Anshul Khandelwal

Blog Author

Digital marketing is becoming one of the most attractive career prospects. Why is that not surprising? Well, with the millions of potential consumers now connected to the internet, everyone is discovering new products & solutions online. What’s more important, consumers have become smart, and they get their research from bloggers or Youtube influencers before they buy that make-up kit or that mobile phone or even that tax saving insurance policy! Best Online Digital Marketing Courses Advanced Certificate in Brand Communication Management - MICA Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing and Communication - MICA Performance Marketing Bootcamp - Google Ads from upGrad To explore all our certification courses on Digital Marketing, kindly visit our page below. Digital Marketing Certification All this means, as a Digital Marketer, is that you need to know where your potential consumers are, how to best talk to them and how to establish an everlasting relationship once they come to your website or app. Digital Marketing is a blend of creativity, psychology and, what makes it unique from all other offline mediums, data. Anshul Khandelwal, ex-Head of Marketing at UpGrad, talks about the top 10 killer skills required to become an ace digital marketer who everyone wants to hire. Top Digital Marketing Skills Online Advertising Courses Influencer Marketing Programs SEO Optimisation Courses Performance Marketing Certification Search Engine Marketing Course Email Marketing Strategy Content Marketing Strategy Social Media Advertising Digital Marketing Analytics Website Analytics Online Display Advertising Best Affiliate Programs Watch this video or check out the cool infographic below to know more about Digital Marketing: 1. Understanding marketing fundamentals Now, this is an area which most digital marketers ignore. Understanding the marketing fundamentals means understanding the entire consumer decision journey. Understanding how a consumer thinks and buys a product. For example, the stages a consumer goes through while buying a product include awareness, consideration, and purchase. Across each of these stages, the consumer goes through a complex thought process. It’s important as a marketer to understand the consumer at each of these stages, which we like to call the funnel. 2. & 3. Acing advertising channels The first set of channels are the paid advertising channels. There are multiple paid advertising channels across the funnel: Facebook, Google, Remarketing, Email, Display, and many more buzzwords which you would have heard. The second set of channels are the organic channels, which are the free channels. SEO, Content, Social, PR. All these channels are channels which you need to master for you to get free traffic on your website. Digital Marketing Free courses to Learn Influencer marketing free course Introduction to advertising free course Influencer marketing right free course SEO basics free course SEM basics free course Email marketing free course Social media marketing introduction free course How to leverage user generated content free course Content marketing free course Fundamentals of marketing free course Brand marketing masterclass free course 4. Understanding channel strategy Now the next thing here is understanding the channel strategy. As a digital marketer you need to know which channels are expensive but at the same time will get you more results. While there must be some channels which are not expensive but give you the needed results, there might be some other channels which are really expensive but at the same time, they don’t have any ROI. So these are the 3-4 pillars you need to understand for you to make a robust digital marketing strategy. If you want to go from a digital marketer to digital head, this is the most important skill required. upGrad’s Exclusive Digital Marketing Webinar for you – Webinar with Q&A Session on Digital Marketing document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/kapil-panchal-alumni-talk-about-careers-in-dm.mp4   5. Communication Communication is the X Factor in your digital marketing journey. You need to be an awesome communicator to become an awesome digital marketer. Let’s take an example here of Nike. What do you see on Nike hoardings when you go out? It’ll shout out loud, saying ‘Just Do It’. What do you see advertised on the Internet? They will advertise their content. They’ll advertise fitness. They will evangelize running. What do you see when you go to the Nike stores? The most comfortable soles ever made. You see the difference here? Top of the funnel Nike talks about Just Doing It. Mid-funnel they talk about athleticism, fitness. Bottom of the funnel they talk about the actual product. This is how you need to think as a digital marketer. Different communication layers at different levels of the consumer journey. 