Almost all job descriptions for a digital marketing position have the words, "graphic design would be an asset" in them. This begs the question, should digital marketers have a skill in graphic design?
Amongst the many other responsibilities of a digital marketer, graphic design can seem like an added and perhaps more stressful task to add to their job. Scheduling content, creating content calendars, planning ads and ad audiences across platforms and replying to customer messages daily are just some of the tasks for a digital marketer to complete.
However, with a quickly changing and competitive market, is graphic design an essential skill for digital marketers and social media managers?
Is it necessary?
This depends heavily on the type of digital marketing job you want. Digital marketing in an agency versus a freelance job or working with a small to medium company will affect the responsibilities and expectations of employees. For example, bigger agencies don't often ask for graphic design as a skill because they would have in-house graphic designers and thus, they want their digital marketers to focus on content strategy and ads.
Working freelance or with a small company, however, where their overall marketing budget will be lower, means that they will want to get as much as they can for what they are paying. Therefore, it is an asset for them if they can rely on one person for all aspects of digital marketing, the graphic design included.
Overall, graphic design is an asset to have as a digital marketer because it gives you additional skills to be competitive in the market and it also equips you with the tools to create and manage great graphics on the job. This doesn't mean you have to have an in-depth knowledge of it but a general know-how can still be an asset. A lot of digital marketers know the basic rules and concepts of graphic design and work on Canva for many of their social media posts.
How can I develop my graphic design skills?
To understand the fundamental elements of graphic design you should do a course. This could be a short course that helps you grasp concepts like the basic comprehension of design, what makes a good image, an understanding of colour and its influence on design and more. This would also include you developing skills in applications like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
You can take a short course locally at:
- YTEPP
- and UTT
There are also a lot of short courses online with companies like Skillshare and Domestika.
In your free time, you should also play around with applications like Canva and their preset designs, this will help you develop a concept of what makes a good graphic and it will also show you how you can make aesthetically pleasing posts and stories in a short space of time.
In short, graphic design could be a factor that could help you land and succeed at a job in digital marketing and in many cases, a basic understanding of how to create simple and engaging graphic can go a long way.
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