Posts Tagged ‘Integrated Marketing’

The confusion regarding the word “campaign”

Monday, July 19th, 2010
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I often ask marketers to tell me about the integrated marketing campaigns they are running.  Here are a few common responses:

  • We’ve been running a Google Adwords campaign for the past 2 years.
  • We’ve got a new PR campaign kicking off next week.
  • Our print advertising campaign has been reduced to 3 insertions due to budge cuts.

These answers highlight a common misunderstanding of the word “campaign.”  Is the “campaign” a singular tactic?  Or, is it something more?   Are there lots of campaigns, or only a few?  When it comes to integrated marketing, there are strategic as well as tactical connotations concerning this key word.  When the context of the word “campaign” is misunderstood, it can lead to some heartburn.

The strategic “Campaign”

If I were to use a military analogy, the general would direct his troops in a Campaign (with a big “C”).  ”Troops!” he’d say, “I want you to take that hill.  Figure out how we can do it.”  In this context, the strategic implication is regarding a central objective — a major initiative; a big deal with a lot at stake.  To achieve the objective a variety of tools and actions need to be coordinated and executed.  All of the activities and actions ultimately add up to accomplishing this central objective. Overlaying our marketing framework to this analogy, our integrated marketing “Campaigns” are driven by key sales and marketing objectives, such as capturing market share, squashing a competitor, establishing a foothold in a new market. The marketing activities and offers are then coordinated and timed so they reflect a common/consistent set of messaging that engages prospects in the desired dialog as they move through our sales process.

The tactical “campaign”

Unfortunately, to complicate matters, marketing automation tools like Eloqua and Marketo use a more tactical definition for the word “campaign” (small “c”).  So does Salesforce.com. In fact, Google Adwords can be mapped as a “campaign” into these, and other tools.  This is unfortunate because it may suggest to some that isolated, random tactics can be effective without understanding their role in the larger marcom mix (i.e. the strategic “Campaign”).  When marketers fall into the trap of silo’d thinking, we lose sight of the larger Campaign.  Tools like Eloqua and Salesforce.com are incredibly important to our marketing efforts — but they are tools to help us execute the tactics, not for driving strategy.

To avoid unnecessary confusion, here are a few tips:

  1. Create a marketing glossary, defining key words like Campaigns, Programs, Activities, and Offers.
  2. In practical terms, the use of the word “campaign” (small “c”) will continue to be used in Eloqua, Salesforce.com, etc.  We can’t change that.  So, when speaking with executive management regarding  the big picture, use the word “Campaign” in the strategic sense.  Don’t confuse it by including the word “campaign” as a tactical element.  (In other words, if you tell your CEO you’re running a Google Adwords “campaign”, you’ll likely confuse her.  She thought the “Campaign” as about squashing competitor X.)
  3. The reverse is true when communicating to the rank and file.  In the context of Eloqua or Salesforce.com, it is appropriate to use the “campaign” (small “c”) word in a tactical sense.  However, make sure to acknowledge how each “campaign” adds up to reach the “Campaign” (big “C”) objective.

It can be a bit tricky, but it’s nothing marketers can’t handle.  After all, we’re messaging experts.



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A practical table of contents for a streamlined go-to-market plan

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
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Lately, I’ve been asked for recommendations for a streamlined go-to-market plan template.  This is a great request because I continue to see a lot of marketing teams get wrapped around the axle of a “10-step marketing plan” or some other beastly exercise.  Now, please don’t mis-understand me: marketing planning is a serious, critical, and worthwhile exercise.  Comprehensive planning exercises can be of great value.  Yet, sometimes, a short-cut is needed.

