The top skills needed by marketers in 2025

According to leadership expert and ADMA Global Forum emcee, Holly Ransom, “the days of longing for the world to slow down have well and truly passed us.” In fact, Ransom considers it a “competitive advantage of being able to navigate a landscape that is changing constantly”. That certainly bodes well for the marketing industry experiencing a rapid rate of change fuelled by continuous technological advances, shifting customer expectations, and regulatory reform. It also comes as no surprise then that when pairing the ever-evolving marketing landscape with the lower than expected number of marketers with formal marketing training across the industry, that a capability crisis is emerging. The danger of this combination is that marketers are not equipped with the right tools and skills to be adaptable and flexible for the demands of a constantly changing landscape.

With a new year around the corner, how can marketers set themselves up for success, to not only confront the capability crisis, but leap ahead of it? Highly regarded industry experts and Australia’s top CMOs and marketing leaders weigh in on what they see as the most necessary skills to elevate for the future of marketing. It was clear from their responses that three key areas – curiosity, simplicity, and critical thinking – are where marketers need to focus their upskilling efforts.

Curiosity 

There is one skill marketers need in 2025 that every single industry expert interviewed recommended, and that is curiosity. Rightfully rebranded from a soft skill to a power skill, to be endlessly curious as a marketer is quintessential for professional growth and development. Having a hunger to know more and to do better as a marketer is underpinned by curiosity. It allows you to be open minded and to embrace change. Without the ability to adapt to change and lean into what the change is offering, we become stale and irrelevant in our roles. Instead, adopting a learning mindset will be what makes a marketer thrive in the current context. If an opportunity is presented, put your hand up and take the risk, even if it seems daunting. Our experts agree it’s important not to pigeonhole yourself. Be encouraged to explore the breadth that marketing has to offer and experience the full marketing funnel. You’ll become a more well-rounded marketer if you do and are more likely to progress through the ranks if that is something you’re striving for. 

Whether you see curiosity as a power skill, a competency or a value, the best way to be a curious marketer is to, first and foremost, love marketing – live it, breathe it, absorb it. Take an outward look at what is happening in the industry around you. Be sure to pay attention to what other marketers are doing, what you like about it, what you think could have been done differently, and then how you might apply it in your own context. Engage with your industry by attending industry networking events and speak to as many marketers as you can to swap insights. Absorb the content that is available to you whether that be through podcasts, articles, white papers, blogs, conferences or whichever medium you prefer. 

Then be sure to take an inward look too. Make a self-assessment of the marketer that you currently are and consider the marketer you would like to become, and what needs to be done to get you there. Do you have formal marketing training? Could now be an opportune time to power up your marketing career by enrolling in further study? Or perhaps there are skills gaps that need addressing that attending a short course could rectify. Whatever it is you need to do to develop yourself as a marketer, embrace or create the opportunities to get there and be sure to remain endlessly curious.

Simplicity

The art of simplicity, particularly when things continue to become more complex, should not be overlooked. As a marketer, being able to understand the scope of what is around you and then refining all of that down to the core elements you need to drive business growth and achieve objectives is crucial. That’s where the basics of marketing, understanding your customer and the power of creativity and branding come into play and why our industry experts see these as the top skills needed for the future of marketing. 

Brilliant basics

While many of our interviewed industry experts agreed, Joanna Robinson, CMO at the ICONIC, Lucinda Barlow, Senior Director, Head of International Marketing (APAC, EMEA, Latin America) at Uber, and renowned international marketing academic Mark Ritson were particularly passionate about the importance having a strong foundation of the marketing basics. For example, the 4Ps of marketing have remained unchanged for many decades and there is a reason for that – they are fundamental to being a marketer. 

We know the rate of change is constant and we know that advances in technology are not going to slow down any time soon. It is all to easy to get caught up with the next shiny new thing, particularly as marketers as we can’t help but get excited about the potential of what can be achieved. However, without a strong foundation and knowledge of the marketing basics, there will always be a gap in your skill set that our experts agree needs addressing to be a better marketer in 2025. 

