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Other than a degree, what other skills are necessary in a marketing career?
What other skills come in handy or look good on a resume for a marketing career? #JULY20 #career #career-path #resume #skills #marketing
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22 answers
Updated
Candy’s Answer
My best advice is to decide which marketing path you want to embark on or consider some internships that could help you figure that out. Skills that I find helpful across all marketing careers are project management, written and verbal communication, the ability to make data-driven decisions, the ability to understand and connect with your user personas, and the ability to create messaging and positioning that's clear and compelling. Any marketing position also requires a "learn it all" attitude, whether you're entering the tech space or an agency. Good luck!
Great advice, thank you so much!
Kelly
Brent Bates
Recruiter / Talent Acquisition / Human Resources / HR
2
Answers
Updated
Brent’s Answer
Hi Kelly,
That's a great question. As a corporate recruiter that hires marketing professionals and someone that has likely more than dabbled in marketing while running a few small businesses over the years, here's my advice...
Marketing is a pretty broad field. First, figure out your strengths and what type of marketing work you'd prefer to do. You may need to do some different internships to figure that out or you may even be self-aware enough to just know. Being in a role that utilizes your strengths will bring out a passion in you that will accelerate your professional development tenfold. Then, in the future, if you want to advance up the ladder into a management role you'll need to gain exposure and at least a base-level of proficiency to most aspects of marketing, along with learning leadership and management skills, two completely different things.
Are you particularly creative? Explore and teach yourself to do graphic design, utilize website building tools, start writing a blog, and/or start a small business. Join organizations & activities at your school that need help marketing to develop email & social media campaigns; learn to manage them in Hubspot. Learn to use Canva and Adobe InDesign/Photoshop/Illustrator.
Are you very analytical and good with numbers? Strive to get an internship focused on marketing research, marketing analytics, or start a business or even a website to practice improving SEO and Google Analytics. Learn about e-commerce, PPC (Google Adwords & social media), and SEM. Learn about marketing automation & databases and how to use tools like Hubspot, Marketo, Pardot, Salesforce, Adobe Target, MailChimp, and Eloqua.
Are you tech-savvy? Learn to code in HTML5, CSS, and javascript to make websites.
There are many certifications you can get that are free (Hubspot & Google) and valuable to have on your resume.
Gaining work experience at a marketing agency would give you broad exposure to many different types of clients and projects. Also, they would be more likely to take a chance on you for your first job.
That's a great question. As a corporate recruiter that hires marketing professionals and someone that has likely more than dabbled in marketing while running a few small businesses over the years, here's my advice...
Marketing is a pretty broad field. First, figure out your strengths and what type of marketing work you'd prefer to do. You may need to do some different internships to figure that out or you may even be self-aware enough to just know. Being in a role that utilizes your strengths will bring out a passion in you that will accelerate your professional development tenfold. Then, in the future, if you want to advance up the ladder into a management role you'll need to gain exposure and at least a base-level of proficiency to most aspects of marketing, along with learning leadership and management skills, two completely different things.
Are you particularly creative? Explore and teach yourself to do graphic design, utilize website building tools, start writing a blog, and/or start a small business. Join organizations & activities at your school that need help marketing to develop email & social media campaigns; learn to manage them in Hubspot. Learn to use Canva and Adobe InDesign/Photoshop/Illustrator.
Are you very analytical and good with numbers? Strive to get an internship focused on marketing research, marketing analytics, or start a business or even a website to practice improving SEO and Google Analytics. Learn about e-commerce, PPC (Google Adwords & social media), and SEM. Learn about marketing automation & databases and how to use tools like Hubspot, Marketo, Pardot, Salesforce, Adobe Target, MailChimp, and Eloqua.
Are you tech-savvy? Learn to code in HTML5, CSS, and javascript to make websites.
There are many certifications you can get that are free (Hubspot & Google) and valuable to have on your resume.
Gaining work experience at a marketing agency would give you broad exposure to many different types of clients and projects. Also, they would be more likely to take a chance on you for your first job.
Terrific information! Thank you so much!
