At this point, I probably sound like a broken record to my clients and students, but it's true: Great ideas mean nothing if they stand in a structure that can't support them. To those of us in marketing roles or at agencies, building a channel strategy seems like a piece of cake.
We know platforms like the back of our hands, and can build user personas at the drop of a hat. Many times, however, these pitches and presentations fall apart because we've overlooked how they're supposed to actually work.
Want to make sure your big ideas get buy-in? Build a process strategy that sets everything up for success. Here are a few things to consider along the way.
Involve the Stakeholders
The stakeholder interview is one of the most important steps of strategic design. Talking to key decision-makers in a variety of departments and roles across an organization uncovers things that you may not have thought about, even if you're in-house at the organization itself.
While part of your interview should focus on the marketing objectives, another part of it needs to address the functional framework that currently exists. In other words, you should leave these interviews with a clear understanding about what your process strategy needs. Helpful things to think about during your discussion:
- Department structure: Who reports to whom? How does this chain impact the approval your ideas will need, or delay any realtime initiatives?
- Internal savvy: Do the stakeholders on the front lines have the same knowledge that those behind the scenes have? What gaps exist that will need to be addressed in order for your ideas to make sense to everyone who touches them?
- Willingness: Everyone is inspired by an edgy marketing campaign. Not everyone is comfortable executing one at the end of the day. Where is the line that you can't cross? For those in highly regulated industries, what does your legal and compliance team feel comfortable with? Most importantly, how do these boundaries impact how things get done?
Think About Scale
Whether your task is to start something from scratch, reinvent an old approach, or build on last year's success, you can't ignore scale. In the case of process strategy, I'm not talking about how your email campaign targeting gets more aggressive YOY or what your content looks like on Facebook; I'm talking about your resources.
Often times during stakeholder interviews, I'll discover that my clients only focus on marketing as part of their role. If we're just starting out with something, it's easy enough for them to devote part of their attention to it, but if I don't address what happens once my clients reach critical mass as-is, the strategy I've built falls apart. A good, scalable process strategy accounts for:
- Marketing implications: How will this campaign's success change the customer's expectations of my client/team?
- Human assets: Who will we need as marketing efforts become an increased area of focus? Who are the hiring priorities for my client/team? What does that team look like as it grows? Is it even realistic for my client/team to make these hires? If not, how does that impact our efforts?
- Financial assets: How is the budget we're working with going to scale with success? Are we factoring the costs of hiring the right people to support the ideas into this? What happens if we don't get the money we need?
Manage Expectations
Especially on the agency side, we're eager to impress clients with ticket items that go above and beyond the task at hand. For clients who have deep pockets and aren't particularly risk-adverse, this can be a great way to win new business. For everyone else, this can be a process nightmare. It's our job as team members or partners to know when to sell that big idea... and if it's not the right time during the initial strategy conversation, it's important that we lay out what our strategy aims to do.
If you leave out that timeline or those projections, I can guarantee your digital team will burn twice as bright, but for half as long. Let the process dictate what you promise - and stick to it. A solid strategy is being measured and optimized regularly, so let the numbers and the resources tell you when to revisit things. Just make sure that when you do, your process can support the changes.
What does your strategic framework look like? How do you make sure your ideas work? Share your insights in the comments.