The role of the campaign manager explained May 2, 2012
Posted by Mike Gospe in Just for Campaign Managers.Tags: campaign managers, Integrated Marketing
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The Role of the Campaign Manager – a new mini-guidebook for marketers
Nothing can hinder the success of an integrated marketing campaign (and your ability to claim the high ground) faster than an unseasoned campaign manager. So, what exactly is the role of the campaign manager and what is the profile of the most effective campaign managers? This guidebook answers these questions and provides helpful tips that can accelerate the campaign development process, navigate internal politics, and produce better results. (more…)
Marketing Blueprints in Action — put them on display March 5, 2012
Posted by Mike Gospe in Integrated Marketing, Just for Campaign Managers.Tags: marketing blueprints
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Displaying their marketing blueprints in the corporate hallways have created a tighter bond between marketing and sales. “This is real enterprise marketing,” says the company’s president. (more…)
Leadership vs seniority — advice for grooming yourself or others for advancement within marketing September 14, 2011
Posted by Mike Gospe in Integrated Marketing, Just for Campaign Managers, The Marketing High Ground.Tags: Leadership
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As an executive leader, I’ve always expected and valued my “senior” staff to think beyond the boundaries of their job description. The more senior a marketer becomes, the more imperative it is that he or she be able to help unite the organization with an integrated marketing plan, to help get everyone on the same page. That means learning how to manage internal politics to align the organization (both within the marketing organization, and with sales). It also means that they have the confidence and character to ask the tough questions, like: (more…)
The role of the campaign manager: 5 key traits September 6, 2011
Posted by Mike Gospe in Just for Campaign Managers.Tags: Integrated Marketing, Marketing Operations
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A client recently asked me for some advice about hiring a seasoned “campaign manager.” Whether your organization has a formal role designed to manage integrated marketing campaigns, or you are a solo product manager trying to guide the organization, or you sit somewhere in between, these 5 traits are worthy of your aspiration. (more…)
What separates the best B2B marketers from all the rest? August 24, 2011
Posted by Mike Gospe in Integrated Marketing, Just for Campaign Managers, Marketing Operations, The Marketing High Ground.Tags: Integrated Marketing, marketing strategy
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If you’ve been navigating the marketing groups on LinkedIn lately, you’ve probably run across this thought-provoking question: Can you use ONE WORD to describe the biggest challenge facing B2B Marketing today? Answers vary wildly from “time”, to “noise”, to “myopia”. All good answers. But I have a different take on this question. Instead, I wonder if there is one word that can be used to separate the best B2B marketers from all the rest. As a consultant to high-tech marketing leaders, I spent the last 10 years working with B2B marketing teams looking for clues, and I think I found the answer. (more…)
A new sales book that B2B marketers should read June 30, 2011
Posted by Mike Gospe in Just for Campaign Managers, Marketing Operations, The Marketing High Ground.Tags: marketing strategy, message box, sales leadership
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I loved Kevin Davis’ new book, Slow Down, Sell Faster! The key here is simple: who ever understands the customer best, wins! Davis embraces this notion by pushing sales reps to really understand the customer, their pain points, goals, interests, priorities, and their buying process before making the sales pitch. (more…)
What does it take for a marketer to earn, then command, a seat at the leadership table? February 15, 2011
Posted by Mike Gospe in Integrated Marketing, Just for Campaign Managers, Marketing Operations.Tags: high ground, Leadership
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This is a good question that challenges many marketers. Traditionally, certainly in Silicon Valley, companies are founded by technologists. When executive staff members are added, engineering, operations and sales leaders are often added long before a marketer. And who can argue success when a company’s products continue to sell without the aid of a marketing leader?
The irony with this approach is that its success is likely to be short-lived. According to Brian Gentile, a well-known marketing leader and CEO of Jaspersoft,
Eventually this model, driven by the engineers and salesmen whose roles were never designed to understand and target complete markets, always runs out of steam.
The answer is not to suggest that a marketer should overstep or replace the leadership of engineering or sales. Far from it. Instead, the real long-lasting value a marketer can bring is to rise to the role of leading the executive team, and by extension the rest of the organization, to the high ground. No other function is properly suited to do so.
The marketing high ground represents a special place where you know the market so well, so deeply, that you become acknowledged and valued, internally, as the customers’ advocate. With this knowledge comes confidence in gathering and interpreting market data so that the best product, service, and go-to-market decisions can always be made.
Consider life at a company where no one owns the high ground. What does this look like?
- Unaligned marketing and sales departments which lack clear goals and objectives
- Engineering and product management teams working in silos, focused on isolated features
- Frustrated marketers who write, then rewrite, then rewrite again messages, never able to get them right
- Poorly executed marketing campaigns that don’t produce the right quality inquiries and leads
- A set of individuals who don’t behave as a team, where decisions are made based on “whoever yells the loudest”
This is hardly efficient or effective.
On the other hand, when the marketing leader steps up to take ownership for becoming the customers’ advocate and sharing market perspectives internally, a whole different type of discussion takes place internally. No longer are debates driven by random opinions; they are founded on customer use cases, market data, and customer feedback.
The high ground is not something owned exclusively by the marketing department. Every market-driven company gains its advantage from an incredibly aligned workforce. A workforce that clearly understands the organization’s vision, its core benefits and value ascribed to it by customers, and the distinct competitive advantages. This is what it means to own the marketing high ground.
This is what it takes to earn, then command, a seat at the leadership table.
This topic is the focus of The Marketing High Ground, a marketers’ playbook that acts as a tactical guide to the marketing high ground. The book includes action-oriented best-practices templates, techniques, and examples.
Additional blog posts will explore these best practices in more detail in the coming weeks.
