Wade Floyd, founder of accelerator-backed Coach Tube, has said, “The marketing universe is already too complex and too crowded to keep trying to do it alone. It is true in sports and marketing — a team approach [is] easier and more powerful because we can amplify and multiply one another’s efforts.”
Find your team
Most of us do not have big marketing departments, or even little marketing departments. Some of us are the marketing department and all, or almost all, other departments in the company. So, I agree wholeheartedly with Floyd when he says a team approach is the way to go. First thing we need to know is who is on our marketing team. The obvious answer is that everyone who works at our company is on the marketing team. Marketing is, and should be, everyone’s job. From the person who answers the phone to the front office person and so on down the line, we all need to be aware of the role we play in customer retention.
True story: I saw a Facebook post last month from a new mom requesting pediatrician recommendations from her Facebook friends. She actually said, “I like the doctor, I just cannot stand the office staff. They are so rude and unfriendly.”
Can you imagine? I can. Medical offices are notorious but what a powerful example. I guess the physician forgot to tell employees not only that they are on the marketing team but the people they are being rude and unfriendly to are the reason they have a job. If you have not done it in a while, or ever, make sure you let everyone know that they are in the marketing department. I do not know about you, but I am curious who the physician is who has such terrible front office staff.
Keep marketing in mind
So we covered the obvious answer. Everyone in the company is on the marketing team. What about outside the company? If we want to amplify and multiply our marketing efforts, who else can we recruit for our team?
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Hold on. It is time for another true story. Last week my mother and I went to the Holly Days Home Tour, organized by the Punta Gorda Garden Club. It is an annual fundraiser that provides scholarships to high school students who plan to pursue careers in environmental fields. What a great cause, right? Tickets were supposed to be available at the Punta Gorda Chamber of Commerce and a few other places. The day of the tour we went to the Chamber to buy tickets. The woman at the front desk told us that we were too late; any unsold tickets had been picked up and we would have to go to the church to buy them.
That lady was not on the marketing team for the Punta Gorda Garden Club. She was not even on the Chamber of Commerce marketing team. Since we were already at the Chamber, my mom inquired about some of the other holiday-related events that were happening in town. “I have no idea, those are not our events,” she replied. She did look it up after I told her I had seen the Christmas carol sing in the newspaper, but this is someone who is employed by the Chamber of Commerce for “A small city with a very big heart. A friendly community with a remarkable past and an exciting future.” She should be on marketing team of the whole town.
Recruit from the outside
Are you a member of your Chamber of Commerce? Do they know what you do? Do you keep them in the loop about your business? What about other potential team members in your community? Your business banker? Your cleaning service? Your landlord? Your schools? I know I have mentioned before how beneficial realtors can be for your marketing team. Who do you think gets to know all the new people who move to town? Who probably does a much better job of being helpful and friendly than the Punta Gorda chamber lady? Realtors. Put your coach’s hat on and start thinking about who you can recruit for your marketing team.
- Reference:
- Fridman A. Inc. 2015; Available at www.inc.com/adam-fridman/the-future-of-digital-marketing-how-it-s-changing-in-2016.html. Accessed Dec. 9, 2015.
- For more information:
- Elizabeth Mansfield is the president of Outsource Marketing Solutions and the Vice President of Clinical Education Concepts. She can be reached at elizabeth@askelizabeth.net.
