Written by Coursera Staff • Updated on
The right marketing skills can be an asset across multiple industries.
Working in marketing can take several different forms. You might conduct customer research, design eye-catching graphics, or develop engaging content—to name just a few areas. Despite all those distinct functions, there are a number of workplace skills that typically apply to all marketing careers, and strengthening them may make you more successful over time.
In this article, we’ll go over the top workplace and technical marketing skills, as well as ways to incorporate these key competencies into your resume.
6 workplace marketing skills
You tend to learn workplace skills (sometimes known as soft skills) through experience, and you can apply them to a number of different tasks and roles. In marketing, there are six workplace skills that will be important to develop and sharpen throughout your career.
1. Creativity
Marketing involves working with ideas—and improving them in order to reach new and existing customers—so all marketing roles require creativity to some extent. While some roles, like copywriter or social media coordinator, may demand more creativity on a daily basis than others, having a strong creative sensibility will serve you well in your marketing career.
What this looks like:
Producing short, innovative videos for a new social media campaign
Identifying a new way to conduct market research so your team learns something new about competitors
Finding a new program or tool that will better track customer engagement
2. Research
Marketers develop savvy campaigns that encourage customers to do something—buy a product, donate to a non-profit, or add new services to their account. Knowing how to conduct both qualitative and quantitative research can help you find data that may help inform your team’s specific efforts.
What this looks like:
Using social media listening tools, such as Hootsuite or Buffer, to understand what customers are saying directly about a product
Conducting market research on a major competitor’s products
Doing keyword research to make sure your content aligns with user intent
3. Listening
In addition to the research that you conduct about customers, it’s equally important to listen to the feedback they offer: What pain points do your customers experience? What do they most enjoy about your latest products? Listening requires a good degree of empathy, and can train you to be more flexible by staying open to suggestions that shift the course of your marketing efforts.
What this looks like:
Paying attention to the comments customers post on social media
Tracking site metrics to see how much time users are spending on various pages
Reviewing surveys and other qualitative data for insights
4. Communication
Marketers must be excellent communicators in a few different ways: with audiences, with team members, and with major stakeholders and company leaders. Being able to clearly and efficiently communicate with these different groups can not only help you succeed in your various tasks but may also help you avoid any problems that arise from poor communication.
What this looks like:
Responding to customers’ complaints with respect and empathy
Drafting emails to marketing team members about an upcoming campaign launch
Leading a presentation to company stakeholders about annual results
5. Analytical and critical thinking
Is this marketing campaign going well? Are we reaching our audience in the best way possible? Questions like these arise often in marketing, and it’s crucial that you develop your analytical and critical thinking skills so you can review the impact of your work and adjust it accordingly. Honing this skill can also be helpful when it comes to trends and whether your company should participate in them.
What this looks like:
Comparing social media metrics month by month to determine what type of post does best
Interpreting user search intent and drafting an article that gives readers something they haven’t found find from competitor sites
Reviewing quarterly marketing campaigns and identifying what could be improved in the future
6. Collaboration
Marketers not only have to collaborate with team members, but oftentimes they have to collaborate with other members of a company as well. It’s not uncommon for marketers to work with software engineers, data scientists, and salespeople, among others, to develop new offerings for audiences or identify solutions to issues customers are experiencing. When you collaborate well, you actively listen to what others have to say and communicate efficiently.
What this looks like:
Social media team members partnering with graphic designers to ensure brand alignment on all posts using graphics or images
Content marketing team members working with product team members to add new features to a company’s website in order to provide better information to customers
Digital marketing teams working with market research analysts to determine where, geographically, to focus specific ad targets
7 technical marketing skills
Marketing also requires a robust technical skill set. Given the amount of collaboration—and at times overlap—that can occur in marketing, it can be advantageous to have a well-rounded understanding of the programs and tools other roles use. For starters, it can help you communicate better with other members of your marketing team whose functions are different than yours, and it can also help you move into new or different areas of marketing as your career evolves.
1. Writing
Given the number of marketing areas that require strong writing, your ability to understand messaging on both a broad and sentence level can be a huge help. Even if you don’t end up writing anything for an audience, this skill can help you contribute more constructive feedback.
What this looks like:
Drafting copy for social media posts, and revising it to fit each platform’s best practices
Writing a long-form blog post about a new product offering
Reviewing a copywriter’s new landing page description for brand alignment
2. SEO and SEM
Both search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) aim to improve website visibility and traffic. Thanks to the growth of digital marketing and e-commerce platforms, having an understanding of either area can help you make more informed decisions about things like a company’s web presence, digital content, and customer needs.
