Wearing many hats is a prerequisite in marketing

One of the greatest challenges is to have a clear idea on the aim for a marketing campaign.

Big or small, it needs to be tailored to the business in question, while also making sure that certain tasks are given to the right people effectively. A campaign can be a mix of many things:

• Podcasts
• Advertising Copy
• Social Media Posts or Advertising
• Working with external bloggers
• Videography
• Website Design and Management

Imagine having to manage all of the above and making sure that it meets a client’s expectations. It could be a lot of pressure if it’s up to just one person, but if there’s a team around you, it could be a highly-rewarding and immersive experience.

The role of a marketing manager is one that is underestimated and can often be seen as underrated within the industry. To succeed, you need to balance every task and any upcoming issues that could arise due to outside influences. You will also come across other team members recommending further ideas or alternatives to existing ones already. However, it’s making sure that organisation and time management are at the forefront, otherwise there could be a sea of tasks that may hinder the campaign overall.

I recently spoke to someone who was a marketing manager a few years ago, and we had a great conversation on how a campaign was going for them. I asked how they would carry out the tasks and the milestones throughout, and they replied with how they would do the minute tasks alongside, making sure that the deadlines were met and the copy was written and edited on time.

I was amazed just how much they were doing, and to me, that’s a classic example of attempting to micro-manage a project. There were members in this team performing various important and often integral tasks, but simply not enough of them.

To me, this is a prime example of having to wear too many hats in one role. There needs to be confidence from the manager and the jobs delegated need to suit the best individuals in a team. If there’s been a set group for a campaign, then everyone should be involved in the process. It calls back to our previous newsletter on collaboration. When there’s a set goal, everyone feels empowered to take charge of their roles in the project, and come up with ideas that could better benefit the campaign as a whole. Placing all the responsibility at the door of a singular manager goes against this, it needs to be a collaborative effort.

Granted, when meetings arise for the client and a manager is asked about other aspects of a project, such as creating websites or running events, there may be some pressure to answer these to keep the client happy but that should be the expectation, that a manager is managing, but not necessarily executing every last detail.

That said, there has to be trust in your team to do the best job possible. There’s a reason why they are experts in what they do, so let them creatively come up with solutions across the campaign. Micromanaging is an easy trap to fall into, but as long as you trust the team assigned to it, there’s little chance you will fail.