Communications Objectives and the Buying and Sales Processes September 14, 2010
Posted by Mike Gospe in Integrated Marketing, Just for Campaign Managers, Lead Gen, Marketing Operations.Tags: Integrated Marketing, Lead Generation, marketing strategy
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How does our marketing communications objectives fit against the customer’s buying process or our selling process? This is a weighty question that can be tough to decipher. Here’s a handy overview with respect the selling into the B2B technology market.
An overlay of communications objectives to the corresponding stages of the customer's buying process and a company's sales process. Although generic, this graphic provides some relevant context for marketers selling to B2B.
I titled this graphic “Mapping Customer Perception” because that is our goal, ultimately. Marketers strive to influence how prospective customers think. To do that, we need to understand how and when to guide them. First, they must be aware of who we are and the solutions we offer. Then we want to hook them and engage them as they become interested. Next, we need to build understanding and become a credible source of information. And, finally, we want to entice them to take action and purchase our products and services.
In an ideal world those communications objectives would map directly to the B2B Technology Customer Buying Process. For example, the best time to hit the prospect is early in their buying process, when they are doing an operational analysis or building their budget during the investment planning phase. Once we’ve got their attention, we want to provide relevant content throughout the purchasing cycle. If we can guide the outline of the RFP we stand a better chance of winning the deal.
Next, let’s overlay both those processes with the ideal B2B selling process. It’s no coincidence that the sales process is a reciprocal of the buying process: the sales rep wants to identify and qualify opportunities as early as possible. They want to work with the prospect as they are establishing their needs in order to determine if there is a potential fit. Reaching the “go, no-go” decision point prior to generating a proposal is preferred so that time isn’t wasted. Sales will negotiate with prospects as they are selecting and making a final purchase decision. The sales process doesn’t end there. While the solution is being implemented, the able-minded sales rep will be following-up and conducting account management duties, all the while looking for opportunities to engage the next sales cycle.
If life were simple, these three processes would overlay nicely. But life is like a Rubik’s Cube. Each of these processes are not static, and they don’t always start at the same point in time. That is why marketing is an ongoing processes, constantly creating awareness and offering opportunities for the prospect to raise their hand and engage us on their terms. When they are ready.
Have ideas on how to make this graphic better? Let me know. I welcome your input and feedback.
The role of the product launch boss in the NPI process August 23, 2010
Posted by Mike Gospe in Integrated Marketing, Just for Campaign Managers, Marketing Operations.Tags: launch boss, marketing best practices, Marketing Operations, new product introduction, NPI
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What is the role of the launch boss in the new product introduction (NPI) process?
This is a good question. One that can lead to confusion and consternation if the role isn’t clearly defined at the outset. I had the opportunity to attend a conference hosted by the Product Realization Group last week. Often, but not always, this role falls on the shoulders of someone in product management or product marketing. Rob Bisaillon, director of new product introduction at Verigy Memory and Application Specific Test Systems Division, offered a few success factors regarding the NPI process, and insights into the most effective product launch bosses.
Rob’s list of Key Success Factors included:
- Team formation & kick-off: define the team, name all active team members and communicate their involvement to the rest of the organization beginning with a kick-off meeting to align participants and set expectations.
- Set clear goals and deliverables: time tables often change, so adopt a discipline of setting and communicating goals often. Whether deliverables are engineering-, production-, or marketing/sales-related, make a point to include a short one-line description of each regarding the who/what/when/where/why associated with any/all deliverables. This helps to avoid any confusion down the road.
- Action tracking and reviews: be formal about tracking the status of open action items. Many teams use the red-yellow-green color scheme to highlight status. Microsoft Project(TM) is an example of a good tool to use.
- Timely resolution of issues: when open issues are not resolved quickly, they fester. A good launch boss will grab the bull by the horns to wrestle the issue to resolution. Effective launch bosses are always diplomatic, but they are not afraid to to tackle sticky issues and bring them before a steering committee for a final resolution.
- Check point reviews with executive management: the effective NPI team will have structured review meetings with upper management. These meetings are sometimes referred to as “Gate” meetings. When differences in opinions arise (and they will), the NPI leader’s role is not to dictate the final answer. Instead, the effective product launch boss will bring the issue, with a recommendation, to the steering committee for them to vote on or resolve.
- Executive sponsorship: a bottoms-up approach to product launches only works so far. Without executive sponsorship to guide and direct decisions and team behavior, the NPI will suffer and frustration levels will rise.
With these six key points in mind, Rob went further to offer that while product experience is important, the most important characteristics of an effective launch boss are their temperament, attitude, and ability to clearly communicate with team members. In fact, product knowledge and technical expertise are usually in great supply; whereas, the ability to navigate politics, soothe feathers, and guide a cross-functional team to success is not quite as common.
Adding my own thoughts to Rob’s, I believe the single hardest thing for a launch boss (or integrated campaign manager!) to do is to get team members to take action when, in fact, they don’t report to you. When the launch boss resorts to dictatorial action, the risk of failure increases. But, when team leaders leave their egos at the door, invite cross-functional participation and leadership, and focuses on managing the process not the outcome, teammates will recognize and favor the launch boss’ value-add.
If you have an example of an exceptional launch boss, or a poor one, I’d love to hear your story.
The confusion surrounding the word “campaign” July 20, 2010
Posted by Mike Gospe in Integrated Marketing, Just for Campaign Managers, Lead Gen, Marketing Operations.Tags: campaign managers, Integrated Marketing, lead funnel, marketing strategy, strategy
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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:
- Create a marketing glossary, defining key words like Campaigns, Programs, Activities, and Offers.
- 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.)
- 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.
