By Charlotte Pike, Business Consultant
Marketing has changed more rapidly in the last three years than in the previous decade. The rise of AI-assisted content creation, shifts in how audiences engage with branded content, and increasing pressure on marketing teams to demonstrate measurable commercial impact have all changed what good looks like.
Hiring managers are telling us clearly that the skills they valued in candidates two or three years ago are no longer sufficient on their own. The bar has moved.
The most consistent feedback from marketing hiring managers is that they want people who understand the business, not just the channel. A strong social media strategy or a well-designed campaign means very little if the person behind it cannot explain how it connects to revenue, pipeline, or customer acquisition cost.
Candidates who can talk fluently about metrics, who understand how marketing connects to sales, and who can show that their work contributed to measurable outcomes are significantly more attractive than those focused primarily on creative execution.
Across every marketing discipline, familiarity with AI tools has shifted from a differentiator to a baseline expectation. This does not mean hiring managers want candidates who have handed their thinking over to a language model. It means they want people who understand how to use these tools effectively, how to brief them, how to quality-control the output, and how to integrate them without losing the strategic and creative judgement that drives real results.
Candidates who have not engaged seriously with AI tools in their current role are increasingly at a disadvantage, regardless of seniority.
Specialisms still matter. SEO, paid media, CRM, content, and brand are all distinct disciplines with genuine depth. But hiring managers are increasingly frustrated by specialists who operate in silos and cannot connect their work to the broader marketing effort.
What is valued now is the ability to think across channels. Understanding how content supports paid performance, how email nurture connects to events strategy, or how brand positioning shapes how individual campaigns land. Whether specialist or generalist, demonstrating that kind of connected thinking is a significant advantage.
With more marketing activity driven by data and performance metrics, the ability to communicate findings clearly to non-marketing stakeholders has become more important, not less. Marketing Directors who cannot secure buy-in from the board or commercial colleagues struggle to invest in the longer-term brand-building activities that drive sustainable growth.
At every level, the ability to tell a clear, persuasive story, whether in a presentation, a written brief, or a conversation with a sceptical Sales Director, is something hiring managers are actively looking for.
Brief the role around outcomes and business problems rather than a list of channels. The best candidates want to know what they are being asked to solve, not just what tools they will be using.
Elevation's Marketing team places candidates at every level across South Yorkshire, the East Midlands, and beyond. Submit a vacancy at https://www.elevationrecruitmentgroup.com/vacancy-registration
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