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Hiring An SEM Expert: What Skill Set To Look For

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SEM experts are in high demand. Not surprising, given the tremendous growth rate of e-commerce.

In 2018, about 1.8 billion people across the world bought goods online. E-retail sales in 2018 amounted to US$ 2.8 trillion.

B2B (business to business) online sales in 2018 were almost 4 times higher than e-retail. The gross merchandise volume (GMV) of B2B e-commerce in 2018 amounted to US$ 10.6 trillion.

It’s a huge market when we take B2B and B2C online sales together.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | Hiring An SEM Expert: What Skill Set To Look For

Ranking by Total E-Commerce Volume 2017: Source

This growth in e-commerce has also fueled the demand for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) experts. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 20% growth in the demand for SEM experts between 2018 and 2028.

What Does An SEM Expert Do?

The core job of an SEM expert has not changed, however. An SEM expert has the responsibility of improving the SERP ranking of a business webpage.

In jargon-free terms, the company website must appear towards the top of a search engine results page (SERP). That’s what an SEM expert needs to ensure. At the heart of SEM is a company’s SEO (search engine optimization) strategy.

The SEO strategy, in turn, involves the following:

  • Keyword research and implementation
  • Content strategy planning and implementation
  • Link building
  • Web marketing with analytics

Categories of Digital Marketing Strategies

Digital marketing can be of three types, at least:

  • Organic: Your business webpage automatically appears towards the top of SERP
  • Pay Per Click (PPC): A paid marketing campaign where you pay the platform every time your ad gets clicked
  • Paid Directory Listing: You pay to be included in a web directory relevant for your business

An SEM expert needs to have the skills necessary to plan, implement, manage, assess, and restrategize as and when necessary, for each of these three categories.

The Skill-Set An SEM Expert Must Have

Two distinct sets of skills are necessary: technical skills and soft skills. Technical skills refer to the specific capacities needed to efficiently and effectively execute what a job position demands. Soft skills are generic skills that determine how effectively a person can work in any position.

Technical Skills

1. Thorough Knowledge of SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) is the foundation of SEM. Without SEO, there is no SEM. An in-depth understanding of how SEO works in different search engines is a non-negotiable skill for an SEM expert.

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Thorough SEO expertise involves the following:

  • Up-to-date knowledge about search engine algorithms for ranking: This is a critical element as search engines keep changing their algorithms. The mode of search engine rankings changes accordingly.
  • How to blend quality content with keywords: This is pivotal to improving organic ranking. It is equally essential for PPC campaigns to be effective. Merely using the researched keywords is not enough.

A seamless blending of the relevant keywords with attractive content is what works. Search engines like Google are smart enough to reject content that focuses only on the keywords.

  • Comprehensive understanding of offsite SEO: Everything that you and others do away from your site to improve the ranking of your website is offsite SEO.

A critical element in offsite SEO is building links to your page. Google, the most-used search engine, depends on links to determine how relevant your content is. Writing blog posts and guest articles on other sites are methods of link building.

The SEM expert does not need to write. But they need to have technical information like using critical keywords towards the beginning of a post for effective linking. This is necessary to guide copywriters to produce content that works.

2. PPC Management Skill

PPC (pay per click) campaigns are the paid counterpart of driving organic traffic to your webpage. The aim is the same: improving the SERP ranking of your website. Therefore, all the skills needed for SEO are relevant.

However, PPC campaigns involve financial investments. To ensure high returns on investment (RoI), its management needs additional skills as well. Focus on the following when you hire your PPC campaign manager:

  • Marketing Skills including a basic understanding of consumer behavior, consumer segmentation, and trend analysis of targeted consumers.
  • Planning and Time Management to determine how long a PPC campaign should continue, how often the content needs tweaking, etc.
  • Monitoring, Reviewing, and Adapting skills are critical to efficiently and effectively manage PPC campaigns.

B3. asic Knowledge of Programming Languages

The ability to use CSS and to write in HTML is essential for an SEM expert. Some technical understanding of web design is also critical. Without a basic understanding of how websites work, efficient and effective SEM is impossible.

An SEM expert needs to understand technology from the user perspective to be effective.

4. Ability to Work with Data Analytics

Analyzing the numbers and making sense of the statistics are necessary to understand the general trends in relevant search patterns. These become even more critical with paid ad campaigns.

