There’s been quite a bit of talk lately on whether it’s better as a marketing professional to be a generalist, able to understand how to develop program strategy and APPLY a wide variety of tactics. Or is it better to be a deep specialist, someone who understand the nuances of fast-changing new fields such as search engine optimization or social media? I recently attended a PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) program where one of the speakers talked of the importance she placed on the generalist philosophy, how her staff members had to be conversant in all the various areas of marketing one can apply to impact brand and lead response.
But I wonder. Social media in particular is so fast-moving, so prone to change, and so deep in its complexity, that it’s impossible for someone to carry the same level of expertise in Wikipedia strategy as they might offer in building engaging customer web experiences. As an agency, our role has to be in understanding the very latest in “best practices.” Then, the question becomes, how do we deliver this level of best-in-class performance? A team of generalists isn’t equipped to do so. There’s too much change to keep pace as a generalist.
I had a similar conversation with a young professional, a few years out of school, who asked whether it was better for her career to focus on PR, or to broaden her experience to include the wider variety of marketing programs. If I were thinking of my career just starting out, I’d look to become a marketing strategist able to apply the full spectrum of disciplines in ways that impact brand, preference and lead generation. I think those are the people who will have the most value to any organization.
The fact is, there’s never been a time when so much marketing technology was available to create customer engagement. Our jobs have changed dramatically just in the past 12 months, as the Great Recession has brought about a total re-thinking in how companies go to market and build presence and generate leads.
We’ve changed our thinking a bit at the agency during the past few years, because frankly we have to offer BOTH strategists and specialists with deep expertise. We’ve concluded that it’s impossible for a single individual to offer deep knowledge of the varied levels of new technology. How can someone with particular expertise in managing paid search programs and deliver impressive metrics know just as much about getting 1000 fans on Facebook within 6 months, and how to leverage that Facebook following into marketing advantage? Yet, our clients depend on us to offer this deep expertise, this best-in-class level of service. How do we provide both, then?
We’ve taken a page from companies that use an inside-outside sales team approach, where an inside salesperson with particular support skills are effectively coupled with outside salespeople who have a different set of skills. We’ve begun to use, with great success, the strategist-plus-specialist approach. Our internal account manager teams have broad knowledge for how to build a program, what metrics are relevant, when to use direct mail vs. a trade show strategy, etc. Then, as we move into implementation, we call in our deep specialists off the bench, some on staff, some even outside specialists, who live and breathe their daily fields of expertise. Cyndi Friedel, for instance, spends all her time thinking about email and paid search programs. Jeff Spencer has been our creative guru for the past two years who consistently creates branding programs that leave clients saying, “Wow!” Keith Mayer brings the very latest ideas in search engine implementation that have proven so critical for our clients lead generation success. Jamie Ginsburg brings a client a wealth of experience in social media from a business-to-business perspective.
We’re still a have-it-all society, and providing marketing services is no different. The tools have changed, and they’ve certainly become more varied and complex. But the bottom-line measure of success is still the ROI found at the bottom line. And that means applying the right marketing strategy, and doing it with unparalleled expertise in every discipline.
