Marketing has always been a critical skill. If businesses can’t successfully market their products and services, they aren’t going to be around for very long.
The skills currently in demand for marketing jobs evolve with the times and technology.
Now, coming out of a challenging pandemic that turned couches into home offices and caused brick-and-mortar stores to temporarily shut their doors, we’re seeing yet another shift in the marketing game.
Hello, Ecommerce and Content Marketing
People stayed home during the shutdowns, but their wallets certainly didn’t stay closed in quarantine.
Ecommerce saw a massive surge in 2020. In the U.S., consumers spent a jaw-dropping $861.12 billion online. (In case you were wondering, that’s a 44% YoY increase and the highest annual U.S. ecommerce growth in the last two decades.)
In addition to online shopping, social media users increased by 13% since the summer of 2020. That’s an increase of more than half a billion users in a 12-month period.
Search traffic also went up. Pre-pandemic, Google saw a steady average of 3.6 billion searches per day. But since March 2020, the daily search average has been 6 billion.
Consumer habits drive marketing practices. With more consumers on social media and search engines than ever before, digital marketing skills (which were already trending in this direction before COVID) took a major shift.
Top In-Demand Marketing Jobs and the Skillsets Needed to Fill Those Positions
To study the changing marketing landscape, LinkedIn published a report using their data from all of the new marketing positions posted on their platform.
Here are their results:
Top 10 Fastest Growing Marketing Occupations Based on YoY Growth
- Media Coordinator: Oversees advertising and marketing campaigns implemented across various channels, including broadcast, print, and digital
- Search Manager: Strategizes and implements pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns using search engine marketing (SEM) research and analytical tools
- Social Media Coordinator: Maintains a brand’s social media presence
- Search Engine Marketing Manager: Develops a company’s search recommendations using traffic reports, keyword research data, etc.
- Media Manager: Develops and implements the content for a variety of media platforms
- Marketing Analyst: Studies market conditions and helps companies determine which products and services to sell at the best price point
- Search Specialist: Creates search strategies for clients and acts as a researcher, advisor, and consultant
- Email Marketing Specialist: Creates email marketing campaigns, builds email lists, and nurtures leads
- Search Engine Optimization Analyst: Identifies and implements SEO strategies to funnel more organic web traffic to a site
- Digital Media Manager: Oversees the development, execution, and review of all digital content
Top 10 In-Demand Marketing Occupations Based on Volume of Job Postings
- Digital Marketing Specialist: Identifies a target market and creates a brand image to be maintained throughout marketing campaigns
- Digital Account Executive: Acts as the primary point of contact for clients, including outreach to prospects and relationship management for current customers
- Social Media Manager: Maintains a brand’s social media channels by posting content, managing social media partnerships with influencers and affiliates, and moderating user comments and messages
- Digital Marketing Manager: Implements, oversees, and manages digital marketing strategies with the goal of reaching a broader audience and improving brand awareness
- Copywriter: Creates ad content, product descriptions, taglines, and other forms of descriptive text
- Marketing Associate: Plans and implements marketing advertising activities, collects data, forecasts trends, and monitors customer satisfaction on public platforms
- Account Supervisor: Leads account representatives, clients, and executives by acting as the primary contact person and facilitating communications
- Marketing Assistant: Conducts research on trends and statistics, analyzes data on past campaigns, and monitors active marketing campaigns while making adjustments when necessary
- Digital Strategist: Manages and posts digital media content to promote brand awareness
- Marketing Manager: Controls communication between customers and the company, sets clear marketing guidelines and policies, and oversees campaigns to enhance brand awareness and reputation
Top 5 Marketing Skills in Demand
Notice any themes between the insane level of growth on social media and search engines and the types of marketing jobs on the lists?
It’s clear that social media, paid search, and SEO content are major drivers in the current job market.
With that in mind, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that these are the top 5 skills employers are actively looking for:
- Social Media Marketing
- Paid Search Strategy
- Social Media
- Search Engine Marketing
- Marketing
The Fastest Growing Marketing Skills in Today’s Job Market
What’s the common thread between social media success, organic web traffic from search engines, and smart PPC campaigns?
