Obviously, not everybody’s a da Vinci. But when you’re considering candidates for those newly created data-driven marketing slots, you might do well to err on the side of the inquisitive. Whether you’re hiring an art director or an analyst, a content writer or a demand gen manager, make sure all your candidates have at least one thing in common. Make sure they’re curious.

Data-driven marketing is as much about doing the math as it is about asking the right questions. You want people on your team who can think critically and creatively. Steve Jobs said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” In order to extract usable insights from data, you need people who know how to identify patterns and connect the dots.

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Marketing people are doers. We never want to admit we don’t know something. Given the chance, we prefer to just figure things out on our own and make the best decision with the information at hand. But in this industry of doers, a dirty little secret lurks. I’ve seen it in so many of the companies I’ve worked with.

The truth is, we sometimes suck when it comes to using technology effectively. When people who don’t understand what it takes to properly run these technologies try to be in charge, they can’t accurately predict how long something will take. Managers are especially notorious for assuming something like nurturing or scoring can be done in a week (not super feasible without a Marketo ninja), simply because they just don’t know better. The management team needs to set expectations, but also be sure those expectations are reasonable and clearly understood by the doer.

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In a webinar hosted by CMS Wire on Sept. 23, Amit Varshneya of Demandbase and Holger Schulze of eG Innovations sat down to discuss the results of the “Trends and Challenges of B2B Marketing Analytics in 2014” survey. Schulze, who led the research initiative, looked at responses from 500 marketing professionals. He found that 54 percent of people claim that a lack of systems integration was a big challenge for marketers this year.

Additionally, Schulze discovered that 44 percent believed poor data quality was a marketing hurdle, and 34 percent said that a lack of resources presented issues. However, 46 percent of marketers expect their analytics budgets to grow, and there is an evident shift toward data-driven marketing. About two-thirds of respondents said that the spreadsheet is their most commonly used technology in terms of data analytics, while dashboards were cited by 54 percent of people.

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Digest...

The "growth hacker" or "full-stack marketer" is every CMO's dream. The challenge with finding this person, however, is that he or she is a unicorn – everybody has their fair share of strengths and weaknesses. 

Instead of looking for one person that's a data scientist/programmer/designer/content writer extraordinaire, it’s important to fill these needs in bits and pieces.

First, make a list of your marketing team’s existing -- and potential -- growth opportunities. Next, determine the skillsets that are most critical to accomplishing these goals. You’ll likely need a strong project manager, someone who rocks with spreadsheets and numbers, a visual content pro, an enthusiastic programmer, a business development engine, a researcher, and a writer. Connect the dots between these skills by hiring multiple people who together, create the foundations of the "ultimate" marketing team instead of trying to find one person with all of these skill sets. 

This blended hiring approach will force you to build an inter-connected, collaborative team. At the same time, you’ll boost efficiencies by hiring team members who can execute initiatives quickly with minimal direction. 

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Intermediate/ Digest...

Nearly two thirds of the respondents (63%) say they have too many marketing technology vendors to manage. More than half of the study’s respondents (53%) use five or more discrete marketing technology solutions, including marketing automation software, CRM, email marketing and social media tools.

Additional key findings include:

• The top three marketing priorities for mid-sized companies in 2014 are to acquire new customers (87%), increase customer retention (86%), and increase brand awareness (80%);

• 79% of marketing executives say it’s a challenge to get (and hold) the attention of target customers, and 72% say it’s difficult to find their target audiences online;

• 70% agree that marketing has become more challenging, despite (or, perhaps, because of) the wide range of technology solutions available to them;

• 53% of mid-sized companies use five or more marketing technology solutions. 15% use 10 or more; and

• 79% of respondents somewhat or strongly agree that online communities are a “critical channel” for their marketing efforts. By the end of the year, 77% of respondents say their companies plan to have online communities in place, 90% of them including customers, 77% including employees. 

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Intermediate/ Digest...

Recruiting firm Spencer Stuart surveyed more than 160 senior marketing leaders and found that while the majority, 70%, of those surveyed believe that creativity is just as important as analytical ability, far fewer respondents, 19%, feel their teams strike the right balance.

