Marketing automation is a component of digital marketing that takes advantage of software to help marketing managers run effective campaigns. Studies show that 63% of businesses using marketing automation beat their competitors. This indicates that marketing automation is very powerful when properly implemented. 

However, for the best results, marketing managers need to have the right skills to take advantage of the many marketing automation tools available today. In this article, we shall discuss some of the must-have skills that every marketing manager needs to take full advantage of marketing automation. 

1.  A general understanding of marketing 

Marketing automation is just a technology that requires inputs for execution. Even if you have the best marketing automation tools at your disposal, you need to have the proper marketing knowledge to put these tools to good use. Marketing involves knowing who your customers are and the best way to approach them. 

Marketing managers also need to have enough knowledge about the industry they are operating in. This knowledge enables them to build the right marketing strategies to beat their competition. Building this knowledge base and marketing skills takes time and will often involve trying and failing before you start seeing positive results. 

2.  Mastering marketing automation processes and workflows 

Any marketing manager needs to know how marketing automation workflows work. This knowledge is what they have to later implement while using any marketing automation software. Any marketer who wants to take advantage of marketing automation technologies should be able to design and document the functional and technical requirements for running automated marketing campaigns.

Knowing how to use the marketing automation tools alone is not enough to create effective marketing campaigns. You need to have a clear understanding of what is happening in the backend of these tools in order to feed them with the right inputs. With this knowledge, the marketer will find it much easier to interpret insights of the marketing campaign and how best to use them to improve future campaigns.

3.  Project management skills 

Running effective marketing automation campaigns requires a marketing manager who knows how to plan, schedule, and manage multiple marketing campaigns. Most of the time, the marketing manager will have to plan for campaigns for the different platforms ahead of time and manage the currently running ones. 

If it is a team of several other marketers, the marketing manager needs to find a way of optimally assigning tasks to each member based on their strengths. Having project management skills also helps the marketing manager effectively deliver timely reports about the marketing campaigns to all the relevant internal stakeholders, mainly the shareholders and the marketing team. 

4.  Making sense of analytics and insights 

Marketing automation tools provide many insights about the customers, so the marketing manager should accurately interpret these insights and use them to plan for the next campaigns or fine-tune the ones currently running. Some of these insights are usually in real-time and call for immediate action. It is only marketing managers that have quick analysis skills that can use such insights to their advantage. 

The good news is that most marketing automation tools today provide data in the simplest possible form. For instance, if you are running an email marketing campaign, you will get insights such as click-through rates that are usually expressed as a percentage. To get a sense from this kind of data requires the marketing manager to know the recommended values for each of the parameters reported in the insights. 

5.  Content creation 

Automation marketing tools will not create the content you will use to run the Ads. So, the marketing manager needs to know how to create content that suits his target audience. The content created for the various marketing campaigns and Ads has to be enticing enough to trigger action from the target audience.  

It should also be noted that content that works on one platform may not necessarily work on others. The marketer needs to know how best to optimize the content for each platform. The good news is that the automation marketing tools provide insights for each platform. So, the marketer can take advantage of this information to fine-tune the content for every platform over time. 

6.  Search engine optimization (SEO)

This largely depends on the platforms the marketing manager is using to run the marketing campaigns. If it is through a blog or social media platforms like LinkedIn or Pinterest, the marketer needs to have good knowledge of SEO to create content that performs well in search engines. 

At the bare minimum, the marketer needs to know some SEO basics such as keywords research, backlinking, and general knowledge of how such engines such as google work. It is also essential to constantly update your SEO knowledge because search engine algorithms are always changing rules. So, the marketer needs to always know about these changes as soon as possible. 

Bonus Skills - Technical Expertise

If you really want to excel at your job as a marketing automation manager, having some understanding of code, APIs and webhooks is a big help.   Most CRMs have some really great features that you can take advantage of if you have some technical know-how.  

For instance, inserting complex dynamic content via code like Liquid Language or adding custom coded sections in email or in-apps can really help set you apart.  Don’t be afraid to take on new challenges and keep expanding your capabilities.  

Final thoughts 

Being a marketing automation manager is a really exciting position if you have the right skills to do what is required. A marketing manager who has the right skills will find it easier to choose a marketing automation tool that suits the kind of campaigns he intends to run. But if you don’t have all the listed skills above, worry not because they are all pretty easy to learn once you are committed. 

If you find it hard to do personal research, you can take a digital marketing/marketing automation course on Udemy or Skillshare. There are several good courses on these platforms that you can take advantage of to gain all the marketing automation skills we have just discussed.  

Additionally, we at Paio, can help with training on whatever system you’re using, so feel free to reach out if you have any questions!