Interaction between software developers and digital marketers is typically limited. Marketers have been working alongside the likes of web developers for years now, but only recently have they begun to commonly interact with software creators, often in an app development or product management function.
Regardless, spending time learning about how software developers spend their days can offer digital marketers some useful insights into how to better structure their own work. (TWEET THIS)
And you can be sure future employers and digital marketing recruiters will be looking for skills like that in the future.
Successful software devs maintain several habits that make them consistently effective. And as marketing becomes more and more intertwined with all aspects of the digital space, marketers would do well to pay attention and integrate them into their own strategy.
1. Meticulous Preparation and Effective Communication
From coordinated marketing campaigns to developing a new mobile application, every project starts with planning. After all, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Ensuring that all stakeholders are involved from the very beginning is essential if everyone is to understand the overall aims and objectives and make a project succeed.
Takeaways for marketers:
- Ensure that all actions, plans, and objectives are systematically documented and organized. Relying on memory is imperfect, and verbal requests can too easily be ignored or forgotten.
- Ensure that all documentation is stored in a central, easily accessible location.
- Designate a dedicated person or team to be responsible for the delivery of a campaign. That person or team can be a central source of information and point of contact for a client.
2. Internal Coordination
Having the correct organization in place to manage workflow is essential to ensure the reliable execution of key objectives.
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From making sure your marketing team has the necessary resources before starting to knowing where and how information is recorded will influence the success of your efforts.
Takeaways for marketers:
- Before embarking on a project, assemble and distribute plans and timing schedules.
- If you don’t have a dedicated project manager, train key staff members in project management tools and techniques to help successfully bring together the various moving parts (and people) needed to deliver a successful campaign.
- Purchase a dedicated project management tool. With a variety of cloud-based options available to them, key stakeholders the opportunity to discuss, share, and manage workloads in an efficient way.
3. Remain Relevant
Software developers have their work cut out for them in trying to keep up with how the technical landscape is changing. They also have to stay up to date with more mundane details of constantly changing knowledge. With so many new devices, channels, and tools constantly emerging it’s difficult to keep up. But the cost of falling behind is too great to risk.
Similarly, marketing teams have their work cut out for them in keeping up to date with the latest trends … from the latest update to Google’s algorithm to the next viral meme on social media. They must be able to keep their heads up and watching what’s going on in the digital world around them while remaining focused on their day-to-day tasks.
Takeaways for marketers:
- Allow time each week to both read up on industry developments from authorities in your field.
- Schedule a meeting with our team members where you can discuss updates and play around with innovative ideas for future growth and success.
4. Be Nimble and Responsive
In the software world, much as in the realm of digital marketing, the best opportunities don’t last long. And if you’re not able to react to them in time, someone else will beat you to the punch.
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Each new client or project brings with it a unique set of challenges and resources. Some demand incredible tech-savviness, and you have to be ready and willing to demonstrate expertise. Others, not so much.
Either way, each project needs to be tailored specifically to clients or key stakeholders if you are to deliver something that can work with their available resources. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work.
Takeaways for marketers:
- To clearly demonstrate how a project will be carried out, create an SLA (a service-level agreement), a document that outlines what the client (internal nor external) can expect from you, and in return, what you can expect from the client.
5. Experimentation
Naturally, before a new tool or program is launched, software developers undertake rigorous testing. Even minor errors can quickly spiral, causing huge embarrassment and lost revenue if a mistake isn’t identified.
In the marketing world, campaigns and content all need testing. Whether by checking how a contact form works to conducting A/B split-tests, marketers should not allow any projects to fail because of errors or poor judgment.
Hear from Fashion Mogul Andrea Lake on the Essential Value of Testing
Digital marketing grants grants access to a veritable ocean of valuable data. But you must be able to comprehend that data and use it to form a plan of action in order to reap the rewards.
Takeaways for marketers:
- Establish clear KPIs to understand how a new project is performing as early as possible.
- Build campaigns based on evidence and experience.
- If resources are available, test campaigns first with a small group of people before rolling it out to a wider audience.
Article source: MarketingProfs
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