The following interview appeared in the December ITSMA ezine.
The Interview: Marketing’s New Mindset: An Interview with Foghound’s Lois Kelly
Lois Kelly, a founding partner of the strategic communications firm Foghound, recently sat down with ITSMA to discuss the trend toward “conversational marketing,” the new responsibilities that marketers must take on to ensure that their companies stay competitive, and how to hire marketers with the skills to drive conversational marketing throughout the organization.
ITSMA: As we look back on 2006, it’s clear that the marketing function is undergoing some major changes. What is the most important change that marketing needs to make in 2007?
Kelly: With so much information available today, it’s important for companies to develop an interesting point of view that resonates in the market. But in order to do that, companies also need to listen to what’s going on in the market. Customers today don’t just want the facts about your services or solutions; they also want insight on where the industry is headed and how your products and services can help them get there. In 2007, we’re going to continue to see marketing shifting away from broadcast and moving instead to a more conversational approach.
ITSMA: Practically speaking, what does the marketing department need to do to make sure it’s taking a conversational approach?
Kelly: First, the head of marketing needs to champion the new mindset and define the new roles and responsibilities that the various marketing functions need to take on. For example, someone within marketing needs to take responsibility for listening to customers, influencers, and industry thought leaders and then reporting back. This could be the market research department or the public relations department, but someone has to be accountable for it.
Once the listening is in place, it can feed the development of the company’s points of view. The people who are responsible for the company’s branding, messaging, and positioning are often good candidates for fleshing out its points of view. Then, once the company has a compelling point of view, it’s up to the people who are responsible for sales support to create conversation guides for the sales team so that the reps can engage customers on industry issues and challenges all the time, not just when they’re trying to sell a specific service.
ITSMA: That’s a great starting point for how to organize around the idea of conversational marketing. What new skills are required? What should you be looking for when you’re interviewing a job candidate?
Kelly: In the technology industry in particular, I find that people are seduced by résumés. If they see someone who’s worked for one or two of their major competitors, they tend to think that that person will be a good addition to the team. Not necessarily! Sometimes people who’ve been in the industry for a while are quite set in their ways and unwilling to try a different approach.
In my opinion, the most important thing to look for in a job candidate is intellectual curiosity. You want to hire people who are always going to be interested in what the next thing is, why it’s important, and how to master it. You want to hire people who are passionate about the marketing profession and the industry you are in.
One trick I’ve suggested to clients who need help with hiring is to ask job candidates to write a one-page point of view on a subject like what’s going on in the industry. That will very quickly show you if that person is passionate, informed, and capable of communicating clearly.
ITSMA: There are a lot of new digital communication channels that are generating a lot of buzz right now, including blogs, podcasts, and Second Life. Are these tools going to continue to generate excitement in 2007?
Kelly: What people are beginning to see is that there are all these new channels for conversational communication, but most companies have very little to say! I think that 2007 is going to be the year when we start seeing the gap between the companies that are listening to their customers and generating interesting content for these digital channels and the companies that aren’t listening and don’t have much to say. I also think that marketers are beginning to realize that face-to-face opportunities are still more valuable than anything we can do with cool new tools like Second Life. In the coming year, I’d recommend that companies focus as much on how to engage in conversational marketing offl ine as they do in experimenting with the next proliferation of digital tools.