Is yours a strategic marketing organisation?

27 May 2008

Ten signs of a strategic marketing organisation

By Julian Turner, Chief Executive, Electric Word

Note from the editor:

We first published this excellent article in the Subscriptions Strategy newsletter, in issue 49 (we are now on issue 69). This kind of from-the-top advice doesn’t go out of date. So here it is again to guide all those publishers who need to check if their marketing is up to best practice standards:

“Good marketing involves far too many decisions for them all to be made by senior managers, and the organisations that are best at making the right strategic decisions are those in which the decision-making is spread more broadly.”

Here’s a checklist of top ten characteristics of the strategic marketing operation:

1. Clearly expressed financial objectives: are we aiming for cash or profits? Now or in two years’ time?

2. Time gained through training and delegation

3. Marketing spending determined by results not budgets

4. Everyone bought into the principle of measurement, from data entry to finance

5. Campaign results recorded accurately and analysed quickly

6. Marketers thinking like investment fund managers: is this a worthwhile investment for the company? Can I invest more?

7. Key measures understood so that decisions can be taken quickly – by marketers

8. Marketers’ incentives aligned with objectives

9. A renewing sub is understood to be likely to be more valuable than a new one

10. Urgency: subscribers not acquired today will never be caught up – especially on a new launch.