Any of these symptoms sound familiar even though you are an experienced Marketing Manager?
If your skills are being put to work in the industrial or technical sector, then you know just how challenging it can be meeting targets while not drying up in the process.
Before you fret, you are not alone. It's tough being a marketing strategist. Take for instance, ‘Industrial Melanie’. She is hypothetical in name, but an accurate representation of a lone ranger responsible for marketing a business in the industrial or technical sector.
Faced with targets set by demanding executives, Melanie puts her heart and soul into the role but always feels she comes up short in the eyes of superiors.
Budget figures are hard to meet, work hours are long, and all the while she tirelessly balances it with family commitments.
Industrial Melanie calms down the moment she considers 5 industry realities:
1) Don’t try to do everything
2) Lacking knowledge of web technologies is normal
3) Not enough in-house staff to upskill
4) Balancing family and work is common
5) Removing some processes from site could offer better returns
1) Don’t try to do everything!
There is no shame admitting there are not enough hours in the day to complete every task you feel is required.
Remember, your superiors are most likely to be board members or business owners with solid industry acumen but limited understanding of IT and comms streams, hence they are not in a position to even recognise you might be up against high workload.
2) Lacking knowledge of web technologies is normal
An astronomer can look about as far as anyone through space, but can only claim to see a tiny speck of the universe.
The same applies to your superiors' circumstances on web and comms technologies. He or she may have an overall understanding and appreciation of how it fits together and how it works, but they would probably know nothing about its true power and breadth.
Don’t be afraid to discuss technologies, software, associated professionals and other options with them. If they are truly successful people, you will probably find they have an open ear to new ideas and will really appreciate your initiative and added potential to the company thought streams.
3) Not enough staff to upskill
You are always under pressure and know assistance would not just lighten your stressful workload, it would also make all your planning and initiatives much more productive in the eyes of management.
Yet upskilling someone in-house is often out of the question because the modern industrial business has most employees wearing several hats already and upskilling a colleague to joining your mission is often out of the question.
Once again, speaking with your management is gold. Not only does it alert them to your mounting pressures, it actually provides the perfect forum to outline the fast developing technologies and expertise which, if utilised, can provide a huge competitive advantage and business boost – all through you of course!
4) Balancing family and work is common
Never feel guilty about putting your children first within the context of your marketing manager role and this goes for males of course, as well as females.
Business owners and executives know a lot about workplace stress, and the majority have, or have had, young kids of their own, and deep down they would not expect you to ever sacrifice kids for work.
5) Removing the processes from site to get a better return
Once again, let’s re-visit the impossibility of trying to do everything as a marketing manager. Any guilt you carry over this issue, let it drain from your body otherwise you are doing yourself an injustice.
And never underestimate the skill of your management to take on a good idea. Why not propose adding specialised skills from external sources to work in sync with your timelines, hence gaining hand-picked valuable assistants without spending a cent on training?
Only recently, Manufacturers’ Monthly magazine published that 26% of Australian executives believe their industry is rapidly changing - a significant increase from 13 percent in 2010.
Proof, if ever it was needed, that your stress can be eliminated quite quickly by proposing some interesting ideas to your management and meeting targets!
Maybe a platform to slowly but surely take cold calling out of the equation for your company and actually increase sales in the process?