3. A Day In The Life Of A Technical Marketer

The technical marketer is often a walking example of the T-shapedA skill profile where the practitioner has deep knowledge in a specific area (the vertical bar) and superficial knowledge about other, related areas (the horizontal bar). learning profile.

They usually have a thorough understanding of a specific discipline – such as taggingNormally, tag references an HTML element (or node). In a marketing context, tags are used to denote HTML elements and JavaScript snippets specifically designed for collecting data to marketing vendors., data engineering, web design, or CROConversion rate optimization refers to running tests and experiments with the purpose of improving the likelihood of conversion for visitors to your sites and apps.. But by virtue of being technical, they are often called upon to add insight to other fields under “technical marketing”, too.

This Topic is a cursory look at some of the problems and questions a technical marketer might need to solve on a daily basis as well as a walkthrough of the Topics we will cover later on in this Handbook.

Think of this Chapter as your introduction to the Handbook. You do not need to delve deeply into the specific Topics the first time you read this Chapter. It may be a good idea to return to this Chapter once you have finished reading the Handbook to review how you would apply these in your daily work as a technical marketer.

Let’s dive into our example scenario, and see how the T-shapedA skill profile where the practitioner has deep knowledge in a specific area (the vertical bar) and superficial knowledge about other, related areas (the horizontal bar). learning profile shows up in the work of a technical marketer.

The dreaded website redesign

Ask almost anyone in the organization (particularly the search engine optimizationSEO focuses on improving a website's visibility and reach for users who perform relevant queries in a search engine. folks!), and they’ll confirm that a site redesign is one of the most challenging projects for digital marketers.

(You can read more about this in Chapter 3: Search Engine Optimization)

Whether it’s a complete site redesign, a domainDomain names are stored in the domain name system (DNS) and are used to map a human-readable name (such as www.teamsimmer.com) to a web server. migration, or a migration to a different technology stack, there are so many things to keep in mind when doing it.

In this scenario, we’ll share a fairly common redesign setup, and we’ll discuss the different things that need to be considered when taking on this project as a technical marketer.

(You can read more about this approach in Topic 9.1: Privacy By Design)

What does a site redesign involve?

As a technical marketer, you’ll be in the thick of things.

Already at the pre-design period, your help will be needed in auditing the current site, building performance benchmarks against which the new site will be measured, identifying data protectionIn the context of regulation, data protection is the process of safeguarding any data relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. issues with the current site that need to be fixed, and reviewing organicIn digital marketing, the word "organic" is often used with traffic from search engines, excluding those that came from a search ad click. search performance to identify key areas for improvement.

During the design phase, you will liaise with the web developers and designers to ensure that the technical requirements of digital marketing are taken into account. This includes things like:

1. The new site is comprehensively tagged for all necessary marketing technologies. (Read more in Topic 4.1: What Are Tags?)
2. Terms of service, privacy policies, and consentData protection laws often defer to positive consent for collecting or processing data from the user. Requesting consent usually involves a consent banner or a consent pop-up where the user is asked whether the site or app can collect data from them. management systems are in place and operating as required by regulations. (Read more in Topic 9.2: Data Protection)
3. Removed content is redirected to new content to preserve relevance for SEOSEO focuses on improving a website's visibility and reach for users who perform relevant queries in a search engine.. (Read more in Chapter 3: Search Engine Optimization)
4. If the redesign involves bold changes to critical areas of the website (such as a checkout funnel), you could already test these changes with A/B testsA type of experiment where one or more variations are tested against the control (original version) to see if the variations perform better with regard to an agreed upon conversion rate goal. on the old website. (Read more in Topic 7.2: Tools of The CRO Trade)
5. An experimentation process needs to be in place, so that tests on the new website can begin as soon as the dust of the launch settles. (Read more in Chapter 7: Conversion Rate Optimization)
6. Search ads need to be reconfigured to make sure they point to new content with relevant copy. (Read more in Topic 6.1: How Does Search Advertising Work?)

On the day of the launch, your help will be needed in monitoring if all went well, supporting the SEOSEO focuses on improving a website's visibility and reach for users who perform relevant queries in a search engine. in updating search engines with the new content, adjusting data collection so that all URL-based criteria match the new URLUniversal Resource Locator, the main method of encoding internet addresses for web browsers to send requests to. structure of the site, and observing resource usage to see that the traffic peak of the launch campaign doesn’t compromise your site or data pipeline infrastructure.

After the launch, at least for the first weeks or even months, you’ll need to keep monitoring for possible data quality issues, organicIn digital marketing, the word "organic" is often used with traffic from search engines, excluding those that came from a search ad click. search problems, broken redirect testsAn experiment where instead of showing different variations of a section of a page, users are distributed to different versions of the entire page instead. Redirect tests are useful when testing large, page-wide changes., and possible compliance problems with your consentData protection laws often defer to positive consent for collecting or processing data from the user. Requesting consent usually involves a consent banner or a consent pop-up where the user is asked whether the site or app can collect data from them. management setup.

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

A website redesign is a comprehensive project. It requires input and cooperation from many different departments within an organization.

For many companies, their website is their main moneymaker, their main lead generator, and their main means of maintaining customer loyalty. It’s thus absolutely vital that the redesign is planned and executed carefully, and that information is allowed to flow unhindered between the different parts of the organization.

As a technical marketer, you’ll be most useful by participating in all aspects of the redesign. Your comprehensive understanding of the digital space allows you to fluently liaise with different stakeholders of the project.

The SEOSEO focuses on improving a website's visibility and reach for users who perform relevant queries in a search engine. team will look to you for help with building URLUniversal Resource Locator, the main method of encoding internet addresses for web browsers to send requests to. redirect rules.

Web developers will benefit from your advice in prioritizing marketing tasks.

(Read more in Topic 8.1: Software Development)

Data engineers will need your input in designing schemasAn analytics system uses schemas to parse, validate, and store events ingested by the collector. The schema dictates what a valid event looks like, what data types are accepted by the system, and what values are required in all incoming events. Schema can also be used to describe the structure of other things, such as the Data Layer. for the data coming in from the new site.

(Read more in Topic 5.2: Data Engineering)

The legal team will require your help in determining which parts of the marketing process fall under GDPRGeneral Data Protection Regulation is a set of data protection laws and rules that apply to data subjects within Europe. Its purpose is to give individuals vast protections for any personal data that is collected and processed on their behalf., ePrivacy DirectiveA directive in the European Union that deals with the confidentiality of information and treatment of traffic data, spam, and access to device storage (such as through browser cookies)., or other regulations and laws.

The CROConversion rate optimization refers to running tests and experiments with the purpose of improving the likelihood of conversion for visitors to your sites and apps. team will be thankful if you help them design the experimentation process, so that this is accounted for when taggingNormally, tag references an HTML element (or node). In a marketing context, tags are used to denote HTML elements and JavaScript snippets specifically designed for collecting data to marketing vendors. the site for A/B testsA type of experiment where one or more variations are tested against the control (original version) to see if the variations perform better with regard to an agreed upon conversion rate goal. and redirects.

The advertising team will need you to make sure that the server-to-server data collection works for Meta, Google, and other partners that can collect data that way.

You will be in high demand. Take this as an opportunity – much of digital marketing is about nurturing soft skills like empathy, communication, and collaboration. A project like this is a great chance for you to flex your teamwork muscle.

And, as always, embrace knowledge sharing. Your work doesn’t happen in a vacuum – the more you can tell your colleagues about the whats, the whys, and the hows of your work, the more they can increase their own digital marketing knowledge.

Now it is time to dive deeper into the Chapters and Topics outlined here and explore further the field of technical marketing.