Marketing has to deal with many issues… You can strategize, create, and design until you’re blue in the face but until your marketing campaign is out there for the public to consume, you’ll never really know whether it will succeed or fail. These ups and downs of marketing can be stressful for any team, and this...
Marketing has to deal with many issues… You can strategize, create, and design until you’re blue in the face but until your marketing campaign is out there for the public to consume, you’ll never really know whether it will succeed or fail.
These ups and downs of marketing can be stressful for any team, and this stress is often mostly felt by the Chief Marketing Officer, whose job is to keep everyone creative, productive and motivated.
Things are stressful enough when they are going well, but if you are going through a tough time, it can be crisis-inducing for the least.
We know it’s not easy, but getting your marketing team back in the zone after a failed product launch, a budget cut, or negative feedback from the C-suite is possible and it doesn’t involve bringing in cupcakes!
This blog post will go through 5 solid tricks to get your marketing team back on track, when they are feeling discouraged or frustrated.
1. Reassess your goals
Goals are great motivators, unless your goals are bad. But what’s a bad goal? It’s anything that is unrealistic, unattainable, vague, or out of one’s control.
Bad goals can also be goals that are too easy. If your team doesn’t feel challenged, or like they are given any control, they will find intellectual stimulation elsewhere (such as wasting company time on Facebook or playing minecraft).
If your team is going through a bad situation, it’s time to reassess your goals. Bear in mind that even if you think your goals are realistic, your team might not agree with you.
You can for instance, schedule a meeting and ask your team whether or not the goals you’re setting are inspiring or discouraging them. Listen to their input and adjust accordingly, as making sure they feel heard and understood is also very important to take into account.
2. Survey your customers
One of the most frustrating things that can happen to a marketer is putting your heart and soul into a marketing campaign and then NOT seeing the results you expected. Mostly, this happens because you are incorrectly targeting your product or service.
If your marketing team is failing to create successful campaigns, it’s time to send out a survey to your customers. This will help your team better understand who they are creating these campaigns for.
Tip: Allow your team to create the questions they would ask themselves. This will allow them to think about any missing pieces of information they wish they had about the customers they are trying to reach through marketing.
Discover 5 Things every CMO Should Know About Their Customers
It has some good recommendations for survey questions that get great results.
3. Incorporate learning into your day
Feeling overwhelmed? Feeling burned out? or simply frustrated? Your department may be suffering from a lack of learning.
Incorporating team learning into your daily routine is a great way to keep your company up to date on the newest marketing technologies, and in the world of fast evolving digital media, this is an absolute necessity
Learning also naturally boosts your spirit, expands your mind, and helps you think outside the box. If you’re in the marketing industry and not actively interested in learning new things, find a new job!
4. Measure things!
One of the greatest ways to feel empowered at work is to quantify your success in a way you can measure.
Get your marketing team set up with some KPI’s that you can continually track, to record your progress over time. It will keep your team united over tangible goals, allow individuals to track their progress in tangible ways, and add a level of organization and efficiency to your campaigns that will help you better determine when things are going right, and when they are going wrong
Make sure to match your KPI’s to your existing goals.
5. Don’t panic
Last but not least, as a leader, it’s your job to maintain your cool attitude and try not to panic. Marketing difficulties can lead to a lot of negative feedback from upper management because any mistake you make is often visible and public.
However, remember that no marketing team gets it right everytime, and whatever negative thing that occurred can actually help your team grow and get better if you make the best of using what you learned in the right way.
Put on a brave face, show up, and show your team that you’ve got this. Even if you don’t feel in control at first, fake it until you make it and you will soon see that things aren’t as bad as you feared.
You can’t win everytime, and marketing departments naturally go through ups and downs as they try new things. But using these tips can help you to get everyone feeling and thinking their best so that your next effort is a guaranteed success!
