Professional skills. Core Competencies of a Content Marketer Competency Model for Marketing Example

The profession of "marketer" or "marketing manager" is to manage the perceived value of a product to increase sales and profits. In order to work effectively, a marketing manager must have certain skills and develop competence in specific areas.

Allocate 9 core competencies that a marketing manager should have. These competencies and personal qualities may not be fully expressed, but should be improved as experience is gained and professional growth is gained.

Analytic skills

The marketer must be able to:

• Analyze sales dynamics and manage sales forecast
• Manage advertising budget and calculate return on investment
• Compare several solutions and choose the best one
• Set priorities for projects
• Always look for causality in customer behavior

Professional Competence

The marketer must know and improve his knowledge in:

• modern marketing techniques
• modern models of development and brand management of the company
• modern techniques and sales methods
• basics of economics and finance (for price and budget management)
• fundamentals of sociology and psychology (for understanding the consumer)
• modern design trends (for understanding aesthetics)

Initiative

A marketer must himself form and set tasks for himself, not wait for other people's instructions, see opportunities for improving the business and implement them.

Responsibility

Efficiency

A marketer must be persistent in his actions and ambitious in his goals, to complete the tasks on time.

Creativity

The marketer must be able to generate new ideas and offer multiple alternatives to solve the same problem.

Communication quality

Communication is one of the key competencies of a marketing manager. A marketer should be fluent in the following communication skills:

• Competent written communication - the ability to correctly express one's thoughts in business correspondence. Write without grammatical and spelling errors. Write correct advertising texts.
• Competent oral communication - the ability to correctly express one's thoughts during a conversation. Correctly and logically build your speech.
• Effective interpersonal communication - the ability to effectively interact with other team members to achieve the goal, the ability to find a common language with different interlocutors.
• Skills public speaking- the ability to establish and maintain contact with the audience during presentations.

Flexibility in work

A marketing manager must use different approaches in his work, be open to new technologies and new views on solving familiar problems. Must be able to abandon the chosen course and switch to other methods of work if existing solutions lead to failures.

Self-development and erudition

A marketing manager must constantly improve his competence in the professional field and broaden his horizons, using new knowledge to improve the efficiency of current work.

Key competencies- everything that the company or its divisions do better than others. It can be a unique technology, know-how, marketing skills and knowledge, something valuable and original that the firm possesses and that allows it to make products that are different from those of other firms, thereby providing its competitive advantage.

Gary Hamel and Prahalad, who made the term famous, define core competencies as “the skills and abilities that enable a company to deliver fundamental benefits to consumers.” They also use the term "core competency" to refer to a set of skills and technologies, a mass of knowledge and experience accumulated in an organization in an unsystematic manner, which becomes the basis of successful competition. Hamel and Prahalad argue that, from a forward-looking perspective, strategic planning is neither radical enough nor long-term enough. Instead, his goal remains incremental improvement.

Competences, as some kind of internal knowledge, are inaccessible to the direct perception of the consumer (however, sometimes the company's employees). They find indirect expression in use-value. final product through the efficiency of the use of abilities and resources in the production and organizational system with a certain configuration.

A key competence is a higher-order competence involved in creating the greatest use value, which is a collective knowledge that allows organizing and managing the use of other competencies and abilities, thereby creating additional use value.

The purpose of the strategic analysis of key competencies is to offer a basis for the formation of a strategic plan, the execution of which leads to the emergence (maintenance) of a sustainable competitive advantage.

Properties of core competencies

• Core competencies are derived from the totality of the company's resources and capabilities, so they are inherently complex.
• They are quite difficult to identify, they are invisible to the consumer.
• A specific core competency can only be used within the business system in which it exists, that is, it is inherent only in a given configuration of resources and abilities.
• Therefore, the core competency is inimitable, that is, it cannot be directly copied or used by competitors, and irreplaceable — it cannot be replaced by another competency.
• Competence, unlike other organizational assets, does not wear out with use. On the contrary, and a number of authors noted this as the main strategic advantage arising from the formation of a competitive advantage based on competence, it develops, its quality improves, the efficiency of its use increases significantly - this is the most wear-resistant and long-term asset of the organization.
• The core competencies of the organization, most often, are initially better developed than those of competitors and are customer-oriented (by definition).
• And finally, since the core competency includes a combination of other competencies and abilities, it can be used to reinforce them.

