What Does Strong Marketing Leadership Look Like?

A marketing team should be like a well oiled machine; firing on all cylinders to establish and evolve a company’s identity, brand awareness, and reputation. The conductor of this machine, or marketing director, must possess the right skills to keep it going on the right track.

As ASU states, being a marketing director involves “overseeing marketing staff, creating concepts and budgets for successful marketing campaigns and serving as the communication hub between clients, vendors and co-workers.” A marketing team leader must understand how a company wants to be portrayed and what to do to get the image right, while providing thought leadership and managing their team at the same time.

Especially in today’s fast-paced digital marketing era, it is vital that you and your team are all on the same page for the success of your digital marketing campaign. Additionally, it is crucial that you wear the many hats that is required of a marketing director to keep your team members, your organization, and yourself happy while making your marketing campaign a success. Continue reading to understand what it takes to be a strong leader of your marketing team.

Team Building

There are many roles that make up a marketing team. Because of this, it is up to you to encourage each member accordingly. Words of encouragement and recognition go a long way for anyone. Did your developer create an awesome landing page? Did your writer craft some awesome content? Make sure that you tell them of your appreciation and respect the contributions they make to the team. Inspiring your team members and acknowledging their accomplishments will strengthen team camaraderie as well as make employees want to keep up the good work.

We are not living in the days of solely communicating through landline phones, and our connected devices can do many things. A marketing leader should know this, and provide their team with the newest tech to do their jobs easily, conveniently, and efficiently. Client and project management systems should be easily accessible on any device, as communication — including direct messaging — is a must. The last thing you want is for another agency to blow your marketing efforts out of the water simply because they have more advanced technology.

Additionally, it is always helpful to foster the growing education of your team members. It is no secret that encouraging, and even paying for, your employees to further their education is beneficial to the whole company. Business analytics and data management are extremely beneficial to a marketing team for decision making and business intelligence. Since business is always changing in the marketing world, why wouldn’t you want your employees to be on top of trends, audience preferences, and other valuable insights for your marketing efforts?

Communication

Clear, open, and concise communication is essential to any marketing team and its efforts. As the marketing leader, it will be up to you to act as a liaison between the company and your team. More so than your team, it is your responsibility to understand fully what the company expects from your team. Company image and marketing content will need to be explicitly laid out by you for your team to make your company’s expectations into a reality. Face to face, email, and direct messaging are all forms of communication a marketing leader needs to use when talking — and listening — to company leaders about marketing efforts.

Within your team should be a web of constant communication. The many employees on your team all have different responsibilities that play off of each other. In most cases, one project cannot be started by an employee unless another team member finishes their portion? first. A project management software with strong communication capabilities, direct messaging, and file sharing will all be vital in the creation of any marketing material. As the leader, it will be up to you to facilitate ongoing communication between team members, as well as between yourself and your employees. You have deadlines to meet and expectations to be fulfilled, and this cannot be done without strong communication.

Adaptability

Nothing is more ineffective than stale marketing tactics, and your marketing team won’t get far without becoming familiar and keeping up with marketing trends. Having the flexibility to keep up with the ever-changing preferences and interests of your audience, while knowing what connects best with them, will be critical to your marketing efforts.

Making your company site work across all devices, new content marketing tactics, and even conversing with your audience on social media will make things as easy as possible. In providing these conveniences, it will allow for a potential customer to convert, keep customer interests, and highlight your audiences preferences to keep you, and your marketing efforts fresh and new.

Within your team, there will be many working parts. Sometimes employees may go past deadlines, information can get misinterpreted, and other mishaps will happen within your team. The ability to adapt and handle these situations quickly will be the responsibility of the marketing leader. Putting out these fires quickly and getting your team back on track will be just part of the job.

Many roles of a marketing team involves creativity in some way or form. In many cases, employees prefer to have the flexibility of remote work to be in a comfortable setting to create their content or artwork. Remote work can also help reduce employee burnout by giving them the freedom to work in a setting that they may prefer more. Allowing your team to work remotely can increase productivity and employee satisfaction. So, if you are able to do so, let your employees try working remotely for an amicable work environment and work-life balance.

Bottom Line!!!

Some people can market, but not lead. Others can lead, but not market. With the information above you will be able to do both, understanding what it takes to be a strong marketing leader. In doing so, your clients and team members will remain happy and your marketing efforts will be a success.