Is your marketing all talk and no action?
You realise that your sales figures are not what they should be, or that you want to make that quantum leap to the next level as a business, and marketing is going to help you get there - but there is a catch, and that's where you get caught.
So often entrepreneurs, sales managers, marketing managers and other key stakeholders have bold ideas on how they can make their company more successful. They get all excited about what they are going to do, and quite often get all the people around them on the same page believing that the company is about to reach new heights - then, nothing happens.
So often entrepreneurs, sales managers, marketing managers and other key stakeholders have bold ideas on how they can make their company more successful. They get all excited about what they are going to do, and quite often get all the people around them on the same page believing that the company is about to reach new heights - then, nothing happens.
Hiring a new marketing person, or marketing agency?
First they either hire a new marketing person, or hire a marketing agency, then they soon realise that it isn't as simple as that. In fact, these people cannot read minds and they can't get information out of thin air.
The biggest obstacles are:
- The basics: logos, brochures, passwords to websites, social media, e-marketing tools, marketing automation software and so on.
- Knowledge: Mixed messages makes it confusing for any person to do marketing, and be able to effectively develop marketing tools and campaigns that are 'on message'.
- No direction: "We need to rebrand, fresh marketing materials, campaigns" and then, nothing. What does rebrand mean? It means different things to different people, including those of whom are in the marketing game. Fresh marketing materials needs key messages, image library and purpose. Campaigns need to have goals, key messages, image library and call to actions.
- I'll get to that tomorrow: A meeting is held and promises are made. People promise to provide information the next day or that week and it never comes. That means the marketing person cannot do their job.
- No strategy: Someone has this great idea to by-pass writing a strategy because there are more urgent things to do, then after a heap of tactical items have been done, they soon realise that they have no purpose, KPI's or direction. Marketing strategies are imperative to every business - period.
- Payment of bills: If you hire an external agency, then you have to pay your bills on time. If you don't pay your bills, any decent agency would stop work until you do. So if you are a repetitive late payer, then you will find that everything is delayed and by the time you actually pay, they may have allocated that time to paying clients.
New marketing hires need:
- Direction
- Resources
- Team effort
- Information and knowledge
- Boundaries
- Deadlines
- Information requested in a prompt manner
- Access to all marketing assets
New marketing agency appointments need:
- Direction and purpose
- KPI's
- Information in a timely manner
- Brand guidelines and key messages
- Access to people and marketing assets
- Discussion, feedback and a clear set of goals
Kicking sales and marketing goals requires strategic direction, purpose and a set timeline. If you run your marketing like a well oiled machine, you will be more successful. This is a proven methodology. The blame game is easy to do, but if everyone isn't on-board and doesn't see the urgency in providing the right information and knowledge to stakeholders - you will fail in your efforts.
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Thomas Valat
21 Dec 2017According to me, the most important element in hiring a marketing person or agency is to give a clear direction and a concrete purpose. The communication between each stakeholder has to be transparent and the marketing team has to possess all the strategic information, including the past marketing actions, to avoid any waste of time. Nowadays, one of the main issues for marketing teams is to convince directors to share data and information even if they considerate it as useless.
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