During these more than 19 years dedicated to online marketing I have lived all kinds of situations, in many types of companies and countries. This experience has allowed me to evolve as a professional and as a person, and identify a series of events that are repeated over and over again.
That’s why I would like to make a list of the most important learnings and share them with you. A list that does not pretend to be the universal truth, only the result of my experience. List to which you can contribute with your contributions and that will help us to learn both. #Chief Information Officer Email List

The 10 uncomfortable realities of an online marketing director

1. Sales come first
   As a specialist in marketing strategy, my main challenge when working with companies or teaching, is to convey the importance of the strategy when it comes to achieving the best results.
   Companies are obsessed with getting sales at “any price”. They are willing to use the tactics that are necessary in order to see the billing figure grow. They prefer short sales and risk having problems in the medium or long term.
   It is obvious that companies live on sales, that these are more than necessary and that they are the ultimate goal of most strategies. But I have proven again and again that the results obtained are exponentially better with a good strategy, than without it.
   It is a topic that I have analyzed in this blog on numerous occasions. One of the arguments I usually use is that tactics without strategy brings you short-term sales and long-term problems.
   As a marketing specialist you have a clear vision of the customer journey and are aware of the importance of defining a different strategy for each of its stages and the role of branding in all this.
   But as important as this, is that you know the resistance that you will find in your company or with your clients. It is something that you will not be able to change and you must learn to argue the whys of your actions that are not aimed at selling.
2. There is no time to think, just to execute
   Tactics eats strategy. It is a reality, the daily work load, the objectives, etc. they do not allow time to think. Normally the activity in the marketing departments is frenetic and there are few moments for reflection.
   Marketing managers are fully aware of the importance of the strategy in achieving results, but few manage to force their agendas (and those of their teams) and plans to sit down to define it.
   That’s why I think it’s very important to force at least two stoppages per year in which the marketing management feels as much with the management as with the marketing team to define the strategy, plan and realign their efforts.
   It is amazing how many useless tasks are detected in these meetings. Part of the actions that are carried out in a marketing department are made by pure inertia and without considering whether they should continue to be done or not.
3. Paper holds everything, but reality is very different
   This phrase can be applied to many situations, but in the specific case of marketing it is usually referred to the difference between the planning and execution of a marketing action, an estimation of results, etc.
   In meetings where strategies are defined, things seem to be very clear, everything makes sense. Planning is done, the necessary resources are estimated, etc. but when we return to the reality of daily activity we find that the strategy does not finish being implemented.
   This context of frenetic activity plays against the strategy doubly. Since, if we work to define it but we are not able to implement it, the work will have been in vain.

That is why it is not just about stopping to think, but it is necessary to find a way to reorient the activity and marketing planning (it is not a matter of adding tasks to those that are already done, but of doing new things and in a different way) , so that the strategy is implemented and obtain results.

1. Knowing the audience answers most of the questions
   In this search to optimize results, companies focus on optimizing tactics, regulating investments, reviewing processes, etc. and this makes them lose focus and focus on the pure data. Without seeing beyond.
   But it turns out that the key to the sale is to get to know our audience thoroughly, to know their needs and concerns, and to try to solve them.
   That’s why when it comes to optimizing results, nothing better than talking to our audience. Either formally (through surveys or in-depth interviews) or more informal when interacting with them through any of the available points of contact.
   When we are able to really understand them, we have the answer to most of the problems that we try to solve by means of the data without context.