Finding talent with a proper blend of the creative and analytical is a challenge, say the CMOs, especially amid fierce competition for the scarce experts with both skills. Compounding the challenge is the fact that there is no single go-to source for talent, according to survey respondents. The vast majority (91%) of respondents look externally for talent with affinities for both the creative and analytical.

Competitors within the sector were viewed as viable sources of talent for 22% of respondents; 16% look to the technology industry; and another 16% tap historically creative sectors such as advertising and media. More than one-third (37%) said that they find talent from “other” sources, including strategy consulting firms and startups to analytics companies and other sectors (e.g., consumer products, retail, financial services).

The laundry list of desired skills for marketing leaders continues to grow: analytical orientation, creativity, strategic mindset, digital expertise, general management, innovation, customer insight, financial acumen, change leadership, global perspective and talent development. The majority (86%) of respondents believe it will be possible to find this full gamut of skills within one person in the future.

Boards are placing more scrutiny on digital initiatives, and many marketing leaders reported that their boards have heightened expectations for demonstrated ROI.

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Advanced/ Digest...

5 Ways to Grow Marketing in the Era of the Empowered Consumer:

1. Use digital to improve things over a specific period of time - He thinks that people would be better served if when they hear digital transformation they think about how they can use digital to improve things over the next quarter or two rather than getting overwhelmed with thinking that their whole industry is going to fall out from beneath them.

2. Employ a point person in marketing for leveraging technology - At the end of the day the point of technology is not the technology itself, but how to leverage it to deliver remarkable customer experiences. To help the CMO accomplish that objective, the role of the "Chief Marketing Technologist" (CMT) comes in. Brinker says that the title is not important; what is important is to have a point person in marketing for organizing how marketing is leveraging technology. This person reports to the CMO and acts as the right hand to the CTO for how technology can accomplish specific marketing missions.

3. Deliver a consistent converged media experience - Marketers know that a converged media content strategy that includes earned, paid and owned content is needed to connect to customers in today's digitally-savvy world, but many marketers struggle with how to connect the data that comes in through the various media channels back to the sales organization. This dilemma demonstrates why technology alone is not sufficient to drive the type of digital transformation that many companies want to take. There needs to be a set of organization and process changes and someone to needs to act as the steward to drive this set of coordinated responses to the converged media.

4. Hone the skills needed for digital success - Technology is always changing and evolving and this is especially true with digital. People who have an orientation toward being willing to try new things, learn, experiment with new capabilities and embrace change will have a huge advantage.

5. Get past the Zero Moment of Truth - The rise of search has put so much information at the consumers fingertips that by the time a prospect calls sales they often know more about the product than the salesperson. And thanks to social, their experience can be shared to influence others and their choice of whether to engage the company or not. The zero moment of truth is when someone has an interest in a brand and goes online to google it and the impression they get from all these online touch points will influence if they even make it to the first moment of truth - choosing your brand. Content marketing may be the holy grail of marketing these days, but what matters most is what content consumers are finding, because that heavily influences their decision making process.

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Intermediate/ Digest...

This is the big obstacle that marketers must overcome, knowing how to maximize the myriad relevant technologies that are now at their fingertips.

The phrase "we probably won't use all of the functionality we've invested in, but it's nice to know we've got it" is becoming increasingly common. Clearly some marketers are failing to tap into the full complement of features and functions they are investing in. This is often due to a lack of knowledge on how to utilize these additional functions, as well as companies investing in a suite of technology which is way beyond their requirements and, therefore, unnecessary.

With this in mind, marketers need to consider whether they have the right people with the right skills in place to make the best use of any investment. If not, then the question to ask is whether the existing workforce can up-skill or skill-shift, or whether new talent is needed, both of which a good vendor should be able to advise their client on.

If marketers can secure access to expert insight as well as the all-round support from a trusted service provider, they stand a far better chance of unleashing the full potential of automation and implementing a marketing strategy that better engages the audience and increases conversion rates.

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