I want to start this blog series “Rethinking traditional marketing” with one topic that I see as a huge problem these days. It’s the traditional marketing struggling to adjust and make sense of this new world where consumers are elusive; the economy is going down the pipe and everyone is talking about web 2.0 (I think it’s 3.0 now or whatever the latest buzz word is) but few have the slightest idea what that is or how to apply it to your business.
Look from the inside:
If you worked in a large or mid size company’s marketing department you know what I am talking about. You typically hear from your senior management phrases like:
“Direct mail has always worked for us.”
“Web is only X% of our revenues, it’s growing, but it’ll be a while before it makes as much money as our call center.”
“Sure, web is very important to us, we’ve just redesigned the website.”
The problem is very obvious: with an average Chief Marketing Officer staying with one company for less than one year these days, senior management wants to play it safe. A new marketing executive comes on board, but he or she does not have neither the time nor the data and the metrics to assess what has worked in the past and what has not, and especially what has worked but is no longer working.
Most ad agencies you work with don’t make it any easier either. They want you to do TV, print advertising, billboards or even redesign your website, but rarely will anyone say, let’s do a comprehensive review of the past campaigns and performance and figure out the bigger strategy for your future marketing.
On top of that, you may have several departments that don’t talk to each other. Everyone operates in their silos: direct mail, TV, call center, customer support center, and web – which is often controlled by your IT department. And even if the head of each department knows how much they spent on a campaign, they rarely will share this information, and forget about measuring the return.
In other companies Marketing VP or CMO has full control over all marketing. But in he or she typically has a preferred marketing channel (TV, print or whatever) usually because its familiar, it has worked for their previous company, etc. The efforts are focused around that channel and all other channels are usually treated like stepchildren.
What customers see:
Here is how it looks from the outside to the customer. Unaware of these “Washington politics” inside your company, users come to your website and can’t figure out why there’s no single word about that special offer the TV commercial talked about. They get annoyed when you send them credit card offers for the card they already have. They recognize your direct mail and put it straight into trash. They see newly redesigned website. Maybe at first they are impressed with the modern look and flash animation, but then they start cursing at the usability of this thing, trying to either locate your phone number, or find out your store hours or the “Buy” button.
So, if you are a marketing executive or a mid-level marketing manager, what do you do to start fixing this mess?
In the next few posts I will try to provide some small practical steps you can take to rethink you marketing and slowly transform it into a more meaningful way to communicate from your company to the world. I don’t claim to be a super expert, I just have a few practical things that I want to share from my experience in working with multiple industries and companies.
Before my next post, here’s the first step I suggest you take:
Make a list of all the touch points your company has with its prospective and current clients. Some of them will be under your control like TV commercials or print materials; others will be external, like press your company receives. Make a fairly detailed list, and if there are distinct campaigns that take place throughout the year, note each one separately. For some ideas on what to include, see my cheat sheet below. I’ll talk about what to do with this list in the next post one week from now.
Touch points list
- TV
- Radio
- Magazines and Newspapers
- Outdoor (billboards, company vehicles, buses and trucks, outdoor signs)
- Brochures, business cards, catalogs
- Direct mail
- Email
- Phone numbers and departments that interact with the customers
- Office locations
- PR
- Events, trade shows and exhibitions
- Your website
- Blogs
- Social Networking sites
- Other websites (Search for your company name, or brand and go to websites that show up on the first page of results)
Gold Award Winner: 5232 – PRLaw.org – General Website Categories – Law and Legal Services2011
2011 Silver Award Winner: 5230 – UMakeItClick.org – General Website Categories – Education
and they only use it in a limited fashion (see their usage terms).