Last month, we discussed spring cleaning for marketers, a quick take on simple approaches to freshening up email and mobile marketing. This month, as we write our annual checks to our favorite state and federal governments, I'd like to expand on one of the ideas I discussed: streamlining processes. While the words "process review" might sound as daunting as "income tax," I can assure you that you will find a process review more engaging. Moreover, you'll see more immediate results than you will after paying your taxes.
To review, I recommended process reviews because as marketing departments evolve, the work of getting campaigns out the door often stagnates. Marketers do the same thing, year-in, year-out, because "that's the way it's always been done." However, changes in processes can reap rewards in efficiency that free up marketing resources for other, potentially more revenue-generating tasks. Let's explore how to conduct a review.
Step 1: Prepare
Before committing your team's time to this project, first ask yourself where you think the pain points lie. What makes planning, executing, and measuring a campaign difficult? Or, from another perspective, ask yourself where you think the room for improvement lies. Use these answers as guideposts for the in-person session.
Also, throw in a good stock of Post-it notes and M&Ms. You might want to visit this site to get M&Ms to match the colors of the Post-it notes, but that's not strictly necessary.
Step 2: Gather the troops
For the review to work best, make sure you have the entire team available. Include agency partners as well, as they might have suggestions for process improvements based on their experiences. It helps to conduct the review someplace where everyone can focus on the project, so get out of your office if at all possible. Heck, spring is coming. Do it outside. (In that case, bring easels for the Post-it notes.)
Plan a half-day for the session to allow for discussion.
Step 3: Question everything
As a starting point, retrace the steps of a recent actual campaign. By using a real campaign, as opposed to a hypothetical one, you can more accurately depict what happens in the campaign process. Consider charting more than one campaign to identify consistent versus transient problems.
Our team used Post-it notes to represent each step in the process. Large Post-it notes allow you to write down key details and also enable the team to move the steps around to represent the insertion of steps between the steps.
Specifically, begin with the point at which someone decides to create a campaign. Does the campaign correspond to a calendar event? Then question the timing to see if it still meets the needs that it was originally intended to meet. Does the campaign stem from a marketer's request? Then question the reasoning behind the request to understand if requests can be more easily anticipated.
Then go step-by-step through the process of campaign planning and creation. Each organization will have its own distinct take on the process, but all should include basics such as targeting (who gets the communication?), content and offer development (what do they get?), creative development (what does it look like?), and launch.
With each step, make sure to note what you can change (does the team really need a week to review creative?) and what you can't (an old system might require significant time for processing targeting files). Of course, that latter category really means "what you can't change.. yet."
Make sure that you account for every step. In some cases, one step might really represent multiple steps in the process. For instance, "offer development" might require talking to individual brand groups about offers, negotiating order of offers, and seeking approval from a senior executive. Each of these sub-steps represents something that might be streamlined.
Don't forget to include measurement as part of the process. While measurement might fall outside of the planning and execution, it ultimately decides whether a campaign has succeeded or failed. In addition, measurement might depend on decisions made earlier in the process.
Remember to document what you've created.
Step 4: Review the results
Once the team has represented the process, ask everyone to take a few moments to review and write down comments on areas for improvement. Share these comments and note which areas seem to receive the most. It may help to annotate the Post-it note collage you've made with additional notes or markings to indicate areas of interest.
As an additional step, a smaller grouping of participants can develop a to-do list of steps to take toward streamlining the process. This team should have a major role in the process so that they can understand what's possible and what's out of bounds.
I can't say what this process will produce for any one organization. I can tell you that when you get the right people in the room, the list of "can't do that" shrinks and the list of "there's a better way" grows. Try it and make sure to share your results in the comment field below.
Chris Marriott is vice president and global managing director for Acxiom Digital.
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