The rise of the hybrid marketer!_

Where it all started

Turn the clock back a few years and there were distinct roles within marketing. Specialist marketers and general marketers. As a specialist marketer, you’d pick an area such as brand and communications, events, or email and build your specific skill to become an expert in your filed. Alternatively, as a general marketer you would focus more on strategy, demonstrating your ability to oversee the bigger picture, creating the overall business plan.

The usual career path within the profession of marketing was to start with a specialism and then move on to strategy when you become more advanced in your career. As you worked your way up in your career and demonstrated your grasp of fundamental marketing principles, you could rely on your more specialist colleagues and their agencies to handle all the specific executional stuff and you’d oversee the whole marketing strategy.

Time for change

However, recently this has all changed. The rise in modern technology has meant that marketing departments, agencies and universities struggle to keep their training programs relevant in a market that changes so rapidly. This leaves many professionals unprepared to respond to a changing business environment.

Modern technology has transformed the way in which consumers shop and marketers communicate with them. Therefore with all this change within the industry there had to be an evolution within the role of the typical marketer. A new breed appeared, one with a skill set that’s broader, deeper and more adaptable to the new age. Enter the era of the hybrid marketer.

 

What is a hybrid marketer?

A hybrid marketer is one who sees it as part of their role to learn any new, emerging skill that might have relevance to achieving their career goals. They don’t stick to one specialism but instead choose to adapt, amend and continuously increase their skills ensuring they acquire a working knowledge of anything that could be relevant within their field of work.

As well as being highly proficient writers, they are can confidently perform across multiple disciplines, such as traditional, email, mobile, analytics, social networking, web, search and content. With each new marketing trend, hybrid marketers are adapting and expanding their skills to grow with the ever-changing market.

 “Hybrid professionals are trained to deliver services across search, mobile, social, content, analytics, web, PR, and email marketing. They provide integrated solutions that used to require multiple agencies and consultants.” — The Marketing Agency Blueprint

 

So how do you become a hybrid marketer?

1. Keep up to date on the latest trends and ensure you understand the importance of them within your role. Remember that mobile marketing and analytics are becoming increasingly important in the marketing world.
2. Research training and development run by your business or speak with members of those specialty teams. Take advantage of any chances to develop your skills within the work place.
3. Finally, there are hundreds of online classes and free tutorials that you can use to your advantage to increase your skills.