A significant number of organisations are struggling to find the right people to ensure the success of their marketing efforts. If you fall into this category, here are a few characteristics you should look for in future marketing employees to fill a potential skills gap, according to blogger Carlos Hidalgo.

Read the full article on the MarketingProfs website.

Photo by Jono Mueller

As 2011 comes to a close and 2012 opens up a slew of new challenges and opportunities, it's important to look back at how you handled your marketing to see what lessons can be learned. This will help you to move forward in the year ahead, according to the Globe and Mail.

Read the full article on the Globe and Mail website.

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In today's climate it is more important than ever to ensure that you put the right people in the right jobs within your organisation. Having unqualified or unsuited personnel in key positions within your organisation is a mistake that no one can afford to make in the current economic landscape. It is vital that you are aware of the key characteristics required for the position you are trying to fill.

Nowhere in the organisation is this more important than in your marketing division - get this wrong and you may not be able to stay afloat throughout the economic downturn. Whether your marketing department is tasked with organising events, running communications campaigns, conducting market research, dealing with public relations or advertising, a misjudgement here could cost you your customers and future business.

Marketing professionals come from a variety of backgrounds but the basic choice you will have to make is whether you want to hire an experienced applicant or a graduate. Both have their advantages and disadvantages so it will depend on what you are requiring for the role. Experienced candidates have the advantage of being able to step into a struggling department with a clear strategy that can be discussed at interview. This type of candidate will usually have management experience and, if they have worked in your field previously, may come to the role with a wide range of useful contacts.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for staff to fill less senior roles but who are also up to date with current technologies and legislation, a graduate may be your preferred choice. Graduates are eager and still willing to learn and are generally easy to manage into your company ethos. Additionally, they require less compensation, which may be a critical consideration for many companies.

Regardless of which path you decide to go down, there are a number of qualities you will want to ensure your interview process can identify in your candidates. Good marketing professionals should possess excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, creativity, an understanding of various technologies and a sound ability to organise and plan both their time and resources.

Include a written assessment The requirement for strong communication skills is predominantly self-explanatory but that doesn't mean that all companies get it right. It is one thing for someone to list 'good communication skills' on their resume but it is quite another for people to be able to evidence these skills. A CV will provide you with some idea but it is important to remember that CVs are usually crafted over many months and are continually revised and therefore may not be an ideal indicator on written communication skills. If this aspect of your position is important, it may be prudent to include some sort of written assessment in the interview element of the process. This will allow you to critically assess the applicant's capabilities before you continue the process.

Additionally, it is easy to believe that you will be able to ferret out verbal communication issues at interview but this is not always the case. Many interviewees rehearse continually in order to give themselves every advantage during this stressful process. An ideal way around this is to ask for an improvised pitch or speech during the process, which will give you the opportunity to monitor their skill. Another technique is to ask a fairly outlandish question, which will help you to judge communication skill and creativity as well as their ability to think on their feet.

Creativity and the ability to think outside the box are critical characteristics to look for in your applicants. Creative marketing professionals are the most successful and will be able to view problems and situations from an unusual perspective, often presenting uniquely perfect solutions to any issues. Additionally, if there is a PR element to the post, you will need to ensure that the candidate is creative enough to respond to potentially troublesome questions posed by the public and the press.

In this day and age it is also vital that any potential members of staff are fully up to date with current technologies. They should be proficient in everyday packages such as Office and any sector-specific programmes. They should also be aware of social networking media such as Facebook and Twitter and know how these sites can be used to your company's advantage. Many new and established organisations have enjoyed success or suffered losses based on their use or misuse of these important tools.

Most importantly of all, your candidate must be able to organise their time and resources. Chances are they will be working to limited budgets and tight timescales and you need to be sure that they will be able to cope within these constraints. Applicants must be able to evidence this skill through either past employment or specific questioning designed to ascertain this information. Good communicators who are creative and know how to utilise social networking sites will be of no use to you if they are unable to put their plans in place due to poor organisational skills.

There are many skills that require being unearthed at the hiring stage in order to save your company time and money down the line. Careful screening and planning can ensure that you hire the right people for each post in order to secure your organisation's future.

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84% of people with careers in marketing feel that their achievements have an impact on the broader success of businesses according to a survey by recruitment specialists Robert Walters.

The survey showed that marketers were second only to those in HR (86%) in terms of feeling that their achievements have an impact on the wider success of a business, and level with those in IT and the Public Sector.

The 2011 Career Insights Survey also showed that only 30% of those with careers in marketing believe they should change jobs every one to three years, compared to 50% of public sector workers.

According to the survey, 27% of marketers sometimes or always work weekends, and that 24% of marketing professionals work 50 hours + per week.

