Top 10 Digital Marketing Skills You Need to Master in 2024

If you are looking for high-income skills, digital marketing is an excellent career option.

Do you want to learn the digital marketing skills you need to increase your income and build your brand? You are in the right place.

The global digital marketing market reached a value of approximately $303 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach a value of approximately $805 billion by 2026. (Source: Expert Market Research)

Almost every offline business wants to get into online marketing to promote their products and reach more customers.

There is huge scope for digital marketing in the future. That’s why it’s essential to learn and master key digital marketing skills to help other businesses succeed.

So let’s talk about the skills required for digital marketing in 2024.

10 Must-Have Digital Marketing Skills to Earn More In 2024

1. Email Marketing 

Email marketing is the most effective way to reach customers.

Why? Because everyone reads email. In fact, email ROI is an impressive $40 for every $1 spent.

Email marketing allows you to send HIGHLY targeted messages to a ton of people at once.

It’s also an affordable way to reach your target audience. With email marketing, you can segment your email lists so that you only send messages to those who are interested in what you have to offer.

Above all, it allows you to track your email newsletters and campaigns so that you can see how many people opened your emails and how many people clicked on the links in your emails.

If you’re not learning this essential digital marketing skill to promote your business, you’re missing out on a powerful tool that can help you get better results.

Best blogs to follow to learn email marketing:

• GetResponse blog
• Litmus blog
• MarketingProfs

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

SEO is the BEST way to increase traffic, organic visibility, and sales to any business or website. If you’re good at SEO, you can earn thousands of dollars every month.

Did you know that 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine?

Also, 92.96% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps.

That’s why SEO is one of the essential digital marketing skills to learn and practice as a marketer.

SEO involves both on-page and off-page techniques. On-page techniques include optimizing website content for keywords, while off-page techniques include link-building and social media engagement. Having SEO skills is a must.

That being said, it is important to remember that SEO is a long-term strategy, and results are not always immediate. So if you’re planning to offer SEO services or improve your own search traffic, prepare for a long-term game. 

A few more important SEO elements include

• Keyword research
• Website audits
• Optimizing website content by adding relevant keywords
• Improving site structure, and more

Best blogs to follow to learn SEO:

• Search Engine Journal
• Semrush Blog
• BloggersPassion

3. Video Marketing

Video marketing is on the rise.

Video marketing platforms like YouTube have more than 2.6 billion monthly active users across the world.

Video marketing allows you to showcase your products or services in a way that is engaging and visually appealing. It also allows you to reach a wider audience across the world.

Besides that, videos can help you easily build trust with potential customers and promote your brand or business. 

As a digital marketer, if you want to promote a business through word-of-mouth advertising, video marketing is an essential skill to learn as videos can be easily shared online.

Best blogs to follow to learn video marketing:

Read: YouTube Statistics Marketers Can’t Afford to Ignore in 2024

4. Social Network Marketing

Social media marketing is not just about posting random stuff on Instagram or Facebook.

You should learn how to;

• Create engagement with users
• Write persuasive social media posts
• Create appealing visuals
• Use ads
• Analyze the reach of your social media posts and more

You also need to learn how algorithms work on various social media networks like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc – so you can learn how to generate better user engagement.

Best blogs to follow to learn social network marketing:

• Social Media Examiner
• Buffer blog
• HubSpot

5. Writing 

Writing is one of the most important digital marketing skills that can be difficult to master.

For many people, the hardest part of writing is getting started. Most people just keep looking at their laptop or PC monitor. The key to getting better at writing is to practice a lot.

Yes, it takes time and practice to develop strong writing skills.

Fortunately, there are plenty of resources available, including books, online courses, and software programs, to help you improve your writing skills. Anyone can learn to write well with a little effort.

That being said, here are some essential writing tips you can try.

• Firstly, come up with an idea or topic to write about. You can use keyword tools or platforms like Quora to come up with topics.
• Once you have a general idea of what you want to say, start freewriting. Freewriting is when you write down whatever comes to mind without stopping to edit or revise. 
• Researching the topic also helps a lot. Find out top-ranking websites for the topic you want to write about. Create an outline and start freewriting. 
• Once you’re done with the writing part, you can start proofreading your content to fix grammar issues. You can use tools like Grammarly to edit your writing.
• Read the content marketing blogs to learn to create engaging content.

If you’re still finding it hard to master writing skills, you can try an AI writing assistant like Jasper AI.

