What is the skill-set of a modern marketer? In the not-too-distant past, marketers were thought of mostly as the “creatives.” They were often judged on the level of creativity of their advertisements. It was commonly accepted that the more creative the marketer, the better they were at convincing people to buy something.
However, times have changed, and marketing has evolved. Today, marketers realize that their actions must be tied to a specific revenue driver within the company.
The marketing of yesteryear involved pushing products and services on customers by using creative advertisements that involved some sort of gimmick that was designed to affect the psyche of the buyer.
Let’s take a look at the must-have skills of the modern marketer:
Today’s marketer must be influential online and savvy with social media marketing. To do that, they need to be an active participant in the social networks that best align with their company’s business interests.
It is important to know things like which platforms to publish company content on and how to build an online community. If a marketer lacks an understanding of social media and has a weak personal brand, I would question their ability to build your company brand.
Marketers must be data-savvy, and able to apply analytical thinking to alter their campaigns to align with what the data is telling them about customer needs. If a marketer is unable to properly interpret data it can lead to some huge misses for the company due to wasted efforts targeting the wrong prospects.
Today’s marketer must be skilled in tech. It is clear that technology is the driver for many of the changes we have seen in marketing. It is critical that they grasp the strategy behind the use of technology in the organization and be able to fully leverage the tools they are given.
It is imperative that a marketer also be a researcher. They must be able to quickly find information that pertains to their campaigns. Additionally, marketers need to be able to crowd-source to gather relevant data points from focus groups. Marketers need to be able to stay on top of industry trends and key insights.
With social media, marketers are engaging more with customers now than ever. Thus, customer experience is also a skill that a marketer in today’s digital world must-have. Marketers must be in tune with what constitutes a great customer experience at their organization, and it should shine through in their campaigns.
A marketer must be a skilled writer. They need to be able to create compelling content that tells their company’s story. Not only should a marketer have a way with words, but they need to know how a thing or two about formatting, titles, keywords, and choosing attention-grabbing visuals.
A marketer needs to be collaborative and able to develop strong bonds with other internal teams like sales. Marketers also manage many vendor relationships. Within their company, a marketer must keep up on all developments on the product side.
To do so, ongoing and open communication with internal teams is critical. Externally, a marketer needs to cultivate the right vendor relationships and partnerships that will drive profitability within their organization.
Lastly, a marketer that has developed strong leadership skills will tell you that it is impossible to have true expertise within every one of these facets of marketing. However,
And, most of all, a marketing leader must understand that it is impossible to possess expertise in all of these areas, and they must surround themselves with an objective team that can complement their strengths.
Of course, creativity is not lost on today’s marketer. It’s just that now there is so much more to marketing than ever before.
