In my bio on this website there are a number of quotes that I love, but the one that is most appropriate for my role as a digital marketing expert is from the sci-fi author Robert Heinlein in his 1973 novel “Time Enough for Love”. It goes like this…
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialisation is for insects.”
That is such a splendid view of what humans should be.
Now I am in no way knocking the specialists because I know that expertise is incredibly valuable. After all, you wouldn’t want someone to build an extension on your home that didn’t have the first clue about construction would you?
However, what I do strongly believe is that we should all foster an attitude that being multitalented is essential and there are people out there who really can do almost anything, and do it all well.
The counter to that is the argument about “being a generalist” and I have personally been subjected to sideways comments about being a “Jack of all trades and master of none”. The last time I heard that was from someone who didn’t understand any of my disciplines and so was not best placed to make such judgements. But like all things in life there is truth in everything and being able to have the edge by being specialist in multiple disciplines is what sets some people apart from the crowd.
Graphic Design
I once wanted to be a graphic designer. Being good at drawing wasn’t enough to make art a career so I realised that finding discipline by going to college and studying an HNC in Graphics & Design would help me along the path.
However, coming out of college, I remained in my manual job and simply did graphics as a hobby. What was important though was that I realised that there was a new discipline in town, one that straddled my love of design and computers – that new subject was web design!
So my hobbies turned me towards the web design world and I learned HTML, CSS, a little JavaScript, managing domain names and all the DNS, setting up and maintaining email servers, populating the websites with photos and copy, and then giving these websites visibility through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Then I saw a job in the local paper for a web designer at a dotcom start-up but I chickened out. However, I took the job at the desk next to that web designer and eventually…
Web Design
The web designer was more of a developer. He was very technical and had no inherent design skills, However, I worked very closely with him and eventually became the company’s web designer.
In just a few years I had designed and built well over one hundred websites, intimately knowing the whole process of setting them up from scratch, designing their look and feel, populating them with content, and launching them onto the world stage. If anyone remembers the rave tune from Rush Till Dawn, the excuse me for exclaiming “Oh My God, I’m a Web Designer”. It really did feel like being a rockstar back in those days.
SEO
Of course, what’s the point in designing and building a website if nobody sees it? So Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) was the next skill to take up.
Having done my own SEO on a handful of websites, the best tool I had at the time was the “hit counter”. But when I worked at the dotcom start-up, I was only a web designer and so third party experts were initially drafted in to do the SEO.
I watched in horror as I saw keyword stuffing, a failure to create unique titles, and meta descriptions, and all I could see was this “money for old rope” transaction that yielded no positive results.
So I took over the SEO duties.
Content Creation
When you work as a web designer churning out simple “quick-start” websites and then bigger bespoke builds, you see a lot of issues with content.
Photography was always a fun one, with tradespeople sending you photos of their van, the sun behind it and the sign-written side in deep shadow. When they couldn’t get this right, then the copy was predictably awful too.
Additionally, there were professional content agencies that sprung up too, and they really churned things out. But the quality of their wares was questionable and the SEO head on me balked at the “thin content” which meant that this content and copy was expensive stuff that had little value.
So I took over the content writing too.
PPC
For 14 years the MD would go on holiday to Greece for two weeks and I’d keep an eye on the Google AdWords account as it was. Just a few weeks of managing the PPC back in those days wasn’t hard, I was most nervous about the budget. Everything else about PPC was simple, self explanatory, and all inside one dashboard.
17 years later, I was in the hot seat as a digital marketing manager at a Surrey digital marketing agency. I took over the role from someone who only did PPC and did not conduct any meaningful SEO. So with nearly two decades as an SEO specialist I brought so much more of that Search Engine Optimisation to the table. I accepted the job knowing full well and disclosing the fact that I was a bit rusty with the PPC. However, my predecessor tested my PPC skills before he vacated his seat. He thought I was good enough and so began the next chapter.
So I took overt the PPC for a few years.
Autodidact Polymath
When needs must, you just get on with it. You do what needs to be done to get the job done.
That’s how it’s always been. Apart from the HNC in graphics & design, which was based on traditional methods not digital, a 2-day course in Drupal development, and an hour on a GA4 basics lesson, I’ve taught myself everything I’ve needed and become an effective Head of Digital and a Senior Digital Marketing Manager.
So if specialisation is for insects, then…
“A digital marketing professional should be able to design a banner ad, plan a social media campaign, A/B test a landing page, manage a CRM, design a website wireframe, write compelling ad copy, analyse campaign performance, build an email list, troubleshoot website errors, manage online reputation, give constructive feedback, receive client briefs, collaborate with a team, work independently, interpret analytics data, identify emerging trends, optimise a website for SEO, program a chatbot, create engaging video content, negotiate ad placements, adapt to algorithm changes. Specialisation is for insects.”
I rest my case.
I am a generalist and a specialist. That’s a rare mix. If you’d like to secure my services as a digital marketing, PPC, content and SEO specialist, whether your business is in Hampshire, Surrey, London, or anywhere in the UK, then call me on 01252 692 765 or fill in the contact form with details of your website project.