Have you ever seen a new house being built from the foundation all the way through to final finishing touches on wiring, plumbing, connectivity and even painting? Most people don’t think about the myriad of things that go into making a house function properly. There are hundreds of perfectly timed sequences of operations that are going on behind the walls in our homes. Everything we do everyday is because there is a world of planned technology and infrastructure already in place behind the walls and in the foundation. If we didn’t have it already in place and functional, the water wouldn’t come out of the faucet, the lights would stay dark, the refrigerator wouldn’t be cool and the modern conveniences of living just wouldn’t exist – yikes.
Is Your Marketing Department Hitting On All Cylinders?
Let’s take this same concept and bring it to work with you in the marketing department. I am challenging all of my marketing peers out there who are responsible for marketing planning, strategy, infrastructure, technology, creative and execution. Your home may be working correctly, but is your marketing department hitting on all cylinders?
6 Tips For Building A Marketing Foundation
- Marketing Skills: Does your staff have the right skills and training to complete in today’s hyper-competitive, digital marketing world? If they don’t, find workshops, webinars and conferences to help them equipped.
- Assess your existing technology: Is your technology accomplishing what you need it to? If it isn’t, why? What needs to happen?
- Social Media: Is it possible you have launched too many social media channels? This is very common mistake in marketing departments. Once you do this, now there are way too many content mouths to feed with the staff you have. Assess your social media use and find out which ones works best for the brand. Remove the ones that are not hitting the mark and are underperformers.
- Content Marketing: This is a big one. Look for ways to integrate content marketing strategies and tactics into your existing marketing plan. Customers don’t want just advertisements from brands, they want to be in control and are searching for valuable, relevant content.
- Scheduling: Chances are, your team can be more efficient. Look for ways to help them use their time more effectively
- Content Calendar: In order for content marketing to work well, one of the things you must have in place is an annual content calendar. Divide each month into 4 weeks. Then decide what topical content you need to produce and assign it a month/week/due date and person. Plan this out all the way through the year. Along the way you can make adjustments. Remember, without a plan, you are most likely setting yourself up to fail.
Yourbrandexposed.com is designed to look at digital with an eye into the future using a creative, innovative marketing perspective. We’re a consultative and tactical resource for companies looking to leverage the power of digital, social and content marketing strategies.
Scott MacFarland
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Email:Yourbrandexposed@yahoo.com
Photo Credit:Paul Bica