10 Essential Skills for Marketers in Today’s Digital Landscape

To shed light on the most crucial skills for marketers in today’s digital landscape, we’ve gathered insights from ten industry professionals, including Directors of Marketing and CEOs. From understanding the importance of insight, intuition, and intentionality to the value of embracing originality and risk, these experts share their invaluable perspectives.

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Skills For Marketers: Insight, Intuition, and Intentionality 

Just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should, and no more valid statement can be said than for marketing! Having skills for marketers, I strongly believe in having a diverse marketing strategy, utilizing various media, but ensuring it aligns with your audience and goals is critical. Be open, but be intentional!

Krisha Martzall, Director of Marketing, Brubaker Inc.

Synchronization

Marketers should have synchronization superpowers in today’s digital landscape. With the abundance of digital data and a variety of digital tools, they should be able to, based on their consumer insights and marketing objectives, define the right digital objectives. One of the most essential skills for marketers is to select the digital tools that fulfill those objectives and follow up on the KPI that matters to reach their marketing objectives.

Bjorn Verbrugghe, Marketing Manager, Unigift

Focus on Expansion

The ability to adapt is one of the crucial Skills For Marketers. Being able to succeed in only one way, or even in just a handful of ways, is not enough to successfully market in the current marketing landscape. Someone who sticks with what worked only a short period of time ago won’t be able to provide their clients with everything they need. 

As an omnichannel digital marketing agency, we continually expand the services we offer, as well as the platforms we offer them on. By being able to change for our clients, we’re able to change the path of their businesses.

Danny Star, CEO, Websites Depot Inc. 

Understanding and Communicating Audience Needs

One of the most important skills for marketers to have in today’s digital landscape for a marketer is the ability to take an understanding of an audience’s needs and communicate that understanding in a way that shows them the value they can get from your product or service. 

The modern world is filled with overly generalized content, and that is both a blessing and a curse to brands. If you know how to stand out, it can really set you apart from the crowd, but it also makes it a lot harder to get your audience’s attention. Marketers truly need to know their audience if they want any chance of standing out. And if they can’t communicate that understanding and the value their products provide, the brand will just end up fitting in somewhere with all the other generalized content.

Michael Maroney, Marketing Director and Lead Biologist, Infinite Outdoors

A Passion for Learning

One of the most essential skills for marketers is the passion for learning. You can’t beat a passion for learning. The world of digital marketing changes at a dizzying speed. If you’re not genuinely interested in learning about all the latest developments and how they might impact your business and work, you’re going to have a difficult time staying competitive in the field. 

I would much rather hire a curious but inexperienced marketer than someone with lots of experience yet little interest in learning and improving their skills.

Temmo Kinoshita, Co-Founder, Lindenwood Marketing

Data Analytics and Interpretation

In the contemporary digital landscape, one of the paramount skills for marketers to possess is proficiency in data analytics and interpretation. This skill holds utmost importance as it empowers marketers to collect, scrutinize, and extract valuable insights from data, thereby enabling them to make well-informed decisions, monitor the performance of campaigns, and swiftly adjust strategies as necessary. 

Given the abundance of data accessible in the digital realm, marketers who can adeptly harness this resource gain a distinct competitive advantage. It facilitates precise audience targeting, personalized content creation, campaign optimization, and ultimately, the attainment of superior return on investment (ROI). The practice of data-driven decision-making lies at the heart of triumphant digital marketing in our contemporary landscape.

Khurram Mir, Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Kualitatem Inc.

Listening

In today’s digital landscape, one of the most important skills for marketers is listening. It’s crucial to listen to our clients, stakeholders, their customers, media, and society to craft messaging, designs, and more that truly resonate. Approaching meetings as a listener first is necessary. 

Often, marketers have preconceptions and ideas they are excited to execute, but without taking the first crucial step of listening, even the “coolest” idea may fall flat. It’s important to understand what the audience of our client really needs, the temperature of society’s feeling about a particular topic, and what our client truly needs for their success. Listening is the key to knowing these answers.

Hana Alanis, Creative Director, Up Late Designers

Adaptability

In today’s ever-evolving digital milieu, the paramount skill I believe a marketer must possess is adaptability. The digital landscape is in a constant state of flux, with new platforms, algorithms, and consumer behaviors emerging regularly. While technical and platform knowledge are valuable skills for marketers, they can become obsolete with the next technological shift.

Adaptability, on the other hand, ensures that marketers can pivot their strategies in response to these changes, continuously learning and evolving. It’s not just about keeping pace with the digital world, but proactively anticipating and leveraging new opportunities. An adaptable marketer is resilient, open-minded, and always poised to seize the next innovation. 

In essence, adaptability is the linchpin that ensures sustained relevance and success in the dynamic world of digital marketing.

Jon James, CEO, Ignited Results

Curiosity 

One of the most essential skills for marketers is that they need to be curious. There’s so much to experiment with between tools, platforms, niche audiences, and technology, and marketers need to at least want to test and tweak as much as their time will allow. The digital landscape evolves quickly, and marketers need to be fearless about the future. Maintaining this curiosity will allow them to better spot opportunities for growth and make them more resilient amidst change.

Alli Hill, Founder and Director, Fleurish Freelance

Originality and Risk 

One of the most essential skills for marketers is thinking outside the box. If you try to do it like everyone else does or has, you’ll never be exceptional. Risk doing things differently. Think naturally in terms of what sounds right to you, not what you’ve seen or remember learning. 

Remember, every method you can copy was once an original idea to someone.

Christopher Olson, CFO, Surfside Services

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