Marketers don’t need to master advanced coding languages like Ruby to greatly increase their value. Basic levels of HTML, CSS, and maybe even JavaScript or Python can vastly reinforce a resume for someone and impress a digital marketing recruiter.
1. Reading a Web Page’s HTML Underbelly Improves SEO
SEO and Marketing have fused together so much because SEO relies heavily on content. Â Many marketers consider themselves SEO specialists (and vice-versa). In order to optimize a page, marketers must be able to read the page’s skeleton – which means reading HTML. In order to find, change, and edit meta descriptions, title tags, keywords, or headers, you need to be able to find them by looking at the “bones” of the website.
Need to catch up on your basic coding skills? Start here!
2. Understanding HTML and CSS Helps Design Better Web Properties
While looks aren’t everything, a messy webpage or blog is less likely to get attention than a clean, attractive looking page. Marketers are almost always in charge of blog creation and posting (as well as website content changes). If you’re looking to do any of the following without bugging the programmers on your team, learn basic HTML and CSS so you can:
[icon_list icon_style=”default” font_size=”default_size” item_width=”1″] [icon_list_line icon=”icon-check”]Embed Images, Audios, and VideosAll of that, plus much more, takes a very small amount of time with basic HTML and CSS knowledge. I’m a great example; I’m far away from being a coding genius or web designer but I’m able to assemble a decent-looking blog post when I need to thanks to my basic understanding.
3. HTML and Basic Javascript Help You Get More From Your Analytics
Marketers must measure their campaigns to understand the impact and any necessary changes needed to be made. While Google makes their analytics pretty simple and user-friendly, marketers need to know how to make changes based on analytics data, embed tracking codes, and understand which pages users are visiting. For example, Google Tag Manager allows marketers to put tags on websites such as tracking and optimization tags, which are snippets of JavaScript that send visitor info to a third party. Understanding this concept at its core requires a basic knowledge of JavaScript, as well as HTML.
4. Craft Better Emails and Improve Templates with HTML and CSS
While email marketing services like MailChimp, provide nice templates for marketers to use, customers always appreciate that extra touch, which means knowing how to customize a template. While uploading content to the email template is simple, changing how the template looks requires a bit of programming knowledge. Having this knowledge will get you better looking (and most likely better performing) email campaigns.
5. Basic Coding is Essential for Better Split Testing
In order to move a “Contact” button or social share button around, marketers will need to understand HTML to move it and CSS to make it look good and not accidentally break the page.
A/B testing is a digital marketer’s bread and butter; and it is not just for website homepages. Blogs and internal company pages can be tested to measure effectiveness and conversion. While this task may fall to the developers on the team, it’s more effective to have it handled by the marketers, as they have an understanding of the customer and where/why they will click on certain parts of the website. In order to move a “Contact” button or social share button around, marketers will need to understand HTML to move it and CSS to make it look good and not accidentally break the page.
6. Simple JavaScript Helps You Perform Simple Automation in Adwords and Elsewhere
This can be a godsend, especially at a smaller company where the marketer is the paid social advertising as well (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google ads). Google launched Adwords scripts, which allows you to programmatically control your AdWords data with simple JavaScript in a browser-based IDE. Luckily for marketers, only a basic level of JavaScript is necessary, but this allows users to create more powerful, efficient, and effective ads.
Demian Squiersky, Head of Marketing at Wideo, a DIY animated video production platform, worked in front-end development before moving to marketing. He was asked if his experience helped him transfer to the marketing world and advice on marketers learning to code. He notes:.
“Now with the power of Google Ads, some, even very basic, knowledge of JavaScript is a huge plus. Google scripts, for example, can automate reporting on Google Ad– taking the data from the past 7 days and sending it to you or the client. Scripts can automatically move campaign keywords performance by raising funds towards those performing higher. Knowing a basic level of JavaScript has enhanced our campaigns.”.
Marketers that have basic coding skills communicate with the greater team better, as they have a good idea of what is practical for a website. Communicating with developers can be tricky, but with an understanding of their “language” the entire team can run more effectively and smoothly.
Source: tech.co
Need more convincing? Hear from Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, and many other great minds on the value of learning to code beyond just impressing a digital marketing recruiter.
video from Mark Heninger
More on Coding and Other Ways to Show Value to Digital Marketing Recruiters
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In our research for the Skills of the Modern Marketer report, we asked senior level marketers that question and have come up with 15 essential skills – organised into three ‘top five skills lists’ for marketing. More
Any suggestions for schools in the Seattle area?
Unfortunately, no. We know little about schools because we work with med to senior level marketing talent.
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