“Concentrate your efforts”: How this marketing manager makes a little go a long way
Marketers have never been asked to do so much with so little. That pressure only intensifies when you’re a one-person marketing team tasked with making a big impact on a small budget. “That really resonates with me,” says Sophia Corner , Marketing Manager at Rungway . “One of my biggest challenges is that I'm on my own, and having the resources that I need to do my job correctly and do it well,” she says. At Rungway, an employee listening platform, Sophia’s been tasked with building the brand’s awareness and delivering pipeline—a lofty goal for a solo marketer.
Focus on what matters
Focusing your efforts is crucial to success when you’re working on your own. Sophia believes in doing one thing exceptionally well, rather than trying to spread herself too thin. “Concentrate your efforts and don't try and take too much on,” says Sophia. ? “Think about what you actually need in order to do your job. For me, that’s producing high-quality content.” Establishing a well-defined quarterly structure is pivotal to retaining this focus, allowing her to stay on course as well as align her efforts strategically. “For example, knowing that each quarter I’m going to run a couple of webinars, publish one big piece of content, and publish a certain number of blogs,” she says. “It helps you stay organized and helps manage expectations within the wider business as well.”
Making smart choices to maximize a small budget
One of the most important skills for a one-person marketing team is learning how to make the most of a limited budget, thinks Sophia. “I have to be really cutthroat with it and make sure I'm being as effective with my budget as possible,” she says. “There have been several learnings along the way with that, trying to understand where ?to put most of your money and where you can cut some corners just for now in order to get you building momentum.” Determining what tasks to tackle in-house versus outsourcing is a continuous challenge, considering which areas require her personal touch and where partnering with agencies can yield the greatest impact. “I have to think about what I can do, what an agency can help with, and is that gonna be the most effective use of my time and budget?” she says. “For example, evaluating what we need content-wise versus SEO-wise.”
Efficiency vs. effectiveness: The role of ROI in marketing today
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Return on investment (ROI) is one of marketing’s more ubiquitous metrics. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s popular. Most modern marketers have a complicated relationship with ROI. On the one hand, it is a simple calculation that gives a rough sense of whether a marketing investment was worthwhile. On the other hand, ROI is a limited metric that has been known to lead to preemptive budget cuts and short-termism.
Afiya Addison, Agency Development Lead at LinkedIn sums this up well in a blog titled The ROI trap, “marketers need to understand ROI is not an effectiveness metric. It’s an efficiency metric. And efficiency can be very dangerous.” She gives the example of Kraft Heinz who, after being bought by a private equity company 3G, went through relentless cost cutting including slashed marketing budgets. For a few years, she explains, this strategy worked. But after years without investing in brand, sales started declining and continued to decline for six quarters in a row. Eventually, 3G had to write off $16B of value. The story has become a cautionary tale for brands too focused on metrics that rely on short-term returns, like ROI, instead of long-term growth, like brand perception and customer relationships.?
Alanna Gerton, founder of tech blog lanagerton.com and VP of Engineering at PinPoint Analytics, shared similar frustrations, “it's crucial to acknowledge that not all marketing campaigns are created equal, and not all can be accurately assessed solely through ROI metrics. In one instance, I managed a branding and awareness campaign aimed at building long-term brand equity. While the campaign was undoubtedly impactful, ROI measurements didn't tell the full story. The goals were more abstract, focusing on enhancing brand perception and customer loyalty rather than immediate sales. In such cases, ROI calculations might be less relevant or even misleading. Instead, we relied on metrics like brand sentiment, customer engagement, and brand recall to gauge the campaign's success."
Sudhir Khatwani, Founder of The Money Mongers, agrees. “Sure, ROI is a solid metric to gauge a campaign's success, but it's not the be-all and end-all. There's a whole world of qualitative elements, like boosting brand perception or fostering customer engagement, that might not show up in your ROI calculations.”
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