Today’s marketers must possess a blended skill set combining both creative and analytical skills. Most people have a tendency to focus on being more creative or more analytical – one or the other. However, for a marketer to succeed, both dimensions must be balanced.

Why?

Shifts in the economy, the market and even society have created an environment where there is a greater need for innovative ways of thinking. This has created a much more diverse marketing role within firms.
Agile marketing thrives on blended skill sets, a fusion of creative and analytical talents. In professional services, agile marketing involves managing a variety of marketing tools. For example webinars, email campaigns, keywords research, social media, website analytics and many more, have become standard practice in the agile marketing world. To achieve this, businesses must go through a continuous cycle of: conceive, execute, implement, review, and adjust.

There are good individual traits that contribute to effective agile marketing. Here are five we’ve noticed:

1. Strategic thinking on different levels – Agile marketers have the ability to comprehend and be in tune with the long-term strategic goals of the business, while performing ongoing tactical tasks.

2. Respect and balance analytical and creative sides – Good agile marketers recognise the role of both creative and analytical thinking and continually consider each point of view.

3. Ability to coach fellow technical colleagues – Agile marketers have a combination of skills such as investigative, journalistic and creative thinking skills. They are responsible for communicating the firm’s reputation and increasing its visibility throughout multiple communication channels. This also means that agile marketers have a role in coaching and preparing technical professionals for presentations .

4. Ability to respond to mixed audiences – This means that marketers in professional services are directly interacting with internal and external audiences, in traditional and non-traditional ways. For example social media is a much more relaxed medium, which demands reactions and engagement on someone else’s timeline.

5. Effective multi-tasking – Maintaining the continuous cycle of: conceive, execute, implement, review, and adjust requires top-notch multi-tasking skills.

Effective agile marketing in professional services is a team effort as it is often too much for one person to do alone. Evaluate your team, would they be ready?

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