6. Data Data is the biggest tool in your arsenal on your journey to becoming a digital marketer. First off, you need to understand where your data lies – there are multiple sources where your data will reside. It will reside in your Google Analytics. It will reside in CRM. It will reside with the sales team. There are many places where your data is being distributed and is present. As a marketer, you need to know where is the data which you’re looking for. Secondly, what data are you looking for? You need to be sure of the matrices you want to track and the points you want to capture. And number 3, once you get this data, the biggest thing of all is knowing how to analyze this data. What are the insights you derive from this data? 7. Technical skills This is an area where most marketers struggle. For every small thing, you need to go back to your Engineering and Technology teams. For example, if you need to make a landing page you will have to go back to your designer to make the design of the page, to your front-end developer to make the HTML of the page, and to the engineering manager to develop the back-end for the page. Now, if you are dependent on all these teams, it will take a lot of time for you to deliver a project. Hence, it’s important that you become self-dependent and learn basic technical skills such as CSF, HTML WordPress, SQL, etc., and it will take you a long way in your digital marketing journey. 8. Product marketing When you read product marketing, you probably thought that this is not what digital marketing is all about, right? But think about it, what are you marketing at the end of the day? You are marketing a product. Hence it’s important that you understand the packaging of the product and the communication around the product as well. You need to understand the four ‘P’s of marketing which are related to the product, which are the product features, price, place and promotion. If, as a digital marketer, you understand the product this well, it’ll really help you in making your campaign successful and outlast the other marketers. 9. Project management Again, you would have heard project management is not a skill I need as a marketer. Have you ever thought how much time it takes for you to interact with your peers, conduct meetings, getting things done, getting all the operational stuff done when you are launching a campaign or running a campaign? It’s important that you understand the basics of project management, set your priorities right, know how to use your time, know how to interact with people, and get the most out of it. As a marketer, this would be another tool in your kit. Popular Digital Marketing Blogs Beginners Guide to YouTube Marketing : Complete List How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel? Top 5 Actionable Steps The Complete Guide on setting up a LinkedIn Company Page Everything You Need To Know About Digital Marketing A Complete Guide to Digital Marketing Strategy: What it is and How to create it? Digital Marketing Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide To Become an Expert Future of Digital Marketing: How It Goes From Here Importance of Digital Marketing: Top 10 Reasons Your Business Needs it Digital Marketing Challenges: How to Win Amidst the Challenges in Digital Marketing 10. (Bonus) Experimentation and passion As a digital marketer, you need to be really curious. You need to do a lot of experiments and you need to be very passionate about digital marketing. Digital marketing changes so much in no time that you need to make sure that you learn everything and keep learning. Hence, you need to be really passionate about it, you need to keep learning newer channels as they come. Plus, you need to really experiment with a whole lot of things, keep experimenting, keep doing things, and keep learning from them, but with control. You can also check out Digital Marketing Course from IIT Delhi. IIT Delhi is one of the top institutes in India and also one of the oldest IIT’s and is always excelled in giving highly industry-relevant courses, Now IIT Delhi has partnered with upGrad to get these top IIT Delhi courses online. They have a variety of other programs like Machine Learning, Executive Management Programme in Strategic Innovation, Digital Marketing and Business Analytics etc. Featured Programs for you – Advanced Certificate in Digital Branding & Advertising from MICA

Modern day marketing sits at the intersection of marketing, data, technology and product. One needs to be as much of a nerd as a marketer to succeed in the changing marketing landscape, which needs a cross-functional, integrated approach to drive results. With the lines between these areas blurring rapidly, technology has become a necessary evil that every digital marketer needs to learn about and adapt to or face the risk of becoming obsolete soon. It’s the time of “Marketeering” – Marketing + Engineering. You should be able to do to call yourself a digital marketing tech ninja to succeed. Learn more: Digital Marketing Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide To Become an Expert Here is a checklist of 17 digital marketing skills, across various functions of online marketing: 1) How to use inspect element and change the HTML content on the page Yes, that’s the bare minimum. Learn how to use it and see the magic in real time on your HTML pages. Useful for: A/B testing, Web Analytics, Conversion Rate Optimization and your ego. Resources: Zapier: Inspect Element Tutorial Google Chrome Devtools: Inspect Styles 2) Learn how to compress and resize images Don’t be a ‘noob’ and sabotage your site speed with over-sized, pixelated or ill-formatted images. You do not need your engineers to do it for you, nor do you need your designers. DIY. Useful for: Creative Development, Blogs, Site Speed, Social and your time. Resource: Portent Blog: Ultimate Site Speed guide for novice Tools: Jpeg Optimizer 3) Install, configure and implement WordPress themes and plugins If you can’t manage your CMS and play around with it on your own, then it’s time you do. That right sidebar, which is ugly and needs to be replaced, and the email subscription box you want at the bottom; it’s all just a few minutes away. Take charge and learn the basics! Useful for: Content Management, CRO