What is a Marketing Engineer (Really)?
The world belongs to the engineers.
The cars we drive, the buildings (and homes) we work in, and the smartphones and computers that we use almost every waking minute are designed and maintained by engineers.
It might be tempting to think that marketing is exempt from this trend. It is, after all, a creative industry - one that often focuses on vision and values more than nuts and bolts.
But the future of marketing belongs to the engineers as well. So it is worthwhile trying to understand what a “marketing engineer” is, exactly.
It might be different than you would think.
Machine builders - the qualities of a good engineer
Marketing technology has gained amazing traction over the past decade. Scott Brinker, the self-proclaimed evangelist of “martech” publishes his annually updated landscape of marketing technology solutions - and every year the map gets more crowded.
But being a marketing engineer is more than just using the latest technology. To jump on the bandwagon and start using Hubspot or Google Tag Manager is not enough.
Engineers (at their core) are builders - and most often they build things that work.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But it is far from self-evident.
In order to design and create strong systems - whether they are static, like roads and buildings or dynamic, like locomotive engines or elevators in a skyscraper - engineers need to bring together many different moving parts, fit them into a functioning system and keep them running perfectly.
Their job is to create something solid and sustainable. That is also the task of a marketing engineer.
Their job is to:
Create a coherent brand
Deliver a constant message
Accelerate growth
When done right, a marketing engineer’s work equals that of a top-level engineer at ABB or John Deere.
They need to:
Connect products and markets (customer audiences) - Without a close connection between what is being sold and those who are buying, the machine will never run.
Mesh sales and product development - Without close coordination (and a strong cadence, as Silicon Valley pioneer David Sacks rightfully points out), products and sales will break down.
Iterate with new innovations - Keeping ahead of the curve with new market developments means testing and developing - constantly.
Keep content and campaigns rolling like a well-oiled machine - Bringing together the right people in the right roles and with the right focus ensures that there is consistency over time - a key driver of brand value.
The qualities of a marketing engineer
What makes a good marketing engineer?
A clear understanding of the desired outputs is key. No engineer ever built a machine without first knowing what it was that he or she intended to produce.
On a higher level, engineers (in marketing and otherwise) know how to harness the forces of nature. For an electrical engineer, that is the power of electricitiy. For a civil engineer that is the force of gravity, the tinsel strength of materials and so on.
For a marketing engineer, these are the psychological forces that drive decision-making and buying choices. Understanding when customers are most likely to make a positive decision, what influences their thought process and what can stand in their way is extremely important.
But it is not all about external forces. A marketing engineer needs to build an organization, a marketing machine in order to drive company growth and develop a consistent brand. To achieve this, he or she must grapple with the motivations of his or her team, leverage their talents, their dreams and their ambitions in order to reach maximum output.
Otherwise, the machine will never reach its full potential.
Engineers of the future
A nerdy guy at Harvard named Mark Zuckerberg engineered one of the most powerful software systems the world has ever known. Facebook (or Meta, as it is now known…) not only provided a platform for sharing pictures and status updates, it morphed into a powerful network that could serve targeted advertisements, surface content, track users and (eventually) sway national and international conversations to the extent that it held more power than some governments.
That is a powerful engineering feat.
Along the way - Zuckerberg and his vast army of software engineers not only leveraged the power of algorithms, they also harnessed the curiosity of mankind, the desire of people around the world to be closer to one another, and the powerful urge to consume at an ever-increasing rate.
Together, the bros from Menlo Park built a system so dominant that it is hard to envision it every stopping.
The next generation of marketing will be driven by engineers. The future of markets and brands will be led by those who understand how to build sustainable systems, with a self-propelling flywheel of supply and demand.
Marketing engineers are here to stay.