Here’s the punch line:

Table of Contents for a Streamlined Integrated Marketing Plan

  1. Marketing strategy overview
  2. Marketing objectives (With focus on the next 6 months)
  3. Target market prioritization (Prioritizing where the pro-active marketing investment will be)
  4. Personas (Creating an illustration of target buyers that we can empathize with)
  5. Positioning statement (Articulating our value and why we’re better than competing alternatives)
  6. Core messaging via “The Message Box” (Crafting our story/elevator pitch)
  7. Identifying key content (Listing & prioritizing resources and deliverables that prospects will value)
  8. Marketing blueprint(s) (A flow chart of lead-gen activities and offers to engage prospects)
  9. Campaign calendar (A roadmap to guide execution)
  10. Budget estimate (For execution of identified blueprints)

Looking for more info?  Readers of the book can now download a  ** new! ** PDF of a streamlined marketing plan (visit the Marketing Campaign Development download page), complete with additional examples of personas, positioning statements, message box, and blueprints.  I share this for illustration purposes only.  Your mileage will differ, as the saying goes.

Don’t yet have the book?  No problem.  You can purchase the paperback here, or the eBook here.

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The mousetrap the world has been waiting for?

Thursday, May 13th, 2010
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Conceptually, the theories of persona-building, positioning, and messaging are easy to understand.  However, sometimes it’s helpful for a marketing team to critique a real example and then discuss the parallels to their own business.  An example that everyone can easily relate to, and that is separate from the business you represent, is also an effective way to diffuse any emotion that may hinder folks from seeing the lessons associated with trying to execute a poor go-to-market strategy.

The following is a true story: the case of a better mousetrap.  In 1955, an eager entrepreneur introduced  a revolutionary new product that was destined to change the world of “rodent control”.  In addition to producing leaflets, promoting through friends and family, this ad (click on the link below) ran in  a variety of publications at the time.

Ad for a better mousetrap, circa 1955

Issues and Opportunities

You can infer a lot regarding the marketing strategy by looking at an example of the execution.  While the product design clearly is creative (and not for the squeamish), the entrepreneur fell into several traps that are common today, especially in hi-tech marketing:

1) Failure to focus on a clear target segment/persona

Who is the target audience/user/buyer?  It looks like pretty much “everyone.”  For fear of leaving a sales opportunity on the table, the entrepreneur attempted to be all-inclusive.  In a single swoop, he went after farmers, restaurant owners, food processors, meet packers, ships, homes, and orchards.    Although the confusion of trying to address multiple audiences at once maybe obvious to us gentle bystanders, one wonders if anyone asked the entrepreneur the following questions:

  • Who is most likely to buy your product? Who is the persona?
  • Do all these audiences look alike? behave the same way? have the same concerns?
  • What problem(s) are you trying to solve?
  • How well do you really understand the target buyer?

2) Failure to properly position the product

Every product needs to have positioning statement.

What’s in a name? Clearly, not all “mousetraps” are alike.  In 1955 (and even today!), the top-selling mousetrap is the Victor snap-trap.  In 1955 the snap-trap sold for 5 cents.  Our entrepreneur’s mousetrap sells for $29.95.  Branding the product against a generic “mousetrap” nomenclature will not serve his marketing interests.  (Although, a branding effort would introduce its own set of challenges.)

A new category? He’s attempted to establish a new category of mousetraps, namely, the “sanitary, self-setting, portable” mousetrap.  This is good, and goes a long way to justifying such a massive price increase over the competitive alternative. However, what you can’t quite make out in the photos is the following:

  • The mousetrap’s dimensions are 3 ft long, 8 inches wide, and 18 inches high.
  • It holds 3 gallons of water, and is quite heavy (especially if loaded with 102 mice!).

NOTE: Years ago, when I developed my first Positioning Workshop, I had the opportunity to view and touch this actual, very real mousetrap.  Unfortunately, it is actually neither, sanitary, self-setting, nor portable.  We have a category mis-match.

Benefit?  Which benefit? There are many benefits floating around in the ad.  Which one is most important?  Some seem hard to believe.  Again, it’s the “everything for everyone” approach.

For a benefit to be meaningful, it must be relevant to the target audience.  It must also be single-minded, clear, substantiable (e.g. you can prove any claim with data), and differentiable.

Differentiation? We come back to the 5 cent snap-trap alternative.  If anything, this ad makes the competitor’s product look better.

