7 Habits of Highly Effective Digital Marketers

You know those really annoying digital marketers who seem to be on top of pretty much everything? They perform their tasks with ease and hit their KPIs ahead of deadline. They have their own side projects, they run a blog, have over 10,000 Twitter followers (ugh!) and are connected to everyone worth knowing on the land of LinkedIn. Just how do they do it?

Wait, before you hate – let’s take a step back and learn a few tricks from these crafty digital masterminds. Here are the 7 surprisingly easy-to-form habits that will help you pave your way to digital marketing super-stardom (or at the very least make your boss sing your praises)…

1. Make a Plan

A well fleshed out plan can steer digital marketers in the right direction and help them to identify and achieve their digital marketing objectives. Never underestimate the power of organisation, budgeting and planning, of mapping out well thought out tactics that will cater to the needs of your target audience and help them tap into hidden desires they forgot existed. Planning is a skill that no digital marketer can afford to ignore and yet so many do.

A well crafted content calendar, for example, can help you relax. You can see what days you have to write, how many times you post (and to where), the topic needed, the budget allocated to promotion and the campaign message you are pushing. But most importantly, you can see why you’re taking each action because the best plans are built on powerful audience insights and the success of previous campaigns.

This Blog Post Will Help You Create Killer Digital Marketing Plans:

5 Steps to a Powerful Digital Marketing Plan

2. Analyse, Fix & Reiterate

Yes, great digital marketers always make a plan – however, the best are never afraid to veer from it. ‘Wait, what? – first we have to make the plan and then we need to change it?’ Well yes, if it’s not working you’ll need to give your campaigns some clever tweaks.

Analysing and reporting on the success of your campaigns at regular intervals will allow you to check what is working and what’s not. Once you’ve delved deep into your Analytics you can identify the time wasting tactics that need to go. Then you can invest your precious energy in the tactics that are meeting and exceeding your objectives (like generating leads at a low cost).

Read This to Learn How to Select the Right Metrics:

The Only Digital Marketing Metrics That Matter to Your CEO

3. Use The Right Tools

It’s important to use the right tools to save both time and sanity. Digital marketing tools like Sniply can help you increase traffic to your website and improve your conversion rate, while project management tools like Basecamp and Asana can help you organize and manage both your personal and team projects. Take advantage of automated marketing systems that allow you to scale your marketing efforts effectively.

If there’s a tool that can ease the burden of time and budget constraints or one that can dramatically improve your productivity – you owe it to both yourself and your team to grab it with both hands.

This Blog Post Reveals 3 Top Time-Saving Tools To Try:

3 Tools Every Digital Marketer Should Have in Their Toolkits

4. Keep Learning

Did you hear the one about the digital marketer who stopped learning? They got fired (well probably). Here’s the thing: there’s no room for staying stagnant in a digital marketing world that moves at lightning speed. Make sure you’re staying up to date with the latest digital marketing news and trends in your digital specialism of choice.

You need to stay on the digital pulse and keep up to date with your industry. Read blogs religiously, scour Twitter, attend industry events and invest in digital marketing courses. If there’s one thing effective digital marketers have in common it’s this: they never stop learning, listening and asking. They stay curious, relevant and forever employable.

These Digital Marketing Blogs Will Help Keep You Up To Date:

The Top 6 Digital Marketing Blogs Every Business Should Bookmark

5. Self Motivate

Digital marketing is a new industry that needs self motivators who can carve their own path.That’s why you’ll see so many job posts looking for “self starters.” Self motivated individuals are great at problem solving, organisation and delegation. They are passionate and deeply enthusiastic about their art – everything an effective digital marketer should be.

“Own” your role and show initiative by practising problem solving and concocting new ideas to achieve objectives. If you’re going for an interview you must show that you are self motivated enough to thrive in your new digital marketing role. You can do so through noting previous successes that required quick thinking and action on your part – have you ever come up with an idea that made your company money, for example? Flesh out your personal success stories and practice them backwards so that you can appeal to the digital marketing heart of your interviewer.

6. Seek Help

No digital marketer is an island – the best digital marketers aren’t afraid to ask for help. Although self motivation is integral to their career, they acknowledge the importance of teams, tribes and networks. Super effective digital marketers have built a strong understanding of the entire digital marketing landscape and what it entails to run successful campaigns. However,they are also specialists in specific areas and recognise the benefits of working with other specialists (those with different skillsets) to achieve their objectives.

They seek out the help and support of mentors – they ask questions, welcome feedback and take notes. On Twitter they reach out to influencers to ask for advice, to get quotes for articles and to receive help sharing their content. At events they shake hands, listen intently, offer help and ensure they speak to the right people.

Read This Blog Post to Learn How to Nail Digital Networking:

Become a Digital Marketing Networking Pro

7. Switch Off

Highly effective digital marketers don’t risk burnout, anxiety and insomnia. They have recognized the importance of switching off. Every day there are hundreds of thousands of pieces of content published – you’ll never get a chance to read them all so why even try? Arriana Huffingon, founder of Huffington Post is an advocate of taking well timed breaks from technology.

She suggests meditation, mindfulness and switching off your phone at dinner and during holidays to help you relax, unwind and recharge your batteries. And let’s face it – switching off at night will help you awake refreshed, rearing to go and craving your next epic Tweet.

Last chance to sign up to our free Digital Careers Postgraduate Lecture taking place soon. The average digital marketing manager in Dublin earns €68,000 – find out how you can too.