Are our stakeholders killing our marketing?

Let’s face it, none of us are creating content in a vacuum.

We all have bosses to please, internal (and external) customers to serve, senior executives to… sacrifice lambs to.

We all have stakeholders.

People with a real stake in our success.

Like sales people.

And product managers.

And brand ‘custodians’ (I’m picturing a janitor holding a cudgel and stone tablets… brand guidelines?).

And CEOs. And board members.

Even people with a more tenuous stake in our success may find themselves with an important say in our work.

Like lawyers.

And that cousin of the CEO who took a graphic design class once.

And even that really junior person who was only hired last Tuesday but was invited to a meeting and turns out to have (how very dare you?) an opinion.

They’re all stakeholders. They can all make a big impact on our work as marketers. (Like, say, by killing it. Or by turning that snappy, fresh headline into a boring, conventional one).

We’ve been thinking a lot about stakeholders lately.

And we’ve become convinced that stakeholder management is far too important to leave to chance.

So we made a piece all about it. Kind of a scrolly, swipey piece that I can’t embed here but I can link to. It’s called A Stakeholder Through the Heart and, though it may sound like it’s just the high-pitched whinging of an agency snowflake with a victim complex, it’s actually all that and more.

Wait… was this post really just an ad for a piece of Velocity content?

Yes. It is. I’m a marketer. Sue me.

But do read the piece first. We’re kind of proud of it.

And I would LOVE if you shared your own stakeholder stories or thoughts in the comments below.   *Jump Down*. (just kidding: scroll you lazy bastard.)

What the really nice critics say

If you think my reco isn’t a good enough reason to click through and read this thing, here’s some ‘social proof’ from the tough-but-fairest people on the Internet:

(No I don’t keep a scrapbook, you cynic).  (Glad my mom does, though).

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