Digital Marketing: 3 Qualities of a Successful Digital Marketer

Whether you’re interested in becoming a digital marketer, or an agency hiring a digital marketing specialist to join your marketing team, or even if you’re a business owner hiring a digital marketing agency to take over marketing completely, there are a few commonalities I’ve noticed, and you should look for, amongst those who succeed in digital marketing.  

The 3 Must-Have Qualities of Successful Digital Marketers  

1. Natural Inquisitiveness

When faced with situations we’re unfamiliar with we need to be able to roll up our sleeves and explore. Read. Question. Contemplate. Develop a hypothesis and test it. Push the fear of failure to the side and embrace the result of your quest. Remember, it’s not that you failed, it’s that you have discovered that an approach does not work. That is how knowledge is accumulated. If you stop questioning you stop learning.  This is extremely important in the field of digital marketing as the landscape is constantly evolving.

2. Be Comfortable with Data and Uncertainty

Digital marketing is an accountability channel. Meaning: data is created and needs to be mined for insights. The data generated will be used to assess the effort. The effort will be held accountable for the results. Be comfortable with uncertainty in the data. The insights gained from data will not prove anything. Trusted insights will reduce the amount of uncertainty.  It’s up to you to be comfortable with being accountable for the decision you’ll make.  

3. Be Able to Communicate in the Language of Who You are Communicating With

This isn’t about English vs. Spanish vs. Chinese, etc. This is about being able to understand someone and communicate complex and often under-defined outcomes in a context that can be understood by your audience.  To succeed you must be able to communicate. Be able to tell stories that clearly and succinctly communicate a point. Don’t tell me how the sausage is made. Tell how good it’s going to taste.

Digital marketing is an amazing field. It’s a blend of analytical, creative, innovation, and it is constantly evolving. The only constant changes. But in the end, it is still marketing and the 4-P’s are still very relevant. It’s just that our tools have changed.