6 Reasons Not to Hire a Marketing Generalist in 2025

Marketing in 2025 isn’t just about creativity—it’s also about knowing how to use complex tools and platforms to implement marketing strategies. 

Success no longer hinges on knowing a little about everything but on mastering the few things that truly matter. Yet, many companies are still hiring like it’s the 1990s, relying on one or two marketing generalists to run the show.

It shows. 

Take this December 2024 job posting for a Growth Marketer | Demand Generation Specialist.. The title alone is a red flag; it suggests the employer believes growth marketing and demand generation are the same role.

Job postings like this reflect a widespread misunderstanding of the complexity in modern marketing:

The title merges two distinct specialties:

• Growth Marketing: Focused on experimentation, testing, and scaling strategies to drive user acquisition and retention.
• Demand Generation: Requires deep expertise in lead nurturing, audience segmentation, and conversion optimization.

A closer look at the responsibilities reveals this role is "easily 6+ jobs in one." For example:

• Strategic Planning: The realm of a Marketing Strategist or senior leader like a Head of Marketing.
• Campaign Management: Usually handled by a Campaign Manager or Performance Marketer.
• Content Development: Better suited for a Content Marketing Manager or a Copywriter.
• Conversion Optimization: A specialized task for a CRO Specialist.
• Influencer Marketing: Typically requires a dedicated Influencer Marketing Specialist.
• Performance Analysis and Market Research: These are advanced analytical roles often filled by a Marketing Analyst or Data Specialist.

This kind of job posting signals a critical misstep in understanding marketing needs. Instead of prioritizing strategic focus, adopt the "do it all" mindset, expecting one hire to manage everything from campaign management to content creation, conversion optimization, and even influencer marketing. 

The result? 

Overloaded expectations, underwhelming outcomes, and a perpetuation of hiring inefficiencies.

Here’s why this problem persists. As Matthew Mozzocchi, our former sales team lead, explains, unrealistic job postings often stem from oversimplifying marketing’s complexity. When hiring managers fall into this trap, they:

• Understaff teams, expecting a "mythical marketer" to do it all.
• Miss opportunities, because even the best marketer can’t specialize in every domain.
• Stretch resources thin, leading to lackluster campaigns and poor ROI.

In the next section, we’ll explore six compelling reasons why marketing specialists—not marketing generalists—are the key to modern marketing success.

1. Digital channels are too complex for generalists to leverage efficiently

Digital advertising is a double-edged sword. Get it right, and platforms like Facebook and Google will transform your business. Get it wrong, and you’ll see your budget vanish faster than you can say "cost-per-click." 

These platforms aren’t just marketing tools—they’re revenue machines designed to maximize their own profits, not yours.

Businesses invest billions into these channels to connect with their audiences, but success depends on how well you navigate their intricacies. 

Algorithms shift, features evolve, and inefficiencies quietly erode budgets. Without deep expertise, even the most promising campaigns can fall flat.

Yet many companies approach these platforms with generalist marketers, expecting broad skill sets to solve highly technical challenges. The result? Wasted time, drained budgets, and missed opportunities to scale effectively.

That’s where specialists come in. Unlike generalists, who often struggle to keep up with shifting algorithms and evolving features, specialists thrive on these complexities. 

They don’t just understand how platforms like Facebook and Google work—they know how to make them work for your business.

As Chris Toy, CEO of MarketerHire, explained in a recent webinar, Facebook and Google are not just tools. They are two of the biggest businesses in the world, driven by the complexity of their advertising products.

That complexity can be costly. Without a deep understanding of targeting, bidding strategies, and platform algorithms, it’s easy to waste significant portions of your budget. 

Marketing specialists, however, know how to sidestep these costly inefficiencies. Instead of spending time learning the ropes, they deliver immediate value, optimizing campaigns from the start.

Take the fast-growing DTC brand Outer, for example. By hiring paid marketing experts through MarketerHire, they scaled their ad spend by 100x while maintaining an efficient ROAS—a feat generalists simply couldn’t achieve.

This ability to deliver immediate results isn’t just about avoiding mistakes—it’s about unlocking opportunities. Specialists don’t stop at fixing what’s broken; they use their deep expertise to turn platform complexity into a competitive advantage.

2. Execution is everything

“To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed,” Steve Jobs once said. “Execution is worth millions.” 

