Becoming an entrepreneur involves many complex skills and being marketing savvy is certainly one of them. We analyzed the top-notch marketing skills needed for everybody who wants to enter the startup ecosystem.

They comprise a mix of digital, communications and analytical skills. Of course, not everybody is proficient in every field but the more you know – the better!

Let’s Start With The 5 Top-Notch Marketing Skills For Successful Startups:

Creating content and SEO that matters 

In 2018, it is all about content. So, businesses are increasing their budgets to ensure their digital platforms have quality content that converts leads into customers. According to research by Venngage.com for 2017, 78% of the Chief Marketing Officers claim content is the future of marketing.

One of the key skills of startup entrepreneurs is to make sure they have specialists on the job with content creation and management. This will enable them to rank higher in the search results. The higher in Google they appear, the better visibility they will achieve and the more chances to attract prospects they’ll have. Sounds easy, right? Not really. Having great writing skills is just the prerequisite for making this happen. On top of this you should be digital marketing savvy and know exactly what to write, so you can position it better in search engines.

And here is where the role of SEO shines best. Тhese top-notch marketing skills go hand in hand with the content. Search engines are the number one method people find companies online, so if you are looking for more qualified leads, this is the right way to go. Most business owners cannot really handle it because it is complex and requires a lot of time and efforts. To make sure you are doing it right and be able to achieve great results, hiring an SEO expert might be the smartest thing to do. In addition, gaining some SEO knowledge would significantly benefit your business. This will help you better evaluate how the right efforts have the power to transform your search engine rank.

If you are not doing SEO efficiently, make sure you speed up your understanding of it, as you are missing out on a major opportunity to stay ahead.

Communication everywhere and in everything 

When launching a startup, communication is essential in everything you do. It is an underlying skill for other business areas such as sales for example. Communication is applicable when you need to motivate your employees and understand their key drivers and behaviors. This will also come in handy when you charm customers to choose you instead of other competitors.

Using the right communication approach will be also beneficial when looking for investors to increase the revenue of your business. Learn how to communicate well in each situation as this will give you a competitive advantage over other companies and entrepreneurs who are not well equipped with this skill.

Don’t forget the social media

In addition to content creation and SEO, one of the most important top-notch marketing skills is social media! Successful startups absolutely need these digital marketing skills in order to grow their businesses.

When entering a new business, social media is where you spread the word about you. Usually, in a startup environment, there are no dedicated people for social media, so the marketer should be able to perform this task as well. One of the top-notch marketing skills here is to know how to tailor your strategy for each social media site. Where is your audience? Is it more likely to find them on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram? Are there some niche platforms related to your startup business that you need to be familiar with? If you make money out of helping businesses market socially, make sure you introduce them to strategies and tips that have worked for you in the past and will help them expand their presence as well.

Analyzing data is at the core of your business strategy

In the world where competition is very strong, data is a crucial part of each startup project. Analyzing data is the heart of content marketing as companies are getting much better at using data from clicks, conversions, keywords that track their progress. Business owners are able to gather useful insights and tweak their future business strategies by analyzing how successful they are. Unfortunately, they will hardly find talents who are great with data. According to Venngage.com, only 3% of all marketers are competent in analyzing large data sets. Compared to the demand for such specialists the shortage is 14 times.

Each startup will benefit a lot from finding a talent who is analytical and is able to deal with all the complex and time-consuming data processes. During the whole process make sure that you can run A/B test campaigns on your own and be prepared with the necessary data to take your startup marketing strategy up one level.

Building a top brand using design skills

Digital marketing, communication, and data analysis – this is all great but it cannot work out that quickly without having the design skills in place. The great look of your website, email design, internet marketing campaigns – all these depend on a skillful designer who has a unique vision and can easily implement it by creating a great brand. Even if you have the best business idea, it will not succeed if your website isn’t functional. A successful startup needs to do more than just function. It has to be professional on all levels and invoke trust in visitors, so they can turn into prospects and loyal long-term customers.