The T-Shaped Web Marketer

Though there are several job opportunities across multiple digital marketing areas, building a career in digital marketing needs a lot of focus in a particular digital marketing field with a broad knowledge of how all key areas work in unison to help achieve a marketer’s objectives. This thought was first propagated by the team at Moz (one of the top SEO and digital marketing consulting blogs in the world) that shared the concept of a T-shaped web marketer which refers to having general skills in a broad set of areas and deep knowledge in a single area.

Figure 11.1 The T-Shaped Web Marketer by Moz

Courtesy: Rand Fishkin, Adam Feldstein & Britney Muller, MOZ, moz.com, used with permission

Figure 11.1 depicts the key areas which any digital marketer should know at a general level and showcases specific example of a depth area (SEO) along with its major sub-areas which the digital marketer should know in depth to become a balanced web marketer. According to Moz the following are the key advantages of such a model:

• Breadth showcases knowledge: With the kind of dependencies each digital marketing area and channel have on each other, it is crucial that digital marketers develop a basic knowledge of all key areas to be able to gauge the impact of multiple outcomes on each other.
• Depth provides expertise: The real competence of a digital marketer will be assessed from his/her knowledge of specific deep-down experience in a particular area (SEO as an example has been showcased in the diagram). The more knowledge a professional gains in any specific area, greater are the chances of a brilliant career in that discipline.
• T-joint provides cross-innovation: The T-model provides a structure whereby professionals can develop multiple overlapping T-shapes by mixing their expertise area with a general area (which is gaining importance) to showcase innovation. For example, a marketer with strong knowledge of programmatic advertising can use that knowledge for mobile/video ad buying.
• T-model reduces people’s dependencies: Every firm can benefit from the T-model to nurture professionals with an all-round experience who can not only compliment skills of other professionals but also be available in case an employee with a critical skill is unavailable or leaves the firm.

Figure 11.2 shows a version of the T-shaped model as developed by Volume Nine, a Denver-based SEO firm. According to them, to become a T-shaped marketer, any digital marketing professional has to first accurately assess their skill gaps to understand the areas they need to know as generalists and learnings which would complete their specialist role.

The team at Volume Nine feels that while their team has SEO specialists who specialize in areas like Conversion Rate Optimization, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Local Optimization, they also need to learn general skills in other related areas like website development, creative, advertising, or marketing automation. By getting their team to develop these varied skills which complement SEO knowledge, they are able to service their clients with unique skill sets which become the key differentiator. Examples like Volume Nine prove the validity and relevance of the T-shaped model and its applicability to digital marketers all over the world, especially in India, where it is necessary to gather both vertical and horizontal skillsets for market relevance.