Tag Archives: management

September 30, 2014 · 10:56 am

Ready – Fire – Aim

Yet another piece of research that caused an eyebrow to rise up bubbled up in my news stream yesterday.  This one is from the Ascend2 folks via MarketingProfs and concerns strategy in digital marketing.  Two thirds of the marketers survey think they’re doing an OK job with another quarter believing they are doing a great job.  It’s what they identified as challenges that piqued my interest and which is our topic today:

Marketers say a lack of effective strategies is the biggest obstacle to success in digital marketing… More than half of marketers surveyed (51%) cited strategy issues when asked to list the major factors preventing them from fully achieving their digital marketing goals. Budget constraints were the second most cited obstacle (picked by 38% of respondents); lack of training/experience was next (32%), followed by inability to prove ROI (30%), and useless metrics/analytics (25%).

Budget is an issue for everyone it seems no matter what your company or role.  Given the constantly changing set of tools, I can understand the lack of training.  The other items on the list are more concerning.  First and of greatest concern is that over half feel they lack a strategy that works and yet they seem to be executing anyway.  That’s firing without aiming.  This finding doesn’t really shock me given experiences I have had with clients.  There is an appetite to jump into new spaces without giving much thought as to why or how.  What’s of interest as well is what happens when marketers are asked about what does seem to be effective:

Some 54% of respondents rate email as one of their most successful digital marketing tactics; 48% rate websites as a top tactic; 47% search engine optimization; 43% social media. Email is also seen as a relatively easy digital marketing tactic to execute, with only 11% of respondents rating it as one of the most difficult channels.

No surprise – email is well understood by most companies since it’s been around for a long time.  It’s also in wide enough use that one can benchmark and learn from the mistakes of others.  Much easier to aim before firing, right?

“Why” needs to come before “how”.  Aiming needs to come before firing.  After all, no brand has that many chances with consumers and if you can’t hit the mark the first time there might not be a second.  You agree?

 

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September 10, 2014 · 12:22 pm

The Data Sandstorm

One client is in the midst of the back to school season and the data is flowing in like water over the Niagara Falls.

English: A massive dust storm cloud () is clos...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is so much coming out of web activity, social activity, email activity – where does one begin? It got me thinking about how it is like driving around in the fog or a sandstorm. The data get more dense and navigation becomes impossible.

One thing some people do to clean off the windshield is to wipe away the data.  They regularly make decisions based on gut feel or something they read that may have worked foe someone else.  Why let facts get in the way of a good story, after all?  I am not a fan of using data as a crutch nor as a shield.  It should be used to guide decision making but not as a replacement for your own vision. However, if you don’t measure the impact of whatever decisions you’re making and confronting the results of those decisions, the business is managing you and not vice-versa.

Data needs to support decisions.  When someone says we’re going to do X ask them what data they used in deciding to take that course of action.  The less data-driven the decisions was (and that’s OK), the more rapidly the action needs to be measured and the result quantified (although some of the results may be qualitative instead of quantitative).  I’ve found that just asking the questions can have a beneficial effect.

Yes, it’s inconvenient when the numbers don’t back up the course of action you (or your boss!) have in mind.  It may be inconvenient but it shouldn’t be ignored.  It may be hard to navigate in the sandstorm of data that overwhelms us but no one said business was easy.  Thoughts?

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September 4, 2014 · 8:40 am

The Team

The college football season started last week.  The college I attended doesn’t field a football team and so I didn’t really have a rooting interest until my older daughter went to the University of Michigan.  I figured since I sent the Wolverines quite a bit of my money I’m entitled to call myself a UM fan.  Michigan had a legendary coach at the school – Bo Schembechler – who gave what I think is some of the best business advice ever.  Take a minute and watch it:

This is a boss doing some incredible things.  First, he’s sharing his vision for what the team is about and some very specific goals.  If there is one thing many bosses fail to do it’s exactly that.  They may give out lists of tasks but they fail to paint a picture of the overall mission and where the team is headed.

Second, he’s demanding that every person plays as a member of that team.  Implicit in that is that the glamor positions are nothing without the grunts in the trenches and those grunts can’t win without someone running the ball.  As a manager you have to get every member of your team feeling as if what they do matters and every other member of the team appreciating the contributions their peers are making to everyone’s success.

Finally, he lets the group know that while they will have differences they ill put them aside for the overall good of the team and to achieve their goals.  How many offices are torn apart by gossip and backstabbing?  Bo lets the Wolverines know that he’s not having any of it.

I listen to this speech from time to time and UM’s official football shirt this year simply says “The Team, The Team, The Team” on it.  It’s easy to remember but hard to execute as a boss.  Go Blue!

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