Marketing Trenches

MediaPost ran a quick column today that summarizes some thoughts from Michael Roth, Chairman/CEO of the Interpublic Group of Companies.  In case you’re not aware, Interpublic is one of the big four advertising agency holding companies, claiming agencies like Deutsch, Hill Holliday and McCann Erickson under its massive umbrella.  Amongst other things, Roth discusses media becoming a commodity, and notes that the winners in the media business (and thus the winners of client media dollars) will be those marketers and agencies who can command the lowest cost for that media.  Here is a link to the full article:

Interpublic Chief Paints Media as a ‘Commodity’

Now, while I tend to agree with the premise that media is fast becoming a commodity, I disagree with a few of Roth’s statements, such as:

“I think that’s what you are seeing right now is clients are demanding to see where their dollars are being spent,” Roth said during a presentation at Tuesday’s session of UBS’ “Media Week” conference in New York.

OK, so while this is true, I find it a bit odd that the demand to see where dollars are being spent is a “new” request.  Were the Fortune 500 type clients of Interpublic NOT asking to see where their dollars were being spent prior to this financial crisis we’re in?  Yikes.

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If you’re a B2B marketer, answer the following questions quickly:

1) What is your company/organization?

2) What do you help other organizations accomplish? (Here’s a hint - if you’re not helping them either reduce costs or generate revenue, you may be in trouble.)

3) How do you help those organizations accomplish that goal?

4) What types of organizations do you help?

You, and all the members of your marketing and sales team, should be able to answer those questions in 30 seconds or less.  If not, there’s a messaging problem.  In my experience, only 1 of every 4 marketing management types can answer these questions without stumbling. 

If you don’t know your message, why do you expect prospects to understand your message?

I was recently talking to a marketing executive at a mid-sized software company, and he brought up a problem he was having with “closing the loop” between marketing’s lead generation efforts and the sales team’s revenue output.  He mentioned that while the company had recently invested in a CRM solution and some accompanying marketing automation software, that there was still missing data, incorrect data, and a general distaste for the new solution within the sales team.

Having run into this situation a number of times, I followed with three simple questions:

Question 1: Who actually implemented the CRM/marketing automation solution for you?

Answer: We used an outside consultant who focuses on these specific types of implementations.

Question 2: Who built the process and rules surrounding the treatment of leads both inside and outside the CRM solution?

Answer: The same guy, the CRM consultant.

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Social media is hot.  If you’re a marketer and you don’t know that, you must be busy reading your back issues of The Industry Standard. 

From a business standpoint, 90% of companies are trying to figure out how to address social media, and the other 10% are just pretending they know what they’re doing with regards to social media.  Much like the early days of the internet as a new medium, social media vehicles are developing so quickly that it’s almost impossible to keep up and address the business opportunities associated with social media.

My guess is that social media is going to be a topic covered in this blog for years to come, but just in case this is the last time we discuss it, here are a few things you should know about this phenomenon:

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Clients and agencies frequently ask me about how I’d structure an internal internet marketing department.  Clients typically ask because as they see their internet marketing programs expanding, they naturally begin to wonder if they can save money and take more control by bringing the entire function in-house.  Agencies typically ask because they see client dollars shifting at a rapid clip towards the internet, and they naturally begin to wonder whether they can create a new revenue stream within the agency.

No easy answers here.  Factors include company type, size, industry, budget, existing leadership, financial goals, etc.  It goes without saying that every situation is unique.  Over the next few months I’ll provide some deeper insight into the topic, but here are two initial pieces of guidance:

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Raise your hand if your website redesign or relaunch has been delayed due to website copy modifications, or specifically the idea that 2-3 members of your senior management team need to review site copy before it goes live. 

Based on experience, I am certain there are a bunch of you with your hands raised.  4 of every 5 website projects I’ve been involved in veer off track due to delays in the copy approval/revision process, not necessarily the copywriting process (although the initial copywriting phase is a delay candidate as well).

Why so many cooks in the kitchen, you might ask?  From what I can gather, the reasons are fairly simple.  In a mid-size organization, a Director or Manager level employee “owns” the website project, and may even have a webmaster or marketing manager as a “co-owner”.  Then you insert 1-3 members of the senior management team, all of whom (rightfully so) hold a stake in the success of the website.  Those members of the senior management team may be involved in the early phases of the website revamp process - they want to sign off on final design, general site structure, etc.  But what they REALLY want to get involved in is the copywriting of the website, or at least the critique of copywriting piece of the website.

Right or wrong (and senior management getting involved in copywriting is not necessarily a bad thing), here’s why senior management wants to get involved, and why it always causes delays:

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We all know that doctors don’t always have the time, knowledge or resources to market their practices.  That being said, there is one cheap, efficient, fast method that doctors can use to drive new patients, and retain current patients - local search listings.

For the sake of this exercise, we’ll use this new search engine called Google.  Hopefully everyone has heard of it.  Let’s assume I am looking for a pediatrician in Morristown, New Jersey - naturally, I go to Google and type in “pediatricians morristown nj”.  Although your results may differ slightly depending on location and your preferences, here is what most will see:

Google Search for Pediatricians Morristown NJ

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My apologies on the use of the modern acronym.  For those who don’t know, “BFF” stands for “Best Friends Forever”.  Now, on with the post…

I was recently re-reading a post from Brian Carroll in his B2B Lead Generation Blog, titled “Collaboration Huddles and 35 Other Ways to Improve Sales and Marketing Teamwork”.  Although I can always grab something useful from Brian’s posts, within his list of 35 I immediately stopped when I read #15:

15. Get the marketing team out in the field with the sales team regularly.

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