Does your marketing org suffer from redundancies, wasted efforts, duplicated efforts, cross-purposes efforts, missing data, incoherent branding, operational and technical chaos, internal squabbling over budget and credit, and lack of data about your customers and their journeys?
If yes, you may be suffering from... a lack of integrated marketing (gasp!)
So, what is Integrated Marketing? What does it do?
Think removing silos, enabling tracking of performance (and thus enabling efficiencies in marketing campaigns), operational efficiency (faster and more error-free turnaround), enabling consistency of brand and access to content, setting guidelines for cross-channel content and usage, enabling brand recall and enhancing campaign response.
Why? Looking at the above, seems like a no-brainer. So what's the catch?
If you don't make the process easy, there will be pushback. Nobody likes losing control of their own silo, even if it's long-term harmful to the organization. Ad-hoc execution - especially with dedicated resources and direct control of delivery - is fast, tactically effective, and a rush. It gives things to point at, say "I did that". It lets group heads be the big fishes in their own little ponds.
In the long term, cracks develop, a feudal mentality builds, and the corporate brand's empire crumbles into dozens of little kingdoms squabbling over budget and prestige.
So, how do I rebuild that empire, then?
You do it like Alexander, Genghis, and Danaerys - not with fire and blood, but with a vision of something great, long-term, more than individuals, bigger than the sum of it's parts.
(And yes, with the promise of great riches and prosperity as well)
Once you have the vision - and so does everyone else - demonstrate the plan that goes into making it come alive.
Show everyone involved what's their role - and, critically, what's their contribution KPI to the success of the whole. Not just activities done, not just awards, not just even sales and revenue, but also efficiencies in performance, effectiveness, turnaround within required times, returns, and cost savings.
Why would these stakeholders listen to you - what's the carrot?
Exposure, training and upskilling. Give participants an opportunity to use tools, and learn of / participate in activities they individually would not have been able to afford. Yes, this will build their CV - nothing drives enthusiasm better than a clear answer to 'What's in it for me?'Global recognition, especially if it's a large MNC organization - a chance to be a big fish in an even bigger pond. At least one cog-in-the-machine KRA with an enhanced reward for individual delivery, rather than linking to overall company performance; highly generic KRAs whose delivery depends on performance of others that the individual has no control over leaves him feeling powerless, and in times of suboptimal results, frustrated and disappointed.
Sounds good. So where do I start?
Depends. Who are you?
C-level: Nope, this is the toughest place to be in, because everyone will agree to your orders, and then will mysteriously miss targets, find problems, and change priorities, until the whole thing grinds painfully to a halt. You're going to have to get intimately familiar with every aspect of the process - like veterinarian-delivering-a-calf-level involved - so you know exactly how the whole thing is set up, who does what, what they want, what they fear, how it all fits together. And guide them through.
Mid-level: Optimal place. Get an executive sponsor, one that believes in you and your vision to push through the larger picture. Make an example of your department, highlighting changes that can be replicated and absorbed quickly. Small wins that make life easier. little-effort changes that add up to big differences - eg. a standardized nomenclature that enables global dashboards. Adoption of a CMS rather than custom sites to enable faster execution. A shared data cleaning cost that dramatically improves campaign performance. Soon, you're the golden boy/girl that can deliver great things.
Junior: The biggest challenge is in being heard, so a good place to start, is breaking it - the overall vision - into smaller bits that can be dept-specific, and building upwards. Look out for silver-bullet cross-dept initiatives - these can be an awesome career-booster as well, if you're prepared for the long haul; this will not happen in days / weeks / months. Think quarters, if not years. It will need you to be very familiar with both the abstract process, and the environment of your organization. This could be hard to come by if you've just joined, but can be built up... if you know what you want to do, and consciously make the right connections, gather the right data.
I'm in. What do I do?
Here's a basic step-by-step execution guide:
Understand the problems. Deep-dive interviews. Build a SWOT. Interview stakeholders. Do an IMMI analysis.
Build a current-state picture. Run a workshop, share findings. Define current and future scenarios (where all identified problems are solved, everyone is happy, the company's products have perfect brand recall and majority market share, and marketing ops are flawless).
Then list what needs to be done to make it happen. Build priorities, get a buy-in, list a who-does-what.
This is the most critical step, but also the most vague - what to do will vary with every case. But how to do it, that's what we're talking about. The plan of how to fix the problems identified has to be yours, and yours alone. Then, prepare a plan B, because Murphy's Law. A plan C and D won't hurt either. make sure you build them according to the riskiest assumptions made in the previous iterations, because those are what will be most likely to fail.
Set up milestones for reviewing progress, and establish who will do the reviewing and when, and what they will check for.
Define a language, a brand identity, guidelines & policies, naming convention, assets list. Maintain a common activity calendar and everyone's place in it, with executive signoff.
Audit existing content and assets - quality, quantity, relevance, and accessibility.
Build workflows for marketing - objectives, campaign planning, asset requirements, scheduling, KPIs. Make sure the workflows are linked to each other between departments, and a common content / asset bank is available to all.
Audit the tech, identify where it fails the workflows, fix. Build in analytical capabilities so all workflows can be tracked.
Set an overview structure across levels; first, yourself, so you can identify early-warning symptoms and fix them; then senior level oversight to ensure the progress is aligned with strategy, management plans and objectives, and to demonstrate success.
Roll out progressively across departments, incorporating their unique requirements in the overall structure. Do NOT build custom duplicate structures - that's the first thing everyone will ask for and is exactly the problem you are trying to solve.
Begin.
I'm done, but did I do right? What does success look like?
By now, you would need to have -
Set and documented all the workflows needed. Set expectations and timelines. Set tracking mechanisms. Built the infra needed to make it happen - subscriptions, services, tools, skillsets, resources. Set trackable KPIs and milestones, and a schedule of delivery / success against each. This is also critical - every component of the plan, every workflow, should have input and output requirements that must be met for the system overall to deliver. Not having component-level tracking systems will make it impossible to diagnose bottlenecks and process breakdown causes.
Look deep into the tracking; once the machine starts, there will be (metaphorical, but sometimes literal) noise, smoke, sparks, possibly small explosions and breakdowns. Your job will be to find out what broke, fix, restart, and repeat with fine-tuning till the whole thing is up and running like a mechanical Swiss-German lovechild.
Then, repeat across all the organization.
Last Step. Earn accolades, awards, promotions, bonuses, raises, write case studies, go into consulting.
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Due credit - This article was inspired by another brilliant ebook written by Lieu Pham (VP, Strategy + Creative Services, NewsCred) that does a much better job in defining a roadmap to implementing integrated marketing, with detailed insights and steps. The original article can be got here - https://insights.newscred.com/ebook-the-integrated-marketing-organization/
Lead Image courtesy Pixabay
My interpretation attempts to apply concepts defined here in a casual, more informal style based on my experience and background - I wrote this as much for entertainment as for information. Enjoy!
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