placeholder
Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

Recruitment Data Shows Marketing Teams Are Becoming More Specialized

Businesses are slowly replacing large marketing departments with specialists who oversee networks of contractors and freelancers.

Instead of advertising for marketing executives, SEO managers, and PPC managers, businesses are looking to hire automation experts, AI specialists, junior coordinators, and freelance copywriters, which allows companies to scale up or down according to demand.

 

AI and Its Impact on Junior Roles

A lot of the repetitive jobs that were once handled by junior marketers are now being automated. 

Rather than removing marketers completely, however, AI is enabling smaller teams to handle bigger workloads. This is resulting in people refining their role in marketing and becoming more specialized.

A good example would be discount codes. Promotional campaigns once had to involve several departments, as a developer would be required to program a unique coupon code, and a graphic designer would need to create the banners. 

The email marketer in the team would build the campaign, and someone else also has to be responsible for monitoring the redemption rate.

Today, marketing platforms allow the creation of discount codes, and customers can be segmented automatically. Personalized offers can be sent, and redemption can also be managed in real time. Single marketing managers can now launch campaigns that once required the use of a full team.

Rather than spending hours on administrative work, roles tend to focus more on adding human expertise where it counts, whether that's relationship building, strategy, brand positioning, or creative direction. This is explained by the US site Prompt GTM. 

Professionals are being encouraged to develop expertise in automation, customer experience, AI prompting, or even analytics earlier in their careers, which is opening roles to more impactful opportunities. 

Promotional Campaigns are Becoming Faster and Easier to Execute

Businesses that run multiple promotions can create them faster while personalizing them at a much larger scale. All of this can be done without increasing staffing costs, at scale. This shift explains the popularity of the hub-and-spoke model. You can find out more about that on this US network website.

A strategist sets the direction, and junior marketers use automation tools to execute campaigns so businesses can keep costs under control, while basing decisions on customer data in real time.

This trend is evident in multiple sectors. Supermarkets issue digital vouchers through loyalty apps, and fashion retailers send percentage-off codes to newsletter holders. Airlines and hotels reward people with promotional fares or initiatives for frequent flyers. 

Campaigns like this, when automation is embraced, use fewer resources but can be executed at a much higher level. This trend is even visible in iGaming. Now, casino bonuses UK include free bingo games, or being awarded 10 free tickets when players pre-buy 20. 

As platforms can actively monitor promotions and codes, offers can be personalized, and redemption rates can be managed automatically, without the need for constant, manual oversight.

Smaller marketing teams can deliver sophisticated campaigns that would once have required a significant amount of effort.

There is, however, an important point to be made. Automation is not taking over jobs. 

Even though marketing teams are getting smaller, team members are becoming more specialized, which is leading to more targeted campaigns and new, creative approaches to marketing. 

Brands are also seeking marketers who have strong experience in particular verticals, rather than seeking general marketers, due to the knowledge required to execute campaigns that can move the needle.