Hire the Marketing Professional That’s Right for You
TLDR: Top 3 Takeaways from this Post:
Businesses that invest in marketing during econonic downturns come back stronger.
You should understand the distinctions between marketing approaches before you make your hire or investment.
Small and mid-sized businesses benefit most from marketing generalists while larger businesses can invest in multiple marketing specialists.
Effective Businesses Invest in Marketing.
Invest in marketing if you want to win the battle for customers. Companies that invest in their marketing programs, especially when the economy is pushing back on growth, consistently outperform companies that cut or delay their marketing programs.
Marketing is the dynamic heartbeat of a successful venture, and a diverse set of marketing roles shapes a business’s identity, champions its products and services, and forges meaningful connections with its audience. In this post, I’ll dive into the high-impact world of marketing roles, shedding light on the distinct responsibilities and profound impact of each type of marketer.
I particularly want you to read this if you are on the hunt for a marketer or contemplating a new marketing role to supercharge growth. In a perfect world, all facets of the marketing spectrum would be woven into your business strategy. But if you are growing your marketing team and just getting started, you may want to consider a strong generalist who can cover lots of marketing territory as you prepare to scale up your dream team.
Hire the Marketing Professional That’s Right for You
So, whether you are choosing a consultant, hiring in your first FTE marketer, or expanding your team, understand these distinctions to make the right investment.
Brand Marketer. The Guardian of Your Brands’ Promise.
Brand marketers are the custodians of a brand's identity. We define and maintain the brand's personality, values, and messaging. We work to create a strong and consistent brand image. Brand marketers develop brand strategies, manage brand campaigns, and ensure brand consistency across all touchpoints.
Brand marketing touches many other aspects of the business, such as internal communications, employee onboarding, and content marketing.
When you think of the brands you love (or hate, tbh), you are recognizing the work of brand marketers.
Brand marketing success can be measured by branded search volume, trends in customer survey responses, social media engagement and brand mentions, and customer loyalty.
Product Marketer. Turning Ideas into Reality
Product marketers bridge the gap between product development and customer acquisition. They are responsible for bringing products to market successfully. They focus their time and energy on data-informed activities like conducting/assessing market research, defining target audiences, creating product messaging, and collaborating with other teams to launch products.
Product Managers. Product managers are responsible for the product lifecycle, from ideation to launch and maintenance. They serve the business by defining product features, prioritizing development tasks, and ensuring the product aligns with market needs.
Product marketing success can be measured by tracking leads, revenue, conversion, engagement, and web traffic.
Communications (aka Public Relations/PR). Crafting Stories that Resonate.
Communications marketers are storytellers. We manage a brand's public image, handle crisis communication , and build positive relationships with the media. Often, the communications team will also take part in internal communications, managing messaging and content for team members and vendors.
Communications pros may also handle influencer marketing, which involves engaging with industry leaders and influencers to promote products or services. They identify and partner with the right people, manage those relationships, and track impact on the business.
Communications professionals spend time writing press releases, managing media outreach, crisis management, and crafting a brand's narrative.
You can measure the effectiveness of PR and Communications by tracking how much press is generated, social media reach and engagement, media mentions of your brand or product, click throughs, and share of voice.
Digital Marketer. Navigators of the Digital Frontier.
Honestly, all marketing is digital these days. In fact, 63% of businesses have increased their digital marketing budgets in the past year and 72% of overall marketing budgets are put towards digital marketing channels. Digital marketers leverage online channels like websites, platforms, and applications to engage with a target audience. We play a vital role in driving web traffic and conversions. Digital marketers are “pipeline” marketers, using the spectrum of digital channels to move target customers closer to a conversion or sale. When you think of lead generation, look to digital marketers.
Digital marketers spend time focusing on website and SEO optimization, social media management, email marketing, and paid advertising campaigns.
Digital marketing success can be measured by tracking traffic (all and channel mix), leads generated, engagement (rate, bounce rate, pages per session), conversion (conversion rate, click through rate, and cost per conversion), and revenue (marketing cost and ROI).
Content Marketer. Curators of Captivating Narratives:
82% of marketers actively use content marketing. Content marketers create valuable and engaging content to attract, inform, and engage the target audience. “Content” covers a lot of territory, and includes written content like blogs and e-books, videos, and infographics. Content marketing involves translating the brand position and story into valuable content that customers will use and remember.
Content marketers focus our time on blogging, producing/editing videos, creating editorial calendars, and lots of writing.
Content marketing is measured by tracking traffic to the content, conversions, engaged time, keyword ranking, content shares and backlinks, email opt-in rates, social shares, engagement, and downloads.
In Pursuit of Marketing Harmony and Business Success: Tailoring Your Team
In an ideal world, your business can benefit from all aspects of the marketing spectrum. Hiring a generalist with broad experience who can deliver a spectrum of results may be the right move for a small or mid-sized business, while a larger corporation can meet its needs with a team of specialists.
Each marketing role is distinct and interconnected, contributing to the overall success of a brand's marketing efforts. Depending on the organization's size and structure, these roles may be separate positions or overlap in responsibilities. Understanding different marketing roles and their unique contributions can help you assemble the right team to drive your marketing initiatives, leading to success in the ever-evolving business landscape.
