Internet marketer: professional qualities of a specialist

Oddly enough, only some people clearly understand who an Internet marketer is, sometimes even the employers themselves. There is a fairly simple general definition: this is a specialist in charge of planning and organizing advertising campaigns on the Internet.

Yes, the wording is vague. But after all, the specifics of firms can be different, and depending on it, Internet marketers prefer one or another promotion channel, although these are all particulars. The overall goal and direction of activity always remain unchanged.

The essence of the work of an Internet marketer

Marketing is a process that begins with the study of the target market segment for which the organization is going to work. Marketers find out the potential demand and its size (capacity of the market segment); in other words, they identify buyers whose needs could be more sufficiently satisfied or who have an implicit interest in certain goods or services.

The question of what an Internet marketer does is easy to answer. Engaged in the same process but on the Internet. A competent specialist in this field can become a person who is interested in business, analytical work, and modern technologies.

In addition to interest and desire, you must have in-depth knowledge of the humanities, economics, and social sciences.

Internet marketer works in multitasking mode. He must analyze the rating of the proposed product on the market, compare it with what competitors offer, and identify strengths and weaknesses.

After receiving the statistics, the marketer is required to develop a competent strategy to attract customers. The strategy affects how the brand and products will now position themselves, on the advertising campaign, on behavior among competitors, and relationships with consumers and partners. After that, you need to collect information about the implemented promotion strategy’s success.

For example, on the Internet, there is an online store of goods for children, “My Baby.” The store’s popularity could be higher because they do not post information about themselves on various social networks; they are not promoted with the help of targeted advertising. The owner of this store independently purchases goods, delivers them to the warehouse, sends them to customers, and maintains the site.

He understands that for further work, it is necessary to hire an Internet marketer. It is he who will be able to popularize the store.

The specialist gets down to business: he forms an adequate strategy, uses effective means for promotion, works out the sales funnel, uses advertising, and, thereby, achieves an influx of customers and an increase in demand for goods.

Functional responsibilities of an Internet marketer

There is no specific list of functional duties of this profession. The customer (employer) himself outlines the range of cases that need to be done by an Internet marketer.

Moreover, only some employers know what the employee must do. In his view, the marketer needs to achieve the store’s popularity, increase demand, and increase income, doing all this in the shortest possible time and at the lowest price. Of course, it is difficult to find a good specialist for a small fee because the tasks of a competent Internet marketer are quite extensive.

Analysis of the target audience and competitors of the company

A marketer needs to carry out analytical work and collect statistics for further improvement work. On the to-do list:

• Competitive Analysis

Keeping track of your competitors is very important. It is necessary to track the sites where competitors place advertisements. It is required to monitor the actions that they carry out. You need to understand what advertising tools competitors use to attract customers.

Only after careful analysis will it be possible to form a single picture of how competitors achieve success in their work. The data obtained will make it possible to stand out against their background, to develop more profitable offers for consumers.

• Target audience analysis

Keeping track of your target audience is equally important. This will help shape her portrait. Marketing techniques for attracting young mothers and, for example, teenage girls will be very different. Having determined the target audience, you can understand exactly where advertising is appropriate and where users will close the site tab and will not even notice it.

Analysis of the project and products sold

Before starting work, a competent Internet marketer will analyze the area in which he will continue to work. This will help to identify the pros and cons, build a strategy that compensates for the shortcomings, and demonstrates the best sides. The analysis contains the following:

• Business Analysis

The marketer must learn everything about the company he works for and the products that the organization specializes in. Again, you need to identify the best and worst moments in your work to present the company to the target audience from the best angle.

• Analysis of the company’s Internet sites

This refers to checking social networks that provide information about the company and where goods are displayed. Websites can also have their advantages or disadvantages, which are worth working on. Forming a TOR for changes and transferring it to programmers for further work is necessary.

Work with advertising tools that help attract traffic.

The marketing specialist is obliged to increase the influx of the target audience to increase the chances of closing the deal. The following advertising tools will help in attracting traffic:

• Contextual advertising.
• Targeted advertising.
• Email marketing.
• SEO site optimization.
• Working with bloggers and influencers.
• Banner advertising.
• Work with aggregators and affiliate programs.

Not all tools are mentioned in this list. Extended information about them is taught in various courses for Internet marketers, often teaching specialists from scratch.

By the way, it is not the marketer who should perform all these tasks but narrow-profile specialists with special qualifications. The duties of an Internet marketer include the preparation of accurate, understandable terms of reference for other employees in the advertising field.

Goal setting and plan development

After analyzing and studying all available information about the company and product, you can start working on a unique selling proposition. It is from the formed USP that you will have to build on when considering the right promotion strategy. So, at this stage, you need to spend time on the following:

• Target fixation

It is necessary to fix the final goal of the work. We are talking about increasing sales by a certain percentage or a fixed amount of goods sold.

