The world of digital marketing has been going through a dramatic change and this is having a significant effect on marketing job titles. As companies are compelled to adapt to the current situation, they are moving from a business model based on in-person business meetings to a hybrid or fully remote mode. However, it seems that the change started even before the pandemic hit. In a 2021 survey among nearly 10,000 marketers from around the world, 48% said their digital engagement and workplace strategy went through a complete transformation before the onset of COVID-19. 

Digital marketing trends to keep in mind in 2022

The following digital marketing trends are currently shaping marketing fields and business strategies: 

• Content is king. Content marketing still reigns supreme, with HubSpot naming creating content as the number one function that companies will be hiring for in 2022.
• Account-based marketing (ABM). ABM is a focused approach to marketing whereby sales and marketing teams usually work together to conduct market research, identify strategic and high-value target audiences and accounts, reach out to them, nurture them and turn them into customers. This proven method, when done right, can help companies significantly increase their ROI.
• Product-led marketing. In today’s competitive market, it’s no longer enough to only focus on content or social media marketing to bring in leads. While this is still an important part of the puzzle, another approach to marketing is also emerging. According to this approach, the actual experience customers have with your product or service, and the references and the customer reviews you receive should be a critical component of your marketing strategy. 
• Influencer marketing. Working with social media influencers is an extremely beneficial way for companies to promote their products. Studies have shown that potential customers trust the influencers they follow, so much so that 49% of customers have been persuaded by influencer recommendations. Even B2B companies are now encouraged to use social influencers to their advantage in the same way companies like Adobe, GE, and PWC have.
• Marketing automation. Using marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot to automate repetitive tasks including email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns can help companies to better utilize its time as well as connect on a more personal level with its customers.
• Video marketing. Video marketing has the potential to increase brand awareness, go viral, and attract potential customers through social media channels. It’s so important that Cisco’s Visual Networking Index report reported that in 2022, video will account for 82% of all internet traffic. This explains why social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Pinterest are continuously working to improve their video marketing features. 
• Growth hacking and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A combined skill set that can help companies scale while challenging the Google Algorithm. The Google Algorithm, though constantly changing and being updated by Google, assesses each page’s content to ensure it correlates with the searcher’s intent. Each different attribute receives an assigned value that is added up to determine whether the page has provided the reader with necessary information. According to this assessment, websites are either ranked higher or lower. By incorporating SEO, companies can improve their ranking.
• Creating communities. Branded customer communities that are separate from a brand’s public social media accounts create a safe space for customers to engage with the brand as well as with one another. They are so beneficial to companies that studies have shown 2 out of 3 community members are loyal to the brand. They can also reduce a brand’s support costs, and increase awareness. As a result, companies today should be more interested than ever before in what their community of potential users or customers has to say. 

Changes to different job titles in marketing

These shifts in marketing trends are also making their mark on the way we define marketing roles and positions. Traditionally, the title and scope for a specific position was very clear, making it easier for employers and recruiters to hire and differentiate between different job responsibilities. 

However, it appears these rigid boundaries between departments and positions have not stood the test of time. The shifts and trends mentioned above have blurred these responsibilities, as well as the expectations that managers have for their employees, causing several companies to eliminate job titles and rigid hierarchies. This has led to a reverse process where employers and recruiters first need to define what responsibilities they need potential candidates to take on and what skills they are looking for before they define the correlating title for that position. 

Even back in 2018, Fingerpaint founder Ed Mitzen couldn’t help but notice that traditional marketing agencies have too many individuals with the same corporate title, such as VP of X or VP of Y.  “Clients have absolutely no clue what all these titles mean,” he told CNN. As we continue to see a rise in the world of technology and marketing, with more jobs being automated and some becoming outdated and redundant, companies will have no choice but to change their job titles. 

