Why marketing shouldn't be left to juniors to manage…
Just because your giving juniors a key business function…
Doesn’t mean that they should be left alone to mange it…
This could be a little controversial but it’s not only relevant, it’s important to know and think about.
Marketing is a crucial part of any business that seeks to attract and retain customers. It involves the creation and delivery of brand messaging that promotes your products or services.
However, some make the mistake of entrusting marketing responsibilities to junior employees, which could (and in some cases) does have a negative impact on brand and it’s online presence. We’re going to be talking about why marketing shouldn’t be left to juniors to manage, and what the impact of not having an experienced in-house marketing team to drive your brand forward can have.
The importance of marketing experience
Marketing is simple and easy… right!
Focus on Instagram, make a feed look pretty and jump on TikTok to share the same/ similar content to Instagram! 🙄
Yeah… No! 🚫
Marketing can be complex.
Hear us out…
With constantly evolving consumer needs, habits and trends, it can require a wide range of skills and expertise to make sure your brand is being consistently seen and marketed in the right way.
To be successful an in-house marketing team needs to have a deep understanding of your industry, the leaders/competitors, your brand values, ethos, target audience(s), and the latest marketing trends, and insight.
Having an experienced team brings a wealth of knowledge, skill and expertise to the table (a bit like us) as well as having a really good understanding of the brand and business.
Well seasoned teams have usually worked on numerous campaigns, developed and executed successful strategies, and have an understanding of what works, what doesn't and where and what to spend.
This experience can be invaluable in developing effective marketing strategies that resonate with customers and help drive sales.
“We love working closely with experienced in-house teams and business owners who have a clear vision for their brand and marketing. It’s so important to have marketing budgets and clear objectives to be working towards and tracking. If brands don’t have that, we can also create brand building strategies that help to support search, demand and ultimately a ROI. It’s a long term investment with us, but it’s worth it. ”
— Rochelle, Founder & Creative Director
Why junior marketers may not be enough
While they can bring fresh ideas and energy to the team, they often lack the experience and expertise needed to develop and execute effective marketing strategies and campaign creation.
They usually follow and not lead and tend to heavily focus on the latest social trends, that… yes have a place but isn’t based or underpinned by any sort of strategy, objectives or ROI.
Which, without proper guidance and support from more experienced members, they may struggle to deliver the desired results and focus on sharing content they’re told to or what they think the audience would like to see and engage with.
When starting out a career in marketing, juniors need to be around experienced marketers to help lead and develop the skills needed to support a businesses growth and scale. They need to have a good understand on the types of marketing that is being implemented, the why and how that affects a brands growth and reputation.
Industry insiders
Having strong connections within the industry also helps. These relationships can be crucial in securing partnerships, sponsorships, and other opportunities that can elevate a brand's marketing efforts. When starting out they need to understand how to start to build a network and harness these connections and be able to build meaningful relationships that should be long lasting and not one offs.
Again, just being reactive by following what their told to do or coping what other people/brands are doing isn’t enough to build a solid ROI for your brand.
Furthermore, they may not have a deep understanding of your values, messaging, and target audience(s). This can lead to campaigns and content that are off-brand or fail to resonate with consumers, ultimately hurting the brand's reputation.
💡 Side note
This is usually evident in your marketing especially across socials. With a lack of marketing experience there always tends to be;
- The focus on having ‘pretty’ looking Insta feeds
- Polished and/or professional images and promo videos with promotion/advertorial content
- Meaningless giveaways, collabs and competitions for quick wins (which can cheapen a brands image if not done right) that are usually based on vanity metrics for example; ‘likes, comments and follows’
- Producing video content that is more like selling, then storytelling then shared across TikTok and Reels
It shows the lack of storytelling, understanding your values and ethos, not to mention not resonating with your customers. Also, the lack of you understanding your own brand messaging.
Ultimately…
Your messaging becomes all… Me, me, me, buy, buy buy,
we’re so amazing, that we have to tell you…
Marketing is more than that.
Consumer don’t want to be sold to all the time. They want to see real people - UGC (user generated content), inspiration content and something that is worth sharing and telling their friends about.