“To me, ideas are worth nothing unless execute… Execution is worth millions.”  

Coming up with an interesting concept or sound strategy is just 10% of the journey.

Unfortunately, generalist marketers might know what to do but not how to do it effectively. 

For example, many marketers know publishing new content can drive traffic, but what often goes unnoticed is the significant opportunity to update old content. 

Generalists might suggest refreshing outdated pages, but without a structured, strategic approach, these updates often fail to deliver results.

Refreshing content isn’t just a simple rewrite—it’s a sophisticated process. To execute effectively, you need to:

• Analyze performance: Identify which pages have lost rankings or traffic and determine the reasons behind the decline.
• Benchmark against competitors: Study top-ranking pages to understand how they approach the topic, from depth to structure and supporting visuals.
• Refine intent alignment: Ensure the updated content better serves the search intent of valuable keywords.
• Optimize for SEO: Update metadata, internal linking, and other technical factors that can impact rankings.
• Track and iterate: Submit the updated content for re-indexing and closely monitor performance to make further refinements.

Generalists may have good intentions, but without specialized knowledge and content updates, they often lack the depth required to execute this process effectively. 

Specialists, on the other hand, approach content updates with precision and experience. They analyze data, identify opportunities, and implement changes that drive meaningful results.

For example, a specialist might take an underperforming blog post sitting on page two for a high-value keyword and rework it to compete with top-ranking pages. 

By expanding the content to address subtopics, adding authoritative sources, and improving the user experience with multimedia, they can push the post into the top three rankings, dramatically increasing traffic.

Specialists excel at turning outdated content into high-performing assets, while generalists risk missing out on the full potential of your content library. Execution isn’t just about doing the work—it’s about doing it right.

3. Generalists spread thin, specialists drive impact

Generalist marketers often try to wear many hats, but the demands of modern marketing are too specialized for a “one-size-fits-all” approach. 

Paid media, SEO, email, analytics, and social strategy each require unique skills that are difficult—if not impossible—for one person to master.

Take email marketing, for example. A generalist might know how to set up a basic automation flow or craft a campaign, but effective email marketing requires much more. 

Without specialized expertise, even a well-designed campaign can underperform, leaving potential revenue on the table.

Podium Audio’s experience perfectly illustrates the difference a specialist can make. When Maggie Silver joined Podium as head of strategic marketing, she had to build the company’s marketing strategy from scratch. 

Recognizing email's potential as a growth channel, she hired a freelance email marketer through MarketerHire, and the results were transformative.

The specialist didn’t just launch email campaigns; he reimagined Podium’s approach to email marketing. By connecting external systems like Airtable and Facebook Ads to Mailchimp through Zapier, he enabled advanced reporting and automation capabilities. 

He also developed segmentation strategies, created highly targeted workflows, and optimized every step of the customer journey. As a result, Podium grew its email list by 1,694% and significantly boosted its promoted audiobooks' Audible bestseller rankings.

An email marketing specialist brings this level of deep knowledge and experience to what is both a technical and creative field. They know how to:

• Build segmentation strategies that target subscribers with personalized, high-impact messaging.
• Test and optimize email timing, subject lines, and creative to increase open rates and conversions.
• Set up advanced automation flows that guide leads through the customer journey with precision.
• Analyze email performance data to identify opportunities for improvement and drive continuous growth.

In contrast, a generalist juggling multiple responsibilities may lack the time and expertise to execute email campaigns at this level. They might miss opportunities to refine content, test variations, or adjust strategies based on real-time data—small but crucial steps that specialists excel at.

The bottom line: In today’s marketing landscape, being a jack of all trades simply doesn’t cut it. Specialists like email marketers bring the mastery needed to unlock the full potential of every channel, ensuring your marketing dollars work harder.

4. Stretching marketers too thin costs you more than you save

"[M]arketers are humans subject to the laws of time and space,” MarketerHire CEO Chris Toy recently tweeted. “Making one marketer do [four] marketing roles saves you nothing except your own time of properly recruiting [three] additional roles.”

“Making one marketer do [four] marketing roles saves you nothing except your own time of properly recruiting [three] additional roles.”

And while you save time on recruiting when you cram multiple roles into one, you lose out on focused work-hours and quality. 

