It was 2010, I was at the Yahoo! new marketing hire training. Second time I flew from JFK-SFO in as many weeks. Met Yahoo!’s CMO, learned the structure of the org, learned that these people spend many thousands, if not millions, on videos. Videos to tout Yahoo!’s marketing superiority. INTERNALLY.
I learned that this team, while underfunded and understaffed, understood that to be anything but that in the future, they were going to have to sell, sell, sell. ABC. (I also learned I didn’t want to be part of that team…but that’s a story for another post…)
They underscored one of the biggest challenges of any marketing org, especially b2b:
What do those marketing people even DO?
Throw in a heavy bent toward technology, and you have a perfect storm for nobody in your company to ‘get’ what the heck you do every day*. Some dismiss this as a left-brain / right-brain thing; those technology folks over there won’t ever and don’t ever need to understand the creative stuff that we do. But, like I said once before, culture is hugely important and when several (most) groups in your company don’t understand the value you create, be prepared for that notion to pervade the company culture and eat your strategy, and marketing budget, for breakfast.
So how do we get them to understand?
Yahoo! had their way. Do something cool, and pretty much hire a reality show crew to document every step of it to create an exciting case study. Pics or it didn’t happen. This is a legit way to get people pumped about your successes- especially when there aren’t easily measured success metrics. It’s also a good strategy when what you did was super cool, but not really impactful on the business. Unfortunately, some left-brain types are going to see right through this smoke-and-mirrors show. Try it, though. Nothing wrong with getting colleagues excited about how your brand is received externally.
The other way: market right-brain, measure left-brain.
Back when Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management wasn’t yet the top school it is today, they decided to fill their faculty not with the Don Drapers, but with the Louis Skolnicks. I was there during the heyday of Dean Jain, a mathematician by training that turned marketing on its end. I loved it: Data or it didn’t happen.
But easy in theory, difficult in practice. Especially in B2B marketing where almost far less good tools exist compared to consumer marketing. “What about revenue!?” you say? Yes, you can back out things to revenue. You could also measure the goalie’s performance by whether your team wins the game. Or, you could figure out a way to see if your goalie’s tactics are succeeding in blocking the puck from going into the net.
My point: choose your metrics wisely, then sell, sell, sell.
For your business, it might be # of leads generated. Nowhere in the Yahoo! marketing new-hire training did I hear the word “lead” even mentioned, so suffice to say that for them, it wasn’t the metric of success (they probably would say there isn’t a buyer alive that hasn’t heard of Yahoo!, so what’s the point? I would say that lead generation can be a form of engagement). Do the big dog and pony show, but always close with the key metric of success. Let me know how it goes.
Summary:
- Marketing didn’t happen until everyone in your company sees it happen
- One way to tout internal successes is through more marketing – videos, case studies; the same stuff you’d use externally
- The more believable way is through data. Data is hard to come by sometimes. Do your best.
*my mother still has no idea what I do every day