History of the concept of core competencies

In 1957, with his book Leadership in Administration, Selznick was one of the first authors to point out that internal factors organizations, such as human resources or expertise, determine the likelihood of success in implementing a policy. Claiming that in business the past determines the present, namely that in the course of its development the organization develops a certain "character", which he called "distinctive competence", Claiming that in business the past determines the present, namely that in the course of its development the organization develops a certain "character", which he called "distinctive competence", manifested through a set of "special abilities and limitations" contained in "an institutional system that develops over time, affecting the organization's competence to form and adhere to certain strategies."

In his book " Corporate strategy” (Corporate Strategy, 1965) Ansoff (Ansoff) offers a template list of skills and resources, the so-called “competence grid”, which should be regularly compiled both for the company itself and for competitors in order to comparative analysis and identifying the relative strength of competitors in a given market.

However, Prahalad and Hamel's publication "Core Competences of Corporations" is recognized as a seminal work on the study of core competencies for strategic planning, came out only in 1990.

Marketing Manager, compiled by our experts. You can download a sample resume file in DOC (WORD) and PDF formats.

What does a sample marketing manager resume look like?

Sample resume for marketing manager

Telegin Anton

Career objective: Marketing Manager

Desired income level: 40 thousand rubles

Date of birth: 01/10/1990
Accommodation: Moscow, m. "University"
Not ready to travel. Not ready to move.

Contact Information:
Phone: +7 (9хх) ххх-хх-хх
Email: [email protected] xxx.ru

Key knowledge and skills:

• Knowledge of marketing strategies and experience in their application in practice;
• Ability to negotiate and business correspondence;
• Documentation skills ( commercial offers, analytical reports, reports);
• Punctuality, responsibility, discipline;
• Ability to work with large volumes of information, ability to work in a team, stress resistance.

Experience:

09.2012–06.2015 Marketing Manager

Unistrom Training Center (www.unistrom.com), Moscow

Company field of activity: educational services

• Market monitoring educational services, analysis of competitors;
• Plan development marketing activities, control over its implementation;
• Organization of the company's participation in thematic exhibitions, conferences, seminars;
• Planning and conducting marketing campaigns for the company's clients;
• Documentation support of ongoing events;
• Preparation of reports and analytical reports for management.

Achievements: achieved an increase in customer acquisition by an average of 10% per month.

Education:

2014 Training center "Dominion", Moscow

Seminar "Strategic Marketing", certificate

2012 Institute of Business and Design, Moscow

Specialty: "Marketing", higher education, diploma

Additional Information:

Foreign languages: English language– advanced (C2).

PC knowledge: Confident user of MS Office.

Look at great entrepreneurs like Seth Godin or Steve Jobs and you'll be surprised how many skills they have that don't even have to be marketing related. You will see items on this list such as the skill of interviewing, giving good feedback, and even the skill of flattery. There will, of course, be obvious things - for example, the ability to talk, focus on results and focus on the flow of sales.

And after almost ten years of working in the SEO industry in various roles, I realized this. Both at Single Grain, which I founded, and in positions at companies like Oversee.net, I have found first hand that when I focus on the needs of my clients, I always achieve more success than when I focus on my personal goals first.

Based on this, I have compiled a list of 50 skills that you, as a marketer, must have in order to keep your customers happy and coming back to you again and again. Let me explain in more detail what I mean.

1. Customer orientation

A really good marketer is literally obsessed with his client: what he needs, what he wants, what he dreams about and what worries him. The central figure of any discussion is customers and their benefits.

2. The ability to tell

A true marketer understands how much people love stories. He knows how to weave a compelling story and knows that any good story must have conflict at its core. He also knows that people want to see themselves in these stories.

3. Speed ​​reading

4. Building associations

Good marketers can listen to an ad idea, skim a business plan, or watch a presentation about goals. advertising campaign client - and finally bring it all into a coherent plan. They are able to extract maximum benefit combining the capabilities of different industries.

