Why marketing managers should practice their kung-fu

When one thinks about the duties of a marketing manager, a number of pictures come to mind: team meetings, tight budgets, creative sessions, ... This is all true of course, but there’s a large part of being a marketing manager that’s often overlooked, even by practitioners of the art, and that’s the part where you actually do something.

Being in that position myself, I’ve had the privilege to observe many of my peers exclusively focus on part 1 of the job, the management part. Not to take anything away from them, they’re not too bad at it more often than not. At least they try to be as good and effective as possible in managing. However the time they spent managing seemed to be inversely proportional to the time they spent doing.

Let’s face: it too many “marketing managers” fall short when it comes to the do part, and most of the times this part translates in get it done (by someone else).

I honestly don’t think you can be good at managing something unless you’ve experienced it firsthand before. It’s true for every job you can think about. Who’s going to be the most qualified to run the medical team of a hospital ? A doctor or someone who’s only knowledge of medicine is theoretical ? Who’s the best foreman ? The son’s boss or the guy with 10 years experience on the construction site ?

Same goes for Marketing. In this age where online and social marketing are a prevalent and disruptive force on the marketing job market, you can’t pretend you know anything about these things unless you’ve experienced it firsthand.

And by firsthand I mean real firsthand. Below are examples of some of the things I believe marketing managers should have a hands-on knowledge of:

• Know your web site: don’t need to be a web developer, but you need to understand that everything that goes there is your window to the world. Corporate web sites are the #2 source of information for buyers after search engine. You should be familiar with your information architecture and know your analytics by heart. You should have established clear metrics and conversion goals for the things that are going to matter to your funnel.
• Know your search engine: understand the impact of your web site on your ranking, have some basic SEO notions and get the help of the pros when you really want to make a difference. Understand your web advertising process and know how you can save money or increase your conversions
• Know your e-mail marketing: e-mails are cheap and a great way to talk to your base. Understand how it works, see how you can leverage it best and be able to fine tune your e-mail efforts. The technology is here and it’s not hard to use, you just need to focus a bit and practice.
• Know your social media: practice, participate, enjoy, link with people, exchange ideas, engage. Understand that social media are not a fad. They’re here to stay and even if your current base does not use it ... well ... no one has survived long by only talking to their current base right ? At some point you’ll need to engage new customers. Guess where you’ll find them?
• Write: don’t always use copy writer. If you can’t talk about your market, your product or your message, then you’re useless.
• Talk: practice presentations, volunteer, research new styles and designs. The more you’ll do that, the smoother your message will be and the more relaxed you’ll feel.

What other things would you recommend marketing managers have a hands-on experience?