I get about 4 calls a week from people looking to hire a startup marketer. The skills startups are looking for in a marketing hire are remarkably consistent. These are the skills I hear about the most and how you might easily get them.
Here’s what startups are looking for in a marketing hire:
- Content creation – Folks that can create engaging, relevant content are in short supply. Most are looking for writing skills but being able to create video, build infographics and create presentations are desirable skills too. Bonus points if you are a decent public speaker and can represent the company well on video (and face to face).
- Community management – Great social media marketing programs require folks that can work with the community to help build an engaged audience. Social media skills are important here but equally important are good people skills, especially around relationship building.
- Analytic skills – Companies are getting better at tracking their marketing efforts through clicks, conversions, impressions, keywords, links, mentions, along with more traditional pipeline stage tracking measurements. Being able to not just gather data but make sense of it is a skill startups are looking for.
- PR contacts – Later-stage startups might use outside PR help but most are getting the word out to blogs and news outlets on their own. Having a set of relationships with key influencers in a particular market makes you very valuable to a startup.
- E-mail marketing – Still the cornerstone of most digital marketing programs, email programs are getting smarter and more sophisticated. Marketing automation tools from simple things like MailChimp through to more feature-rich tools like Eloqua and Marketo are now widely used. Knowing your way around those tools and having some experience in multi-stage email marketing is a rare and valuable skill.
- Salesforce.com – Many startups are using Salesforce as their CRM system and although it’s easy enough to get started using the tool, using it to it’s full potential isn’t, particularly when it comes to tracking and analytics. There are also loads of tricks to learn around account visibility, pipeline staging and customer segmentation that aren’t intuitively obvious unless you’ve got some time with Salesforce under your belt.
The good news is that it’s pretty easy to pick up many of these skills right now regardless of whether you currently hold a startup marketing job. Any one of these would get you skills that would make you hireable:
- Start blogging and creating stuff – I don’t think anything teaches you more about what works in a blog better than blogging and the more you write the better you get at it. It also gives you a place to experiment with other media. I’ve done a bunch of video, podcasts and graphic content in this blog and unlike my regular work I get to experiment a lot to see what works.
- Get active in your community – Being an organizer for a group or project can teach you a lot about what makes communities tick and what it takes to get them engaged and motivated. These groups are always looking to help out and getting involved is usually as easy as raising your hand.
- Track yourself (and learn some SEO) – This goes along with #1 but if you have an online presence, set goals and learn how to track them. There are loads of great SEO blogs out there. My two favorites for practical advice are SEOmoz and Portent (formerly Conversation Marketing). Runing experiments to put what you have learned into practice is probably the best way to build skills in this area and having specific example to share with potential employers will help you prove that.
- Make friends with bloggers/journalists – I think networking is the best thing that anyone at any stage in their career can do. If you have a set of relationships with folks in the media, journalists or bloggers that are influential in a particular space, those are very valuable to a startup that doesn’t have them.
- Learn how to manage a mailing list – Much like the point on SEO, this is an area where there are a ton of amazing resources available online to help you get smart about this topic really fast. For email marketing stuff I like the Mailchimp blog. Although the topics they cover are much broader than just email the Eloqua, Marketo and Pardot blogs are also great sources of information. There are also some low-end tools that you can use for free that can help you fool around with some of the technology in the space to learn it. As I mentioned in the above point on community management skills, community groups are always looking for help. Being the person that manages email lists can help you get smart on this and provide you a theatre to run experiments and learn about tracking, analytics and what works.
- Play around with Salesforce (or some other CRM) – Sure not everyone uses it but lots of startups do and the principles that you will learn from fooling around with Salesforce are pretty applicable to other CRM systems. If you have access to SalesForce where you work try creating a set of dashboards or reports that are useful to you. If you don’t have access, you can play around with one of the free CRM tools (ZohoCRM is the one I hear about the most). CRM tools are all different but the underlying principles of managing accounts, tracking pipeline, capturing and managing activities, creating reports and dashboards are all pretty similar across tools.
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/7d0F5CQH #productmarketing
6 Skills that will get you a #Startup #Marketing job http://t.co/cEDHiuWL by @aprildunford
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job – The skills startups are looking for in a marketing hire are re… http://t.co/EYHyBO2p
Skills needed from the New Marketer http://t.co/FLDNtJbC
new post:6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/6vLtt7d3 #contentmarketing #startup
Edge Create Challenge 2012 judging begins http://t.co/uoMdbca2
This was really interesting for me (as a freelance content marketing strategist and copywriter) – and I was especially pleased to see #1!
A few questions and comments –
How important do you think it is to have familiarity in the niche market? If you want a job in tech, do you need tech expertise? I have my own opinions on this topic, but am curious what you think.
Have you compared AWeber vs. MailChimp (I use the former)? Any thoughts here?
I would add that if you have some familiarity with WordPress or Hubspot and how to leverage plugins and widgets to enhance your content marketing impact – all the better.
And my last comment would be that I’ve had great success selling my services to startups on a freelance contract or retainer basis. No question there is a demand for the skills you’ve listed.
Hi Ruth,
Thanks for the comment.
I think the most important thing marketers need is a deep understanding of their prospects – their pain, what they want, what they are anxious about, how they make decisions. If those customers make decisions based on a very technical set of criteria then a background in tech might be helpful. If they don’t then a technical background is irrelevant. Either way, the ability to create content that is compelling and useful to prospects is very important and that involves having a deep understanding of the market.
