The overworked, underappreciated marketing executive

Posted by Larry Garfield on 27 July 2010 | 1 Comments

For nearly 30 years, I've had the good fortune to work with an incredible number of great partners as clients. People who have a combination of great business acumen, imagination, insight into their customers, and deep knowledge as to how to drive results.

Recently, a new trend has emerged that is troubling. It's put a huge strain on our partners and I think limits their ability to do great work. I call it the "overworked, underappreciated marketing executive."

You might be one. Or know one. Constantly running behind. Juggling too many priorities and too little budget. Managing too many vendors and resources. Stretched way too thin to have time to think or-- imagine this-- plan ahead.

Why? At a time when companies are scrapping for every sale, looking for new ways to engage customers and stand out in a hyper-competitive market, why is this trend taking hold? From my perspective, there are four key factors:

1. "Do more with less." This is a mantra across every organization and is felt deeply in the marketing department. Historically, marketing budgets get a lot of scrutiny- and not every company sufficiently invests. However, these days, marketing executives are being asked to do an incredible amount of work on their own. From writing press releases, to white papers, updating content on the website, looking at Google Analytics, even doing design or handling sales calls. They're forced to act as a lean, sometimes one-person team that is stretched thin or managing junior staff or teams of freelancers to get their job done. The willingness is there to do more with less, but at a certain point, things are not being done with the highest quality or best-qualified resources. Or a high-level marketing executive's time is being spent on lower-level tasks that limit their ability to drive higher-level results.


2. "Forget about branding, just get me leads." For some companies, branding is considered wasteful spending on "soft" things like image, reputation and trust. So instead of taking the time and effort to lock in on an all-important core value proposition and brand presence, companies crank out email after email, webinar after webinar, and hope that this will be enough to engage and educate prospects and drive sales. However, without a well-established brand reputation, prospects may have no idea who you are or how you stack up to your competition. This approach ultimately reduces the effectiveness of lead generation programs - and lengthens the overall sales cycle by creating obstacles related to trust and reputation that must be overcome.


3. "React, then think." Many of the programs we see springing to life are ad-hoc shoot-from-the-hip ideas that are focused on very short-term results. While these can be effective in driving rapid activity and interest, they don't create the brand equity-trust, awareness, competitive positioning - that earn you a regular spot on prospects' short lists. Many of our clients are planning month-to-month, or at best quarter-to-quarter. The ‘long view' is not being served. And budgets and activities are not being thought through in terms of how they can deliver long-term value to the company.


4. "Technology can solve all of our problems." There are a number of valuable technologies that can make it easier to manage, optimize, and measure marketing campaigns. For example, we employ a number of CMS (Content Management Systems) on behalf of our clients, such as Word Press. We also leverage tools like TweetDeck, Google Analytics, Hootsuite and Campaign Monitor to allow us to manage, automate and understand the impact of various programs. We have seen a trend lately toward purchasing campaign management tools such as Eloqua as a way of solving the problem of "Integrated Demand Generation."

While there are valuable features (such as monitoring web traffic, conversion rates, and automating email touches), the only way to unleash the power of these tools is by applying the basic disciplines of marketing to them-- profiling your key audiences and understanding their needs and motivations, crafting messaging that positions you against your competition while solving a business problem, and developing creative treatments that are attention-getting, relevant and drive a response through a strong call-to-action.

Presidents, CEOs, COOs and CFOs take note: if you are overworking (and under appreciating) your marketing executives, you are undermining critical building blocks to your business success. Give your marketing team the freedom to develop and properly fund an annual marketing plan. And give them the quality resources to execute it. As ROI, you'll be investing in a brand that is built to last - driving sustained growth, long-term customer relationships, sales and profit.

Do you see the symptoms of an overworked Marketing department? Do you have insight on how to maintain higher-level branding and marketing imperatives in an atmosphere driven by short-term sales? Are you able to measure marketing success and associate it back to lead generation and your business goals?

Drop a note in the comments area below or send us an email at info@garfieldgroup.com. We'd love to hear what you think - and share some of our experience and ways we've helped our clients deal with these challenges.