What are the most rare / valuable skills in online marketing?

I echo the answers already given - but add that the skills in most short supply today are an understanding of data and analytics and how to tie these into the customer journey.

Educate yourself using Avinask Kaushik's blog and newsletter. He wrote this blog post and it's invaluable as a starter primer for the topic of content marketing measurement framework.

https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/see-think-do-content-marketing-measurement-business-framework/

Skills that you can grow and be trained

1. Analytics - you need to analyze campaigns, landing pages, keywords and bunch of other data to be successful

2. Creativity - you need to be creative to write some interesting content, or be able to judge the work of the designers and creative team

3. Curiosity - you need to test lots of staff and be curoius to learn more staff every day. The industry is changing very fast.

I recommend you also checking out my latest article on 10X marketers. A 10X marketer is an individual who is thought to be as productive as 10 others in his or her field.
https://www.incredo.co/blog/the-world-of-10x-marketers-and-developers

This will help you also to find what skills you need to have that are normally hard to be trained for!

Rare?

Not a skill, but a personal quality: persistence.

Loads of people figure they're going to make their millions on the internet but lack the persistence to stick it out for more than three days.

No exaggeration. Three days. The energy is based on the shiny object they think is going to make them the money, and it runs out quickly. Instead, the energy has to come from belief in yourself.

Learning how to create and run systems is a far more important skill than, say, leadership in this field. You have to get past the belief that some whiz-bang techie thing is going to do the work for you. It's not.

Online marketing is very much like offline marketing. You still need four systems:

> a lead generation system
> a qualification system
> a closing system
> a fulfillment system.

The technology hardly matters. Tech is syntax. Figure it out in plain language first, and apply the specific technology later. For instance, you need a lead generation system. OK, where are the people who are likely to use what you offer hanging out online? How can you start drawing them off to your own web real estate, or list?

We could easily switch this to offline: how can we get a list of people who fit the demographic of your target market?

Either way, you need a method to reach them, get in front of them, and start sorting them.

When you get a consistent process in place, which you can measure and manage, that's when you start having your system.

Technology is glue. Apply it last. Don't get caught up in it. Business is business, and there are still live human beings at the end of the tech, whether it is a direct mail piece or an opt-in page.

The map is not the territory, and every single time you go into a new marketplace you are going to have to figure it out for yourself. Leads right back to persistence, doesn't it? Even if you have the map, meaning a coach or instructions on how to do the thing, you'll still have to make adjustments, fine tune the thing, and get it working specifically for you.

I've never needed fancy keyword tools, but I made money online right away from my start in 2011. How? I got in front of a hungry market and figured out what they wanted that I could provide. Then I packaged some of my knowledge up and gave it to them. You can complicate things as much as you like, but that's all online marketing is. So maybe learning how to keep things simple and your perspective clear are a couple of those valuable things.

What I'm about to mention is just 1 skill among many that a marketer ought to have – and not, by a long shot, the most important. But, since it is my own narrow area of specialization, the lack of this skill among marketers is something I notice daily as a glaring omission.

Domain names – the internet is built on domains. They're how we name websites, protect brands online, navigate directly to a site from a billboard or a radio ad, shorten URLs, recognize email messages, and trust that the page we're viewing really belongs to our bank.

Yet marketing professionals, for the most part, don't understand domain names adequately. I know VPs of marketing who mix up basic terminology like "URL" and "website" and "domain". Most marketers don't value domains adequately, seldom realizing there's a whole property market in which domains are trading daily.

Most professionals – including very smart people – rarely think about domain names strategically as assets to leverage in marketing campaigns. Usually I see entrepreneurs naming their startups and blundering badly because they don't think about domain-related issues.

Among established organizations, half fail to protect their brands by registering the right domains. And the other half wastes money maintaining domains they don't need. It's a rare company that knows its way around the domain industry or which plans ahead with any kind of domain portfolio strategy at all!

Marketers know by now that they can't neglect social media or PPC. So everybody knows they ought to know something about those topics. Domain names are important in a similar way – as another tool in the toolkit.

Your employers won't tell you to learn about domains. You won't be asked in job interviews. But they weren't asking about your social media acumen years ago either. If you want to be ahead of the curve, learn about domain names.

There are a lot of great answers here but at the core of your question is "how do I become great?"

How did Michael Jordan become great?
How did Steve Jobs become great?
How did Tom Brandy become great?

My question to you is why do you want to pursue online marketing?Are you passionate about it? Or are you wanting to pursue this because you think you can make alot of money doing it?

I know many people that make great money offering online marketing for business but are miserable. I also know many people who love online marketing but can't make a living doing it.

Hope that helps!

Lets get on a phone call soon!

