What does the person responsible for the marketing rebuild do, on a daily basis?
Sell The Message: Every single day, the leader is asking every single employee (not just marketing employees) what the employee did to acquire a new customer that day. Every day. Say it enough times, and employees will learn to bring examples before you walk into the conference room.
Ask Folks To Prove That Their Tactics Work: When the creative team tries something new, the creative team has to prove that they acquired more customers with their idea than with existing ideas. Obviously, the creative team isn't going to learn how to program in Python, so you're going to have to do the heavy lifting here. Nonetheless, you will hold your creative team and your merchandising team accountable. You have to ... if you don't do it, nobody will do it. Then, craft your efforts around the creative presentations that work best. If you are a cataloger, then the marketer (not creative, not merchandising) is responsible for prospect catalog performance - so use the best creative and put the darn catalog together yourself (the best performing prospect catalogs I've ever seen were literally cut-and-pasted by a marketing expert - seriously - the reason prospect (smaller) catalogs don't work is because marketers do not assemble them). And when your prospect catalog outperforms existing mailings, show everybody why. Put together your own email campaigns. Seriously - you are the marketer, and these are the kind of things that leading marketers do. If office politics prevent you from doing your job, then you had better be all over those who are accountable - show these folks what works and what does not work.
Harp On Merchandise Productivity: Old Navy sales plummeted at the end of 2015. Do you think that's the fault of the marketer? Highly doubtful. Business doesn't meet expectations when customers don't like the merchandise you sell. And the person who takes the fall for merchandising challenges is the marketing guru. Oh, sure, the merchandising leader is eventually going to pay the price, but not before easy solutions (plug-and-play marketers) have been exhausted. You are not a plug-and-play marketer. So fight for your job. Constantly share what merchandise productivity is, by category. Let every employee know the categories that are working, and the categories that are not working. Post a digital television with a merchandising / new customer scoreboard next to the front entryway to your corporate office, so that every employee is forced to look at the numbers. Seriously ... run a stock ticker with +/- percentages for each merchandise category. I know, I know, you don't want to offend anybody. You have to teach every employee why the business is not meeting expectations. If that means that every employee must know that Widgets are running a -8% merchandise comp, then so be it.
Spend Time With Your Brand Response Marketing Team: If you don't, they'll run themselves in a direction you don't want them to go ... or more commonly, they'll just disband.
Reward Incessantly: Constantly point out and reward the behaviors that align with your customer acquisition program. I mean, sure, social media engagement is important, but if engagement does not lead to new customers, then good work that does not align with your program is not rewarded as much as good work that does align with your program. It's a lot like training a dog, folks. Spot bonuses everywhere for the folks who find ways to increase new customers at no/low cost.
Hold Vendors Accountable: You cannot spend all day holding employees accountable while letting vendors do what they please. Reward the vendors that meaningfully contribute to new customers - pay them spot bonuses too. Hold everybody else accountable for their results. I mean, for crying out loud, all we read about is vendor nonsense, and the garbage you tell me that vendors get away with ... it has to stop. No more small tactics from vendors. Vendor employees ARE YOUR EMPLOYEES too.
You don't get to just sit in your office.
You have to hustle.
All day.
Every day.
Ok, tell me why I am wrong ... use the comments or send me an email message.
Sell The Message: Every single day, the leader is asking every single employee (not just marketing employees) what the employee did to acquire a new customer that day. Every day. Say it enough times, and employees will learn to bring examples before you walk into the conference room.
Ask Folks To Prove That Their Tactics Work: When the creative team tries something new, the creative team has to prove that they acquired more customers with their idea than with existing ideas. Obviously, the creative team isn't going to learn how to program in Python, so you're going to have to do the heavy lifting here. Nonetheless, you will hold your creative team and your merchandising team accountable. You have to ... if you don't do it, nobody will do it. Then, craft your efforts around the creative presentations that work best. If you are a cataloger, then the marketer (not creative, not merchandising) is responsible for prospect catalog performance - so use the best creative and put the darn catalog together yourself (the best performing prospect catalogs I've ever seen were literally cut-and-pasted by a marketing expert - seriously - the reason prospect (smaller) catalogs don't work is because marketers do not assemble them). And when your prospect catalog outperforms existing mailings, show everybody why. Put together your own email campaigns. Seriously - you are the marketer, and these are the kind of things that leading marketers do. If office politics prevent you from doing your job, then you had better be all over those who are accountable - show these folks what works and what does not work.
Harp On Merchandise Productivity: Old Navy sales plummeted at the end of 2015. Do you think that's the fault of the marketer? Highly doubtful. Business doesn't meet expectations when customers don't like the merchandise you sell. And the person who takes the fall for merchandising challenges is the marketing guru. Oh, sure, the merchandising leader is eventually going to pay the price, but not before easy solutions (plug-and-play marketers) have been exhausted. You are not a plug-and-play marketer. So fight for your job. Constantly share what merchandise productivity is, by category. Let every employee know the categories that are working, and the categories that are not working. Post a digital television with a merchandising / new customer scoreboard next to the front entryway to your corporate office, so that every employee is forced to look at the numbers. Seriously ... run a stock ticker with +/- percentages for each merchandise category. I know, I know, you don't want to offend anybody. You have to teach every employee why the business is not meeting expectations. If that means that every employee must know that Widgets are running a -8% merchandise comp, then so be it.
Spend Time With Your Brand Response Marketing Team: If you don't, they'll run themselves in a direction you don't want them to go ... or more commonly, they'll just disband.
Reward Incessantly: Constantly point out and reward the behaviors that align with your customer acquisition program. I mean, sure, social media engagement is important, but if engagement does not lead to new customers, then good work that does not align with your program is not rewarded as much as good work that does align with your program. It's a lot like training a dog, folks. Spot bonuses everywhere for the folks who find ways to increase new customers at no/low cost.
Hold Vendors Accountable: You cannot spend all day holding employees accountable while letting vendors do what they please. Reward the vendors that meaningfully contribute to new customers - pay them spot bonuses too. Hold everybody else accountable for their results. I mean, for crying out loud, all we read about is vendor nonsense, and the garbage you tell me that vendors get away with ... it has to stop. No more small tactics from vendors. Vendor employees ARE YOUR EMPLOYEES too.
You don't get to just sit in your office.
You have to hustle.
All day.
Every day.
Ok, tell me why I am wrong ... use the comments or send me an email message.
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