Having operated in what I thought was every possible channel of marketing for sometime, you would think I've seen everything there is to do with marketing.

My journey started many years ago in the traditional High Street retail sector where I worked for (what was then) the biggest 'Sport's Retail Company in Europe. We were huge innovators in the sports retail space with unknown brands that are now household names (Nike, Reebok) wanting access to the European consumer, we also had the biggest retail sports store in Europe which was based on London's prime retail shopping destination 'Oxford Street'. 

We were the creators and innovators of a window and in-store 'retail theatre' experience which was delivered by deploying in-store video as an integral part of the brand experience, all content duly paid for by the brands. We also invented 3 high merchandising, primarily due to the increased pressure on the cost for Sq ft and the need to get as much of our product range out as possible, something many other companies adopted, and still utilise to this day.

My career then moved into the mail order space, which logically led me into the ECommerce space in varying parts of the world, all this in the pioneering days of the world wide web, and what we like to think is now a well developed place for marketeers to be. 

All very interesting Stephen (Yaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwn) but whats the point you're trying to make?

Well, throughout all this time us marketeer's have had to adapt, learn and be the 'go to' person in the board room for all things digital. 

The role of the CMO is forever in a state of flux, to adapt we must be open to the forces that are shaping the digital world we and our customers operate in today.

The changing metrics required to support omni-channel organisations has meant that the traditional Marketing Director role is now outdated, some might say redundant.The need to become deeply embedded in the entire business enterprise operating more as a ‘Chief Change Maker’ has created the requirement for a number of unique skills to sit alongside all business touch points.

With the plethora of platforms, tools and measurements at our disposal how on earth do we choose which works for us, and when it comes to putting our budgets together how do we answer the question from finance who always ask "whats the revenue forecast for this" before it's signed off. A question that always amuses me because its easy to put numbers behind things we've already done and got the data points to review the ROI. 

Just to hammer this point home (maybe you can share it with your board colleagues), I've provided a link (below) to a great piece we have found that looks at 100 different data points from numerous marketing, and social media platforms, talk about plate spinning!

So when it comes to 'Social Media' how do we explain the ROI on something that most businesses still don't really understand. 

Sure you can show that we spent x on these adverts and got y back, we can show what we think is our share of voice in comparison to our competitors, but in reality its just a huge guessing game because from what we can evidence, most companies haven't a clue what a solid 'Social Media' strategy really is.

Here at DLA Ignite we provide a pretty accurate sales forecast that can support your social media strategy.

At DLA Ignite we specialise in helping companies and the internal 'Change Makers' deliver on both many of these points, and I'm pretty sure we can help you as well. 

We have a tried and tested methodology, we hold you and your colleagues hand throughout, ensuring we not only 'teach' you what to do, we also make sure its firmly embedded into your firms DNA.

We don't do retainers, we are not an agency that creates and produces copy/content or sells ads for you.

We are active 'practitioners' of what we do, we already know and can evidence the ROI of a robust and internally aligned 'Social' strategy.

Part of that evidence it that you are reading this blog, just like many others - including your competitor!

We also don't do outbound pushy, salesy marketing, so if you would like to explore more, please contact the author of this blog.