christine e. middleton

Why have a marketing team if you don’t let them market?

Often I see organizations/CEOs misuse marketing and communication teams.

In fact, these “entities” (along with public affairs) often operate - even sit - in different silos. This is not a cost efficient or effective practice, especially in a digital age.

For one, transparency is key in the name of credibility and trust. What you communicate to the public/customers/members better be the same that you are telling investors, board members, and Congress …and vice versa.

But secondly, handing final decisions to the “Marcom” team to make sense of, package and pitch AFTER decisions have been finalized creates havoc and boxes in creativity (if not stifles it with simmering resentment).

(And please know asking for a press release on something makes blood curdle… it’s more or less an archive tool for Internet searches… a tactic, not strategy or strategic. But I digress…)

So whether you are devising how a new product should be built, creating a new business line, or “whiteboarding” what a new service offering will entail, include the marketing team (and by that I mean the umbrella under which communications and public affairs are represented), to provide helpful insights into such things as:

• How to shape ideas so they reside with target audiences

• Identify additional features and resulting benefits that will make an idea even more attractive to funders, users and/or shape the industry or legislation

• How to stage a rollout so it can obtain ongoing attention, not just a “one and done blip”

• New partners that can be aligned or created …and what may need to be built into the thinking before anything is implemented

• Scalability of the idea over time and what directions it can go or even what might be the thought leadership potential 

By putting marketing at the C-Suite level and at the executive table, you will get more milage out of your investments.

Making decisions with the audiences you want to influence or attract in mind is essential. Yet, many use and view marketing as a tactical implementer of big ideas.

(Yes… and no.)

In fact, often is my observation by including marketing at the start of an idea usually helps avoid making costly and time-sucking updates down the road that should have been thought of earlier in the process.

With the right strategic thinker, who knows how to grow business as your head marketing guru at the table, you can make decisions today that save time and money, and position you to proactively lead the way in your industry. 

If nothing else, your brand can reflect savviness, leadership and creativity because the lead time achieved by including marketing at the beginning will allow:

• designers and digital teammates to have the time needed to be energized, engaged, and buzzing with creative ideas (rather than slapping stuff together to meet the impossible deadline).

• media manager/pitcher to give thought how to creatively capture journalist attention in ways that work for their editors.

• partners to negotiate their role in the new opportunities, as well as get internal buy-in for what resources they will contribute.

Think about how you can modernize your internal approach to decision-making, and therefore improve your external presence, to be more effective and efficient…