The constantly-evolving internet can make online marketing tricky. Even the best experts have to stay on top of every change and make sure it won’t hold their strategy back. But the internet isn’t always the only obstacle. For some marketing agencies or individual employees, one of the biggest hindrances to a good plan is a gatekeeper.
Simply put, a gatekeeper is a problem that restricts or blocks marketers from doing exemplary work for their customers. For example, maybe an agent has been asked to create a graph of a certain set of data, but they can’t access the data they need. Alternatively, maybe the employee is waiting on someone else that is simply too busy to follow up. Both scenarios hinder work, and both are gatekeepers.
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Why Gatekeepers Cause Problems
On the surface, the problem seems obvious. A gatekeeper blocks an otherwise skilled employee from doing their job. However, sometimes there’s more to it. Maybe an important project has been handed over to the wrong team. For instance, relying solely on your IT department to build and run your business website might mean that your coding is perfect, but won’t lead to good online promotion. IT workers can build websites, but promoting them is the marketing department’s job. This arrangement can be a type of gatekeeper that blocks access to an otherwise successful marketing plan.
In a more broad sense, gatekeepers hinder the customer experience. The website example above can lead to a poor experience since customers might struggle to find the website without proper marketing. Additionally, potential clients who have questions about certain things will have to go through the IT department rather than directly to someone with answers. Other types of gatekeepers also present an unnecessary challenge. For example, an employee waiting on access to data won’t be able to complete the project that requires said data.
How to Get Rid of Gatekeepers
Since gatekeepers hinder marketing work, the best course of action is to place marketers in every part of your company. Give marketing agents a prominent place in your IT department. Turn over email newsletters and social media posts to your marketers entirely. Make sure your marketing department (and the individuals within it) have access to all the data they could possibly need. Remove any possible obstacles to getting the job done and watch your productivity climb.
Removing Obstacles
Even a seemingly minor obstacle could hinder an important project for far too long. Don’t let that happen to you! Talk to your marketing team to see where you could improve and start working on getting rid of gatekeepers blocking your marketing projects.
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