Trends & Takeaways: Email Marketing Competency Quiz Results & Explanations

Trend: With a mean score of 60% professional marketers still have more to learn

Download the quiz results and share with your co-workers

A few weeks ago Trends & Takeaways asked its subscribers to participate in a fun quiz to learn more about professional email marketing topics.  Since this was an advanced quiz, subscribers did better than expected however the mean score was 60%.   The reason why we chose to make this quiz advanced is because advanced email marketing tactics, or any advanced marketing tactics for that matter, are now needed for long-term success.  The pace at which the marketing discipline is evolving has rapidly changed from linear to parabolic requiring constant updating of not only skillsets (as mentioned last week) but also general knowledge.  The mean score indicates that professional marketers still have a way to go in mastering email marketing.  However, you can take comfort in Phil Kotler, distinguished professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management words of wisdom, “marketing takes a day to learn and a lifetime to master.”

Takeaway:
Consumer tastes are more fickle then ever as a result of a market overcrowded with brands, media and distribution.  Choice has lent itself to consumers’ unwillingness to make commitments making the marketing discipline more complex than anytime in history.  The days of bottom of the barrel admissions standards to the profession are long gone replaced with high demands for technical, creative and analytical skills. 
 
How To:
Last week we covered improving technical skills sets however analytical skills are just as important.  Understanding the impact of macro analytics such as industry trends and consumer tastes are just as important as micro analytics -- page views, conversion rates and CPM.   You’re already a step ahead of the game subscribing to Trends & Takeaways however aside from newsletter subscriptions the best way to sharpen your marketing analytical skills is to PARTICIPATE in group and forum discussions.  As a professional marketer, below are forums you should consider being actively involved in.

• Email Marketers Club
• Focus
• LinkedIn Group - Email Marketing Roundtable
• LinkedIn Group - eMarketing Association
• Warrior Forum
• MarketingProfs

Know of other forums you would like to share?  Please post them in the comment section for this blog post.