5. Copywriting and Copyediting

The SEM expert need not be directly responsible for generating the content. Without a creative understanding of what works and what does not, it is impossible to guide and refine the content to match SEO needs.

6. Social Media Management

Social media platforms continue to play an increasingly more important role in influencing consumer behaviors. A recent report mentions that 54% of social media users research products on these platforms.

No SEM expert can do their job competently without social media management skills.


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Soft Skills Critical For An SEM Expert

Soft skills refer to competencies that are non-technical, yet critical for effective functioning in nearly any role. For an SEM expert, the must-have soft skills include the following, without being limited to them.

1. Curiosity and the Willingness to Learn

Stagnation of thought is a killer for any marketing position. An SEM expert is ultimately a crucial component in your marketing wheel. The quality of being a lifelong learner is essential.

That presupposes a curious bent of mind, in turn. Without it, an SEM expert would fail to engage in research, which forms an indispensable part of their job.

2. Analytical Skills

Working with data analytics is a technical aspect of the larger analytical skill-set that an SEM expert needs to have. Common usage packs several competencies within the domain of analytical skills. The ability to disintegrate complex information, critical thinking, and problem-solving are the core components.

3. Proactive, Transparent and Effective Communication

An SEM expert cannot work in a silo. They need to work as part of a team. Effective team functioning requires strong communication skills.

More importantly, without proactive and transparent communication abilities, an SEM expert will be unable to judge the aptness of the contents to be used. Contents are meant to communicate – to search engines and consumers alike.

4. Cross-Functional Partnership Competency

An SEM expert needs to function with a multidimensional team addressing different business needs. Without the ability to collaborate and coordinate with a cross-functional team, an SEM expert will be shoddy at their job.

5. Project Management Skills

An SEM expert will likely need to manage several projects simultaneously. That needs strong project management skills. Planning, strategizing, time management, review and prioritization, etc, are some of the key abilities included within project management skills.

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Outsourcing Might Be The Smarter Choice

Partnering with an experienced SEM agency with a proven track record often proves more cost-effective than hiring an in-house SEM expert. You save on overheads and other related costs without losing access to the expertise you need.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Sheryl JonesSheryl Jones is the Sr. Marketing Specialist at Uplers who has a great experience in designing well-defined user journeys across the digital marketing domain. She leverages her digital marketing expertise to help businesses draw significant ROIs.

How To Start Selling On Amazon

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Selling on Amazon|How To Start Selling On AmazonAmazon is the biggest retail company in the world. It’s no wonder that Jeff Bezos is the richest man alive when you consider how many people use Amazon. It offers all sorts of products and a convenient way for people to purchase goods in seconds.

Consequently, if you can sell things on Amazon, you tap into a massive market. Millions of people use this website every single day, so you could find loads of eager customers. Plus, you don’t have to worry about marketing as Amazon’s power already leads people to the website!

How do you get started? Selling things on Amazon is easy as soon as you have everything set up and ready for action. Here are the three critical steps to help you set your business up:

Create your Amazon Seller account

To start, you have to set up an account on Amazon that lets you sell products. You can do this by going to the Amazon Services page and clicking on the ‘ Start Selling’ button. From here, it’s a case of going through the different menus and filling in all the information. For a more detailed guide, you can check out the video here:

Get your supply chain sorted

Obviously, you have to think about how you will get your products to the customer. Ideally, you have a warehouse or garage that stores all of the products ready to be sent out. But how do you get the products to your premises? Basically, you need to find a shipping partner that can forward the products from their initial location to you. Generally, your best Amazon freight forwarder will have access to countries that provide cheap goods. Therefore, you can buy them for a low price, get them shipped to you, and sell for a profit. It’s business 101, and this is how most people make a profit as an Amazon seller.

Choose your products wisely

You can sell just about anything on Amazon, but be smart with your choices. If you sell a product that loads of other people/businesses are selling, it will be hard to gain a profit. Customers will choose whichever listing has the best reviews, the lowest price, and the quickest delivery! Instead, try to pick products that are quite rare on Amazon. This will be hard, but it’s not impossible. Food and clothing items are two great product categories to look into. It’s much easier to find products that are unique to Amazon in these domains. It doesn’t have to be 100% unique; you just need to pick things that aren’t too common.

