The saying, jack of all trades and master of none was certainly not said while keeping entrepreneurs in mind. An entrepreneur is someone who knows how to do a lot of things and is master of some. In fact the original saying “jack of all trades” was used as a compliment for a person who is good at fixing and has broad knowledge. And now, more than ever, it is important to have a variety of skills.
I assume you have already read enough articles on “essential skills of entrepreneurs” which mostly focus on soft skills. They talk about time management, communication skills, leadership skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving and adaptability, which are essential but what about technical skills?
Entrepreneurs need to possess the technical skills to move their businesses forward in this digital age. If you want your venture to be a success, you’re going to want to have a good grasp of these tech skills – or at least be aware of them, the benefits they can bring and how they can be used together to help your venture grow.
Let’s dive straight in and take a look at some of the most valuable technical skills you’re going to need to be a digital age entrepreneur.
1. Digital marketing skill
As everything is going online, this is a must have skill. Knowing how to sell your service or product online is one of the key elements of businesses these days. Nobody goes around distributing pamphlets or cards anymore when they think of starting a business. The first thing that comes to mind is how to make an online presence and reach out to the target audience.
components like email marketing, social media marketing. introduces you to a whole new set of audiences who can turn into valuable customers through targeted advertising of your product online. Get up to speed on the latest digital marketing trends and techniques with our 10 best digital marketing videos here.
2. Data analysis
Nowadays companies analyze everything, starting from things you look up online, amount of time you spend on a platform, things you search and buy and the ones that you don’t buy. All of this data comes together to provide valuable insights into consumer patterns, future prospects and competitor’s position.
Data analysis tells about the strength and weakness of your service, your position in your specific market and also about a competitor’s advantage over you. Well processed data helps with strategic decision making, like which product to withdraw from the market, which products to add due to increasing demand. Data analysis is far too important to ignore.
3. User experience
It is all that matters in today’s world. User experience begins the moment one gets in touch with your service or your product. It is the process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and the product.”
User experience is at the heart of SEO, CRO, and content marketing. If you can learn the why and how of user experience, you can drive your business to new levels of success. People buy the product first time for what it has to offer but they come back for the experience.
3. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Conversion rate optimization, or CRO, is the process of turning more website visitors into customers. The goal, basically, is more sales and revenue. The better your website can encourage users to take a specific action, the greater your business will grow.
Since the bulk of modern businesses do marketing online, this skill is one of the highest-ROI tactics in your marketing arsenal.
The full array of CRO tactics is complex, but the principles are easy to grasp. First, you must have a solid understanding of your customer. Second, you should be able to work with your existing data for some actionable tactics. Then, you run split tests to find out which variation converts more visitors.
4. Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of optimizing the content, technical setup, and reach of your website, so that your pages appear at the top of a search engine result for a specific set of keyword terms. Using SEO can drive visitors to your site when they display behaviour implying that they’re searching for relevant products, which can be a game changer considering that 90% of people searching haven’t formed an opinion about a brand yet.
SEO is defined as increasing a website’s rank in online search results, and thus its organic site traffic, by using popular keywords and phrases. Strong SEO strategies are hugely influential in digital marketing campaigns since visibility is the first step to a lasting customer relationship.
5. Content Writing
I can’t emphasise enough how important this skill is. Entrepreneurs are always writing something, either a business plan, proposal or a mail to an investor or to a co-worker. They constantly have to put material online on their social media handles or on their website. A great benefit of writing is the ability to think analytically and creatively. Polishing this skill will take you a long way.
Technical skills are important for every entrepreneur. But in addition to knowing these technical skills, you must be able to synthesize them in such a way that you can drive your business to greater success.
Now quickly, how important is it that you as a modern entrepreneur be able to master each of these skills?
Don’t sweat it. There’s a lot to learn in each of the categories above.
What’s crucial is not that you master them all, but that you understand their importance, know the basics and assess their ROI. A little knowledge of each skill will bring you much closer to success.
Which of these technical skills do you feel the weakest in? Which could make the biggest positive impact on your business?
