They Solve One Problem At A Time
There are undoubtedly a number of issues that need to be handled in the middle of a marketing campaign. There may be problems that you just can't ignore, but don't try to solve them all at once. Make note of the problems you're dealing with, and then prioritize them. Once you've done that, it's time to work on the biggest concern on your list, and find a solution for it. Then, the next complication can become the center of attention. By working through the list in that way, marketers stay focused and get more done.
They Set Short- And Long-Term Goals
The short-term goals they're working towards may be focused on areas that can be handled with a lot of immediacy, like their social media strategy for the upcoming month. Long-term goals are usually more broad, such as setting an ROI objective for the end of a campaign. Both types of goals are important, but to successfully make it through a campaign, a marketer must prioritize which goals need more attention at what time. Generally, short-term goals are a catalyst for long-term goals, in that a number of shorter goals have to happen before longer goals can be realized effectively. As short-term goals get met, the long-term goals will start to fall into place.
Grasping the Big Picture
While so much of marketing today is all about the specialist, it's still important to be able to think like a generalist. It helps you see the big picture, according to Stan Valencis, president at Primacy, and it helps you work with a diverse and always-expanding group of marketing professionals.
"The old cliché, get the right content in front of the right people at the right time, has never been more apropos," says Valencis. "Understanding the full digital ecosystem and each role is the only way to optimize your content strategy and corresponding media spend."
A Customer's mind set
Many marketers want to think like the best marketers in their field. There's nothing wrong with that idea in theory, but the best thing you can do in practice is to train yourself to think like a customer, says Eric Schiffer, CEO of DigitalMarketing.com.
"[Marketers] need to be able to think about everything they do through the lens of the consumer," he says. "Consumers have more control and say than [they] ever [have] in history. So designing the user experience with keen insight into consumer motivation and behavioral dynamics is critical to success, and then it's about measuring, monitoring, and adjusting that experience in real time for each customer."
An Open Mind
If you're a digital marketer today, there's a good chance you didn't go to school for what you do. In fact, if you're over a certain age, the industry that you work in didn't exist when you were a kid. But if you're a Millennial in the marketing business, you shouldn't assume that you've got it all figured out because of your digital native status. In fact, one of the only constants in our industry is change.
"One of the most exciting parts of working in digital media is the endless number of first to market opportunities available to us," says Bruce Harwood, associate director at The Media Kitchen. "In traditional media, it's much harder to do something truly unique and out of the box that has never been done before. It's always a plus to have a client that is not afraid of these opportunities and appreciates the benefit of getting their foot in the door before everyone else, [and] it's important that marketers are open to new and untested opportunities."
But don't mistake "untested" for unmeasured.
"It's extremely important to realize the importance of measuring each portion of the campaign to understand the true value of each tactic," says Harwood. "The best marketers are committed to measurement."
Persistency and Gradual Improvement
"The very best marketers openly ask 'What could we do better?'" says Tania Yuki, founder and CEO of Shareablee. "Even if they are leading their category, they are not satisfied with where they are, and encourage those around them to stay restless, curious, and healthily paranoid."
While building that commitment in yourself isn't something that's easily done or understood, Yuki says some of the best evidence that a marketer has the building blocks to improve comes down to the willingness to face facts, especially when those facts aren't good news.
"[Strong marketers] know that success is not always linear, and they want to understand what's working and what isn't so they can learn and continually get better, so the truth does not scare them," Yuki says. "They acknowledge that new platforms require new rules, and what worked for one, or once before will not ensure future success. This can be particularly tough if it means reporting that a campaign was not as effective as it could have been, but it is the way the very best brands stay sharp and ahead of the game, and it also creates a culture where people do not fear failure, and are therefore willing to take risks."
