Wanted: A marketer with old, new and future skills. Claire Weekes reveals how marketers can keep up-to-date with their training needs
But how do we, as marketers, ensure we are continually updating our skills set in a world that cares more about the end result than the considered thinking that goes behind it? Are we all now so time pressured that we can’t take time out to improve ourselves? B2B marketing has changed beyond recognition over the last decade and it continues to develop and shift as trends come and go, new technologies are introduced and B2B marketers are required to do more with less. This also means the skills required to be a successful B2B marketer have changed beyond recognition.
If your own answer to this is ‘yes’, then you are in danger of leaving yourself behind in the long run, argues Kevin Young, general manager at Skillsoft EMEA. “Even the most senior members of [a marketing] team should be continually looking to expand their skill-set. As the marketing landscape continues to develop, there is no doubt the skills needed are going to change.
“While qualifications can help marketers understand the theoretical changes to marketing, the use of new technology such as elearning can quickly bring current employees up-to-speed with the digital and multichannel skills many employees may be lacking,” he says.

Make friends with IT
To give an example of the skills gap marketers currently appear to face, according to a recent report by GfK and the Guardian Media Network, most marketers feel under-qualified to handle the challenges presented by the rise of big data, with 70 per cent admitting they don’t have the necessary skills. Proof, if ever, that we need to look more like true experts if we are to face and tackle our own industry challenges.
“The emergence of big data and the increasing prominence of analytics has become a critical way to understand customer behaviour and from a marketing perspective, this knowledge is no longer just a luxury but a bare minimum”, suggests Ali Hine, marketing director at IG.
He continues: “Technologies will only get more advanced and as a result I believe it will become more and more important to understand the potential of IT to help marketing, both with short-term campaigns and longer term brand building. You won’t need to be a technology whiz to succeed as a marketer but an appreciation of what is possible, what isn’t, and where technology trends are heading will clearly be of benefit.”
So how precisely should B2B marketers ensure they are continually updating their skills-set, and in the right areas such as IT? According to Richard Moorer, solution architect at SumTotal Systems, one of the key ways to make sure you are on the right track is to ensure you harness the power of new talent coming into a business – more senior team members should nurture the current generation of marketing talent infiltrating the industry.
“Engagement is a two-way street for marketers, senior team members need to lead by example in terms of training, take an interest in a junior team member’s skills and reward their progress. Marketers who are treated in this manner should be invested in the success of their organisations and are much more likely to stay with their current employer; a two-fold benefit for a learning and talent management programme,” he suggests.
Internal engagement is important but the benefits of engaging with peers at external face-to-face training events must not be overlooked. Being able to learn from peers’ experiences is often cheaper and more valuable than attending a course. You’ll be able to identify with the problems and learn from the solutions others used, rather than simply hearing someone speak about a theoretical problem and a theoretical solution. Experience tops theory, even if that experience is someone else’s, it’ll save you money if you learn from someone
else’s mistake.
Young teaching the old
Getting out of the office and attending events or exhibitions will also ensure you are up-to-date with the latest trends. Something Moorer believes is vital. He believes the younger generation of marketers can help management to best understand and introduce these trends – whether to agency or brand.
Moorer says: “Technology trends include bring your own device (BYOD), social learning and remote working, and all reflect the changing face of the workplace. As a new generation joins the workplace their expectations of marketing differ completely from those before them. Attracting, engaging and retaining top marketing talent is crucial in today’s economic landscape. As the country emerges from recession and businesses are fighting to keep their most talented employees, there is a stronger mandate for HR and marketing to ensure their talent initiatives such as training and learning are up-to-date and engaging for employees.”
Because of a general move toward remote working, it can be hard for marketing departments to actually schedule in training days. However, the move towards cloud-based communication can assist.
Young says: “With the explosion of online, social and mobile technologies, independent learning should also be encouraged. Flexible working hours, disparate employees and the demise of office-based working environment means that scheduling a training workplace day or half day is both difficult and costly when you factor in instructor time, travel and time away from work, and the amount of time employees can spend with informative resources.
“As a result, senior marketers should be looking towards new approaches to learning and development, such as elearning, which can provide team members with flexibility in scheduling, allowing them to access training anytime, anywhere. While content can still be controlled centrally by a team leader, training resources can be available whenever the employee finds them most useful, so staff can brush up on their skills by taking refresher courses and solve on-the-job problems in real-time. Not only does this provide a more cost effective and efficient mode of learning, but unlike traditional training materials, elearning resources can be rapidly updated and redistributed to keep up with changes in knowledge and the environment.”

Responsibility
But who in the marketing department should own the process and take responsibility of ongoing training and development for the team? According to Robin Fenwick, managing director of Right Formula, the responsibility shouldn’t rest with one particular person.
“It is a manager’s duty to grow the experience and knowledge of more junior team members with relevant training and instruction. This should not be generic, but based on the objectives of the individual’s job role and their specific weaknesses. It is however, also the individual’s responsibility not to rely on their manager and be driven to explore appropriate opportunities that will allow them to grow their knowledge even if it’s a task they may not particularly enjoy” he says.
At the end of the day, no B2B marketer can afford to stand still and assume they know it all, such is the pace of technological change, which is why ongoing training is so important. Every brand and agency should ensure that, in whatever way they choose to do it, their staff are informed, up-to-date and – most of all – enthusiastic about the ways in which they go about their job of engaging people. The art of B2B marketing is an ongoing process that requires constant learning.
If you want a structured and customisable professional development programme, then B2B Training may be for you. Find out more about training options here.