What makes the difference between an average and a great marketer? If you’re a marketer, you’re likely curious about what these qualities are and how to develop them. On the other hand, if you’re looking to hire a marketer, then you’re probably more interested in what to look out for and how to test for these qualities.  

This article will give you a deep dive into five qualities so that you can either become a better marketer or hire a top performing marketer. 

We’re going to be covering five qualities of a great marketer in this article, which include:  

The Special Generalist

It’s not uncommon at all for marketers to be generalists, being able to do just a little bit of everything but not any one thing perfectly. On the other hand, there are those marketers who can do one thing really, really well, but aren’t very capable of doing much else.  

There’s pros and cons of both sides of the coin, but at the end of the day, in an ideal situation, you don’t want to hire a specialist or a generalist. Instead, you’ll want some sort of hybrid of the two – we’ll call this the Special Generalist. If you’re a marketer yourself, then you’re going to want to tune into this one.  

Being a Special Generalist means specialising in one to two specific marketing skills while being a generalist in a broad range of other marketing skills. Let’s take a look at what the skills of a Special Generalist might be in comparison to a generalist or specialist.  

In the above image, the number of stars represents the proficiency level of the skill, with more stars representing a higher level of proficiency and less stars representing a lower level of proficiency.  

We can see that the specialist is really good at Facebook & Instagram Ads, and then pretty good at copywriting as well. However, when it comes to doing anything else, this marketer pretty much can’t do it!  

On the other hand, we can see that the generalist can do a little bit of everything, but there isn’t really anything the generalist is really skilled at.  

And finally, we have the special generalist, who is extremely skilled in one to two areas, and then, like the generalist, can do a little bit of everything else.  

When we compare these three marketers, it should be obvious which is the most desired – the Special Generalist wins every time. So, if you’re looking to hire a marketer for your business, then look for someone who is really proficient at one or two skills and has a general level of ability in a broader range of skills.  

If you’re a marketer, then focus on getting really good at just one thing, and then learn the basics of everything else. If you’re not sure where to get started, the list of skills in the image above would be a good start.  

Passion & Drive 

Marketing is by nature based on results, and the reality is that results aren’t always going to be positive. One thing that differentiates companies with great marketing to those with subpar marketing is the way the marketing team responds to negative results.  

Marketers without passion and drive won’t be willing to take risks and try new things in order to change results. Why? Because it takes extra time and effort and is outside of their comfort zone.  

On the other hand, the marketers with passion and drive are willing to move outside of their comfort zone to reach success, and this ultimately results in success in the marketing space. If you’re a marketer, then think about why you’re a marketer, because if you aren’t extremely driven and passionate about this, you’re just not going to perform like the best.  

If you’re trying to hire a marketer with passion and drive, then you might consider asking the following qualifying questions in your interview process:  

• Why are you interested in this position?  
• Why this company specifically?  
• What are your personal and professional goals in 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years?   

Communication 

Marketing is crafting a message, communicating this message to your audience via different channels, and then persuading your audience to take action. 

When we think of communication in the context of marketing, it’s easy to think about it from the point of view of presenting statistics and graphs to the internal team. However, this is where the LEAST of the marketer’s communication skills are used.  

Marketing by nature involves communication at every stage, even when the marketer isn’t physically speaking to anyone. When you write advertising copy, email copy, or create a video to deliver your message – all of these require strong communication skills.  

On top of this, marketers may face other challenges during their everyday activities, including (which require strong communication skills to resolve):  

• Convincing internal subject matter experts that creating content is essential to the company’s success 
• Justifying requests for increased budget  
• Explaining marketing performance data in a way that company leadership can understand and appreciate 
• Managing the frustration that occurs when marketing KPIs aren’t achieved 
• Effectively align sales and marketing and lead or participate in Revenue Team Meetings  

In order to handle all of the above challenges, great marketers need to have strong communication skills. But what does this even mean? Well, for a start, marketers with great communication skills should:  

• Have strong writing skills in terms of grammar, but also in terms of being able to effectively and emotionally convey an idea through copywriting. In other words, a great marketer can write something that’ll make you feel some sort of emotion.  
• Be able to present ideas visually and through text.  
• Be able to convey ideas and emotion effectively through speech.  

Lifelong Learner 

Let’s face it, there’s an ever-growing number of things to learn in the marketing space. It’s extremely dynamic and moves at lightning-fast speeds. From new technologies, to winning ad formulas, to old school copywriting theory, there’s an abundance of marketing knowledge to immerse oneself into. It’s literally a continually growing, never ending pit of knowledge.  

In order to be a great marketer, you absolutely need to be a lifelong learner, because if you remain stagnant, you fall behind…and fast.  

So, if you want to be a successful marketer, then the first thing you need to learn is how to learn consistently and where to learn from. On the other hand, if you’re hiring a marketer, then you’re going to want to make sure that your new-to-be marketer is already learning every single day.  

You can ask them questions like:  

• What is the most recent thing you learnt in the marketing space? 
• Where do you usually go to learn about marketing?”.  
• How often do you read or do you have a reading habit? (Fiction or non-fiction books) 

Teacher Mindset 

The reality today is that the modern buyer has changed, and marketers now have to respond by focusing on becoming the number one teacher for prospects as opposed to trying to sell to them.  

Buyers don’t want to be sold to anymore. They want to be educated. In order to be a great marketer, you need to have a teacher mindset so that you can educate your buyer and win them over.  

If you’re a marketer looking to develop this mindset, then you probably want to learn about They Ask, You Answer. On the other hand, if you’re hiring a marketer, then you want to look out for any comments your buddying marketer makes around delivering value. It’s likely that if they talk about delivering value, then they have a teacher mindset.  

BONUS: Being a Consistent Content Creator 

This one isn’t on the list of most important qualities because it really is for those elusive unicorns. Marketers that hit the above factors AND this one are rare as hen’s teeth – and quite frankly expecting all six qualities including this one is unrealistic. 

“In my mind what separates really good and great unicorn marketers is the ability to be a consistent content creator. Content creators have to get good at writing short/long form copy, they develop a sixth sense of understanding what makes engaging content and understand how to gain trust from strangers. The communication skill that content creators develop is transferrable everywhere on every medium.”

Moby Siddique – CEO RedPandas Digital

So, what’s next? 

At the end of the day, it’s not as easy as it sounds to be a great marketer (or to hire a great marketer), otherwise everyone would do it.  

But, if you can focus on these 5 key qualities, you’re on your way to becoming a great marketer (or hiring a great marketer).  

Need help building out or training your marketing team? Start with our free Comprehensive Guide on They Ask, You Answer, and then if you still want help, contact our RedPandas Team here.