Skill Sets Required of Marketers

 

One of the things that attracted me to marketing is its use of both the right-brain and the left-brain. Ideally, marketers have creative and analytical minds. Having said that, the two most important skills a marketer must possess is common sense and the ability to put him or herself in the shoes of the customer. That is, a marketer must possess deep insight into the motivations and behaviors of their brand's target customers.

But marketing is actually a broad label for a wide variety of different marketing tasks and skill sets. For instance, a marketer could be an expert in qualitative marketing research, quantitative marketing research, data analytics, SEO, graphic design, photography, videography, copywriting, social media marketing, corporate communication, media & public relations, trade marketing, brand strategy formulation, brand identity development, brand management, brand licensing, account management and more.

Here are some of the specific skill sets required for each marketing specialty:

• Qualitative Marketing Research: a deep understanding of customer motivations (including their hopes, fears, anxieties, beliefs, values, attitudes, habits and behaviors), projective research techniques, guided imagery, stimulus creation, emotional IQ, being able to read people well, group facilitation, understanding order biasing
• Quantitative Marketing Research: formal education in marketing research including advanced statistical techniques, survey design, an understanding of scaling, biasing, and the right type of question and analysis to be performed for each insight, use of data analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics, Hotjar, SPSS, etc.), online survey platforms, data sampling company relationships
• Data Analytics: formal education in data analytics, programming languages (e.g. Python, R, SQL), data visualization tools (e.g. Tableau, Power BI), statistical analysis, data wrangling and cleaning, machine learning, outstanding analytical skills, attention to detail
• SEO: an understanding of search engine algorithms and ranking factors, critical thinking, content writing, AI programming, web coding, ability to use popular SEO tools (e.g. Google Analytics), content marketing
• Graphic Design: design principles, typography, UX and UI design, creativity, understanding color psychology, Pantone swatch book, graphic design tools (e.g. Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver, Canva, CoralDRAW Graphics Suite, etc.)
• Photography: lighting, focus, composition, the rule of thirds, symmetry, background, cropping, shutter speeds
• Videography: storytelling, technical skills in video production, cinematic composition and lighting, post-production/editing skills, familiarity with editing software, audio sensitivity, color grading and correction
• Copywriting: customer insight, storytelling, creative writing, understanding the brand's voice and unique value proposition
• Social Media Marketing: social media strategy development, content planning and creation, graphic design, video editing, analytics and reporting, community management, paid social media advertising, influencer marketing, creativity, adaptability, deep understanding of Meta platforms and Google tools, understanding of blogs and RSS feeds
• Corporate Communication: storytelling, identifying story angles, strong writing skills, relationships with publications and other media, strong listening skills, emotional, intelligence, curiosity, the ability to explain why
• Media & Public Relations: communication and writing, social media, research, creativity, interpersonal skills, relationships with media sources, being aware of societal and industry trends, ideating and executing proactive publicity (i.e. publicity stunts)
• Trade Marketing: ROI (return on investment), POS (point-of-sale) and shelf management, brand marketing, digital marketing, Nielsen, business development, conference and trade show marketing, product development, marketing mix, relationship management, co-op advertising
• Brand Strategy: active listening, marketing research, customer insight, consumer psychology, creative and conceptual thinking, communication, storytelling, strategic use of data analytics, collaborative skills, influencing, group facilitation, global and cultural awareness, competitive and business model strategy, leadership
• Brand Identity Development: understanding brand essence, promise, archetype, personality and voice, graphic design, typography, color psychology, understanding various logo uses, written communication, knowing how to balance consistency and flexibility in design, being able to craft brand identity guidelines [A comprehensive online course on brand identity and architecture]
• Brand Management: marketing research, consumer insights and analytics, strategic brand development, storytelling, financial/budget management, collaboration and influencing skills, strong interpersonal skills, verbal and written communication, emotional intelligence, assertiveness
• Brand Licensing: understanding the brand essence, promise, archetype, personality and voice, building a network of industry contacts, financial skills, negotiating skills, emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills, understanding IP (intellectual property)
• Account Management: understanding constituencies, client-service oriented, empathy, strong interpersonal and communication skills, time and project management, budgeting, calmness under pressure, influencing, "seeing the forest through the trees"
• Chief Marketing Officer: Posts about CMOs - What to Look for in a CMO, What a Chief Marketing Officer Needs to Know, The Changing Role of the CMO

These skills are common to many of these different marketing roles: customer insight, understanding the brand's essence, promise, archetype, personality and voice, communication, storytelling, creativity and analytical skills. Marketing is one of the few professions that typically requires a combination of right-brain and left-brain skills. If you are considering a career in marketing, perhaps this list of required skills will help. And if you are trying to hire a marketer, this will help you to understand the type of marketer you might want and what skill set they should possess. I wish you great success in all of your marketing endeavors. 

