8 Must-Have Marketing Skills for a Modern Day Resume

The world is changing for our consumers and so are the skills needed to ensure we are meeting their needs from a brand perspective and connecting with them from a human perspective. We rounded up answers from our Innovators community on the most valuable (and sometimes underdeveloped) skills for marketers today. Not surprisingly, skills like empathy, resiliency and curiosity rose to the top, while common sense, resourcefulness and cultural understanding also made an appearance. Whether you're brushing up your resume or Linkedin profile, or actively hiring for your own team, read on to see what these forward-thinking marketers had to say: 1. Empathy “The best marketers are the ones that can step into the shoes of another person, understand their perspective, and use that knowledge to inform great work. Especially in the current climate, we need to cultivate empathy and be sensitive to what people are going through.” Katie Shill, senior director of marketing, Calm “With so much data today, it’s easy for marketers to become controlled by the numbers and slowly distanced from the human beings behind the data. Data-driven insights are critical, but great marketing always pairs deep consumer empathy with a deep understanding of the lens your brand uniquely brings to storytelling.” Marvin Chow, vp of global marketing, Google 2. Cultural Understanding “Culture is driving everything in today’s society. Having the skill as a marketer to learn from and authentically tap into what is truly moving people is invaluable.” Edward Bourelly, vp of marketing, Planet Fitness “I believe that no matter how much our work (or consumer) environments continue to change, the same core skills apply for marketing and brand leaders: intimate understanding of your product, empathy for your consumer, and nuanced knowledge of the context you’re in.” Eshan Ponnadurai, Global Head of Brand & Consumer Marketing, Whatsapp 3. Resilience "Build resiliency. Marketers learn as much from failure as they do from success, and being agile and learning when to pivot has become necessary for any industry." Avish Sood, Brand Manager, The Clorox Company 4. Nimbleness “One of the most underdeveloped skills in marketing is being nimble, … developing the fast-twitch marketing muscle memory and domain expertise to shorten the overall time it takes to get a message to your target audience.” Ryan Brown, Twitter's Head of Content Strategy and Creative Innovation 5. Curiosity "I am drawn to folks who are: 1) naturally curious with an insatiable desire to learn new things and develop ideas and 2) great collaborators who understand that their ideas are made better with a diverse team to strengthen and support them." Jessica Burns, brand and creative VP, Grubhub "Curiosity. It's the superpower everyone can practice when change is the only constant, and stay a life long learner of our consumers, product, changing media and other macro landscapes. We won't always have the right answers, but the 'whys' and 'hows' will be the key to unlock the next stage of learning, building and growing." Minjae Ormes, CMO, Visible 6. Focus “Don’t waste your talents on something that doesn’t make you happy to have made it. Media cycles, like life, are too short.” Paulie Dery, VP, Brand and Creative, Yeti 7. Accountability "With a continuously changing business environment and quickly evolving customer needs, most marketers today are at the forefront of driving growth. As lines between marketing and commercial functions blur, accountability could become a winning skill..." Shivanku (Shiv) Misra, Head of Analytics, Medicare Retention, CVS Healthcare 8. Preparation “I was never the smartest person in the room (by a long mile) but I tried to be one of the most prepared. That’s how I could compete and it’s something I continue to strive for today.” Gene Paek, global head of digital experience and innovation, HP Thank you to all of our featured Innovators as well as the folks who shared their hot takes on Linkedin: Eric Gray, Waleed Elgindy, Mayur Gupta, Kate Gunning, Amy Woodbridge, Jeremy Schumann, Hussein M. Dajani, Samantha Klein, Liam McKessar, Josh Dean, Fabio Marciano, Erica Miles

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8 Must-Have Marketing Skills for a Modern Day Resume

Luz Corona

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