7 Skills of Highly Effective Marketers
Marketing Strategies So Effective You’ll Be Turning Down Work
No, it’s not just about social media.
Marketing’s hard. You know this. Anyone can promote a product or service, but good marketers must understand their audience’s pain points. Marketers have to articulate how their products will uniquely solve a customer’s problem.
It requires both creativity and a well-developed mastery of many subjects. Here’s a look at the technical skills that every good marketer needs.
1. Budgeting
Few things waste money like a poorly designed pay-per-click campaign. Even if you target the right audience, if the costs of your marketing efforts eclipse the profit from the sales, you’ll never be hired again. Budgeting skills are foundational to marketing success.
Most companies spend 5–10% of their sales on marketing, with some spending as much as 20% if they want to grow quickly. It’s helpful to think about the percentage of sales rather than total revenue or cash on hand to keep marketing campaigns productive and cost-effective.
2. Data Analytics
Data runs the world — so if you want to be a good marketer, you’ll need to harness that data properly. You must be able to look at statistics and feedback on campaign performance and use that data to scale and improve.
The correct data set can tell you everything you need to know to serve your customers better and increase your client’s ROI. Many advertisers feel wary of breaking up tech giants like Google and Facebook because the data from large audiences is so important to making smart marketing decisions.
Canceling ineffective advertising is one of the best ways to see a profit in hard times, but intelligent marketers should never guess what’s most effective. A/B testing and careful study of data will yield better decisions.
3. Content Creation
Content creation is an increasingly important field for any business. It is necessary for search engine optimization (SEO), and it’s also helpful in establishing a business as a thought leader in a particular space.
According to the rule of reciprocity, humans feel obliged to give when they receive something valuable upfront. So, by providing your audience with valuable content that gives them greater insight on a topic related to the company, you are subconsciously priming them to return that favor by supporting your business.
4. SEO & SEM
There are two sources of online traffic — paid and organic. Search engine marketing (SEM) uses paid platforms to generate traffic to a website. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving organic search traffic through content creation and web design.
Understanding this difference will help you generate both forms of traffic and bring a steady stream of new customers to your client’s website. So, the more you understand SEO and SEM, the easier it will be to get a leg up on the competition.
5. Networking
Building solid connections with other marketers and business partners are essential to advancing your career. Networking can either take place on social media or at in-person events. The more genuine connections you make, the easier it will be to generate sales and leads when it comes time to market a product or service.
Word of mouth is the motivating factor in 20–50% of purchasing decisions. So, establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry can go a long way toward convincing an audience to take a risk on a new brand or product. But you’ll have to sharpen your social skills and build a solid network to achieve this goal.
6. Personalized Marketing
Personalized marketing is a specific marketing strategy that leverages analytics and various digital channels to deliver unique messages and offerings to individual customers. Examples include sending an SMS message with the customer’s first name and a discount on a recently purchased product or a new item you think they might enjoy.
This strategy can be beneficial for generating strong customer engagement, but it takes time to master and perfect. If the brand you’re working with has a large and diverse following, you must be skilled at data analytics to make sure you’re sending relevant messages. If done well, personalized marketing can show that you truly value your customers and understand their needs.
7. Business Acumen
Finally, all good marketers must have well-developed common sense and business acumen. Marketing requires practitioners to understand a business from both the company’s standpoint and the customer’s point of view. Therefore, you must have strong business sense and emotional intelligence to succeed.
Jordan Brannon, president and co-founder of Coalition Technologies, a leading US digital marketing company, says common sense “is ironically named because it doesn’t seem to be so common.
“Look at your website or your ad creatives from a real user’s perspective and give yourself honest feedback. Sometimes small businesses try so hard to do something creative or different that we overlook the basics and forget to include something essential.”
If you want to succeed in marketing, you must maintain a grounded perspective and analyze a problem from all angles.
