7 Skills Every Marketing Manager Must Master

Read on to know the 7 skills that make an ideal marketing manager and how a marketing project management software can help in achieving this.

Marketing is an important component of business management, through which satisfying relationships are built with customers. It involves advertising, selling and exceeding customer expectations on service. A marketing manager acts as an intermediary between the company and its customers. In other words, he/she is the face of the company, so the position of a marketing manager is extremely important for an organization.

What does a marketing manager do?

Well, as a marketing manager you will be managing the marketing of a product or service. You could be responsible for a single product or a range of products. Some key focus areas for a product marketing manager could be content marketing, marketing communication, demand generation, and market intelligence, etc.

Given below are seven skills you must master to make a productive marketing manager:

High Levels of Enthusiasm and Creativity

Enthusiasm sells in marketing. A boring or negative attitude doesn't work. Keep smiling and motivate your subordinates. The enthusiastic staff themselves become a marketing tool for your company. Marketing requires out-of-the-box and creative ideas to attract customers. Creativity basically involves generating and executing unique ideas to build brand recognition and sales. Look around at your competition. Do you want to use the same tactics or differentiate your marketing strategy? Take risks with what some may call a 'crazy idea'. Show the world how unique your product or service is.

Strong Analytical Skills

Marketing is gradually shifting from a qualitative to a quantitative approach, thanks to the increasing usage of marketing metrics. It helps when a marketing manager can crunch numbers too. In this data-driven world, a good marketer must go through vast amounts of data available, analyze and interpret what it reveals about consumer behavior. Get familiar with research and analytics tools such as Mixpanel, Amplitude, and Google Analytics. You can also adopt a marketing project management software to let the tool do its job -

• Store crucial information
• Give you valuable insights
• Allows you to make critical organization decisions

Typical analytical responsibilities include estimation and allocation of budgets, segmentation, performance evaluation of each channel and forecasting campaign performance.

Tech Savvy

Today's digital marketing requires some technical and social media skills. Marketing managers should be aware of how to use user-friendly apps, relationship building tools and should be present on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and social media sites. Search engine optimization (SEO) tools like SEMRush, KissMetrics, and MozPro suggest new keywords, search engine marketing tools like GoogleAdwords and Bing Ads provide analytics for search engine ads. You would use a marketing project management software for tracking and storing results, showing campaign timelines and target markets, share files with team members and do a lot more.

Team Player

You would be managing your sales team as well as interacting with other divisions such as manufacturing, finance, logistics, etc. Marketing is dependent on employees from all these divisions and teamwork is key to great marketing. You would collaborate with a cross-functional team and ensure that you have a successful strategy to implement. Have open communication with your marketing teams about goals, values, and concerns. Mentor and support members who need help. Remember, you are as good as your team! Be a productive product manager whom your team looks up to.

Good Communication and Selling Skills

You should communicate with people clearly why they need your product or service. Not only do you need to properly communicate with marketing teams in your organization, but also communicate with people outside your organization properly. You need to analyze your customers and understand their perception of your product or service. You should then conceptualize your marketing to make it appealing to them. A marketing manager requires extraordinary oral and written skills. You would be communicating with vendors and customers, making advertising material, writing reports and press releases, writing product descriptions and a lot more. With good communication comes good selling skills too.

Patience and Willingness to Learn

Patience is a virtue in marketing. You would be hearing negative responses regularly from customers which can be disheartening. Face them with a positive attitude and try to win them over. It takes five sales calls before the customer is ready to buy, as per sales guru Brian Tracy (Source). You need to constantly tell your team to be patient too. In today's world where customers are spoiled for choice, it is very difficult to market a product or service. Learn from your mistakes and communicate differently the next time. The path to be a great marketer is a lifelong journey!

Good Understanding of Customer and Sales Techniques

You understand the psychology of your buyer and half your battle is won! You should have 'Customer Perceptiveness', that is being aware of customer reactions and understanding why they react in such a manner. You should have the empathy to connect with customers on different levels. Buyer has a set of expectations and it is your job to exceed them and give a 'wow' experience. You should have a good understanding of concepts such as inbound marketing, lead generation, content strategy, SEO, advertising and analytics.
The path to be a great marketer is a lifelong journey!
Convincing customers is not an easy task. Always remember, customer is king! It is your duty to give them what they want. Selling is basically transferring your enthusiasm to the customer. Stay relevant in today's competitive world by polishing the above skills and adopting a marketing project management software. Remember, a good marketing manager can make or break a product!