FINALLY! Marketing and Comms have found the answer to working together in harmony, and all is right in the world! Not quite...but there is a working solution and tactics that people on both sides of the channel can practice that will help their organizations move toward a more cohesive environment.
This was the topic of discussion during last week’s webinar, MartTech Brings Marketing and Comms Together, , hosted by Cision and the CMO Council. Guests Tiffany Grinstead, Vice President of P&C Marketing Integration for Nationwide, and our very own Maggie Lower, CMO here at Cision, discussed the tactics they use to promote collaboration and drive results. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, these ladies know a thing or two about running marketing and comms orgs and how to make them work together. Here are a few takeaways from that discussion:
Integrating Marketing and Communications is Essential.
First and foremost: When it comes to marketing and communications teams, it should not be an “us versus them” situation. Competition should be outside the company, not within. Furthermore, comms and marketing teams should really be in sync throughout all stages of the funnel to drive success.
I know every channel wants to prove their worth and meet their individual goals, but at the end of the day you are still under the entire marketing umbrella. All teams should work together to meet those goals. (Which brings me to my next point...)
Shared Goals and Metrics are Crucial.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents from the Bridging the Gap for Comms and Marketingreport stated that aligning KPIs was top of mind when driving marketing and comms alignment. While 57% is a good number, there is room for improvement. One seemingly simple step that makes a huge improvement? Have a monthly meeting with your team and, as Maggie Lower challenged everyone on the webinar, “constantly chip away at the silo.”
“Schedule a Zoom meeting, make sure you understand what each other do. Have basic collaborative conversations about roles within the company.”
Leverage Earned Media as the Powerful Tool You Know It Can Be.
Ninety-two percent of consumers trust earned media, while a little less than half of consumers trust paid ads. When the right data is paired with the right analysis, you’ll be surprised how much communicators' insights can do to inform business and marketing intelligence.
When You Invest in MarTech, You Invest in the Business
Finally (and this is probably the most crucial takeaway): Not to invest in marketing technology (and consider PR tech part of that stack) is to opt out of the future of business. It’s increasingly important to integrate all the channels so you can give your customers what they need, when they want it. According to Tiffany Grinstead:
“It's how we bring that experience to life in our marketing and communications for our customers and intermediaries. We’re living in an on-demand world now. There’s this increasing expectation that every part of our lives is going to work this way, and you have to have marketing technology in order to enable that.”
Final Thoughts
If these key takeaways don’t work for you, think of it this way: Your co-workers are your work family and the people you spend most of the time with other than your personal family, so think of the marketing organization like a family structure. Each channel under the entire marketing organization is like a sibling. Whether it’s content, demand-gen, field marketing, ABM – not everyone is going to get along all the time, as each channel is its own person. But then there are those few moments that make your parent (CMO) smile, when you are all working and playing together.
The older and wiser you get, the more you understand each other and the more you get along. The more you grow with your organization, the better you will understand and appreciate each channel's function and recognize how each can uniquely have a seat at the table.
“It's how we bring that experience to life in our marketing and communications for our customers and intermediaries. We’re living in an on-demand world now. There’s this increasing expectation that every part of our lives is going to work this way, and you have to have marketing technology in order to enable that.”
Final Thoughts
If these key takeaways don’t work for you, think of it this way: Your co-workers are your work family and the people you spend most of the time with other than your personal family, so think of the marketing organization like a family structure. Each channel under the entire marketing organization is like a sibling. Whether it’s content, demand-gen, field marketing, ABM – not everyone is going to get along all the time, as each channel is its own person. But then there are those few moments that make your parent (CMO) smile, when you are all working and playing together.
The older and wiser you get, the more you understand each other and the more you get along. The more you grow with your organization, the better you will understand and appreciate each channel's function and recognize how each can uniquely have a seat at the table.