Nick Dunnett, Managing Director of London Contract Recruitment at Robert Walters, says: "The survey results are interesting and reflect the pressure teams and departments are currently under with rising workloads. Perhaps for this reason, we are finding that work-life balance is becoming an increasingly important factor for professionals looking to move jobs.

"While people are prepared to put up with isolated peaks in workload for the good of their career and generally accept it as part and parcel of the job requirement, few are willing to work all hours of the day for extended periods. Employers that recognise this when recruiting are currently able to secure extremely talented people."

Marketers were also the most willing to use social networking sites when looking for a new job. The survey from Robert Walters showed that 73% of those with careers in marketing use social networks when looking for a new job, with those in the public sector being the least likely (21%).

Full results of the Robert Walters Career Insights Survey 2011.

Photo: Images of Money

Today, in 2011, we know the Internet as a digital juggernaut that has revolutionised how we approach communications, media, marketing and even shopping. But whilst the Internet phenomenon has its earliest roots in the 19th century and has developed gradually since then, it was only as recently as 1977 when it first truly appeared in the form we know now and only 1989 when it first became commercial. The Internet's expansion and transformation since then has been dramatic.

By 2008 for example, 1.4 billion users had logged on the Internet and the network had spread not only right around the world but also on to an array of platforms, such as mobile phones, for example. Connectivity has reached huge proportions too, as broadband speeds have increased and Wi-Fi has allowed the public expanded access. With so many users on the Internet, marketers have seen the potential to engage with consumers and have used everything from e-mail advertising to campaigns across social media websites to target their desired markets.

The Internet is still changing, however and when the Internet progresses, it does so pretty rapidly. It's not possible to say exactly where the Internet will be in a few years’ time, but looking back on this year alone; a few current trends indicate some of the changes that are likely to be with us soon.

New media formats continue to proliferate across the Internet and some of these will be of use to marketers. For example, podcasts continue to grow in popularity and are easily accessible and not difficult to create. As a result, podcasts are produced by both individuals and companies for a whole bunch of subjects. Marketers can tap into this popularity by creating podcasts as well as targeting podcast listeners in campaigns.
» Read more: The future of the internet

Social media is unavoidable these days. Whether it is celebrities tweeting on Twitter, your friends posting pictures on Facebook or professionals networking on LinkedIn, social media has made a massive impact on how we use the internet. Crucially though, it's also becoming a major factor in how businesses operate and when it comes to marketing, you're ill advised to forget that social media is now a large part of the marketing mix.

Plenty of companies, both small and large, now reach out to consumers and engage across the likes of Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. Many brands maintain Facebook profiles and chat to consumers via this page, whilst others develop their own YouTube channel and fill it with unique, appealing content. Other brands still use lesser-known sites like Foursquare to launch innovative marketing campaigns.

Why are marketers engaging with social media? It is because it creates a real buzz, when done well of course, and offers a bunch of other potential benefits too. For a start, social media is extremely popular. Millions of people have Facebook accounts, for instance. So when marketers set out to reach audiences, they have difficulty ignoring the potential audience spread across social media platforms. These are audiences that in some cases aren't watching TV as much and are perhaps turning against print alongside other forms of traditional advertising platforms.

Beyond simple exposure for the business, social media marketing can help garner more specific advantages. For example, a company on Twitter may make contact with a new business lead, or executives can form new partnerships via LinkedIn. More generally, operating across social media, whether it's through blogs or a YouTube channel, can drive up search engine results and offer further business exposure.
» Read more: Top social media tips for business

According to U-Talk Marketing, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a key investor in Facebook, has told the Telegraph that Mark Zuckerberg is likely to choose to float the social networking site next year.

Hoffman has made a name for himself as a major investor in other successful web companies such as Groupon, social gaming company Zynga and location service Gowalla.

For more information visit the U-Talk Marketing website.

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According to NY Times, the public relations industry has decided that it may be a good time for, well, a public relations initiative.

The industry’s largest organization, the Public Relations Society of America, is embarking on an effort to develop a better definition of “public relations,” one more appropriate for the 21st century.

For more information visit the NY Times website.

Photo by Thos Ballantyne

According to Sales and Marketing, over the past three years, much attention has been paid to sales and marketing “alignment.” That is, these two functions have worked toward mutually defining the ideal prospect profile, how leads are scored, when marketing should hand-off to sales, when sales should hand back to marketing, etc.

For more information please visit the Sales and Marketing website.

Photo by Dan Foy

According to U-Talk Marketing, rivalry makes for amazing marketing. Many of the world’s best campaigns come out of bitter rivalry between two companies as they spur each other on to greater creative heights. Here are just a few examples…

For more information please visit the U-Talk Marketing website.

Photo by Hisa Fujimoto