Advances in technology, changing customer needs, and other market and societal forces are converging to evolve and expand the marketing function. Indeed, “Marketing’s role in strengthening a company’s operating effectiveness has never been more important,” according to a recent report in Harvard Business Review.
Here are some examples of how marketing’s cross-departmental involvement is being used to strengthen companies’ operational effectiveness.
Tags: marketing budget, human resources, collaboration, marketing technology, customer experience, Insurance Marketing, marketing operations, financial services marketing, marketing staff, marketing technology buyers' resources, franchise marketing
We’ve all seen the headlines – job openings in the U.S. are at a record high. According to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employers nationwide are struggling to fill more than 9.2 million job openings. The events of 2020 have created an unusual workforce environment, marked simultaneously by higher unemployment and a labor shortage.
Tags: corporate culture, human resources, collaboration, MRM, marketing technology, customer experience, marketing resource management, brand experience, recruiting
The national unemployment rate was 3.5% in December, a fifty-year low. Sounds like good news, right? For employers, low unemployment means fewer individuals applying for job vacancies. So, it’s no surprise that recruiting is one of the top challenges businesses face in 2020.
Tags: corporate culture, human resources, collaboration, MRM, marketing technology, customer experience, marketing resource management, brand experience, recruiting
How would you characterize the strength and effectiveness of your marketing organization? Do you have the right talent, martech tools and focused strategy required to compete at the level necessary to grow within your industry?
Tags: human resources, marketing technology, marketing as a service, marketing staff, martech, MaaS
Technology’s role in transforming marketing cannot be understated. Digital channels, automation and a multitude of platforms have helped expand the marketer’s role, requiring expanded skillsets and increased IT investments for successful execution of marketing plans. Yet most marketing teams remain understaffed and overburdened. It is in this environment that marketing as a service (MaaS) has emerged.
Tags: human resources, MRM, marketing technology, marketing resource management, marketing as a service
Why Social Media Skills Are Not Optional
Oct 23, 2013
It’s an inevitable point in the life cycle of every great advancement or leap forward: that moment when the exceptional becomes the norm. It happened with phones, televisions, automobiles – things that were revolutionary concepts when they first arrived, but eventually nearly everyone had one, and suddenly owning such items isn’t viewed as remarkable, rather as necessary.
The same holds true for business skills, and that was the focus of a book I recently read by Jay Baer called “Youtility.” New technology has always demanded new skills, but as we’ve seen time and time again, as the technology becomes more prevalent and “the norm,” so too do the skills required to operate it, and that has an impact on how businesses should look for and asses new talent.
Tags: digital marketing, facebook, Twitter, sales, LinkedIn, marketing, human resources, customer service, social media, Retail
In-House Vs. Outsourcing: A Process for Analysis
Jul 19, 2013
It’s a question every company faces with any new initiative or strategy shift that may require new or different skills and resources: Should we keep it in-house or are we better off paying someone else to do it? Sometimes arriving at an answer doesn’t take more than two seconds of thought. Other times, more due diligence is called for, and that’s what we’re going to examine in today’s post. I think there are four areas of analysis businesses need to consider when deciding whether or not to keep work in-house or look outside the company: core competencies, personnel, other resources (equipment, machinery, software, etc…) and financial impact/cost.
Core competencies
The first question you need to answer (aside from the main question of this post) ties directly back to the core competencies of your company. Is the new work or initiative you are considering in line with your core business competencies? To put it another way, will it divert the focus of your business and your people away from what they do best? To use an example on an individual scale, it doesn’t make sense for a sales person to spend time designing and building his or her own email marketing tool. That’s time spent not working leads, and no matter how great it would be to have an email marketing program built to 100% custom-fit specifications, it’s just not worth the effort with so many other viable options on the market. That example segues nicely into our second area of analysis…
Tags: printing, human resources, technology, core competencies, personnel, marketing systems
Building Internal Brand Advocacy
May 14, 2013
Last Thursday, DocuStar and the Cincinnati American Marketing Association teamed up to host a panel
discussion featuring executives from the Cincinnati region. Participating in the event were Jerry Kathman, President and CEO of LPK; Chris McNamee, Vice President Marketing, Hobsons; Ed Burghard, CEO & Manager at The Burghard Group; and Heather Adkins, Vice President, Chief Strategy and Mission Officer, The Christ Hospital Health Network; and moderating was Dan Knowles, President of Brand Ubiquity.
Tags: branding, ROI, executive leadership, buy-in, MOL, brand advocacy, Cincinnati AMA, employee engagement, marketing, c-level, human resources, Marketing Organizational Leadership