The customer

As expectations of the customer continue to shift, a marketer’s ability to connect with and understand their customer has become increasingly important for cut-through. Tom Goodwin Business Transformation Consultant, Michelle Klein, Chief Customer & Marketing Officer at IAG, and Stuart Tucker, Managing partner at Hourigan International all commenting that we need to return our focus to the customer and put them at the core of what we do. 

We have become too distracted by performance and measurement, AI and all the wonderous things that technology can deliver. We’ve lost sight of the human touch and remembering that even in this digital age, the customer is a real human being with thoughts, feelings and emotions. 

Creativity and branding

The role of the marketer has continued to shift and evolve over time and that has meant many have lost sight of the power of creativity and brand. This is largely due to short-termism according to Tom Goodwin, with which Paul Sinkinson Managing Director, Australia and Asia at Analytic Partners, agrees. The seduction of performance marketing means that marketers are being asked to capture results for everything that they do. However, it is important to have a long-term perspective too and understand the role that creativity and brand plays. Liana Dubois, CMO of Nine, believes that creativity remains at the core of impactful marketing and will create powerful marketing solutions. 

Lucinda Barlow and Joanna Robinson speak highly of the exponential impact that story-telling and long-term brand building can have on a business and acts as the bedrock of successful marketing. As trends, technologies and market demands come and go, what will remain constant is the need for creativity and effective branding as a stabiliser, and is therefore a critical skill for marketers in 2025 and beyond. 

Critical thinking

Engaging in critical thinking is an essential skill for future focussed marketers, particularly so according to Leandro Perez, Senior Vice President and CMO of Australia and New Zealand at Salesforce. The ability to slow down time and ask the right questions such as ‘why are we doing this’ and ‘does it make sense’ will lead to out of the box thinking. With the break-neck speed that our industry continues to move at, the capacity to think critically, particularly in the areas of technology and AI, compliance and data analytics is no easy feat and why it should be on your list of skills to master in 2025. 

Technology and AI

Once again, all our experts agree that technology and AI will have a profound impact on the future of marketing. In fact, Tom Goodwin believes that the impact of AI alone is worth people prioritising more time to learn about it over any other technology. That’s because for marketers, as Liana Dubois rightfully notes, technological advancements, particularly in AI, will streamline processes and introduce new tools, transforming how we approach marketing strategies. AI will enable more personalised and efficient customer interactions, while automation will optimise campaign execution. So, while you may not necessarily need to have the skills to actively navigate and utilise various new technologies and AI, at the very least, all marketers should have an understanding of how they work and how they can be utilised. In having this skill, marketers can then ask the right questions to get the most out of the MarTech stack and AI functionality available to them. In this digital age, technology skills are essential for all marketers.  

Compliance

With the regulatory reform that is currently underway in Australia set to reshape our marketing practices, it would be remiss of our industry leaders to leave the criticality of upskilling in privacy and compliance off the 2025 list. Jo Boundy, CMO of The Commonwealth Bank, and Andrea Martens, CEO of ADMA, are particularly passionate about this core area. Whether you have formal marketing training or not, it is likely that most, if not all, of your regulatory knowledge has been learned on the job. As marketers are on the front line when it comes to data collection and therefore customer privacy, it is imperative that marketers become well educated and well informed on the regulatory reform and impact this will have on our work. Without this knowledge, marketers won’t be able to ask their legal and compliance partners the right questions to ensure their work adheres to the law. This is not a bonus skill for marketers to develop in 2025, it is a critical one. 

Data analytics

There is an absolute wealth of data available to marketers at any given time, ranging from customer data, campaign data, competition data and everything and anything in between. However, that doesn't mean we need to capture all of it. Liana Dubois has an expression that they practise at Nine which is, “Measure what you treasure, don’t treasure what you measure”. This succinctly captures exactly how marketers should approach data analytics and is also a passion point for Stuart Tucker. Taking the data that is available, narrowing it down to what you need, then interpreting the data to create insights is where the true skill of data analytics lies. 

For marketers thinking about the new year ahead and determining the professional goals they would like to set for themselves, focussing on the key areas of curiosity, simplicity and critical thinking is a great starting point.