I have never used Aweber so I don’t have an opinion on that.
I am seeing more folks looking to outsource some content creation to supplement what they are doing internally. It’s more work than most folks first realize.
Great post! RT @aprildunford new post:6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/0XkqhVmb #contentmarketing #startup
new post:6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/6vLtt7d3 #contentmarketing #startup
Great post! RT @aprildunford new post:6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/0XkqhVmb #contentmarketing #startup
new post:6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/6vLtt7d3 #contentmarketing #startup
RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/9qPZKVVg
Yep. – http://t.co/hxeF8Zsr 6 skills that will get you a startup marketing job
good points -> RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/VwrRLro9 #contentmarketing #startup
RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/laddY5vp #contentmarketing #startup < great post!
6 Skills That Will Get You a Startup Marketing Job by @aprildunford http://t.co/7Uz3xr5Q #startup #marketing
RT @aprildunford new post:6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/S3emrKVd #contentmarketing #startup
Love that #1 is all about solid content! RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/3CY5178b
RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/FvGyYFxX #startups #productmarketing #jobs
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/X9BaisyL
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/6vLtt7d3
RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/2jhiOwjz
RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/4AWp7Ga8
Briliiant and so true RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/az8NniXc
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/6vLtt7d3
Best tips I've seen so far! RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/TkIMKNCw
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/R0iRZ8kh
RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/oOjpdNUa
RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/RFp1brx8 Practical advice for anyone in marketing.
6 Skills that will get you a Startup …: http://t.co/DwQGRMZP most discussed on @MirzaMB/social-media-specialists (http://t.co/T1Reu95p)
6 Skills that will get you a Startup Marketing job | Rocket Watcher http://t.co/hkesmJ9f
Hi April; A really valuable post for experienced and novice marketers.
When we put the six skills into practice measurement and reporting back the ROI is crtical too. Some of the skills email marketing and content creation are pretty easy to track results.
Can you suggest some tracking or results to measure for PR contacts and Community management?
Thanks,
David.
Hi David,
Good question! For PR contacts, I’ve tracked that much the same way traditional analyst relations is tracked. Contacts are grouped by priority and there is a regular contact schedule mapped out (higher priority gets more contact than lower ones) that is both contact for relationship building as well as story pitches. Output from the contacts is tracked (mentions, whether the mentions are positive or negative, etc.) and where possible did the mentions drive actions like click-throughs, sign ups, purchases, etc.
Community is different and depends on the nature of the community and the goals. You might be tracking the size and/or makeup of the community, interactions or conversations, sentiment of those interactions, referrals or there might be specific things like participation in community programs/promotions or other things specific for your community.
There are probably other things I am missing that PR or community pros do. I’d love to hear about those.
April
6 Skills that will get you a Startup Marketing job | Rocket Watcher http://t.co/hkesmJ9f
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/4SOn9dWA (by @aprildunford) #prodmktg
Very savvy client shared this with me this morning >> 6 Skills that will get you a Startup Marketing job http://t.co/KgjwpnpS #jobseekers
RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/sGqq0CbJ
More great advice from @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/45tfgoGR. So true re: @salesforce too.
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/PnQYrYP8
RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/ayYxjHsF
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/VQFmttui
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/VQFmttui
RT @aprildunford: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/kKlyGh8k
6 Skills to get a startup marketing job… not sure how much of this is true, but they're useful once you have it.
http://t.co/aXW5mF2u
Interesting POV here: 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job: http://t.co/N1DouDo9
6 Skills that will get you a Startup Marketing job | http://t.co/qiKkv7ST (via @aprildunford)
6 Skills that will get you a Startup Marketing job | http://t.co/qiKkv7ST (via @aprildunford)
new post:6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/6vLtt7d3 #contentmarketing #startup
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/ayYxjHsF RT @aprildunford | Also invaluable for #solopreneurs
6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job http://t.co/ayYxjHsF RT @aprildunford | Also invaluable for #solopreneurs
6 Skills that will get you a Startup Marketing job http://t.co/l0oKVeAe
6 Skills that will get you a Startup Marketing job | Rocket Watcher: Product Marketing for Startups http://t.co/t54kbB5c
[…] 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job […]
How to make yourself invaluable to startups as well as every other employer out there http://t.co/26RjjANG
Lo de Salesforce está muy candante. Según está página de Usa es una habilidad en marketing para startups
http://t.co/8yiIW7A7
cool… our interns get experience doing all of these great things http://t.co/YVmE4enO
6 skills that will get you a startup marketing job from @aprildunford http://t.co/klGHT3M2 > and many other marketing jobs too.
6 Skills That Will Get You A Startup Marketing Job [w/ links to learn these skills] via @AprilDunford http://t.co/OCZh0iT2
[…] 9. Six Skills that Will Get You a Startup Marketing Job […]
[…] 9. Six Skills that Will Get You a Startup Marketing Job […]
[…] http://www.rocketwatcher.com/blog/2012/04/startup-marketing-job.html […]
[…] 6 Skills That Will get you a Startup Marketing Job […]
[…] blog that provides information on product marketing news for start-up professionals. In her post, 6 Skills That Will Get You A Start-up Marketing Job, she lists marketing skills that will help enhance job placement for those looking to enter the […]
[…] April. 6 Skills That Will Get You a Startup Marketing Job. Rocketwatcher, April 18, […]
I just added your site to my favorites. I really enjoy reading your posts. Thanks!
http://www.huz10.org
http://www.frivc.org
http://www.frip10.org