The impact of not having an experienced marketing team
When you don’t have this it can cause problems when it comes to outsourcing (trust us - we know this from first hand experience).
We get it, you will usually look for outside agencies or freelance consultants to help manage your marketing efforts. While this can be a good solution, if you don’t have a clear (long term) strategy in place before outsourcing, issue arise, which, as a result you can get frustrated.
Don’t be a hopper…
When things like this happen, and you start to get frustrated, you then becoming a hopper!
Yep, you’ll hop from agency to agency, freelancer to freelancer or a mix of both, hoping that one will get you non-vision vision. Usually stating that it was their fault the marketing didn’t work, you spent to much money, the output was poor etc.
Now in some cases this can be true we’re not saying it’s not.
But… and it’s a big But 🍑
Brands are quick to blame the agencies or freelances for lack of growth, reach and ROI. But, sometimes its down to the brands themselves.
Let’s just take a quick step back.
If you lack a clear marketing focus for your own brand or the brand you work for as well as a healthy yearly budget, briefing is always going to be an issue. Freelancers and agencies are the best partners you can have at all stages of a business and even better when they have money to play with.
We and many others are very skilled at what we do, who we know and the areas we work in. Not working together as a team (with agencies/freelancers) and shutting down ideas of spending, creative campaigns and innovative ways to grow your brand - all because you feel;
- ‘You know best’ or ‘this is just what we’ve always done’… ‘We don’t see the value in spending’ and so much more.
We would say, you’re probably not ready to outsource.
Cheaper is better… right?
With all that in mind, brands can feel burned and not happy to outsource or cut back on spending.
So, this is where you might decide to give the role or some of the key marketing functions to inexperienced marketers to cut costs. As we’ve mentioned previously, not having an experience in-house team shows in a brands presence.
Effectively, the role of marketing becomes a glorified part of an admin job that includes posting content as part of the role.
This can lead to lack of engagement, decreased in sales from channels, a decline in brand awareness and reach, and ultimately, a loss of market share.
Additionally, this may hinder your ability to innovate and stay ahead of the competition.
Without a team that can anticipate and adapt to changing industry trends and lack of budget, you will fall behind your competitors and struggle to remain relevant.
In-house teams can be reactive and have inside knowledge to leverage a brands awareness through multi-channel marketing. Making sure that every channel and platform are in-line with your vision and business goals.
If you have a solid foundation it makes bringing on agencies and freelancers much easier. The vision, values and where the brand is going is set out and clear.
“We’ve loved working with RWA. Their insight on marketing and campaign creation has impacted our business in such a positive way. They’ve worked closely with us for a while and in the past month (March) we made combine sales across web and social of just under £5k - we never had that before. The month before was nearly £10k. In total our growth in sales is just over £14k in two months...”
— Helen, Marketing Manager
Clients results (March 2023)
So, what are we saying?
Your marketing is a critical aspect of your business, and it shouldn’t be left to juniors to manage. They often lack the expertise needed to develop and execute effective campaigns and strategies.
But, will happily react to what you need sharing with no questions or push backs.
Marketing is much more than pretty Instagram feeds, trending songs on TikTok and running competitions and giveaways to boost vanity numbers.
You shouldn’t be looking at marketing without a budget for the year or built in cross-channel campaigns.
It’s a valuable asset and key business function to help build and establish your brand, that serves a very important purpose to your bottomline…
💸 We’re in a place where you have to PAY TO PLAY.
If you don’t want to invest any dollar into your marketing because you might not see a return straight away or you don’t see the value in spending any sort of money, it says a lot about your thinking and where you want your brand to be in the future. 💸
We love working with in-house teams to support the growth of a business. We collaborate by bringing in our wealth of knowledge, expertise and industry connections that are invaluable for you in either early, crowded and noisy markets.
Want to find out how we can help you build your brand and reach wider audience(s)?
Let’s have a chat.
📧 Drop us an email: emailinfo@rochellewhiteagency.com
📱Call or Whatsapp us on: +447388 438560