3) Failure to have a crisp, clear “elevator pitch”

Because there was no positioning statement to guide the marketing strategy, the messaging is a confused mess.  The entrepreneur would have greatly benefited from the Message Box template where he could underscore 4 key messages:

  1. An “engagement message” designed to establish relevance with the target audience and their primary “rodent control” pain points they are trying to address.
  2. A “solution message” that illustrates why not all mousetraps are the same, and certain applications require something much more than the standard snap-trap.
  3. A “reinforcement message” that shows how his invention is superior to alternatives.
  4. A “value message” that describes how the target’s life will be better than before after using his new, revolutionary product.

Critique your own work

How well does your ads/direct mail/website stack up?  Use the mousetrap example as a teachable exercise.  Never be afraid to critique your marketing strategies with regards to your persona, positioning statement, and messaging.  It’s not about placing blame; it’s about reaching the “next level” of marketing effectiveness.  Otherwise, your success may be limited to selling 4 units to your brother-in-law.

Good luck!

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Building a Persona – The “Skeptical Futurist”

Friday, February 5th, 2010
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If you are selling to CIOs or IT strategists, you may find this post of interest.

Human perception is a tricky thing, for although teams may share a common understanding of their product portfolio, people often  have a different idea of who they are selling to.  And these differences may be slight, or they may be substantial.  The Persona Exercise is one of the most effective (and fun) ways to ensure team alignment regarding the target audience.

Honing in on the bullseye

I was working with a cross-functional marketing team tasked to launch a new product on a very short runway.  During a meeting to discuss messaging I asked about the the target audience.  I got 5 different answers ranging from network engineers to CIOs in various size companies and industries.  There was no time, nor budget, to entertain multiple target audiences, so we focused our discussion to find the sweet spot. 

Focusing on the sweet spot helps marketers avoid the trap of trying to be all things to all people.

Focusing on the sweet spot helps marketers avoid the trap of trying to be all things to all people.

What target audience subsegment offers the best chance for success?  Where will it be easiest to win sales quickly and consistently?  By the end of our discussion, we painted bullseye picture similar to that shown in figure 1.  The sweet spot was not limited to job title or company size.  Instead, the sweet spot focused on people who shared a common responsibility of managing today’s IT network while planning for the future.

Personas go beyond traditional market segmentation

The next step was to build a persona.  There was a lot of good discussion that answered questions like:

  • What is the persona’s pain point?  What keeps them up at night?
  • What is the persona actually buying from us?  (We know what we’re selling, but what are they buying?  Hint: you won’t find this on the itemized price list)
  • What 3 words best describe this person?
Portrait of a senior IT manager responsible for the current and future network architecture, and who's afraid of making a bad purchase decision.

Portrait of a senior IT manager responsible for the current and future network architecture, and who's afraid of making a bad purchase decision.

By the end of the discussion, we painted the persona shown in Figure 2.  We had given life to the “Skeptical Futurist” — the embodiment to senior IT managers who are responsible for architecting their network, and who are troubled by fear of making a bad (or wrong) purchase decision.

Drafting the Skeptical Futurist was an “Aha!” moment for the team.

With the bullseye and persona in hand, 10 sales enablement tools took form — from “How-to-sell” presentations, to the corporate pitch, to the Competitive Quick Reference Guides, to the sales simulation training module.

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Searching for Product Comparisons

Thursday, January 14th, 2010
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Want to get some quick market research on how your product stacks up to a competitor?  Ask the Internet.

I teach a course at San Francisco State University entitled, “Essentials of Integrated Marketing.” In that course, I have a case study that has proven to be a lot of fun as well as very insightful when it comes to gathering ”product comparison” data.  The case study is called Video Game Wars and follows the exploits of the Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii.

In developing the case study, I needed to somehow find a way to educate the class on these products quickly.  So, I turned to the Internet.  My first course of action was to do a Google search on each of the products.  This yielded the expected corporate-esk press releases, data sheets, and website info.  All of this was helpful in building “awareness.”   But I wanted more practical information when it came to comparisons.

So I tried a search variation.

I went to Google and Youtube looking  for specific product comparisons.   As an example,  I typed in “Xbox versus PS3” and “Why buy a Playstation?”  This produced an “Aha!” moment.

