Yes, companies look for hard skills and specific knowledge learned through training, but soft skills

are even
more important.

In fact, the top seven characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach;
communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including those with di erent values and
views); having empathy and being supportive of co-workers; being a good critical thinker and problem
solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.

After speaking with dozens of digital marketing recruiters over the years, I’ve come to a basic conclusion on
the two fundamental things that hiring managers want to know before sending you a job o er:

. You’re a good person.

. You can do the job.

It’s that simple.

As long as you can be persuasive, develop a rapport with your interviewers, and have a halfway decent
résumé, you can literally get any entry-level job you want.

And more good news, there’s no limit to the number of interviews you can get. You can try, try, and try again,
and the first key to success is confidence.

2. Choose your Digital Marketing Career Path

So you’ve decided you want to begin a career in digital marketing. Before going down this road, you need
to know exactly what you want our of your career by asking yourself a series of questions:

. What do I like doing?

. What am I really good at?

. Am I better working alone or collaborate with others?

. What skills and strengths do I currently have?

. Am I more creative or more analytical?

There are a number of di erent digital marketing disciplines, each carrying its own unique career path.

Although you can’t a ord to be too picky when applying for your first job, matching your current interests and
strengths to a digital marketing discipline that you like will be the most rewarding.
A common entry-level digital marketing job is a Digital Marketing Specialist, which is a person who helps
with search engine optimization (SEO), paid search, content marketing, conversion rate optimization, social
media marketing and more.

These roles are multi-faceted, and you’ll need a background in a number of disciplines to be successful.
Accepting this role is a fantastic way to start your career; it will fast-track your hands-on learning and
accelerate your career growth.

Although the role is multi-faceted, you should focus on 2-3 highly-specialized disciplines to tell a story on
your résumé and increase your potential earnings.

Below I’ve listed some of the most in-demand digital marketing skills and the associated tools you should
learn to master them.

Google each discipline in-depth and decide which 2-3 options sound the most interesting to you.

. Content Marketing – WordPress, Yoast SEO plug-in,

. Digital Analytics – Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Optimizely

. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Moz, Ahrefs, SEM Rush, Google Search Console

. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Google AdWords, Bing Ads

. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) – Optimizely, Google Tag Manager, Craft

. Social Media Marketing – Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Hootsuite

. A liate Marketing – CJ by Conversant, Impact Radius

. Marketing Automation – Marketo, Pardot, Bronto,

. Email Marketing – Mailchimp, Constant Contact, AWeber

. Web Development – WordPress, Magento, Joomla, Drupal

. Project Management – JIRA, Basecamp, Timeforce, Trello

In addition to this list, don’t forget about good old-fashioned Microsoft Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and
Word. They are still crucial to any digital marketing job and are used daily.

3. Teach Yourself the Basics with Digital Marketing Courses

Once you’ve decided on a few disciplines you’d like to add to your résumé, it’s time to start learning!