Common marketing challenges most of us (marketers) face, at least 1 time in our work-life.

Hi! I’m Sofia 👋 and I’ve been working in marketing for the past (almost) 9 years.
Throughout the past years, I had the pleasure to work in different companies and areas, but the main highlight goes for the different people, which presented me with great opportunities, right from the beginning!

I feel I’m a lucky girl! I had a great mentor, that helped me develop to the working-girl I am today, and colleagues around me that level-me up trough recognition!

This article started one day, when one more time I had to face the same challenge — Marketing is always the second, third or fourth priority.

Instead of making this a problem I started writing this article and boom! HERE IT IS👇
(I think it’s a healthy way to solve our problems, we managed to prioritize, put everything in a softer perspective and at the same time let off steam).

For some people, marketing is the department focused on supporting the business reach its goals — helping to sell products/services. BUT it’s SO MUCH more than that!

Marketing It’s about how your next clients will see your brand and the products/services that your business is offering. It’s how your employees connect with your client, the email you send them for Christmas, the sales action created, the concept and alignment of all communications (external or internal).

If you are a marketer in a small or big company, I think the probability that you have already heard say:

· Can we postpone our meeting? I have so much work to do!
· It’s not a big deal, just post on Social media.
· I didn’t like that post!
· Can you make an image to send today?
· Can you post ‘this’ on social media, TODAY!
· Why didn’t people respond on Social Media?
· I want company gifts!
· Can you write this for me? It’s easy!

With the #covid19 pandemic and the full-remote, cases like this are becoming more common! The marketing department is working and helping the company grow, but each one in their own home! It’s more difficult to feel the overview colleagues’ struggles, or just understand what he or she is doing! I understand that, I don’t think their jobs are easy, or that “I totally could do what they do” but I don’t like when marketing is being condescended.

Marketing is a tool to keep the conversation going, to create and maintain demand, relevance, reputation, competition and more.

I’m not just sitting and waiting for people to come to me, I don’t do things just because is cool or it’s going to be great on social media!

Any successful project starts with planning a good strategy! Same goes with social media marketing. The art and skill lies in the strategy not the implementation.

With company growth, it’s normal for these struggles to happen internally, many call it ‘growing pains’. We just need to make sure all people are heard, and that the processes in place facilitate all day-to-day operation for everyone involved.

If I ask you “how is your team collaboration between departments?”
“Are people getting involved and know the other areas?”

Seamless and effective collaboration between departments requires effort. A company is a chain of members pursuing a common goal and a chain is as weak as its weakest link.

There’re some actions managers can take in order to improve the current and future company culture to have a better understanding and alignment with the marketing team:

Provide information, share your strategy:

Make the team feel committed to the project and the marketing goals, give them visibility, a holistic view of the project and common goal, motivating them to collaborate.

Get Involved:

Allow people to get involved! We all have to gain when other perspectives and ideas come along.

Cultivate empathy:

Share your struggles! Feeling vulnerable it’s not a bad thing or synonymy of being weak.
In my opinion, one of the biggest problems with communication and probably one of the primary sources of frustration is the lack of interdepartmental understanding. Encouraging our coworkers to “walk in your shoes” and feel the challenges of other departments.

Ask for honest feedback and accept criticism:

Ask feedback but be open for what they really have to say! Sometimes we tend to play on defense with our work. Just be open minded, listen and ask questions, at the end of the day if you think it doesn’t fit your strategy, you can stick to your plan and keep going.

Celebrate wins:

Recognition shouldn’t be limited to closing deals and hitting targets. Take the time to recognize the separate wins that helped to built that big achievement.

Gratitude:

This is a very personal one — I think many will not agree or feel comfortable, it also depends on company culture — The idea is to practice gratitude within people.

Each week as the question, on a meeting or slack
“What is one thing you are grateful for that week?”
“Who they helped this week?”
“Who they are grateful for helping them”

We need to teach people and create a trust and understanding relationship with the rest of the departments. It’s important to have open conversations about marketing, it can break down barriers that may be preventing from getting the job done.

It’s magical what marketing can do and how it can have an impact 🦄

So please, stop referring marketing just for social media posts and creating images. They’ re a big part of communications but isn’t enough. I actually agree that quantity does matter, but of course it’s not just about quantity — the quality needs to be there, too.

Marketing actions should be coordinated with business as a whole, and not ignored or put for the end!

Believing that we can just post an ad, create a campaign or a sales action with a twitch of our fingers it’s wrong! A good business marketing means applying the appropriate actions at the right time, using the best channel, with the right communication tone.

Marketing can’t work alone in a company! It needs to be united with all departments so that we can all reach a common goal — company thrive.

For a modern marketer, there is so much that is expected, from social media, to copywriting, strategy and analysis, even graphic design. I know I can’t be all of them! I can’t be perfect and awesome in all of this! So, in order for me to do a good job, I need to work with the rest of my colleagues, but they also need to know the power and importance of Marketing in their business.

I hope you like my exposure! As the only marketer in a company, it can be challenging.

With time, I’ve learned great ways to fight my imposter syndrome, organize my workload, and create ways to engage and be with other people departments.

Do you feel this way sometimes to? Would love to hear your opinion.

Thank you!