With shifts in consumer preferences and constant emergence of new marketing channels, there are a range of skills marketers need to be successful...
Where once marketers had only a handful of channels on which to focus their energy, today’s world is very different.
With an ever-growing list of platforms, and consumers demanding a more omni-channel experience, marketers need a new range of skills to fully engage their audience.
So, what skills do we really need to thrive and survive? At our recent event, Adapting to the Never-Normal World, our panel offered some valuable suggestions.
1. Adaptability
From video marketing to virtual assistants and blog articles to AI, the martech industry is forever serving up new tools and technology. If we’re to offer consumers a seamless brand experience across multiple touchpoints, we need to embrace new platforms, experiment with their capabilities and adapt our offering accordingly.
2. Diverse teams
Today’s teams need to be as comfortable drawing conclusions from data, as they are drawing information from society.
Yes, big data can reveal insightful patterns, but there’s always content that flies in the face of predictions and goes viral. It’s for this reason that teams must also stay close to their customers; fully understand their pain points and emotional triggers, as well as the data that defines them.
3. Agility
In our fast-paced society, resonating with consumers requires an ‘always on’ mentality. We need to stay abreast of social media trends, the 24-hour news cycle and be prepared to engage in conversation, as it’s happening.
Creating timely campaigns like Oreo’s famous Super Bowl blackout ad (still being talked about five years later), needs immediate action. There’s no time to wait for email responses from every Tom, Dick and Harriet. We need to react quickly to data, and make quick, brave decisions using the insights at hand.
4. Curiosity
Nothing new or innovative ever came from adhering to the status quo. To push boundaries and create stand out, marketers need to be curious. We must question what’s already in place and view failure as a right of passage. It’s about trying, tweaking and repeating.
Of course, we can’t afford to take risks all the time, sometimes a job just needs to get done, but there’s a lot to be said for dedicating time to exploration. Google’s famous 20% policy – in which employees take 20% of their working time to be experimental – has resulted in the creation of Gmail, Google news and even Adsense.
5. Open-mindedness
When approaching a job, marketers can benefit from leaving beliefs and biases at the door. Coming to the table unencumbered makes it easier to do what is right for the specific job at hand.
Biases are built into everyone, but they can be controlled. Research has shown that being aware of our biases can help mitigate their effects, which means more clarity – and a more open mind when exploring new territories.
Going forward, marketers need to be comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. We need to be open minded and embrace diversity, so we can provide relevant, engaging experiences that reach our audiences on the right platforms at right time.
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