Back in November we posted an article about the new roles available in the marketing space with the changes in technology driving the change. As the year wraps up it is time to take assessment of your skills and look to the New Year and what employers are looking for. The team at Hubspot recently posted an 89-page deck (don’t worry, it is a quick read that is easy to digest) on the top skills a marketing person needs in 2015 – for those of you who don’t have the time to invest in reading the deck, we’ve summarized the 8 skills below:
1. Data Science
I am sure you’ve at least heard of BIG DATA, well it isn’t a trend or fad; it is here to stay and that is good news if you know what to do with it. By 2020, we will be creating 50 times the amount of data that we did in 2011; that is a staggering stat that you can translate in to a very promising and lucrative career if you know how to find the nuggets of information and turn them in to recommendations for action.
A brand is no longer just a product but also the experience they provide across multiple platforms and companies need people to design those unique and rewarding experiences to improve customer loyalty and differentiate from their competition.
2. Agile Marketing
Things need to happen ASAP! Marketing teams no longer have a year to plan a campaign. It short time frames you will plan, test, learn and make improvements.
3. Consumer Behaviour
Think of yourself as a consumer and how you make decisions before you purchase; how has this process changed as you’ve grown older, as you’ve changed income brackets, maybe became a parent? Understanding how to take the information available on the target audience and their behaviour and action it for each segment will be invaluable.
4. Marketing Technology
A marketing technologist will use the data available coupled with the technologies that are in the hands of consumers to plan the brand story in a creative way. This marketer will map buying journey of target audience and provide content and visuals more individual level to engage them.
5. Content Promotion
Being a content promoter is being able to see the big picture – how the content is should be packaged for each target audience, how to get the word out about the content so that the audience is aware and interested and how to continually optimize for conversion.
6. Growth Hacking
If you like to take a something and make it bigger than it is by using creative alternatives to the usual marketing and growth suspects then you may be a candidate to become a growth hacker and take a start up brand to the levels of a household name.
7. Mobile Marketing
Mobile continues to grow as the penetration of smartphones increases and users of smartphones add tablets to their technology toolbox. While consumers start to use more mobile hardware, digital platforms continue to expand and improve their measurement capabilities creating the need for people who understand how to reach their target audience on the go, measure for success and improve as time goes on.
8. Experience Design
A brand is no longer just a product but also the experience they provide across multiple platforms and companies need people to design those unique and rewarding experiences to improve customer loyalty and differentiate from their competition.
Which of these skills do you plan to tackle in 2015? Any skills that you think will be important that may be missing from our list?