Tag Archive for People

Marketing, Strategy

Smarter Decisions – marketing skills can help

People talk about marketing from a communication POV but there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes.

smart thinkingMarketing can help making smarter decisions through the conscious alignment of what the organisation needs and an understanding of which stakeholders (customers) can best help deliver on those.

People with a marketing orientation (they can be anywhere in your organisation) are on top of what challenges face the Org and are very aware of who their important stakeholders are and what’s affecting them, today.

The smarter decision comes from being proactive, empowered and understanding what fits and what’s on the fringes. When you demonstrate this in your actions, touch-points inside and outside the organisation, you build trust, gain credibility and are far more efficient. Those fringe offers, opportunities and proposals don’t take up all of your precious time. Yes, as part of your ongoing environmental scanning, you’ll have an eye out for new things, but your knowledge of the Org and your customers/stakeholders will keep you progressive, innovative and value adding.

Communications, Marketing, Strategy

Marketing – not just for the department of !

Non Marketers Contributing to Marketing

Non Marketers Contributing to Marketing

We’ve just finished a conference key note for around 130 non marketers talking about marketing, and while we’ve done a number of sessions like this over the past few years I’m always excited at the feedback we get. While if you work in marketing, its your daily thing but for non marketers to have an insight into what actually happens behind the scenes to drive the front end comms and new products/services is a bit of an eye opener and even reassuring for them.

While our sessions are always fast paced and motivating, the knowledge shared, understanding gained can only help the organisation and the marketers as they recruit and retain clients, because more people are onboard for what needs to be done.

Certainly when you empower the PEOPLE part of your marketing mix, its a distinct bonus as employee advocates are highly trusted sources of information, also processes permitting, you might find more problems are solved for customers and opportunities realised for customers and stakeholders at the point of contact. This makes your brand really sing to all those inside and outside of the organisation.

A business/organisation with empowered, marketing orientated people can cope with changing conditions and customer demands far better than those who haven’t invested in this internal opportunity.

You need to expose more of your people to marketing ideals and this can start by the marketing department doing more internal presentations and launches and being open to feedback and buy-in from across the organisation.

Marketing, Mashman Stuff, Training

Employee Advocacy and Marketing

There’s lots of chat about employee advocacy which is great for marketers as it elevates the recognition that people are massively important in the marketing mix. Certainly while you and your team might be fantastic at all aspects of the marketing mix, if you are let down by the people internal to the business or your distribution touch points, all your good work can unravel !

Marketers need to work across the organisation motivating and getting all types of staff up to speed with the customer and marketing challenges, some might call this internal marketing but its even more as you look to empower your people to live the brand and be excited about being ambassadors for it. Its going to require conscious effort and marketers need to be working with HR or those responsible for bring new people in (and moving people out) to ensure you’ve got people who can add value not just administer processes !

To imaging how good this could be for your organisation, you need only think back to inter departmental breakdowns, poor communications inside the business or in a retail sense how a waiter or waitress may have taken the positive edge of your last coffee, date, or special occasion !

Action – Do an audit of the people in your network who might have any kind of touch point with customers or critical stakeholders, start with more and improved communication, empower these people by demonstrating trust, train them where training is needed, listen to them for coal face feedback and then work on getting more like them !

Do something about the first step today.

 

Employee Advocacy and Social Opportunity