and to feel good Resource: Shoutmeloud: Beginners WordPress guide Top Google AdWords Interview Questions and Answers 4) Learn how to create SEO friendly URLs, canonicals and no follows URLs are not only important for the search bots to understand the content and structure of your website but equally important for your customer experience. Yes, you should bother about the URLs and be able to brief your tech teams on it. But before that, you should learn how it works. Useful for: SEO, User Experience and your self-esteem. Resources: Search Engine Journal:  Five steps to SEO friendly site url structure Quick Sprout: Data driven answers to URL structure 5) Run a simple SQL query on your database If you can’t run a select * from X order, by group, by limit query, to extract real time data from your master database, then its time you got your hands dirty on the SQL workbench and wait for a pat on the back. Useful for: Data Analysis, Performance optimization and some swag. Resource: Full stack marketing blog: How and why to learn SQL 6) Know the difference between HTML, CSS & JavaScript and how they work together Calm down. All you need to know is the difference. But if you are one of those with an itch – learn them too. All I’m recommending you to do is understand the difference between these, what they mean and how it will impact your work. Useful for: Web Design and to save yourself some embarrassment. Resource: Wiki: HTML, CSS & JavaScript guide for beginners 7) How to create and edit a short video? Here you go, something interesting to do. Video-viewing or watching is on the rise and there is no question about it. The problem, however, is – how do I make a video? And 99 other questions around it! Learn how to create a short video, edit a few frames/text, sit back and see the magic. Useful for: Creative development, Social Media and for fun. Resources: Buffer: Video tools guide Tools: Wevideo 8) Learn how to use regular expressions Marketing needs data. Data needs to be captured, processed and accessed. You need to identify patterns to capture, access and segment data from databases/URLs/pages. It is highly recommended that you learn how to write regular expressions and save the time and effort to get it done from the designated ‘nerd’. Useful for: Web Analytics, Data Segmentation and coolness quotient. Resource: Zytrax Blog: Understanding Regular Expressions 9) Implement conversion pixels in Google Tag Manager Every digital marketer has faced the ‘pixel’ issue or dependence on the tech team to place your conversion pixels across pages for every affiliate, tool or platform you work with. It is frustrating to wait for that ONE pixel to be put up when you are itching to start campaigns. What could be better than to be able to do it on your own without any help! Learn how to implement conversion pixels in google analytics, or any other tag container you use. You might need some understanding of html and JavaScript prior to this. Useful for: Web Analytics and to put an end to the never-ending wait. Resources: I Pull Rank: Complete guide to Google Tag Manager Google Developers: Tag Manager Guide 10) Difference between Title, Description, H1 and Meta tags on a page The ‘ABC’ of on-page SEO and yes, you should know it. Be the curious marketing nerd and click ‘view source’ on every awesome page you come across and learn how to read it. For god’s sake – do not use ‘heading’ instead of ‘title,’ and don’t give the ‘not-my-job’ look when your SEO agency talks about fixing the H1s, H2s and the meta tags. Useful for: SEO and your credibility. Resource: Neil Patel: SEO cheat sheet 20 On-Page and Off-Page SEO Techniques: A Checklist 11) Learn to create a basic form in one programming language There are times when you need to add a basic form to a page and you struggle to even understand the fundamentals of it. Pick up a language, learn how to write “hello world” and then learn to create a basic input form. You might need some help from your ‘techie’ friend, but it’s worth the ask. Useful for: Web Design and your curiosity. Resource: Mozilla Developers: Web guiders HTML forms 12) Design a small wireframe in Photoshop or sketch Immensely useful in briefing your web designers to create that perfect UI or an amazing user experience. UI/UX is one of the most important parts of building a great digital experience and digital marketing ninjas should know the basics. Useful for: UI/UX, Customer Experience and for the designer in you. Resource: Tutsplus Web design: Wireframing with Sketch 13) Code a small macro in excel Data is the best friend of a marketer and the nemesis too. Pivots, Table and Lookups are the basics and I hope you are proficient in it. How about creating some cool tools in excel which save you a hell of a lot of time and automate tasks for you? Cool, eh? Go ahead. Try and program a simple macro in excel and see the magic unfold. Useful for: Data Analysis, Automation and your left brain. Resource: Analysis Tabs: Excel VBA for beginners 14) Know the difference between UI and UX As a modern-day digital marketer, you need to understand and appreciate the difference between UI and UX. They are different skills and functions and have a specific role to play in creating a superlative customer experience. Don’t be ignorant, understand the nuances. Useful for: Designing great customer experiences and general knowledge. Resources: Career Foundry Blog: Difference between UX & UI layman’s guide User Testing Blog: Difference between UI & UX 15) Create and edit screen captures & GIFs This is a must to know. Learning how to create, edit