The world is changing. To remain relevant and thriving in a time like this, you need to be abreast of the changes shaping the world around you and adapt to it. Else, you become obsolete.

“The future is not ahead of us. It has already happened. Unfortunately, it is unequally distributed among companies, industries and nations” – Philip Kotler

If you are a Business owner, CEO or CMO, you need to ask yourself this important question: Does my marketing team have the requite skills to be relevant in the contemporary time. To be successful today, your marketing team needs all the traditional marketing skills and, a whole lot more.

Sam Davies puts it best when he said: “To make sure the people in your marketing team can stay ahead in the modern world of marketing, they need to develop new skills, be more innovative than ever, and take complete advantage of the fact that we are living through a revolution and there are no rules”.

Here are the four must have skills in any effective modern marketing team

1. A Solid Understanding Of Marketing Fundamentals

The first thing your team must have is a thorough understanding of marketing fundamentals. This is so important that without it, all your marketing initiatives are doomed to failure.

This is common sense right?

Unfortunately, it seems common sense is not common. Just last week, I was in a meeting with a prospective client where their in-house marketing manager displayed an utter lack of understanding of marketing fundamentals. Asked to provide a summary of their marketing strategy, he kept rambling about their “rebranded logo” “advertising on radio and newspaper!

Your marketing team must be grounded in such marketing fundamentals as the four Ps of marketing and, STP. Yes, all marketing is built on STP-Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.


2. An Understanding Of Human Psychology

One essential component you need in your marketing team today is someone (or people) with a deep understanding of how and why other people think and act the way they do.

It will be practically impossible to create compelling marketing communication if you don’t know why it would be compelling to your audience in the first place.

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues such as how

(i) The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives (e.g., brands, products)
(ii) The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g., culture, family, signs, media);
(iii)The behaviour of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions
(iv) How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and
(v) How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.
(vi) Understanding these issues will help your team adapt their strategies by taking the consumer into consideration thereby achieving better marketing returns.


3. Storytelling Skills

Susan Gunelius of Forbes puts it best when she said “Brand storytelling isn’t a new concept, but with the explosive growth of social media and content marketing, the opportunities to tell stories as part of direct and indirect brand marketing initiatives have become a strategic priority”.

Today’s effective marketing team must include a competent storyteller (Brand Creative Content Executive if you like). This individual will focus on increasing consumer emotional involvement in the brand through social media and content marketing stories as well as on weaving the brand storyline into offline brand experiences and marketing initiatives.


4. Data maven and Marketing Analytics Ninja

Marketing analytics comprises the processes and technologies that enable marketers to evaluate the success of their marketing initiatives by measuring performance using important business metrics, such as ROI, marketing attribution and overall marketing effectiveness. In other words, it tells you the effectiveness of all your marketing initiatives.

As your market becomes increasingly competitive, there is no question that the collection, analysis and extraction of insights from data are becoming probably the biggest differentiator for commercial success.

“Data can be the catalyst which, when leveraged correctly, allows a business to outperform the competition. The key is not just collection, but leverage. Size doesn’t matter, insight matters”.

I am sure you now know why you need a data analytics ninja in your team.

Lastly….

The first thing for you to do is to audit your current marketing team to see if they have the requisite skills. If no, well, do the needful and if yes, congratulations. In which case, you need to make sure you have some great processes in place to make the most of them.

Source: http://www.woweffect.com.ng/2017/07/28/4-must-skills-modern-marketing-team/