Key tools: Semrush, Conductor, Yoast
3. CRM and marketing automation
Marketing efforts are multifaceted because marketers engage with customers on multiple channels, including social media, email, and online ads. But with separate teams responsible typically for those efforts, things can quickly grow tangled without marketing automation or customer relationship management (CRM). This software helps track a customer’s journey and makes sure your team’s work pays off.
Key tools: Hubspot, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Salesforce
4. Content management system (CMS)
Most companies have websites, which means there may be a lot of information spread over hundreds (if not thousands) of pages. A content management system (CMS) helps house all of that content so teams can make updates and add new content. Knowing how to work in some of the more common CMS platforms, listed below, can be an asset.
Key tools: WordPress, Drupal, Contently
5. Data collection and visualization
Data tells many stories. A number of marketers use data collection and visualization tools to understand everything from competitors’ website traffic to customer demographics. Having some understanding of how to analyze data—or understand the data you’re looking at—can help you develop more specific insights and adjust your strategy.
Key tools: Tableau, Looker, Zoho Analytics
6. Design
Typically, graphic designers and user experience/user interface (UX/UI) designers are required to have design skills, but having a general understanding of things like layout, color, photo editing, and typography can be a strong addition to your overall skill set if you don’t work in those areas. You’ll be able to make informed decisions or offer specific feedback to design teams.
Key tools: Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign), Canva, Sketch
7. Social media
Social media is a major part of any company’s digital marketing strategy. Understanding the major platforms and the type of content that reaches audiences on each one can broaden your marketing prowess. Beyond that, knowing how to use social media monitoring and listening tools, can strengthen your digital skill set. In fact, an ability to use Instagram and Hootsuite were listed as two of the top 10 growing marketing skills, according to LinkedIn [1].
Key tools: Sprout, Hootsuite, Buffer
Put your marketing skills into action
Now that you have a better idea about the types of skills that tend to make marketers more successful, here are a few tips to integrate them into your job search.
Resumes
Integrate your workplace marketing skills into your “previous experience” summaries or bullet points. It’s especially important to show recruiters the impact you had by quantifying your accomplishments. For example, if you’re applying for social media roles, instead of saying, “Scheduled social posts on major platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram,” go one step further and explain the engagement you achieved as a result of that work.
Under the technical skills section of your resume, list the programs, software, and tools you know how to use. Start with the most relevant tools for the job you’re applying to. For example, if you’re applying to be a market research analyst, tell recruiters which data analysis and data visualization programs you know first, before listing other technical skills.
Interviews
During an interview, you should mention examples of your workplace skills when you discuss your past experience or answer behavioral questions, such as “Share an example of how you worked on a team.” In that case, you could touch on any collaboration you fostered, how you communicated with your team members, and even any creative problem solving that resulted in more efficiency.
How to gain marketing skills
There are a number of ways you can build—or strengthen—the skills you’ll need for a marketing career. Let’s go over some of the most common options.
Teach yourself
Read up about the latest trends and technologies being used in marketing as a starting point and identify a few new areas—or tools—that might be helpful to learn. Don’t know where to start? We’ve put together a helpful marketing blogs list. You can also finish a Guided Project on Coursera. They’re designed to be completed in two hours or less, and in that time you can gain a beginner’s level understanding of programs like PhotoShop or Tableau.
Professional Certificates
You can take your learning one step further with a the Meta Social Media Marketing and Marketing Analytics Professional Certificates. Over six to seven months, you can build the skills necessary to pursue an entry-level role in either area.
Degrees
Earning your bachelor’s degree in marketing can help you gain important skills in a number of marketing topics and marketing-related topics—and a credential often required to advance in certain marketing roles. The University of London’s BSc in Marketing offers a global perspective on marketing, beginning with general subject courses and moving toward specialized courses.
Learn more: What Can You Do with a Marketing Degree? 11 Career Paths
Freelance projects
Finding freelance or even volunteer projects for local organizations can help you develop the necessary marketing skills to succeed in other full-time roles. Plus, it may be something to add to your portfolio—a specific example you can show recruiters.
Develop or strengthen your marketing skills on Coursera
If you're interested in building key marketing skills, the top-rated Professional Certificates below are a great place to keep learning:
Learn the fundamentals of good brand management with Meta's Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate, where you'll learn about effective social media campaigns and more.
Explore digital marketing with Google's Digital Marketing and E-Commerce Professional Certificate, where you'll learn about email marketing and marketing analytics, among other topics, and get job-ready for an entry-level marketing role in less than six months.
To enhance your marketing skills, explore Meta's Marketing Analytics Professional Certificate, where you'll learn how to sort, clean, and visualize data that can inform key marketing strategies.
1. LinkedIn. “Top in-Demand Marketing Jobs and Training Skills, https://www.linkedin.com/business/marketing/blog/linkedin-ads/top-in-demand-marketing-jobs-training-skills." Accessed May 10, 2022.
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