The MarTech skills landscape will evolve significantly in 2020, as advanced technologies flood into the mainstream market faster than technology has spread historically. In addition, the marketing department will gain more clout; from the broadened influence across organisations we have seen over the past few years, to increasing breadth and depth cross-function and the championing of key digital initiatives.
This post matches the Salesforce MarTech trends Lucy has seen gain momentum as a Consultant, with the roles and skills Matt believes organisations will seek out in employees and candidates. We hope you enjoy the post!
Opening Remarks
Lucy
Almost all organisations in the digital age aspire to delivering a connected customer experience (CX). I see this aspiration burn bright in almost every business stakeholder I speak to, addressed with urgency, as fluid CX has become the expectation for consumers on the receiving end. Once my assignment is complete, clients frantically look to fill in the skill gap with professionals with the sought-after competencies you will find in this post. Truth is, they are hard to come by.
Matt
I believe the reason for the disparity between the 82% of brands that claim to be customer-led and the 13% achieving this vision is largely down to the lack of skills in marketing automation. The good news is that 89% of the same brands intend to increase their spend on CX in 2020, which has to mean investment in the people behind marketing automation. Whilst this should increase the size of our talent pool, it will also allow marketing automation professionals to deepen their specialisms, so where should companies be investing their money and where should you be strengthening your skills?
1. CX & Data Unification
No prizes for guessing CX would feature as no. 1. All the innovation that’s occurring in and around the Salesforce ecosystem will have some link to CX; after all, there’s talk of ‘CX Software’ being the heir to CRM. Why CX will take over from CRM is down to data unification – that is, the ability to connect multiple data sources, aggregate data, and use fluidly across the tech stack. Specifically in the Salesforce landscape, the acquisition of Mulesoft will gift us with Customer 360 – Salesforce’s ultimate vision of integrated CRM. Now that Customer 360 released continued in 2019 (especially at Dreamforce ’19), CX will continue to become closer to reality.
Skills:
- Salesforce: Cross-Cloud knowledge, including Marketing Cloud, Pardot
- Salesforce 360 exposure (Mulesoft)
- Data analysis skills and understanding of ETL processes
Roles:
- Marketing Data Analyst
- Marketing Data Scientist
- CX/Digital Platforms Manager
2. Google Analytics 360 + Marketing Cloud
Salesforce announced a strategic partnership with Google back at Dreamforce 2017.
At the start of 2018, we discovered how the Google Analytics 360 product will work with Sales Cloud and/or with Marketing Cloud.
Salesforce Marketers can get granular web behaviour data throughout the customer journey: awareness, to conversion, and retention. This new, granular data source can be leveraged to build highly segmented audiences and report on email content block performance from Marketing Cloud, based even on the slightest behavioural indicators.
Skills:
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- Google Platform experience – chiefly with ‘Audiences’ in Analytics
There is no end in sight for Google’s dominance in web tracking, so a cocktail of Google Analytics skills and Salesforce Marketing Cloud expertise will place you well to better understand your customer across their entire journey.
Roles:
- Digital Platforms Manager
- CRM Manager / Marketing Data Manager
- Customer Experience Manager
3. Predictive Analytics
Einstein is sweeping throughout the Salesforce platform, democratising both analytics and predictive intelligence. B2B Marketing Analytics is now included with Pardot licenses, which enables marketers to visualise, slice and dice data how they wish. Furthermore, with Einstein, marketers gain predictive insights, and as a result, recommendations for campaign optimisation.
Skills:
- Salesforce Einstein
- Data analysis and interpretations skills
- Marketing strategic knowledge
Whilst it will be important to have some level of understanding data models, it is more relevant that marketers can execute the recommendations based on Einstein insights. This coupling of powerful AI technology and the ‘human’ side of marketing strategy will prove to be a killer combination.
Roles:
- Marketing Data Analyst/Scientist
4. Unified Marketing Interface – Pardot Lightning
Pardot took a big step in 2018: it transitioned from a standalone interface into the Salesforce Lightning interface. It’s safe to predict that Pardot and Salesforce objects and configuration will align in 2020, especially as we witnessed campaign and user alignment in 2018, and Engagement Metrics bridging the gap.
Pardot Admins can no longer remain isolated in Pardot, there’s a high probability they will be asked to perform Salesforce Administration type tasks. Data syncing will only become more frequent as the platforms merge, plus larger volumes of data; it’s therefore key for Pardot Admins to understand Salesforce org configuration in order to troubleshoot sync errors quickly should they arise.
Skills:
- Pardot
- Salesforce
Roles:
- Salesforce Administrator
- Pardot Administrator
- MarTech Admin
5. Data Protection / Preference Management
In the aftermath of GDPR, trust will remain a hot topic. Data Protection, Security and Preference Management are all threads in the fabric of ‘Trust’. Typically, marketing teams use customer data in larger volumes than other business functions, which places pressure on Marketers to remain ethical and not commit breaches – whether accidental or not!
Marketers who know how to handle and use data in accordance with the legislation and company policies will be sought after for management peace of mind.
Skills:
- GDPR knowledge
- Thorough understanding of data protection best practices
Someone who has implemented a GDPR strategy into an organisation before
Roles:
- Data Protection Officer
6. Hyper-personalisation
Circling back to Customer 360, part of CX is hyper-personalisation.
Personalisation managed from Marketing Cloud requires data manipulation and formatting before it can be deployed in campaigns. AMPscript is a scripting language specific to Salesforce Marketing Cloud that does exactly this.
Skills:
- AMPScript skills
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Pardot Skills
Summary
The increasing demands placed on marketers will mean that the ideal candidate will have some awareness about the above MarTech trends. With more technologies being bought on to the market year-on-year, there’s a risk Marketing Technologists will stretch themselves too far, rather than becoming specialised.
We hope that the skills and roles we’ve highlighted in this post get you thinking about where you want to take your Salesforce Marketing career, and maybe even find a new, in-demand skill-set to focus on!