This is article #38 out of 50 in The Startup Marketing Playbook.
The marketing team should meet weekly for at least 30 minutes. There is often a large agenda of items to discuss, so it’s helpful to establish a structure to keep the meeting organized. Consider the following for weekly marketing meetings:
1. Start with highs and lows
I like to start each meetings with a round of highs and lows. Each team member shares an update about the best part of their weekend (high) and then the worst part — often humorous (low). It’s a great ice breaker that helps the team bond and establishes a talking mood. Try to ensure that the team members keep each update brief.
2. Review key projects
There are usually a few major projects in progress for marketing, aside from the standard inbound content campaigns. It might be a website update or testing a new channel, like Adroll retargeting. For these, it’s appropriate for the project lead to provide a brief verbal update and get feedback from the team. Hopefully the primary update was also delivered in writing via the weekly report.
3. Review metrics
Marketing is all about measurement and optimization, so consider sharing the team’s KPIs during this meeting. You should review MQLs, conversion rates, content downloads, website traffic and any other key metric that the team tracks. This meeting is a great opportunity to educate more junior members of the team, or designers who are less focused on technical marketing, on what each of the metrics means and how their role impacts it.
4. Recognize wins and highlight shortcomings
While the team is together, the lead should announce wins — a successful ebook launch or particularly strong MQL week — and be sure to give recognition to those who made an impact. Equally important, this meeting is an opportunity to highlight areas where the marketing performance is not meetings its goals and discuss ways that team can align focus to improve.
5. Provide company updates in a small group setting
There are often non-marketing related company updates, such as funding or executive hiring to discuss. While you also want to talk about that at All Hands, the functional department meeting is a good opportunity to dive deeper into the details, answer questions, and ensure all voices are heard.
6. Assemble an agenda for post-meeting follow ups
Often the results of the key project review in the marketing meeting is additional individual follow-ups with project leaders to provide feedback on specific blockers. I frequently spend about 30 minutes for the marketing meeting and an additional 15-20 minutes on unblocking specific issues with projects and providing brief feedback on writing or design.
Avoid:
Tactical updates
While it’s ok to provide verbal updates on a few key projects, having everyone sit around a table while diving into highly tactical details that are only related to specific team members is not a productive use of time. Keep the group meeting focused on strategic discussion, and do updates in writing using a tool like this.
Big group design reviews
It may be tempting to review the status of design assets in progress at the group meeting. However, group design reviews often frustrate the design team since everyone is jumping in with their opinion, often lacking the necessary context to contribute constructively. You may showcase finished product at the marketing team meeting, but be sure to keep design reviews as separate, smaller interactions between the team lead, project leader and designer.
Next Steps
In addition to weekly reports, weekly meetings are beneficial for team communication and unity. Even if you are just starting out with a marketing team of 2 or 3, dedicate the 30 minutes each week to ensuring everyone has an opportunity to speak, ask questions and get on the same page.