more precise. This way, the results will bring anyone who has the vanilla marble cake description and filter using the location you added to display closer and relevant results. A long-tail keyword shows that this individual is out looking for something and the intention to buy or consume information is very high leading to more conversion and visits to your site. Long-tail keywords are less competitive compared to short-tail keywords.

Keywords can be short-tail or long-tail

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword Research is the process of finding what search terms your target audience are using while looking for services or products that you deal with. The first and most important step is to identify your target audience. We have said this before, in every business, you need to know who your target audience is before you start creating content. When you can tell who your target audience is, you can tailor your content to spark their interest and fit their needs.

While working on your target audience, you should consider some of these factors;

  • Your target audience persona.
  • How do they search for your product/services?
  • What is their demographic (gender, age, location)?
  • What format do they want the results displayed in?
  • Any other similar searches that they may carry out in relation to your product/service.

One mistake that many SEO specialist make is tailoring their content in favour of Google algorithms, forgetting that the consumers should be their primary target. Yes, we want our content to rank high on Google, but when you target your keywords towards Google without paying attention to your audience, you are out to lose.  Google values user experience and good user experience comes from a good user interface and quality content. Make sure your content is primarily tailored for users following Google’s rules on how to optimize your website and you’re off to a good start.

How to do Keyword Research?

Once you have identified your target audience, the next step is to do the research to find and analyse the appropriate keywords that you can use. As said before, short-tail keywords are very difficult to rank for, so what’s the next step? Go for long-tail keywords.

When doing keyword research, there are primary keywords, that you target heavily and then there’s secondary keywords. Coming up with a list of keywords is not easy, that is why we have tools which we use to search for keywords and look at their parameters to see if they are worthy or not. More on the tools later.

Keyword Parameters

When doing your keyword research, you will notice majority of the keyword tools use certain parameters to rank them. The most common of these parameters used are;

Keyword Difficulty.  This simply means, how hard it is going to be for you to rank for these keywords. Most of the tools use a scale of 1-100%. When your site is new with low domain authority, it is recommended you go for keywords with low difficulty.

Traffic. This is the amount of search traffic the keyword gets within a certain time period. It could be a day, weeks, months or years.

Cost per click (CPC). This is the cost when ranking for that keyword and it directs traffic your way. When the price is high, it means that the keyword is very hot. The price is determined by those bidding, basically how much are you willing to pay for that keyword.

Competition. Some tools will tell you who your competitors for the keywords are. The first thing to look for in the competitor, is their domain authority.

Domain Authority means how much google trusts you. To get high domain authority, you have to get tons of backlinks. Your content should also be of high quality. Sites that have a higher domain authority will rank higher for the same keyword.

Some tools will also show you the top ranking pages for a keyword. The best tools will go deeper and show you what keywords your competitors have used in their pages.

Steps of Keyword Research:

  1. Identify your target audience.
  2. Use keyword research tools to come up with a list of keywords you would like to target.
  3. Use those tools to look at their parameters e.g. Difficulty etc.
  4. After comparison, trim your list to be left with a smaller but more relevant list.
  5. Strategically use these keywords in your articles. Use them in the title, headings, URL, alt text for images, body etc.

Some useful tips while doing keyword research, is to look at the traffic the keyword gets over a period e.g. a year. Note at which times of the year the keyword gets more traffic and you can prepare your content for that period.

Also take note of holidays, seasons and trends to know when the best time to use certain keywords is. Ensure you create evergreen content that won’t get traffic at one point and go to zero the next time. Evergreen content will always be useful over the years and the steady traffic is brings will definitely aid your SEO.  

Avoid keyword stuffing in your content. Keyword stuffing means you have used your keywords in excess in your content. Use the keywords in an organic way and don’t stuff your content since Google could treat that page as a spam.

Keyword Research Tools

There are tons of tools out there that you can use to do keyword research. This is a list at no particular order.

Some of these are free. Majority offer a free trial but do not give details unless it’s the paid version. Take a look at each and see which one is the best for you. Do not rely on only one of these tools, use a good cocktail mixture for efficient results.

Conclusion.

You are not going to rank for these keywords within the first day of writing an article. SEO is a process and the consistency that you keep will aid to your success. Results could be visible anywhere from 3 months to 1 year.

SOCIAL MEDIA
5 Best Social Media Platforms For Your Business
0
Savannah

5 BEST SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

You have started a business or planning to and you are undecided about which platforms you should create your business’ profile. A bit of research shows that there are over 20 social media platforms in the world, how many do you know?

There are over 20 social media platforms in the world.

That is such a large number to choose from considering a small business takes up the majority of the time and energy to try to take it off the ground. Handling 5 social media pages can be a bit handful, let alone 20 of them.

You’ll need content and we’re talking about quality content. Always remember quality over quantity. You need to track analytics to see how you are performing and how to improve your content. Engaging your customers is important too as you need to reply to their issues in a fast, respectable and efficient way. So how do you do all that?

