Learning these three technical skills can help your marketing needs. Being a creative individual with a mastery of key soft skills in business is not enough to stay competitive in the 2021 marketing environment. With new marketing tools being phased into the market, there is a need for individuals who can master the technical skills in demand. Technical skills are considered hard skills that take time and resources to learn and master. Technical skills help create new thinking patterns and logic that can heighten the strategies you use as a marketer. 

Learning new technical skills isn’t as daunting as it may seem. You may think you need a higher education degree or thousands of dollars in certifications, but many tools now offer free certifications and training modules. When you invest in your own skills, you and your employer can reap the benefits. Stepping up your technical skills has never been easier in 2021. We’ve identified three technical marketing skills that will serve you well as a marketer in any industry. Join us in enhancing your technical skills in needed areas such as graphic design, customer relationship management and data analytics. 

Heightening Your Technical Graphic Design Skills

As we noted, being creative is a good thing. It means you can think outside of the box and be open to change. When faced with uncertainty or an unsure client, you are able to navigate the open waters to leave a high-quality deliverable. Because you are creative, you can easily learn the technical skill that is graphic design. 

You don’t always need a degree to enhance your graphic design skills, there are tools like Adobe Creative Cloud, Canva and Lucidpress which can provide beginner resources to curate your marketing assets to your clients’ needs. Understanding design elements, colors and basic technology can help you aid the designers on your team and become a point-person for client content development. Video, image and asset production are critical for any marketing task. Be ahead of the game and invest in learning graphic design technical skills.

Similarly, while mastering design software and tools are important, it’s even more valuable for yourself and your team to have someone who can manage files and assets. When it comes to forwarding different sizes, versions and knowing where to find designs, you need someone on your team who can efficiently retrieve creative materials. Managing where files are located and how to connect creative materials to the client for proofing are parts of the creative process that learning the technical skills behind graphic design can aid. 

Maximizing Your Customer Experience Skills

Now that you have the graphic design skills under your belt, how can you provide value when it comes to managing clients? A skill in high demand in the market today is understanding how to use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools. 

As your agency or team continues to grow, be prepared to handle the influx of potential leads and clients with tools like Salesforce and Hubspot. These two software components are becoming more integrated into marketing organizations because of the power and impact they can have on client nurture streams and developing a sale or agreement. 

Learning the technical skills behind CRM tools adds a layer of expertise and value to your team. You will have the ability to recommend strategies and take action in helping to manage marketing campaigns. When your manager asks your lead conversion rate, you will be prepared to show which tactics worked, and the rate at which your company is successfully acquiring clients. 

Modern marketing is about meeting clients where they are and having the right tools to accelerate their business goals. Learning tools like Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud and Hubspot will set you and your company apart from the competition. 

Data Analysis and Marketing Metrics Knowledge

It can be intimidating to spend the bulk of your marketing budget on a new email campaign or website revamp. You have the resources to be more proactive at protecting your company and monitoring its success. With modern data and analytics tools, such as Microsoft’s Power Query, Qualtrics and Tableau, you have the resources to track and manage your marketing investments. 

Executives and managers need to see where clients are coming from, how to reach them, and how much time to dedicate to your target market. High-performance data analytics and metrics tools can give you visibility into your successes and failures. With real-time updates and easy-to-use user interfaces, becoming an expert in marketing metrics has never been easier. 

Analytical reasoning and business analysis skills were once a secret for many successful businesses, but the cat is out of the bag. To enhance your skills even further, consider learning about Key Performance Indicators (KPI) while navigating software like Qualtrics and Tableau. Key Performance Indicators track the most important factors in your desired marketing goals and are an important concept when sharing data and explaining its impact to managers and executives. 

The Internet is at your fingertips when it comes to learning new data and analytics capabilities. Tracking you and your client’s marketing continues to become an internal responsibility, rather than outsourced, because of the availability of marketers to learn much-needed data analysis skills on the Internet.

Never Stop Learning Technical Skills 

As marketers, being prepared to handle crisis situations, impromptu client requests and long-term campaigns are important skills. While we may have the interpersonal skills to be successful, technical skills such as graphic design, customer relationship management and data analytics can elevate the quality of work and the outcomes our clients have. Be the instigator of growth and take on additional free certifications, work with your information technology team to set up software on your computer, and be a part of the technical growth in marketing.

Want to work with experienced marketing professionals who understand technical marketing skills? Contact Burkhart Marketing to learn more about what we can do for you.