Kelly
Updated
Ryan’s Answer
Marketing is about understanding and working with data more than ever. Having technical skills, software certifications, or experience in data analysis is a great way to start. It can be anything from Excel to working with social media platforms. Search engine optimization (SEO) is another valuable skill that can be a great way for small businesses to market and find new customers. Marketing is also about art and design to catch someone's attention. If you are more artistic think about graphic design courses or local art classes.
Updated
Bassem’s Answer
interpersonal skills.
good oral and written communication skills.
numeracy and analytical ability.
creativity and imagination.
influencing and negotiation skills.
teamwork.
organisational ability.
IT skills.
good oral and written communication skills.
numeracy and analytical ability.
creativity and imagination.
influencing and negotiation skills.
teamwork.
organisational ability.
IT skills.
Thank you for the very helpful list!
Kelly
Updated
Andre’s Answer
Hi Kelly, you have a lot of great answers! I've worked in marketing for many years. Something that impresses me when interviewing candidates is when they are up to speed on the latest trends. You can pick specific areas that you are interested in and there are many. Things like micro-influencers, personalized marketing or machine learning. You could find a book that digs into a specific topic or even attend an online seminar.
Hope that helps a little and best of luck.
Hope that helps a little and best of luck.
Thank you, Andre!
Kelly
Updated
Sara’s Answer
Research and analytics, powerpoints and excel, interpersonal and communication, product knowledge, attention to detail are all important for this field.
Thank you for the advice, Sara.
Kelly
Updated
Simeon’s Answer
Often times, some familiarity with a software will go a long ways towards making you a more promising applicant. Look at some of the job positions and see if they mentioned specific software competencies that they would prefer. See if you can get formal certifications in the software you are looking to use.
Thank you for the advice.
Kelly
Updated
Dianna’s Answer
Hello. Marketing skills can include:
- Being able to collaborate with other departments
- Being aware of industry trends
- Being proactive and taking initiative in your career
- Coding
- Communication skills
- Data analytics
- Leadership skills
- Organizational skills
- Owning your development
- People skills
- Teamwork and being a team player
Having the drive, desire, and the ability to work hard will allow you to succeed in anything that you do.
- Being able to collaborate with other departments
- Being aware of industry trends
- Being proactive and taking initiative in your career
- Coding
- Communication skills
- Data analytics
- Leadership skills
- Organizational skills
- Owning your development
- People skills
- Teamwork and being a team player
Having the drive, desire, and the ability to work hard will allow you to succeed in anything that you do.
Thank you, Dianna for the advice.
Kelly
Updated
Andre’s Answer
Hi Kelly, you have a lot of great answers! I've worked in marketing for many years. Something that impresses me when interviewing candidates is when they are up to speed on the latest trends. You can pick specific areas that you are interested in and there are many. Things like micro-influencers, personalized marketing or machine learning. You could find a book that digs into a specific topic or even attend an online seminar.
Hope that helps a little and best of luck.
Hope that helps a little and best of luck.
Thank you!
Kelly
Updated
Annie’s Answer
I came to marketing from a sales background, and I've found that to be a benefit especially working in B2B marketing. While we all ultimately focus on the end consumer, in a business to business setting with most sales executed by some sort of sales rep (vs online or in a retail store for example), that sales rep is often the customer that the marketing team is really serving most directly. So in addition to all the technical marketing expertise you'll need, having an understanding of the entire sales funnel is also very important so you know how to build a strong partnership with your sales team.
Thank you for the advice, Annie.
Kelly
Updated
Steve’s Answer
You really need to like people and a desire to help them. Marketing is all about selling yourself, a product, a service or an idea to others and you need to have great interpersonal skills to become very successful. Think about what your client/customer is asking of you, and then create marketing that will compel people to want to engage with that product, service or idea. A "call to action" in your advertising is a great method to build sales and increase brand awareness. Be empathic with your clients and be ready to assist them doing whatever it takes (being legal of course) to help your clients achieve their goal. Happy marketing....
Updated
Corinne’s Answer
Soft skills: communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, teamwork (this is big), decisiveness, ability to give concise and helpful feedback (on artistic work, briefs), project management/managing teams, public speaking time management.
