A study of marketers released today confirms that the skills and technologies needed to deliver well-orchestrated omni-channel customer experiences are lacking at most companies. The research conducted by Signal, a marketing technology firm, quantifies the gap between expected benefits of integrated marketing platforms and the current state of fragmented systems. Over 90% of marketers believe that highly integrated platforms will help deliver more efficient programs, better customer experiences and higher marketing ROI. However, because marketers have on average 17 different applications that are highly integrated at only one quarter of the companies surveyed, fewer than 5% of marketers believe their platforms have them well prepared to move ahead with cross-channel marketing.

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Basic/ Excerpt...

Digital marketers are challenged to hire and develop new skills, particularly in marketing analytics, in order to better understand data and use that data to drive marketing and business results. Yet, they can’t lose sight of the human element, the ways in which art and science can be combined to create customer experiences that grab audiences’ attention and serve a purpose in peoples’ lives.  During last week’s Adobe Summit, Robert Redford talked about the importance of order and chaos working together to fuel experimentation.  In order to truly succeed, digital marketers must blend art and science, creativity and data, to come up with innovative ideas that can be executed at scale.

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Doing SEO, SEM or social media marketing isn’t “growth hacking.” It’s just marketing. Problem is some marketers & start-ups don’t get that.

Basic/ Excerpt...

What does “growth hacking” entail, then? Let’s see:

-- >  Creating a search-based user acquisition strategy through content marketing and search engine optimization and marketing

-- >  Embracing social media technologies and building a presence on platforms like Twitter and Facebook

-- >  Using search to inform your product development roadmap

-- >  Optimizing your websites for user experience and conversions

-- >  Using cost-effective methods of advertising through in-depth analysis of analytics and extensive A/B testing

Not only are the tactics above not growth hacking, but they are also nothing new — this is online marketing as we’ve known it for years. It is not something proprietary and there are no secrets to it. SEO, SEM, SMO, SMM, content marketing, analytics, A/B testing, sales funnel/sales loop workflows and conversion optimization are fundamentals of online marketing and have been since the emergence each of these platforms.

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Intermediate/ Digest...

1. Adaptability

The ability to deal with major changes in the workplace, to complete projects with very little direction, endure stress, handle multiple priorities... these are among the most highly sought-after competencies that employers look for.

2. Collecting and Analyzing Data and Converting It Into Actionable Knowledge

Digital marketers pour through mountains of data to understand consumer behavior and identify opportunities. They translate those insights into integrated marketing strategies across channels, with clear and measurable goals.

3. Creative Thinking

4. Comfortable With Technology

Employers have a very strong preference for candidates who are fluent in the technical aspects of digital marketing.

5. Intellectual Curiosity

In 2014, digital marketers will continue to be the trailblazers, the ones usually among the very first to boldly go where no marketer has gone before.

6. Thirst for Knowledge

Digital marketing is, by definition, an exercise in lifelong learning, and there will be plenty more to learn in 2014. The day you quit learning is the day you should leave digital marketing as a career.

7. Bridging the Business and Technical Divide

I call these individuals the "techno-marketing hybrid." Can you stand comfortably with your feet in two different buckets—marketing and technology?

8. Business Acumen

Usually when you think of business acumen, you think of senior executives or other managers whose daily decisions and actions leave a direct impact on the operation and performance of the business. But it's becoming more than just a critical competency for leaders.

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The archetype of the indispensable jack-of-all-trades startup employee doesnt just apply to engineers anymore.

Intermediate/ Condensed...

The term “full-stack developer” has been buzzing around the Internet for years as shorthand for a coder who can build everything from the back-end server to the front-end design and controls.

These optimally skilled people have inspired a “do it all” attitude across the entirety of the tech industry. Given their fragile nature, it’s clear that startups in particular need these jack-of-all-trades types. But that doesn’t just go for the engineering team.

With the relatively recent introduction of data-driven marketing, digital marketers are finally earning their keep in the eyes of the tech community. While full-stack devs are busy writing code in multiple languages, the ambitious “full-stack marketer” is carving out a comfortable place in startup culture.

I suspect that the growth hacker of yesterday is becoming the full-stack marketer of tomorrow, only this facet of their marketing faces in-house. Full-stack marketers need to get the technical team to keep the company marketing-friendly.

The marketing stack is complex and traverses every surface of the marketing funnel and the customer lifecycle. The beauty of a full-stack marketer is that he or she knows how to reach and engage every single touch point of these funnels and cycles. That’s why it’s important to understand search, social, blogging, PR, email marketing, remarketing, lead nurturing, and everything in between. Having this wealth of knowledge, however, does not mean that full-stack marketers need to be experts in every layer of the stack, but a company is better off hiring someone who has novice-like skills in HTML/CSS and search marketing and can build on those as needed, rather than someone who is solely driven by creative ideas.

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