and manage on screen captures for images and videos can help you in all pieces of content making. Using GIFs can enhance your content viewing experience. Useful for: Enhancing visual content with a creative spin. Tools: Tiny Take Free Gif Maker upGrad’s Exclusive Digital Marketing Webinar for you – Webinar with Q&A Session on Digital Marketing document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/kapil-panchal-alumni-talk-about-careers-in-dm.mp4   16) Configure an experiment in an A/B testing tool Running your own A/B tests, configuring the experiment and setting up variables for tracking is again one of the must-know digital marketing skills. Do not rely on your product teams to run the experiments for you. Useful for: Conversion Rate Optimization and instant results. Resources: Search Engine Journal: 14 CRO Tools every expert needs Tools: Zarget: Advanced CRO & A/B Testing tool Snapchat Vs. Instagram Stories: Which One’s For You? Best Online Digital Marketing Courses Advanced Certificate in Brand Communication Management - MICA Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing and Communication - MICA Performance Marketing Bootcamp - Google Ads from upGrad To explore all our certification courses on Digital Marketing, kindly visit our page below. Digital Marketing Certification 17) Bypass CSS, HTML with Short Codes! Trying to format your blogs to the next level, with tables, buttons, iframes and CSS without knowing how to code? Shortcodes provide a quick customizable guide to enable CSS HTML codes with the touch of a button without any major coding! Useful for: Blog formatting, packaging & becoming tech independent!  Resources: Shortcode Ultimate: Complete collection of most used Shortcodes Top Digital Marketing Skills Online Advertising Courses Influencer Marketing Programs SEO Optimisation Courses Performance Marketing Certification Search Engine Marketing Course Email Marketing Strategy Content Marketing Strategy Social Media Advertising Digital Marketing Analytics Website Analytics Online Display Advertising Best Affiliate Programs BONUS for the curious and nerdy bunch: Program a small marketing tool on your own (Idea: Code a customized campaign optimizer) Run a usability test with the UX team Shadow a product manager for a week Attend the weekly tech team sprints I hope these prove to be useful to all you new-age marketing geeks out there. Very few can claim that they have checked off all these 17 digital marketing skills of their list, but in case you are one of those perfectionists – congratulations, you are reasonably future ready! However, always know that being complacent is the death of a marketer in this digital world. There will always be new things to learn, almost every day. So, stay curious. Let us know how many of the above digital marketing skills you are already equipped with! If you want to get your hands-on digital marketing, check out Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing & Communication.  Digital Marketing Free courses to Learn Influencer marketing free course Introduction to advertising free course Influencer marketing right free course SEO basics free course SEM basics free course Email marketing free course Social media marketing introduction free course How to leverage user generated content free course Content marketing free course Fundamentals of marketing free course Brand marketing masterclass free course Popular Digital Marketing Blogs Beginners Guide to YouTube Marketing : Complete List How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel? Top 5 Actionable Steps The Complete Guide on setting up a LinkedIn Company Page Everything You Need To Know About Digital Marketing A Complete Guide to Digital Marketing Strategy: What it is and How to create it? Digital Marketing Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide To Become an Expert Future of Digital Marketing: How It Goes From Here Importance of Digital Marketing: Top 10 Reasons Your Business Needs it Digital Marketing Challenges: How to Win Amidst the Challenges in Digital Marketing

Digital is no more just a buzzword. Digital marketing sits at the center of the marketing strategy for every company. So, if you are wondering if digital is the right career option for you, then you’ve come to the right place. We are going to discuss various digital marketing jobs; whether digital marketing is the right career choice for you, and how you can become a great digital marketer. Before we talk about the various digital marketing jobs, let’s figure out if digital marketing is really for you. If you are a data junkie, a hardcore techie, a storyteller, or even an entrepreneur, digital marketing is definitely for you. So, who are the people who are moving into digital marketing jobs? IT professionals who want to use their technical and data skills in the function of marketing. Sales and marketing professionals who have already been in traditional marketing for a while and now want to move into digital. Students who are trying to start their career. Business owners or entrepreneurs who want to scale their businesses and take it online. Now let’s move on to these dream digital marketing jobs that everybody keeps talking about: 1. Performance Marketer The performance marketer is the guy who is responsible for spending all your money. Performance Marketer is the guy who’s going to buy media, run and optimize campaigns, analyze data, and get you your revenue. He is the one who is responsible for running campaigns on Facebook, Google, remarketing, email, and all the various digital platforms, and