5. Conducting an interview

A marketer should think like a journalist. Whether you're talking to a CEO or a client, you need to be able to ask the right questions and get the best answers, hunt for the best bait, and not be afraid to continue the conversation if the person wants to find out something else.

6. Description of the end result

What does success look like? How do you know if you're getting close to your goal or if you're failing? What points do we need to pass in order to understand that we have not lost our way and are not behind schedule? These questions define the marketer's mindset—he always looks at the big picture.

7. Creativity

In fact, creativity is all about creating a unique and useful product. A real marketer spends a lot of time thinking about these products and improving them. He is not afraid to fail (because he loves risk) and is not afraid to give up on bad ideas. He's full of ideas.

8. Ability to speak

You may not be an extrovert, but you must be a good speaker! You need to be able to cope with the situation of a one-on-one conversation, and with a speech in front of a group of people. I'm not saying that you must love it, but you need to be able to do it.

9. Ability to teach

A good marketer knows how to speak and, therefore, loves to teach, loves to share his accumulated knowledge. You can do this through blog posts, podcasts, curation, workshops, or even formal classroom teaching.

10. Ability to write

It is important for a marketer to be able to write messages of all kinds: he must cope with the creation of an email asking a business partner for a favor, and with drafting an offer for a client. He must know the rules of spelling and grammar - as well as when they can be violated.

11. Ability to listen

Communication is not limited to what you say. Real communication begins the moment you hear what others are saying to you, and more than that, you understand them correctly. This involves asking the right questions, nodding, paraphrasing, and focusing on what the other person is saying.

12. Ability to cooperate

Marketing is one of those disciplines that has to work together with some others (for example, the sales department, financial management and IT), and this will not happen if you do not know how to cooperate with people. When developing a good marketing strategy it is necessary to act as a team, so be humble and care not only about your success, but also about the success of other people.

13. Ability to give feedback

Steve Jobs never been afraid to tell any of his designers that his work sucks. Of course, it is important to be diplomatic, but it is even more important to be able to nip bad ideas in the bud so that they do not grow and do not then take away your time and money.

14. Ability to live with constant change

Do you realize how much marketing has changed in the last 50 years? Radio, television, then the Internet... There are even more changes that will completely transform the world of marketing today. You should be comfortable living in such an environment.

15. Understanding data, indicators

As a marketer, you need to understand quantitative indicators. You don't have to be a Google Analytics expert or a database guru, but you do need to understand the general terms and know what you need.

16. Results orientation

And speaking of data, a good marketer is of the opinion that everything he does should contribute to the overall result. This is consistent with his desire to focus on the final outcome of the game and his belief that without concrete results it is impossible to say whether you win or lose.

17. Direct Marketing

It is not easy, but a marketer must develop the ability to achieve results, including through direct marketing, which is one of the parts of marketing.

18. Persuasiveness

Learn to get high from how you "guess" people. Where is their button? What motivates them, what do they want from life? And from this advertising campaign? And then it's important to understand how to give them what they want and get what you need.

19. Ability to persuade

Like it or not, you have to convince people if you want anything to get done. So it makes sense to learn strategies like "good cop/bad cop", "deadline" or "you can get out at any moment".

20. Ability to analyze emotions

Whether it's your client, CEO, or customers, understanding how emotions drive people to make a purchase is an incredibly effective marketing skill. And it all starts with the premise that people buy based on their emotions, not logic.

You don't have to be an SEO pro, but it's good to know some basics like how to insert links, optimize page performance, and how social media affects rankings.

22. Content Marketing

This is another set of tools that any marketer should own. This includes creating content for videos, conferences, a blog or manuals. It is better if you were a master in at least one area (but not all at once).

This point refers to the exchange of information between you and the audience. How much do you tell them about your product? How are you handling the situation in customer service? How you manage these questions is an indicator of how good your PR is.

24. Social media

Are you familiar with the main media platforms? Do you know what their target audience is? Can you predict which corporations will benefit from a social media program and which won't?

