The world changes dynamically. So should do the people working in Marketing. What are the top 5 skills for marketing successfully in the digital age?
With that question I turned to the Marketing community on Linked In.
Here is what the marketing community envisions.
Oswaldo J. Villarroel Dujmovic, Specialist in Web Design, SEO, Marketing Online
1- Designs of Campaigns on line
2- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
3- SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
4- Marketing Viral Management
5- knowledge about new social trends and consumerA Digital Marketer must to be a person involved in technology and social media, must to know what is and how to use these technologies for himself and others for anything (search, buy, communicate, share, publish… etc.), allowing you to take advantage of these tools to the maximum.
Kenneth Larson, Retired Aerospace Contracts Manager, MicroMentor Volunteer and Founder “Smalltofeds”
Know the following:
1. Who is your client? (personal traits and proclivities)
2. Where is your client located in the organization and what role and authority does he or she hold?
3. What are the driving factors that will motivate the client to make a buying decision in your favor?
4. How to best lead the individual client to the conclusion you wish them to make in buying your product or service?
5. Why is your product or service the best to further the client’s personal value system and motives?
Dan Ramthun, Marketing Consultant, Insurance Professional
1) Doesn’t have the same canned marketing for every business
2) Takes the time to understand your business so they can suggest most effective ways to reach your target market
3) Has the tools to put together the right marketing plan for your needs
4) Establishes marketing goals with you so it is clear to everyone what is expected
5) Reviews marketing plan with you on a regular basis to evaluate the effectiveness of meeting goals and to make needed adjustments to marketing strategy
Terry Middleton, Principal at Performance Marketing LLC
1) Student: Never stops learning about their customer’s needs, market, customer and ways to engage them.
2) Creative: Looks for unique ways of delivering the message.
3) Wise: Knows what works and when to not follow the crowd.
4) Daring: Not afraid of jumping off a cliff to test the parachute.
5) Outstanding Listener: Listens to the customer, the market, the data.
Brijendra Chaudhary, Human Resource Associate at Dodsal E & Pte Ltd.
- Patience
- Perseverance
- Appetite to learn new thing
Howard Huang, Founder/CEO of MadeLoud International Incorporated
1) Be creative – As simple as that sounds, it actually is incredibly hard to pull off. A great marketer is expected to create and deliver new content, strategies, and ideas on a daily basis. I like to think sometimes that a person’s lifestyle is a good basis to tell if they are inherently a creative person. Do they paint, make music, practice karate, or take photowalks? How people express themselves personally can greatly influence how they express themselves professionally in marketing.
2) Data driven – Gone are days when marketing were never accurately measured and attribution models were purely estimates. We now have the tools to put science in the art of marketing. A good marketer can analyze buttloads of data and tell a story that can resonate with an audience.
3) Adaptable – There are so many ways to reach different people. Social media, print, blogs, direct mail, etc etc…. Sometimes you have a big budget and sometimes you have none. When the competition landscape all appears to be doing the same thing you have to change the rules and do something different.
4) Focus – To be good you have to be focused. It takes a lot of grinding to see the path of clarity, but when you get there the solution will be so easily identifiable.
5) Problem Solver – To deliver great marketing you have to be a good problem solver. You have to identify your customer’s pain, come up with a solution, and confirm if there is demand for that solution. This cycle is key to understand your customers and develop messaging to your marketing.
Cody Sharp, Inbound Marketing Manager at Delivra
Communication is important since they now have to be able to do it effectively via writing, speaking, and in 140 characters.
The love of learning. Things change quickly on the digital landscape. Marketers unwilling to learn will soon fall behind.
Tech-savviness is incredibly beneficial because it makes everything easier (not just in marketing).
Leadership. Just like in the days of Mad Men, being a team player is important but being a leader able to bring cohesion to a group of graphic artists, salespeople, IT, etc when necessary, is important.
Decisiveness. Whether you make the perfect decision or not doesn’t matter as much as making a decision and learning from it. There are 10+ tools to do nearly everything nowadays on the internet. You could spend a month trying to decide which one to try or learn the basics and pick one and see if it is effective.
