Useful Information is So Overrated
7 Ways to Prepare Yourself for Marketing Success in 2009
January 15th, 2009 by Elizabeth Robinson
Times are tough. To say that the economy is bad is an understatement. So, in absence of actually trying to do a good job, here are seven ways to create job security for you and your marketing team in 2009 using the tried and true method of smoke and mirrors.
1. Traditional media is dead. Says who?
You can’t improve what you can’t measure. Measuring the success of traditional media buys like print, TV, or radio spots is difficult. Perfect!! You have done your job by running the campaigns. Now, it is the sales department’s responsibility. If no sales come from those campaigns, clearly it is not your department’s fault.
2. 2009 Media Plan = Unwavering
Sure, lots of time was spent in 2008 determining what was working and what was not, and shifting your spend to focus on the most effective campaigns. But…let’s face it, that was exhausting. You know that media plan you created at the end of last year for 2009?… commit and stick to your guns.
You have done the marketing research that you were expected to do and that everyone has approved. How much could the landscape really change during 2009? And, if there are problems, hey, they approved the plan.
3. Google – Are you being evil?
We all know that historically pay-per-click has been one of the most cost-efficient ways of marketing. But, it is 2009 now. Think of all of the challenges…click fraud, rising keyword costs, increased competition. It is certainly the search engines fault now if your campaigns are not successful.
4. Very, very important – Make enemies with IT
It is MUCH easier to blame the enemy. If executives want to hold you accountable for ROI, data, or analytics stand tall and point the finger at your enemies in IT. You would have certainly had the proof to show how successful your campaigns were if only IT had helped you out.
5. ROI – So very 2008
Explain to your executives that ROI is an overused, overrated metric. Just because you can track things, doesn’t mean you should. There are many more important metrics (see #6).
6. 2009 – Choose your metrics wisely
There are so many metrics available to you these days, and plenty that most executives will have no idea what they mean (read…cannot question whether good or bad, successful or not). Hits, bring them back….meaningless minutia with an explanation laden with technical jargon, PERFECT!!
Geography, another good one… usually pretty inaccurate but everyone enjoys this stat as they can mentally try to figure out who they know that may be causing this traffic. Mobile Devices….okay you and I know it probably accounts for less than 3% of the traffic, but isn’t it cool that people are looking at our site on their iPhone. We are so cutting edge!
7. Analytics – Wait, why bother?
You did not get into the interesting, creative field of marketing to be tied to spreadsheets, come on. And besides, who really cares about the numbers. If executives ask for reports or numbers, explain to them that they are not asking for Web design ideas from the accounting department…so, why is there this double standard?
I hope this list has been helpful. These are just the top ideas that came to mind. Feel free to let me know if there are more that I have missed.
Good luck in 2009!
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