The search results provided a perfect example on how the dynamics of search have changed the way people gather and process information.  Here’s what I mean:

  • Much of the “product comparison” data I gathered was produced by users, not corporate executives.
  • I couldn’t help but feel that the more “unpolished” the presentation, the more genuine the information.
  • Many of these search results also included some sort of social media commentary, meaning that the material was actually being used and discussed.

Lest we think this is only useful for consumer products, I started testing this “product comparison” research tactic on a few projects I’m working on with B2B clients.  I’d do the same thing: go to Google and YouTube and search on “product A vs product B”.   In every case, I found very interesting information.  Now, while I don’t take everything I find to the bank, I do find that the results have added to my cumultative knowledge.  It’s helps to further my skills as an investigative marketer in order to discover which product differentiators are true and meaningful, and which are bogus.

Lesson for marketers

Based on this insight, it is important for marketers to consider a couple things as they are architecting their integrated marketing campaigns:

  1. Producing only the traditional marketing datasheets and collateral are no longer sufficient.
  2. There is a mountain of “awareness” information available; but customers are also keenly interested in product comparison data (see Content & the Buying Process blog post)
  3. Consider adding your own product comparison articles and videos.  Some companies do this already, and I applaud them for it.  Prospects are looking for this information.  Why not provide them with short snippets of useful information?  Otherwise, someone else might do it for them.
  4. As you develop your own marketing materials, do a comparison search to see what people are talking about.   Do your expectations match up to the user community’s reality?  Might be worth checking out.

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The Case for the Positioning Statement

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
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One of my personal “aha!” moments about the importance of having a clear product positioning statement came about during my tenure as a PR manager with HP’s Test & Measurement group (prior to the Agilent spinoff).   One of the divisions had just developed a next-generation signal generator and was eager to introduce it.  The engineering team quickly drafted a press release with the following headline:

HP Introduces High-performance Signal Generator with New Low Price

Upon first glance, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable headline.  Yet, my “spider-sense” always tingled (and still does) when I see primary benefits linked to pricing.  I wanted to be doubly sure that I understood exactly what this meant.  So, I pulled the engineering team together to talk about their draft.

Their first reaction was something like, “oh great, you’re one of those guys” — meaning that I was an outsider with a sole purpose of upsetting their applecart by asking a lot of nonsense questions.   With great diplomacy, I admitted that it was my job to work with them in order to confirm and communicate the product’s truest value related to the claims they wanted to make.

The Positioning Statement Template

The Positioning Statement Template

I asked if they had produced a positioning statement for the product.  They handed me a 5 page datasheet.  Not to be put off, I suggested we take 30 minutes to  build a positioning statement for the product.   I explained that this would help us confirm the primary benefit and focus our messaging.

In the course of our 30 minute discussion, we filled out the positioning statement template, and we learned a few key things, especially when we dug into the primary benefit and the differentiator:

  1. This new signal generator was actually more expensive than competitive alternatives!  However . . .
  2. This one box could perform multiple tests without the need of additional pieces of expensive equipment.
  3. The upshot: this was really a total cost of ownership (TCO) story, not a component box story.

We quickly wrote a new headline based on this positioning statement:

HP’s New High-performance Signal Generator Reduces Test Costs

So what?

Did this exercise really matter?  You bet!  Had we proceeded with the original headline, editors (not to mention customers) would have quickly cried “foul!”  HP’s reputation would have been hurt by this misleading claim.

Instead, this clarified positioning wove its way through the press release, print advertising, collatoral, and other customer pieces.  The resulting press echoed the positioing statement and this product found huge success with new and current customers alike.

And all it took was 30 minutes!

For more information on the positioning statement, read The “Aha!” Factor: Positioning So Your Audience “gets it”

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How 4 Brands are Leveraging Social Media

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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At yesterday’s Social Media World Forum in Santa Clara, CA, I attended a panel discussion entitled “Benchmarking Advertising on Social Networks.” The panelists represented American Airlines, Harley Davidson and Warner Brothers Records. I also recently attended a social media discussion with Dell Computer at the TechTarget Online ROI Summit.  Here’s a recap on how these top brands are leveraging social media to acquire and engage with customers and fans.

