Top Hard and Soft Skills Every Marketer Needs
To be an effective marketer in today's fast-paced, technology-focused world, you must develop a mix of soft and hard skills. It’s not enough to just be naturally talented or a genius.
In this post, I’ll cover the top 3 soft and hard skills marketers possess and use to reach their audience and ultimately drive more sales.
Top 3 Hard Skills for Marketing Roles
Hard skills are your must-have technical skills — the tools and techniques you need to perform a job function or task.
Your education is a great foundation for acquiring hard skills, which can be learned through in-person instruction, online courses, or informal studying.
For example, if you're interested in becoming a data analyst, taking a course in Excel might help you get started with building basic spreadsheets and learning how to manipulate data.
So, which ones should you focus on?
Writing and content creation
Copywriting is a form of persuasive concise writing. It involves the art of conveying a message in a way that encourages action from the reader.
For example, marketers use effective copywriting to persuade their audience to take an action such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or watching a video. Copywriting is one of the most important skills for any marketer because it's what you use to sell your product or service to customers.
It can also be used across all channels, including email marketing, social media, and blog posts.
And it doesn’t stop there. Marketers have to be able to speak and create content of all forms. From blogs and podcasts to Twitch streams and social ads -- excellent marketers know what resonates with their audience.
For example, a B2C marketer may create a series of TikTok videos to promote a new product to a younger audience. Similarly, a B2B marketer may publish an eBook for developers on the dos and donts of building a tech application.
Analyzing data
Analyzing data is a key part of a marketer's job. Reading a dashboard and understanding the numbers helps you make sound decisions. You can see what channels work best, what campaigns are generating sales leads, which demographics like your products, and much more.
Reporting and presenting these numbers is equally important. Marketers work cross-functionally. They often need to relay data to other stakeholders to rally support for their campaign decisions.
For example, if you are tasked with launching a new product, you can leverage data to determine which market segment would be most receptive to it. This can help you focus marketing resources on that particular audience.
Ability to learn, use and master new tools
From project management to collaboration and conference tools, marketers must be capable of learning new tools and programs to help them do their jobs better. In the Future of Jobs Survey, 94% of business leaders report that they expect employees to pick up new skills on the job, a sharp uptake from 65% in 2018.
Marketers use all kinds of software programs, online tools, analytics platforms, content management systems, and more to execute campaigns or track and analyze customer behavior.
Being technologically adept is critical.
Top 3 Soft Skills for Marketing Roles
What are soft skills and why are they often overlooked?
Soft skills refer to a set of personal attributes that enable you to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people. They’re often developed through personal experience and can be learned over time with awareness and practice.
For example, communication and interpersonal skills are qualities that can't easily be shown in a short amount of time during an interview. But they are just as important as hard skills when it comes to successfully working with others.
Conflict resolution
Conflicts happen in every organization. Marketing departments are no exception — there will always be disagreements between team members about how best to achieve a goal or which product features should be emphasized.
Marketing teams that can resolve problems quickly and efficiently will save time and money by not wasting resources on arguing over trivial matters.
This skill is also helpful when dealing with unsatisfied customers or partners.
Communication and listening skills
As a marketer, you need to be able to communicate clearly and persuasively to stakeholders. If you’re able to read people’s reactions, you can respond appropriately.
Excellent marketers also possess the ability to present to groups, both big and small. You may need to speak publicly about a company’s products or services, or handle Q&A sessions with potential customers during live events or webinars.
Ability to organize (asset management)
The ability to organize your assets is very important for marketers. You need to be able to find what you’re looking for quickly and efficiently, whether it’s an image, a piece of text, or a video.
For example, if you're writing blog posts regularly, it's helpful if you can keep all your relevant assets in one place (e.g. Google Drive) so they're easy for others to access when needed.
If you’re creating several infographics, you may want to store the source files on the cloud so your design efforts don’t go to waste when updates are needed. Or, try a productivity tool like ClickUp to build your own content repository.
Takeaways
You need a strong foundation of hard and soft skills to excel as a marketer today. The necessary hard skills enable you to successfully perform traditional roles within marketing, while the soft skills help you create your own story within the field.
This combination will allow you to stay flexible and nimble as marketing demands evolve.
