In order to master marketing, people need to keep an eye on the latest trends in order to stay on top of needed skills and budding developments. Members of Young Entrepreneur Council said the following:

The art of marketing means staying on top of the ever-shifting changes in the industry. What is one newer skill or competency that is now vital for a marketing role? Why is that ability so important?

Here are some skills or abilities modern marketers should focus on:

1. Data Tracking

The ability to measure and track everything that is done and to set KPIs is now vital to any marketing role. With marketing, you are able to measure pretty accurately most of the things that you do. It’s important to be able to identify a story in the data that you’ve gathered to be able to make future decisions based on validated learning. – Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME

2. Content Marketing and Distribution

Creating interesting content is more important than ever. But the real key is knowing how to get it distributed and picked up. Most teams can produce something interesting, but the real key is how to get it shared online and picked up in major publications. – Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design

3. Search Engine Optimization

Marketers need to understand the recent SEO changes. It is critical to learn how to write copy to satisfy a searcher’s intent. Most marketers hand off SEO and don’t really learn the art of writing good copy and optimizing it for search! Publicists, in particular, need to understand this to provide more value to clients. If your web copy isn’t optimized, it isn’t satisfying Google (or your users!). –Kris Ruby, Ruby Media Group

4. Keeping Up With New Platforms

Consumer attention has shifted from TV and magazines to your smartphones and social media. For any vital leadership role, it’s critical to stay on top of the new platforms where consumer attention is shifting and to get in as an early-adopter. Get an account, learn the new platform and recognize how users are interacting on the platform. One of these platforms might be the next Facebook! – Jean Ginzburg, JeanGinzburg.com

5. Customer Focus

Being customer-focused is the one skill that is becoming more and more important for every marketer, both on a qualitative and on a quantitative level. That means seeking out conversations with your prospects and customers, attending events where your customers meet, but also making use of the new tools that are available to marketers nowadays: analytics, surveys, heat maps, etc. – Steli Efti, Close

6. Retargeting

I’m the CEO of a digital marketing agency so I get to see the most common mistakes companies make. One marketing skill that companies fail to execute is setting up and executing retargeting campaigns. Retargeting ads convert at a higher rate and are overall less expensive than alternative ads. Retargeting is a critical marketing skill, especially for maximizing marketing dollars. –Kristopher Brian Jones, LSEO.com

7. Gamification

Gamification is one of the best ways to market your products or services to a wider audience. You can create various games including raffles, giveaways, caption contests and even wheels with on-site rewards. All of these tactics help get consumers excited to engage with your business, making them an effective marketing technique. – Blair Williams, MemberPress

8. Leveraging Social Proof

Marketers have always used social proof in one form or another to promote their brand, but this tactic has taken on a whole new light lately. It’s now possible to market to customers in real-time when people buy products or services from your website. We expect that this will have a big impact on the buying decisions of consumers as more businesses implement this tactic. – Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

9. Goal-Setting Skills

If you don’t know how to set and focus on goals, you won’t be able to track progress and further your business efforts. Knowing what goals to set is a skill in itself because you know what to focus on in the present moment and can refine your strategy accordingly. – Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster

10. Data Analytics

With more and more data available to us these days, being able to understand what it all means is essential. It’s no longer sufficient for marketers to simply promote a business or site, they have to understand analytics so they know how to adjust and shift their strategy moving forward. – Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

11. Know Your Audience
Part of this requires experimentation, but it does move the needle. You have to strategize and create content by asking who your audience is, what topics they care about, and what problems your content can solve. Over time you will develop a clear view of what works for your company and what won’t. It comes down to learning and studying what topics your audience finds helpful. – Suneera Madhani, Fattmerchant