Nolin LeChasseur is the Partner & Chief Strategy Officer of Brainrider, helping ambitious marketing teams scale for high growth and change.
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Marketing is a significant investment that can put enormous pressure on internal creative teams. This is especially true during times of economic uncertainty. An unpredictable climate demands more of marketing executives and creative teams to be increasingly strategic with fast changes, tighter budgets and moving targets. Staying strong as an in-house marketing or creative team through changing markets means adopting agile processes to be more flexible and responsive to unstable circumstances. After all, campaigns don’t stop when the market gets a little risky.
Over the years, we’ve helped our clients sustain growth and profit during transition periods. Whether you’re stalled because your in-house capabilities are bottlenecked, your budget and headcount have shifted, or there are more tasks on your list than you have time for, here are a few tips to keep in mind as you gear up for change.
How’s Your Capacity?
Are your best people working on your most important initiatives? Do you often spend way more time and money on projects than initially projected? Aligning yourself with your organization’s objectives and the capabilities of your internal team will help you decide whether you need to act immediately with assistance from an outside vendor or begin hiring new internal personnel. Start by assembling your freelance resources and make sure the right people are working on the right projects.
A Case For Essential Headcount
Hiring a core team to lay the groundwork can position you for future success if work is currently piling up and you’re on a growth trajectory. While you continue to develop internally, that team can assist with managing vendors or independent contractors. Additionally, you receive the benefit of having employees take charge of your business’s marketing initiatives without having to rely on external freelancers.
Lean On Deep Partnerships
As your business expands, relying on your trusted partners for large-scale projects or skills your internal team lacks can pave the way for excellent long-term collaboration. Without you having to hire more full-time employees or burning out your best people, a vendor partner can assist in meeting the demands of your team to complete more work and fast. While encouraging excellent teamwork, you can strengthen your strategy, break down silos and accelerate creative output.
When choosing a partner to work with, be mindful to look for people or companies that reflect your values and exhibit signs of trust, such as supporting honest, empathetic communication, planning, and follow-through.
Flexibility Is Essential
Workload predictions are frequently subject to unpredictable forces, so incorporate flexibility right into your operations in order to be ready for change.
Being able to scale up or down depending on the demands of your internal team and business goals can be critical as your priorities and spending change. Make sure you can review and modify your partnerships and contracts in light of your evolving needs, whether you collaborate closely with a single agency or a number of vendors. In place of yearly commitments, consider flexible resourcing, pay-as-you-go, project-based contracts or quarterly choices.
When you’re negotiating growth and capacity constraints in an ever-changing market, these considerations can help you stay on course so you can scale your marketing without sacrificing creative quality or oversight.
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