Marketing has become increasingly complicated over the past several years.
Effective marketing campaigns backed by marketing strategy appear seamless. Particularly from the outside. But a great deal of resources must go into establishing the vision and direction before the execution can even begin. To experience marketing-driven growth, alignment between multiple factors is crucial.
Those factors go beyond any single tactic (such as social media). They also go beyond any individual campaign, no matter how impactful. Instead, many core components come together to form an intricate web. Each piece reinforces the rest. The result is the achievement of your common marketing goals.
Many organizations experience marketing fragmentation. They are especially vulnerable to this during the early years of organic growth. At that time, the company founder often serves as the face of the business. They assume the role of principal brand ambassador. Such an arrangement makes sense at first.
It is even considered very satisfying by many founders.
But, as many can attest to–it cannot last forever.
The pivot to marketing-led growth requires a cohesive and coherent approach. It is about more than changing a mindset – that is, willingness to delegate what was previously a principal’s responsibility. It is about developing a structure that can support growth and scaling on a timeline that spans years, not quarters.
Beyond the interpersonal dimension is the question of structure.
And it is the structure that provides the results.
Structure Provides Results – Here Are Its Key Elements
At its core, structure is about a well-defined vision.
You may already have an internal marketing team. However, there are thousands of “marketing personnel” out there who actually do very little EFFECTIVE marketing. Sometimes, that happens because they don’t understand how each marketing piece fits together within the whole, leading to chaotic experiences for the target audience, confusing analytics, and ultimately a loss of ROI. Most often, this is because there is not a unified plan and strategy to pull everything together that gives the direction they need.
Lack of structure and guidance has tangible effects on business, particularly on timelines. Approvals take longer. Costs are higher to produce what should be easily attainable. And opportunity costs continue to mount as other projects fall by the wayside due to the relative lack of people-hours available to pursue them.
Structure can counteract these ills and more—but the sooner it is put in place, the better.
What are the key elements of structure in a marketing context? They are:
1. The Marketing Job Descriptions
Rather than limiting a marketing team’s agency, drive, or creativity, structure is the key to unlocking their full potential. Empowerment begins before the hire is even made. That’s because structure must begin early. The individual marketing roles must be imbued with purpose. That starts with the marketing job descriptions.
Unless the marketing job descriptions are fully aligned with their true purpose, an organization cannot attract the right talent. The candidates who do apply may be excellent – or they may not be – but in either case, they will not prove able to deliver on your expectations. And eventually, that cycle will repeat.
2. Setting Clear Marketing Expectations
Expectations make up another critical aspect of marketing structure. Those expectations are communicated in part within the hiring process—using the job description, as above, and the interview. Once talent is selected, expectations must be reiterated within an on-boarding process that makes sense.
That forms the foundation of the relationship. The foundation, in turn, is the basis of any structure. Once on-boarding is complete, expectations must continue to flow from leadership. They may be revised as conditions warrant, but they must remain evident and accessible to everyone within the team.
3. Defining Realistic Marketing Goals
Realistic goal-setting is a topic on which gallons of ink have been spilled. Reams of pages have been devoted to it. We have all heard of “SMART goals.” For marketing in particular, the rub comes when leaders–who are not themselves familiar with the marketing landscape–develop goals on the basis of secondhand information.
Be careful…marketing goals that appear reasonable at first can prove to be anything but. This has a demoralizing effect that negatively impacts employee engagement. Ultimately, that can lead to a vicious cycle, driving turnover that will impair the marketing function and deprive you of the institutional knowledge that capital marketing demands.
By contrast, realistic marketing goals based on good data, industry knowledge, and proper strategies will empower your marketing team to keep winning and challenge themselves to achieve the next milestone. Furthermore, you’ll have a good grasp on what is working and what is not, which helps foster important financial decisions that lead to return.
4. Testing and Evaluation
Effective marketing is not only strategic, it is scientific in the classical sense. It posits a hypothesis, tests that hypothesis, records observations, and revises said hypothesis. To be data-driven is not simply to have a pool of numbers at your dispoal; rather, data must be understood and applied to be of any lasting value.
Organizations must therefore start by identifying the key sources of data they currently collect as well as those they need. Then the appropriate data collection mechanisms must be in place. Then, the right people must be in the right roles to interpret data and separate the signal from the noise. Finally, the stewards of all that data must impart lessons learned to those responsible for both the marketing strategy and its tactical execution.
And all this–from clear job descriptions to responsible expectations to defined goals to evaluation–must happen continuously and simultaneously, creating a flywheel type of marketing that produces synchronized energy from the inside out.
The consultants at Andrew & West provide vision, guidance, and direction to implement a marketing strategy and all of its accompanying structure. That structure will scale with your business, facilitate growth, and drive complete strategic alignment. Call us to inquire further.
