Do You Know Enough to be Dangerous?
In today’s marketing and communications world, expertise involves command of tools like Marketo, Eloqua and Tableau
You’re an avid Facebook user. You met your spouse online. Maybe you even helped your mother-in-law set up a blog to document her gardening hobby. Or, perhaps you have actual on-the-job experience with basic search engine marketing or updating your company’s Facebook page or blog. So of COURSE you’re a shoo-in for that digital marketing position…right?
Not so fast.
You might be a social media whiz compared to your family and friends, but if tools like Marketo and Tableau are unfamiliar to you, you are likely lacking the core skills most employers now want.
In fact, today’s employers hiring a digital marketing and analytics professionals are looking for much more than a casual user. They expect candidates pursuing these roles to have business-specific and results-oriented experience. They also want them to be productive and make a mark right away.
What are employers looking for?
When evaluating digital and data analytics candidates, today’s top employers look for:
- Sophisticated leadership of strategy, implementation and results specific to the company’s goals and objectives.
- Creativity and innovation in developing content and executing
- Deep, extensive command of today’s most important business intelligence and marketing automation tools, like Marketo, Eloqua and Tableau.
What skills do job seekers need?
And even job seekers in more traditional marketing and communications roles need to have a strong understanding of how these elements fit into the broader marketing strategy. Increasingly, hiring managers also evaluate candidates of all types on what digital and analytics skills they bring to the table and how they’re staying on top of the industry trends. For example:
- Copywriters may not be setting the strategy, but they may nonetheless be evaluated on their command of SEO principles or asked to show how they would approach copywriting/content production for traditional versus emerging media. (Note: They are)
- Content marketers are required to show agility in repurposing content from traditional into digital vehicles.
- Communications directors need to be well-versed in not only traditional outlets but also digital and mobile tools in order to run today’s most impactful multimedia communications campaigns.
- Likewise, PR practitioners must demonstrate how their media relations strategies take into account both traditional and emerging media.
So it’s not enough to be a casual user of technology and online media and expect career success in today’s fast-changing marketing and communications marketplace.
Need help developing your skills? Wondering how your skills stack up against the competition vying for the same jobs? Read one of our other blogs on how to sharpen your skills and which tools you need to know well in order to be competitive.
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