How to Develop Best-in-Class Marketing Teams
What the CMO of TD Bank Group told Me
Recently I attended the DX3 Canada Event where Theresa McLaughlin, EVP and Global Chief Marketing Officer of TD Bank Group spoke on How to Develop a Best-in-Class Marketing Team, claiming if you haven’t updated your marketing skills in the last 5 years your marketing is obsolete.
Knowing where marketing is today, how to build a successful team and define the best leaders and partners, are critical to successful marketing. Here are invaluable highlights that she shared.
Critical to Marketing Today
- Think digital first
- Marketing integration includes data analytics, technology and digital channels
- One creative has to support multiple formats
- Need to understand the whole ecosystem
- Tracking online and offline
- Marketing should have joint goals and be able to measure input and output; what you’ll get for each dollar
- Real-time data is shifting marketing spend and allowing Marketers to act as business owners
How to Build Teams for Success
- Better diversity means better teams
- Diversity invites you to the party. Inclusion invites you to dance
- Create cross-functional teams – mini businesses inside a large organization, bringing Legal, Product, Pricing and Marketing all to the table allows you to quickly manage change
- Remove silos – they destroy companies
How to Define the Best Marketers
- Agile
- High EQ
- Curious,
- People leaders
- Life-long learners
- Have corporate courage – can ask senior execs “Where’s the ROI in that idea?”
What Makes Great Marketing Leaders
- Can handle emotions
- Able to put a mirror up so others can see themselves
- Flexible
- Makes no room for “Brilliant Jerks”
- Hires and develops – wins the talent war
- Great leaders make people the best that they can be
How to Choose the Right Partners
- Are holistic about their approach and understanding your business
- Passionate about the brand
- Strategic, not just a service provider
As a marketer, change is an important part of who we are. Sometimes our skills and agility are really tested as we jump into foreign waters and learn new ways to move forward. But, the challenging and most rewarding part of Marketing is when you see you are making a positive difference.