Some of the rare skills that are required are as follows:
1. SEO specialist: It should come as little surprise that SEO is the skill at the top of this list. Some people like to believe that SEO is dead, but nothing could be farther from the truth. SEO is just as important now as it has ever been, if not more so. But there is far more to SEO than just getting your website to show up for certain search queries. Due to the changes in Google’s search algorithm, SEO practices are changing. Businesses are beginning to understand the importance of white-hat marketing techniques, such as content marketing and guest blogging, which are becoming a critical part of SEO success. Because of all the changes within the world of SEO, hiring a dedicated team of SEO experts has become darn near a necessity. Companies need a person or a group who can keep up with the rapidly evolving world of SEO. They need people who understand the importance of providing value to the customer in addition to the technical side of things. If you want to land a high-paying job within the digital marketing world, learn SEO and watch the offers roll in.
2. PPC executive/specialist: Another skill that is currently in high demand is PPC marketing. There are several businesses generating high amounts of revenue who want to expand their reach through paid advertising. The problem is, they do not know how to properly allocate that money to ensure that it generates a high ROI. That is where PPC marketing comes in. The goal of PPC is to help a company’s website reach rank #1 within Google by bringing in high quality, targeted traffic. In theory, this sounds incredibly simple. But in practice, this is one of the most difficult marketing jobs in the world. You must have a strong grasp of math, marketing strategy, and analytics. You also need to know Google Analytics and AdWords like the back of your hand. And then, you need to be able to develop campaigns that are providing measurable results to your clients, analyse those campaigns, and report on them. PPC is incredibly complicated, important, and high investment/risk. Which is why it’s also one of the best paying marketing jobs on the modern market. If you can effectively show companies that you know how to bring in targeted traffic through PPC for the lowest cost possible, you will be able to generate massive amounts of revenue for years to come. Organize your digital marketing ideas in one place across all the document apps you use.
3. Social media expert: Social media is one of the single most powerful tools in the modern marketing world. Over the past decade, social media has been growing faster than the Internet! And it is not slowing down. Nearly one-third of the population is currently using some type of social media platform. It should not surprise you that companies are looking to capitalize on this unique marketing opportunity. However, most companies, even many tech companies, simply have no understanding of how to leverage the different social platforms to achieve their goals. This makes social media marketing an invaluable skill set to learn and cultivate. And the thing is, there is a lot more to social media marketing than just promoting content on Facebook. If you want to set yourself apart from the crowd, you need to master each platform. This means understanding the best times of day to post, the types of posts that generate the most user engagement, and the ways to use each platform to achieve specific goals. And once you understand the basics of social media marketing, you need to understand how to leverage paid social media marketing. You need to develop an understanding of copywriting, colour psychology, analytics, and visual marketing.
4. Email marketing: There are few things that are more important to online success than email marketing. If you have a large email list and you know how to leverage it, you can make large amounts of income every month with almost no work. If you want to be someone who has employers knocking down your door, instead of spending hours and hours every day searching for new clients, learn email marketing. And I do not just mean writing emails that convert. I mean the whole process. You see, most businesses have no problem hiring someone who can write high quality emails that will generate a few conversions.

But there is more to email marketing than simply writing some fancy emails. Companies need people who can help them build huge lists from scratch and then use those lists to achieve a variety of goals. Building an email list of tens of thousands without an existing client base is an extremely challenging task. And if you know how to do it, you possess an extremely valuable skill. Beyond that, companies also need people who can use those lists to grow their social media following, promote new products, and drive new sales. If you can learn how to master the email marketing process from start to finish, you will have clients begging to work with you.
5. Mobile marketing: One of the most sought after, and yet most overlooked, skills are the art of mobile marketing. While there are plenty of similarities between desktop and mobile marketing, there are also enough differences to make this an essential standalone skill. To add real value to the company, you need to understand these differences and why they are important to the rest of the business. You also need to be able to talk intelligently about the more complicated aspects of mobile marketing such as SMS and responsive design. One of the great things about mobile marketing jobs is that they are significantly less competitive than SEO or social media marketing jobs but are still a huge need for most businesses.
6. Analytics: One of the single most important parts of digital marketing is analytics. You can learn all the previously mentioned skills, but without the power of analytics, you will always be fighting with one hand tied behind your back. In any marketing campaign, it is essential to run tests, track data, and then analyse that data to determine how you can improve and overcome marketing plateaus.
7. Content management/marketing: Content marketing is king. We live in the age of information. If you do not have some sort of content that is bringing viewers and keeping them hooked, you will fall behind. This makes content management and marketing a highly valuable skill, especially for start-ups. If you can learn how to curate and create incredible content for companies and then market that content to the point of it going viral, you will become one of the most valuable assets for those companies. If you can learn how to improve your social media skills, you will improve your content marketing skills. If you improve your abilities as an SEO, you will improve your ability to create viral content. Basically, any digital marketing skill you develop will improve your skills with content marketing. Because of the crossover between skills, mastering content marketing will give you invaluable leverage whether you are looking for clients or growing your own business.
8. Marketing automation: Companies need marketing automation solutions now more than ever. Marketing is not an inexpensive endeavour. Figuring out how to set up technology and software that streamlines the process as much as possible is an invaluable skill set. However, mastering the art of marketing automation requires a wide knowledge base and an understanding of several different software platforms. You need to learn the most efficient ways to automate email, social media, and content marketing, all without breaking your client’s budget. If you can do this, you will be able to ask for just about any figure you want. Most companies have no problem paying a top dollar to individuals who can save them money, make them money, and cut back on their workload at the same time.
9. UX design: One of the determining factors in online marketing success is the experience a user has once they have found your company. Potential customers want to be able to navigate through your content as easily as possible, enjoying an aesthetically pleasing and streamlined experience. In fact, customers will often base the credibility of an entire business on the design of its website alone. UX designers are responsible for ensuring that products, websites, and other online platforms are easy to use and provide the customer with a pleasant experience. Unlike most of the skills listed in this article, design is not solely responsible for bringing in new customers or generating leads. However, it is responsible for ensuring that all the effort companies put into other online marketing avenues is maximized. It does not matter if you are incredible at SEO, a social media marketing ninja, and an email marketing master. If customers cannot easily access, navigate, and use your website and products, all that effort will be in vain. And with the growing expectations of the modern consumer, this skillset is more crucial now than it has ever been.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath