6 key marketing skills (and how to assess them)

When you’re hiring marketing experts, it’s tricky to screen the genuine talent from the talented impersonators. 

Nothing stings quite like a mis-hire where your new teammate can’t contribute from day one. To avoid these situations, you need to know what the top, most relevant marketing skills are and how to screen for them.

In this article, we explore these important skills, how to assess candidates, and how TestGorilla’s range of tests helps you find your perfect marketing employee.

Why are marketing skills important?

Marketing skills are critical for growing your organization. From driving revenue to keeping messaging on brand, skilled marketers make every aspect of your organization’s public-facing communications effective.

Skills for marketing are important to:

• Grow your customer base

• Enhance your branding and reputation

• Spotlight your products

• Build loyalty with existing customers

• Offer insights into your customer data

• Save money by avoiding costly marketing missteps

In a rapidly changing field like marketing, the half-life of skills is short, and the performance drop of outdated tactics is real. A scientifically validated and consistently updated skills testing platform like TestGorilla is critical to keep your team competitive and equipped to handle change.

9 marketing skills and competencies

To achieve marketing excellence, these are the top 9 skills for marketing to screen for.

1. Digital marketing

For many businesses, digital marketing is central to their marketing strategy. This umbrella term includes executing marketing tasks effectively across all digital channels, such as:

• Social media platforms

• Email marketing

• Content marketing, including blogging

• Search engine optimization (SEO)

• Paid advertising, including pay-per-click (PPC) and Google Ads

Digital marketing specialists also use the data from these tasks to strategically prioritize those bringing the highest return on investment (ROI).

The digital marketing field is a great example of marketing skills at large. Consumer preferences and online algorithms change quickly, and it is up to your team to stay relevant and informed. 

2. Branding

Your brand is the group of assets that sets your business apart from competitors. A marketing candidate should know exactly how these assets – including visual design, communication style, values, and reputation – influence audience perceptions.

Essential traits of an employee with strong branding skills include customer orientation, collaboration, and creativity. 

These enable the candidate to enhance the customer journey and lay the groundwork for a strong customer relationship. They can also use team inputs to generate new ideas or help inform creative decisions for graphic design or copywriting.

3. Marketing software knowledge

Marketing professionals regularly use software that supports or even automates email marketing, social media posting, customer data analysis, content scheduling, and other tasks. These tools are collectively known as martech. 

Candidates often adapt quickly to new software if they have experience with similar products. However, your company may use a complex marketing platform with custom features like Hubspot. 

Hubspot combines cross-channel marketing with customer databases and automation tools. If it’s part of your workflow, you might require candidates with experience in this specific product. 

Build your skilled marketing team with TestGorilla

From branding skills to cutting-edge digital marketing knowledge, TestGorilla helps you hire the best. Our experts are happy to show you how it’s done.

4. Analytics

Data-driven decisions help you achieve your business targets and make it easier to track and improve marketing performance accurately.

Successful marketing candidates confidently use data analytics – such as web page views, platform rankings, and email open rates – to track campaign outcomes. These marketing analytics skills help them understand how to improve future marketing campaigns and which activities bring the greatest benefits.

Analytics is a particularly fast-moving marketing skill. For instance, Google’s industry standard Universal Analytics was replaced, forcing marketers to upskill or lose relevance.

Assessments for specialists and the latest technologies, like our Google Analytics 4 test, ensure that you are hiring for in-demand skills that drive results in today’s market.

5. Artificial intelligence

For marketers, artificial intelligence is more than a buzzword: It transforms a marketer’s workday and multiplies their productivity by streamlining data analysis, campaign ideation, and collateral creation.

Skilled marketers use AI for everything from market research to data analysis and even the automatic generation of ads on platforms like Google Ads. This maximizes the team’s human hours and enables marketers to devote time to more important projects.

AI is a growing technology. To screen for employees who keep up with new tech, TestGorilla offers the latest and most relevant assessment tools, like our Working with Generative AI test, to measure marketing AI skills.

6. Market research

A marketer must perform market research effectively to promote your products and services. Understanding factors like market size, competitors’ positioning, and macroeconomic trends is essential to creating an impactful marketing strategy.

Key skills include data analysis and comprehensive execution of qualitative research methods. For instance, a marketer skilled in research is comfortable running a consumer survey from start to finish.

