Organising yourmarketing

Jo Walters @jowalters #sucommsCommunicat ions ManagerUniversity of Sussex Students ' Union

In which I will cover...Different models for structuring your marketing function

Central control or delegated responsibility?

Workflow tools & models

Do you do everything or do people do things themselves?

How much of a control freak are you?

So. Much. Work.

Me.University of Sussex Students' Union.

Communications Manager.

Digital nerd. #sucomms evangelist. Control freak.

13,000ish students. Brighton. Campus cat.

4 of us doing communications

My straw poll...How much does your marketing team controlthe marketing output of your Union? 12 respondents

Total None

ActualIdeal

My straw poll...How much does your marketing team controlthe marketing output of your Union? 12 respondents

50% 33% 17%want more control are content want less control

My straw poll...Do other departments/projects in your Unionhave their own communications channels? 12 respondents

None All of them

ActualIdeal

My straw poll...Do other departments/projects in your Unionhave their own communications channels? 12 respondents

67% 33% 0%want more control are content want less control

Two structures:a. Central marketing department alongside others

Skills, outputs, knowledge, experience, marketing work is centralised

What we've

been doing

Two structures:b. 'Hub & spoke' model

Decentralised. People deliver their own communications with support

What we'll

be doing

Centralised.

AdvantagesEasier to control brand identity,message, tone, style, qualityand reputationCoherent communicationsFewer channels = lessfragmentationUtilise team's expertise &experienceCan prioritise key messages

DisadvantagesTime intensiveToo few marketing staffHard to juggle priorities & requestsIndividual messages dilutedCould overwhelm students with abusy channelMarketing department becomes abottleneck

What have I missed?

Hub & spoke.

AdvantagesLess time intensive formarketing teamEmpowers colleaguesFewer bottlenecksEasier for smaller teams

DisadvantagesLack of central control &coherenceTime still required tocoach & supportcolleaguesFewer marketing skillsoutside the teamCommunication can be alower priority foroperational colleagues

What have I missed?

At Sussex...We're moving away from a centralised approachOur new strategy prioritises a general Union awareness campaign so we needed

to create time for our marketing team to create, deliver and monitor this

I did not love this originally.

My team did not love this originally.

Some colleagues didn't love it either.

How could we address these concerns and make it work?

I'm a control freak, remember?

Turns out they like being in control too

What about the impact on their work?

Thinking hats time.I used the 'six thinking hats' approachto look at the issue with my team

White. Facts

We do not have enough

time to do everything

and a new Union

campaign

Our new strategy

includes this change

Green. Ideas

Assign mentors

Provide training

Get people excited

Provide resources

Share handy tools

Move away from print

& design

Switch over in one go

Switch over gradually

Yellow. Positives

Gives us time for an

exciting new project

Develop our skills

Find secretly talented

colleagues

We'll direct our own

work far more

Can focus on students,

not internally

Black. Negatives

Quality of marketing

output will fall

More work for others

Reputation will be

damaged

Our brand/message

won't be consistent

Fragmented

communications

Red. Feelings

Worried

Lots of unknowns

Curious

Resigned

Unsure about what it

will be like

Concerned about the

impact on colleagues

We needed to

focus on and

maximise these

We needed

to address and

minimise these

Our plan.

Training.

Information.

Templates.

Tools & resources.

Guidelines.

Delegate.

Coach.

Trust.

The value of trust.

Do we use control instead of trust?Give people tools, guidelines and encouragement.

Let them make mistakes.

Coach them and help them learn.

Channels?

Central and/or separate?

My approach.

You consistently have enough to talk about

You will frequently make time to update your feed and respond to comments

You've had training and understand how to do great social media, particularly

that this isn't a megaphone to use to promote yourself all the time

You keep us in the loop so we can help if needed

Your channels stay focused on your thing & don't become another general feed

Workflow tools.Back to my straw poll...I asked people what they use to keep track of work in their department.

50% usesomething digital

17% usesomething physical

33% useboth

Digital tools.

Prioritising.

Whoever nags the most / makes me cryTime availableTermly priorities then the rest ad hocDeadlines & impact of projectsPrioritised in team meetingsUnion prioritiesOnline form + regular meetingsCommissioning forms with 28 days noticeW

hat p

eopl

e to

ld m

e

Still not cracked it completelyMoving from weekly to longer term prioritiescollectively agreed (so we're not the bad guys)

Us

Questions?

What do you think?

So that's it.Blog post - www.joannawalters.co.uk

I'm @jowalters on Twitter. The cool kids use #sucomms

Come to Comms by the Coast (30-31 July)

Get in touch to say hi!