#SummerGoals: 6 Easy-to-Learn Digital Marketing Skills

Summer has officially begun! How will you be spending the summer?

A lot of us may have already set and started seeking to achieve our own #SummerGoals – whether it be losing some pounds, finding that special someone, travelling, making money, etc.

Job-hunting has become one of the more popular summer past-time activities as achieving our major #SummerGoals is most likely quite costly. Personally, as a young marketer, I’ve decided to include enhancing my digital marketing skills as part of my #SummerGoals list. I’ve found that there are so many skills required by employers that are actually really easy to learn once you have a computer and Internet access. We know what the tedious task job-hunting can often be but I think it’s great to be readily equipped with these skills to give us a better chance by helping us to stand out more.

You’ll find that these skills are also applicable in many other situations in life and not just for marketing jobs or any kind of business really.

These are some of the digital marketing skills that I believe are easy to learn and some advice on how to grasp them quickly:

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Photo Editing [Adobe Photoshop]

Knowing how to use Adobe Photoshop has become quite a demanding skill in 2016 marketing job requirements. It will be useful to even learn just the basics to help with simple tasks such as adding a company logo to photos, cropping an image or creating original content. With the aid of YouTube tutorials, you’ll find that learning isn’t as technical as you think.

So go ahead! Start your 30-day free trial now and get familiar with the software: Adobe Photoshop CC 30-Day Free Trial. Remember that most companies will have systems ready for you to use with the full version already installed.

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Content Writing & Copywriting

The first time you hear the term “copywriting”, you may think along the lines of protecting your creative work from unauthorised use which would actually be “copyright”. Copywriting, on the other hand, is simply creating content purely with the aim of selling an idea.

Content writing skills are used to further engage your target audience and good content writing skills are essential for copywriting. Content writing skills are used for the creation of blogs, articles and press releases.

Both of these skills are now greatly demanded by employers for marketing fields and if you can demonstrate confidence and skill in these then you may stand out just enough to get the job. How do you develop these skills? By writing more, of course! Start with a blog maybe – like what I’m doing! You can only get better with practice. With everything you write, pay keen attention to spelling, grammar, wording and how people respond to what you write. Pay attention to how others write too and adjust accordingly. Do plenty of reading too to further develop your own writing skills.

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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

As a marketer or someone really interested in marketing, you most likely have come across this term quite a few times. Have you ever searched for your own name in Google? What are the top 5 results that show up? (You can answer in the comments section)

SEO is basically improving your brand’s ranking in search engine results so when others are trying to find your brand or your brand’s content, it’s much easier! This skill goes hand-in-hand with content writing/copywriting skills and is usually required for many social media management positions. Similar to content writing skills, this can also be improved with practice. Try googling your article headings or even yourself! See if you can change what is shown on the first page of the search results when you search for your name.

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Motion Graphics (Adobe After Effects)

What’s cooler than having a poster about your brand? Having a video. With motion graphics, you can entice your audience a bit more and with the aid of Adobe After Effects and a few tutorials, this won’t be so hard (maybe just a little). Designing motion graphics usually works better with a fast PC but for the basic animation, you don’t need a device that’s really out of the ordinary.

Similar to Photoshop, Adobe offers a 30-Day Free Trial for After Effects and you can use this to get familiar with the software and start learning how to create some content.

I recommend animating words for starters. Learn the basic controls and get to it! It doesn’t hurt to try. Below is one of many YouTube tutorials to help you out:

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HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)

Personally, I hate coding. You probably hate coding too or have little to no interest in it. You’ve probably also been introduced to basic HTML programming at some point in your life too. If you haven’t already, I’d advise you to reintroduce it to yourself.

Employers of 2016 now require HTML as a skill for marketers and why? Simple… because nobody wants to call a webmaster to make a simple change each time there is one to be made. You want changes to be made immediately. You want your content to be displayed online exactly how you envision it to be most effective. You don’t even need to know the whole language – just the basics.

Make learning HTML one  your #SummerGoals today and have things done exactly how you want. You can check out sites like w3schools.com which will teach you all you need to know about HTML.

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Branding

The final skill I’ll mention is branding and even though you probably don’t have a brand for yourself, always remember that YOU are a brand. Start practising this skill by working on how you brand yourself.

Think for a second about who you are and what you currently want the world to know you for.

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Thank you for reading and remember – you’re not trying to make yourself into a graphic designer, webmaster or anything too technical. Just learn the basics for now and aim to get better. You’re simply making yourself more marketable and more qualified for the jobs you want. Don’t forget to leave your  feedback and your #SummerGoals in the comments section!