How A Successful Marketing Manager Today Can Hinder Your Digital Presence Tomorrow

‘Research has shown that Marketing Managers have a tenure in any one position of around 18 months to 2 years. There are exceptions, of course, but that trend can work against the requirements of building an effective digital strategy and, ultimately, a productive online presence.’

Marketing planning is often based around a 12-month calendar, and managers of that plan are charged with increasing sales as a key metric. We understand, however, that success in digital is not just a case of ‘Build a website and they will come’. It takes strategic planning born of deep understanding of how digital is beneficial in your market and best appeals to your audience, and that understanding takes time to develop. Much of this development can be linked to backend digital infrastructure improvements too which, while critical to developing a platform that can deliver well into the future, probably won’t help you reach next week’s sales targets. Faced with that equation, it’s all too easy to view immediate sales results as the only goal.

‘A marketing plan is critical to success in any business,’ says Rhys, ‘but if a marketing plan is only being measured by quarterly or even 12-monthly deliverables then, with all the best intentions, the medium to long-term strategic opportunities of the business maybe sacrificed for short-term success. And this might work for a while, but as consumer behaviour changes and we see the current levels of online sales and other activity increase dramatically, your business will fall further and further behind the competition in terms of digital presence and development. Perhaps fatally so.’

Some of the questions related to medium and long-term digital goals that need to be addressed include:

How do we measure the health of our digital infrastructure? How do we measure the digital needs of our audience? How do we build what they require? And how do we measure the combined effect of all our digital tools?

Ideally, says Rhys, medium to long-term digital goals should be key goals for Marketing Managers along side achieving quarterly sales figures. This will create a proactive digital planning and implementation process within the organisation.

Rhys Hayes is a guest speaker at ADtech Sydney, March 16-17 2010.

Rhys Hayes, Managing Director of IE is available for interviews during Adtech by contacting:
Michelle Milton, Mirror Marketing, tel: 04 1718 5458