Before you create any profile, you need to ask yourself;

  • What is your target audience? This is a very crucial step. You cannot create content for an audience you don’t know. You have to understand your audience, who they are, what they want and what they need.
  • Where can your target audience be found. In this day and age, it is important to meet your customers where they are. Find the platforms that they are subscribed to and post your content there.
  • What are your goals for joining the social media platforms? Your goals should be aligned with your business goals to avoid losing the sense of direction.
  • What will be your key performance indicators (KPI)? You have probably heard of these before, but goals are usually long-term or stretch over a period of time. In the process of meeting your goals, you need to have indicators that show the progress you’re making. Think of it as marking points before you get to the final destination of your journey.
  • What type of content you will upload on all these platforms? I will insist that quality over quantity. What are you going to be posting on your pages? Have a theme unique to your pages. When your audience visits your page, let them get a feel of what it is about. If you have too many themes on your pages, your audience might be confused about what exactly you do.

Once you have answers to all these questions, you can go ahead and open and choose what platform or platforms suit you best. In this list, we will outline some of the best social media platforms for any business.

1. FACEBOOK

Facebook Logo

According to datareportal Facebook is the largest social network right now. With 2.94 billion monthly active users by April 2022, this is a platform you should definitely consider. The number of daily active users stands at 1.96 billion by April 2022. The number of Facebook users that have joined the platform in the first three months of 2022 is 24 million, that’s mind-blowing.

Facebook also has the largest advertising audience of any social media platform. There are more than 6 million active advertisers on Facebook. More than 200 million businesses use Facebook both big and small businesses.

The average age of Facebook users is 33 years which means a more mature audience. This will vary according to the region too. Men make up the majority of users standing at 56% while women make up 44%.

Facebook supports all types of content, in recent times, they are really focused on video reach. Visual content will always have greater reach than plain content.

When coming up with content, identify in which way the majority of your users access your content i.e. through mobile phones, desktops or tablets. More than 90% of Facebook users access the platform through mobile phones and more than 80% of users access the platform using phones only. Ensure you optimize your content for mobile use unless your insights show different.

2. INSTAGRAM

When you hear Instagram, the first thing that comes to mind is bomb photos. Instagram has 1.4 billion monthly active users, this may be half of Facebook’s MAU-monthly active users but this is still a very large number. Take into consideration that it is under Meta which is the parent company of Facebook. Instagram is the 4th most active social media platform coming closely behind YouTube and WhatsApp.

The age group of 18-34 makes a total of 895 million users which is 60% of Instagram users. Instagram users are fairly young. Men make up 52% of the total platform users and women 48%. Figures will vary according to the regional location.

Marketing on Instagram is definitely productive, research states that 50% of people will visit a website or page from an Ad on Instagram.  80% of Instagram users follow a business. There are different formats of advertising which are similar to Facebook and they are; Videos, Images, Image carousel and collections. Choose the one that outlines your product well and the format that always gets the majority of responses.

Instagram popped up on the scene as a photo-sharing platform but that has changed. Instagram’s head clearly stated that it is no longer a photo-sharing platform. They are encouraging creators to use video content which is awarded more exposure. In your content strategy, make sure to add video content and upload them under Reels which is Instagram’s video category that seems to be doing really well compared to IGTV.

As the case is with Facebook, the largest majority accesses Instagram from their phones. Optimize your videos and images to dimensions that suit mobile phones. In reels use vertical videos which seemingly do better than horizontal videos.

3. LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is synonymous with professionalism for many individuals. LinkedIn boasts over 800 million monthly active users. Similar to the other social media platforms, men make up majority of users at 56% and women 44%. 60% of LinkedIn users are between 25-34 years.

LinkedIn is the go to platform for B2B companies. The platform is professional and will lead you into corridors that have the decision makers for majority of the companies. You may be also looking at hiring skilled professionals for your company. Always check LinkedIn to find suitable candidates.

Being a professional platform doesn’t mean there are no Ads, marketers see up to 2X more conversion on LinkedIn Ads.

Have a linked in profile if you are a B2B company and see the magic.

4. TWITTER

Twitter stands slightly over 400 million MAU. Compared to other social platforms, it comes in at number 15, sounds bad, right? NO! 50% of consumers are on Twitter and the majority of searches on Twitter lead to a purchase. Twitter users are said to generally have a higher income compared to those on other platforms.

For that personal relationship with your audience, Twitter is a good place to create a rapport. Instagram or Facebook may be crowded with messages in your inbox but the good thing with Twitter is you can easily get tagged and respond right on the page. This is also a good platform to have in-depth conversations with your audience on relevant topics using hashtags or Twitter spaces.

Twitter has more Millennials on the platform than Gen Z. 30% of the total users are women and men make up 70%.

Tweets that have videos perform 6 times better than plain tweets. This is your sign to use video content especially when advertising.