Consider SEO content marketing. At MarketerHire, creating quality SEO content means:

• Keyword and competitor research
• Content ideation and planning
• SEO briefs
• Identifying experts
• Setting up interviews
• Conducting secondary research
• Drafting the article (typically 2K+ words)
• Editing and revising the article
• Designing graphics and hero images
• Staging the content on our CMS
• Promoting that article via social media, influencer marketing, and email

Each of those bullets comes with its own quality assurance checklist. For instance, here’s a list of things we check when staging final content:

Effective SEO content requires a great deal of expertise — and time — to do well on a weekly basis. A marketing generalist tasked with the responsibilities listed on the job posting above wouldn’t have time to do it right.

Instead of earning sustained web traffic, lowering customer acquisition costs (CAC), and building a stronger brand, their SEO content might do literally nothing.

Remember, more than 90% of content gets zero Google search traffic.

5. Marketing specialists really have T-shaped expertise 

The specialist versus generalist argument creates a false dichotomy. It’s not one or the other. Most marketing specialists started out as generalists before choosing to specialize in one or two areas. 

As a result, marketing specialists give you the best of both words — a broad understanding of marketing and the depth of knowledge to efficiently grow one or two pillar channels. 

In other words, their expertise is T-shaped. While the below image is from 4 years ago, the skills are still very much relevant today:

Take Loot, a fintech startup, as an example. Loot partnered with MarketerHire to find Liz, a T-shaped specialist who could establish its social media presence and drive growth through paid acquisition. Liz’s expertise allowed her to:

• Create high-quality visuals aligned with Loot’s brand, paired with a consistent posting schedule.
• Drive growth through innovative paid social tactics and keyword optimization.

Her work directly contributed to Loot’s success, achieving a 28% increase in customers month-over-month.

A fan of specialist marketers, Gong CMO Udi Ledergor explained his hiring philosophy in a podcast interview with Dave Gerhardt. 

“I look for every new hire to add a skill set that we don’t have on the team,” he said.

“I look for every new hire to add a skill set that we don’t have on the team.”

Like Rouse and Wallace, Ledergor doesn't hire generalists.

If you want to avoid long periods of trial and error, hiring a senior marketer with a proven track record in one discipline paves a faster path to profitability. 

6. Task-switching kills productivity

Work interruptions cost employees — and the companies they work for. Researchers at University of California Irvine found that on average, office workers are interrupted or switch tasks every three minutes and five seconds. 

Task switching can waste up to 60% of work-hours, and each year, it costs the U.S. economy almost $1 trillion.

But the damage doesn’t stop there. According to a joint report by Qatalog and Cornell University’s Idea Lab:

• 9.5 minutes: That’s how long it takes to regain a productive workflow after switching between tasks or digital tools.
• Nearly half of workers report that task-switching drains their productivity.
• 43% of workers say switching between tasks causes mental fatigue.

For marketers who are juggling multiple responsibilities, this “context-switching tax” becomes even more severe. Imagine an employee tasked with nine distinct responsibilities, ranging from managing paid ads to writing SEO content. How many uninterrupted minutes of focus could they realistically string together?

Task-switching overloads the brain by forcing it to constantly shift between priorities, reducing both efficiency and quality of output. The effects compound when workers must also shift depths of focus—from strategic planning to tactical execution or from creative brainstorming to technical troubleshooting.

For example:

• Moving between related tasks, like developing a paid ads strategy and running campaign optimizations, may be manageable.
• Switching between vastly different activities, such as analyzing data and crafting social media posts, can create mental fatigue and delay progress.

Specialists sidestep this problem by staying focused on their core expertise. They reduce cognitive load, prioritize deep work, and avoid the inefficiencies that arise from being pulled in too many directions.

Making the shift to specialist marketing teams 

After understanding why generalists can't meet modern marketing demands, the question becomes: How do you build an effective specialist-driven marketing team? The transition doesn't have to be abrupt or disruptive. Here's how successful companies have made this shift:

Start with your highest-impact channel 

Rather than trying to hire specialists for every marketing function at once, identify your most critical channel. For companies like Quartix, this meant starting with PPC. 

They hired a PPC expert first, who improved their ROAS through offline conversions while improving the volume and quality of leads. This focused approach allowed them to perfect one channel before expanding to others.

Actionable Steps:

• Audit your current marketing performance and identify the top-performing or most promising channel.
• Define the specific outcomes you want from this channel (e.g., scaling ad spend, improving CAC, boosting ROAS).
• Create a job description tailored to the skills and experience needed to achieve these goals.

Pro Tip: Tools like Google Analytics and attribution models can help you identify which channels drive the most value.

Build around core functions

Once your primary channel is optimized, look at your marketing operation's core functions:

• Acquisition (paid media, SEO)
• Engagement (email, content)
• Analytics and optimization
• Creative and brand

Assess whether you need full-time or fractional specialist support for each function. Podium Audio followed this approach, starting with a specialized email marketer who transformed customer engagement before expanding to other channels.

Actionable Steps:

• Map your marketing goals to each function. For example:some text
  • Acquisition: Increase paid ad performance by X%
  • Engagement: Boost email click-through rates by Y%
  • Analytics: Improve conversion rates from Z to Q
• Prioritize hiring specialists in functions tied to immediate growth goals.
• Use freelance or fractional specialists for roles where full-time hiring isn’t feasible.

Pro Tip: Start with roles where expertise is most likely to deliver measurable results, such as paid acquisition or email marketing.

Create clear handoffs and collaboration points

Specialists work best when their roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. Loot's success came from clearly assigning specialists ownership over social media strategy and paid growth, with defined goals and metrics. 

This clarity helps specialists focus deeply on their areas of expertise while still collaborating effectively with the broader team.

Actionable Steps:

• Develop role-specific documentation outlining each specialist's responsibilities.
• Use project management tools like Asana or Monday.com to establish workflows and dependencies.
• Schedule regular sync meetings for cross-functional alignment.
• Create a marketing operations handbook with processes for handoffs and collaboration.

Pro Tip: Use OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to align specialists' work with your company's broader goals.

Set realistic timelines and expectations

The shift to specialist marketing takes time. Most companies see the best results when they:

• Give specialists 90 days to fully understand the business and implement their strategies
• Set clear but flexible KPIs that acknowledge the learning curve
• Plan for regular strategy reviews and adjustments

Actionable Steps:

• Give specialists a 30/60/90-day onboarding plan with key milestones:some text
  • 30 Days: Understand business goals, team dynamics, and data infrastructure.
  • 60 Days: Begin implementing strategies and testing initial ideas.
  • 90 Days: Evaluate performance and refine strategies based on early results.
• Define clear but flexible KPIs that account for learning curves.some text
  • Example: If hiring an SEO specialist, initial KPIs could focus on building a content pipeline and early ranking improvements rather than immediate traffic surges.
• Plan for biweekly or monthly reviews to assess progress and recalibrate if needed.

Pro Tip: Share previous performance data and access to tools upfront so specialists can hit the ground running.

Measure success appropriately

Unlike generalists who might track surface-level metrics across many channels, specialists should be measured on deeper, channel-specific KPIs. For example, rather than just tracking overall traffic, an SEO specialist might focus on:

• Keyword ranking improvements
• Leads generated from organic traffic
• Content engagement metrics
• Conversion rates from organic search

Actionable Steps:

• Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals for each specialist's role.
• Use performance dashboards (e.g., Looker, Tableau) to track KPIs in real time.
• Schedule quarterly reviews to align results with business objectives.

Pro Tip: Establish benchmarks for success before hiring. For instance, if your paid media ROAS is 2x, set a goal to reach 3x within six months.

Conclusion

In 2025, the best way to identify and engage with your target audience is to bring in marketing specialists to test and optimize channels for you. 

Founders and hiring managers might think they want a marketing generalist, assuming they’ll be a faster, cheaper, and more efficient hire than a specialist — but the opposite is true.

Platforms like MarketerHire help companies hire specialists in 48 hours, so hiring a generalist is not faster. 

Specialists can set the strategy and know if it’s working before investing too deeply in it, so hiring a generalist is not cheaper. (Especially if a specialist has to redo their work later.) 

Generalists can’t optimize — or even manage — all channels at once, so hiring generalists is not more efficient. 

When you remove your rose-colored glasses, you see the marketing generalist for what they are: a myth, perpetuated by executives and VCs who don’t understand or value modern marketing. 

You wouldn’t go to a physician for a heart transplant or a dentist for braces. You shouldn’t tap your marketing hobbyist brother-in-law to set up the Amazon ads for your e-commerce store. 

If you’re ready to level-up your marketing with a top 1% marketing specialist, take a look at our pre-vetted marketing roles and meet your perfect marketer for free.