25. Manage multiple projects at once

It would be great if you could focus on one campaign or project at a time, but unfortunately you probably won't get that opportunity. If you want to be a good marketer, you must be able to manage multiple ideas, plans, and goals at once.

26. Research

The most important thing in marketing is to understand your market, your customer, product and company. And that means you should roll up your sleeves and diligently search for information.

27. Leadership

Most likely, as a marketer, you will have to work on projects in a team. A good marketer is a true leader; he knows how to recruit a team and inspire people to work from beginning to end.

28. Decision making

Even considering how much information you have, it still won't be enough. Even worse, all this information can just paralyze you, instill in you the fear of making the wrong decision. Analyze data, make decisions and learn from your mistakes.

29. Network relationships

Marketers understand that the more people you know, the more opportunities, ideas and potential assistants you have. Therefore, it makes sense to spend some time in order to establish new contacts with people in various social media, at conferences and lunches.

30. Multi-level focus

The marketer is constantly looking for ways to turn the average person into a potential customer, potential client real, and then loyal.

The marketer understands that he is only as good as other people think he is. Therefore, he is constantly improving to become a true master in his field.

32. Ability to anticipate and correct comments

Since you are constantly testing your product, you understand what annoys the customer and why the customer might say no to you. And you can refine the product so that these objections no longer arise.

33. End sales

Often people fail to sell anything because they are afraid to insist. A real marketer knows that most people won't buy anything until you tell them what they should do.

34. Mastery

It is literally in the DNA of a good marketer to want to do what he does, better and better. He is constantly trying to grow personally and helps people around him do the same.

35. Gift exchange

Remember how Hari Krishna handed out flowers at airports? It was a brilliant marketing decision! Donations skyrocketed because giving someone a gift is making them feel obligated to give you something in return. Marketers understand that people don't like to be in debt.

36. Create Constraints

Another skill of a marketer is the ability to set limits on your product so that people rush to buy it with all their might. Examples might be a limited quantity of a product or a limited time of purchase.

37. Determining the price

You need to understand how your product is affected by production cost, quality, customer expectations, market conditions, and competition. And also - how to set such a price for the product so that it brings maximum profit.

38. Testing

Various tests are just one of the things that make marketing so much fun. Whether it's choosing a headline for an email or the best placement of content on a landing page, it's always a good idea to test what works best.

39. Indicators

You have to like the numbers: subscribers, traffic, web page views and sales.

40. Ability to express concisely

By this I mean the ability to clearly and coherently describe a complex or voluminous idea, so that it becomes concise and easily digestible. A good marketer, after many hours of meeting with managers or clients, can sum up: “So you want to get A and B through C?”

41. Positioning

Study your product, its distribution market and target audience, and then figure out how best to emphasize its merits and how to disseminate this message across all channels.

42. Focus

A good marketer should be able, like Steve Jobs, to discard everything unnecessary and bring all their products to perfection.

43. Organization

Whether it's your own desktop or the latest marketing campaign, you should be able to combine individual items into groups according to meaning. This also applies to team building and content marketing strategies.

44. Content building

This refers to understanding how best to position content such as videos, articles, and ads on a web page.

45. Ability to make products usable

Marketers should be involved in creating a product, whether it's a doorknob or a website. And you need to determine how to make the product usable.

46. ​​Ability to distinguish good design from bad

You don’t have to be a designer yourself, but you need to be able to distinguish good design from bad, that is, to understand what attracts people and what repels them.

47. Creating innovation

Will you go to any lengths to stand out from the crowd? Do you dream of creating a product that competitors cannot copy due to lack of your resources? Always repeating “What if…?” Then you must be a really good marketer.

48. Flattery

Real marketers are not proud and can sacrifice principles for a big cause. They understand that a little flattery can work wonders, even if the person knows they are being flattered. People love it when others mess around with their egos.

49. Motivating other people

50. Courage

Being a marketer is hard, and even harder to be good marketer. You need to have the courage to stick to your principles and not be afraid to call a spade a spade.

Conclusion

Now you understand what I mean when I say that all these skills are related to focusing on people, namely your customers. It is this focus on the customer that makes a marketer a true master of his craft. What other skills should a marketer have?

March 15, 2016