7 Habits of a Highly Effective Marketing Director

15 Aug ‘20

In: Marketing, / By: Ripe Media

Can you remember the first brand campaign that caught your attention? Did you see it on television, in the newspapers, or on billboard displays? Think about what made it so powerful for you. 

For a marketing director, their main goal is to create campaigns that you’ll remember. They’re the people that oversee and guide powerful creative strategies, conduct meaningful research, and develop a strong plan of action.

But how exactly do they meet the high expectations placed on them every day? Here are seven habits that any effective marketing director incorporates into their daily life. 

1. Embrace Storytelling

Remember that campaign you thought of at the beginning of this article? It likely tells a meaningful story. Through brand building and visual design, storytelling is the meat of all strategies. 

Above all else, marketing directors are storytellers. Their everyday mission is to guide and create meaningful stories for brands with a message. As one of their most important habits, marketing directors embrace storytelling. 

Marketing directors must determine what a brand is trying to say and never lose sight of it. A creative marketing director, digital marketing director, or director of sales must all push a brand’s story to the forefront of any campaign.

2. Prioritize Data

While storytelling is the meat of a brand’s message, data is the foundation. Without data, the goal of storytelling cannot be completed. 

In order to tell a brand’s story, marketing directors must know exactly who their audience is. Data can help determine an audience’s demographics, likes and dislikes, spending habits, values, and much more. Without solid data, marketing strategies will fall flat every time. 

With the help of data gathering technology, marketing directors can find and prioritize data easier than ever before. Rather than interviewing subjects one by one, marketing directors can access important data with the click of a few buttons. Prioritizing their findings and strategizing the data is a crucial habit for marketing directors. 

3. Ask Questions

The habit of asking questions goes hand in hand with not getting comfortable. There will always be more to learn and improve on. Asking questions (to clients and the rest of the team) is a key habit for a marketing director. 

The more questions a marketing director will ask, the more knowledge and information there is to share. This goes for both with the team and with the world. 

For more innovative, eye-catching, and meaningful campaigns, marketing directors must ask questions like:

• What is the story behind your brand?
• What makes your service or product stand out?
• Who are your competitors?
• What is your budget?
• What is your timeframe?
• What does success look like for your brand?

The insight a marketing director can gain from asking questions creates more powerful campaigns. 

4. Focus on the Details 

It’s true when they say the details make a world of a difference. As a marketing director, first impressions mean everything. By focusing on the details, they can ensure that from start to finish, a project succeeds. 

It takes less than two-tenths of a second for a consumer to form an opinion of a brand online. Even the most minuscule of details can make or break a brand. For example, a simple spelling error or faulty link can give off the impression that a brand is unprofessional. 

In marketing, it’s the details that will set a brand apart among the masses. With so much competition, a brand cannot afford to focus on the details. Focusing on the details is one of the most tedious, yet crucial habits for marketing directors. 

5. Set Goals

While this might sound obvious, setting goals is an important habit for marketing directors. Goals must be clearly defined, specific, and measurable. 

For a marketing director, it’s imperative that goals are more than just “generating reach” and “growing an audience.” Goals must include specific like “increasing reach by five percent” or “growing an audience by 10 percent.” This way, a plan of action can be better determined and the success can be measured. 

Through marketing key performance indicators (KPIs), and business outcomes, marketing directors can see how the plan of action is working. It’s for marketing directors to assess the progress of the campaign’s goals often. 

6. Don’t Get Comfortable

Marketing is an everchanging landscape. As times change, a brand should change with them. Marketing directors must have the habit of embracing change, not getting too comfortable, and evolving with the times. 

A marketing director must be able to adapt a campaign to meet the specific needs of the client, no matter how many times they may change. Marketing directors must go into pitches and meetings with the idea that there will likely be adjustments necessary. This all comes with the territory. 

Brands report that 25-43 percent of their budget is spent on content creation, however, only 23 percent of marketing directors report that the content is being produced correctly. By adapting to a customer’s needs, this percentage can be increased significantly. Customer development and growth is the key to success for brands and marketing directors alike.  

7. Nurture Relationships

In marketing, relationships and connections are the bread and butter of the industry. Relationship building is a daily occurrence for marketing directors. The most successful ones hold these relationships to high importance.

From the moment a client or prospect comes in contact with a marketing director, the relationship becomes a priority. 
Through personal emails, phone calls, and meetings, marketing directors work to build relationships. With social media, it has never been easier to maintain these sustainable relationships.  

If in a room full of marketing directors, you’ll likely find that they’re all “people persons.” This trait is not by coincidence. Nurturing relationships and connecting with others is a key habit for any successful marketing director.

Connect With a Marketing Director Today

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve likely discovered that there’s more to marketing directors than you expected. Whether a major global brand or small business, connecting with an effective marketing director is key to your success. 

For brand strategies, web experiences, and digital marketing needs, contact us today.

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