In Darwinian terms, the demands of the new breed of customer not only forces the evolution of the marketing practice but that of marketing practitioners as well — and a new breed of marketer is emerging.

The content engineer is a marketer who engineers and optimizes the many forms of content required to engage customer 2.0, based on the data presented by the many analysis tools.

Social-media monitoring and analysis give them the pulse on buyer sentiments on brands, products, and ad campaigns. Web analytics tell them which content is engaging which type of visitor from which source.

Search engine optimization tools present them with the right keywords to include on their Web site to improve page rank (and thus findability) with search engines. Leveraging all the social and behavioral intelligence available to them, content engineers develop and apply the right content, at the right time, to engage the right audience in the most effective manner possible.

Part creative left brain and part scientific right brain, content engineers live and breathe the new marketing math: creativity without conversions = zero!