Thinking about in-housing digital marketing capabilities? Let’s talk about that.
Having someone else do it for you can sometimes resemble being part of the The Matrix. With endless supply of fancy decks, upward charts and feel good stories plugged into the back of your brain. Sounds familiar? Let’s keep going.
So now you are thinking “Is this it? Do I dare look beyond?” Looking beyond is like trying to see through a glass full of water. There is light coming through but really you can’t see sh*t, captain.
You start to compile a list of things that you believe are on the other side, things that you hope to be the driver and motivator to challenge the Matrix status quo. So, before you pull a Cypher and decide to leave the Matrix for the wrong reasons, here is the list of five things that are ABSOLUTELY NOT guaranteed to happen:
Cost Savings. Good digital marketing isn’t cheap any way you put it. You might find yourself heart broken if you lead with this one.
Better Performance. Performance comes down to individuals’ skills and capabilities. Doesn’t matter where they sit or who they work for. It’s very easy to hire bunch of bad talent, especially if you don’t have previous experience in the hands-on aspect of digital marketing.
Faster, cleaner way of doing things. It takes time and effort to get to ‘faster’. Typically, things get confusing, frustrating, and slower leaving you in the perpetual state of scramble.
Better data use and governance. Ha! See how your legal and privacy team will feel/react once you tell them there is no middleman to blame if things go bad with data, use and storage of it.
Everyone will be onboard, making it seamless. Probably the biggest misconception of such move. Often people are the biggest underwater icebergs of in-housing and beyond.
And the one thing that is ABSOLUTELY GOING TO HAPPEN if you take the red pill:
Exponential increase in accountabilities and responsibilities.
Life outside of the Matrix is a little different. Just like Neo, you will need to learn a bunch of new things fast in order to harness the power. With great power comes great responsibility (and accountability). To give you an idea, here are some examples of things you will probably find yourself being responsible and accountable for, on ongoing basis as well as one-off fires.
- Are you ready to be accountable for a billing nightmare of missed, mismatched and overdue invoices caused by a spelling mistake in the naming convention, incorrect project codes, cost centers or wrong dockets #’s?
- Unplanned/unpredicted overspends. Oh yah, now that’s your direct accountability.
- Broken ads, performance tracking issues, site problems/UX issues cause by your appended URL parameters or redirects, pixel issues caused by site releases and updates. Now it’s you who is getting that call at 11pm.
- Client satisfaction. Got to keep your internal clients happy. Nothing worse than internal clients unhappy about whatever it is you are handling for them. Unhappy clients talk.
- Managing expectations. A Top 3 factor in how successfully the move will unfold. You will be accountable and responsible for managing the snot out of expectations, up, down, left, and right.
- Ongoing education. As in, continuously repeating and going over things that are easier than breathing to you but are rocket science to your internal partners, stakeholders, and support groups and people you report to.
These are just some quick examples. Outside of the Matrix is a net new entity. You will be responsible for creating and sustaining supply of air, water, heat and habitats.
In summary, if uncertainty of the outcome and increase in direct accountabilities and responsibilities motivate you, perhaps life beyond the Matrix is for you. If not, I’d recommend you take the blue pill for now.
How well you can manage the added pressures, navigate through the uncertainties, and not get bogged down in political BS will translate directly into your ability to obtain the benefits associated with taking the red pill and unplugging from the Matrix.
For help with in-housing digital marketing capabilities and in-house team staffing please contact Toronto AdOps.