It offers a wide range of copywriting templates to create better content.

Have a look at the templates it offers;

Read our Jasper AI review to find out more about its features and tutorials. 

Jasper offers the following two pricing plans.

1. The Creator plan starts at $39 per month and it is suitable for those who want to create short-form content such as descriptions, headlines, social media captions, etc.
2. The Teams plan starts at $99 per month and it is perfect for everyone who wants to create long-form content including product reviews, blog posts, case studies, stories, and more.

You can always try Jasper 7 days of free trial without any worry.

Apart from these two plans, Jasper also offers a Business plan that offers custom pricing based on your content needs where you can create unlimited content. 

Best blogs to follow to learn writing or copywriting:

6. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

“A website without conversion rate optimization is like a car without wheels – it won’t get you anywhere.” -Jeremy Abel

Most online businesses live or die based on their conversion rates.

It doesn’t matter how much traffic you get, if your website visitors don’t convert – you will fail miserably.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is one of the digital marketing key skills. This is the practice of improving the percentage of visitors to a website who take action such as purchasing a product, following on Twitter, or subscribing to a newsletter.

CRO is essential for any online business. If you want to focus on improving sales and conversions of a website or business – you need to master conversion rate optimization skills.

Some of the most effective CRO techniques include:

• Creating compelling content
• Simplifying the checkout process
• Offering customer incentives to increase sales
• Showing social proof for better conversions and the list goes on

Here are some of the important things in CRO:

By constantly testing and experimenting with different approaches, businesses can gradually improve their conversion rates. To be successful in CRO, you need to constantly try new things, analyze your competitors, and be creative.

Best blogs to follow to learn conversion rate optimization:

7. Blogging

Hands down, blogging skills are essential to succeed as a digital marketer. 

Did you know that 66% of businesses spend around $1000 to $2000 per month for content creation?

Blogging is an excellent digital marketing skill to learn. Why? Because most small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) manage blogs.

So if you are good at blogging, you will have an added advantage.

If you don’t have one yet, start a blog today. Having your blog helps you with many things including;

• Writing
• Networking
• Basic coding skills such as CSS, HTML, etc
• Promotion, and so on

Best blogs to follow to learn blogging:

• BloggersPassion
• Problogger
• Authority Hacker

In case you’re looking for a budget-friendly option to start your blog, try Bluehost.

Bluehost costs just $35 per year and offers excellent hosting features including a free domain. Here’s a quick tutorial for launching a blog with Bluehost.

To get started, click on this link to visit Bluehost.

Once you’re on the Bluehost website, visit their pricing plans.

Here’s what it looks like;

As you can see above, Bluehost offers the following three pricing plans in shared hosting.

1. Basic: This is the cheapest hosting plan from Bluehost which costs you just $2.95 per month. With this plan, you’ll get the following features.

• Install 1 website
• 10 GB storage
• Free SSL
• Free Domain
• 100 MB per account email storage 

2. Plus: This plan offers unlimited site hosting and costs you $5.45 per month where you’ll get the following features.

• Install unlimited sites
• 20 GB of storage space
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Free SSL
• Free domain or 1 year
• Unlimited emails with unlimited storage
• 1 Spam Experts

3. Choice Plus: This is the BEST shared hosting plan from Bluehost which costs you $5.45 per month where you’ll get the following things.

• Install unlimited sites
• 40 GB of storage space
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Free SSL
• Free domain or 1 year
• Unlimited emails with unlimited storage
• 1 SpamExperts
• 1 free domain privacy
• Free backup from CodeGuard

If you’re on a tight budget, go with their Basic plan which costs just $35.40 for 1 year with a free domain.

Have a look;

So there you go. That’s how you can use Bluehost to start your website for just $35 a year.

8. Teamwork Skills

The ability to work effectively with others is an important digital marketing skill.

As a digital marketer, you’ll often work with a team, customers, and business owners. Therefore you need teamwork skills.

There are a ton of reasons to build teamwork skills including:

• Firstly, when people work together towards a common goal, they can share their expertise and brainstorm ideas more effectively than if they were working alone. 
• Secondly, team members can support and motivate each other, which can lead to better performance and productivity. 
• Finally, working in a team can help to develop new skills as team members learn from each other.

Best blogs to follow to learn teamwork skills:

• Trello Teamwork blog
• BlueJeans blog by Verizon

9. Paid Ads

Most businesses rely on paid advertising to increase their sales, build their audience, gather leads, etc. That’s why you need digital marketing knowledge in paid ads.

