I attended a really interesting Senior Marketers Roundtable yesterday evening, hosted by Hays Group and CIM, talking about marketing skills gaps.
With a great eclectic mix of industries, skills and talents around the table it was sure to raise some interesting debate.
According to Hays research, only 15% of marketing leaders say they have good digital marketing skills. They also identify a broader skills gap in commercial awareness, literacy, project management and communication across their teams.
As we delved deeper it became apparent that with mindful ROI interpreted across the business in a language that the rest of the business can understand, a key missing skill of today’s marketer is story-telling.
We talk so much about case studies, references and customer stories and then forget we must do effective, evidence-based story telling within our businesses for optimal effect and results. Internal communication is so important in building the confidence of what marketing can deliver and the value it adds to the business.
Let’s teak junior marketers the technical skills and theories but let’s also teach them how to tell stories… evidence (ROI) focused stories, to win the minds and the hearts of everyone in the business. As voice of the customer inside organisations, this is going to be a key skill going forward.
