THREE MARKETING IMPROVEMENTS THAT MAKE LIFE HARD
Like everything in life, marketing is changing. Better data, smarter tools, new ways to collaborate and get more done. We have tech for this, tools for that and platform upon platform to keep us on track.
But is it really helping? Can we deliver more for less? Are we driving better results? And with so many new ways to make marketing easy, why does it sometimes feel so hard?
We took a look at three big trends: always-on data, creative delivery tools and the way we work together. What are the upsides? What are the downsides? And what can we fix to make marketing better?
ALWAYS-ON REPORTING
The more you know the better work. In theory, yes. In practice, noise. Back in the day, we did some marketing, crossed our fingers and prayed a bit. It wasn’t perfect but it worked back then.
These days we collect data on the daily. Every conceivable thing is cuddled into a dashboard and analysed to death. It's awesome, but we drown in it. Data, data everywhere, no time to stop and think.
The challenge of all these numbers is relevance. Half of it shows what we already know and the other half doesn’t say much. But the big problem is bigger than that. You can’t spot a trend in the moment.
While data can bounce on the daily, human behaviour doesn’t. Activity builds demand over months or even years and computers spit out numbers in seconds. So the science of the long and short of it becomes a race for the short and the shorter. Always-on reporting measures tactics over strategy.
Easy access to data is awesome. But always-on noise is confusing.
How do we focus on what matters most?
END-TO-END EFFICIENCY
Everyone has the tools to do everything these days. And lots of people do. But hustling a project end-to-end cuts out the clarity of human intervention. It’s not the doing bits that add the most value, it’s the thinking bits between them that makes the magic happen.
When we hand a project from specialist to specialist we’re forced to stay tight on what we’re doing and why. The discipline of crafting a brief is a sanity check on strategy. Sure it takes a little longer, but it also keeps the train on track. Every new person has the chance to make it better – and the outside the project insight can spot when the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.
Every brief is a blend of Who? What? Why? Where? When? and How? But if one human (or team) is answering all six questions, the groupthink sets in, the questions don’t get questioned and the customer we’re trying to persuade can easily get forgotten.
Creative tools and tech are great. But humans add the most value.
How do we find the best blend of both?
FLEXIBLE WORKING
Yes we said it. Flexible working can also be kryptonite for marketing. But maybe not for the reasons you’d think. It’s not about whether people actually work on Friday. It’s that Tuesday and Thursday are nuts.
Since people like talking with people in person, a five day spread of meetings will often get crammed into two. Our weeks get split into "input days” and “output days”. And this means two days a week in solid back-to-backs where no one has a second to think.
The challenge is that most of us can’t function on that much input. Science tells us that more than two meetings in a row aren’t likely to be that useful. Then every meeting after the third is a smile and wave zombie show as we run through our to do lists in the back of our minds and wish we were anywhere else.
Flexible working is great. But back-to-back meetings are not.
Can we have one without the other?
SO HOW DO WE FIX IT?
It’s tough to find solutions in the storm of always-on. But the answers are always clearer when we know what we want to achieve. Because it’s not the stuff we do that matters, it’s what that work means for our customers. If marketing is the science of generating demand, what are the things that actually move the needle?
Here’s three easy fixes to kick us off:
Kill the noise – use hero data to outline progress, but cut the noise of process.
Slow the race – actively look for humans to slow stuff down and add value.
Take ten – making space between inputs will always land better outputs.
If you feel a pinball in a mad-cap carnival of chaos – bouncing off the latest metrics to colour in content at the speed of life, you’re so not alone. But nothing will change until we change it. And it’s not the people or their passion that make the marketing hard – it’s when the tools start wagging the dog.
That’s what I reckon, what do you think?