When marketing processes go wrong (and what I do instead)

Process is important only when you’re certain it will multiply your success.

Too often, process:

• Bogs down teams
• Creates extra hoops to jump through
• Causes work to meet the market much slower than what is realistically achievable

Instead, process should:

• Empower team members to work independently and collaborate effectively
• Remove unnecessary approvals and steps
• Ensure work meets the market as fast as possible.

After all, as marketers, we can only influence results when our audiences consume our art. Delivering more value to our audiences at a greater rate gives us the opportunity to achieve that goal.

So instead of establishing marketing processes because your organization values oversight, I suggest keeping an eye out for situations where process may impede on your team’s productivity.

Here are some scenarios where I’ve seen processes go sideways.

The first annual event.

Once upon a time, I was a copywriter. A subtle lesson my manager taught me while proofing my work was there is no such thing as a first annual event.

What she meant was there actually has to be a second event in the following year for it to be an annual event. So she was right: The first event isn’t actually the first annual event. But as a green marketer, I had made that mistake.

This concept applies to marketing processes, too.

Marketing is all about finding a growth lever then maximizing it to generate as many results as possible.

The keyword there is finding a growth lever. If you don’t know it will be successful, establishing a process can be a waste of time.

For example, establishing a process for retargeting ads sounds like a good idea. But really, the good idea is the opportunity of retargeting ads. There are many options for how to execute upon that opportunity. Until you know which of those options performs best, establishing a process too quickly may limit the results you’re capable of achieving.

Instead, I advocate for a testing framework you and your team may follow to execute consistently. Think of this from a high-level perspective instead of the nitty-gritty tasks.

How may we never make this mistake again?

When people fail, they want to avoid making mistakes.

Establishing process out of fear can be a costly — and overbearing — overcorrection.

I’ve seen how this slows down an enterprise.

A past manager of mine had a keen eye for visual design. Everything the marketing team created flowed through her. A big reason for this was protecting the brand (there was some very questionable sales collateral out there, for example).

That was great, but when the marketing team created dozens of sales enablement projects every week, it slowed the timeline when the sales teams would receive their completed marketing collateral.

After that manager left the business, we looked at this situation and asked ourselves, “What are our options?”

What if we empowered the sales teams to create their own collateral with a way that still protected the brand? That was the winning option.

Marketers were happy to work on other projects. Sales teams were happy to instantly receive their collateral. Process—and clear expectations—empowered both teams to succeed.

Rigid, inflexible, and unadaptable.

Process is only as good as it is empowering.

Let’s rephrase that a bit.

Process is only good when it empowers individuals to contribute their best work.

Once you know a growth lever has high potential to influence the desired results, it’s a good time to consider implementing a process to:

• Clarify roles
• Set expectations
• Establish accountability
• Communicate all of these things to the contributors

In my experience, the first iteration of a marketing process is rather robust. Because you and your team are doing something new, it’s human nature to want to clarify everything (which means more is documented).

Over time, however, individuals will learn, unknowingly memorize, and build good habits based on the process. After a while, they will certainly see ways to remove unnecessary steps and speed up certain parts. Ultimately, the process is their own, and the team should do what works best for them.

This is a good thing.

Over time, process becomes less important as trust to influence results takes its place.

Now, this isn’t to say you didn’t trust your team before. But trying something new is scary. We like status quo. We understand it.

Empower your team with a process. Help them earn your trust that every decision they make is focused on the right results. Influence and reward the right behavior and the right results should follow.

Process isn’t perfection; it takes practice.

It’s fair for a business to want results from the people they hire. I know employers don’t hire us to learn. They hire us as multipliers.

However, doing anything new requires grace from both employer and employee.

My team knows the following analogy all too well.

At one point, your favorite artist wasn’t good at what they do. My favorite band is Metallica. The lead guitarist is Kirk Hammett. Kirk didn’t pick up a guitar his very first time and shred. He had to learn to play just like anyone else. You can’t learn a new skill without practice. You can’t become the best at what you do without repetition.

When you establish a new process, your contributors will need time to learn your expectations. And they will learn by doing the thing. Over time — with practice — they will become good at it. Coach and mentor, then the process is theirs to do with it what they will.

That’s when I’ve seen marketing processes go wrong (and what I do instead).