How is Social Media Being Used?

  • American Airlines (AA) uses social media in targeted geographies, known as “geo-targeting” to boost passengers on specific flights. They also provide travel-related content beyond flight information as a value-add to their passengers (restaurants, entertainment, lodging, etc.)
  • Harley Davidson uses social media for new customer acquisition and to build a community of evangelists among its customer base.
  • Warner Brothers recently brought its advertising in-house as it experiments with ways to monetize content that is often free on sites such as YouTube.
  • Dell Computer uses social media to engage with prospects and customers and to track and respond to what people are saying about them. Dell uses blogs, online forums, bookmarketing/share widgits, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, flickr and LinkedIN.  Through social media, Dell sold over $2M of product last year using a Dell Outlet promo code. Employees can engage with prospects and customers online and follow a code of conduct that requires them to identify themselves as working for Dell and to “use their best judgment”.  (To see the largest collection of social media policies, check out the Social Media Governance website.)

Benchmarking Process

  • AA benchmarks by setting measurable goals, such as the number of passengers on certain flights.
  • Harley Davidson uses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as 1) relationships (no. of fans or friends), 2) click-through-rate (CTR) on paid ads, 3) visitor engagements (number of times content was shared among friends) and 4) media value (profile visits, cost-per-click).
  • Warner Bros. tracks and measures the amount of traffic that they drive to an artist’s site, and the number of Facebook friends and Twitter followers.
  • Dell uses tools such as Buzzient to see the most active sources of a topic as well as Radian6, GoogleTrends, Google Alerts and TwitterSearch to measure their “share of voice” in comparison to competitors. They track changes in Twitter follower count, number of re-tweets, changes in website or blog traffic and their Twitter influence using a tool called Twinfluence.com.

Use of Facebook and Twitter

  • AA uses Facebook to spur conversations among their passengers and to hook people to content, what they call “virtual hubs.”  Twitter is used as a listening tool to monitor what people are saying about AA. Six full-time customer service reps monitor Twitter and reach out to people to assist them if appropriate. Twitter is used to deliver flight information as well – especially delays due to weather issues. As a result, calls to the AA customer support 800 number have dropped.
  • Harley Davidson uses Facebook for initiating conversations with and among fans. Twitter is used by fans to see “what’s happening this moment” at Harley Davidson-sponsored events.
  • Warner Bros. views Facebook as a place for conversations to happen. They post photos of fans with an artist and the fans will tag themselves.  Twitter is viewed as a “digital billboard” to drive traffic to Facebook or an artist’s site. It also is used for scavenger hunts in which fans use clues delivered by Twitter posts to find CDs and concert tickets.
  • Dell monitors Twitter for both positive and negative mentions of the company or their products as 20% of Tweets mention a product name or company. They have several Facebook Pages to build fans and discussions among their target user segments.

Summary
Key advice from these brands:

  • Listen first – find out where your audience hangs out online and what they’re saying about you
  • Integrate social media into your overall communications mix, being consistent with content and messaging
  • Set measurable objectives and monitor results

At the end of the day, social media is another avenue to build a strong community and trust among your prospects, customers, partners and investors.

For more information, check out these blog posts:

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Does your company have a social media policy?

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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Social media is on top of everyone’s mind.  Most professionals have already set up their profile on Linkedin.  While many individuals are becoming conversant with Twitter and Facebook, the jury is still out on how effective and compelling these new tools are for selling in a business-to-business environment.  Yet, that isn’t stopping marketers from integrating these tools into the marcom mix.   Forward-thinking businesses of all sizes are being creative and clever in their social media efforts as they find new ways to dialog with and listen to customers and prospects.

A word of warning: social media is a different type of marketing tool where control of your messaging is an illusion.  To avoid any miss-steps and potential embarassment, your company should have a policy on the “how, who, when, and where” questions of social media:

These are just a few of the questions which need to be addressed.  The good news is that a number of companies have already penned a policy statement for their company.  The marketing strategists at the Arlington Mill Group are experts in this area and wrote a blog post which offers some good advice on establishing a social media code-of-conduct.

