oh, it ain't my fault: building successful marketing relationships
DESCRIPTION
At talk by Geoff Coats of Line 58 Branding and Web Design -- www.line58.com -- presented to the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS). Working with marketing directors and their teams at various construction, architecture, and engineering firms we have seen projects start out promising and then devolve into chaos. This results in higher levels of stress for all team members, delivery of projects that are less successful than they could have been, and often firms paying more for a mediocre (or bad) outcome than they could have paid for a great project. We will look at are some of the missteps that clients and creative teams make, explore strategies for how you as a marketing leader can avoid these common mistakes, and how you can plan and implement a successful project.TRANSCRIPT
All of those projects were easy.
All of those clients had a great experience.
Admit you have a problem.
Step 1
Oh, It Ain’t My FaultBuilding Successful Marketing Relationships
Delivering Successful Projects
Woohoo!Your project got approved!
ChaosStress
Hurt Feelings
Cost Overruns
Paying More for Mediocre Work
Strategies for SuccessAvoiding Common Mistakes
Planning for a Successful Project
Implementing a Successful Project
ResultsThat’s what I like.
The result is that we’ve been able to double our revenue goals in two years, and we continue to accelerate with their help. — Charles Josephs, CEO Acute Medical
Instead of our customers getting frustrated and leaving the website, Line 58 simplified and streamlined our entire system, creating a responsive e-commerce website that makes it easy for our customers to intuitively make purchases. - Jon Sherman, Owner Flavor Paper
What undermines great work ?
Unclear objectives
Gate keepers
New Players
Loss of momentum
Lack of trust
Micro managing
So, How do you get results ?
Define the Project
Align Expectations
Manage the Process
Assemble Your Team
Defining Your Project
Articulate TheBusiness Goals
What are the business goals?
How will you measure success?
Focus on OutcomesArticulate Desired Results
Avoid Dictating How to Achieve Them
Have a BudgetShare Your Budget
Establish a TimelineIs this hard or flexible?
Understand the relationship between design and content
Is this a pure design project?
If not, what are the content requirements?
What is the budet for content creation?
Assembling Your Team
Identify Your Internal Team
Who needs to be on this project?
What is the role of each person?
Articulate who owns this project.
Be Realistic About Time Commitments
During the Process
During Implementation
Be Realistic About Team Capabilities
Set ExpectationsEveryone attends every meeting
Each person speaks to their expertise
Everyone remains solutions focused
Everyone acknowledges the expertise of others
No one needs to win
Maintain the same team
Select Your PartnerDo they have a record of success?
Can they do what you are asking?
Are they a good cultural fit?
Do you have a partner on the creative team?
Do you trust them?
Aligning Expectations
Establish a Clear Process
This is harder than it sounds
Share Your Insights Into Your Team & Culture
Articulate motivations as you understand them
Articulate Assumptions & Risks
Assumptions
Management will not insert themselves into the process
Project Managers will deliver project info on-time
Marketing team will reduce portfolio categories to 6
Video team will complete work in 4 weeks
RisksManagement will insert themselves into the process
10 RFPs will land in the spring
Principals won’t approve copy in a timely manner
Video team will not complete work in 4 weeks
New ideas are rejected.
New ideas are scary.
Managing the Process
Understand What Motivates Creative Professionals
What gets you excited about a client project? What maintains your enthusiasm?
Working with clients that are open to genuine discussion of ideas or solutions and not focused on pushing pre-conceptions through. Architects don’t want to be CAD monkeys for their clients for the same reason we don’t want to be told “just do what I tell you”.
Clients that are passionate, thoughtful, have clear goals and trust that we know what we’re doing. They have to like what they are doing if I’m going to do the same.
What are challenges you have experienced working with clients?
With respect to Architects specifically, it can be hard to work with their tendency to think they can do any design-related job well, including web-design and branding.
Inability to focus on the big picture or take a step back, not interested in understanding and being a valuable partner in the design/development/execution/whatever process. Have to be able to work through things together, otherwise it all breaks down.
What can clients do to increase the odds of getting a great project?
Trusting that they hired a competent team and be open to what they suggest. It becomes a miserable process when the trust is lacking and each side struggles to control the other.
Clear communication and consistent expectations, flexibility to let the project evolve into something better than they imagined and willing to invest (time, energy, dollars) in the best version of it. Pick people that you want to work with and admire, hopefully they’re doing the same.
Remind your team where you are in the process
Build a contingency fee into your budget
So, How do you improve your odds of getting a great creative project that delivers results ?
Define the Project
Align Expectations
Manage the Process
Assemble Your Team
