Is everyone becoming a digital marketer?

[UKSBD]

I tend to notice business trends from the submissions coming through my directory.

Just lately there has been a obvious increase in marketing agencies, sales agencies, digital marketing companies, social media advertising agencies, etc.

Is every student and their dog doing these digital agency courses and becoming marketing experts art the moment?

 

[NickGrogan]

I think a lot of them are skipping the courses and going straight to being experts. Saves a lot of time.

 

[estwig]

It might be that work is tight, they are touting their wares anyway they can.

Builders can be short of work in the winter, which is when they turn their attention to me.

 

[gpietersz]

It could be that your directory has been noticed among those people for some reason? Maybe it has been added to a list of directories popular with that particular group?

Has there been any overall increase? If there has it could be that this group are leading an increase in directory submissions (either specific to yours or in general)

 

[dcuttridge]

I think a lot of them are skipping the courses and going straight to being experts. Saves a lot of time.

This.

In the last couple of years, the number of people entering the industry as fully-fledged experts has risen exponentially.

I understand that years of experience doesn't account for talent or results. But it counts for something.

I regularly see newbies (because that's what they are) arguing with people with 5, 10, 15 years of experience.

It's really frustrating to see as I feel like this is going to affect the industry as a whole.

I think the other side to it is that starting a digital agency is probably one of the lowest barrier to entry business models online right now.

Then, of course, we've got affiliate and both agencies and affiliate marketing are full of tools like that. Of course, there are loads of good people in those sectors, but we often only see or hear from the vocal minority.

 

[CoinCornerJoanne]

I live on the Isle of Man and I've seen a noticeable increase in marketing agencies and marketing freelancers popping up in just the last year or so.

My main gripe is with freelancers who don't have a formal marketing background of any kind - they typically have 6 months' of experience in a marketing role and somehow this makes them qualified to advise companies/organisations? It's baffling, but I think social media makes it easier for them to blend in with existing qualified marketers/agencies. E.g. they can be seen to be networking within the industry and that helps them build quick credibility.

I'm all about learning on the job and growing your experience before claiming to be an expert or opening up an agency!

 

[Bronco78th]

My main gripe is with freelancers who don't have a formal marketing background of any kind - they typically have 6 months' of experience in a marketing role and somehow this makes them qualified to advise companies/organisations? It's baffling, but I think social media makes it easier for them to blend in with existing qualified marketers/agencies. E.g. they can be seen to be networking within the industry and that helps them build quick credibility.

And from a customer point of view all it does it make it harder to filter out the chaff from the good.

Same things with freelance webdesigns/programmers, when you see the ones that know their stuff.....you know......but they are getting much harder to find these days and people are easily taken for a ride.

 

[CoinCornerJoanne]

And from a customer point of view all it does it make it harder to filter out the chaff from the good.

Same things with freelance webdesigns/programmers, when you see the ones that know their stuff.....you know......but they are getting much harder to find these days and people are easily taken for a ride.

Totally agree! It's saturating the market a lot and making it very difficult for businesses to work out which offerings are founded on experience/knowledge. Unfortunately, I think that a lot of people are under the impression that marketing is "easy" and that "anyone can do it", but done correctly, it isn't and does take a lot of consideration/understanding of the business and industry.

 

[MilesWeb]

Staying up to date on the "constantly innovating" aspect of digital marketing is important.

 

[gpietersz]

Unfortunately, I think that a lot of people are under the impression that marketing is "easy" and that "anyone can do it"

I know I cannot do marketing. I am terrible at it. I have been told I make a good impression face to face - getting to that point is a problem.

That also makes sorting the wheat from the chaff as @Bronco78th says much harder as I do not know how to spot someone good (and I could do with some help). I do not even know exactly what the skills I need. Again, this is exactly what I see other people struggling with in my own area.

I have even studied marketing formally (for me MBA), but its not practical use running a small business (it probably would be if I was running a big one).

At least I am not suffering from Dunning_Kruger syndrome.

 

[StevePoster]

I think from the trend today to become a digital marketer, most of the people avoid online courses and take time to read in some reputable blog sites and then apply it on their own site. Afterwards consult an expert for guidelines then implement and take risk to understand the flow.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Everybody is a digital marketing expert until you start talking about results !
I am not a digital marketer but have had a business on line probably longer than most others on this forum ! I don't do it I know what I am good at and it is not this internet black magic stuff so I have always had a good company take care of it .

I don't want to know where you were educated in internet stuff as it changes all the time and what you did five years ago will mean nothing now I don't care what you did
All I would want to see is results and you have to be confident that you can get these results for your customers and be able to back it up !

#knowyouronions

 

[gpietersz]

I did a search and found about a quarter of my first level Linkedin connections mention "social media" as a skill and about literally tens of thousands of second level connections.

 

[Karimbo]

I'm part of a closed business owners community. I have noticed that some of the active members are service providers to businesses (IM mostly). 10 years ago the same people were affiliate marketers.

I think the reason for this is that there has been such radical change in SEO. Before you could be an affiliate marketer, prop up websites, buy links from linkbuilding packages and rank on google. Now, there is so much work involved in making your linkbuilding natural that one person just can't do all the linkbuilding for the site.

Being an affiliate marketer is tough now, there's just too much to do.

SEO is also quite lucrative, you can cherry pick one area for yourself (say guest posting), do it in such a scale that you're talking to bloggers all the time, you have your blubook of bloggers, you have your bluebook of writers and you just marry the two and do it for a client, pay the writer $60. Invoice the buyer $260. You've made $200 in 30 mins while sitting in your kitchen table eating breakast while in your pyjamaes spilling honey nut loops on your trousers.

If you do SEO for a living (as an affiliate marketer), you're in the industry, doing SEO day in day out. It just make sense to offer some of your SEO services in order to scale your operations. SEO just becomes an easy extension to your business.

 

[Karimbo]

On a slightly related note, has anyone noticed the cost of SEO just spiral out of control. It seems that the SEO industry is one big moneygrab and people just charging extortionate money for hardly any work.

There is a directory I wanted listing on, I thought £40 per annum. would be at the top end, maybe I can negotate down to £30. I sent in an enquiry for addition. They replied back with a long shpeel about how they're not just a directory, they're "award winning" [what award exactly??, I don't see any awards mention], how they market and raise profile of the members [how exactly?].

There was 3-4 paragraphs of text, and then the price after that. £149+VAT for setup, £39+VAT a month recurirng payment for life. I replied back - that's a lot more than I was expecting, how can you justify this price? Can you send me an analytics report on the unique visitors a month that reach this subdirectory?

Nothing, nada, zilch. They reponded with their sales speel within 20 minutes of me sending an enquiry. It has been a week since I sent that message and they haven't responded back with my request for the analytics. For the money they're asking (£740inc vat for year1) they better justify the cost with analytics. £740 on google adwords would buy me a LOT of customers.

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

Unfortunately, yes, they all want to be marketing experts. Because it seems easy and beneficial. You needn't to learn mathematic or materials science to be digital marketing. Just read 10 tips how to become digital marketer then you're expert.

 

[lotuscontainer05]

These people don't have core skills or even roles in digital, nor are their businesses focused on marketing. Rather, they have had some success in marketing their business (or themselves) and are proclaiming to be experts in this space.

 

[BrackNelson]

Hi, Not everyone, It depends on fashion or interest. I talk about digital marketing it has got the big scope for future because every business needs to come online for promoting their products or service.