As a 1-stop marketing agency in Malaysia, we are receiving an average of 100 job applications every month directly via our website.
I have personally reviewed a big chunk of the resumes submitted and there are many, many candidates who don’t know how to sell themselves.
Having a headline or summary of what you are really good at, is very important to get your potential employer to find out more about you.
One of the headlines below will definitely get my attention:
- “I have managed more than RM200,000 digital ad campaigns”
- “Even as a fresh grad, I have helped manage the FB page of X brand”
- “Since university, I have written 50 pieces of beauty-related articles”
- “I have accumulated 1K+ appreciations on my Behance profile”
- “Please check my showreel featuring my past work for X, Y, Z brands”
Unfortunately, most will just say something along the lines of “I am very passionate about digital marketing”.
Instead of being vague about yourself, best to be specific and quantify whenever you can.
Of course, you need to be good in at least one domain to be able to brag about yourself professionally.
Therefore, I list down the 5 most relevant skills to survive and excel in the digital marketing world today. Forget about digital marketing if you are a master of none.
Digital Advertising
First of all, you need to be good at Google and Facebook advertising since they are the duopoly here and in most parts of the world.
Getting certifications issued by Google and Facebook, or any other credible digital marketing training providers, is a good start to cover the fundamentals.
Theory alone can only take you so far, your real battle experience, results-driven campaign experience is crucial to convince your potential employer.
For me, this role requires a good balance of logical left-brainers and creative right-brainers. You must be at least comfortable with the numbers (with all the CPX) at the same time be able to inject creativity into the ad campaigns.
Social Media Content
On another hand, if you consider yourself a digital marketer but more skewed to the creative right-brainers, you might want to focus on polishing your content development skills.
In order to excel in this role, you must be able to plan and produce content that is able to “talk to your audience”, or “sell a dream”.
It’s okay if you aren’t able to produce a nice visual or video, but creative copywriting skills is a must! It will be an advantage if you can master both short advertising copywriting and long-form blog articles.
Instead of writing something flat with perfect grammars, learn how to become a storyteller by reading more, observing more, and writing more.
Creative Design
It is a sad reality that some parents don’t encourage their grown-up children to take up a design-related diploma or degree, citing “no future”.
I don’t agree though, especially if you are talented. You are born as a designer and you know it, every skill mentioned in this article can be learned, except for creative design.
Having said that, don’t take your gift for granted. Hard work is required for your talents to shine, “talent is given, greatness is earned”.
Besides mastering visual design, explore picking up other skills like motion graphics to strengthen your portfolio and stay relevant in today’s fast-paced digital world.
Video Production
With so many videos streaming over Facebook, YouTube etc. the demand for video production has definitely increased in recent years.
It is not just the big TV commercials, many brands have started to produce more (quantity) and smaller (budget) videos.
Not everyone can become successful YouTubers, or produce shows for Netflix, so the next best thing to do is to focus on producing marketing videos.
Learn how to tell a good story using video, capture the moments with great shots, and unleash your creativity in presenting the final video.
Website & SEO
This is probably the most overlooked skill set, as many prefer to produce content that looks cool, instead of learning something technical under the hood.
Even with YouTube and Facebook, websites still play an important role as the landing page, microsite, content site, catalog or e-commerce site, etc.
You might be asking, isn’t this a web developer or programmer? Not really, I think the role of “Web Marketing Specialist” is cool, someone with a good balance of marketing and technical know-how.
Imagine if you can develop websites quickly (using CMS like WordPress), optimize them for SEO (with content strategy), and understand web analytics. No hardcore programming is needed.
p/s: Please don’t list MS Word (or any other MS Office application) as one of your skills in the CV.
