It’s no secret that more and more people work remotely than ever before. In fact, the entire workforce has changed drastically. A recent survey from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that the remote workforce has nearly quadrupled to include 50 percent of U.S. workers.
Over the last decade, the gig economy has flourished, and has led to the birth of new jobs, new roles, new opportunities, and new businesses, particularly in the areas of sales and marketing. The gig economy has evolved from a world of freelancers to a wealth of independent consultants, virtual agencies, and small businesses, many of which have formed teamlancing models.
At the heart of many teamlancing creative agencies sits the marketing technologist, a relatively new role that has quickly gained popularity and importance.What are the primary skills a #marketingtechnologist needs to be a successful #teamlancer? Learn about the #martech role and some key skills they need to have. Click To Tweet
The marketing technologist role and why it’s important
Marketing is a highly technology-dependent business function. Businesses, agencies, and marketers cannot execute successful marketing today without technology to some degree.
Furthermore, according to Statista, the marketing technology industry was valued at over $121 billion with a 22 percent year-on-year growth rate.
In short, the marketing technologist role involves wearing many different “hats,” including technology leader and adopter, strategist, and creative director to set the marketing vision and ensure that vision is aligned with higher-level organization or business goals. Additionally, serving as a liaison between marketing and IT is another primary function of the marketing technologist.
How does the marketing technologist fit into teamlancing?
Now that you have a better understanding of what the marketing technologist role is and what exactly teamlancing is, let’s look at how the marketing technologist fits into it.
Teamlancing models are essentially comprised of a team of freelancers, or independent consultants that are recruited and pulled together to collaborate and work on a particular project for a paying client.
There are two approaches to building a teamlancing model:
Individuals. Individual freelancers can work with a pool of freelancers or independent consultants, each member with his or her own skillsets and specialties for any number of clients. In this approach, individuals “pitch” themselves as experts. They can also recruit and allocate various freelance resources to work on a project.
Teams. A team of freelancers can “pitch” their combined skillset and experience to clients as part of the teamlancing organization’s portfolio. This allows clients to access multiple creative resources.
The top five successful skills of a marketing technologist
There are some necessary skills that help ensure a marketing technologist is successful in the teamlancing model.
Here are some examples:
1. Optimizing the martech stack
Marketers often select tools simply for the availability of shiny, new features, not necessarily for successful marketing technology planning and implementation to meet their needs. A marketing technologist can help optimize marketing tech stacks to avoid tool overlap and deduplication.
A good marketing technologist will also understand how to best optimize and modernize the team’s martech stack to ensure they are leveraging the best tools and technologies.
2. An agile mindset
Successful marketing technologists understand the importance of being agile today. Agile marketers are paving the path forward by combining technology and talent, which is crucial for teamlancing.
3. An early adopter mindset
Many marketing technologists are always on the lookout for new tools and ways to adopt new tools and leverage them in ways that help boost efficient operations for freelance teams.
4. Experimentation
A marketing technologist knows that technology and tools are important for building and maintaining a successful teamlancing model. Therefore, a marketing technologist isn’t afraid to explore and experiment with new tools and ways of working.
5. Strategy-focused
As mentioned briefly above, a good marketing technologist is keen on strategy. They know how to think strategically with how to approach a project, which tools to leverage in order to execute on that strategy, and position it so that it is aligned with higher-level project and initiative goals.
The top five tools in a marketing technologist’s toolbox
In the last decade, many creative agencies have adopted multiple tools and technologies into their martech stacks in order to build the technology environment they need to support their initiatives and goals. In fact, at the time of this writing, the technology landscape today has over 8,000 tools.
Here are some great must-have tools for marketing technologists:
1. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a highly robust keyword research tool, which is a must-have for any marketing technologist or creative freelance teams. In fact, a good marketing technologist will immediately be able to recommend a keyword research tool and ensure one is in their ever-growing tech stack.
Ahrefs is a popular keyword research tool that allows users to research keywords to use for organic search, the keywords they currently rank for, competitors’ keywords, and which keywords to leverage in the future. Using a tool to identify keywords that are valuable to any business or agency can help ensure creative agencies are maximizing the effectiveness of their content.
2. Google Analytics
You can’t very well understand how your content is performing without measuring performance. Google Analytics is another must-have tool used by the majority of agencies, businesses, and marketers today. Although it can be a little difficult to navigate, experienced marketing technologists can navigate, analyze, and set up goals within Google Analytics with ease. The marketing technologist can then also interpret those metrics and turn insights into actions. The best part? Google Analytics is free to set up and use.
3. Slack
Because teamlancing models are distributed and remote, the team needs an online communication tool to stay connected and sync on a regular basis. Slack is one of the best online communication tools you can use today. In fact, more and more agencies and businesses are adopting Slack for ongoing daily communication.
Additionally, there are more helpful and valuable functionalities available, such as creating multiple channels; sending, sharing, and “pinning” files to specific channels to make them more easily accessible; and even third-party integrations with other apps and tools. Slack is also free to download and use (for up to 10,000 messages).
4. Zapier
Marketing technologists are also head over heels in love with automation. They are constantly looking for ways to streamline processes, tasks, and operations, and how to set up integrations in between the tools in their martech stacks.
For example, you can use Slack + Zapier to build an automated workflow that streamlines tasks and communication, all in one place. In fact, the new Workflow Builder recently released by Slack makes it easy for teams to automate routine tasks within the collaboration platform, and also with other apps that teams use every day.
5. Zoom
Most remote teams cannot live without Zoom today. Zoom is a must-have for video calls and conferencing, team check-ins, brainstorming sessions, and more. For marketing technologists, this solution is excellent for running focus groups, and teamlance collaborations.
Of course, Zoom is known for its fairly robust video conferencing features and abilities. It’s free to use and set up, however, there are some limitations. Larger freelance teams might need a paid version of Zoom, depending on the size and number of users necessary.The best of the best marketing technologists leverage the right skills, tools, and mindset to establish a #teamlancing model for success. Click To Tweet
All in all, the marketing technologist role is absolutely crucial in not only teamlancing setups but also in agencies and businesses today. However, this role certainly helps facilitate creative teamlancing models.
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