The Covid pandemic caused many things to change – not least the boom in home or remote working. Another result was the rapid growth of in-house marketing departments. Did you make a change and bring your marketing in-house? Or are you thinking about doing it now? Let’s look at the subject in more depth.
Things have changed
Even before the normal became the new normal, maybe you’d already thought about insourcing your marketing. As ever, such decisions are influenced by strategy, activity, budget and current available data. Agility is also important. Now more than ever, we all understand the ability to adapt quickly. Where should you start with bringing marketing in-house?
How well do you know your customers?
Do you have a realistic view of your customers? The first steps here are defining a general profile and using your data to identify segments and analyze behaviours.
The next step is understanding the whole customer journey. Are you managing the whole the customer experience? If you can manage your data, you can manage these things.
Can you respond quickly?
In our current digital world, we’re accustomed to getting what we want almost immediately. Your customers want your brand to react, adjust and adapt. This is easier to do when you’re in control of your own strategy, though having an in-house marketing team will not necessarily make reactions faster. It will, however, mean having real-time access to customer insights.
Can you bring your marketing in-house?
Do you have the capabilities and the budget to build an in-house marketing team? This is the key question whenever you want to grow and diversify other assets. Growth hacking exists, of course, but it can not always compensate for a lack of budget.
You will need to invest in talent and technology. That involves developing and adapting other capabilities, as well as time and money. If you want your investment to pay off, you will have to focus on retaining and continuously training that talent.
In addition to time and money, you need to ask yourself what the management capabilities are. Are they enough to start this project? Also, is the workload sufficient to hire several full-time employees?
Making the impossible possible
Building, training, managing and retaining your own marketing team is a difficult task. So is working on your own marketing strategy and implementing it. It is worthwhile because your expenses have now become an investment. The return will always be higher when you have your own in-house marketing team.
It’s not easy, and there are people who can help. Find the right partner, but don’t ask them for a fish – ask them to teach you how to fish.
How do I know if my brand is close to my consumers?
You can use your own data, including social media, to identify segments and analyze the behavior of your customers and their journey.
Why is it important to have an in-house marketing team?
In-house marketing will allow you to gain control over your marketing strategy and provide access to insights about your customers in real time.
