Marketing has probably changed more in the last 20 years than it did in the 80 years before that.
So, the changes are all done, right? Now that we’ve learned what we need to know, we can just relax, right?
If you think recent changes have been massive, hang on to your feed reader because the pace of change is just accelerating.
Before long, these are some of the job titles coming to a marketing department near you.
Mobile Marketer
In the last decade, websites have grown infinitely more complex. Not only do consumers demand visually stunning and intuitive sites, but they want them on their smart phones now as well. Your customers are walking around with some of the most impressive and powerful computers on the market jammed into their pockets and a good mobile marketer can make that work for you.
Balancing pay-per-click ads with content and design made with touch-screen phones as a template means that specialized mobile marketers will be positively invaluable.
Content Librarian
More and more communication strings are appearing solely in digital form. File cabinets are now icons on a desktop and companies are experiencing a growing need to be able to archive and readily access old tweets, years of emails, and digital newsletters.
Just as tax paperwork requires space in the file room, digital content will be amassed on servers and networks that require a specific type of maintenance, monitored by a growing class of content librarians who understand that storing digital files is easy. Extracting meaning from those files is the difficult part. The Marketing Librarian will be able to find meaning in the mess.
Community Executive
The internet has expanded the modern idea of community. A mere two decades ago, companies could focus community outreach programs to within just a few miles from their headquarters and keep a solid grip on their community's support and goodwill.
With the customer range expanding outward and websites allowing for national and global reach, even for small businesses, the idea of community has altered tremendously. We’ve seen the rise of Community Managers, but they report just to marketing executives.
As the job expands, there will be a need for Community Executives -- people to manage the managers. As with so many marketing jobs, these jobs will be primarily based in analytics and actionable insights.
Social Media Engineer
Social media is a constantly moving target and gone are the days of one person in the marketing department handling the blog, the company newsletter, the ad campaigns, and keeping an eyeball on the Facebook page. With trends constantly ebbing and flowing, more companies are dedicating anywhere from one staff member to an entire team to keep track of it.
Consumers are more verbal than ever, tucked safely behind their computer keyboards, and it is important to be able to monitor their feelings toward your company or product on the "Twittersphere" and Facebook. From hashtags to internet memes, a social media engineer will be able to create reports with a finger on the pulse of your market.
As the digital generation ages, more social media engineers will enter the field. The University of Florida now offers a degree program in Social Media if that is any indicator of the massively important role social media plays in modern business.
Gesture Writer
It might seem hard to believe, but it won't be long before the keyboard and mouse are things of the past. For a company looking to develop their mobile marketing presence, writing an app is one of the first steps in creating a successful campaign.
Integral to this is a gesture writer -- an employee who can create the touch interfaces your customers will use while operating and interacting with your company's app. Users demand a constant inflow of new and entertaining apps, and a gesture writer can help develop a marketing product that both entertains and cultivates the customer relationship.
The popular Dolphin browser, which is primarily a mobile browser for Android phones, has already started to provide its users with a way to access their favorite sites with gestures. You can be sure to see even more of this in the coming months or years. That means there will need to be even more people to work on making this type of technology even better than it already is.
Analytics Adviser
Every interaction on social media, every engagement on an app, and every view of a post creates data. Where and what your customer clicks can be used to paint a picture of the customer experience. That data can be collected, analyzed, and applied to new marketing strategies.
An analytics adviser not only comes equipped with the knowledge to report your customer interactions but can interpret that information and translate into richer, more profit-driven interfaces for positive market influence.
Digital Ad Manager
Print and TV ads dominated marketing success for a long time, but no longer. With the internet consuming time and energies, a different breed of creative must be employed to conquer the world of digital ads.
Beyond just the capability of designing banners, rotators, and video burst ads, a digital ad manager can more readily navigate the web to find out where best to purchase page space to reach the most viable customer set. Digital ad managers work closely with analytics to gauge customer interaction and act accordingly.
Manager of Engagement
In recent months, the word engagement has been a center of focus when it comes to blogging and social media. Just as customers want to have excellent communication with the staff and managers of a brick and mortar establishment, they also want to communicate with businesses online.
In fact, the more engagement, the better. Most SEO experts agree that engaging with your customers is vital to the success of your business, so it makes sense to hire someone to oversee that area of your Internet presence.
Meme Manager
When you're browsing Facebook, which types of posts usually catch your eye the most? Most people would say memes, and it's not surprising that so many businesses have started to catch onto this trend for their own advertising needs.
As social networks like Pinterest and Instagram continue to be successful, memes are going to become an even more valuable marketing method. You can expect to see the job title Meme Manager soon enough, and this will be the one person at work who will be looking at pictures of cats while on the clock.
Simplicity Engineer
With all of these technological advances, you can be sure that you'll need someone who knows how to bring it all together to create a simplified version of marketing that works. Never fear: leave all of that to the Director of Simplicity. This person will not only tie up any loose ends, but she will be an expert in seamless marketing tactics that bring a unique harmony to that particular business.
Right now, this job falls to another relatively new title, the User Interface Engineer, but that person is generally responsible for what appears within a web page. The Simplicity Engineer will be an extra person looking at the user interface, as well as the entire process from the customer’s point of view, making sure that things like return shipping are as seamless as possible.
By Scott Yates
