Do you need a marketing department if you have social media presence?!
Are you kidding me?! Of course you do. We work with lots of SMEs and It drives me out of my mind when clients call us in then we realize they are missing the following:
- Marketing Objectives
- Marketing Calendar
- Communications Strategy
Wait for it……..they will also be missing an entire marketing department. Instead, we are expected to be in contact with an IT department, Sales or Operations. The below infographic says it all.
If you want to succeed at marketing, hire for success
The job of an IT department is responsible for the architecture, hardware, software and networking of computers in the company. IT professionals working in this department perform a number of duties to ensure that employees have full access to the computer systems. Professionals working in the department may be responsible for one area of IT for the company.
Sales department’s job is to develop and implement a protocol to sell a product or service that is suitable to the nature of that product or service while connecting it with prospective customers or clients
Operations Department’s job is to ensure the highest level of efficiency internally, in the services and products provided and maximize the company’s profit with the lowest cost.
Do any of these job descriptions mention marketing? Do you think these employees understand marketing enough to identify target market, industry trends, and your competition enough to create the necessary documents? If so, congratulations. You have put a stellar jack-of-all-trades team together. But chances are, they are good at what you hired them for. And now you need to hire someone good at marketing.
But can’t anyone take on marketing tasks?
Sure. You could also trust your graphic designer to do your books. But you know how that would turn out. Every company needs a marketing department, section or even a marketing person to focus on the following:
- Promoting the brand is the main duty of your marketing team. By having someone who understands this inside and out, you’re setting your company up for success.
- Having someone to serve as the front line of the company, and coordinate and produce all materials representing the business means you have a united front. There will be no mixed messages and you and stay on point at all times.
- A good marketing team can reach out to the target market effectively and efficiently. You’ll have your best foot forward, and these entities will understand the image you want to portray.
- Creating your marketing message is essential from the beginning. I’ve seen too many companies that have different departments sending mixed messages that don’t align with the brand guidelines.
- It starts with defining the brand. At the start of your marketing activities, an image must be constructed to best reach your target audience.
- By tracking trends and monitoring competition, you keep your fingers on the pulse of the industry. A good marketing professional will be able to find gaps in the competition and new opportunities based on an ever-changing world. Don’t risk staying stagnant.
- The right marketer will be able to innovate. Bringing new ideas to the table helps you stay ahead of competition. Do you want to look to others for a benchmark or do you want to be the benchmark?
- Your marketing department should handle the creation of your marketing plan. A short-term and long-term plan will help set goals and act as a guide, keeping your activities on track.
- Managing the marketing budget is essential. Using the marketing plan, the department can allocate funds to make sure you get the most bang for your buck.
- If you want upper management to give you a budget, you know you have to show ROI. Seasoned marketers know how to do this, even with the most abstract of spending.
- Who do you want approving content, answering questions and making sure all your activities are cohesive? Your team should manage marketing activities across the board.
- Even if you have a great design team, they need leadership to produce marketing and promotional materials. Marketers should start with a brainstorming session, create guides, and ultimately approve materials before they see the light of day.
- Again, content creation should be managed by the marketing team. Without leadership from this department, messages may not stay on track and could result in the audience getting an unintended message. You must take into consideration who needs to hear your message, and who will approve the material- clients, press, target market, etc.
- The marketing team should be responsible for internal communication as well. Everyone from the CEO to the IT guy should be on the same page with respects to your marketing plan.
- Market Research should be done on a regular basis to ensure that you’re staying relevant. Even if you outsource this, you need someone to ask the important questions.
- Managing vendors and agencies seems simple enough, but you can run into situations where they aren’t delivering material that matches with the quality, voice, design or target market of your marketing plan. Having a person who understands your plan universally can ensure that third parties know what is expected from the beginning.
Got your marketing team put together? Good
Now we can evaluate if you really need a social media presence or not. Social media alone is not going to raise your awareness or sales. Having a marketing plan that you can track and evaluate, and someone to manage all marketing activities is key to success- online or off.
What marketing issues is your company working to move past? Let me know on Twitter @motazhajaj or contact us for a personalized marketing plan.
