The Five-Tool Marketer: The Skills You Need To Master

There’s a term that most baseball fanatics are familiar with: a five-tool player. True five-tool players are rare in baseball because they’re talented in all of the areas that make an athlete great:

• Batting for average
• Batting for power
• Fielding
• Arm strength
• Speed

Good players can specialize in a few of these areas. Great players are solid in all five. Those are the type of athletes who make the biggest impact and eventually make it to the Hall of Fame.

But what if we applied this thinking to digital marketers? What are the five most important skills that the best marketers possess? Not every marketer will be able to do all of these things well, but the great ones are well-rounded enough to cover all of the bases.

1. Writing (batting for average)

Tony Gwynn and Ted Williams are two of the greatest baseball players ever, and for one major reason — consistency. These two players were renowned for their impressive batting averages and ability to get base hit after base hit. Singles aren’t sexy, but getting on base wins ballgames.

We’ve talked before about how writing is the most underrated marketing skill…