According to a major survey of marketers by Adobe, marketing has changed more in the last two years than in the previous fifty. So how do we know what best practice now is or even, at a minimum, good practice? For most of us, guidance probably comes from watching our peers, taking direction from our bosses and from news and articles in our trusted blogs and news sources. We tend to follow advice and hope that the correct results will follow; only later deciding to question and innovate.
But what if the current way of doing things just does not work anymore, driven by more dynamic environments and new technologies that appear to be turning accepted nostrums upside down? Having been through the most traumatic recession in 70 years, the world is no longer the same. The Digital Revolution has impacted every aspect of marketing from Product to Promotion, and is now an integral part of the business and marketing mix. These changes mean that we urgently need to review how we ’do’ marketing.
In response to these changes a new set of Professional Marketing Standards has been developed by the world’s largest body of marketers, the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
These revised Professional Marketing Standards were the result of engaging with 3,700 marketers, employers, and senior business professionals. They show the capabilities expected at each stage in a career and are designed to guide both marketers and employers in assessing levels of proficiency and identifying training needs.
But what do they mean in the context of digital marketing?
The Standards recognise eight Technical Capabilities that are required in order to perform efficiently and effectively:
Brand
This technical capability is about defining brand strategy and positioning, managing the brand and providing clear brand guidelines for its protection, and tracking and measuring its performance to inform future activity. Search for your brand name online and you’ll find many hits resulting from what others are saying about you. Check the sentiment as it may not be complimentary! In the digital world, it is key to monitor mentions of our brands, personal and corporate on a continual basis. Fortunately we have tools such as SocialMention or Brandwatch that can help, but don’t forget the free Google Alerts, or the alternative Talkwalkeralerts.
Risk, Reputation and Compliance
This is about managing corporate risk, governance and reputation through effective monitoring of relevant legislation and regulation to ensure ongoing compliance by marketing. It is also about managing the overall reputation of the organisation through the alignment of people, processes and brands. In the digital space, employees may well be posting content on social media. Is it their opinion they are expressing or do they speak on behalf of your organisation? Do you have a policy in place that explains what is acceptable in and out of work time? Have they been trained in recognising the potential pitfalls of social media?
Integrated Marketing Communications
This technical capability is about the integration of marketing communications strategy with business strategy and the use of both physical and digital communications tools in an integrated way. Marketers have far more tools in the toolbox than ever before and making best use of them in an integrated fashion is harder than ever. Digital tools are generally faster, better targeted and more measurable than offline ones, but still need co-ordinating to make sure that the target audience has access to the messages you want to convey and the information they need to make their decisions.
Digital Capability
Influencing organisational digital strategy in terms of its impact on structure, culture and strategic plans as well as integrating digital capability into marketing to meet the needs of the customer. We’ve experienced junior people, put into a corner and told to ‘do some tweeting’, with predictably random consequences. Delegating digital activities to silos of expert capability is not going to deliver the joined up approach we need either. Digital needs to be part of everyone’s job and embedded into the culture. Digital marketing is more than just outbound communications.
Value Propositions
This technical capability is about the development of customer value propositions using an innovative approach as well as the delivery and management of products and services. Digital options mean we have a wider range of options and much more nimble range management. Think about how digital technologies can make customers’ lives easier (browse and place orders, track deliveries, access advice and so on) and how we can listen better to their concerns (chat rooms, feedback systems, suggestions for new products).
Channel to Market
This is about developing and managing appropriate distribution channels and partners to meet changing customer needs and business goals. While digital approaches may allow us to reach customers directly, cutting out the middle man so to speak, new intermediaries such as payment service providers, logistics companies, even search engines, are now part of the relationship between our brand and its stakeholders.
Customer Experience
This technical capability is about defining what the customer experience should be in order to meet corporate objectives and achieve customer advocacy. It is also about the delivery of activities that create the desired customer experience. Digital technologies now allow us to offer super slick e-commerce front ends to convert the maximum number of browsers into customers and, we hope, into loyal followers. Back end logistics systems that are as flexible and as fast are now available even to the smaller business on an international basis.
Monitoring and Measurement
This technical capability is about ensuring that all marketing activities, whether generated by the organisation or the customer, are monitored and measured for their effectiveness. Data and insights produced are then interpreted and used to achieve improvements in the future. This is where digital technologies win hands down over traditional media approaches. We have built in data on traffic, sign-ups, visitors, likes, re-tweets, conversions etc. etc. Such ‘vanity’ data may not be perfect but it generally gives us good trend information and is usually fast and free.
By Charles Nixon of Principal of Cambridge Marketing Colleges.
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