Top 10 Skills Needed for Marketing

Like many careers, marketing careers require you to have a variety of skills that not every person has. You can see these skills come out when watching a great marketer, but how do you know what you need to be successful in marketing. These are the skills needed for marketing:

1. Good Writer

An underrated part of the job for marketers is good writing. If you knew what you wanted to say to the consumers, but didn’t know how to say it, then what good would your message really be? Good marketing involves good writing plain and simple. Knowing the difference just one word can do in marketing could make or break that message so having a good writer is essential to any marketing strategy.

2. Public Speaker

This is a highly underrated skill in any profession and people early on in their careers don’t often think it will be necessary but it definitely will be. There are many jobs within marketing from direct marketing to a marketing director. For example, when I did a marketing internship I had to conduct person-to-person survey outside stores and it was miserable at first, but once I learned how to interact with these people and learned to say the right things to get their attention, it become a lot easier. Although I didn’t particularly like this work, it did help me with talking to strangers and being more comfortable publicly speaking.

3. Interpersonal Skills

In addition to talking to strangers, speaking to your peers and contacts is just as important. Learn to find common ground people you have to speak to often in order to keep a good reputation among your peers. Also people you work with and like you will be much more likely to help you or do favors for you if need them in the future.

4. Teamwork

This is essential for a large percentage of careers, especially marketing. Marketing involves a number of individuals working together to make effective marketing campaigns. Teamwork allows for work to be criticized and improved upon by a number of eyes. This allows for the campaign to also be the best possible product because you can have skilled individuals work on parts while others work on other parts instead of having one person do everything and have it not be as effective.

5. Organizational Ability

Some marketing firms work on many projects at a time, so it important to be organized. You must know the correct facts and stats for each project you are working on in order to relay that to each client. If you are not organized, you could possibly relay information that is inaccurate and lose business.

6. Oral Communication Skills

This goes hand-in-hand with public speaking and interpersonal skills. Basically you need sufficient oral communication skills in order to have your message received most effectively. Without these skills it is impossible to speak publicly and speak to your peers or contacts, which can jeopardize your entire career.

7. Critical Thinking

Often marketer run into snags in their efforts, so it is important to be have the skill to critically think. When problems arise, be able to come up with viable options in order to fix it. One way to remedy a possible problem is to always have a plan B in order to quickly disregard plan A and still look like a genius.

8. Commercial Awareness

A good feel and knowledge of the market is essential. If you don’t research these before coming up with a marketing plan, your plan is going to invariably be compromised. Instead of fixing a problem after-the-fact, make sure you have thoroughly inspected and anticipated market changes and fluctuations.

9. A Good Eye

This is more important when it comes to visual elements of marketing. You can’t always say yes to the first example you see, so know what looks will look appropriate for the look you are going for and know how to provide alternative suggestions instead of just saying “no” to pieces of work.

10. Ability to Network

One ability that is not taught, is the ability to network. If you have social anxiety this will be a hard area for you, but it is essential. Like all business careers you must have alternative contacts because as much as you’d like to think, you can’t do everything on your own. A way to avoid having to know everything is to make sure you acquire a decent amount of contacts who are willing to provide you information or assistance.

Reference: www.kalibauer.com