"Here are four important skills that a modern marketer should have to thrive in today’s fast evolving world of marketing.

• Performance Tracking 
• Analytics
• Campaign Performance
• Operations"

Digital marketing budgets are growing at a breakneck pace, but according to a new report, investments in the essential digital marketing skills needed to handle these larger budgets is lagging far behind. This is particularly true in high-engagement channels and capabilities, such as mobile, video and testing. Translation: although spending on digital technology may be up, the performance of marketers continues to remain stagnant.

BCG, in their recently published report, “A Disconnect and a Divide in Digital-Marketing Talent,” cites that worldwide spending on digital advertising topped $180 billion dollars in 2016, and double-digit growth is expected for 2020.

More troubling, is that these marketers’ scores didn’t budge within an 18-month period. This signals a growing divide between mega digital advertising budgets and the strength of the capabilities that actually generate strong return on investment (ROI).

SiriusDecisions’ 2016 global CMO survey revealed that a majority of respondents plan to acquire, revise or enhance the skill sets within marketing, including marketing strategy, analytics, channel partner management, sales enablement, social media and marketing measurement.

Data literacy

Staying nimble

Architecting systems

Keeping it real

Doing so requires a greater focus from across and within the marketing organization, along with dedicated ownership, accountability and governance. Why? Think about a typical b-to-b organization’s focus on sales enablement. Is marketing enablement somehow less important? Of course not. The problem is that it just doesn’t exist today, and the CMO can’t do it alone. Just as the sales enablement discipline has evolved into a dedicated function ensuring that the sales team has the necessary skills and training, tools, processes, and programs, so too must marketing enablement. This new function will finally allow the CMO to make sure the b-to-b marketing team is at the top of its game every day. After all, change is the only constant.

1. Spell out your problem
2. Determine your goal
3. Explore the forces of change
4. Brainstorm the forces of resistance
5. Define your strategy to start
6. Write down your goal and strategy
7. Follow your strategy
8. Crave the results
9. Believe that you will build the skill
10. Hone your procedure
11. Never stop improving

The current state of the digital marketing skills landscape. The results from our survey of over 700 marketing professionals are in! The responses have all. Marketing topic(s):Personal career development. Advice by Robert Allen.

We used our Ultimate Marketing Careers Guide to find out which of the 50 positions we profiled were the top 10 highest paying marketing jobs. Take a look!

The demand for creative and marketing players is growing, and is expected to continue its growth pattern going into the next five-year stretch. Starting salaries in marketing are seeing an average of 3.9% growth this year, and US News reports that hot jobs in marketing (like market research analyst) are seeing a median salary of a little over $60,000, and marketing manager roles are hitting in the low to mid $120,000s.

Software and professional services firm Clutch, in partnership with marketing agency R2integrated found in April that the vast majority of US marketers said they use web and marketing analytics products. This was the No. 1 type of marketing technology in use according to the survey.

Digital marketing - including social media - is the skill that the greatest share of CMOs believe is most important to their marketing team's success today, per results from a recent Spencer Stuart survey of 150 marketing leaders. Data analytics and insights, along with strategic thinking

“The new marketer combines operational and data skills with a grasp of the big picture,” according to a report by The Economist Intelligence Unit and Marketo. Emphasis was placed on these qualities: digital engagement and technology (39%), strategy and planning (38%), data analysis (32%), customer experience (27%), advertising and branding (26%), and creative and graphics (16%).

• Write a blog post in code view, not WYSIWYG mode. 
• Resize and compress an image using the right file format. 
• Explain the difference between a session, a unique visitor and a pageview. 
• Explain the difference between log file analysis and javascript-based analytics, and what it takes to do both.
• Explain how HTML, CSS and javascript fit together. 
• Move a file from one computer to another without dragging and dropping, using e-mail or exposing that file to the entire planet. 
• Sketch out what happens between a click on a link and final delivery of the target page, from browser to server and back again.
• Pick a language. Create a form, accept input and show the result three times on submit. 
• Explain the work that goes into creating and launching good code.
• Explain server response codes. 200. 301. 302. 404. 500. 

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