If you’re looking for an online marketing job, it can be difficult to know exactly what skills you need in order to do the job correctly. Most people assume that you may need a basic understanding in every form of online marketing, but really it depends on what type of job you’re looking for in this industry. For example, if you’re looking into doing social media marketing, knowledge of PPC advertising, social networks, and general marketing should theoretically be more than enough to suffice. However, there’s a bit more too it than that.

Now, before I continue, the following is based on what I would personally look for if I were interviewing prospective employees. This in no way reflects what other employers look for, so keep that in mind while you’re reading this article.

The 3 Core Skills Needed For An Online Marketing Job

The skills below are what I would refer to as “the basics” since I would expect someone I’m hiring to possess all 3 of these skills.

1. Patience

This is arguably the most important skill if you’re looking for a job in online marketing. Too many new marketers get so excited to begin their careers that they end up rushing out and purchasing every product and service in the industry. When they see that there websites aren’t ranking #1 after a day, they then get frustrated and begin throwing money at the problem by ordering more superfluous services in hopes that it’ll make their website rank faster. Believe me when I say that I’ve seen this numerous times.

2. General Marketing Knowledge

I didn’t have a background in marketing before I started my company, although I wish I did. Learning more about general marketing and how to make a sale can really help with your conversion rates and appealing to your target audience in online marketing. Conversions are actually something most people neglect when they’re too focused on getting more traffic rather than how to make the most out of the traffic they have right now.

3. Knowledge of SEO/PPC/SEM/SMM/CRO

Confused by those acronyms? Don’t worry, I have you covered:

• SEO – Search Engine Optimisation. This is the process of boosting your site higher in the search results for specific keywords.
• PPC – Pay per click. These are the ads you see in Google’s search results, although other search engines have their own networks.
• SEM – Search Engine Marketing. This encompasses PPC, SEO, and other forms of online marketing that involve search engines.
• SMM – Social Media Marketing. This involves both paid and organic marketing on social media networks.
• CRO – Conversion Rate Optimisation. The process of turning more visitors into customers/clients.

Now, you don’t need to know how to do all of these (although that’s certainly a big plus in addition to being impressive), but becoming knowledgeable in at least one of these fields and creating a portfolio around it can help you figure out what you want to do in this industry as well as help your case for when you’re finding a job in the online marketing industry.

Extended Skills Needed For An Online Marketing Job

I wouldn’t say these are imperative to possess, but learning one of more of these can certainly make you appear more useful to your clients or potential employer.

1. Photo Editing

Most people want to be able to get everything done in one place. However this usually translates to a client who hired you to optimise their conversion rate wanting you to also create attention-grabbing images. If you think this doesn’t happen often, think again. I can’t tell you how many of my clients have asked me to fix a photo for them at one time or another. I actually just finished working on a set of photos for a client’s website earlier this month.

2. Video Editing

This is another request I receive from a few of my clients.  If you manage to land an online marketing job that involves social media marketing on YouTube or any other video sharing website, it can be nice knowing how those videos are made and how subtle editing can keep a viewer’s attention.

3. Data Analysis

Knowing how to analyse data and translate it into an effective online marketing campaign is both understated skill and a very useful one when it comes to conversion rates and keeping your audience happy. In fact, this is a skill I’ve noticed very few people possess, and this usually results in online marketers thinking they “just need more traffic” rather than making the traffic they already have happy.