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Success in Digital Arts: an Introduction to the 4 Pillars of Digital Marketing Excellence
Do you regularly wonder what it takes to thrive in the fast-moving world of digital marketing & advertising? You’re not alone. The paid marketing industry has undergone a profound transformation in just the last few years. And if 2024 was any indication, the speed of disruption will not only continue but accelerate in 2025. Regardless of whether you aim to enter or excel in the industry as a digital marketing practitioner, a social media marketer, an SEO specialist, or a marketing analyst, there are a few key skills you’re going to need, and a few new ones becoming more relevant. If you are exploring becoming or improving as a digital marketer or channel ad specialist in 2025, this post is for you.
The good news: there is still plenty of demand for digital marketing professionals, and still lots of value in human-led channel advertisers working “hands-on-keyboard” to manage and optimize an ad platform’s daily media investment. According to GroupM, global advertising revenues are projected to surpass $1 trillion for the first time in 2024, with demand for skilled marketers continuing, despite advances in machine learning, automation, and AI. According to Robert Half, skills in data analysis, AI tools, and content marketing are anticipated to be among the most sought after skills in the digital marketing field in 2025.
The Digital Marketing Skills Sought by Brands
While companies vary in how they employ digital marketing professionals, their objective is often uniform. Some brands build their marketing programs by finding and hiring individuals with specific channel skills to operate a variety of outbound advertising efforts. Other brands partner with agencies to oversee the execution of either channel-specific or omnichannel digital marketing and advertising efforts. Some brands employ a hybrid, filling in support through a combination of in-house and external teams. While the method may vary, builders and buyers alike seek a cost-effective solution for turning the complex, expensive-to-operate marketing cost center into an efficient profit center. More recently, the advent of LLMs and AI tools introduced fresh questions about what role individuals play in managing and growing a digital marketing program.
So, what skills should aspiring or advancing marketing practitioners prioritize developing, and what processes may soon be automated? To answer this question, we’ll share a framework used by Udemy to guide you on the key “pillars of excellence” necessary in a high-performing paid marketing program, and how you can upskill in one or more of these pillars to pivot or advance in this career in 2025.
