Why Marketing Management Is Essential to The Success of Tech Consulting Firm Marketing
By David Smith
Marketing Management
Marketing Strategy
Marketing management is often an area of marketing that is overlooked or taken for granted, even though management is crucial in achieving marketing success.
The Valens Point Marketing System for Tech Consulting Firms is comprised of three components; Strategy, Management, and Execution. Once you have your marketing strategy developed you can engage marketing management to translate the strategy into the plan of actions necessary to carry it out.
Marketing Management in tech consulting firms is both a role and a function.
The management role, often labeled as Marketing Manager, Director, or Officer, is critical to marketing success. It’s the person you look to “in house” for all things marketing related.
The management function is the coordination and collaboration to achieve marketing goals.
This role and function requires a variety of skills, ranging from technology (CRM, marketing automation, project management software, etc.) to softer skills like planning, resource recruitment, creativity, and superb communication.
That doesn’t mean that the management function needs to have expertise in all areas. It would be foolish to expect one person to know and master every aspect of marketing. But, it does mean that management of your marketing understands the role (responsibility and accountability) and function (planning and execution) to meet the goals of the business.
What does marketing management produce?
Using the marketing strategy, which outlines the message, audience, channels, content needs, and customer experience, the marketing management role must answer several planning questions to construct a plan, calendar, and budget. There are five W questions and two H questions.
What will we do?
The management role must ask and answer the question of what actions make sense and support the goals of the business. This includes decisions on what content to produce, what channels are to be used, and what customer experience will be designed.
When will we do it?
Marketing management must decide when the actions take place. Things to consider include annual events, customer seasons (changes in customer behavior like summer holiday season) and significant relationship milestones. With this information and knowledge of what’s to be done, the management can produce a marketing calendar.
Where will we concentrate our efforts?
Establishing priorities is at the core of the management role. The marketing management weighs cost and benefit, urgency, and impact on determining where to concentrate effort.
Who will do what?
Resource management is another key responsibility for marketing management. Due to increased specialization and evolving marketing technologies, resources are no longer know-everything or one-size-fits-all.
Why does it matter
Marketing management must also ensure priorities, actions, and schedules align with the goals of the business. Marketing for marketing’s sake is wasteful of time and money.
How much will we invest?
No firm has an unlimited marketing budget. Using the plans, calendar, and impact marketing management must create a budget that demonstrates accountability for financial stewardship.
How will we measure success?
Marketing management must also determine how results will be measured. Inconsistency in measurement may affect decisions. Establishing the right measurements and frequency will help raise confidence in the reported results.
Applying the answers to these questions, Marketing Management is responsible for:
- setting priorities,
- creating and maintaining the marketing plan,
- outlining updating the marketing calendar,
- developing and managing the marketing budget,
- establishing marketing goals,
- reporting on progress, and
- determining when strategy and execution refinement is necessary.
It’s no wonder many marketing managers feel so distant from the marketing they studied and enjoyed. They may have believed that marketing management emphasized marketing, but in reality, the emphasis is on management.
Relationships
Besides these responsibilities, marketing management also has three key relationships within the business: leadership, sales, and customer success.
These relationships should be positive and supportive. They rely on accountability, trust, and outstanding communication skills to succeed.
Leadership
The leadership of the firm relies on the marketing management role to carry out the plan and achieve the agreed-to marketing goals. This responsibility requires consistent communication about activities, plans, budgets, and objectives.
The marketing management role also represents the marketing department in management meetings and decision-making efforts.
Sales
Another important responsibility of management is to support the Sales team in reaching their sales goals.
This obviously includes lead generation, but also the effort to convert a prospect to a customer by identifying the content (e.g., customer success stories, etc.) and the tools (e.g., calculators, checklists, etc.).
Alignment of interests and outcomes between sales management and marketing management is vital to mutual success.
Customer Success
The Management role must also coordinate with Customer Success to achieve delighted customers. This usually begins with customer onboarding and continues through the value attainment phases of the relationship.
Marketing supports this phase with branded training material, retention-oriented touchpoints, and referral coaching.
The Challenge
This vast responsibility and numerous actions of marketing management illustrate the reason so many tech consulting leaders get overwhelmed when they attempt to manage their firm’s marketing efforts.
There are simply too many questions to be answered and resources to be directed.
While most people associate execution and activity as “marketing”, doing so diminishes the benefit and value of marketing management.
If you are a consulting firm owner or leader that has tried to manage marketing yourself, you will appreciate having marketing management at the core of your marketing system.
Are you looking for consistent marketing execution and positive results? Schedule a call with Valens Point’s master-leveled certified marketing consultants.
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About Valens Point
We help early-stage tech companies accelerate growth by building brand credibility, establishing repeatable lead generation, and supporting sales and partner teams. The result — effective marketing up and running in a fraction of the time it would take to recruit, hire, and train an internal marketing team.