• Writing a plan

Prescribing a plan to move more correctly toward the final goal is required. The marketer will have to paint every step. On one, it is necessary to introduce certain advertising tools; on the other, the help of specialists will be required. An estimate must also be included in the promotion plan since serious costs are ahead (for targeting specialists, for a website developer, for copywriters, etc.).

• Building a sales funnel

Thanks to the sales funnel, how the client acts becomes clear, starting from discovering the company’s website and ending with purchasing some product. If a marketer sees this whole path, it will not be difficult for him to track the stage from which potential buyers often “fly off” and do not complete the deal they have begun. By tracking the stage, you can build its work more competently and not lose more profit.

Analysis of the results

It is necessary to analyze the results to understand the measures’ effectiveness. Analytical systems can help with this. At this stage, the following work is to be done:

• Conducting traffic analysis

A specialist should be able to analyze the traffic of each group of people, each technical means, and each region. This list can be continued for a very long time. The most important thing is that thanks to the analysis, it will be possible to find out which advertising tool is ineffective, where advertising needs to reach the target audience in the right amount, etc. By eliminating these “holes” in the advertising campaign, you can save money for the organization.

• Analysis of analytical systems

As already mentioned, knowledge in the field of information technology is necessary for an Internet marketer. It works closely with Yandex.Metrica or Google Analytics. These are the most famous analytical systems. Remember call tracking. It is a technology that links a phone call to an advertising source. With the help of this, it will be possible to identify the most successful ads and determine which advertising campaigns it is worth redistributing the budget to attract customers.

 Managing a large team of specialists

Although an Internet marketer’s job is accumulating many processes, he will need help to cope with everything. He needs competent helpers.

• Ability to clearly explain the task and form the correct terms of reference

An accessible explanation guarantees that what has been done will fully correspond to what was intended. It is necessary to explain to the specialists as clearly as possible what exactly and in what time frame they require.

• Ability to supervise the work of specialists and adjust goals

Correcting mistakes is better at the stage at which they are made rather than during the summing up of the work. It is necessary to control colleagues’ activities, referring to the terms of reference. Goals can change in the active work process of all specialists, about which the Internet manager must immediately notify the team.

Personal qualities of a specialist

The resume of an Internet marketer must contain a column about personal qualities. Many employers want to see such a specialist:

• Sociable.
• Patient.
• Attentive.
• Stress resistant.
• Initiative.
• Able to effectively manage their own and other people’s time.
• Creative.
• With an analytical mind.
• Talented organizer.
• Multitasking.
• Responsible.
• Motivated to work successfully and get good results.
• Active.

The main pros and cons of the profession

Polls about the pros and cons were conducted among top Internet marketers. Most often, they noted the following positive aspects of this profession:

• You can become an Internet marketer without getting any specific education. Specialized courses will tell you everything you need to know about this profession. At the same time, a person will have to engage in self-education and improve their skills in this area since the competition is very high.
• Internet marketing is a very profitable niche; you can make great money working in this area.
• An Internet marketer can work remotely without difficulty. This will allow you to travel and spend more time with your family.
• You can gain invaluable experience that will help you organize your own profitable business in the future.
• Internet marketers are highly valued in the job market, meaning a specialist will only be left with a job.

Now about the negative aspects of the profession:

• The activity is quite nervous. It is impossible to remain calm when you need to manage the work of a large team without missing numerous deadlines.
• Most often, marketers need a specific work schedule. Some assignments must be completed immediately after receiving them from the supervisor.
• Constant work in front of a computer screen is harmful to health.
• An Internet marketer must be responsible not only for his activities but also for the actions of others and the final result. For a long period, it keeps in constant tension.
• High competition, because the salary is decent.
• High demands from the employer.

The path to the profession

What an Internet marketer does, only at first glance, may seem like a simple matter. It is long, hard, detailed work. It all starts with education and immersion in the profession. Then follows the search for customers, long work by trial and error. Only some people are masters in this business and receive high wages.

As mentioned, there is no such direction in universities where Internet marketers are trained. It is necessary to have a certain base of skills on which it will be possible to build all further immersion in the profession. The path to becoming a digital specialist includes two global steps.

1. Training. This may be gaining knowledge in good courses on Internet marketing, where they provide all the necessary information for theoretical and practical work. It is also possible to gain knowledge through self-education. This will help with paid and free mailings, webinars, training, books, and manuals. Improving knowledge in electronic technologies, humanities, multimedia technologies, etc., is welcome.
2. Practice. It is best practiced by being an assistant to a qualified marketing professional. First, you can get a job in marketing agencies. They always have diverse jobs, which makes it possible to feel the full burden of responsibility of an Internet marketer.

Without the competent work of marketing specialists, many companies would be unable to last a few months on the market. Thanks to the hard work of specialists, a large audience has learned about them, people come to them for products, and they receive good revenue. Naturally, they will never want to part with their Internet marketing specialist after this.

You must work hard, improve your skills, and deepen your existing knowledge to get all the necessary knowledge and become in demand in this niche.