A trend has emerged in the marketing recruitment space over the last 18 months – businesses are looking for the best marketers in far greater numbers, to place in highly strategic and executive-level roles, in response to the changing marketing landscape and the digital boom.

Why?

Marketing is the core of a business

First, companies are more focused than ever on boosting customer awareness of their products or services, and making them stand out in a crowded market. Why? Probably because competition has never been so strong nor the market so small. Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are looking for best marketers they can attract to sell their products and services effectively, getting broadest reach at most efficient spend, particularly marketing professionals who are digitally savvy and who can promote the business through social media channels. Larger organisations are looking for the best senior marketers in the running to see beyond the bigger picture, realise the company’s ideal market position and strategically plan activity that is aligned with achieving these goals – and fast.

The best marketers move on

Second, churn rate in the industry is high, as the lifecycle of a senior or executive marketing professional is typically 3-5 years, so companies are frequently looking for new marketing leaders to replace outgoing staff. Senior and executive marketers often see their tenure in a company as exhausted after they make a major change or influence large-scale decisions in company strategy. For them, new employers are usually waiting in the wings, ready to swoop down and pick up talent with a successful track record in the industry, and offer an enticing new marketing job.

What makes a top marketer?

The criteria for selecting senior and executive marketers differs according to the products, services, values, strategy and culture of the company. Overall, to get the top marketing role, the ideal resume of the best marketer will show someone’s progress from a junior to senior-level role, with experience covering the full spectrum of marketing. This is everything from the implementation of marketing activity to the strategic management of teams, budgets, stakeholders, influencing and above all, change management.

Some employers look at how changes within a business were made through the marketing strategy – did the change engage customers on Facebook, improve e-commerce or champion digital communications in some way? The ability to be the subject matter expert behind the change and strategy frequently segregates top talent from the rest.

Other employers will be impressed by all-rounder senior and executive marketers, with solid experience across modern marketing channels, who want to be challenged some more, given the opportunity to instigate change and who are ambitious about making their mark. The best senior marketers understand the digital space and the insights garnered from the digital channel to make successful strategic decisions.

The best marketers have presence

Employers are also impressed by the presence and reputation of top marketers – edgy marketers are well known for managing their own personal brand, alongside their strategic portfolio. This will be an even more fundamental attribute for the best marketers in the digital space over time.

What areas are currently attracting the best marketers? The digital, CRM, e-commerce and user experience (UX) niches are drawing the interest of top-level marketing professionals, and in particular those who are exceptionally tech-savvy and who can use the digital space to complement traditional marketing rather than isolating online communications as a separate marketing channel. Within CRM, the concept of “big data’” (a way of tailoring customer communications with the information gathered at the time of purchase) is becoming more important, as companies focus on understanding customers and their buying trends.