PS - As a bonus, here is my blog post on Eight Skills of a Marketing Rock Star

 

Online Marketing Courses

 

Give the gift of marketing expertise this Christmas! These are links to seven online marketing courses that will increase anyone's understanding of brand management and marketing:

• Positioning Your Brand to Win
• Tapping into Human Needs
• Brand Research
• Developing the Brand Plan
• Brand Identity & Architecture
• Out-of-the-Box Marketing Techniques
• The Importance of Color in Brand Identity

The Eight Skills of a Marketing Rock Star

To be a "can do it all" marketer, one who is extremely valuable to an organization as an individual contributor but who can also rise through the ranks quickly to become a marketing "rock star," the person should possess these eight skills:

1. Graphic design skills with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign fluencies and a strong sense of aesthetics
2. Strong copywriting skills, erring on the side of pithiness and impact
3. Storytelling skills
4. A working knowledge of Google Ads and Facebook Ads
5. WordPress fluency
6. A strong intuition about customer beliefs, values, attitudes, motivations and behaviors
7. An understanding of how to design and interpret research to achieve deep customer insight
8. "Out of the box" thinking ability

All other skills can be acquired over time.

Things that Marketers Know

Having worked with many non-marketers in organization leadership teams, it has occurred to me that many things that I think are "common sense" are not so common for non-marketers. That is to say that skilled marketers are intuitive about some things that non-marketers are not. Here is my list of things that skilled marketers just know (or think about) that others may not:

• What things will create an emotional response for different types of people
• What will increase a product's impulse purchase appeal
• What simple phases and messages will cause something to go viral
• What words and phrases have the most power to cause someone to make a purchase
• How to pick the right target customers for different products or services
• Where a person is most likely go to get information about your product or service
• How to stay in front of people and build relationships
• The need to minimize the steps or barriers to purchase
• How to "close the sale"
• How to get people to "buy now"
• Developing the right angle to get publications to cover your story
• How to generate massive proactive publicity
• Where to place a product on a shelf or in a store to maximize its visibility
• How to upsell
• How to bundle or unbundle products and services to maximize sales
• How to create reference prices to increase the average price paid
• How to use price segmentation to increase revenues and profitability
• How to signal quality through pricing
• How to use exclusivity to increase demand
• The importance of location
• The importance of timing
• The importance of listening to needs
• How to plant doubt about or reposition a competitor
• How to stand out in a sea of sameness
• That "less is more" in package design and messaging
• What the visual "strike zone" is in any advertisement
• The importance of brand identity consistency
• When to be consistent and when to "mix it up" with unpredictability 
• How to plant ideas in people's minds and make them think that the ideas were their own
• How to connect with anyone on a personal and emotional level
• With a few simple questions, knowing what is the primary driver in a person's life
• Related to this, knowing where in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs a person primarily resides

So, when you think, "well, this is just common sense," it may not be. It may be something that is learned over time by skilled marketers. 

Honing Your Marketing Skills

In addition to consulting with a wide variety of organizations regarding brand strategy, I also have served as an adjunct faculty member in the marketing departments at two different business schools, guest lectured at dozens of business schools, conducted "brand camps" at other business schools and helped MBA students at different business schools develop their personal value propositions. I have also judged MBA students' new business ideas and served as a mentor to MBA students. 

These are all ways not only to gain exposure as a marketing consultant, but more importantly, to hone one's brand management and marketing skills. I have found one activity to be even more valuable in keeping my creative marketing ideas flowing. I serve on the marketing committees of a variety of not-for-profit organizations, sometimes as a committee member and often as a committee chair. Today, I am involved on the marketing committees of six different not-for-profit organizations, but over time I have been involved in the marketing committees of dozens of not-for-profit organizations. Further, as a board member and volunteer for the Advertising Council of Rochester (now Causewave Community Partners), I have helped dozens of other not-for-profit organizations wrestle with their marketing issues. 

Skills become more ingrained when you teach them and being an adjunct marketing faculty member provides you access to the latest business school marketing case studies and concepts. Volunteering on marketing committees of organizations with limited marketing resources helps you become highly creative and efficient in developing successful marketing strategies and tactics. They also expose you to a variety of marketing approaches that larger organizations may not have tried. And the combination of consulting, teaching, conducting research, writing books and articles and volunteering on not-for-profit marketing committees, provides for an amazing amount of cross-fertilization of ideas. 

If you are a marketing professional, whether working for a company, a marketing agency, a brand consultancy or some other type of organization, teaching what you know, writing about what you know and especially helping not-for-profit organizations with what you know is a win-win activity for all involved, but especially for you. Consider doing one or more of these things.