Marketing is an essential aspect of any business, and the ability to effectively reach and engage with customers is more important than ever. In the continuously evolving digital environment, marketing skills that were relevant just a few years ago may no longer be sufficient to keep up with the competition.
Whether you’re a business owner, a marketing professional, or simply looking to improve your personal brand, learning new marketing skills is crucial. These skills will ensure a competitive advantage and help you succeed in today’s fast-paced environment. From understanding content writing trends to mastering link building and SEO, staying up-to-date on the latest marketing techniques is essential. This way, you will effectively reach and engage with your target audience, drive sales, and ultimately succeed in your business.
Here are our top seven marketing skills every business owner needs in 2023.
1. Content Writing
Even with the enormous growth in popularity of social media platforms, high-quality, written content is still one of the primary drivers for website traffic. Today we have so many AI-assisted content writing services available. However, Google still insists on creating your own unique, helpful, and reliable content.
One of the recent Google updates (Google’s August 2022 Helpful Content Update) addressed this issue, which hurt many websites containing poorly written and optimized content. Since then, website owners have been trying to recover. They’ve started rewriting and re-optimizing their articles using the latest guidelines and answering the following questions:
- Would the intended audience find the content helpful?
- Does the content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge?
- Is the website/article niche oriented?
- Would a reader have to google any additional information after reading the content?
- Would a reader have a satisfying experience after reading the content?
Unfortunately, even with the most helpful, niche-oriented content, one’s chances of ranking high will be significantly hampered unless many websites point to the article. This is why, as a business owner, you need to add another essential marketing skill to your arsenal: link building.
2. Link Building
Although link building has been around for a long time, many business owners still need to familiarize themselves with the concept.
In short, link building generates backlinks (hyperlinks pointing to your page) from many niche-related websites. It is an indicator notifying Google how many websites are quoting your content, establishing you as the authority on the subject. The higher the DR (domain rating) of websites pointing to your content, the more link equity (authority) will pass to your website. As a result, your own domain rating increases, improving your Google ranking in the process.
For a long time, generating links has been closely associated with writing long, helpful content that has a high readability score. However, with the ever-increasing number of websites competing for Google’s attention, link building has begun to require more than good writing skills.
Managing your own outreach campaign, sending daily emails, and negotiating link placement with bloggers have become daily grinds. On top of that, building relationships with high-profile publishers can take years to achieve. This is why many business owners opt for the services of professional link building agencies. Still, even with the link building outsourced, a basic understanding of the link building process is a must if you want to succeed in the modern digital environment.
3. Video Content Creation
These last few years have shaped how we consume social media content. TikTok has become one of the most widely used platforms. Along with YouTube, TikTok represents a powerhouse of today’s video content marketing. And with Twitter announcing the rebirth of Vine, this trend is set to continue in the following years.
Current trends indicate that short content is the best way of conveying your message to your target audience. As a society, we collectively have shorter attention spans than ever before, which is why storytelling is integral to video content marketing. The ability to present a product, service, or idea within only 5-10 seconds and without making it obvious will be a differentiating factor for success in the future.
Furthermore, video content marketing is great for reaching potential customers across different market segments. It is equally effective for both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) channels without additional expenses.
4. SEO
SEO has been an irreplaceable tool for digital marketers for several years now. Whether on-page optimization (activities on your own websites) or off-page optimization (activities on third-party websites), SEO must be an integral part of one’s marketing strategy.
In addition to taking care of website speed, re-directs, pop-ups appearing “below-the-fold”, images and headers, and making a site “mobile-first”, website owners need to get deeper into SEO analysis. They need to consider their menus, the time users spend on their page, inbound and outbound links, and the mediums they use to deliver the content.
Just letting Google know about your new article or business requires a deep understanding of social signals and citations. And, unless you can manage between 750 and 1,000 legitimate social media accounts across different platforms, you will need some help from specialized SEO agencies.
In conclusion, when it comes to SEO, there are some things you can and should do yourself, which is why learning about Search Engine Optimization is vital. Other, more complex issues should be outsourced to save time and money and get the best possible results.
5. Graphic Design
Humans are social beings, relying on aesthetics and design to attract attention, convey messages, and change opinions. All our social media platforms are based around this concept. This is why we use filters and photo manipulation software to make ourselves more attractive.
This same principle can be applied to our business environment. Creating engaging and aesthetically pleasing digital content and following the latest trends can increase the share rate of your posts and make you go “viral”. This is where graphic design comes into play.
Luckily, even if you are not a talented artist, you can take advantage of free online courses, AI-generated images, and stock photography websites to spice up your social media posts. However, it is worth noting that competition is very strong, so don’t rely heavily on your posts alone. Instead, always combine your social media strategy with other marketing tools.
6. Email Marketing
Email marketing is an important tool as it allows you to reach a large audience of potential customers cost-effectively and measurably. Using email marketing, you can send targeted messages to the selected audience from your email list. This helps you personalize the marketing experience for each recipient. It can benefit businesses that sell products or services that may appeal to different demographics or have a broader range of interests.
Additionally, email marketing allows you to build relationships with your customers. By sending relevant and valuable content to recipients from your email list, you can create a sense of loyalty and trust. This can be particularly useful if you rely on repeat customers to generate sales.
Email marketing also allows you to track and measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. You can receive instant replies, which enables you to continue conversations with leads while they are still interested. Furthermore, using email marketing software such as ConvertKit, you can see how many people opened your emails, clicked on links, and made purchases. You can use this data to optimize your future campaigns and ensure that marketing efforts are as effective as possible.
7. Social Media Management
With over 3.6 billion people using social media platforms worldwide, social media management has become an important marketing tool for businesses. Business owners can connect with a wide range of individuals who may be interested in their products or services, regardless of their physical location.
Using social media is crucial as it allows you to build relationships with your customers and engage with them in real-time. You can create a sense of community by regularly posting updates, responding to comments and messages, and interacting with your followers. This way, you can instigate customer loyalty, expand your client base, and drive sales.
Furthermore, with social media analytics tools, you can see how many people interact with your posts. You can see how many people are visiting your website due to your social media activity and how many sales or leads you are generating from social media. This data can be used to optimize future campaigns and ensure that marketing efforts are as effective as possible. Spending additional time optimizing your social media profile and interacting with your customers, can significantly boost your authority and help you build stronger relationships with your audience.
