How Omni-Channel Marketing Flywhweels Break
Anytime I get asked what makes Fidelitas different from other agencies, part of my answer always includes our approach to an organization’s omni-channel marketing flywheel. We’ve covered the anatomy of the omni-channel marketing flywheel in a variety of formats, including past editions of this newsletter, but the bottom line is that if your paid, earned, shared, and owned media channels aren’t working together to create additional overall growth through synergy-driven momentum, your investment into marketing and PR will never truly reach its full potential return.
Omni-channel marketing flywheels aren’t invincible. Here are the five most common ways we see them break in organizations:
Lack of Communication: If marketing leaders that own specific channels aren’t communicating with their counterparts throughout the organization, the omni-channel flywheel will start to break down. We recommend at least a standing weekly ten minute meeting to ensure that priorities are aligned and emerging opportunities are uncovered.
Lack of Budget: A lack of investment into any one component of the flywheel will diminish the return on other channels. For example, a failure to invest in PR will diminish a brand’s return on SEO as well as middle-of-funnel paid media spend. Make sure that adequate budget is committed to each of your brand’s channels.
Lack of Trust: If the marketing leaders- both brand-side and agency-side- don’t trust their counterparts and as a result aren’t entirely forthcoming in their analysis and collaboration, the organization will suffer as a result. This happens most often with multiple agencies in a brand’s sandbox, which is why it’s important for the adults in the room to get on the same page and manage their teams to a mindset of collaboration for the greater good of the brand.
Lack of Operational Excellence: Brands scale because of their ability to own their margins, and the best laid marketing plans will fail if they can’t be executed in a profitable manner over time. It’s critical to keep COGs and Operational Expenses down in order to give your marketing and comms teams room to breathe. I can’t emphasize this enough: Lost margin always leads to lost momentum.
Lack of Leadership: A failure of a brand’s agency partners to lead strategically as partners rather than vendors, and/or the failure of buy-in from an organization’s leadership will breakdown an omni-channel marketing flywheel faster than you can spell “PR.” That’s why it’s so critical for corporate leadership to instill a healthy culture- it will literally feed your omni-channel marketing flywheel, and thus your bottom line.
Need help getting your omni-channel marketing flywheel on track this year? Just reply to this post and we’ll be in touch.