People and businesses spend money on different paid ads including:

• Google and Bing ads
• Instagram ads
• Twitter ads
• Facebook ads
• LinkedIn ads 
• Quora ads and more

Find out how the ads work on major platforms so you can learn the art of capturing people’s attention with paid ads.

There are a wide range of benefits of paid advertising including;

• Paid ads are a guaranteed way to reach a new audience 
• They help you instantly get more traffic to your website, app, or product
• Helps with brand promotion 
• Consistent leads if your ads are highly-effective
• You can test with paid ads to quickly identify the needs of your target audience

Best blogs to learn paid advertising:

• HubSpot
• WordStream
• Sprout Social

10. Personal Branding

There are millions of people out there providing various digital marketing services.

What sets you apart from them? personal branding.

Undoubtedly, personal branding is one of the key skills of digital marketing.

If you want to be successful as an online marketer, you have to create a brand for yourself.

Be sure to use platforms like LinkedIn, Medium, and Quora to create useful content to build your brand online. These 3 platforms are essential for all marketers to build an audience from the start.

You can also create your branding through social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and personal websites.

What is the primary goal of personal branding? This is meant to make a long-lasting impression and stand out from the competition. So it’s important to be strategic and think about what type of image you want to create as a digital marketer.

Ask yourself questions like;

• What kind of branding do you want to build?
• What do you want people to remember about you? 
• How can you stay unique from others?

Answering these questions can help you create a personal brand that is unique and authentic in the long run. 

Best blogs to learn paid advertising:

• Thinkific
• Influencer Marketing Hub
• Entrepreneur.com 

FAQs

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is the use of online channels like websites, search engines, social media, email, and mobile apps to promote products, services, or brands. It’s more than just creating videos, blogs, and podcasts. It’s about understanding how people use these channels and using them strategically to reach your target audience.

What are the types of digital marketing?

There are many different types of digital marketing, each with its focus and strategies. Some of the most common include:

• Search engine optimization (SEO): This involves optimizing your website and online content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords.
• Email marketing: This involves sending targeted emails to a list of subscribers to promote your products, services, or content.
• Content marketing: This involves creating and sharing valuable content (e.g., blog posts, infographics, videos) to attract and engage your target audience.
• Social media marketing: This involves using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to connect with your audience, build brand awareness, and drive traffic to your website.
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: This involves running ads on search engines, social media platforms, and other websites, where you pay only when someone clicks on your ad.
• Affiliate marketing: This involves promoting other people’s products or services and earning a commission for each sale you generate.

What are the best free courses on digital marketing?

There are many great free and paid courses available online to learn digital marketing. Some popular options include:

• Google Digital Garage: This platform offers a variety of free courses on various digital marketing topics.
• HubSpot Academy: This website offers free courses on inbound marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and more.
• Coursera: This platform offers both free and paid courses from top universities and companies.
• Udemy: This platform offers a wide range of digital marketing courses, both free and paid.

What skills are required for digital marketing?

A successful digital marketer needs a blend of hard and soft skills. Some of the most important skills include:

• Analytical thinking: You need to be able to track and analyze data to understand what’s working and what’s not in your digital marketing campaigns.
• Creativity: You need to be able to come up with engaging content and campaigns that will capture your audience’s attention.
• Communication: You need to be able to write clearly and concisely, and you need to be able to communicate effectively with different audiences.
• Technical skills: You don’t need to be a programmer, but you should have a basic understanding of how websites, social media platforms, and email marketing work.
• Problem-solving: You need to be able to identify and solve problems quickly and efficiently.
• Adaptability: The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing, so you need to be able to adapt your skills and strategies accordingly.

How can I become a digital marketer?

There are many ways to get started in digital marketing. Here are a few tips:

• Start your blog or website: This is a great way to gain experience with writing, SEO, and social media marketing.
• Take online courses: There are many great free and paid courses available to learn the basics of digital marketing.
• Get an internship: This is a great way to gain hands-on experience in the industry.
• Network with other digital marketers: Attend industry events, join online communities, and connect with people on social media.

Final Thoughts

Whether you seek a thriving career, independent online income, or a startup venture, mastering digital marketing skills is key. The digital landscape in India and globally is booming, creating immense demand for skilled marketers. This is your opportunity to upskill, build your brand, and unlock new earning potential.

Did you find our digital marketing guide helpful? Which skills are calling your name? Share your thoughts in the comments below!