What are the critical elements of marketing in housing and why?
The traditional agency model has been damaged by changes in how we work and behave, and it has happened at a time when operating speed is more important than ever. For marketing to succeed, a new operating model considering the right marketing in-housing set-up for brands is required.
What is Marketing In-housing? It is the act of developing internal skills and retaining the control and core knowledge of the marketing operation within the business, rather than outsourcing work to an agency or third party. It is about claiming ownership of marketing activity and capitalising on brand knowledge and pedigree.
At CvE we have identified the 4 critical elements of marketing and how they should be considered for in-housing.
Marketing Strategy feeds your In-Housing Strategy
Great marketing needs a clear and articulate strategy. Understanding the way brands must communicate with their consumers informs everything else. A clear strategy will lay out your messaging, influence your media planning, and direct your approach to branding, direct response, and loyalty programs.
Compose a cohesive roadmap, with short and long-term goals, that creates value for the business and strengthens the brand.
Marketing In-housing of Data and Technology
Brands should seek to retain ownership of their own data (their most valuable resource) and they must own the core technologies used to collect and process their data too. This is a big change to the previous habit of using agency-owned advertising technology. A good technology setup also forms the backbone of a successful in-housing program.
The key reason for marketing in-housing is data control. Data is a critical function for successful marketing. The increasing legislative scrutiny means that, for it to be used effectively, companies need to use their data directly and not entrust it to partners or third parties.
Data is now indicating ROI from in-housing, also linked to enhanced efficiency, boosted creativity, and improved collaboration within their new team setups, owing to improved relationships with a new breed of agencies and a renewed control over data.
As for technology, develop a fully featured and future-ready setup that is integrated, highly adaptable, and can operate effectively at scale in your marketing in-housing journey.
Measurement & Attribution are Crucial for Successful Marketing In-housing
Goes the adage – if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. A marketing in-house plan that controls your measurement and attribution is crucial to success and underpins all your future planning and advertising optimisation efforts.
Use a harmonised measurement framework, using multiple models, that uses automation and testing to discover incrementally.
Media In-housing Comes Last
Media delivery is the last component that should be considered for in-housing. Yet it is often the element companies look at first. Successful in-housing programs are made that much harder without laying the above foundations first.
Execute buying using scripts, AI, and platform APIs to optimize media across all channels with a single customer focus.
Conclusion
In-housing marketing has been one of the biggest trends since 2018. The marketing operating model has also been massively disrupted by the pandemic which affected relationships and dynamics between the Company Board, Marketing Teams, Media Execution Teams and Agencies.
For early marketing in-housing adopters, the increased speed of execution, cost savings, and team satisfaction has dramatically improved results. Yet there have been challenges too. Most importantly the way that in-housing implementation is considered has matured massively, as the strengths and weaknesses of previous approaches have informed best practices.
Today it is widely accepted that advertisers should take strategy, data and technology, and measurement in-house. Other functions that make up the business marketing machine are less clear-cut. Some departments, such as creative design and media execution, could be in-house or outsourced; it just depends on factors like available talent, the culture of the business, and budget. In this way, the practice of ‘in-housing’ can be more accurately called ‘right-housing’, where all marketing teams are run with the best possible operating model.
Like anything else, in-housing can be done well or poorly. Crucially, advertisers need to consider which marketing function to take on first and have a roadmap to manage it both short and the long term.
To learn more on how to In-House your marketing the right way, download our In-Housing Playbook now.
Contact us to discover how we can help elevate your marketing sophistication: contact@controlvexposed.com
