As a digital marketer, you need to constantly evolve your skills and become more competitive. Year 2021 is witnessing a sea of changes in the digital marketing sphere. There are new techniques in the block.
Moreover, the traditional strategies are transforming in approach. Experts in the field of digital marketing have to become even more innovative in order to implement effective solutions.
Making a brand more visible in the digital arena, pulling more traffic, improving the engagement rate – all these and more are possible only when you apply a set of well-balanced digital marketing skills pertinently. Here is a short list of 10 such skills that you require in 2021.
Video SEO
With the advent of video marketing on social media, the importance of video seo is continuously on the rise. As a digital marketer, it is imperative to optimize the videos on various social media platforms, especially on YouTube.
The fundamental requirement is creating a high-quality video. It means the editing needs to be flawless. The pixel count should be in place. There should be a balanced resolution. Overall, the content must provide value to your target audience.
Next, the title and short description of the video should be keyword-optimized. A description of more than 200 words is highly recommended. The video tags should also be relevant to the particular topic.
Creating backlinks
Creating backlinks is an eternal skill and it never gets old. You have to rigorously focus on this aspect of off-page SEO, which improves the credibility of a website or web platform for Google search engine algorithms.
Never try to buy backlinks. This can ruin the reputation of the site with heavy penalties from Google. Try to create fewer high-quality backlinks. Aim to get backlinks from sites that have high domain authorities, preferably more than 60.
Networking with media personalities is crucial in this context. You can also include guest posts from popular, reputed writers or experts in specific domains.
An effective way of creating good-quality backlinks is writing articles on Medium, apparently a blogging platform that you can use free of cost. Write on Medium and use the content to link back to the target site. Try to include at least one image or video within the body of the content.
On-page SEO
Just like creating quality backlinks with White-Hat techniques, you can never ignore the immense significance of proper on-page SEO. It doesn’t matter if the year is 2021 or 2031, the relevance of crisp, to-the-point, well-planned and organized on-page SEO is never going to decrease.
Although a traditional skill, yet, you have to dedicatedly hone it, as far as the task of making a target website more searchable is concerned. Meta title, Meta description and Meta tags – you have to keep everything intact in order to improve the page quality. Knowing the basics of HTML5 and CSS3 is always helpful.
You also have to be fairly expert at tools that let you audit the overall quality of internal links of the site. This helps you considerably in optimizing the platform, making it more competitive in the ever-expanding and ever-cluttered digital space. Moreover, as a top digital marketer, you have to continuously update the web content.
Facebook Ads
No individual can ignore the tremendous impact of Facebook on lifestyle, especially when it is about buying a product or service. Facebook Ads are strong instruments that create brand awareness, target appropriate audiences and remarkably improve conversion rate.
In 2021, it is very important to develop skills in creating and running Facebook Ads for a wide range of niches. You should be aware of the Facebook Ad Platform and its various features. You can ask for help from a mentor or join a Facebook group / forum in order to know informative details about handling Facebook Ads for different businesses.
Keep in mind that there are multiple types of Facebook Ads – image ads, poll ads, slideshow ads, etc. You have to be well-versed in each of these in order to implement effective solutions for your client. Besides, it is equally important to know the basics of handling Facebook Analytics.
Pinterest Ads
Pinterest is a hugely popular social media platform, which is, for some unknown reason, not talked about as much as Facebook and Instagram. It is, in fact, a terrific platform to create strong brand awareness and add more value to the consumer journey. As an evolving digital marketer in 2021, you must aim to learn the nitty-gritty of Pinterest ads to add more ammunition to your repertoire.
From Promoted Pins to Promoted Carousels, there are distinct varieties of ads on Pinterest. The nature of the ad depends on the niche and brand position of the company. You should also gain knowledge about Pinterest analytics to better read the relevant metrics.
Creating long-form content
Recent studies and research initiatives have revealed that long-form informative content is the key to pull traffic to a website’s blog. Gone are those days when it was considered a 300-word or a 500-word article is more than enough to attract traffic. It is 2021. Now, you have to focus on creating high-quality, crisp long-form content in order to get attention from Google page crawlers.
Try to keep the content around 2000 words. This is said to be an optimal length for a solid, detailed long-form content, which makes search engines happy. Moreover, in order to comply with the EAT principle of Google (Expertise – Authoritativeness – Truthfulness), you have to consistently belt out fresh long-form content articles, complying with user intent.
Remember to include infographics, relevant images and video clips in your content to make it more engaging. This is crucial to keep the target audience more involved. Moreover, the ploy is effective to reduce the bounce rate of a website.
It is important to remain regular in creating long-form content articles for a platform. In most cases, it is a blog. Gradually, you would witness a whopping rise in traffic volume.
Image Optimization
Optimizing website or web platform content does not only involve textual content or video content. It also involves optimizing the image/s on the site, especially in 2021. Image optimization is a vital digital marketing skill that is mandatory to master in 2021 as an insightful digital marketer.
Resizing the image is a crucial step. This is also effective in increasing the loading speed of the website. Also, it is equally important to upload the right image file format. Top 4 types of image formats are JPG, GIF, PNG and SVG. You have to choose according to the objectives of the website.
If the site is in WordPress, then you can utilize the power of plugins such as Yoast or WP Smush to correctly optimize the images. For sites built with other frameworks, there are relevant tools available in the market.
Always try to use original images or images that don’t have any copyright issues. Ensure the title and Meta description of the images nicely blend with each other and also comply with the website theme / main topic. In some cases, you might need to add an ALT text for a specific image to improve the level of optimization.
Optimizing voice search
2021 is witnessing an increased volume of voice searches. People across the globe are using voices to search about a particular topic. Evidently, you have to acquire skills that let you nicely optimize the voice search metrics related to a group of target keywords, relevant for a business.
You have to apply voice SEO based on context, following guidelines of Google. For example, WALES is a country and WHALES means plural of the sea animal whale. It is hugely important to focus diligently on ‘conversational long-tail keywords’. Moreover, creating high-quality content which is ‘persona-based’ is extremely crucial.
Optimizing Instagram Reels
Instagram reels, in 2021, are more important than ever. They are, in fact, terrific tools to quickly spike up the interest of the target audience about a product, event, personality, place or announcement. Data reveals that Instagram Reels are very effective in increasing both the number of followers and engagement rate.
Optimizing Instagram Reels is a prime skill that you should develop. The basic requirement is creation of original content. The visual should be clear and preferably, simple. Try to grasp a trend if possible. Moreover, you must optimize the text you place on-screen. Inclusion of relevant hashtags is important, too.
Creating data visualizations
Many digital marketers neglect the power of data visualizations. In 2021, it is a gross mistake. Try to develop and improve on data visualization skills as a smart digital marketer.
For example, you must learn to connect Google Analytics credentials with Google Data Studio. Google Data Studio provides you ample flexibility to create simple, attractive and efficient dashboards that help in clear data visualizations without any hassles.
By applying this skill, you move ahead of your peers in terms of locating the KPIs and identifying areas of improvement for a business.
Start working
Pick up any skills from the above list and start working on it. Gradually, focus on other skills from the list. By the end of 2021, you would become a highly sought-after digital marketer.
