Used to be, back in the day, that everyone offered full-service marketing. , and so do you. Anyone hailing from the agency world knows that it’s full service or no service. Whether or not we had the competency to say we offered full-service marketing, we went and got it to compete for the coveted client retainer.

Nothing much has changed since then; except, well, technology. Technology has fully disrupted the marketing blend, or rather it has ‘interrupted’ it as per the op-ed in by Ken Wheaton on July 13, 2015.

Regardless of how you view technology and whether it has your daily grind, one thing is clear. The chaotic complexity is here to stay, and it has made full-service marketing extinct, like a dinosaur.

Why Full-Service Marketing Is Extinct

I got a call recently from a guy who found me on the web. (Cool; at least something is working in my favor in the, ahem, disrupted search marketing world.) But, after listening to his escapades to find someone who could do all the integrated marketing he needed for his (carpeting and RV parts??) business, my head was spinning on a platter.

There was no one who offered all the services he wanted in direct marketing, 3-D printing and packaging, label making, and website pages. He shared nearly every conversation he had had with ‘consultants’ offering expertise who turned into scammers or destroyers who truly didn’t have the competency for what he needed. He probably needed a and hire the big guns like me, eh?

After I ascertained that what he actually needed were several updated web pages (and not , public relations marketing, or to be a guest on my ), I quickly referred him to the web developer on my team.

No One Except Largest Agencies

There truly isn’t anyone in this day and age that can offer full-service marketing. There is going to be a handful of competencies left out which will require the hiring of specialists to enable the expertise.

That’s really not so bad, when you think about it. Everyone’s competencies are merging and morphing until you can’t truly tell who does what anymore!

• The search and SEO folks are losing their bragging rights to content marketers who are the up-and-coming search engine optimization experts. When content folks work in tandem with SEO folks, the strategy and execution are far stronger.
  The public relations people, where I sit, are now more expert in the marketing realm and aligning with anyone who decided to call themselves social media experts. Let’s be clear, public relations folks ARE content marketers who ARE social media marketers.
• The direct marketers have given way to digital/inbound marketers; yet, there’s still a need for direct expertise, too. Email marketing has become more rare and also suspect because everyone’s emails are getting added erroneously to lists without permission.
• And automation is taking the place of manual processes while technology continues to present innovative ways to streamline traditional systems (that still require a full-service IT department).

So, perhaps the moral to the story is not to try to work in blended marketing and public relations, but to switch it totally and get a job in technology because those jobs aren’t going away.

Specialist or Generalist Podcast Episode

and I launched our Heart Of Marketing podcast in February. Now to the tune of 8,000 downloads (or thereabouts), we’re consistently making headway toward loftier goals.

What surprised us is the popularity of our Specialist or Generalist episode, which has surpassed 440 downloads now.

In our conversation, we talk about the expertise and competency of generalists versus specialists and which are the best to hire on a team. For sure we agree that…or did we disagree that…?

I’m going to need you to listen in and figure out what we did say and then draw your own conclusions about who’s better for your marketing team and who may round out the gap in competency for that special project. (Take a listen below.)

There’s no question…marketing continues to innovate and morph into the next big thing. Are you on board for the ride?