In a recent Forbes article, Robert Wallace of Tallwave talks about the constants he’s seen in his two-decade marketing career despite the digital disruption the industry has experienced. We agree with a lot of what Robert writes, and as most of us at AlwaysOn Digital have been in the industry close to 20 years, we also wanted to share our own spin.
1. The client is always right: It sounds cliché, but you would be surprised at how many businesses overlook their clients’ needs and asks, aren’t as communicative as they should be and are not transparent. At the end of the day, clients want to drive business, and they have every right to ask from you the information they need to prove you are helping them do that. The answer is never “No.” It’s, “Let me find the right person / solution / or report for you.”
2. There is no “I” in team: Digital marketing has spun up lots of specialized roles that can create siloes if not managed in the right hierarchy. The paid media team often doesn’t know what the CRM team does, or email marketers what content marketers do. Yet you all have a common goal and stakeholders. You can have a specialized role and still work collaboratively, sharing information, knowledge and data that can help your collective team reach its goal—which is supporting your end client.
3. There is a balance between best practice and innovation: We used to operate without pixels, push marketing to large prospect bases and think websites are optional. That’s clearly all changed—largely for the better—but there are still some best practices from days of yore that marketers can benefit from today. Think pooled data assets (direct mail catalogs = today’s data co-op), product demos and event swag. Take a targeted approach to new technology and tools you evaluate, always asking the questions: “How does this help me meet Goal X for our client?” “Is there a better, cheaper, faster way to achieve this?” “Who will manage this technology?” “Does it integrate with our other systems?” “Will I have to skill up someone or train them to run this?”
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