6 skills tomorrow’s digital marketers need to master

Preparing for a job in the marketing world tomorrow will be vastly different than it is today. While the basics of marketing may be the same, the tools to analyze, create, and implement marketing campaigns continue to evolve at breakneck speed.

Some 90% of marketers say they are under-skilled. In other words, there’s a huge gap in what they need to know and what they actually know. That’s why 41% of marketing and advertising executives say they are struggling to find skilled professionals.

This represents a huge opportunity. Mastering the skills now will prepare you for that future. Here are four of the emerging skills you’ll need to master to be ready.

The growth of digital marketing has created endless amounts of data. Now, marketers have more access to how campaigns are performing and consumer’s behavior. To make sense of this huge amount of data, tomorrow’s digital marketers will need to master data analytics.

Digital marketing data analytics go beyond just web analytics and website performance. Tomorrow’s digital marketers will need to be well-versed in how data shapes and drives the customer experience across platforms and channels. They will need to master several tools including Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Ads Managers, and various ad exchanges. If their business collects additional customer data, they may need to master Excel and SQL to run queries against the data and uncover insights.

Using this data, digital marketers can track this customer journey to provide insight into what’s working and what leads to conversions. They will be able to see what campaigns are driving valuable customers and which efforts are not delivering an ROI.

Marketers will need to be comfortable analyzing data and recognizing business opportunities. It takes an experienced eye for data wrangling – the ability to take raw data and turn them into business strategies. They will also need to tell stories with that data to inspire action.

Marketing analysts will work with structured data and unstructured data. Structured data, also known as quantitative data, includes facts and numbers that software can collect and order. Unstructured data, also called qualitative data, includes subjective options about your brand such as survey responses, blog comments, or social media comments.

Running multiple digital campaigns can get complex quickly. Building an omnichannel marketing plan includes various technologies and different measurements that lead to a lot of moving parts to coordinate. Digital markets need to also have the skills of a project manager and bring together disparate teams to move marketing ideas from concept to completion.

Project management skills include leading and directing internal and external teams to manage projects and deliverables. Project managers must have technical skills, but they must also be able to break down complex projects into actionable steps. They must be able to clearly communicate objections and then motivate teams to create a seamless experience.

Digital marketing project managers need to manage the workflow process. They should be proficient with tools such as Trello, Basecamp, or Wrike. They will need experience with agile development methods and content management systems (CMS).

Marketing automation streamlines, automates, and optimizes marketing efforts. It allows businesses to target customers with marketing and sales messages using workflows. Online marketing efforts can be customized on the fly to send different messages to different prospects at different points in the customer buying journey.

Marketing automation has allowed more precise messaging and it’s being adopted by nearly every marketing department. Around 67% of marketing leaders currently use marketing automation platforms. Another 21% say they plan to implement automation within the next two years.

Implementing automations helps the team get more done and also creates a better experience for the customer.