Do These 10 Skills Make Up The “Perfect” Digital Marketing Manager?

As avid readers of this blog will know, we recently made a vow to dig into our wealth of job advert data to give both our job seekers and our clients an insight into how the digital industry is changing and what skills are most in demand at the moment.

To tie in with the start of the Digital Marketing Show today, this week we thought we’d take a closer look at some of the digital marketing manager jobs we’re currently advertising and vacancies we’ve advertised in this sector over the last 12 months to see if we can work out skills make up the “perfect” digital marketing manager in 2013.

Of course, this list has only been put together using the adverts we’ve had on Bubble this year – so we’re not saying it’s an exhaustive list by any means. If you’re a digital marketing manager and think we’ve missed something or a hiring manager who looks for a completely different set of skills when recruiting for a digital marketing manager, leave us a comment below.

Remember, the more information we can supply to candidates right now – the easier your job could be in the future – so don’t be afraid to have your say! ;)

1. Good Knowledge Of The Whole Digital Marketing Mix: OK, so we thought we’d start off with the most obvious one – a good working knowledge of the whole digital marketing mix. From the adverts we reviewed, a good working knowledge of SEO, PPC and Affiliates seems to be essential for any digital marketing manager vacancy – while things like experience and knowledge of mobile and email marketing tend to be classed as a bonus, rather than a necessity.

2. Strong Working Knowledge Of Web Analytics: Nearly all of the adverts we looked at in this field called for candidates to have a strong working knowledge of Web Analytics – specifically Google Analytics, Omniture and Coremetrics. Interestingly, a large majority also called for candidates that had a proven track record of using web analytics to identify key data and pull out actionable insights that could be used to improve the digital marketing strategy moving forwards.

3. GAP Qualification: Not all the adverts we looked at called for this – but some did specifically ask for candidates that had a GAP qualification so we thought we’d include it in the list. With that in mind, we’re definitely keen to hear from hiring managers in the digital space regarding how important professional qualifications (like GAP) are to digital employers.

4. Working Knowledge of Webmaster Tools: Whether it’s identifying crawl errors, monitoring search visibility or assessing site health – Webmaster Tools is an essential tool for any SEO, but as our adverts show, it’s also invaluable in terms of digital marketing in general too.

5. Proven Knowledge of Paid Search: In addition to the digital marketing disciplines we mentioned in point one, some of the adverts we looked at also called for candidates who have a proven knowledge of paid search, particularly Display and Re-targeting, possibly suggesting that paid search has now become more important and essential in 2013 on the back of the controversial Google SEO updates that rocked (and continue to rock!) the SEO industry.

6. Experience Managing Third Parties & Large Budgets: When it comes to managing a brand’s digital marketing strategy, there is normally hundreds of thousands of pounds at stake, so it makes sense that employers want to hear from candidates that have successfully managed large budgets before. Similarly, when it comes to large campaigns, there are normally many different teams involved (both in-house and external), so employers need to know that the candidate they take on can successful manage these teams to achieve maximum ROI.

7. Strong Negotiation/Presentation Skills: Whether it’s negotiating prices and strategy with a third party or translating and presenting technical information to key stakeholders, there’s no denying the role of a digital marketing manager is a diverse one, so it makes sense that the perfect candidate has strong negotiation, presentation and communication skills – and isn’t afraid to argue their point.

8. Excellent Project Management Skills: When it comes to managing digital marketing campaigns, a lot of it comes to down to “spinning the plates” – so it didn’t really come as much of a surprise to us that excellent project management skills were requested by nearly every employer that has advertised digital marketing jobs on Bubble.

9. Social Media Skills: The message from our adverts was clear – if you’re clueless about social media and social strategy in terms of tying it in with the other digital marketing disciplines, you’re not going to get far. From our adverts, it’s clear that employers want to digital marketing managers that already have a strong working knowledge of the major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, LinkedIn and even Flickr!), an established online presence and a strong following across many social media platforms.

10. Coding Knowledge: As we said in a previous blog, coding skills are now no longer just a necessity for web development jobs – they’re now needed right across the digital sector and digital marketing manager jobs are no exception. While the majority of adverts asked for HTML and CSS skills, some even went as far to ask for a good working knowledge of JavaScript, PHP and Ruby. That’s not to say these roles were particularly technical – just that a strong working knowledge of common coding languages is essential in terms of everyday digital marketing tasks these days.

So there you go; an insight into the top ten skills that might just make up the “perfect” digital marketing manager. Like we mentioned earlier, we’re really keen to get your thoughts on this one – both from an employer and job seeker prospective. Leave us a comment below.

via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/human-resources/10-skills-make-perfect-digital-marketing-manager-0695817?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=10-skills-make-perfect-digital-marketing-manager