Elena Prokopets — March 13, 2017 Follow @elenatravelgram
Highly skilled marketing professionals can help you increase revenue, improve your branding, and grow your social media presence. Unfortunately, this kind of help isn’t easy to find. There is a real shortage of candidates who are qualified in digital marketing domain. In fact 64% of recruiters have difficulty filling in the open positions.
As you know, a shortage of available talent doesn’t reduce the need for your organization to engage in effective digital marketing. You simply cannot wait around for the right candidate. As head of your own ship, you’ll have to develop the digital marketing skills you need to ensure your company’s future viability. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can teach yourself until you find the right candidate.
Check Out Online Marketing Courses
There are some great content marketing pros who have put together some detailed courses on the subject. Better yet, many of these are available online and are self paced. This makes them ideal for busy entrepreneurs and executives. Here are a few examples that you should check out.
Marketingprofs University: Content Marketing Crash Course
Marketingprofs University offers a wide variety of courses for anyone who needs to learn online marketing. However, if you truly need to get over the learning curve quickly, their content marketing crash course is the way to go.
It’s a series of twelve classes that begins with planning and building your content marketing strategy, and ends with a primer on producing your own video blog.
Online Marketing Inst.: Learn The Rules of Storytelling For The Digital Marketer
If you are a bit stymied by the creative side of digital marketing, Online Marketing Institute’s Content Storytelling Rules For The Digital Marketer is perfect for you. You’ll learn exactly what storytelling is as it applies to content marketing, and pick up some tips on infusing your content with creativity.
Lynda.com: Content Marketing Fundamentals
Lynda has emerged as one of the most trusted providers of online education. Courses like this one are just one of the reasons why. This video course will teach you the basics of content marketing including lead generation and thought leadership.
The examples above are just a drop in the bucket. There are dozens of online courses on the various aspects of digital marketing. Take a look around and you’ll find at least a couple that will meet your needs.
Attend Networking Events And Conferences
Each year, the best content marketers hit the road to present their best material at a variety of conferences and networking events. Some of the best digital marketing conferences are going to be held in London this year. In addition to these, other not to be missed events include Mozcon, Inbound, and Content Marketing World.
If traveling isn’t feasible, consider looking out for some great webinars. Marketo, Content Marketing Institute and others put on several great webinars each year. Also, check out the websites for the live events listed as well. In many instances, recordings are made available after the event has closed.
Learn The Tricks of The Trade From The Best Digital Marketers
The beauty of content marketing is that in order to stay on top of their games, the best of the best must maintain a strong web and social media presence. What this means for you is that there is scads of professionally written digital marketing content available on websites, blogs, and social media. Think of it like content marketing for content marketing experts.
If you are interested in learning from the best, it’s time to start subscribing to blogs, following people on social media, and bookmarking websites. Here is a short list of some of the most valuable digital marketing resources online:
Convince And Convert
Convince And Convert is a media consulting company that produces great blog posts on inbound marketing. In fact, the above mentioned Content Marketing Institute once touted it as the best blog in the industry. The blog is divided into a variety of subtopics. Hug Your Haters is particularly interesting as these posts address using content to win over your detractors.
Moz
Are you in need of an intensive education on all things SEO? Take a look at Moz. The site is full of in depth articles on SEO best practices. Even better, the content is well researched and backed by the kind of data that makes business leaders feel much better about adopting their suggested solutions.
Kissmetrics
Not all digital marketing is about creating and sharing great content. There’s also a technical side that includes A/B testing changes to landing pages, and knowing how to use analytics to determine what is working for you and what is not. Take a look at the Kissmetrics blog for plenty of guidance in this area.
Get The Right Tools
When you have great tools, you can make up for lack of experience. Fortunately, there are countless content marketing tools that you can use to create engaging content, promote that content, and even manage user engagement.
If you want to create great visual content check out Infogr.am, Canva, or Visual.ly. If you want to collaborate with your team members try Trello, Google Docs, or Evernote. Is your writing a bit rusty? Hemingway and Grammarly are extraordinarily popular for good reason. You’ll love Surveymonkey if you want to create simple yet engaging interactive content. Hootsuite and Feedly are great for content promotion. Then there’s AllTop and BuzzSumo for finding trending topics, and taking a peek at what your competitors are doing.
Take a Peek at Your Neighbor’s Paper
Speaking of tools like BuzzSumo that allow you to see the content that is earning the most traction for your competitors, never discount the usefulness of competitive analysis. Visit your competitor’s’ websites, blogs, and social media pages. Check out what they’re posting, and what seems to getting the most action in terms of shares or comments. Then, create a Google alert for those some competitors. You’ll know first thing if they’ve done something newsworthy. You might learn what to avoid as well.
Obviously, you don’t want to copy your competitor’s’ strategy. It’s just useful to see how they are using content and voice to reach their audience. You might be able to find some inspiration.
Another source of digital marketing inspiration and education can be found in the brands that you simply admire. Maybe you follow Wendy’s on Twitter because you’ve come to enjoy their witty Tweets, or you make it a point to check out your local sports team’s Facebook page because they share amazing sports videos. If you can identify the specific elements that appeal to you, it’s very possible that you will be able to apply those some techniques to your marketing efforts.
If digital marketer becomes yet another hat you are going to wear, you certainly aren’t alone. You’ll just have to buckle down and learn the tricks of the trade. The good news is that there are plenty of resources and tools to help you get up to speed and master the relevant skills.
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