You may think the question completely irrelevant, but the fact is that many potential employers are now asking, “what qualifies you to work in digital marketing?”
Although online has been around for sometime, the digital marketing professional, as we know them today, is a relatively new beast. Part uber geek, part ultimate marketer, these are the people bringing creative, content and branding to us with technology led solutions. So where have these people come from, and what gives them the right to call themselves digital marketers?
For my own part I started studying design before the days of the Internet. I followed many of my peers into the early days of web design, and ultimately, some years later, got an MSc degree in information systems. That knowledge allowed me to understand the databases, programming languages and usability that went into building successful eCommerce solutions. It enabled me to look objectively at digital solutions, to see past the cool designs and answer the pertinent question: “Is the solution fit to deliver it’s intended payload?”
I have interviewed people for digital jobs in Japan, Singapore and the U.K. this year and feel I have seen a good cross section of people looking for digital roles. These digital professionals have fallen broadly into two camps:
Uber Geek
The uber geek has spent way too many nights in his/her bedroom hacking away at code, building websites and perhaps even apps. They only really come to life when you start talking about the jackrabbit content repository behind the enterprise level CMS and the bag of restful web services you can call into play to serve up content to your latest app.
I love uber geeks and there are many occasions when I would be happy to consider myself one.
Ultimate Marketer
The ultimate marketer has served at the frontline: hacking email templates, haggling display costs and stressing out the night before a big event. They may well be CIPD qualified and know and accept the time honoured marketing team hierarchy. They could have been “the one” team member who could actually make sense of the web analytics report, or the person who worked with the agency to build the new website. Either way, they have tasted the good (digital) life and want more.
The ultimate marketer is the foundation of our industry and I feel as closely affiliated to them as I do to the uber geek.
More alarmingly, There also seems to be an increasing number of people who have a passion for facebook who feel that qualifies them as social media experts and grants them membership to the digital camp.
Digital Marketer
For me, the ideal candidate is an integrated marketing professional without boarders or distinctions. It is essential they understand the full marketing mix and appreciate that digital is just one aspect of that.
On the technical front they should be able to hold their own with web developers, but not necessarily be one themselves. They need to be able to cut through sales talk and see the values of a solution (CMS, SEO, PPC, Social, Email, etc.), both for the technical and marketing benefits it will bring.
They must be completely at home working in digital and should be able to prove this with reference to both work achievements and a personal online presence. But most importantly they should appreciate that as marketers we bring value to a business by communicating with relevant people in an appropriate manner, and not by broadcasting on the cool channel of the day.
I have yet to meet anyone qualified (in the academic sense), to be a digital marketer. However, what is exciting it that I am seeing more blended candidates. Primarily mainstream marketers who are smart and savvy and have assimilated the skills required for digital life.
Marketing has changed for the better but we have been slow to keep pace with the skills required to leverage this to our advantage. I don’t see the future as being split between online and offline, I see it as one entity with content as king. It’s the message that’s critical, get that right and everything else should fall into place.