The eWorld Radar

Branded CIO

There is a reason that the Chief Marketing Officer has the ear of the CEO and CFO and that the CIO doesn’t. The CMO is responsible for the organisation’s brand, but her number one priority is the brand of her department. A strong departmental brand captures the attention of the c-suite which in turn allows marketing to have greater influence on the organisation, which in turn strengthens the brand, creating a virtuous circle.

Typically the IT function pays little attention to its brand and so the organisation perceives the function as self-serving and not part of the team. Smart CIOs get this and they are getting their brand act together.

By delivering basic IT services in a service-oriented manner they are invited to the top table to play a part in more fulfilling matters such as information-fuelled business innovation.

Dreaming about ‘running’ will come to nothing if you haven’t yet demonstrated that you can ‘walk’.

Ade McCormack

Digital willpower

Willpower is the ability to keep a focus on what is best for you (broccoli) in the face of what you want (cake).

In the digital world the cost of communicating with clients approximates to zero, so the temptation is to bombard them with your sales messages (Click here to buy one). Or at least make every communication one that takes the suspect / prospect closer towards the rim of your sales funnel.

Given that most people are now exploiting digital technology in this manner, most recipients have developed a refined sense of who is abusing their trust. And once that trust is lost, it is difficult to regain it.

So in the digital world willpower is required to hold back the urge to push your agenda. Instead we need to communicate in a manner that is centred on the interests of the recipient. This necessitates abandoning traditional clumsy mass marketing techniques.

So ironically in the digital world it is more necessary than ever to adopt the personalised approach used in bygone times. Who knows, it may not be long before we even start to use digital ink to handwrite our letters.

Clients or relationships?

Most people think of marketing as the pre-funnel opportunity creation specialists. All initiatives lead to the sales funnel. It makes a lot of sense given that businesses need sales to survive.

Or does it?

Certainly this model of marketing worked well in the industrial era when the name of the game was to automate where possible. Seeing consumers as homogeneous, give or take a few socio-economic variables, helped in the formulation of big marketing initiatives.

But we are no longer in the industrial era. And clients, whether they are business or consumer in nature have choices and power. Thus the marketing game has changed into one that needs to be highly personalised.

The goal now is not to create an opportunity but to secure the relationship. The understanding is that sales will follow in due course. And assuming the relationship is good, ie trust and relevance are in place, the sales will keep coming and coming.

So whilst the creation of broad brush value adding marketing assets (eg. white papers, social media and events) are important, the measurement and improvement of the organisation’s relationship capital needs to be the number one priority.

Would you prefer to enter the next recession with 1,000 relationship-free transactional clients or with 100 influential individuals who personally care about your economic survival?

Ade McCormack