5 Skill-sets that would be in demand in Digital Marketing for 2010:
2010 has started off with a lot of promise when it comes to digital marketing. I have seen a sea shift in terms of the clients pro-actively seeking digital marketing ideas and solutions from the agencies. Some reasons for the same could be:
- The user base of internet has grown to an extent, it can be called as a mass media. Reports say that the Internet users in the country is over 71 Million
- The traditional news mediums (TV and Print) are quoting from twitters and blogs that has increased the awareness of these platforms. Quotes (nay tweets) from popular personalities (nay tweeps) are the source of information and content for many of the newspapers and TV channels… What iamsrk is saying, or the recent tweets from iplt20 (Lalit Modi) and shashitharoor has made twitter a household name..
- A phenomenon called Facebook has spread like a pandemic. In today’s world – People have started taking up professions which most will never plan to do in their real life – Farming, Cooking, Mob…etc
So as more brands (and marketers) are seeking their ‘place in the cloud’… the demand for agency and people with ‘expertise’ has grown.. Looking at the way things are evolving, I believe that these are some of the skill-sets that would be in demand from a digital marketing perspective.
- Social Media
- Development – Facebook/iPhone apps
- Database management
- Analytics
- Execution
Social Media:
With the clients clamouring for action in the SM space… it is but obvious that people who understand the medium and who are early adopters, who have experience in using SM tools, and who understand the techniques would be of great demand. The demand will be fuelled by the fact that both the clients and the agencies would like to have them on their roster. Since social media marketing will not take-off without high involvement from the client (and in many cases an organization re-structuring in terms of information flow); Since the SM space is a new medium, most people’s experience is limited to experimentation… The processes are still being fine tuned. There is no set method of doing things, except maybe defining the broad approach and an implementation process. Since everyone has access to most of the online tools (which are mostly for free)…it is a level playing field when it comes to learning.
Development:
Yes. People who are well versed in open source technologies, and people who have had experience in creating tools / applications for Facebook and iPhones would be in great demand. As brands are seeking more and more engagement ideas than just creative messaging… it is imperative that they leave behind brand tools/applications which the user can use on demand. When it comes to digital marketing – it is death for campaigns…Only content and customer-utility would survive
Database Management:
Until now Databases in businesses were like the proverbial – Ghar ki Murgi… Everyone knew about its existence but no-one knew what exactly to do with them. Lifetime Value of the customer was something the managers had learned about in their business textbooks..and there was a lack of understanding the customer level profitability. In today’s networked world, reaching out to customers is increasingly becoming hard. Short attention spans have decreased the efficacy of traditional marketing tactics. Suddenly, marketers have risen to the fact that their existing customers are their biggest marketing medium. Their customers are talking, networking, and building relationship with other like-minded people… and marketers want their customers to become ambassadors of their brand and create a positive word of mouth… So knowning who the customers are, where they are, what they do, what they like becomes important. Engaging with them on a on-going basis and building relationship with them becomes all the more important.
Analytics:
Digital marketing evangelists went to town telling that the USP of digital marketing is the ability to track and measure it. What was told as part of the so called ‘analytics’ were – which publisher performed well.. in terms of delivery and action; which ad units performed well… the location, and time. As the tools evolved measurement too became more and more specific. Today free tools like Google Analytics gives so much information about the website navigation, usability, traffic source, traffic drivers, etc that any sort of forward planning is possible. Whether it is online advertising, website / microsite, search marketing or email marketing… analytics plays a crucial role in terms of understanding the success of the activity, the learning, and the way forward
Execution (project management):
A real client speak “Santosh, the strategy is fine… but, speak to me once we go live with it – on time, in quality.” Since digital marketing is not just about a great creative there are many more specialists involved. A typical marketing activity would have the following players to complete the delivery – servicing, strategy, Creative, Development, Database, Technical, specialists (like SEO)… with so many cooks… there is every chance that the broth could get spoilt. Hence having people with requisite project management skills is important… agencies do have people who are taking care of production work but the demand would be for people who can plan a project, and set milestones, and execute the same with optimum resources…
Cheers
Santosh
- The user base of internet has grown to an extent, it can be called as a mass media. Reports say that the Internet users in the country is over 71 Million
- The traditional news mediums (TV and Print) are quoting from twitters and blogs that has increased the awareness of these platforms. Quotes (nay tweets) from popular personalities (nay tweeps) are the source of information and content for many of the newspapers and TV channels… What iamsrk is saying, or the recent tweets from iplt20 (Lalit Modi) and shashitharoor has made twitter a household name..
