What to Consider When Choosing Your Marketing People 💯

 

It is common practice for brands to engage in marketing as it is essential in promoting the brand and what it offers. If brands don’t do marketing, it’s almost like they set up a business and didn’t tell anyone. Some prefer to have an in-house marketing team, while others prefer to collaborate with an external marketing agency.

 

Either way, it is common for brands only to want to go forward with people or agencies who have enough industry experience.

 

But is that the best way to choose your marketing people?

 

Reasons you should not rely on industry experience alone ✔️

 

The truth is, marketing is a highly transferable skill. It’s also very fast-moving, volatile. Something that worked yesterday, might not work today!

 

Industry experience should not be the only determining factor in choosing the right agency or the right people for your in-house team. 

 

Here’s why:

 

More Rounded View: Being Experienced vs Industry Experienced

 

Image source: Tesco

 

There is no reason trained and experienced travel marketers cannot take what they have and apply it to another industry. Collaborating with agencies or marketers who think differently from the norm can possibly give your brand an edge, a more rounded view and an out-of-the-box kind of approach. And that’s what marketing is about; it’s about standing out, being unique, being different! If you are the same as everyone else, why would new people look at your brand? 

 

Still not convinced? The most recent example is the turnaround of Tesco—from a sorry state in 2015 to reign as an industry leader and beating its competitors in 2021.

 

 

Tesco collaborated with Michelle McEttrick, a leading marketer without any retail experience, to lead the brand. Her tenure saw Tesco become the most popular supermarket chain again in 2021.

 

One of their best campaigns is ‘Food Love Stories’—receiving a 9-year high in ‘Quality of Food’ perceptions after being hit by a horsemeat scandal and a +10% increase in sales of ‘Featured Ingredients’ alone.

 

 

Marketers or agencies who have worked in multiple sectors can help you with their experiences. They can suggest new ways that work in other industries to increase conversions or boost your brand awareness. 

 

For instance, based on their experiences working in other fields, they can suggest new landing pages that are proven to double the conversion rates for their clients.

 

Diversity of ideas

 

Ideas cannot be restricted or contained. They need to be bred in a free environment. If you have experience in the industry, you might not be open to explore ideas and concepts that have not been tried and tested within the industry.

 

Whereas, having experience away from the industry gives you an outsider perspective and applying ideas from other industries might be the freshness your brand needs. These are the ideas that could attract people to your brand.

 

Image source: #TFWGucci

 

Gucci did it. They knew they also had to captivate Gen Z. And you know what they turned to? Meme marketing. And it worked. People loved it:

 

 

This is how you win them over. 

 

How can your brand spark new ideas for your marketing? By working with people that come from different sectors besides yours. They can offer you a new way of thinking and give you a fresh perspective.

 

Marketing is Always Evolving

 

Marketing is constantly evolving every day. You need someone who can navigate your brand to keep up with the consumers. And this is what marketing agencies or proven marketers expertise in!

 

Proven agencies and marketers can help you keep up with consumers. Their job requires them to be aware of the emerging trends in marketing, like changes in search engine algorithms or new viral meme formats.

 

So, what to look for? 🤔

 

In addition to industry experience, your brand should also consider the following factors:

 

Proven Track Record

 

Instead of choosing agencies that ever do a project in your industry or building an in-house marketing team filled with industry-experienced professionals, you also need to consider their track record in marketing.

 

Find out the outcome of their marketing efforts for other brands. For a successful story, listen to how they achieved it and the steps they can try if you decide to collaborate with them.

 

Also, ask how they readjust their strategy if a campaign does not work as expected. If they’ve always been 100% successful, will they know how to handle failures? Will they be open to exploring different approaches to reach the end goal?

 

Willing to Learn and Research About Your Industry

 

When you choose your marketing to agencies or marketers, you must pick a partner that is willing to learn and research. They will essentially become an extension of your company and need to understand your business. Hence, a perfect candidate is one who will be committed to learning about your industry, challenges, and opportunities.

 

They need to be able to mould themselves and adapt to the new information and apply relevant approaches to make it work. Their flexibility and adaptability are imperative.

 

Staying Relevant in a Changing Landscape

 

Marketing is always changing. Collaborate with marketers or agencies who keep up with the trends on their portfolios and projects. It is because you need to stay relevant regardless of how experienced you are.

 

The key takeaways 📋

• Industry experience is good but not a determining factor in building in-house marketing or choosing an agency
• Your brand also needs to consider marketers/agencies’ track records in other industries
• Marketing is evolving over time; what works in the past may not work in the future