SUMMARY:
- Marketing encompasses many skills, but knowledge about digital marketing or advertising is not going to lead to success.
- Marketing people need to ensure that everyone within the organization understands why they are doing specific tactics and what the brand stands for.
- It would be best if you had the ability to “sell” your ideas clearly, and with a vision of what you expect.
- Perhaps the least understood skill is PowerPoint presentation(s). Your presentation should be exciting and get people to buy into your ideas.
- Separate marketing hype from reality.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen people, under the hashtag #marketing, talk about what you need to succeed in marketing. They are way off base. Over the 20 year course of my career, I’ve seen successful marketers who mastered these three skills:
1ne: Selling up – Before you implement ANY strategy, you need to sell your ideas internally to people who see marketing as an expense. Great communication with senior corporate influencers is essential as they can work behind your back to undermine your authority, skill and strategy.
2wo: Sharing your vision – If the people in customer service, as an example, don’t understand your vision or what the brand really stands for, you’re operating with a liability. I’ve always shared where I want to go with everyone, from customer service to administrative people.
3hree: Effective PowerPoint presentations – Dilbert has mastered the art of PowerPoint poisoning, yet it continues today. Sure, you may have a lot of exciting data, but others may not be as excited as you are. Your PowerPoint should be a show, and people should be excited by what you say.
4our: Separating the hype from the reality – Anyone that jumps on information shared online from a vendor or market research company should be skeptical. Social media marketing is a great example. Marketers continue to pour money into social media even though the ROI is dismal. Learn to understand self-promotional hype released as “insights or white papers” from reality.
Many senior managers see marketing as nothing but an expense; they don’t understand the value, but some marketers do things for bullet points on resumes. Successful marketers understand that marketing knowledge is great but to really succeed, you need other skills they don’t teach at MBA schools.