finally generate ROI for the brand. The job of a performance marketer involves a lot of data crunching. So, if you think you are good with numbers and have a sense of adventure for trying out new marketing channels, then performance marketing is your cup of tea. The job of a performance marketer involves a lot of data crunching. So, if you think you are good with numbers and have a sense of adventure for trying out new marketing channels, then performance marketing is your cup of tea. 2. Social Media Manager A social media manager’s role is to help the brand communicate with its customers across various social media channels. His role involves building and managing the engaged community for the brand. Note that the social media channels relevant to your brand may be different. It might be LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram or any other social media channel. The channel does not matter, the storytelling matters. So if you are a great storyteller, a right-brained person, and an internet junkie, the social media manager’s role is the right option for you. 3. SEO and Content Marketing These days SEO and content marketing go hand in hand and that’s why we have clubbed these two roles. Let’s talk about an SEO expert. The role of an SEO expert is to ultimately generate organic traffic for the brand by using On-page and Off-page SEO techniques, and through content marketing. On the other hand, the role of a content marketer is to strategize content for the brand which is relevant for consumers across the funnel and ultimately generate organic traffic for the brand. SEO experts and content marketers need to work hand in hand. So, if you have a knack for data, tech, and content put together, this is the right option for you. 20 On-Page and Off-Page SEO Techniques: A Checklist 4. Marketing Tech and Automation Technology is becoming an integral part of marketing today. The role of marketing tech and automation manager is to basically take care of all things tech. All marketing operations related to technology like making landing pages, website, taking care of marketing tools, etc., is the job of marketing tech and automation manager. He is also responsible for automating all the customer communication flows across the funnel. Right from lead nurturing, email marketing, conversion rate, optimization, etc. His job is to basically make marketing more efficient. So, if you like both tech and marketing, then this is the role for you. Best Digital Marketing Courses Online Advanced Certificate in Brand Communication Management - MICA Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing and Communication - MICA Performance Marketing Bootcamp - Google Ads from upGrad To Explore all our courses, visit our page below. Digital Marketing Courses 5. Marketing Analyst In companies where there is a huge amount of data available and generated, marketing analytics is becoming a specialized function. The role of a marketing analyst is to capture, mine, and analyze data and generate meaningful insights from it and then pass it on to the business and marketing functions. So, if you are a data analyst and you have a passion for marketing, the marketing analyst role is the right option for you. 10 Killer Digital Marketing Skills You Must Have In-demand Digital Marketing Skills Advertising Courses Influencer Marketing Courses SEO Courses Performance Marketing Courses SEM Courses Email Marketing Courses Content Marketing Courses Social Media Marketing Courses Marketing Analytics Courses Web Analytics Courses Display Advertising Courses Affiliate Marketing Courses 6. Digital Communication As brands and businesses are communicating more and more digitally, the demand for copywriters and designers is increasing by the day. If you have a knack for writing or designing, you can choose this as your career option within a digital marketing team. These are the most popular digital marketing jobs. You can either become a specialist vertically, where you need to develop expertise in one of the specific channels, or you can become a generalist where you need to build your skills horizontally. Or, you can become a ‘t-shaped marketer,’ where you build your skills horizontally and have one in-depth skill as well. These are the three options for you to progress your career in digital marketing. Good luck! Digital Marketing Free courses to Learn Influencer marketing free course Introduction to advertising free course Influencer marketing right free course SEO basics free course SEM basics free course Email marketing free course Social media marketing introduction free course How to leverage user generated content free course Content marketing free course Fundamentals of marketing free course Brand marketing masterclass free course upGrad’s Exclusive Digital Marketing Webinar for you – What’s new in Marketing? document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/rumi-ambastha.mp4 Popular Digital Marketing Blogs Beginners Guide to YouTube Marketing : Complete List How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel? Top 5 Actionable Steps The Complete Guide on setting up a LinkedIn Company Page Everything You Need To Know About Digital Marketing A Complete Guide to Digital Marketing Strategy: What it is and How to create it? Digital Marketing Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide To Become an Expert Future of Digital Marketing: How It Goes From Here Importance of Digital Marketing: Top 10 Reasons Your Business Needs it Digital Marketing Challenges: How to Win Amidst the Challenges in Digital Marketing