How Many Marketing Hats Do You Wear?

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1. SEO
2. Paid Search Advertising
3. Website Design
4. Email Advertising
5. Marketing Communications
6. Market Research
7. Competitive intelligence
8. Banner Advertising
9. Print Advertising
10. Public Relations
11. Information Technology
12. Direct Mail
13. Radio Advertising
14. TV Advertising
15. Analyst Relations

Take a look at the iProspect Job Function study as linked to by Chris Sherman's Search Marketers Wear Too Many Hats article.

276 search marketers were surveyed, with SEM defined as the 'macro-category of marketing containing both SEO and paid search advertising'.

In addition to their core role, iProspect found that SEMs were involved with an average of 5 additional 'hats'.

Personally, my job's core functions involve paid search, SEO, market research and competitive intelligence (to a lesser extent I also deal with website design, banner advertising, marketing communication and email advertising). According to iProspect, I have 4 primary hats (in fact my job description splits my time 50:50 between being a SEM and a market analyst).

iProspect concludes that these multiple hats indicate the SEM industry is less mature than first thought, likely due to a talent shortage. In-house SEM is in many cases home-grown and cultivated from existing marketing or IT (26%) personnel.

My two questions are:

1. "How many other SEMs have clearly delineated separate job roles, how many have obfuscated roles and how many other SEMs are 'pure' SEMs?"

2. "Do you have the words 'Search Engine Marketing' anywhere on your business card?"

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How about adding forum posting to your list?