The Dawn of the Internet led to crazy leaps in how businesses marketed their offerings. Touted as a blessing, it’s safe to say that the Internet can be a confusing maze where businesses tend to get sucked into a rabbit hole, unsure of which platform to leverage, in order to scale their businesses. As Digital Marketing grew, it started to branch out into different forms sparking the birth of a new trend was born; A trend in which specialists in one specific area started offering their services to businesses pertaining to one specific area of their marketing efforts. This created a huge demand for such marketers. Today, we’re seeing this on a Macro level; from growth hackers to social media marketers to community managers. Businesses are investing heavily into hiring marketers with specific skill sets so as to leverage singular platforms on a scale like none before. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the different types of Marketers in huge demand and What they can Offer to your Business. 

1. Growth Hackers

Growth Hackers, as the term implies, are Marketers who use their creative thinking and specialist knowledge in the area of Growth to acquire and retain new customers for businesses. Anyone involved in the strategies behind the growth of a Product/Service can be called a “Growth Hacker”.

The term Growth Hacker or Growth Hacking was coined by Sean Ellis (CEO of GrowthHackers // Author of Hacking Growth) in 2010. As the years have gone by, Growth Hacking has slowly become essential for businesses of all kinds because of the fact that these professionals help scale a business with their knowledge.

Growth Hackers wear several different hats:

1. Leaders – Growth Hackers are involved in leadership roles e.g. creating a growth strategy for a startup
2. Analysts – They rely on Analytical Tools and Data to make decisions and formulate new strategies or improve existing ones
3. Creatives – They need to have a Creative Vision in order to prepare and implement strategies that connect and engage their target customers
4. Testers – Growth Hackers heavily split-test different strategies and use them to make informed decisions for the growth of a company 

Growth Hacking isn’t a direct branch of Digital Marketing but many of the processes and strategies implemented are similar to Marketing strategies that businesses deploy.  By hiring Growth Hackers, your business is getting someone who specializes in scaling growth and is apt at implementing tactics that will drive more revenue to your business and increase its online landscape. Growth Hackers will bridge the gap between your Marketing and Business needs allowing you to seize new opportunities to grow your brand.

2. Social Media Marketers

Social Media Marketers are responsible for a Brand’s social media strategy. Whether that is the sharing of educating, engaging and entertaining content for the intended audience or community building, this breed of marketers is responsible for representing a brand in front of the public, setting up an interesting personality that connects, and sharing relevant content. 

Through these strategies, Social Media Marketers aim to increase a Brand’s online presence and drive traffic, hence increasing sales. Most of the business taking place happens on the Internet since that’s the place your audience likes to hang out. Most of the time, they will be spending time on their favourite Social Platforms engaging with content, chatting with friends, etc. 

Social Media Marketers identify this target audience that resonates with your brand the most, prepare a content strategy to get this audience interested in what you’re offering, and using their community-building skills, they convert them into loyal customers for your business. Social Media Marketers don’t just stop there, however. They go deep into the Analytics’ side of things and constantly strive to improve their strategies so your business can benefit the most from having that Online Presence. 

As of 2020, over 420 Billion people are active on Social Media while 54% of social browsers use Social Media to research products. You might be having ideas after seeing those numbers. That’s a good thing, but remember, a Bad Social Media Strategy will give you no relief even with these enticing numbers. So, your business needs to hire competent marketers who understand the Ins and Outs of these platforms, and the know-how to utilize them to drive traffic and sales to your business. 

3. Media Buyers

Media Buyers are particularly good at running Advertisements that reach your Target Audience and Convert, but, by spending the least amount of money possible. Media Buying happens both traditionally i.e. on TV, Radio and Print Media and Digitally i.e. on Social Media, Google, etc. 

But why does your Business need a Media Buyer? 

The truth is Organic Growth is harder than ever and platforms favour Ads more than they do organic results. You can achieve significant exposure by running effective ads much quicker than by organic efforts like SEO. Media Buyers will make sure your business gets seen online by as many people as possible and will work on creating Ads that aim to convert as many of those people as possible. 

Media Buyers rely on Analytical Tools a lot to streamline their process and make sure that flaws in the strategy are identified in time and corrected to make sure your business doesn’t have any shortcomings when marketing online. The beauty of this is that you don’t need thousands of dollars to run ads. It can be as low as $50 per week and with the right parameters set, you’ll be reaching your target audience and getting sales in no time. 