5. WHATSAPP

WhatsApp which is under Meta is the biggest messaging platform. WhatsApp has 2 billion monthly active users. WhatsApp has users of every age in large numbers hence it is the go-to messaging application.

 As a business, have a profile on WhatsApp. The platform has made it even better since you could display your products/services and have automatic responses. This is a very great platform to be in touch with your potential customer. The platform seems more relaxed and you can interact with your users in an environment that’s easy to create rapport.

Conclusion

It is important to note the demographic of your users and their preferred platforms. Example, China banned Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. To get through the Chinese population, you could use WeChat which is a messaging platform that has involved to incorporate shopping and even payment methods.

Technical Skills For Digital Marketing
7 MUST-HAVE TECHNICAL SKILLS FOR DIGITAL MARKETERS
1
Savannah

7 MUST-HAVE TECHNICAL SKILLS FOR DIGITAL MARKETERS

Last time we shared the essential soft skills that a digital marketer should have to start a career. This week, we expound further and cover the technical skills that are necessary to kick-start a career in this lucrative field.

Technical skills are mainly job-specific and majorly their performance is measurable. These skills are mainly acquired through training either on-job or in school and many a time are job/task-specific.

Maybe you are looking at a career change or advancement, these technical skills will help dip your foot in as you advance your competency with each of them.

1. Customer Relationship Management

Marketing as a field is geared toward customers. How you relate with your customers depends on whether they will be back or never look your way. To relate well with your customers you must understand what their problem is and position yourself as the best problem solver for their situation.

Pay keen attention to the actions that retain customers and those that push away customers, focus on those that retain your customers as you drop those that impact your business negatively. You have to be customer-centered, without the customer, there’s no business and there’s no marketing.

2. SEO & SEM

The mention of search engine optimization sends shivers down a lot of newbies as they think of how highly technical this field is. Well, that’s not the case, maybe! 

Search engine optimization focuses on drawing organic traffic while search engine marketing focuses on drawing paid traffic. SEO is a MUST have when starting off as a digital marketer. Organic content is very valuable on every platform. It shows how many people you can genuinely reach without paid Ads and how good your content is. SEO will help you understand how to develop and structure your content in order to drive traffic your way. You should strive to deeply understand this concept.

3. Project Management

As a digital marketer, you will be involved in one or more marketing projects the majority of the time. At the start of each project, a client expects to see the whole plan to be approved for implementation. They also need the project to be within budget and completed within the stipulated timeline. On top of it all, they will need results.

You will require the relevant management skills to attain all these. Good thing is that short courses on this skill are offered on numerous trusted online educational platforms e.g. Coursera, Udemy etc. Ensure to also sharpen your multitasking since you could be a whole package in one person handling these projects.

4. Websites & Social Media Platforms

The title Digital Marketing means that you will be dealing with online platforms. From websites to all social media and online platforms that your client and potential clients could be. You don’t have to understand every concept about these platforms, that’s too much work. Have a grasp of their basic functionality and their algorithm. The algorithm is important since you want your content to appear at the top and in the most relevant of places. Understand how to optimize content that you intend to upload on these platforms for maximum exposure.

5. Data Interpretation/ Data Analysis

Data Analysis

The advancement in technology has led to the production of data in large quantities hence the term ‘big data’.  These days even small companies have large amounts of data. To get any valuable information from these data, you have to sieve it and get rid of the useless and duplicate data.

There are tools that will help you analyse and draw inferences from the data that you have gathered. Some of the tools you could use to analyse data like your reach and conversion are Google Analytics, Semrush, Moz etc. Microsoft Excel has loads of features and formulas that will help you interpret the data gathered.  Learn to use some of these tools and you will be ahead of your peers.

Once inferences have been drawn from the data, use them to craft and come up with relevant marketing strategies and campaigns.

6. Design Skills

It is no secret that the current audience prefers visual content more than text content. In fact, 8 out of 10 social media users have said they want more video content on the platforms. The majority of the applications are also encouraging the use of video in content with features such as Instagram Reels and Facebook Watch.

Aim to have basic knowledge in things such as Video Editing since the demand for video content is so high. Graphic Design, Photoshop and Illustrations should also be among the technical skills you have an idea of. Understand some of the rules when it comes to designing so that you can guide your team appropriately. 

If you find yourself in a small team, you might be the one handling all these tasks. Including visuals in your content will have the audience more interested and retain them longer on your pages. Remember, the attention span of people these days is so low. They want to consume as much information, within the least time while putting in minimum effort.

7. Content Creation and Curation.

These two words get thrown around randomly without really understanding what it entails. Content creation is coming up with concepts and ideas that are aimed at delivering sales or brand awareness. Content curation is the process of sieving other people’s content and sharing the most relevant with the most value. Content creation involves all formats of content which include; videos, graphics, illustrations, infographics etc. This is why those design skills are crucial.

This list is not exhaustive but only covers the main skills that you should focus on at the start of your career as you decide what to specialize in.

Always remember, ‘A Jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one’.