These three steps will set you up with a plan to sell products on Amazon. The benefits of choosing this platform over, say, eBay is that it offers more profit potential. Amazon charges relatively low fees but provides a massive audience to tap into. You also don’t have to worry about things like building trust with customers or marketing your brand. The fact you sell on Amazon will make people trust you right away.

The 4 Rules of Efficient Commercial Interior Design

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | The 4 Rules of Efficient Commercial Interior DesignInterior design, whether commercial or residential, is a science, but this is even more so when we’re talking about commercial interior design. There’s an added element of shopper and worker psychology that gets thrown in. Colors have to be enticing for patrons, and even encourage them to commit certain actions. Decor also has to be functional for the staff. So much more has to be taken into consideration and owners need to understand what truly constitutes good and efficient commercial interior before they get started. Here are some of the principles of good interior design for businesses.

Versatility

One of the most important things for a commercial space is versatility. Restaurants often have an open floor design for this reason. You never know what could happen and when you could have to reconfigure the whole area. You might want to bring new elements in or experiment. You might also want to be able to use the space for different purposes. For instance, a restaurant might want to be able to transform into an event venue or change the configuration of tables for live entertainment.

Not only that, but spaces need to be easily upgradeable as well. You want to be able to keep the design current without changing basic parameters like your brand’s color palette, for instance.

Tech Conscious

You also have to think about technology and how to facilitate access to it. Power outlets come to mind. You want as many as you can and not always in the obvious spots. If all the outlets are near walls, then you won’t be able to install consoles or work stations in the middle of the room. This is where covered floor outlets could come in handy. You should also pay special attention to things such as overhead media, television, telephones, and computer networking.

Make Room for Personalized Spaces

For spaces like hotels, for instance, it’s essential that you can create spaces where patrons will feel cocooned. Hotels, especially busy ones, can feel impersonal at times. You want guests to be able to retreat and give them a choice of environments.

And this is where residential and commercial interior design services differ. They will go a step further than simply crafting spaces for you. They can also create bespoke furniture that will make these spaces stand out and offer the exact level of comfort that you need. Commercial design services will be able to customize spaces even more and give them a look unique to your brand.

Safety

Safety should also play an essential role in any form of interior design, but this is even more important for commercial design. First, you have to abide by certain regulations. You also have to deal with the real possibility of injuries and legal action. However, the most important is your moral responsibility to the people who will be using this building, whether it’s your employees or patrons.

These are the most important principles of sound commercial interior design. Make sure to find a team that will be able to align with your vision and help you make better choices in terms of both looks and functionality.

How to Become a Successful Landlord in the Property Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Property Business|How to Become a Successful Landlord in the Property BusinessLandlord is an occupation that gets a lot of negative attention. According to popular opinion, they simply own a lot of buildings, charge other people to live in them, and make a great deal of money without much in the way of effort.

This is overstating things a tad. Acquiring property is far from easy – especially if you don’t have a sizeable amount of capital to begin with. We’ll look at some of the steps you might take to become a landlord. But first, let’s ask why you might want to do so!

Why Become a Landlord?

The category of ‘landlord’ is broader than you might think. If you own several properties, and you’re renting them out, then you certainly qualify. But, as far as the rules are concerned, you also qualify if you’re just temporarily letting out the house you’ve been living in, because you’re staying elsewhere for a longer period of time.

Landlords can make a sizeable income, if they’re competent. But it’s easy to understand and account for all of your potential costs ahead of time, and to set aside a fund that can act as a buffer if you find yourself overstretched.

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How to get there

A buy-to-let mortgage is an easy way to become a landlord. You fund the purchase of a property through borrowing, and pay back the debt over time. The difference between the amount you charge your tenants in rent and the cost of repaying the mortgage is your profit. Factor in the cost of maintenance, wear and tear, and the fact that the property might not always be occupied, and you might find that this margin shrinks considerably.

For years, lenders have been suggesting that the Bank of England’s base rate could rise, and thus variable-rate mortgages are inherently risky. The coronavirus depressed rates even further, and thus this advice rings truer than ever. Bear in mind that your rate of repayment will be more generous depending on how much you’re putting down as a deposit.

The first property is among the most important you’ll buy. Choose the right location and your career as a landlord will get off to the best possible start. Don’t rush into a purchase, and always be ready to walk away. Look at the amount you need to not only pay off the mortgage, but to expand into a second property, and then a third.

