Pam Ashby, Co-founder of Prisma Broadcast talks about the need for marketers to embrace the concept of feedback.
“Very often marketing does go off and do its own thing,” she reflects, “You see this in organisations, where the marketing department is a bit ‘apart’. What they’re not doing is embracing the concept of feedback. This is another of the principles of Agile. So, if you invite and welcome feedback at every stage, and you’re not frightened about what that might be, then you learn what the customer wants. You only need to ask them, and very often that’s something basic that people don’t do. You need to encourage the customer to talk to you about what they really need. What does the customer feel about what you’re putting out in your marketing?
“It’s also really important to listen to the customer. When you’re writing a case study for instance, hear it from the customer directly. Or video it from the customer. Let them say what they think they’ve bought from you. That way you learn the words they use to describe what they find most beneficial, and understanding that language and finding out precisely what those words are, will inform and improve your marketing communications.”
The same principles apply to working with stakeholders. This may mean regularly asking management how they think you’re doing, or it may mean developing a closer relationship with the sales department. Marketers can and should ask sales teams which marketing materials are most valuable to them, does the language complement their own, do they tell the same story?
Too often expert sales people ‘do their own thing’ and put to one side the brochures, the website, and other marketing resources. “Don’t worry about the brochure” they say, “That’s just something the marketing department has put together.”
Get the feedback.
By collaborating more closely with customers, business development teams, sales teams and all stakeholders and audiences, marketing departments can improve the value of their offerings and the results that are achieved.