- A phenomenon called Facebook has spread like a pandemic. In today’s world – People have started taking up professions which most will never plan to do in their real life – Farming, Cooking, Mob…etc
So as more brands (and marketers) are seeking their ‘place in the cloud’… the demand for agency and people with ‘expertise’ has grown.. Looking at the way things are evolving, I believe that these are some of the skill-sets that would be in demand from a digital marketing perspective.
- Social Media
- Development – Facebook/iPhone apps
- Database management
- Analytics
- Execution
Social Media:
With the clients clamouring for action in the SM space… it is but obvious that people who understand the medium and who are early adopters, who have experience in using SM tools, and who understand the techniques would be of great demand. The demand will be fuelled by the fact that both the clients and the agencies would like to have them on their roster. Since social media marketing will not take-off without high involvement from the client (and in many cases an organization re-structuring in terms of information flow); Since the SM space is a new medium, most people’s experience is limited to experimentation… The processes are still being fine tuned. There is no set method of doing things, except maybe defining the broad approach and an implementation process. Since everyone has access to most of the online tools (which are mostly for free)…it is a level playing field when it comes to learning.
Development:
Yes. People who are well versed in open source technologies, and people who have had experience in creating tools / applications for Facebook and iPhones would be in great demand. As brands are seeking more and more engagement ideas than just creative messaging… it is imperative that they leave behind brand tools/applications which the user can use on demand. When it comes to digital marketing – it is death for campaigns…Only content and customer-utility would survive
Database Management:
Until now Databases in businesses were like the proverbial – Ghar ki Murgi… Everyone knew about its existence but no-one knew what exactly to do with them. Lifetime Value of the customer was something the managers had learned about in their business textbooks..and there was a lack of understanding the customer level profitability. In today’s networked world, reaching out to customers is increasingly becoming hard. Short attention spans have decreased the efficacy of traditional marketing tactics. Suddenly, marketers have risen to the fact that their existing customers are their biggest marketing medium. Their customers are talking, networking, and building relationship with other like-minded people… and marketers want their customers to become ambassadors of their brand and create a positive word of mouth… So knowning who the customers are, where they are, what they do, what they like becomes important. Engaging with them on a on-going basis and building relationship with them becomes all the more important.
Analytics:
Digital marketing evangelists went to town telling that the USP of digital marketing is the ability to track and measure it. What was told as part of the so called ‘analytics’ were – which publisher performed well.. in terms of delivery and action; which ad units performed well… the location, and time. As the tools evolved measurement too became more and more specific. Today free tools like Google Analytics gives so much information about the website navigation, usability, traffic source, traffic drivers, etc that any sort of forward planning is possible. Whether it is online advertising, website / microsite, search marketing or email marketing… analytics plays a crucial role in terms of understanding the success of the activity, the learning, and the way forward
Execution (project management):
A real client speak “Santosh, the strategy is fine… but, speak to me once we go live with it – on time, in quality.” Since digital marketing is not just about a great creative there are many more specialists involved. A typical marketing activity would have the following players to complete the delivery – servicing, strategy, Creative, Development, Database, Technical, specialists (like SEO)… with so many cooks… there is every chance that the broth could get spoilt. Hence having people with requisite project management skills is important… agencies do have people who are taking care of production work but the demand would be for people who can plan a project, and set milestones, and execute the same with optimum resources…
Cheers
Santosh
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