modern marketers skills

The world has changed so much. 50-60 years ago, the “complete marketer” could just walk into his or her newspaper and print store, finish editing yesterday’s draft of today’s newsletter or news piece, publish and print, circulate, and that was almost their entire circle for marketing.  Today, 2014 – wow. You might as well say we advance 50 years in a year, with the way online marketing increases in value, assets, tools, structure, and possibilities every single month. There’s the online press release that can be sent to over 200,000 journalists at once via PRWeb; infographics that can be designed, created, shared to go viral; blogs, articles, email campaigns, website content, all your social media platforms like G+, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and oh-so-much-more. Valuable Skills for Modern Marketers With all these valuable tools and structures available, what are the crucial skills that a modern online marketing genius should (or already will) have? Let’s take a look. 1) Adaptability. Adaptability is a key skill that should be displayed by all modern marketers who don’t plan to change their profession anytime soon. Why? Take a look around. The so called complete marketer is now the 21st century version of the Homo Universalis, who basically has a plentitude of intellectual interests and is good at everything. From creating content creation to analyzing web analytics and developing and creating successful social media campaigns, the modern marketer can do it all on time and on a budget. According to the Guardian, one of the biggest challenges that marketers face is poised by technological advancements. However, what doesn’t kill today’s modern marketers makes them stronger. The 21st century men of letters who know online marketing like the palm of their hands are able to adapt to any kind of new situation. Even when they get thrown off their routine by a sneaky algorithm update sent with love by Google, they still manage to get back in the game in no time. Adaptability is one of the most important skills of all times that ensured the survival of the human race. At this point, all modern marketers should put this skill to good use and learn how to explore technological advancements to their best advantage. With so many tools and resources available online, their daily tasks become simpler and less time-consuming. The key is to get familiar with innovations in order to fill their digital skill gap. All in all, a successful marketer is part artist, part scientist. Once these professionals learn how to get closer to a beneficial left brain-right brain balance, their success is guaranteed. HubSpot supports the same idea and introduces a new point of view. According to HubSpot, modern marketers should have mad coding skills. This would help them be on the same page with the nerd that is developing, maintaining and improving websites. To code or not to code?-this is the question. Even though coding skills are not considered an important part of the marketers’ job requirements, they represent a major plus that is always appreciated by employers. Why is it so important for marketers to code like a pro? Here are only a few reasons why understanding code is important: Knowledge Is Power: As a marketer, you have to have full control over the project that you’re working on, and this means that you have to understand the basic structures that bring your blog, website or app to life. Knowledge is power and it also represents a major source of inspiration. Once you get the basics of coding, you can create your own masterpieces (new tools and apps, for instance) that could wow your customers and spread the word about your geniality. Fix Simple Issues on Time: Do you really want to call your website developer every single time you stumble across an itsy bitsy error that can be solved in 2.5 seconds by a pro? The answer is no. Calling an expert just to ask him to resize your pictures or embed a YouTube video is embarrassing and doesn’t make much sense, from a financial standpoint. You can save time and money by learning to do all this on your own. It’s much easier than you may be inclined to think. Gain a Competitive Edge: The online marketing industry is extremely competitive, so why not burry your rivals 6 feet under by simply learning how to code? 2)  Awesome Copywriting Skills. Marketers should be talented writers. But they should also have the highest level of empathy and the ability to write for a certain segment of public. Web content as we know it should be original, informative, educational and entertaining. Therefore, all marketers should be able to create and publish content with their readers in mind. Crafting content pieces without any substance or motivation would be like planting palm trees at the North Pole. All their masterpieces should include powerful calls to action enabling prospects to act in a certain way (buy a product, subscribe for a newsletter, post a comment, test a new service and so on). 3) Superior PR Skills. According to MediaBuzz, if you want to become a successful marketer, killer Public Relations skills are a must-have. As a marketer, you have to interact with clients, staff members, brand evangelists, bloggers, media representatives and more. Your goal is to build solid relationships that will stand the test of time. You use every single opportunity to make new connections and preserve the old ones. In a world in which everybody knows who’s who and only want to work with the cream of the crop, you have to learn how to make a name for yourself, take your company to a whole new level, spread the world about your accomplishments and your competencies and fish for new clients. Obviously, in order to do all this you need killer PR skills, which are an important component of today’s marketing mix. 4) SEO Skills. Search Engine Optimization is one of those things that you can’t live without these days. SEO is just as important … Read more