As marketers, we know how quickly the industry changes. In the past year even, we’ve seen SEO refocus to prize social media-active and mobile-optimized sites and the advent of new forms of marketing like streaming video and interactive content. But while we can adapt to these new innovations quickly, it’s more important to anticipate them and ensure we’ve got the skills needed to take advantage of them and stay up-to-date.
Today, we’re discussing the top skills marketers need to succeed in 2016. It should come as no surprise that the majority of them are digitally-focused as digital talent is in more demand today than ever before.
Don’t make the mistake of leaving coding and web design to the developers. It’s essential for today’s marketers to gain a basic understanding of coding languages like HTML and CSS. HTML and CSS are the backbones of every landing page, marketing email and website you work on, and being able to make at least basic code edits yourself will make you much more efficient and effective. Key basics to master include editing meta descriptions, optimizing content for SEO and editing CSS to change the look of a landing page or email. Invest your time in building the following skills in 2016.
No matter what industries you operate in, there’s incredible competition to get onto the first page of Google search results. Search engine optimization can still produce striking results, but it’s most impactful when the entire marketing team has a working knowledge of SEO principles and practices.
SEO is commonly thought of as mere keyword searching and wordsmithing, but it entails a lot more than just those tasks. For example, today, developing and maintaining a social media presence, optimizing your site for mobile viewing, and staying up-to-date on the latest algorithm changes and mandates from Google all have the potential to make a huge difference.
For some of our favorite resources on getting started with SEO, take a look at this vintage Movéo blog.
Managing partner Bob Murphy wrote about how to prepare for the coming B2B e-commerce boom last year, and it’s time to take his advice to heart. Today, it’s essential to plan for digital-first buyers by rethinking how you target, structure and deliver content to reach those already deep into the sales cycle—and who are only a click away from your competitors. Create seamless sales/marketing integration to keep the eCommerce process running smoothly and make sure mobile buyers can check out as easily and efficiently as desktop buyers.
If we had to choose just one skill from this list, it would be data analysis. This should come as no surprise given Movéo’s ever-growing focus on the power of data and insights. Are you comfortable enough with your marketing data to assess the impact of your tactics on everything from web traffic to conversions? Do you know how to optimize your efforts based on key insights found in your data? Today’s most successful marketers are those who can answer yes to both questions. With access to data and new analytical approaches increasing every day, marketers have no excuse not to prove the impact of their work and make smarter decisions based on key insights.
If you’d like to read more about why we see data and analytics as the next frontier in marketing, revisit Movéo analytics director Jiani Zhang’s blog post on the subject.
Let us know: what skills are you committed to developing in your marketing department this year?
If you’re looking for more information on how Movéo integrates new digital tactics into our marketing, take a look at our new case study profiling our work with Hallstar.
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