A couple of decades ago a wise old communications professional offered some sage advice — “Managing is like conducting an orchestra. You just have to keep all the pieces in harmony.”

This advice probably rings truer today than at any other time, especially for the marketing and communications manager.

You see, in today’s world of traditional and digital and online and bricks and mortar, and so on, the key is to understand the roles each function plays and make sure that it plays its role well with the other parts of the marketing team. I’ll give you an example.

Breakdowns

Recently I saw a really clever online ad campaign. I expectantly clicked the ad, wanting to see a continuation of the clever ad creative. Instead, I got the landing page of the company’s web site. And nothing could be found that tied back to the interactive ad — no graphic tie, no information about the product that was being sold, nothing. Clearly, whoever created the online ad, didn’t coordinate with anyone from the web team to ensure that the ad’s promise was fulfilled when clicked.

It’s even worse when a major brand sends out a promotional email to (presumably) thousands of consumers, and we click on a link within the email to discover that it either doesn’t work at all or it goes to a page that has nothing to do with what the email is saying.

Breakups

What do you think the consumer does in these cases? Probably nothing, just clicks and goes elsewhere. What do you suppose they think? “Dummies!”

You don’t get long and you don’t get many chances in today’s digital world. It’s too easy just to click away and forget about the ad, the web site, the product, the service, even the company. Death by a thousand cuts.

Making Nice Sounds

In the past marketers would simply huddle with their ad agency to get things done. But today, there’s an interactive group, branding, public relations, media buyers, internal communications and maybe others to involve. Not a pretty sight when you have scores of projects on the boards. So you can spend you life in meetings, or on the phone referreeing disputes, or you can use online tools and basic management skills to keep the orchestra on beat and in tune.

Clarity

One of the quickiest ways to achieve harmony is to create clarity. Tell each individual, group and agency involved in a project exactly what their role is and who their counterparts are in the other groups. Sounds easy but it’s done less often then you think. Speaking from the interactive agency perspective, it’s always appreciated when we know exactly what our role is and understand the roles of the others. May not always like it if we’re too tightly restricted, but there is far less stumbling and finger pointing in the end.

In orchestra-speak, this clarity will keep the trumpets from telling the strings when to come in and will make the swinging saxes stay down during the oboe solo.

Understanding

With roles clearly established then goals are called for. Everyone must know and understand exactly what we’re trying to do with the project at hand. Otherwise, in a vacuum, we all backfill our own interpreted goals in place and that sometimes creates chaos. It certainly creates those famous disconnects (he said, she said, I thought, you thought, assume, assume, assume).

There are a hundred tools nowadays that let you write a quick piece on your desktop and publish it on a secure web page for the other members of the team to read. That’s how we do project Punch Lists and update them numerous times each day. Write out the players, the goals and any other Have Tos and Don’t Dos so we’ll all on the same page of music.

Progress

Because most projects depend on several groups developing their individual piece of the puzzle, it’s important that each part of the team know and understand the timeline as it unfolds — who does what and when it is due.

It’s not good enough for all to know the ultimate deadline but not the smaller, but equally crucial deadlines along the way. By communicating this timeline routinely we can all see where the train jumped the track and exactly who derailed it, instead of blaming the last group with responsibilities in the chain. It will also teach us how to better

Gimme Three Steps

So in the end, to help your marketing orchestra sing like a bird…

Clarify the role each individual or group plays.

State goals and objectives clearly for each project.

Update all with the progress being made on the project.

Without these simple communications in place your project stands to land flat.

Leading the orchestra is not necessairily the hardest job, but it is absolutely the most important. Tahe the time to arm all your players with the information and the tools they need and you can expect something smooth and soothing. Otherwise — off-key and off-beat and

Cheers,
steve