Most Important Marketing Specialties in 2015

Two weeks ago we posted about the advantages of being a marketing generalist or specialist. But what specialties are we talking about?

That question was asked of me. And now I want to answer it.

In my opinion, these are the five most important specialties any marketer could have in 2015:

1. Web Design/Development – marketers need to have more technical skills these days than they did in the past. So much of what we want to do requires technical support. But it’s not always easy to get the support you need. So when it comes to basic HTML and CSS at a minimum, marketers can get a lot more done if they know how to do some light development work themselves.


2. Content Development – I almost wrote writer, but it’s more than just that. A good content developer from a marketing point of view is someone who can create any kind of content for a company, from start to finish. This includes creating strategy, identifying themes, coordinating with stakeholders, prioritizing, project managing, and writing. And it doesn’t stop with a finished piece of content. The content developer should be leading the promotion of the content as well.


3. Social Media/Community Manager – view the community as the entirety of people who interact with you online, including any and all social media sites, your own forum or website community, email subscribers, etc. Managing the community involves answering questions, creating content, getting feedback, and organizing people in such a way that they become a force for growth within your company. A good social media specialist can turn a company that uses social media because they “have to” to a company that relies on social media for real growth.


4. Data Analyst – the marketing analyst is someone that can look at data and derive answers from it that will impact the business in a positive. They should be able to determine what data they need to answer a question or solve a problem, go about getting that data, and poring through it to find answers. And once they have answers, they need to sell it to the rest of the team in a way that provides actionable steps. Data is out there to be had and more and more companies are using it to change the nature of their business and marketing processes.


5. Optimization Specialist – most companies rely on their websites more today than ever before. And the functionality of your website needs to be perfect. An optimization specialist is someone that is able to identify key elements of a website that can be improved through testing. They can prioritize, devise experiments, look at the results, and sell the winning formula to the marketing team. An optimization specialist has one job, to improve the conversion rate of the website.

Did I miss any? Share your top marketing specialties for 2015 in the comments below.

Most Important Marketing Specialties in 2015