Christopher Wait, Creative Communications Tailor, Marketing Copywriter
I’ll be honest and say, not that much different than they’ve always been.
Great marketers have always needed to know their customers wants/needs. They’ve always needed to know what words to use to attract and initiate a response from potential customers. (SEO) Customer service expectation will continue to fluctuate and those who provide the better service will gain the largest share of market, just as they always have. They’ve always needed to be creative in order to differentiate themselves. They’ve always needed to be where their customers are (web, social, mobile, SMS) which requires them to be constantly learning about new methods and technology.
The only difference I really see with today’s marketers over those from the past 100 years is, that they need to be more quickly adaptable as technology is moving and advancing much quicker than it did from radio to T.V. to the internet, and perhaps the need to rely on their network to remain fully informed and skilled to plan and execute their efforts effectively.
I visualize the marketer of today with a smartphone in hand with a list of readily available collaborators (read: social/professional network) who can offer some advice on the various forms of marketing techniques and technology; as it will become much too difficult for one person to fully understand how to navigate each one effectively.
Joe Meloni, Web Media Professional
The most important skill for any web marketer is agility. There are so many different channels on the web, and it’s important to have a strong understanding of each. Obviously, a solid writing background is critical, as well as a desire to improve consistently. Many marketers I’ve spoken with want to create several different kinds of content for their sites, but their staff isn’t particularly strong in each area. Finding employees or partners that can create different kinds of content well is critical.
Samuel J. Scott, Manager of Digital Marketing and Communications at The Cline Group
1. Website Analytics. Knowing how to use tools like Google Analytics to develop, analyze results, and change strategies as necessary. If you don’t know this, nothing else matters.
2. Strategy Development. Knowing how to research and produce an inbound-marketing strategy. Which tactics will you use and how? Facebook is different from Twitter is different from LinkedIn is different from PPC. Not each one will or should be used for a given purpose. You need an overall strategy beyond “Let’s post something on our Facebook page every two days!” Once you identify what you will do, you will need to specify how you will do it in each context.
3. Content Creation. Being able to produce (or have produced by someone else) blog posts, webinars, videos, podcasts, infographics, and so on to build a brand and generate inbound traffic.
4. Basic to Medium Coding Knowledge. Most developers don’t know SEO. Most SEOs don’t know code. Anyone who knows both will be in high demand. Whatever you do in Internet marketing, learn as much as you can about HTML, PHP, and so on. You’ll thank me later!
5. A Curious Mind. You need the ability to learn something entirely new — and quickly. The Web changes every few months. If some big, new social network comes out or Google changes its algorithm (again!), you’ll need to research, learn, and adapt.
A digital marketer needs to “look” like a cross between the nerdiness of Mark Zuckerberg (technical-knowledge side), the genius of Steve Jobs (marketing-passion side), and the beauty of Angelina Jolie (beautiful side to “attract” inbound traffic). Not sure how you’d combine those three, though!
Paul Harvey, Specialist in Social, Online and Mobile Marketing Solutions, Director at Epsilon Agency
1. Social Media Expert
2. SEO Expert
3. App Marketer
4. Email and SMS expert
5. Website developerMost importantly, the marketer needs to combine all his skills to be effective. For example, they need to combine all the social media pages into the app and webpage. He must be able to integrate all of these skills seamlessly.
Mark Price, Managing Partner of M Squared Group
The top five skills of a marketer today are different from fifteen years ago. Today,
marketers must have:1. Deeper skills in customer analytics
2. A comfort level with understanding and engaging social media
3. Ability to craft and execute multi-channel campaigns against specific customer segments
4. Capability to engage with store associates/salespeople about customer experience
5. A fundamental understanding of technology and its ability to change customer perceptions and behavior (including mobile, apps, etc.)The marketer today is a very, very busy person. They are online obsessively, when they are not face-to-face with customers and sales people. They design test programs, engage online with customers, help craft customer experience and lead technology teams on web site/app development — all in the same day. Then at night, they are reading about the latest advancements in integrating online and offline experience, so that they can bring that insight to their management the next day. No sleep for the wicked!
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Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter. Have something valuable to add?