The marketing domain is so vast nowadays, and you can never say that you know everything. However, there are certain areas and skills that each marketer should get familiar with if they want to excel at their job. One of these areas is e-commerce. So we’ve put together a set of skills that will most certainly help you move ahead:
1. Content Marketing
The kind of content you put out there is like your business card. Unique content is what drives traffic to your website and, in the long run, increases the number of leads you get. This doesn’t only apply to blog posts. It extends to product descriptions, website content, and so forth. Each bit of text on your website should spike the curiosity of your visitors.
Content is your gateway to your customers. People don’t know you yet—what you write, and client testimonials are how they meet you. This means that you have to be smart about your content, especially in the case of e-commerce. Clarity is a must.
2. Data Analysis
How would you know if what you’re doing is effective if you don’t analyze it? Facts and statistics give you the power to improve your strategies. E-commerce calls for quick adjustments and flexibility. Being able to forecast and predict your actions’ outcomes will help you adapt to any situation.
3. Testing and Collecting Information
This one is closely related to data analysis. To get the most of it, you need to know which information is helpful and not. A good idea would be learning about Google Analytics and how to generate valuable reports. Then, you can use this information to adapt your actions according to your audience’s behavior.
It’s useful for collecting information if you learn to use tools like Microsoft Office to keep it all together. Suppose you are unfamiliar with this kind of software, no need to panic. There are many Microsoft Office courses online—you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
4. Design Skills
People are visual learners. With that being said, sometimes it’s better to show, not tell. Also, all the graphic elements on your website should have a purpose and meaning. One of the most important factors deciding if a user will stay on your website or not is user experience.
If you want your e-commerce website to be a success, you need to pay a lot of attention to the look and feel, your ads, your brand materials, and so forth. Therefore, having some design skills might come in handy.
5. Web Fundamentals
If you know some HTML and CSS—just the basics—you can do a much better job with your website, even if you use WordPress. You might be able to develop your tools and reports for promoting.
Indeed, being a marketer doesn’t imply that you need to learn how to code. However, it’s an instrumental skill in any domain. It gives you more control over the tools you use and, in the long run, more control over your success.
6. Advertising
This is a no-brainer. For your e-commerce website to sell, you need to advertise your products. However, just paying for some online ads is not enough. You need to be able to create a strategy for your advertisements.
It would be best to use multiple channels—according to where most of your target audience is. But, then, you have to adapt your message to each channel accordingly. Not even to mention the various types of ads that exist. This is a skill that can take a lot of time to master, but it’s worth it.
7. Email Promotion
Email promotion is still one of the most fruitful methods of marketing, especially in e-commerce. You should make the most of your newsletters—update your customers about your latest discounts and sales.
This skill is tricky because you need to constantly find catchy subject lines, personalized messages, and new ways of getting your potential customer’s attention. And that’s not an easy thing to do.
8. Task Automation
As a marketer, you have so many tasks that it’s easy to lose track of them. That’s why when you can automate something, you shouldn’t think twice. Many platforms can do the hard work for you, from generating reports to bulk emailing and posting ads.
All you need here are a few technical skills to customize them and the patience to plan everything. Then, do some research and find the best tools that can make your job easier.
9. SEO
If you want potential customers to find your website, you need to get your page to rank up the search results. Therefore, no matter what search engine you target, you need to optimize your webpage to be easily found and indexed by web crawlers.
The main idea is that if search engines, like Google or Bing, can easily understand and catalog what’s on your page, it will be a lot simpler to show up on the first page of results. You can do this by taking care of what keywords you use, meta titles, descriptions, and many other tools that will come in handy.
10. Creativity
This is a mandatory skill for marketers, but it’s crucial for e-commerce. You need to efficiently communicate why your business is unique and better than the others in your field of activity. Why should customers buy from you and not a similar store?
You need to convey your message so that your potential customers resonate. People need to feel comfortable buying from you. Try to build a relationship with your audience and make them appreciate your business.
What to Take Away
If we were to list all the skills useful for a marketer in e-commerce, this article would never end. But these ten should give you a good start. First, of course, it would be best if you learned to reach your audience. That can be done through technical skills, like SEO, web development, or design.
However, without the touch of creativity, technical skills can’t help you much. You need to put out quality content that attracts visitors. A good marketer should make the audience understand why his business is better than the others—what makes it unique?