Critical thinking and problem-solving skills also support market research. They enable professionals to use their findings to draw logical conclusions and drive strategies like market segmentation so you can target specific groups of consumers effectively. 

Marketers make decisions based on available information about their target audience and markets. This research extends to benefit the whole business. You can better understand, for example, how consumer behaviors change over time, the impact of macroeconomic factors, and why they choose your products over other competitors.

7. Cross-channel marketing

Even junior marketing staff, like marketing coordinators, need to implement campaigns across multiple channels at once – also known as cross-channel marketing. 

The most popular channels include social media, websites, email, print, digital ads, affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, and other emerging options.

Successful candidates understand the subtle differences in audience, brand voice, user journey, and creative materials that define each channel. At the same time, they must be able to create a cohesive customer experience across the various channels.

They should also be comfortable using various tools. For instance, marketers might use a content management system (CMS) like WordPress to manage blog content and platforms like Mailchimp to automate email campaigns. 

8. Communication

Effective communication is non-negotiable in marketing jobs. Successful candidates should be able to use persuasive language – whether verbal, written, or audio-visual – to build a narrative and address customers’ needs. 

Therefore, it’s critical to assess communication skills such as writing, editing, and grammar, plus coherence and persuasion. 

In addition, marketers must communicate effectively and proactively with various stakeholders, such as product owners and creative agencies, to discover information relevant to their marketing efforts.

9. Leadership

You should plan for your team’s success in the marketing world. As your campaigns succeed, you need candidates with leadership skills who are ready to manage new hires in a growing department.

You can skip costly managerial mis-hires by using a marketing manager skills assessment and not relying solely on seniority.

For instance, another organization might promote its longest-employed marketer into management rather than rigorously screen for a candidate with leadership skills – potentially leading to poor decision-making, weakened confidence, and insufficient teamwork. 

How to assess marketing skills and traits: 7 assessments

To find candidates with the strongest marketing skills, we have a ready-made and tailorable suite of marketing assessments.

By using our tests, you can find the best hire at any seniority level. For instance, use our Marketing Manager tests for leadership positions. 

Meanwhile, to screen line-level marketers, we have templates like our Social Media Marketing Specialist test that are ready for you to customize.

We also help you screen for hard and soft skill sets key to many types of roles. Below are seven noteworthy examples. 

1. Branding Strategy test

The Branding Strategy test assesses the strategic branding skills candidates need to develop and grow a brand, including their ability to: 

• Develop brand identity and positioning

• Grow a brand’s impact through brand management and advertising

• Use visual identity and messaging as branding tools

• Lead a rebranding process

The test also covers decision-making abilities with the use of real-world scenarios. You can even add custom questions with scenarios relevant to your business priorities.

Here’s an example question of how to assess marketing skills for branding.

If you’re wondering how TestGorilla can help you measure marketing skills, book a live demo.

2. Google Analytics 4 test

TestGorilla’s Google Analytics 4 test evaluates candidates’ experience of using the platform to effectively analyze web traffic and use it to inform future work.

Candidates must demonstrate they can:

• Understand Google Analytics’ data structure

• Set up the platform for website tracking

• Interpret data

• Use data to make decisions

This digital marketing skills assessment is useful for marketing employees who are responsible for increasing website traffic and customer conversion and supporting strategic digital marketing decisions.

You can expect candidates with high marks on this test to use analytics to improve business performance while saving time and money. They’re also likely to adapt quickly to relevant analytical software and processes.

3. Working with Generative AI test

TestGorilla’s Working with Generative AI test evaluates a marketer’s ability to use Generative AI in the workplace.

The test screens for:

• Practical understanding of generative AI use for marketing roles

• Prompt-engineering skills

• Ethical considerations around AI use in marketing

According to McKinsey's 2023 report, 90% of commercial leaders anticipate using generative AI software in their operations.

With TestGorilla’s extensive test library, you don’t need to constantly update your own tests to keep up with these latest marketing skills and technologies. Our experts take care of that for you.

Here’s an example of how they help you ask the right questions and assess emergent skills in non-technical roles.