Chris Boudreaux (of the Arlington Mill Group) has pulled together the web’s largest collection of social media policies. You’ll find policies from small companies, enterprises, non-profits, news outlets, and governments.  

To quote directly from Arlington Mill Group’s recent blog post:

The ideal policy will look different for every organization, and change as your company shifts its participation in social networks over time. While developing this type of policy is hard work, it is worth it… If you haven’t examined this area of your business, now is the time to get started!

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Understanding the CIO

Thursday, October 8th, 2009
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In his article, CIO Tells Us How to Sell to CIOs, Sridhar Ramanathan interviews Walt Thinfen, CIO of Visioneer.  This article is a timely reminder about the importance of customer relationships built on an understanding of the customer’s world.  Especially in this difficult economy, marketers and sales people can fall into the trap of myopic short-term thinking centered on making the quarterly number.  It’s easy to lose sight of the customer and the problems they are trying to solve. 

One excerpt that I really like is the following:

Vendors do, of course, need to do all the usual things like webinars, trade shows, datasheets, whitepapers, analyst briefings, etc. But I actually find the most valuable ones are opportunities to speak with fellow CIOs whether it’s on the golf course or in customer reference calls. I never turn down “lunch and learns” and events where I can have quality time with a peer.

There are two key elements interwoven into this quote from Walt.

  1. Reading between the lines suggests that when all the features and benefits become commoditized, the executive relationship will become the only true differentiator.  This is where and why customer forums and Customer Advisory Boards (CABs) become so important. 
  2. While the traditional “push” marketing tactics (like webinars, datasheets, etc) will continue to be important, they are not sufficient for successfully engaging CIO prospects.  Marketing teams need to consider “push” marketing tactics that make relevant content (information & experiences) available to CIOs in places where CIOs look.   Consider that in today’s Internet-based, social media-infused marketplace, 90% of the average sales cycle does NOT involve a sales rep!

Bottom line: the tough economy is causing marketers everywhere to rethink their approach in order to balance push and pull marketing tactics.  And, in the center of the marketing plan needs to be recognition and respect for the executive relationship.

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Characteristics of Effective Campaign Managers

Monday, September 21st, 2009
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“I’m looking to hire a campaign manager to oversee our integrated marketing programs.  What are the characteristics of the best campaign managers?” 

I get asked this question a lot.  Earlier in my career, I worked as a campaign manager at HP, Sun, and Ariba , so I’ve seen the good, bad, and the ugly.  I’ll be up front with you and say that I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way.   That experience opened my eyes to the marraige of marketing expertise with an appreciation for internal politics.    

The biggest challenge campaign managers have is that they have a purview over an integrated marketing campaign (aka the “big picture”) but no direct authority over the team players who will execute the campaign.  They walk a tightrope between meeting the campaign goals while aligning and carefully guiding a team of folks who have other masters.

With that in mind, the most effective campaign managers have these traits in common:

  • A recognized, well-rounded marketing leader familiar with the target market
  • Proven leadership experience in “managing by objective”
  • Attentive to detail, but smart enough not to micro-manage
  • Diplomatic and politically savvy
  • Patient
  • A good facilitator, seasoned in active listening techniques
  • Excellent written and oral communicator (with the team, to upper management, and in front of the steering committee)
  • Knows when and how to provide constructive feedback in real time during team meetings; knows when and how to provide direct feedback in one-on-one settings
  • Is prepared to make hard decisions and trade-offs for the greater good of the campaign
  • Most of all, doesn’t let their ego get in the way of sound recommendations

There’s art and science in this role.  The science comes from understanding sound marketing best practices.  More important than understanding the specific products being sold, the best campaign managers bring an awareness and appreciation for the customer and their business problems and opportunities.  While they usually won’t know all the answers, their expertise comes in knowing the right questions to ask the team in order to define, architect, and execute the best, most effective integrated marketing campaigns.  That’s the art.

Looking for more information on integrated marketing campaigns?  Please visit my blog: Marketing Campaign Development.

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