Digital marketing is composed of the timeless (such as psychology and copywriting) and the dynamic (Facebook changes and new social networks).When you’re marketing to fellow businesses, you can’t be left behind. You’ll instantly undermine yourself if you’re using old techniques. That’s why you should always be working on improving your skills and keeping your marketing current. See the following tips for how to do that.
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Being able to write a sales page that converts doesn’t mean that you’ve mastered copywriting. Every once in a while, it’s a good idea to return to your core competencies and ensure that you’re still well rounded and improving. Read some newer books on the subject, or practice writing something outside of your comfort zone. Apply similar techniques to other timeless skills, such as psychology, sociology, and strategy. You’re sure to benefit.
Lots of aspects of digital marketing rely on each other to work well. If you write content, you’ll need a good understanding of SEO. If you practice SEO, you’ll encounter PPC quite often. Look at the natural extensions of your current skills, and learn some complementary skills from other disciplines. You could even branch out further in your professional development and learn Photoshop, programming, or behavior psychology.
Improve your knowledge, your game, and your net worth by learning something completely new. An effective way to do this is by studying for an online MBA and specializing in an area that will benefit your future career. Marketing could be an obvious choice, but general business and business analytics will also be hugely useful when working B2B. You’ll learn plenty of new skills, and you can use your new MBA to negotiate a pay raise too.
Attending industry events will keep you in the loop with big industry developments, and it also gives you the opportunity to network with speakers and other attendees. Make sure that you implement what you learn, though. Attending events and then forgetting them is very common, so make sure that you use your new knowledge. Take notes, and read through them a few days after the event. Search out other people’s notes and read those too. Look for summaries and anything that you might have missed. Do wider reading about a topic. Then implement the best information. This Big Data summary is a great example of a current trend that you could test today.
An easy way to improve your B2B marketing is to use social media as a platform to glean and share knowledge, as it was intended. You can either search out expert social media marketing tips, or follow the pages of thought leaders and digest their ideas and information.
Ideally, you should mix a long-term learning goal such as a course or degree with a short-term technique such as social media or events. This method will keep your B2B marketing up-to-date, help you to establish a reputation, and keep your clients happy.
