Save the pretty picture people for children's books. Your marketing department needs to put points on the board. We've come back from the future (ok, not literally) and these are the people we found in the best marketing departments.
MARKETING LEADER
Who They Are: This is the fearless leader of your marketing department. You know, the Director of Marketing, CMO, Marketing Manager, Hero of the Day or whatever your organization calls this person.
What They Do:Their job hasn't changed much, but to be a great marketing leader in the future you'll need to be crazy about your industry in addition to being crazy about marketing. Believe it or not, these days people that know nothing about tennis can still be the marketing leader of an organization in the tennis industry. Not so in the future. Here's why. Business across the board has never been so competitive. Many times, the difference between growing a business or not comes down to who wants it more. Especially in the marketing world where budgets continue to soar. Devising a unique, larger than life strategy to drive leads and sales is where the marketing leader makes their mark. It's getting harder and harder to do that without loving the product so much that you wear it on your pajamas.
MARKETING TECHNOLOGIST
Who They Are: The world is full of ways to describe people that are half-decent at marketing and above-average with computers. They don't have a degree or a whole lot of quantifiable experience to warrant their titles since the industry is relatively new. Think about it, you don't really need a degree or proof to call yourself a 'Digital Marketing Expert' so that means there's a lot of them. These people are the digital marketing doctor, lead magneto, content marketer, social media superhero or online marketer. Whatever you want to call them is up to you....you know who they are when you hear them vomit buzzwords or add you on LinkedIn.
What They Do:The digital world is evolving quickly. As businesses get smarter they'll expect more from their digital/tech-savvy resources in the marketing department. The modern day digital and social media 'specialist' will be vetted out for marketing technologists - people that have professional experience in IT as well as in marketing. Unlike the traditional 'online marketing guy/gal' these people have advanced academic degrees to go with their proven ability to generate leads and opportunities for a business - online or off. Further, in a previous life, they were an IT analyst or a developer before taking the plunge into marketing. They use their machete-like intellect to cut down even the toughest buzzwords and translate tech-talk into meaningful information. Most publicly traded companies already have a marketing technologist on staff primarily to make sure that the apps, tools and services marketing invests in gets utilized appropriately. Consider the Marketing Technologist as the catalyst between the unwanted, but totally-needed, arranged marriage of your IT and marketing departments.
STORYTELLER
Who They Are:The storyteller knows your business and can film, shoot (with a camera...not a gun), write, design and talk the language of your employees and your customers. They may get some direction on what stories to tell from the marketing technologist and the marketing director, but don't be mistaken. These people take the strategy down field. Depending on the size of your organization you may have several storytellers on your team (eg; a videographer/photographer, blogger or two etc;).
What They Do: Can you win business without publishing helpful content regularly? Sure. Just know that you'll lose a lot of business to your competitors that do. Most marketing departments are doubling-down and betting more money on tactics that build a following of visitors and users out of their website, blog, social media and other places. The problem is people don't care about you if all you're doing is bragging about how much business you've won or if all your content is press releases about you. They want to see you prove your expertise over time with meaningful solutions to problems and publishing those solutions on weekly intervals. That's why you need a storyteller.
OPPORTUNITY GENERATOR
Who They Are: Half publicist, half evangelist. The opportunity generator is primarily focused at getting your company and its information on the radar of the right people and in the right media outlets. This would be everything from connecting with other businesses in your industry to communicating with customers.
What They Do: The opportunity generator is the voice of your organization. They aren't afraid to get down and dirty and post on things like forums, Facebook groups and blogs so you stay top of mind among professionals in your industry. They'll troll comment sections respond to reviews, comment on related blog posts and keep your business front-of-mind. While the rest of your marketing department remains untouchable in an ivory-tower (or probably home office) somewhere, these people are out on the picket lines championing company efforts, moving your industry forward and chatting with customers, media and other stakeholders.
The Opportunity Generator also nominates your people for industry awards, guest blogs, interviews and quotes for news stories. All of this work is aimed at helping get the amazing stories your storytellers put together in the right hands and seen by the right people.
THE BUILDERS
Who They Are: This is your agency partner.
What They Do: Let's be honest, it's going to be impossible for your department to keep up with the rate at which technology changes. There is far too much technology in the world today for your department to keep up with. Nor should you! Marketing departments don't need to hire designers, coders or developers. Those are necessary skills your department needs to leverage, but they require a huge investment that isn't going to directly affect your bottom line. Instead, hire an agency that has the skills you need and keep them accountable to staying at the forefront of those technologies. Maybe it's an agency with a great background in Salesforce, maintaining Shopify stores or using Carcal to manage car deliveries for a car dealership. Your department is responsible for devising the strategy, providing the content, making sure it gets implemented properly and tracking performance. The agency you work with can assist with anything and everything else.
If your marketing department still spends a lot of time debating Comic Sans vs. Times New Roman or colors on a banner it's time for a change that you shouldn't need to go back to the future to see. This ebook shows how to rebuild your marketing department and hire a Marketing Technologist.