10 things I wish I'd known by Steve Kemish F IDM
In April 2009, we saw the inauguration of a new Chair for the IDM Digital Council: Steve Kemish F IDM, Strategy and Services Director at leading email marketing agency, Adestra. With over ten years of digital marketing experience, Steve is committed to helping the IDM promote digital marketing excellence right across the profession. Read the ten things he wishes he'd known when he started out...
1. Benchmarking is not theft
I like to think that I have come up with my own fair share of bright ideas in the past (and the odd bad one). However, I now realise that there will always be others that come up with many good, and even better ideas. I think this rule applies to website development and trends. Companies like Amazon spend huge bucks on ensuring their Shopping Cart is just so, for example. So why create your own shopping experience, when you can 'benchmark' the way Amazon's works? Not only do you use a tried and (very) tested method, you can build a familiarity of use for your customers.
2. Delegation is what you need
To misquote the late, very great Roy Castle - "Delegation's what you need..." A hard lesson to learn, but once you are there it's so liberating; for you and for those that work for you. Pass on the tasks that you feel only you can complete, empower people to make decisions, back them up and trust them.
3. Requirement first, solution second
No more sitting in planning meetings where "We want to do a viral game" is the main theme of the day. Be dull, write the requirement first; who are you trying to target, what do you want them to do, what is a measure of success? Then, and only then, let your best marketing people choose from the virtual tool box of marketing techniques and pick the right solution for the requirement, never the other way round.
4. Start small, build big
It's all too easy to blow budget on trusting that the next big thing will work, the thing that will make our company more money than ever before, but why risk it? Instead, start small; it's always been much easier to take a small budget, focus on developing a case study that proves you are right about that next big thing and grow it from there; "slowly, slowly catchy monkey" as an old boss would always say.
5. Google (or search) is the answer to everything
The answer to life, the universe and everything else is not, it seems, 42. However, the answer to this very question is probably to be found on Google. Whether I want to know who blogs the most on a client brand, learn the most popular search term in Brazil, or find a company that has already developed that neat little idea I have just thought of, Google knows best. It's free and an incredibly useful business tool, for more than just the obvious. And it has answered me a million and one questions and won me many arguments.
6. Mum knows best
It's easy to assume that, just because you and your colleagues have been lovingly nurturing and developing your new website, that every other human being on the planet will 'get' it. It just isn't so. In usability terms 'The Mum Test' is a great pre-launch test; put simply, it suggests that if your Mum works out how to use it, then the rest of the world will. This doesn't always mean dragging your Mum to work, fun though that may be, but instead ask colleagues or friends with no prior experience of the website to try it.
7. Be wary of the Ivory Tower syndrome
My favourite ever Dilbert cartoon (I only know two) depicts a frazzled marketing type telling a colleague that "Everybody is saying our website is ugly" to which the reply comes "Really? Even Tibetan monks?"...It's very easy to fall foul of this trap, from both sides. Consider social networking, most senior management teams find it hard to relate to Bebo and Facebook because they would never do it or use it. But millions of people can't be wrong. There's a fairly simple rule for me here; just because you would never use it, or don't understand it, doesn't mean that your audience wouldn't and aren't already.
8. Surround yourself with good people
This was one of the first and most meaningful quotes an old boss (a different one!) once offered. It's so true. Although very hard to do, it is possible to make a success of things by ensuring that you have people around you that are really good at what they do. This takes some luck, training, perseverance and reward to achieve, but really is the best way to succeed. However profound that advice was, I have never really believed the bit that followed it; "Surround yourself with good people.....work them 'til they drop.....and take all the credit..."
9. Finance people don't like us, we don't care
Marketing is the department that haemorrhages money out of the business, and when trusted with a budget, we blow it on 'balloons and t-shirts'! We all know this not to be true, but we still have a responsibility to talk the language of the hands that feed us. Terms such as 'Open Rate' and 'Click Through Rate' will never convince a Finance Director to increase your budget or salary. Talking their language is the key; 'ROI', 'Gross Profit' and the like are the phrases that make them open the wallet a little wider, allowing for us to buy more of those balloons than we know what to do with!
10. Get a second medical opinion when in Bolivia
I was lucky enough to travel the world in 2006. During that time I found myself mountain biking on statistically, the most dangerous road in the world, rather appropriately called 'Death Road'. I then found myself falling off my bike onto this road and I had to be rushed to a local hospital for an X-ray. The diagnosis, through translation, was a partly dislocated elbow. Seeking a second opinion the next day, I found I had actually broken my arm in two places. Unfortunately, four of my first medical team had already tried to relocate my arm the day before - by collectively yanking on it...
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About the author
Steve Kemish F IDM has over ten years of experience in digital marketing, both client-side and agency. He and his team work with clients to help them realise the potential of digital marketing and to help deliver results. Passionate about using marketing principles to get the most out of the technology, when not with clients he is to be found speaking on the subject throughout the world on behalf of both Adestra and the Institute of Direct Marketing, for whom he has lectured since 2004. Steve has worked with many brands on digital marketing, including: npower, Skype, ITV, Help the Aged, Oracle, Cisco & British Airways.
