We all feel the economy picking up again and the first idea Marketing Professionals have is to ask for more advertising budget. The past years we were all confronted with reduced budgets or constrains on resources. Is asking for more advertising budget the right way? Or are there other steps to be taken before we should ask for more budget?
In the past I worked for large corporations and the tradition is sometimes to follow the economic curve in managing budgets. However, as my DNA is a mix between a mad man and a mad scientist, loving data and smooth processes is key for creating a scalable marketing team.
Here is my “to do list” for a scalable marketing team:
- Question existing processes: is there still somebody managing an excel sheet for order/campaign intake, gadgets or event management? Time to change to an automated system I would say and spare at least half an FTE on your P&L.
- Are you still transporting pallets of marketing material to your shops without having a clue if it is used? Know that most sales people argue that they don’t have the appropriate marketing materials or that it is not personalised to their needs.
- Do you still manage everything from a central unit? Do you really think you know the local market in every region of your operation? It’s not because you want to promote a service or product x in Brussels, that it’s the same challenge in Ghent or Liège (or any local city in your country ;-) ). Start thinking to use your network of resellers, vendors, stores/shops as mini – marketing teams that do their own sales (which your sales manager will love as it’s part of the DNA of a sales person to do marketing). This involves of course rules and templates, but by “near sourcing” your campaigns, your time is freed to actually help them.
- Are you having at least 2 weekly meetings with the sales director? He’s your partner in crime for any future increase in your budget. If he believes in your campaigns, you’ll get for sure more budget and resources. Do you speak the same language as him? So in € signs and not GRP’s ? Start thinking in attribution models and conversion rates, this is what tickles a sales person.
- Are you mixing the channels already? So sending out a direct mail piece when you are sending out an email and vice versa? It’s about the mix and the combination of an average conversion rate of above 3% (direct mail) with an average conversion rate of above 0,2% (email) mixed with the life time value of your target. (Chinese? Give us a call ;-) ) And even going a step further, fully automating your direct marketing. So no more blasts, but part of your multichannel campaigns.
By asking yourself critically how you can optimise your marketing operations, means that you create a scalable structure for the future and it could be that you first invest in automation, before you ask for advertising euros.
We all feel the economy picking up again and the first idea Marketing Professionals have is to ask for more advertising budget. The past years we were all confronted with reduced budgets or constrains on resources. Is asking for more advertising budget the right way? Or are there other steps to be taken before we should ask for more budget?
By asking yourself critically how you can optimise your marketing operations, means that you create a scalable structure for the future and it could be that you first invest in automation, before you ask for advertising euros.