Why does a marketer need to know layout. Experienced Tips
HTML, CSS, JS and a general understanding of how websites work for online marketers
Marketing has a lot of tools, without the knowledge of which it is impossible to manage sales. This huge layer of knowledge must be studied and assimilated for at least 2-3 years. Internet marketing has the same idea and principles, but it needs to be done using completely different tools, because it is not for nothing that Internet marketing is a separate profession. This is not just a fashionable name of the profession, but a different profession. And if you are a marketer, but want to work on the Internet, then you need to spend a little more time learning the working tools of Internet marketing.
I noticed such a trend that Internet marketers do not know the basics of how sites work and do not want to understand it. “I’m a marketer, and all these technologies are for developers,” is no longer an argument, since the word “Internet” appeared in the name of the profession for a reason.
Contrary to the opinion of many Internet marketers, an advertising channel specialist who knows PPC advertising to perfection is not an Internet marketer. It’s like comparing the work of a chef-technologist with the work of a chef cutting ingredients for a salad.
As an employer, I tend to believe that marketers need to know and understand CSS/HTML/JS at a basic level in order to distinguish the back-end from the front-end (Front-end), understand the principles of html/css/js and programming in any of the languages, at least 3+.
Why is that? Let’s discuss!
Economic effect
We have to experiment a lot, and not every experiment gives a positive result. And if you involve a developer for each experiment, there is a chance to create a hole in the budget, because at this time the developer can just work on your wonderful product. Also, keep in mind that modern development methodologies cannot guarantee you a quick response from the developer, because if he is in the process (sprint), most likely he will not risk contacting marketing, because the development process, as a rule, has strict time limits.
Quick edits
First, you can make your own landing page. For example, using Bootstrap, there is a full set of tools and everything is ready, the main thing is to correctly position the blocks and throw texts and graphics.
Secondly, when you start driving traffic and suddenly want to change something, doing it yourself will be the fastest solution.
Working with analytics systems
Understanding the basics of how analytics systems work is also an important point, this topic is for other posts. But there is also a lot of JS.
Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrica are connected to the site using JS. Any interactions, such as sending additional events, also happen through JS. You can expand your reports in Google Analytics using Custom Dimensions and Custom Metrics – they can also be thrown into Google Analytics via JS. When using Google Tag Manager, you can pass additional events and variables using JS (Data Layer or Custom JS).
Conclusion: Understanding, curating and customizing web analytics is impossible without knowledge of how JS works.
Conversion Optimization
If the marketer doesn’t like the shape or layout of the block and needs to agree on the changes, it’s enough to open the developer tool in Chrome or Mozilla, tweak the html / css and show the developer an option that will fit better on the current page.
Couldn’t convince your colleagues with a screenshot?
Run an Experiment in GA or push your changes through Google Tag Manager to a specific traffic channel. Provide your colleagues with numbers from analytics systems that will prove you right.
Working with services for creating landing pages
There are many services that allow you to create landing pages on the principle of “Drag & Drop”. Suppose the template does not work, or you want to put something “to the right or left”, but it happens that the blue is not blue enough. In most cases, these services allow you to independently modify HTML, CSS.
Writing Specifications
If you follow the principles of MVP (Minimum Viable Product), you often have to look for the simplest implementation of features (“Wishlist”) for a product. Therefore, offers from marketers will be a huge plus, since as soon as you understand why you are implementing each of the “wishlists”.
Skills in HTML and CSS give you the opportunity to develop as an Internet marketer: writing an email and sending it through a mail service is no longer a fear or a problem. It is clear that there are Drag & Drop solutions, but when one of the popular mailers turns your letter inside out, or it will drive it somewhere for hours, or refuse to send it for various reasons, remember this post.
HTTP/Web Server/Backend/Cookie
Very often marketers bombard developers with questions/suggestions/wishlist:
– And let the logged-in users show other products on the screen? Or let’s show products that are accessories for a product previously purchased by this user?
– What if the user you referred makes a purchase within 30 days – will we give you a discount on the next purchase or credit N money to your bonus account?
– Analytics systems set cookies – why?
In order to do this, you just need to understand what event capture in Google Analytics is and how it works. You can send data to Google Analytics from any device connected to the Internet. It could be the backend of your site. Eg:
– It is better to fix transactions at the moment when the funds are credited to your account. After all, not every invoice will be paid in the end, and we need the right numbers in the statistics. Therefore, it is possible to send events of reaching a certain level by the user and later build an audience for Adwords based on this parameter.
If you want to develop as a specialist, cover more channels, write cool specifications that will eventually bring you a lot of conversions and sales, be sure to learn the basics of the Internet. Because offline marketing is vastly different from online marketing. In addition to the fact that you should be a marketer from the very beginning, you should know and be able to supervise the development of a site and setting up web analytics, know advertising Internet channels and how they work, collect and analyze data. And if you don’t know how to set up, analyze and finish, you haven’t become an Internet marketer yet.
Author: Maksim Sundalov, head of the EnglishDom online school of English