3 minute read
Go Team! Why Your Marketing Should Involve Your Team Members
by Michele Rempel
Most businesses cannot survive long without a team. Business owners that spend too much time in the business rather than on the business often find themselves unable to keep up with the varied demands and are unable to grow. In the same vein, keeping all your marketing compartmentalized to one person or department is not the best solution in today’s multichannel and multimedia environment.
You’ll see better results from your marketing when you involve everyone on your team in some way. Here’s why:
More minds = more creative ideas
The phrase “two heads are better than one” holds true here. There is often a disconnect between the people creating marketing content and the sales staff, customer service representatives or the people providing the service(s) that you sell. If you include your other team members in marketing conversations, the people responsible for your marketing will get a better understanding of what customers and prospects are saying about your products and services. This in turn can lead to an exchange of ideas that don’t necessarily originate with the owner(s) or members of the marketing team.
More minds = more excitement
Most people appreciate being heard and valued for their contributions. When you involve your customer service, service providers and sales staff in your marketing conversations and ask for their thoughts and opinions, you will most likely find a source of untapped energy. Not all ideas will be usable, of course, but everyone can benefit from a collaborative conversation to bolster excitement among your team, which may translate into better customer engagement.
More minds = more content
Effective content marketing campaigns can involve several moving pieces. Content marketers are often expected to create everything from graphics to blog posts, as well as devise an overall strategy and measure results. When all these tasks are assigned to a few (or one person), burnout is almost a given. When you take an organizational approach to your campaigns, you can help to share the psychological burden of constant creativity, giving key employees the bandwidth needed to drive campaign success. More staff members can share in taking photos and videos (with strict and well-communicated guidelines, such as sharing them to your company cloud rather than your social media) and even commenting and sharing your company posts to their networks.
More minds = more speed (faster execution)
It’s probably not a stretch to say that 2020 caused more businesses to “pivot” (at the risk of using an overused 2020 word) than in any other time in recent history. Almost overnight, many businesses went from almost exclusively in-person to exclusively online and/or pickup. Marketing staff were faced with huge hurdles to overcome in terms of content, communication and tone. Businesses that often involved all stakeholders in marketing conversations were able to pivot more quickly as different perspectives and backgrounds were included in the whole process.
Moving to an organization-wide approach for your marketing can be daunting, or even uncomfortable for those who have been used to “going it alone.” This approach does require a certain amount of thoughtfulness and strategy. By keeping an open mind and including your whole team, you’ll be able to generate more ideas, create more content and reach more prospects.
Michele Rempel is the founder and managing partner of Westvyne, a marketing and website design firm based in California and Illinois. For almost a decade, she and her team have been guiding their clients in what to say, how to say it, where to say it, and who to say it to in order to attract and retain customers. For more information about Westvyne, visit www.westvyne.com.