Which Skills Are Most Important For Success In Future Marketing?

Econsultancy’s new Skills of the Modern Marketer Report shows that marketers are putting more value in “softer skills” than they have in the past, along with the traditional vertical expertise that has always been expected.

Senior level marketers devised a list of fifteen essential skills, which have been organized into three “top five skills lists” for marketing.  With the increased focus on soft skills, it became apparent that the three lists were necessary, with the separation being for “broad skills”, “vertical skills” and “soft skills”.

The research report also indicates a growing importance in specific vertical skills, in particular those that are related to content, mobile and social.  Several broad skills areas such as customer experience, content and data are considered to be growing requirements as well.

Overall, Econsultancy’s report contained the following results:

Those who were interviewed for the study commonly spoke of the need to combine digital expertise with classic marketing knowledge and approaches, as well as an essential need for adaptability, articulation and persuasion, hunger to learn, collaboration, creativity, data-driven decision making, empathy, curiosity and passion.  Considering the rapid changes in marketing environments, both self-motivation and continuous learning were noted to be of great importance for success.  Many marketers stated that they feel unprepared for the massive changes that appear to be coming in the near future.

Respondents were given a pre-selected list of softer skills and were asked to rate their significance.  The skills that were most commonly rated as “very important” included the ability to embrace change, to spot opportunities and adapt strategies quickly, as well as the need to be passionate, curious and hungry to learn.  Clearly, the general notion of the importance of being adaptable to change is a central aspect of the research findings.

The soft skill that was most commonly mentioned by those who were interviewed for this study was articulation and persuasion, as well as the ability to appreciate the broader context of digital roles, functions and activity, to communicate their value in compelling, jargon-free ways to the rest of the business, to understand wider business requirements and interpret those into digital solutions, and finally to work effectively with other non-digital teams and traditional marketers to bring them on-board with new initiatives and strategies.