Your 5 painful challenges as marketing manager

Welcome to the life of the modern day Marketing Manager trying to find a way forward while technology churns out more and more reasons for your boss to ask why you aren’t actually abreast of them.

With us having clocked up so many years working with Marketing managers, I can just about bet you are constantly tired, your employer wants results, and you are seeing less and less of your family.

Sounds familiar? No doubt it does. If it makes you feel any better you are in the same position as the majority of your peers trying to manage the following:

• Generating more leads
• Reaching new market sectors
• Reporting back to management
• Understanding new comms technologies
• Actually seeing your family

The first thing I can say is don’t feel guilty. Marketing is all about communications and pretty much everyone knows technology is sending your industry into orbit.

Often, stepping back and making a basic analysis of your 5 greatest challenges makes it simpler to ease the burden.

1. Generating more leads

2)    Reaching new market sectors

Arguably one of your greatest frustrations would be the insistence from management to play it safe and try to extract more from your traditional markets, engaging in the annual turf war with competitors. If only you could find the new ways to open up new sectors and increase the percentage potential?

3)    Reporting back to management

Now this is the task that probably makes you quake in your shoes more than others. After all the effort. Deep down, you know the figures stack up quite well in a challenging market, but they might be quite simplistic and deep down you might feel they don’t contain any real metrics and more than likely don’t properly reflect your real achievement?

4)    Understanding new comms technologies

So here we are, the area which more than any probably has you throw your arms into the air. Software, systems and everything else that can generate leads, manage teams, publicise your company, close sales or anything and everything to make marketing more productive come at you in a tsunami. There genuinely is a complete ocean of options and possibilities. So how on earth can you possibly know what technology works best in your role? The truth is, there is so much to do in your role already that you wont know about everything because you just don’t have the time to learn it all. So don’t feel guilty!!

5)    Actually seeing your family

Of course, the most important challenge!! Only the cruelest management would place their own interest ahead of your family commitments – particularly if you have young children. To be honest, deep down, even the most miserly company executive would always put their own management ahead of any corporate role.

So if you feel like your hair is prematurely turning gray and your nerves are pushing to the boundaries, take a long breath in the comfort that you are just like everyone else in a working world where time is getting shorter and demands longer.

We all blame fast, new technology for this, and rightfully so. Deep down you probably know your greatest challenges can be alleviated by technology, but where on earth do you begin?

Perhaps our e-book in simple English can help. It won't solve your challenges overnight, but it will help put into perspective what lies ahead and my just help position you to overcome it.