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5 Things You Need to Run Effective Marketing Meetings

by Jennifer Beever

Effective Marketing MeetingsI’m surprised by the number of organizations that do not run marketing meetings well, if at all. Marketing has long been considered a creative task, as opposed to a mission-critical operation in businesses. As a result, there is too much focus on creativity and too little focus on the operational aspects of marketing.

Run your marketing like your business. You should be working from a marketing plan, and then once you have the plan and are actively implementing it, you should conduct regular marketing meetings.

What makes an effective marketing meeting?

1. You need an agenda – a written document that people receive in advance and which you use to run the meeting. Typical agenda include project updates, review of special projects, initiatives or marketplace news, and results tracking review.

2. You need to focus – The agenda should focus on items that help you track and manage marketing so that it helps you achieve your overall business goals. In other words, don’t get sidetracked with topics that don’t tie back to your business or strategic plan.

3. You need reports – you should have reports to help you track progress on your marketing initiatives. These include performance of email, Pay Per Click, SEO, website visitor engagement, as well as Return on Marketing Investment.

4. You need to keep it interesting – according to Hubspot’s blog post, How to Run Marketing Meetings that Don’t Suck, by Cory Eridon, you should include educational elements. Have a team member report in on a new initiative or on some research on a new tactic that you are considering. Include some new information about your marketplace or your competitors, as long as that information is a value-add for those in the meeting.

In his article, How to Run a Sales and Marketing Meeting, Scott Christ suggests that you keep the meeting interesting by starting with an icebreaker that is not related to business, such as what people did over the weekend, etc. I like elements like this, although usually this kind of conversation happens automatically – you don’t need to formalize it.

5. You need to summarize action items – end the meeting with a quick recap of any action items that came up. Send an email after the meeting to remind attendees of these action items. This list also acts as input for your next marketing meeting agenda.

Benefits of Effective Marketing Meetings

Marketing meetings keep people focused and accountable. They are a critical aspect of successful marketing. I have seen too many organizations that don’t know what everyone is doing in marketing, they aren’t working to a plan let alone meeting to track progress, and they don’t have their critical online marketing account processes and data (including login information) documented. This is just one of the reasons marketing hasn’t been taken seriously in organizations, and why sometimes the marketing manager or director doesn’t have a seat at the table for strategic planning and executive management meetings.

Do you need to get organized with a marketing plan and regular marketing meetings? Contact New Incite today. We specialize in organizing, systematizing and growing marketing results for growing organizations.

 

 

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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Ken Haberman March 14, 2013 at 11:18 am

Thank you for this helpful article, Jennifer. Following your advice means more successful marketing meetings and less time wasted. All the best!
Ken Haberman

Jennifer Beever March 18, 2013 at 10:00 am

Thanks, Ken, the devil is in the details, as they say! Happy Marketing!

Abiye Briggs November 30, 2017 at 8:05 pm

Thank you for this post.

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