The Five Most Important Skills for a Marketer

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1. Data

In God we trust; all others - bring data.
W. Edwards Deming (the prolific American engineer, statistician, professor and author) couldn't have said it better. And data is the number one doctrine that marketers need to swear by - else decisions would be irrational, biased and ultimately detrimental to the overall state of business of the organisation.

There is no dearth of data within organisations - there is dearth in accepting the usage of data in decision making.

Being data driven is the fundamental weapon in any marketing professional's arsenal. It is imperative that every decision is data-led. In a study conducted by Argyle Executive Forum, in partnership with Oracle Marketing Cloud, leading CMOs across US were surveyed to understand the top challenges faced by them - and 66% indicated that further transitioning into a data driven department was one of their key 2017 objectives.

Of course, apart from using data for decision making, the challenge for senior marketing leadership is access to the 360 customer view point data integration & aggregation of data from different sources, including CRM data, third-party data, function-owned data.

The key take-aways are:

1. If you see a myth being propagated, question and substantiate your claim with data

2. Get into the habit of data-led investigations.

3. Make sure to adhere to any existing data protection / privacy laws

2. Test everything, assume nothing

Assumptions can help, and then assumptions can kill. In today's business environment, it would be suicidal to "assume". An assumption is courtesy experience, prior knowledge or information or an extrapolation of an already known statistic. But the velocity at which the macro - environment is changing, especially the digital ecosystem, assumptions need to be tested and supplemented with evidence.

But this market is growing at 25% Y-O-Y - I read it.

Compare this with

As per the sovereign ratings report published yesterday, the economy is expected to grow 6% in the next quarter, which is a derivative of the growth expected in the said industry. Industry analysts and investment advisory boards have upgraded the recommendation of the growth of this market and it is expected to grow at 25% provided we have X/Y/Z [said globeddy - gook being completely made up but you get the picture]

Of course, 1 & 2 may appear counter-productive to start-ups [Hey, we are hurtling at the speed of light, we need to remain nimble and agile, we don't have time for data, to test and measure - well, then consider the economic cost of a bad business decision and look at the list of the failed startups].

A marketer needs to make an educated recommendation [and nearly everyone else too]. An un-evidenced statement speaks volumes about you and the depth of your  

Key take-aways

1. It is okay to lose one discussion, but not your credibility. Be scientific in your marketing - test, measure, report.

2. Assumption makes sense as a Quick Dirty Test (QDT) - for Go-To-Market (GTM), test everything, assume nothing.

3. Content & Communication

A marketer needs to be a communicator, first and last. Your brand communication is sometimes nearly as good [or bad] as your team's. No agencies, hired or otherwise, can ever do what you don't have in your communication DNA - because they take your lead. 

Key take-aways:

1. Content is not a battle of credentials, but creativity. And that is not tied to any budget. On a relatively modest budget you can pivot your brand's content & communications strategies well.
2. Choose to say less, but say wisely and say well. Over-communication has slayed many a Goliaths.

4. Social media

You cannot advocate what you don't do.

As a marketer, it is almost de rigueur to be social media savvy. How can you recommend and implement strategies if you are not conversant with your customer / target groups online behaviour and experience? You need to shadow the ideal buyer to find the real buyer.

Key take-aways

1. Don't worry - you don't have to be on all the channels at once - just start by being on the platform where most of your customers are.

2. Build a unique voice for your social media content. Be recognized as being helpful, timely and responsive - they will accommodate you in your consideration set.

5. Revenue-centric marketing

Almost everything that a marketer does, impacts the bottom-line. Demand generation is one of the most sought-after outcomes that a marketer can deliver. If you know the product and the customer, and you know the path/s to connect the two, you've built the path that others will beat to your door.

The most important skill - Never stop acquiring new marketing skills! You will be surprised to learn how much more you can learn.

References

Shikhin Agarwal, May 19, 2016, How the Convergence of Marketing, Ad Tech Led to Richer Data Insights, Adweek

https://www.formstack.com/infographics/marketing-skills-to-succeed

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/top-marketing-skills#sm.0001l55p7u6f4f8y11ar1noplpxsr