Marketing and technology are becoming more integrated every year. For instance, when looking into marketing automation solutions, are you vetting products and services from a purely marketing perspective? Of course not. You should also look at which solution provides the best fit for the existing tech infrastructure of your organization.
Knowing for instance, that a particular email service provider such as AWeber, MailChimp, or GetResponse will easily integrate with whichever CRM your team happens to be using is an important factor in choosing the ultimate solution.
Therefore, the best marketers know how to use technology to the fullest, in order to carry out the marketing objectives of their brand or organization in the most efficient and effective way possible.
And vise versa, the best technologists (the IT folks, programmers, app developers, etc.) know that marketing is a vital component of their design and development process.
So, where does that leave you? Are you on the marketing side or the technology side, or somewhere in the middle?
Stuck in the middle with you
If you are in the middle, this area is quickly turning out to be a very valuable place to be, both from a career perspective and from a business success perspective.
So, if you’re in the middle (like I am), congrats! You’re in for a wild ride as marketing technology takes a larger role in the months and years ahead.
Of course, as marketers, we have to put a name on everything we encounter. That’s where the title “Marketing Technologist” comes from. It is the best way we can describe someone with a diverse skill set that combines both marketing and technology expertise.
If you’re still unsure whether or not that title is a good fit for you and your skill set, here’s a list of 17 traits that can help you decide. If you can relate to most of these points, then you’re probably a marketing technologist whether you want to be or not.
Now, that doesn’t mean you have to go change your headline on your LinkedIn profile. It just means that you are someone who embraces the future of marketing, which will require a much greater appreciation and application of technology solutions than ever before. How exciting!
Okay, let’s get to the list.
You might be a marketing technologist if…
- You read numerous tech blogs (such as TechCrunch) on a regular basis
- Twitter is like a second home to you
- Someone has referred to you as a “growth hacker” on more than one occasion
- Analyzing Excel data comes naturally
- Going to the #INBOUND conference is almost as good as going on vacation
- You have your own website or blog
- The most exciting parts of the year include Apple’s WWDC and GoogleIO
- You download the latest social apps (like Meerkat) before any of your friends
- Conversion rate optimization keeps you up at night
- The home screen on your phone has the Buffer app on it
- The phrase “We just finished the UI on our MVP” makes sense to you
- You still use an RSS reader such as Feedly to keep up on marketing news
- You check Google Analytics just for fun
- Friends and coworkers ask you for help with their tech problems
- You’re not afraid to dig into the HTML source code of a web page
- The only thing better than a lead, is a lead with a lower CPA than last month
- You regularly use the word “cookie,” and it doesn’t refer to a yummy snack
Did you make the cut?
Which of these signs can you relate to?
Tweet me your favorites from the list above, or come up with some others that would be a good fit here. Who knows, I might use it in a future post (with credit to you of course).
Happy marketing!