Hard skills: WRITING, working knowledge of Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Photoshop, Illustrator, web design (Wordpress or Squarespace), social media platforms* (Hoot Suite, etc.), email platforms* (Mail Chimp, Fish Bowl, etc).
*There are so many programs out there for these mediums that it is impossible to know them all, and you don’t need to. Just choose one of the free ones and get to know it well. They all work off of similar principles, so once you know one of them the more complex versions will be easier to learn.
Read books to gain soft skills, like Stephen Covey’s Habits of Highly Successful People
Take online courses to learn software or watch YouTube videos for tutorials
Hard skills: WRITING, working knowledge of Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Photoshop, Illustrator, web design (Wordpress or Squarespace), social media platforms* (Hoot Suite, etc.), email platforms* (Mail Chimp, Fish Bowl, etc).
*There are so many programs out there for these mediums that it is impossible to know them all, and you don’t need to. Just choose one of the free ones and get to know it well. They all work off of similar principles, so once you know one of them the more complex versions will be easier to learn.
Corinne recommends the following next steps:
Wow, so much wonderful and useful information. Thank you so much!
Kelly
I agree with Corinne 100%. The above soft skills can also translate into other managerial positions. The ability to read an audience and communicate effectively is very important for anyone in marketing.
Erica Chun
Updated
Patti’s Answer
That's a really good question. In addition to the skills you'll acquire through formal Marketing courses, I think skills such as: Project Management, Time Management, Data Analytics, Creativity, and being able to build Relationships are helpful. However, if I had to select one skill as the most critical in Marketing, I would say its understanding your target customers needs and how your product can make their life better. Truly observing the customer, really understanding their values and needs and then being able to get your story across as to how your product / service can make their life easier and better.
Updated
Colin’s Answer
Marketing is a very broad and diverse function and there are many different career paths within it. Here are a few examples that come to mind:
- Consumer insights and research, survey design, etc.
- Competitive research
- Presentation skills and PowerPoint design
- Creativity and design (Adobe software)
- Pricing analysis
- Consumer insights and research, survey design, etc.
- Competitive research
- Presentation skills and PowerPoint design
- Creativity and design (Adobe software)
- Pricing analysis
Thank you so much!
Kelly
Updated
Danny’s Answer
Hi Kelly,
Your degree is just a starting place for preparing your marketing skills. I think the skills that have served me most well in my marketing career so far include: problem-solving, communication, and organization. I can explain a little more about what each of these:
Problem-solving: Being able to look at a problem, ask questions, understand it, ask more questions, and come up with solutions that could work, pitch them to those involved, and then try one of the solutions out. It's an iterative process and takes time to build intuition but is so gratifying and will make you really successful in any marketing job.
Communication: In any marketing job you must be able to communicate clearly and on what matters with everyone you work with. You likely will have to synthesize product features into compelling marketing language. You will have to pitch ideas to stakeholders and get them to buy-in. And you will have to keep things moving quickly to stay one track. Communication is a muscle that you must practice.
Organization: Keep everything organized at all times. It helps stay on track. It helps when responsibilities must be transitioned to someone else. It also helps you solve problems with all the info in front of you.
There are great books out there on communication: Read one or two
Use your hobbies as a place to start practicing problem-solving and organization
Your degree is just a starting place for preparing your marketing skills. I think the skills that have served me most well in my marketing career so far include: problem-solving, communication, and organization. I can explain a little more about what each of these:
Problem-solving: Being able to look at a problem, ask questions, understand it, ask more questions, and come up with solutions that could work, pitch them to those involved, and then try one of the solutions out. It's an iterative process and takes time to build intuition but is so gratifying and will make you really successful in any marketing job.
Communication: In any marketing job you must be able to communicate clearly and on what matters with everyone you work with. You likely will have to synthesize product features into compelling marketing language. You will have to pitch ideas to stakeholders and get them to buy-in. And you will have to keep things moving quickly to stay one track. Communication is a muscle that you must practice.
Organization: Keep everything organized at all times. It helps stay on track. It helps when responsibilities must be transitioned to someone else. It also helps you solve problems with all the info in front of you.
Danny recommends the following next steps: