What’s life like for a young person in the digital marketing industry? Our Digital Marketing Assistant, Frankie, looks into the day-to-day jobs and skills required to be a success.

Many people don’t realise what life behind the scenes in digital marketing is like. A lot of effort and time has to be put into the work to get maximum success. This is all so worthwhile at the end when you see how your work has affected your business in a positive way.

What’s it like being a digital marketer?

Being a digital marketer, there are always regular duties I can get on with. One of these is looking through Pinterest. For example, I often find a piece of really clever copywriting which I then add to the copywriting inspiration board so that any visitors viewing the page can then also add that to their own profile.

When scheduling posts for your social media channels it’s best to use Buffer. I find this the easiest to use with the structure being more organised. I’ll regularly schedule posts a week in advance allowing me time to check them over and update anything. Doing this is important so that there are no spelling errors or the wrong scheduled date and time.

As a digital marketer you need to be alert on social media. Monitoring social media is something I do every day. It’s good to do this so that you know what content is working, what content isn’t and why. You can do this by looking at the engagement it has gained.

The engagement hierarchy is handy to consider when looking at engagement. This is because it’s important to know which source of engagement will help you reach the most people.

At the top is sharing a post. If you write a post and someone else shares it, it then becomes visible on that person’s followers feed. It can become a long-lasting chain of sharing which causes so many videos and images to go viral.

Comments are better than likes. Although you may think likes are the most important things in a post, they’re not. Having a lot of comments gives the opportunity for commentators to interact with one another creating a wider discussion.

Although getting shares and comments are better than likes, likes are still very important. You tend to get more likes than comments or shares because it’s easier and a lot less time consuming than pressing a share button or typing a comment.

Working in this industry includes looking at data and grouping it altogether. This data is usually made up of the amount of traffic you are getting.  To look at how much traffic the social media pages are getting in great detail you can use Iconosquare.

This lets you look at what went well over a certain time period. So, if one month got less traffic than another, you can change your approach. Looking at your website traffic regularly is also a good thing to do so you can identify whether you should continue to put out the same content.

Any business needs to identify who its competitors are. Another business can qualify as a competitor if they’re in the same industry and operate in the same area.

Having a phone by your desk, it’s very common to get daily phone calls from people who are interested in your work or the services you provide. Communicating with phone callers has a big part to play when it comes to actually securing a deal so always consider these people you are speaking with could be potential clients.

What skills do you need to work in digital marketing?

There are many skills required to be successful in the digital marketing industry. One of these is patience which is really key. When working with clients you have to be patient. Sometimes it will be the case that they are busy as well so it’s important to be proactive and make sure the work gets done.

Learning quickly is something I had to do when I joined Sookio. I hadn’t heard of a lot of the programmes we used so the best way for me to learn was to try them all out and pick things up as I went along.

You may be put out of your comfort zone on occasions but it’s important to pitch in and be willing to take on any task that’s thrown at you. The industry changes, the tools change, the clients and projects change, and you have to keep up!

Another crucial skill is having consistent grammar. It’s important to perfect this so when it comes to writing blogs and sending out newsletters you don’t have any errors or mistakes when it gets published.

A big skill to have in marketing as a whole is to be able to sell. Knowing how to engage with people and turn them into sales opportunities can be key to growth.

It’s not about pestering someone into buying your services when you know they aren’t interested. For example, if someone wanted you to do some copywriting work but also said they struggled with social media then you could offer your social media services.

What has digital marketing taught me so far?

Starting off with clients, digital marketing has taught me how different each client is with regards to the business structure they each have, the different schedules and time frames required, also the different personalities we work with.

I have discovered the never-ending number of different tools and programmes to help monitor your services. Squarespace is great to build your website. It allows you to easily and quickly change something on your website that will then become instantly live and updated.

The number one programme for scheduling posts has to be Buffer. This is really good because it allows you to set a date and time for your post to be published so you are stress-free. If you change your mind about a scheduled post, it’s as simple as dragging your post to a different date and time.

The final pick of the bunch for me is Netvibes. This lets you get together a bunch of sources to find regular posts. If you find a story that will be of interest to your customers and clients then you can share the link onto your social media.

It’s always important to expect the unexpected. Being an agency, you never know what potential work is around the corner so be prepared for everything!

Need guidance to be the best digital marketer you can? Contact Sookio for a strategy to get you on the right track.