As a marketing consultant you are often asked to design a digital marketing strategy from scratch.
But how do you implement new digital marketing ideas for a company that has done marketing differently in the past?
This is not that easy, especially when facing challenges that are related to the very nature of the business and to specific marketing activities like social media marketing, content creation, data analytics and IT.
So, here are 3 organisational challenges to bear in mind along the journey:
1. Skills and Training
Companies not always have the skills required to implement a full digital marketing strategy.
In this case you might need to hire new talent, develop new training programs, outsource or combine skills (i.e. analytical and creative skills).
2. Speed and Agility
When developing new skills, speed and agility to adapt to change are crucial.
CEOs are often concerned not only with ‘what’ their teams can learn but ‘how’ fast can they learn.
A good approach for marketers is ‘test and learn’. Use iterative learning as a tactic for constant improvement and allow for agility to adapt.
3. Collaboration
When different skills are required, cross-divisional collaboration is often required.
Your ideas often involve each part of the organisation, from marketing to HR, from product innovation to customer services, from sales to distribution.
So, when more business functions are involved, which one is responsible for strategy and which one for implementation?
Is it marketing or sales that owns your company's digital presence and your relationship with customers?
In this case, you will probably have to align organisational functions on customer relationship, customer experience, branding and communications by creating what digital marketing leaders call a 'centre of excellence' (CoE).
CoE can, in fact, coordinate between business units by sharing best practices, aligning your brand’s digital presence and develop new skills through training programs and assigning responsibilities to each business unit.
What organisational challenges have you faced when implementing your digital marketing strategy?
Feel free to share your experience here.
Thank you for reading.