Time to Focus on Your HUMAN MARKETING STACK

In the marketing world nowadays it is easy to be tempted by the endless stream of technological gadgets, algorithms and AI powered tools. When we look at the top marketing challenges, such as attracting your targeting group, engaging them and last but not least optimizing and analysing the results of these activities, it is important to have a strategy in place regarding tech tools, alas those solutions that help you during the execution of these processes, no one denies it. However, analysis show that more and more marketers might focus too much on having the right tech gear in motion, while they are inclined to forget a very impactful source of fuel that could help them achieve their goals: people.

CMOs are really obsessed about the newest, shiniest tech tools, and for the first time ever invest more into software and algorithms instead of paid media or the people who create them (ie agencies and their very own marketing staff). According to Gartner, a significant change has occurred from ’18 to ’19, where budgets allocated for people and agencies dropped, while tech budgets increased significantly. On the long-run, this prioritisation could bite back, because CMOs still need people to operate their tech stack, still need creative work to be put on air and still need media budgets to distribute their messages.

When it comes to investments in “human marketing stack” I believe there are four main subgroups that should play a role in every CMOs strategy map:

 1. Employees

Here we need to further differentiate between the direct teams of the CMO – ie marketing, media, brand management, etc and the wider organisation.

With new software and automation tools transforming marketing and media, and new social platforms requiring ever new approached to consumer engagement it is vitally important to keep training your marketing teams on both old and new tools and best practices. While many Generation Z graduates who are hitting the job market right now might be totally fluent in social media and digital marketing tools, many of them lack the basic knowledge of traditional media and brand strategy. So it is really important to keep investing in marketing training programs and mentoring programs to ensure your teams can make the right decisions and invest in the right tools.

And when it comes to your wider organisation, there is still a vastly unexplored opportunity that could amplify your marketing activities by turning your employees into brand ambassadors. Marketing Week recently recommended that “Brands should encourage their staff to act as ambassadors for their business – in fact, they should be considered a key communications channel.”

Whether you are a business with tens of thousands of employees or two, it is foolhardy not to attempt to use them to promote your organisation and its business.

However nobody becomes an ambassador simply by receiving a mass mailing informing them about the latest launch. Turning non-marketing employees into brand ambassadors requires dedicated efforts, training and investment into the right tools and techniques.

 2. Influencers

Influencer marketing is flourishing as more brands realize the importance of human-to-human communication and social interaction and hence allocate bigger budgets on influencer related activities. Influencer not only provide organic reach in social media but according to neuroscience studies, content and communication coming from an actual human being also triggers more emotion and stays longer in our minds.

And with the shifts in media consumption away from advertising funded classical media towards subscription based and on demand services, brands already face an issue reaching out to younger audiences. Contrary to this negative trend on traditional media, the number of social media users is still rising fast with new social platforms attracting ever more broad and niche consumer groups. With the help of the right influencers, brands are able to leverage these social networks and engage effectively with their target audience.

In contrast to the fast-paced digital marketing world, building long-lasting cooperations between brands and influencers is key to success for both parties. Developing these cooperations can work for all types of influencers (nano, micro, macro), but it requires a greater level of trust and deeper collaboration on both sides. Based on our experience at TERRITORY Influence, I’ve seen that this effort can ultimately deliver a better impact for brands and influencers.

 3. Consumers

People should not only be considered to buy your products – in fact the term consumer is too limiting given the relevance and importance that buyers today have in sharing messages and building opinion and preference about brands and products. Zappos, Trader Joe’s, Amazon.com, Method, Red Bull, The Body Shop, Google, and SodaStream all built their brands without advertising. Their brand advocates are their marketing department. In fact, the three most powerful social media companies–Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn–never spent a dime on advertising or paid people to recommend them. They didn’t need to. Advocates used social media to recommend them to their friends.

consumers wallets – but more importantly consumers online and offline recommendations - hold the power to either boost your sales or cause your business to disintegrate. Hence we at Territory Influence have started to call consumers co-marketers or everyday influencers. Engage with them at eye-level, ask for their feedback, act on it, and they will feel valued and truly become part of your marketing team. Investing into your CRM program, newsletter marketing or facebook brand page to upgrading them to a real hub that nurtures brand advocates can be extremely powerful as seen with many companies during the last years.

 4. Agencies

The ongoing discussion about the benefits of in-housing agency work overshadows the fact that marketing still need creative talent, whether it is within the company or at an agency. They are the ones who create great (but also sometime bad) brand assets – from product design to advertising copy, from corporate blogs to your new jingle.

It would be easy to conclude that advertising has flipped to all science and no art. But then along comes fresh creative to show us what really sells.

And while algorithms and AI already helps them to be more productive and enhance their services, in my pov we are still years away from computers doing the creative marketing work for us entirely. Or as Julia Kirby wrote very eloquently in Harvard Business Review: "It would be easy to conclude that advertising has flipped to all science and no art. But then along comes fresh creative to show us what really sells"

Summary & Conclusion:

The takeaway is that companies and especially CMOs should re-evaluate their investment into their human stakeholders and start holistically looking at their entire ecosystem to fully leverage the power of their human marketing stack. This should by no means denounce investments into your tech tools but encourage business leaders to equally look at their investment into their employees, influencers, their agencies and brand advocates. Together they can create a powerful ecosystem that truly sets you apart from your competition. Investing into the newest marketing technology is something everybody does – there is very limited competitive advantage to be gained there – while your human stack could become your main source of growth and sustainable advantage.