5 critical steps to marketing production success

Technology has an increasingly active role to play in streamlining and enhancing marketing production in the 21st century. However, from inception of the decision to implement technology, through to it going live, there are five critical issues that need to be dealt with. These are over and above simply choosing which solution is right for your business needs, but are imperative to ensure a successful deployment that becomes used by staff within your business.

Gathering the business requirements for such a solution can be a challenging (and sometimes thankless) task that can dictate the success or failure of a project. Similarly, there is often confusion regarding the different solutions available such as digital asset management (DAM), content marketing or collaboration. Each are vastly different and fulfil very different requirements. However, what remains the same for all are the following five key issues to ensure the successful integration of technology within your day-to-day business process.

Once the decision has been made to adopt a new technology, a period of change is signalled. This is where the problems can start as, let’s face it, many are not comfortable with change. This is why change management and clear communication to all stakeholders needs to be in place from the beginning and continue throughout the entire project.

Here are five tips of what you should be looking at:

1. Prioritise

One of the most common mistakes when adopting marketing production technology is not prioritising requirements correctly. Typically, many individuals, teams and departments participate in this step, each viewing their own needs as the most urgent and important. In addition, each of these stakeholders will use the technology in a different way, with varied levels of experience and engagement. As a result, the prioritisation of requirements based on these aspects must be done. It is a fact of life that any chosen solution can never meet all the requirements of all of the stakeholders. Put simply, not everyone is going to get their way so this needs to be managed. It is best that this is done by a neutral third-party facilitator.

2. Objective

All stakeholders will invariably approach the project from their own point of view; creatives will have different requirements than account management. If the requirement gathering process is undertaken internally, there will inevitably be some level of bias. By using a facilitator, such as a system integrator or marketing technology vendor, they can engage with all parties involved and take all opinions into consideration. This will provide a less clouded judgement on what is really needed. There is the added benefit of them being able to provide much-needed insight by tapping into their own experience, to ensure that the solution chosen is fit for purpose.

3. Understand

Once all stakeholders have given feedback and their requirements for the technology, the facilitator needs to bring all parties together to work on prioritising requirements. The reason? Expectation management. If users, who’ve participated in workshops and given their requirements, think their needs are not being considered, there will be dissatisfaction towards the project. If, however, the facilitator can explain why certain requirements were prioritised, the otherwise disenfranchised parties will understand that their requirements will also be met, but further down the line. If a stakeholder feels part of the team they are much more likely to be on their best behaviour and actually participate in the process.

4. Influence

Stakeholders will want to know how the new technology will impact the company, their job roles and the wider delivery of projects. For example, if the solution requires time to be invested at the beginning, they need to understand that, as well as what the pay-off will be.

There is always some resistance to change (as well as keen early adopters) but keeping communication flowing can mitigate many of the most common issues. Communication should begin from day one. That way, employees feel they’ve been part of the process and that they are being listened to, helping to build loyalty and ensure everyone gets the most out of the new technology.

5. Test

When stakeholder requirements are gathered, they will inevitably lean towards today’s requirements rather than the future. Whilst that is understandable, longer term requirements shouldn’t be ignored. The testing process provides stakeholders with the opportunity to understand the functionality and capabilities of the new system better, this in turn can help them visualise better how it may be useful in the future. The testing phase also helps the company and solutions provider keep the project in check and away from danger areas like scope creep.

Conclusion

The requirement gathering phase of any project will ultimately reflect the success of that project. By keeping communication open, engagement high, and expectations managed, businesses can achieve better buy-in from their staff from the off. Key to a successful implementation is employing a neutral facilitator to take point in the requirement gathering process, and guiding your business through to deployment and adoption.