Your business operates in a world where standing out is key to survival. And at the helm of your “stand out” efforts is your marketing department. Often a lean team, it takes the right mix of experience, creativity, and talent to ensure your marketing team can properly support your business’s initiatives.
Yet marketing is one department that often has an alarming talent turnover rate.
What’s the deal?
And what can you do to prevent turnover in your marketing department?
These stats may stun you
Marketing employee turnover is the loss of valuable creatives from your firm.
“Big deal,” you think. “Everyone is replaceable.” But what if we told you it’s estimated that losing an employee can cost 1.5-2 times the employee’s salary?
Consider too, that 52% of voluntarily exiting employees say their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving their job.
Ah-ha! Do we have your attention, now?
It makes much more sense to retain your employees than constantly face turnover in your marketing department. But how do you do it?
8 reasons we at Peer have seen for increased marketing turnover
1. You expect unicorns
Numerous talents go into the success of a marketing department, yet many companies treat marketing as a one-person job. Rarely is this the case. While there are employees who are multi-talented, you’re unlikely to find one professional proficient in copywriting, graphic design, search engine optimization, social media, videography, web design … you get the idea.
Instead of attempting to hire one person with limited experience in various marketing skill sets, focus on finding multiple individuals with highly honed marketing talents. Doing so will help release pressure of perfection and may also lead to less burnout among marketing employees.
If you still really need that unicorn, or can’t afford a full team, outsourcing your marketing may be a better way to go.
2. Lack of recognition
Most marketing departments are among the smallest groups in the company. Yet, so much is expected of them. In addition to lead generation and lead management, marketing teams are asked to create and provide collateral, attend trade shows, and handle internal and external communication. And in failing to recognize the contributions of a marketing department, companies may inadvertently cause turnover.
The good news is that nearly 68% of staffers said their organization’s recognition program positively affects retention. Look into how you can make yours more attractive to marketing talent.
3. No resource funding = shortage of proper tools
To do their job effectively, most marketers require technology—and a lot of it. Design software, project management software, customer management systems, robust email platforms, insights and analytics tools, and the latest version of an operating system are a few baseline needs for any marketing department looking to be successful. Yet marketing budgets have fallen to about 6.4% of overall company revenue, affecting what resources marketing employees can obtain.
Instead of asking your marketing employees to do more with less, request that they prioritize missing resources and set a budget that aligns with the company’s growth expectations. Often newer tools come with lower price tags and there’s usually an option that will fit within your budget. Also, keep in mind that if you do choose to outsource, paying for access to the latest and greatest tools and insights gets transferred to the outsourced partner, which can be another big savings for your company.
4. Lack of understanding around the role of marketing
What does a marketing department do? It seems many companies throw anything that doesn’t have another home (i.e. research, pr, random project needs, the company fundraiser) to marketing, burdening an often already overburdened department.
This situation isn’t helped by the absence of understanding around creative work (like the resources needed to produce a single collateral piece) and rushed expectations around project completion time.
Educating yourself—and all of your employees—around the marketing department’s responsibilities and needs is critical to avoiding turnover.
5. Leadership doesn’t see the value of their marketing department
Many business leaders are fixated on achieving revenue goals. But they fail to see the value in or support their marketing team’s contributions to meeting those goals. Marketing talent plays an integral role in the lead generation and sales acceleration process for companies: writing copy and producing design that draws attention, providing sales collateral that nurtures leads, and creating videos and images that enhance the brand image.
Know this: Even if you don’t recognize the value of your marketing employees, they can see it within themselves. 96% of employees in the industry felt confident in their ability to find another job easily.
6. Your sales team is a non-collaborative department
Some businesses think of their sales and marketing departments as one and the same. But nothing could be further from reality. In a nutshell, marketing departments produce work that obtains leads while sales departments work to close deals. Still, many sales and marketing departments are meshed together or simply don’t see eye to eye on what qualifies as a lead. And according to statistics, sales representatives ignore half of all marketing leads.
This stat is staggering in itself, but also consider that aligning these teams could lead to 209% more revenue from marketing and this is one issue you’ll want to resolve quickly.
7. Organizations don’t quantify returns on marketing
Everyone needs to be able to measure their progress. Yet many businesses overlook the role that marketing plays in obtaining new customers because they don’t have a hard and fast way of attributing revenue to a specific source (or it’s not done well). But by knowing which landing page worked and which one didn’t or what offer generated more sales calls than another, a marketing department can get a greater sense of how they can better support the organization—and stop shooting from the hip.
8. Lack of opportunities for advancement
Most marketing employees don’t want to be stationary. Eager to learn new skills or move up the corporate ladder, creatives often have a desire to further their talents and skillsets. Yet 54% percent of the surveyed agency workers cited the lack of opportunities for advancement as the main reason they left their last agency. And it’s likely this statistic doesn’t only apply to agency losses.
Offering marketing employees opportunities for growth from attending conferences, furthering their education, and good old-fashioned promotion when it’s deserved is a great way to lower department turnover.
High turnover is preventable
High turnover is something many marketing departments can avoid with a few adjustments.
However, if you’re still having trouble, it might be time to consider outsourcing your sales and marketing needs. And if you’re ready to start growing your business with an agency partner that knows its stuff, schedule a free consultation today to talk more about what Peer can do for you.
