Marketing skills are always changing, but not every skill needs the same level of attention right now. The Marketing Skills Gap Action Planner helps individual marketers and managers assess their current confidence, role relevance, future importance, and evidence strength across AMA’s core marketing competency areas.
Use this workbook to identify your highest-priority skills, understand where your development needs are concentrated, and create a focused action plan you can revisit over time.
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Why Use the Marketing Skills Gap Action Planner
It can be difficult to decide which marketing skills to strengthen first, especially when new tools, channels, and responsibilities keep competing for attention. This toolkit gives you a practical way to evaluate your skills instead of relying on guesswork.
The planner helps you move from a broad list of possible development areas to a smaller set of priorities you can act on. It’s designed for marketers who want a clearer view of where they are now, what matters most for their role or goals, and how to turn skill development into measurable career progress.
Unlike a team skills matrix, this workbook is focused on individual development planning. It helps you assess your own skill priorities and translate them into practical next steps.
What You’ll Get
This workbook includes:
- A Profile Inputs tab to capture your current role, goals, team environment, and development preferences
- A Skill Assessment organized around AMA’s marketing competency areas
- Ratings for current confidence, role relevance, future importance, and evidence strength
- A Priority Summary that automatically identifies your top skill priorities
- A competency-area view that shows where your development needs are clustering
- An Action Plan tab to turn your results into focused next steps
- Guidance for reusing the workbook every 6 to 12 months
Key Benefits
With this toolkit, you can:
- Identify which marketing skills deserve your attention first
- Assess skills across AMA’s competency areas
- Compare current confidence with future importance and role relevance
- Spot gaps between what you know and what you can show through evidence
- Focus your development plan on a manageable number of priorities
- Create a repeatable process for reviewing your skills over time
Marketing Skills Gap Action Planner Features and Capabilities
| Feature | What It Helps You Do |
|---|---|
| Profile Inputs | Capture your current role, career stage, goals, team environment, and development preferences before completing the assessment. |
| AMA Competency Areas | Assess skills across Strategy and Planning, Content and Branding, Channels and Technology, Data and Analytics, Marketing Ethics, and Essential Capabilities. |
| Skill Assessment | Rate skill topics based on current confidence, role relevance, future importance, and evidence strength. |
| Priority Scoring | Identify which skills may need the most attention based on structured inputs instead of guesswork. |
| Top Skill Priorities | See the highest-priority skills from your assessment results. |
| Category-Level View | Understand where your priorities cluster across broader AMA competency areas. |
| Action Plan | Turn your results into focused next steps, including practice opportunities, evidence to collect, and follow-up timing. |
| Reuse Guidance | Retake the assessment every 6 to 12 months by clearing prior rating inputs and entering updated responses. |
Solving Common Problems with This Toolkit
| Common Problem | How the Toolkit Helps |
|---|---|
| You’re not sure which marketing skills to improve first. | The assessment ranks priorities so you can focus on the skills that matter most right now. |
| You feel pressure to learn every new tool or trend. | The workbook helps you compare emerging skills against your role, goals, and future needs. |
| Your development goals feel too broad. | The Priority Summary narrows your results to a smaller set of skills to carry into an action plan. |
| You have skills but limited proof of them. | The assessment includes evidence strength, helping you identify where to document or demonstrate your capabilities. |
| You want a more structured career development conversation. | The results can support manager check-ins, development planning, or performance review preparation. |
| Your role or priorities have changed. | You can reuse the workbook later to reassess your skills and update your action plan. |
Tips for Getting the Most Value
Be honest in your ratings. The goal is to create a useful picture of where to focus next.
Use the results as a planning tool, not a final judgment. A lower score doesn’t mean you’re behind. It simply shows where more practice, clearer evidence, or stronger role alignment may be helpful.
Revisit the workbook whenever your role, goals, responsibilities, or team expectations change. Marketing skills evolve, and your development plan should evolve with them.