Building a Marketing Team of Executors

In today’s marketing climate, you need a team of executors. Everyone wants a marketer on the cutting edge of technology and a master of data with a winning personality, who understands what customers really want. There aren’t of lot of us out there than can do all that, the ones that can are successful because of the teams they build, as those expectations stand regardless. The key to getting the very best from your group is mining the data and giving direct feedback with helpful direction, as keeping people feeling good and progressing directly fuels how well they perform. Follow these steps to keep your team engaged and happy.

Relationships = Success

Marketing relies heavily on relationship building, both with you and your team as well as with customers and clients. I make sure to touch base with my team in meaningful ways, and I extend myself in any way possible to provide guidance and support. Want execution from the team? Reach out, ask how you can help, share your knowledge (it’s helps), and work at building an environment where people can express themselves, without fear. Fear is debilitating and stops progress, therefore keeping an open and collaborative environment where mistakes are okay, as long as you learn, it’s imperative for growth within the team, which = success.

That’s done first by creating work groups that focus on individual projects. Help members see each other as resources and as partners who need each other’s support. When we appreciate our coworkers — and we feel proud of the role we play in our own and others’ success — we stay motivated and focused. Those are the elements that propel us toward greatness!

Training Stimulates Innovation

Traditional training methods leave a lot to be desired. Instead of returning home from training events pumped up and ready to tackle tomorrow’s problems, teams come back bored and tired. They travel, listen and may have engaged in a few exercises, but ultimately take little away from these meetings. Still, continuing education is essential in marketing. We need to understand and take advantage of a flood of new marketing products and tools every quarter to keep us progressing and delivering great work.

Instead of forcing team members to attend training opportunities, I give each member of my team their own learning opportunities. I chose those that emphasize their strengths and aid their weaknesses. I notice when they come back from these events, they come back energized and bring back insightful and interesting ideas, instead of returning drained and jet lagged. It also doesn’t have to be an actual training event or summit, it can be an online course, book, webinar, networking event or anything that helps build those innovative thoughts. Remember, sometimes it’s as simple as dedicating 30 minutes a day for the team to stop everything and work on anything they want.

Freedom in Body Fuels Freedom of Mind

I’m a big fan of freedom in workspace — or working from anywhere — and in doing business on the go. One of the most beneficial changes I’ve made is to break workdays up into short blocks of time. Florida State University did a study that pointed to 90 minutes as the ‘sweet spot’ for task management. By focusing on work for 90 minutes, you will get more done than someone who spent twice the time. That isn’t to say my teams only work 90 minutes per day, but I’ve found regular breaks after 90-minute intervals are best.

While I’ve certainly met employees who couldn’t handle a reasonable schedule, I’ve met many more worn down by being chained to their desk from 9–5. Getting away from work — both physically and mentally — helps foster a deep sense of appreciation in the workplace, and that is the one ingredient every marketing executor needs.

When looking for a team of executors, you want people that run on positivity, they will energize the team daily! You also want those that can roll-up their sleeves and get stuff done, ones that can dive deep into search, social, content, data, targeting, user behavior, retargeting, display, in-store, pretty much anything that can influence customer behavior. Lastly, remember it’s the content creators, data divers, social evangelists, consumer finders, creative genius, and email mavens that build the business daily, their passion needs to exist in what they do and they need to live and breathe it to really have the passion to move forward.

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave comments or email me you opinions. @robsreasons