Having been in marketing and communications for almost 20 years now, I have become very sceptical of people who talk about 'strategy'. The fact is that in today's competitive environment, there is very little strategy about - most companies spend much of the time fighting fires, trying to meet quarterly revenue targets, that the idea of applying a strategy to marketing communications seems irrelevant. Marcom, in many companies, even large blue-er than blue chip companies are not immune.

So, where does this leave the practice of marcom? Well, in marketing ops, mostly. Marcom has been relegated to roles such as 'collateral factory', event organising, customer hosting, and office administrating.

As a long time communications professional, this is disturbing. Marcom is at its most effective when visionary managers recognise, or even demand, that it makes a strategic contribution to the business. That the marcom strategy is a statement of intent, meant to reflect the progress of marcom over at least 18 months, with a tactical tune-up every 6-8 months or so. That it should be firmly tied to the marketing and sales strategies. That there are metrics to marcom programs which are tied to business results which will ultimately measure the efficacy of the strategy.

As someone who has been through the ups and downs of marcom as a practice - strategic when things are going well, tactical and sales focused when things are not, I have this advice for business leaders who truly want to stretch their marcom resources:

1. Demand strategic marcom from your practitioners> Unless this is done, you will not see the power behind this practice and you will underinvest in the function. This will put them in a Catch-22 situation - low investment means poor ROI.
2. Listen to the advice of the marcom professionals. As one such, I can only say that each time I have had a client (internal or otherwise) tell me that he would take my advice, I would say that I had a very happy customer. When this happens consistently, a great business partnership results and good business is done.
3. Test, test, test. Budget constraints may make it difficult to test all programs in an ideal way, but there are all sorts of easy to administer tests to see if metrics have been met. Incidentally, all good marcom programs should be measureable. If not, do not run them because they are, in all likehood, pie in the sky and not worth the investment.
4. Tightly integrate all your communications tools around the strategy. Make sure there is consistency across the board. This builds the 'echo', and gives you strong share of voice in a very noisy markeplace.
5. Never let your marcom team rest on its laurels. The true joy of the profession is to keep finding new and different ways to communicate. If your marcom team presents the same tactics and communications platforms year after year, either replace the team manager, or insist they change their agencies. I have even seen business leaders who take the time to meet the agencies regularly to ensure that they understand the business needs and can support them.

All these will lead you to a highly effective marcom practice which will do your business proud.