Technology increases competition on the market not only between companies but among professionals as well. In order to stay relevant modern marketers besides soft skills must have a number of particular hard skills. It’s important because today the majority of communication and promotion campaigns are conducted online and thus good marketers have to understand how digital tools work. Let’s take a closer look at top-7 skills which will keep you competitive as a marketing professional. We hope, that by the end of this article you will be able to understand why spending a couple of hours learning about the basics of UX design is more important today than taking another course in “effective communications and product positioning”.

1. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is one of the most cutting-edge technologies which probably has the greatest potential to revolutionize not only marketing but all domains of our life. Already today artificial intelligence is used for the management of relations with clients, sales, processing of orders and dozens of other marketing and sales functions. Thus, it’s quite important to understand how it can be used to improve the efficiency of different communication channels. By investing your time into learning about artificial intelligence basics now you are contributing to your own relevance on the job market for the next five, ten or even fifteen years.

2. User Experience (UX) for mobile

A properly designed user experience is what retains the visitors of the website and increases the conversion of leads into sales. Since the share of consumed data and sales conducted via mobile devices is permanently growing, the design of user experience for “small screens” becomes crucial in the battle for customers. In 2018, 52,2% of global website traffic was generated by mobile devices, while the overall value of mobile e-commerce was estimated at USD 200 billion.

Knowing how to properly design and test UX for mobile devices is a crucial skill. What is good, is that we have a tool to make this task much easier for you. We are about to launch a new UXReality application. This app tracks and analyzes the gaze and eye movement patterns of users when they are interacting with a mobile version of the website and shows which emotions they experience at every particular moment of the interaction. To learn more about the application and become one of the first insiders in the fascinating universe of mobile UX/UI design insights visit the website of the app.

3. Voice Searches

Every day users have less time to spend on your content. Now, they even became too busy to type and prefer to input their search queries via voice. As the result, in recent years the amount of voice searches steadily spirals up. This trend is very important to keep in mind when doing search engine optimization. Voice searches are longer and more precise because for users it’s usually easier to express themselves orally than in writing. It means that the websites which give the most relevant answers to such queries are ranked higher in Google search results which means more views for your content and more potential customers for your company.

By the way, our new UXReality app allows recording what users say during tests of mobile versions of a website or an application. It means that you’ll get even more insights about real user experience since very often people are unconsciously mumbling something while doing the online research.

4. Data visualization and storytelling

Today, users aren’t really keen to read something unless it’s a good story, which means that storytelling skills are very important for a professional digital marketer. If you are able to spice up your story with some data and present it in a form of an attractive infographic, it means that you can create a good piece of content, which is actually one of the main tasks of digital marketers. Good stories and reliable data presented in an appealing and user-friendly format help you build brand awareness and position a company as a reliable source of information. It facilitates the creation of a loyal community of customers and the attraction of new ones.

5. Search engine optimization

A good marketer should be no stranger to the phrase “Google AdWords”. You must have a good understanding of which keywords are used for the promotion of your content and how publications and websites are indexed in Google Search. You should also understand why Google Analytics is a valuable source of information and how to use this data to make your content to be ranked high by the search engine. The better you will understand the technicality of the search engine's operation, the easier it will be for you to talk to your SEO team and set tasks for them.

6. Social media marketing

It’s not big news that social media marketing is the key driver of sales today. Social networks can do both - easily bring your company to the extremes of customer love and seriously damage its reputation with a couple of reposts and retweets. Thus, it’s crucial to understand how different social networks work, how to approach these or that target audiences and why the content which perfectly suits Facebook may drastically fail on Instagram.

Furthermore, the majority of social networks have a well-developed set of data collection and analysis tools which are very helpful for getting to know your target audience better. According to recent research, marketers with good SMM skills are 32% more likely to secure a good job offer compared to their less savvy colleagues.

7. Design skills

Contemporary marketing is driven by visual content, so understanding of design trends and relevant software is crucial. Just imagine, if you are skilled enough to create visual content in Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator it means that you can develop your marketing campaigns without involving external staff, which significantly speeds up the process. At the same time, in case you are managing a big marketing team, design skills will help you find strong arguments when disputing with designers on visuals you don’t like.

When assessing your competitiveness as a marketer try to compare yourself with a car. Which cars are more attractive? Definitely, those which have more specs. Nobody wants a car just with wheels, brakes, a steering wheel and door handles. You also want leather seats, a sunroof, an advanced entertainment system, and a powerful engine. The same applies to the marketing domain – all expect you to be a brand-new BMW and not an 80s Oldsmobile.