by Kristen | June 25, 2009
Earlier this week Chad White, the Research Director at Smith-Harmon, wrote about the changing roles of direct marketers. He observed that a convergence of factors including a decrease in direct mail, increase in direct e-mail and rise in social media practices are making direct mail veterans irrelevant. White argued that online marketing and social media demands a very different skill-set than old-school direct mail does.
White missed one more important force that’s at play: the emergence of marketing technology that integrates all of these channels for retailers. This technology is well on its way to increasing customer engagement and sales more efficiently and affordably than a marketing middle-man. And it has the numbers to prove it: new technologies prize robust data tracking and analysis.
All of these advances pose a threat to many marketers’ job security, but they also present an opportunity.
Veteran marketers do not have to be replaced by 23 year-old social media mavens or by do-it-yourself tools like Google Adwords and Dukky’s pay-per-placement program. They do have to smarten up about social media practices, emerging technologies, and the merging of marketing channels. Perhaps most importantly, marketers have to embrace methods for measuring and analyzing success across silos. Current online tools make accountability a necessity. Developments like Microsoft’s new marketing campaign management platform promise to bring the measurement game to a whole new level.
By becoming an expert on these new tools and finding ways to incorporate them into their marketing mix, marketers will stay relevant and employed. By helping their customers navigate the changing media landscape, marketers will become invaluable. The fate of their careers is not inextricably linked to the macro trends of the marketing industry – but it could benefit from them.
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