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What a freelance digital marketing manager can do
By Carsten Bjerregaard, Marketingcapacity.dk (Feel free to link to this article. Copying/publishing without agreement is not allowed)
A digital marketing manager is a marketing manager with a special focus and skill set in digital marketing. The digital marketing manager must focus on maximizing the company's top line within the budget and internal resources available. It's a delicate task with a multitude of tools, action parameters and disciplines that need to work together.
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What is digital marketing management?
In the grand scheme of things, it's all about:
- Setting ambitious but realistic goals (KPIs)
- Creating a digital strategy (because you can't do everything)
- Translate the strategy into a digital marketing plan with various activities
- Execute activities through digital channels and on digital platforms
- Monitor and adjust along the way
- To evaluate
- Reporting results
- Implementing improvements
And in that way, it's similar to any other task. But the complexity is clear to see, especially if you compare it to what marketing management was just a few years ago. Today, a digital marketing manager needs to have an overview of many parameters. If we dive into the process mentioned above, the person needs to have insight into:
The customers
- Their needs, thoughts and behaviors - especially around the products in the company's category
- Segmentation
- Customer segments' media consumption, their digital behavior
Media platforms
- Traditional media published digitally
- Social Media with user-generated content (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest and what they are all called)
- Blogs and all sorts of other formats
- The digital marketing manager must understand the media all the way around: Who uses it? What do they use it for? How do they use it? What communicative opportunities does the media offer?
- How to buy into the media. Is it fixed price? Impact-based pricing?
- How can you define your target groups against media audiences?
The market
- What are your competitors doing?
- What are customers talking about (social listening, trending etc.)?
- What trends are emerging for the category?
Custom channels
- Website and landing pages
- Email marketing with newsletters
- Social media profiles
- Content Marketing media such as blogs
- Events
Technologies and tools
- Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, Google Trending etc.
- CMS systems, CRM systems, Social Media management systems such as Hootsuite
Creative assets
- Content (articles, videos, blog posts, social media posts, reports, surveys, product information etc.)
- Campaigns
- Images
- Product stories
- Boilerplates
- Style and tone
- Design manuals etc.
- Concepts
Search engines
- Google, Bing and whatever else there may be
- How do we move up in organic search (SEO)?
- How do we buy in on keywords and terms?
Data, rules and laws
We are heading towards marketing becoming more and more personalized and individualized on the one hand, while the protection of the individual consumer/customer is intensifying on the other. So the digital marketing manager needs to be on top of GDPR, cookie rules and all the other restrictions - legal and illegal - that marketing is subject to.
It's a huge area to keep on top of. In fact, it's so big that no one can keep track of it all without using tools. That's why marketing has become the biggest buyer of IT equipment today. And digital marketing managers sit at the top of an ever-growing tech stack.
And yet, it's all about people first and foremost. Namely, customers. Understanding customers, developing products they will pay for, creating customer preference for your brand, and making sure customers can easily get hold of the products. This is important to remember in the midst of the technological race.
How do digital marketing managers create value?
In most companies, the marketing machine runs 'by itself' at some level. In the sense that it never stops. Another difference compared to the past, where campaigns were run and there was occasional 'radio silence'. Today, most companies work with both campaigns and a permanent online presence.
So a digital marketing manager creates value by being like a general. He must be able to:
- See the big picture
- Find opportunities and threats (in the crowd)
- Prioritize your efforts
- Initiate them and execute them through others (leadership)
- Learn and pass on your learning
- Translate knowledge into new products or improvements
This means that in addition to professional skills, a successful digital marketing manager often has some special personal qualities.
What personal qualities should a digital marketing manager have?
- Analytical approach
- Curious
- Persistent
- Competitive
- Impatient and with a strong personal drive
- Ambitious
- Psychological (if not anthropological) insights
It's no coincidence that some of the most successful people in the world have these qualities. They say that New York is the city that never sleeps. Similarly, the internet is the world that never sleeps. So, for the record, let's also add that a good digital marketing manager needs high stress levels and self-confidence - paired with the gift of doubt.
Why a freelance digital marketing manager?
In the past, most people might have thought of freelancers for one-off projects. However, many companies have now realized the benefits of working with freelancers on a long-term basis:
- You can cover needs that don't justify a permanent position
- In periods when you don't need it, you don't pay for the skill
- In a long-term relationship, the freelancer gets to know the company almost as well as a permanent employee
- Compared to buying the desired skill set from an agency - such as an advertising agency - working with freelancers is usually much cheaper
- You have the flexibility to rethink the overall competency profile of the person responsible for an area
- More and more really talented people prefer to work freelance
- A freelancer can still look at your business 'from the outside' - which is a valuable thing when thinking about creative
- Freelancers can bring fresh, outside inspiration to your business
How do you find a good freelance digital marketing manager?
Finding the right freelancer can be difficult. And above all, it can take a long time. Because there are many freelancers within the same field, and even if they boast the same skills, there can be a big difference when it comes to the way they work and the work they deliver. When you ask Marketingcapacity.dk to help you find a freelancer to work with, the process is simple:
- You describe your needs to us (either in writing or verbally - we'll confirm in an email)
- We screen the thousands of profiles on Marketingcapacity.dk and, if necessary, the market through our channels
- We nominate a list of candidates and talk to them according to your needs
- You will be presented with 3 candidates that seem to meet your needs
- During the 3 meetings (at your location or digitally) you can ask questions and see examples of their work
- You choose the freelancer you would like to start working with
- We set it up in our systems with time tracking etc. so you have an overview and full control
In other words: After describing your needs, simply set aside 2 hours to meet with 3 hand-picked and screened candidates. That's your guarantee of a good result with reasonable effort.