If you answered “content,” you’re right on the money.
Good content gets engagement on social media. It draws in keyword-based traffic from search engines, and it entices viewers to click on PPC ads.
Content drives marketing success.
Is it a surprise, then, that content marketing is ranked #2 on the list of fastest growing skills from LinkedIn’s marketing jobs report?
Not to anyone in the content marketing field who’s been paying attention for the last 10 years.
We’ve known for a long time that content marketing is 100% worth the investment, and now we’re seeing that demand being reflected in job listings.
Instagram snagged the top spot at 72% growth. Brands are jumping on the Instagram train, and for good reason: for users who follow brands, Instagram is the most popular platform, even though it ranks behind Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp when it comes to total active users.
Content marketing comes in at #2 with 63% growth. Unlike Instagram, which favors visual media, content marketing specializes in a long-form approach.
Examples of content marketing include blog posts, e-books, email newsletters, webinars, articles, videos, podcasts, and pretty much any other kind of high-quality content that has real substance for its viewers.
Aka, NOT a flashy pop-up ad promising you the deal of a lifetime with no strings attached (yeah, right).
Content marketing, when paired with SEO, is designed to educate, entertain, and solve problems. Both Google and consumers are looking for quality, and that’s exactly what a strong content marketing strategy optimized for search engines delivers.
Having good content will:
- Demonstrate to consumers that you can put your money where your mouth is. You aren’t reciting a sales pitch – you actually know what you’re talking about.
- Funnel organic (FREE) traffic to your website by leveraging keywords and topics that match search engine inquiries.
- Have a long lifespan so your content continues to produce results long after it’s been published.
- Survive future SEO trend shifts. Since search engines prioritize the needs of the people using their services, your content is positioned to do just that – cater to real people searching for information, even if SEO best practices change. The end goal will still be the same.
- Earn backlinks on other websites to help bring in traffic and further establish your site as a credible, authoritative resource.
- Create brand awareness by reaching people organically with a conversational tone rather than assault them with obnoxious and pushy advertising. (Which method do you think will leave a positive lasting impression?)
The next fastest growing skills on the list are creative problem solving and brand awareness – two subjects that content marketing address.
Learning how to be a great content marketer equips you with other skills that make you a valuable asset.
Content Marketing Will Remain One of the Top Marketing Skills in High Demand
There’s no question about it.
Content marketing doesn’t yield immediate results like PPC and social media campaigns, which is why it’s taken brands longer to get on board with the long-term investment.
But it’s hard for them to ignore these numbers any longer:
- SEO drives more than 1,000% more traffic than organic social media.
- 96% of content marketers say that content marketing has had a direct impact on building credibility and trust with their audience.
- Content marketing generates approximately three times as many leads as traditional marketing while costing 62% less.
- SEO traffic is five times greater than PPC traffic.
- Content creation is already the top outsourced activity among B2C organizations.
With the COVID-driven surge in online search traffic and social media activity, the benefits of content marketing are clearer than ever (even though we’ve known its true value for over a decade).
A successful content marketing strategy that drives inbound traffic, establishes a brand as an expert authority figure within its industry, and creates a feeling of trust in readers is going to position a business to achieve long-term success.
Traditional advertising is a quick fix with a high investment cost and a short-term lifespan. Once a campaign is done, it’s not bringing in any more revenue.
But audiences, especially Gen Z and younger millennials, are overwhelmingly turning away from traditional advertising. They favor authentic, trustworthy content, and that’s just what content marketing delivers.
As Gen Z continues to age into the consumer pool, we’re going to see a continued push against traditional advertising methods.
Content marketing is a hot topic in the industry right now, and it’s going to stay that way. Make sure your skills are ready to meet the demand.
Are you ready to level up your skills to compete in today’s market? Enroll in the Practice Content Strategy & Marketing course to become an expert content strategist in 45 days or less.
