It Pays to Have a Marketer Who Codes | Hacker News Reader

It Pays to Have a Marketer Who Codes

medium.com

41 pointsgk111 comments

I get the purpose of having someone who understands basic coding in the marketing realm, but this is just about a single problem that was solved. By the title, I thought it would have more substance about overall efficiencies achieved and such. It was a good article, however, don't get me wrong.

Having worked in marketing firms, this type of thing was a daily hack we all did quite often for dozens, if not hundreds, of clients. It does definitely pay to have coders, competent ones, on staff but they also need a certain problem solving personality to overcome many challenges - a programmer's mind so to speak. Coding can be taught, but problem solving skill and a penchant for curiosity is much harder to ingrain in someone.

My goal was to illustrate the point with an anecdote. A longer article would have arrived at the same conclusion: Having a marketer who can code saves the company money. As you pointed out, this can be extrapolated further: It pays to have good problem-solvers.

Good luck finding those in the market though. They're like unicorns.

As a marketer who codes, I think that it is tougher to find organizations that encourage or reward this behavior. I've found that being able to code can isolate me from the rest of the marketing organization and warp perceptions in ways that are not conducive to promotion or new opportunities.

I agree 100%. That's why I can get away with charging more than run-of-the-mill marketers. ;)

Yeah I expected more substance as well. I guess he's a good marketer for getting us to click that title though ;)

That being said I still leave disappointed.

A lot of marketers now are turning to coding. I wouldn't necessarily say it's essential to marketing, especially if you work in a firm where you have a development team. Though, when it comes to aggregate reviews, schema, JSon, Structured data, etc. it definitely helps as a marketer if you know how to code those things yourself.

You may not have to have the ability to build your own website, but understanding the basic structure of code is very helpful.

Source: I've been doing SEO & Social Marketing for 10 years.

It probably pays a lot to have any X who codes especially if you're only paying for the skills of X.

I'm a coder, how can I learn and gain experience as a Marketer?

Brian Balfour wrote a sick guide: http://www.coelevate.com/essays/customer-acquisition

You get experience by doing your own projects, or by working cheaply for a select client or two as you learn the ins and outs.

q.v. another blog by a fantastic marketer-who-codes, Cody Boyte: https://medium.com/@codyboyte

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