4. Email Marketing test

This test evaluates email marketing skills – from campaign planning to execution and analysis. You know if candidates are skilled at:

• Developing a campaign strategy 

• Implementing email campaigns

• Using email analytics to assess performance

• Using A/B testing to increase engagement rates

You can expect high scorers on this digital marketing skills assessment to offer a great user experience and convert more customers to your business.

Use TestGorilla to unlock the power of marketing assessments

Getting started with TestGorilla is easy and 100% free. All you need to do is sign up and start planning your marketing skills assessment.

Sign up for your free forever plan today!

5. HubSpot CRM test

The HubSport CRM test assesses knowledge at an advanced level. A high-scoring candidate may also be able to adapt to competing CRM platforms.

Candidates are screened for their ability to:

• Understand the functionality of the Contacts, Conversations, Marketing, and Deal features in HubSpot CRM

• Coordinate tools, including website building, content publishing, and customer engagement via social media, email, and support

• Automate workflows to increase efficiency and sales 

In addition to testing HubSpot CRM knowledge, this test evaluates candidates’ ability to collaborate with your sales team to bring in new deals. 

6. Verbal Reasoning test

Our Verbal Reasoning test assesses analytical skills in candidates’ use of language. You find out how well they can:

• Understand logical relationships between words

• Draw evidence-based conclusions 

• Identify analogies

A candidate with a high verbal reasoning score is likely to do well in producing targeted content such as blog posts and pitch decks. Verbal reasoning skills also help marketers collaborate with their teams and communicate persuasively with stakeholders.

7. Problem Solving test

TestGorilla’s Problem Solving test reviews analytical skills and responses to complex situations. You can use it to check if candidates can:

• Analyze numerical and textual data

• Draw conclusions based on available data and metrics

• Prioritize actions based on a given set of rules

• Create and modify schedules

This marketing skills assessment test is especially suited for colleagues with project management responsibilities who need to make smart decisions under pressure. Excellent problem-solving skills also support independent working with minimal supervision.

Summary: The 9 top marketing skills and how to test for them

Let’s recap the best marketing skills and the assessments from our test library that you can use to screen for them.

How to develop marketing skills

To grow your team’s marketing skills, you have a variety of free resources to lean on. For instance, major martech providers offer free training and certifications for marketing analytics skills.

You can earn free certifications and develop your skills for these platforms:

With a skills certification, you can grow your marketing career and land a shot at competitive roles. Even if you’re a beginner and new to certain marketing tools, the field is always changing, and there’s room for new talent. 

As an employer, encouraging your team to develop their marketing skills with certifications gives you a ready-made tool to measure your colleagues’ continuing education, taking the guesswork out of your professional development plans.

How TestGorilla can help you find the right marketing employee

You ensure your marketing department’s success by screening your candidates for the right mix of hard and soft skills.

TestGorilla offers a wide range of marketing skills tests – from general problem-solving and verbal reasoning to specialized analytics and email marketing. Our tests can also evaluate candidates’ experience with software platforms, including Google Analytics and Hubspot CRM.

When you are ready to start with skills-based hiring, we are here to help you with a quick product tour.

Schedule a free 40-minute live demo and see how easy it is to hire the best candidates with skills-based hiring. 

Otherwise, if you’d rather test our system on your own, sign up for a Free forever plan today.

Marketing skills FAQs

Looking for the most frequently asked questions for marketing skills? We have you covered.

What makes a good marketer?

A good marketer has the marketing skills required to meet your organization’s marketing goals. That means that a good marketer has soft skills, like the ability to communicate with internal stakeholders and maintain a brisk pace of work to hit deadlines. A good marketer also needs hard technical skills, like expertise on the technical platforms that they use day-to-day, along with quantitative skills to evaluate their progress towards goals.

Is marketing a hard or soft skill?

Marketing skills are a blend of hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills in marketing include technical expertise with systems like digital analytics, Google Ads, or email marketing platforms. Soft skills in marketing include communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills.

What is a marketing skills assessment?

A marketing skills assessment test helps you identify the top marketers in your candidate pool. It typically evaluates problem-solving and communication abilities, software skills, and specialized knowledge – like branding strategy skills, for example. The results from the assessment indicate whether your candidate has sufficient knowledge and practical experience to manage your brand assets, run successful campaigns, and bring tangible results such as customer growth.