Ongoing changes to marketing job titles and responsibilities

It’s enough to look at terms like “growth marketing” versus “digital marketing” on Google Trends to see how the latter has reached new peaks in recent years with LinkedIn even naming the title of Digital Marketing Specialist as its most in-demand occupation. That said, while the title of Growth Marketing Manager may not have made it to the prestigious LinkedIn list when equipped with the right skill set, growth marketing managers have the ability to drive top search results by using sophisticated strategies, user-focused content, and A/B testing to crack the Google Algorithm and ensure companies benefit from a strong online presence. On the other hand, marketing job titles like “Growth Hacker”, which used to be extremely sought after back in 2017, have steadily become less popular. 

In some cases, the title may have stayed the same, but the responsibilities have changed or expanded. For example, if the title of “blogger” or “blog post writer” used to cover the requirements of a content specialist, today’s companies are looking for more brand-oriented skills, social media expertise, and technical abilities to complement writing skills. The role of Director of Social Marketing or Social Media Manager has also become a popular title in the marketing world since in addition to looking for a solution on Google, potential customers are now also getting their information from social channels. 

Other marketing job titles such as Event Marketing Manager have also been going through a dramatic change. Prior to the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, event managers were mainly responsible for organizing in-person events and taking care of everything related to events their companies were participating in. However, with the transition to virtual events, they took on a different set of responsibilities, including online participation in events, organizing webinars, and more.  

Trending and increasingly popular newer job titles

Among the positions that are relatively new and are increasingly in high demand in recent years, is the role of Community Manager, who is tasked with managing a social media community; the Paid Advertising Manager who is in charge of running the company’s PPC and paid social campaigns; and the SEO Manager, who has also become a must-have in any digital marketing agency or company. Another relatively new position in B2B marketing is the Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Manager, whose job it is to lead ABM programs that define and target specific customer sets and accounts and nurture them into customers. 

Other trending titles that are becoming increasingly more popular include:

• Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), a c-level marketing manager who is responsible for a company’s marketing team and activities.
• VP of Marketing, a marketing expert who usually works alongside the CMO or heads up marketing in smaller companies without a CMO.
• Director of Communications, who creates and manages communication briefs and strategies.
• Director of Content, a relatively new title that refers to a content expert who is responsible for all things content in marketing campaigns, a field that, according to experts, is here to stay for at least the next five years. 
• Director of Outbound Marketing, who pushes messaging out to potential customers and drives outbound results in order to make conversions for the company.
• Director of Inbound Marketing, who creates an end-to-end strategy focused on content creation as a way to attract and engage with potential customers, nurture them into sales-qualified leads, and build lasting relationships with them. 
• Head or Director of Product Marketing or Product Marketing Manager, who connects between development or product and marketing teams and is responsible for communicating the benefits of products to potential customers and customers.
• Specialist or Director of Conversion Rate Optimization, who’s responsible for lead generation and optimization.
• Marketing Operations Manager, who sees to it that campaigns and projects run smoothly on automation platforms such as HubSpot.
• Demand Generation Manager, a somewhat recent position that has been introduced to the marketing world, has to specialize in SEO, PPC, and SEM, in order for them to successfully oversee the many tactics used to develop and cultivate long-term customer relationships.

As most of these positions require a variety of skills, companies looking to hire for them often find it challenging to find the right fit. We can see an example of this in the title of Director of Product Marketing, which is defined differently in almost any job description. If you do a search for this term, you will get a lot of contradictory resources, and this makes it hard to both apply for and fill this position. Another example is a CMO versus a VP or Director of Marketing. In most cases, these positions include similar responsibilities, depending on the size of the company.

This means that while marketing job titles are important, it is also extremely important to accurately describe the responsibilities and skills required for a specific role. This will help you reach the experts you need for your company’s success. In addition, it’s important to remember that one person cannot do everything related to marketing. So once you do find a candidate who is the right fit for your organization, keep in mind that you can always complement what they bring to the table with more specific and niche, outsourced digital marketing services.

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