According to eMarketer, Ads on Facebook contribute to over 80% of referrals to eCommerce websites while 92% of Social Media Marketers use the platforms to run Advertisements.  Media Buying has become more of a Storytelling process these days with marketers aiming to provide their target audience with meaningful content inside the Ads they’re paying for. This tends to leave a more lasting impression on Customers and has a higher rate of conversion when compared to Ads that are straight-up Promotional and Spammy. 

4. Content Marketers

A Content Marketer is responsible for the creation and distribution of content that is relevant to your Business’ offering i.e. the product/service. Through building long-term relationships, Content Marketers help nurture these leads with the hope of converting them into paying customers and making sure Customer Retention is focused upon. 

Content Marketers have mastery over several different disciplines:

1. SEO –  Content Marketers deploy SEO Strategies for a Brand’s online presence. This strategy not only involves the creation of content like blogs but also looks at the content long-term using tactics like Link-Building, etc. 
2. Copywriter – A great Content Marketer is a great Copywriter. Copywriting has a lot of Storytelling elements and these marketers need these creative elements when creating content that converts. 
3. Leadership – Content Marketers are responsible for implementing new strategies and have complete control over that side of things. In this sense, they’re really thrust into a position of great power and decision making. And if they’re competent enough, they can do wonders for your Business.
4. Social Media – Content is King and Social Media Platforms are its Domain. A good Content Marketer will understand the benefits of Social Media and how best to utilize it to distribute content and establish a brand presence. 
5. Writing – We’ve talked about how important Copywriting is as a skill for Content Marketers, but we also need to stress the importance of writing as a whole. This includes writing Blogs, Product Descriptions, Captions for Content on Social Media. Basically, Content Marketers need to be able to Storytell with the pieces of content they create for a brand. 

By hiring a Quality Content Marketer, your business will be making the right investment towards driving traffic, customer retention, relationship building and a firm online presence. 

According to Content Marketing Institute, 92% of B2B Marketers use Content Marketing to reach new customers. The stat for B2C is a whopping 86%. 

72% of these marketers believe that Content Marketing increases both Engagement and the Number of Leads. Looking at these numbers and the overall picture, it’s safe to say EVERY business including Yours needs a Good Content Marketing Strategy and for that, you will need to hire Content Marketers. Doing so will open up a world of endless opportunities. All of your Marketing efforts will receive a significant boost whether that’s SEO or Social Media, etc. 

Can Full-Stack Marketers become the Latest Addition to the Team? 

The Newest Entrant to the world of Marketing is a Full-Stack Marketer. <link back to the full-stack article). A Full-Stack Marketer has knowledge of four Key Areas:

1. SEO
2. Social Media
3. Remarketing
4. Advertising

The recent turbulence caused by the pandemic has accelerated the rise of Full-Stack Marketing. Let’s be honest. Not all businesses have the budget to hire specialists in all the areas of Digital Marketing. This is where a Full-Stack Marketer becomes a necessity, especially for Small to Medium-sized Businesses. You won’t need to spend thousands of dollars into hiring a full marketing team with specialists, you just need to hire one Full-Stack Marketer. These professionals will significantly improve the main areas of your marketing. They will boost your SEO efforts, create a concrete online presence (Social Media), set up Advertisements to target your audience (Advertising) as well as target customers who previously interacted with your brand. (Remarketing) 

By hiring them, your business will be able to cut costs significantly and invest them in other crucial areas whether that is the launch of a new product, or a new marketing avenue, or a brick and mortar store that you’ve been planning to open. Full-Stack Marketers will implement strategies that will grow your brand but make sure that your limited resources aren’t strained. 

How can your Business make the Correct Decision? 

The type of marketer you hire will depend primarily on your Business Goals and also the size of your Business. If you’re a young startup looking to scale itself, a growth hacker will be best. If you’re a business looking to create a strong social media presence and drive new traffic, a Social Media Marketer or Media Buyer would be best suited. If you’re a business that has a limited budget and cannot hire a full team of specialists, a Full-Stack Marketer would be the preferred option. 

When hiring, make sure to assess your Goals carefully and hire someone who is fully on board with those goals and understands the long-term picture.