Insurance

When you have many properties, the risk of wear and tear and sudden damage is spread. When you only have a few, the danger becomes that little bit sharper. You can protect against sudden losses through landlords’ insurance.

Renovating

If you’re buying a property in need of renovation, then factor in not only the cost of the actual work, but the time it’ll take (during which you won’t be able to rent the place out). If you have the time to spare in daily life, then you might commit to overseeing the renovation personally. If this isn’t something you can commit to, then outsource the work to a professional project manager.

Managing Tenants

As your empire expands, you may have difficulty in handling all of the day-to-day problems which will inevitably arise. If you have half-a-dozen properties, then it might be only once in a while that a tenant phones up with a problem. If you have several hundred, then the administrative workload will become unworkable. If your margins allow, you might consider outsourcing your responsibilities.

Common Productivity Errors When Managing Remote Teams

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Productivity|Common Productivity Errors When Managing Remote TeamsTime is money. Or, to put it more accurately, how you use your time is money. And that’s as true for you as it is for every member of your team. Particularly in the current climate. Even in the best of times, every day is a battle for productivity, the wring the most out of every day, optimize output and ensure that your overhead costs (including the costs associated with your personnel) are maintaining an optimal ROI. In the current climate, however, maintaining and managing productivity has taken on a whole new level of importance.

After all, this is one of the most economically and commercially challenging times in recent history. Businesses of all shapes and sizes have had to implement radical operational changes almost overnight, or risk losing ground to competitors with potentially fatal consequences. Every customer and every sale seems harder won than ever, and your competitors are snapping at your heels more voraciously than ever before as they try to engage customers who have become increasingly loath to spend.

You’re likely still adjusting to managing your team remotely. And as a leader, it’s up to you to ensure that you get the most out of each and every one of them. That means avoiding these all-too-commonly made mistakes…

Assuming that productivity isn’t your responsibility

Your employees need to take responsibility for their own productivity, right? Your job is to oversee and facilitate, not to babysit and cajole? This mentality, while understandable, is an oversimplification that can cause serious lapses in productivity and profitability.

Yes, employees need to be accountable for their own productivity. But it’s your responsibility to provide a technological and operational infrastructure that allows them to get the most out of every day. And to give them support and guidance when they struggle with this.

Failing to use the right communications tools

Speaking of technological infrastructures, you’ve likely had to make some changes to yours in order to maintain connectivity and communications. Yet, while improved technologies have made it easier for teams to communicate, failing to use the right tools (or failing to use their full gamut of capabilities) can be damaging to your productivity and your ROI. The right tools can reduce misunderstandings, facilitate collaboration and multitasking and help to maintain social cohesion among your employees. Which brings us to…

Neglecting the importance of socialization

Your employees miss one another! They miss the sense of camaraderie they shared. The feeling of working together to achieve shared goals, and the sense of buzz and excitement that pervaded in your physical workplace. And while it’s easy to dismiss social cohesion as a by-product of a productive working environment, it’s actually the engine that drives it! Which is why it’s important for leaders and entrepreneurs to set time aside for social activities, even if necessity dictates that they’re carried out remotely. This link has some great ideas for remote activities for teams.

Maintaining rigid working hours

Structure is important. It helps members of your team to compartmentalize their time and their thoughts. It allows them to distinguish between “home mode” and “work mode” when working remotely and prevent team members from pushing themselves too hard, stretching themselves too thin and burning out. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean that rigid working hours must (or should) need to be enforced.

Indeed, maintaining the same 9 to 5 working day could actually be counterproductive to remote employees. According to a 2020 study, a 94% majority of respondents said that they would benefit from increased work flexibility. Most commonly cited benefits included improved mental health / stress management, better ability to manage their home and personal commitments and happier working days.

A little flexibility can go a long way in keeping your team happy, healthy and a peak productivity.

Failing to recognize and celebrate employee achievements

Finally, it can be very challenging to keep your team motivated when they’re working remotely. Working from home means having to contend with a range of distractions from the urgency of housework to the allure of daytime TV. And when employees don’t feel engaged in their work, it’s very difficult to remain motivated. Especially when you’re not on-site to guide and support them.

The good news, however, is that recognition from leaders and peers alike can go a long way in facilitating engagement and motivation. There are a wealth of employee recognition apps which work just like social media platforms. Through them you can recognize, share and celebrate employee achievements. Not only does this help to engage employees, it also helps to build a greater sense of social cohesion amongst your team.