Facilitating The Smart Use of Marketing as an Economic Engine

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Since many marketers are working with tighter budgets, fewer employees, and demands to accomplish more with fewer resources, this year has already proven to be difficult for them. But everyone involved in the marketing industry is aware that this is rather common. Access to resources and keeping a place at the table have always been big challenges for marketers. What can we do to combat this, then?

In order to position their department as a strategic driver of business rather than a support function, marketing directors must rebuild the position that marketing holds within the company. To do this, it’s important to create solid, cross-departmental relationships, match strategy and tactics with quantifiable business results, and monitor market trends.

Given the workload that marketers already have, this could seem like a big task, but implementing this change is essential for maintaining the organization’s long-term health. Marketers can achieve this by taking a few concrete measures.

Creating the Base
Building relationships is the first step in making sure marketing has a place at the table. Here is where marketers may actually contribute and start establishing a rapport with other significant players. Building trust involves being able to interact with others and displaying a team spirit, but the other half requires proving one’s willingness to contribute and commitment to the overall goals of the business. This could be where perception begins to shift.

Leaders must present novel concepts that are supported by market research and start critical dialogues about current priorities, such as “Should we still be doing X, or should we be considering Y?” if they want marketing to be viewed as a strategic driver of company. And if you do take the initiative to make a change, you should be able to report your findings back to the group to determine whether the decision was a success.

Marketers can begin to be recognized as important actors by incorporating — and, in some instances, driving — marketing talks about how to expand the company. Additionally, these connections will raise the likelihood that marketing will be discussed at length before any actual talks take place. Once the shift has started…