As a marketer, you cannot solely rely on your marketing knowledge to generate leads for your business. The market is ever evolving with new trends to learn almost every year.
However, one thing that can never get outdated are the skills that can help you connect with your ideal customers. In this article, we’ve listed the top 6 skills every marketer should master to become truly great at their craft.
Skills required for marketing
Almost every article that discusses marketing skills, mentions the basics. Why should we always return to the basics when almost every marketer already possesses these skills? It is simple, even though you have these skills already, mastering and re-mastering them is important.
What you once considered a basic skill must have changed and you need to re-learn it. With this out of the way, here are some marketing skills you should hone:
Writing well
Once upon a time, writing skills were counted as special privileges. Today, they have become the cornerstone of marketing. Consumers are more influenced these days by digital marketing rather than print media and TV commercials.
Digital marketing involves several channels such as social media, email marketing, landing pages, etc. All these channels have one thing in common, they need original, written content. If a marketer will be rated high, then they must display good writing skills.
There are tons of reasons why marketers must be skilled writers:
- Understanding what to say – Almost everyone can write, but understanding what to say makes the difference. Not everyone knows what a good marketing copy should contain. It is important to always highlight the crucial points when putting a copy together. Without this, you’ll lose the prospect before they finish reading through.
- Understanding how to pass the message – It is easier for a customer to scan through a copy than spend several minutes struggling to understand it. These days, passing the message effectively means using short sentences and paragraphs. Copies should be scannable so that customers can get to the crux easily.
- Conveying quality content – Readers don’t want to read for reading sake. They need solutions to problems. A marketer should learn how to write well to take advantage of this need. Describing products in a way that customers see them as a solution is a coveted skill.
Internal communication skills
Effective internal communication skills ensure the smoother running of business operations. Marketers need this skill to establish more efficient campaigns. The efficiency of campaigns begins within the organization. If the marketer can convince colleagues and bosses about a campaign, then it has a better chance of conversions.
Internal communication skills help the marketer to achieve the following:
- Inform colleagues about the benefits that each product brings to the table. This influences the way colleagues discuss these products with customers when the need arises.
- Create tailor-made messages that persuade customers and prospects to make purchases.
- Motivate their team members to capitalize on current market trends and meet campaign deadlines.
- Improve the internal marketing process to increase efficiency and productivity among team members.
Marketers should identify any existing barriers to internal communication. Examples include cultural norms, perceptual differences, and improper channels. With effective internal communication skills, a marketer equips their colleagues with the right information for more fruitful campaigns.
Listening skills
Many marketers agree that listening is about the most important marketing skill ever. The reason for marketing is to influence behavior and perceptions. However, many marketing campaigns miss this mark simply because the marketer doesn’t understand the needs of the target audience.
The easiest way to understand your target audience is to listen to them. When you do, then it is easier to craft the right messages for them to connect with. Listening and hearing are two different things. The former is interested in the motivation and desires of the target audience. This allows the marketer to understand how they feel and empathize with their condition.
No wonder the most efficient marketers possess exceptional listening skills. Here are a few tips to help marketers become better listeners:
- Take time to gather input from your target audience.
- Rather than listen to everyone, only listen to those that matter. It is the prospects and customers that matter, not your marketing friends or colleagues.
- Understand the lingo of your target audience. This allows you to relate to them better.
- Ask deeper, open-ended questions. Probing queries give you a better understanding of the needs of your audience.
- Don’t listen with just your ears, use your eyes as well.
A marketer with strong listening skills can create authentic campaigns that gain engagement and resonance.
Research
Marketers cannot depend solely on their strategic intuition to help them all the time. While strategic intuition is great, researching makes you deliver better results all the time. There is so much to research on the market especially with the advent of Big Data.
You need to find out the latest trends in the industry and what your competitors are up to. It is also imperative that you research the latest needs of your target audience and how to reach them.
There is always new information for you to glean, from case studies to annual reports and white papers. The more research you can carry out, the easier it will be to generate new ideas.
Design skills
Many people argue that a marketer doesn’t need to know about design. That’s not entirely true. While you don’t need to put your design skills to work all the time, emergencies may arise.
Let’s not forget the fact that no one understands your idea as you do. If you put in some extra effort to creating a design for your idea, you can pass the message better. You don’t need to work with complex apps for design, there are several simple mobile apps that you can learn.
In learning design, you also need to understand the basic principles guiding graphic design. Also, learn how to communicate with designers, UI/UX, using Adobe, and even web design. All you need is the basics, you don’t have to become an expert.
Social media skills
The use of social media these days makes it one of the most important marketing skill to learn. Marketers need to master this skill because more than half of your audience is active on social media. Here’s how to master the use of social media as a marketer:
- Choose the right platforms.
- Set specific goals.
- Draw up a strategy.
- Select the right tools.
- Be consistent.
You need to understand how the algorithms of each platform work, how to follow trends, and create effective campaigns. It is also key that you can analyze data from different social media platforms. All of this will ensure that you become a better marketer producing better numbers.
Conclusion
The list of marketing skills that never get outdated is non-exhaustive. We have mentioned a few in this post that form the core of anything a marketer does. What other skills do you think are evergreen?
Maria is a content writer for the unlimited graphic design service Delesign with a keen interest in eCommerce and internet marketing. She is a communications graduate and understands what it takes to write persuasive copy and blog posts. Outside of work, you can find her mini-blogging about her life on social media.
