Why Your Business Needs One of the New Breed of Internet Marketing Masters The rapid evolution of online marketing tools and strategies demands a generalist with a broad range of skills.
By Pratik Dholakiya Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Businesses using online marketing to increase brand footprint will agree when I say it's not easy keeping up with its rapid evolution. While there is no doubt Internet marketing is a great way to generate brand awareness, it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep pace with the changes happening in this domain. New skill sets have to be learned and at times existing knowledge has to be thrown out of the window.
So, how do you ensure your business's web-based marketing campaign comes along fine, in spite of all these changes taking place? The answer lies in hiring people whose expertise allows them to keep up with the rapid evolution of online marketing and implement the necessary changes for business benefit.
Traditionally, the business's online marketing campaign was led by SEOs. Gradually, pay-per-click (PPC) experts were added to bolster the campaign.
But the world of marketing was changing. Social media and content have now become the major drivers of a successful Internet marketing campaign.
Related: 7 Advanced Ways to Improve Your Site's SEO
This has led to the emergence of content marketers and social media marketers with core expertise in leveraging content and social media to market a business and its products and services.
But, apart from marketers who've mission critical proficiency and experience in SEO, PPC, social media or content, we are seeing the rise of a new breed of marketers - The "Jack-of-All' marketers. They are SEOs, content strategists, social media marketers all rolled into one. They are like a one-stop-online marketing shop.
These "Jack-of-All-Marketers' are the future of marketing. Here are a few reasons why you need to get such marketers on board.
Convergence of marketing tactics.
Marketing strategies like SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, etc. do not exist in a vacuum, they are interlinked with one another. Take, for example, the case of SEO. It needs to walk in-step with a brand's content marketing efforts. While SEO is primarily used to build high quality links, content marketing is used to build enduring relationships with customers. But, Google loves quality content. It expects businesses to consistently publish high quality content, which will be rewarded with high rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). Great content published on high authority blogs helps create a high authority link juice, which is absolutely crucial for ranking on SERPs.
What's more, content marketing precedes a social media marketing strategy. You publish content, which is then shared across social media channels. You then engage with your customers on social media through this content.
Related: SEO vs. PPC: Knowing Which Is Right for Your Website
Every marketing tactic is related to one another and the success of one is dependent on success of another. This requires seamless collaboration between social media marketers, content marketers and SEOs. A misstep taken by one marketing department can lead to the tragic unraveling of your marketing campaign.
A person with expertise in all three arms of online marketing, namely SEO, content and social media can implement a more precisely coordinated marketing campaign. Depending on the size of your business, you could have a team of "Jack-of-All's' who are in charge of your business's web-based marketing strategy.
Reducing marketing overheads.
Although its impact is still hard to measure, businesses are spending more on social media. Content marketing budgets will also go up in 2015. As a business, you might or might not be able to afford this budgetary increase, but if you don't give a leg up to your online marketing spend you might find your business floundering.
But, there is a way of controlling your overheads. The answer lies in cutting down on the number of personnel handling your online marketing campaign. Working with Jack-of-all internet marketers will bring down your marketing budget. No, I am not for one moment implying that their expertise is available for cheap. On the contrary, such marketers demand, and deserve, excellent pay. But, think of it in terms of cutting down on the size of your marketing team and deriving maximum value out of a compact, flexible team that understands its job perfectly.
The Jack-of-All Internet Marketer is here to stay. Very soon, you might find people who are just SEOs, social media experts or content marketers are hard to come by. Even individuals who started off as SEOs and have built up a truckload of expertise over the years, are trying to add social media and content skills to their repertoire.
Internet marketing is a mix of diverse strategies and skills. As a natural consequence, only individuals with a potent mix of strategic skills sets can optimize its use for marketing a business.
Related: 50 Favorite Online-Marketing Influencers of 2014
