I want to pitch you a concept I've been thinking about lately. Imagine if your marketing team was measured on the systems they built instead of the goals they hit. Here’s an example system = a content marketing machine that’s growing organic traffic on the website. Whereas the goal = grow organic traffic by 25% this year. Most marketing teams are measured on that goal. But isn’t that shortsighted? 25% organic traffic growth would be nice next quarter, but it doesn’t encourage your team to take the long term view. When we're measured on goals we’re only thinking about hitting that goal, not what happens afterwards. So we’re only focused on a momentary change. Whereas a system is a real asset to the business. An asset that provides long term value. In this example, the content marketing system will deliver organic traffic growth possibly for years to come. If you’re measuring your team on building that system, your incentivizing them to build it the right way. They can focus on scalable tactics like building a network of writers or developing a robust distribution strategy. When you’re holding them responsible to a goal, they are incentivized to make shortsighted decisions. Like writing all the content in-house because it’s better quality or focusing on one channel for distribution because it delivers the most traffic. But there’s another benefit to measuring your team on building the system. It’s far easier to assign credit to the person building a system than it is to attribute achieving a goal to its owner. Goals are messy. Especially in marketing. We’re always fighting with attribution. Even with KPIs that feel specific to marketing like organic traffic. For instance, if your company announced a round of funding, that’s going to generate more organic traffic to your website. But you can’t really give the owner of the organic traffic goal credit for that. This framework feels like a huge unlock for me, but I can’t take credit. I read “Atomic Habits” by James Clear last year. Early on in the book James talks about when developing a new habit you must forget goals and focus on systems instead. When I read this part it immediately clicked for me. This is such a better approach to managing a team than what I've done in the past. Wish I had discovered it sooner. - Dan P.S. What's a good example of a marketing system you'd like to build for your business? There's so many. Would love to hear from you. |
