As with most aspects of business operations, marketing is evolving to align with shifting customer interests. New methods are becoming today’s best practice. Novel and disruptive ideas are resulting in innovative campaign concepts.
Following conventional paths will no longer yield the expected ROI nor build brand equity with the target audience. The adoption of digital tools and technologies is key to the advancement of performance.
Here are critical steps to help you and your team perform projects that will have impact with customers and the bottom line.
Often departments are structured as silos with very little common ground or joint efforts. Digital transformation requires intersecting disciplines and removing traditional barriers. The ethos of a company depends upon shared ownership of functional, operational, strategic and innovative capacities.
IT is a company’s heartbeat, overseeing technology and securing scalable internal systems.
Marketing is its persona and customer conduit, designing a value-driven brand experience.
Making headway in your digital presence, engagement and earnings relies on an alignment and synergy between these sources.
At the core of the two branches is data.
IT = how data is assembled, structured, stored, secured and dispersed
Marketing = how data is utilized, analyzed, modeled, made actionable and measured
Strengthen your Infrastructure and Marketing by developing blended strategies, projects and metrics. And optimize your investment by no longer operating them as cost-centers, but instead as engines for revenue augmentation.
Marketers have a pivotal role and a fundamental responsibility to contribute to bottom-line numbers. To be an earnings asset, a marketing leader must execute auspicious projects.
Attaining an optimal ROI requires advanced planning and a rigorous process of framing the initiative. When creating a campaign, producing new content, generating a channel mix, preparing a go-to-market plan or designing an experience, the team must first tackle the ‘why’.
Finish the statement – We are investing time and resources in this project because ….
Be clear on the answer, which should include the benefit to the company and the value to customers.
Next is alignment. Does the project support business objectives and current priorities? Is there alignment to the buyer’s reasoning and requisites? There needs to be specific orientations, meaning that you define the project alliance with company objectives and customer intent, and identify the priority association.
A brand’s value is its voice. Authenticity strengthens brand authority. A communication strategy institutes the concrete foundation of customer engagement, trust and loyalty. The style and true essence of your messaging has a significant influence on buyer confidence. What matters is relevancy, precision, compelling expression, vivacity and a positive experience. Detouring outside ‘customary’ content and daring to be expressive and novel are how today’s innovators deviate from the standard bearers. To be resonating requires the art of persuasion.
We are experiencing a major health crisis across the globe which impacts businesses of all sizes and requires clear and constructive messaging.
An organization is judged by how it performs in both thriving and volatile moments, placing the greatest weight on how effective they share information, reveal their confidence and character, encourage and motivate, and focus on progress and positive momentum.
At a time when technology and touch points dominate commerce, brand and marketing strategies are becoming increasingly fluid. To ensure your programs deliver the desired results, consider the following:
A brand has a broad array of components such as graphics, messaging, style guide, logos, marketing materials, business templates, video files, signage, event provisions, promotional designs and many other resources. Managing these assets effectively with essential protocols requires a centralized system that has features such as:
Directory mapping
File hierarchy
Browser-based interface
Optimal findability
Ease and speed of import / export
Preferred display options
Categorization and configuring models
Well-defined naming conventions
Customizable taxonomies to allow for industry-specific classifications
Metadata for search optimization
Accessibility permissions and controls
Security functions
Detection of duplicates
File lifecycle tracking
Administrative tools including file transformation, resizing & transcoding
Auto-generated notifications and alerts
Many companies still rely on depositories that consume a tremendous amount of time for manual management. Further, depository link sharing rarely has longstanding dependability.
While it may be challenging to offer a concise ROI for investing in an asset management system, the organizational gains are significant & time-savings is a cost benefit that will payback appreciably. Avoid the stockpile implications – and don’t put your assets on the line!
A Marketing leader must serve as a powerful brand voice and ambassador, as well as a pragmatic change agent in pursuit of market positioning in the digital age.
How do you constructively and convincingly establish a formidable marketing axis?
#1 Knowledge
Continually get exposure across your industry and the competition, gaining critical insights on cutting-edge business practices. Seek out trends, anomalies, disruptions, and novel ideals that are essential to weigh and factor them into your chartered course.
Similar to a sales or operations leader, those overseeing brand and marketing programs must be subject matter experts with well-defined action plans.
#2 Strategy
I’ve discovered that one’s approach to business is everything. Being open, curious, agile and engaging are the foundations to flourishing as a valuable leader, partner and team member. Strategy requires a 360 degree view.
And being meaningful to your audience matters. A company’s business strategy must be, above all else, relevant and applicable, as well as capable of being successfully achieved and measured.
#3 Performance
Some insights to construct and execute your project in thriving fashion.
Articulate well and be specific
Set goals, milestones and benchmarks in advance
Envision and communicate future needs and requirements
Avoid an idealistic approach and rigid tactics
Adopt realistic expectations
Prepare for obstacles and constraints
Challenge assumptions
Address concerns and overcome objectives
Assess proposed shifts with prudence and diligence
Monitor momentum (or lack of)
Track performance against milestones
Evaluate progress and analyze results
#4 Digital Rapport
We are saturated in messaging, moments and ‘must haves’. There needs to be breathing room and a balance of touch points, cadence and social bearing. Allow the audience to gravitate at their pace, not on your demand.
Lean into them, don’t loom over them.
Share an affinity, don’t shout a message.
The user journey must demonstrate commonality at its core along with intrigue sprinkled throughout the landscape. It’s imperative to remember that the aim is for a unique, persuasive and enduring experience. Make your business model sufficiently experimental and permeable to continually modify, reallocate and curve direction, which must be closely tested to assess market penetration and customer responses.
#5 Final Thoughts
Frequently research and refresh your company’s business intelligence to ensure your strategy doesn’t become stale or antiquated.
Be open to changing course when evidence clearly shows a need to pivot.
And of utmost importance, go for a joy-ride in your work! Let the love in! Having a true, deep passion for you work means you get to live the dream.
