The Personality Traits of Top Marketing Leaders

We all know a great leader when we see one, but it can be tricky to identify the particular traits that enable certain people to lead teams to success, influence their community, and create positive change.

Digital marketing is an industry with an abundance of inspiring and innovative leaders across all facets of the industry. From SEO, Paid Ads, Email, Content, Social, and everything in between, successful individuals are innovating the processes that we already know and inspiring their teams, as well as their online followers.

在这个new original research,my team at Fractl sought out to determine what makes these inspiring figures tick.

哪些特征，特征和人格类型在最成功的营销领导者中很常见？您最值得信赖的营销专业人员与行业中其他影响者相比如何？

UsingIBM's Watson Personality Insights, we were able to determine the top (and bottom) traits among 2019 top digital marketing leaders across the spectrum. From Neil Patel to Seth Godin, and from Amy Vernon to Mari Smith, we break down the personalities of these individuals and identify which personality traits for which leaders scored highest.

Whether you want to become a powerful marketing leader or simply want to emulate some of their most impressive traits in the workplace, keep reading.

The Most Important Personality Traits to Succeed in Digital Marketing

1.冒险

You probably think ambition, creativity, or collaboration are obvious personality traits you need to be successful in marketing. However, our report showed that leaders actually commonly scored high for the trait Adventurousness.

Taking risks, testing new methods, and coming up with new ideas are all key components to a good marketer's skill set, and many of the top leaders in the industry scored remarkably well in this trait.

However, I can hear the naysayers already --“冒险？冒险与数字营销有什么关系？”If visions of hiking Mount Everest and bungee-jumping come to mind, I don't blame you. But in this context, adventurous leaders, according toIBM Watson Personality Insights, "are eager to try new activities and experience different things. They find familiarity and routine boring."

These are the movers and shakers of the marketing industry.

营销leaders who score high on the adventurous scale are willing to take risks, try out new strategies, and fearlessly mix up their tactics to see which might earn the most ROI for their businesses. Adventurous marketers test new strategies and are eager to report their findings, create meaningful conversations within the community, and lead the entire industry forward.

It's important to note, of all the leaders we looked at, Ann Handley was the only person whosetopquality is Adventurous. Considering Handley was named byIBM as one of the seven people shaping modern marketing和is the world'sfirst Chief Content Officer, it makes sense she scored highly in adventure.

This trait also appeared in several other marketers' top five characteristics, including names likeJay Baer, founder of Convince & Convert, andAmisha Gandhi, a well-known speaker and currently the Senior Director of Influencer Marketing for SAP.

2.充满活力

与任何领导者一样，拥有高能量是激励和激励团队做出积极改变的重要品质。IBM Watson Personality Insightsdescribe energetic leaders as those that "lead fast-paced and busy lives. They do things and move about quickly, energetically, and vigorously, and they are involved in many activities."

Neil Patel，Gary Vaynerchuk和Amy Porterfield在IBM Watson Scorad上的最高品质是有活力的，这是有一个原因。他们都是令人难以置信的成功，活跃和即将上任的营销人员 - 有足够的责任使他们继续前进。

For instance,Neil Patel是当今营销最前沿的名字。他的许多成就包括在310多个会议上讲话，举办营销学校播客，以及共同创立Neil Patel Digital and Crazy Egg。

Vaynerchuk juggles ownership of a media company (VaynerMedia)和an ad agency (VaynerX).Gary Veedefinitely has his hands full -- not to mention the time he dedicates to his enormous fanbase on social media.

Lastly, Amy Porterfield spends her time hosting the top-ranked business podcast,网络营销很容易, creating online courses, and educating hundreds of thousands of business owners worldwide.

With all of that going on, there's no doubt these marketers have to be energetic!

3. Assertiveness

Being direct and decisive when asserting your opinions is necessary for making tough calls or getting projects back on-schedule. Someone who is assertive, according to theWatson API, "likes to take charge and direct the activities of others" -- sounds like a necessary quality to have if you're expected to empower your team to succeed.

Tyrona Heath的最高特征是自信。这不足为奇。当您是LinkedIn市场发展的全球领导者时，您需要能够“负责”。泰罗纳（Tyrona）的自信也通过了她的其他活动，尤其是作为教育者，作家和公众演讲者。

Assertiveness appears as a top five characteristic forother female marketers, as well, includingMari Smith, an international social media thought leader, andKim Garst, self-proclaimed "Online Marketing Guru."

4. Intellect

Finally, Watson defines marketing leaders who score highly for Intellect as people who are "intellectually curious and tend to think in symbols and abstractions."

我们经常听说世界上许多最成功的领导者是高中或大学辍学. From this alone, it's clear that true leadership is a skill that can be learned both in or outside the classroom.

While it's fantastic to have a leader with great intellect on your team, those leaders must also be able to build a team full of highly intelligent people and motivate them to drive success.

他的腰带有15本出版的书籍，来自世界各地的无数言语参与Guy Kawasaki智力的顶级特征 - 可以被认为是成功水平的先决条件。

智力was also the #1 trait in the personality profiles of Rand Fiskin, Sparktoro founder, Amy Vernon, a self-proclaimeddigital Swiss Army Knife, andAleyda Solis, International SEO consultant, author, and speaker.

How Do These Leaders Score Across Various Qualities?

The study also looked into other qualities using IBM Watson's API to see how leaders compare. You can explore the flipbook (below) to learn how leading marketers stack up against one another when it comes to less common leadership qualities like altruism, imagination, and modesty.

To recap, the personality traits that are most prevalent among leading digital marketers today, according to our study, are:

1. Adventurousness
2. Energetic
3. Assertive
4. Intellect

Some people are natural-born leaders and others have towork on their leadership skills，一次。如果您遵循这些营销领导者的社交渠道或博客，您会很快注意到，尽管它们共享许多素质，但这些有影响力的人物的性格非常不同，因此每个人都有独特的社区和追随者。

Ultimately, each marketing leader we surveyed bring unique personality and experiences to the table, enriching the industry and allowing it to benefit from consistent streams of innovation.

Even if you choose to focus on cultivating these top qualities in your career, you'll want to continue to做你真实的自我和let your individuality show.

Showing a taste for adventure, an energetic demeanor, assertiveness, and intellect -- as well as maintaining a sense for what makes you, well, you -- will earn you respect from your colleagues and community alike. Additionally, it can equip you with the skills to become a future leader in your niche.