The lessons of Isandlwana: three insights that will improve your emarketing campaigns

The cost of poor coordination and preparation can be extremely high. As the British army under Lord Chelmsford's command famously discovered on 22 January, 1879. In the shadows cast by the partial solar eclipse above and the oddly-shaped hill called Isandlwana behind, disorganisation, confusion and poor coordination cost the lives of 1,329 soldiers and the Zulu Impi of King Cetshwayo handed its British counterpart its worst defeat in 150 years.

Chelmsford's Zululand campaign may seem far removed from the challenges facing modern marketers, but that legendary battle offers several vital lessons and emphasises the, still regularly underestimated, importance of centralised coordination and planning to the success of any campaign.

The separation of powers
Poor forethought and intelligence encouraged Chelmsford to divide his force and set off with half of his troops to find and defeat the Zulu Impi, which he imagined to be relatively small, while hidden in a ravine just a few miles from the camp was a Zulu Army of 25,000 warriors.

This separation proved fatally decisive. It not only left the British camp even more heavily outnumbered, it also disconnected the two groups of soldiers. Chelmsford was already 11 kilometres away when the Zulu Impi attacked and, due to the hilly terrain, had such a poor view of the camp he even dismissed reports of the attack when they reached him.

This situation is not unlike the common ‘separation of powers' that occurs between the marketing and IT departments of an organisation when it comes to online marketing efforts.

The nature of online marketing is such that many marketing departments will, typically, focus exclusively on managing its ‘advertising' aspect. In other words, supervising the creation and displaying of promotional messages online, together with any associated search-related campaigns. However, the organisation's website, as well as the email marketing designed to drive traffic to that website, is, commonly, left as the IT department's responsibility.

More often than not, this separation has evolved as a result of the perceived ‘technical' nature of those aspects of online marketing, but it's an approach that makes coordination and integration difficult from the outset. Particularly since the two departments usually have very different goals and even locations.

Devolved authority
Another fatal inadequacy in the British camp at Isandlwana was the confusion about who was actually in charge. The orders given to Durnford - who, as a full Lieutenant-Colonel, should have taken command - by Lord Chelmsford's secretary were ambiguous and led to uncertainty between him and the camp commander, Pulleine.

This uncertain, dual command resulted in mixed messages filtering down through the British leadership and was also possibly responsible for Pulleine's hesitancy at vital moments during the battle. The upshot was repeatedly poor coordination and a management vacuum that lower ranking officers tried to fill by taking their own initiatives, which further exasperated the situation.

Again, this is not unlike the familiar situation where the comparatively low cost and ease-of-use of online marketing tools, such as email, results in numerous line-of-business managers within an organisation having the authority to send email to customers and prospects, without coordinating with the marketing department or fellow managers.

While an arrangement like this might make budgetary sense, it is alarmingly likely to end up with customers and prospects receiving multiple emails from the same company within the same time frame. Not only is this likely to create confusion and mixed messages about the organisation, but, in these acutely SPAM-sensitive times, the potential loss of revenue among irritated prospects could be immense as well.

Dispersed responsibility
Chelmsford was reportedly astonished and couldn't quite believe that, while he had been in the field actively seeking them out, the massive Zulu Impi had outmanoeuvred him and managed to move in behind his force.

This is the equivalent of the many organisations that have surprisingly fixed ideas about where their customers are and what they are doing - ideas that are usually based on how they have behaved in the past.

A good example of this ‘customer myopia' is provided by the huge numbers of companies that are overlooking the emerging web 2.0 and social media platforms. These customers and prospects are often overlooked because either nobody in the organisation believes in the importance of these audiences or simply because nobody is focussed on reaching them.

Taking back control
The solution is actually rather straightforward: marketers need to orchestrate and organise online campaigns with the same degree of centralised control and coordination that they employ offline. The marketing department needs to take back control and adopt a clear-cut, integrated process that is based upon appropriate structures and responsibilities.

The first, and perhaps most important, step is to appoint an overall emarketing manager - most likely sitting within the marketing department - responsible for every aspect of the organisation's online campaigns.

The designated emarketing manager can then ensure that the every online campaign starts with a clear goal in mind, whether it is to drive sales, boost customer loyalty or generate leads. Once these have been identified, the roles and responsibilities of other stakeholders, like the IT department and line-of-business managers, can be determined and coordinated.

Simplifying technical complexities
Coordinating successful emarketing campaigns is difficult. Personalised messages need to be delivered to target audiences via a variety of different channels and each activity has to be seamlessly orchestrated and accurately tracked so that campaign performance can be continuously improved.

Many marketers are somewhat intimidated by the technical nature of online channels and environments. They are also too busy to learn new technologies or manage the numerous third party software vendors required, preferring to hand over that stage of the campaign to their IT department.

Fortunately, the latest generation of emarketing tools resolve such concerns by enabling marketers to manage all their emarketing and communication activities from a central, intuitive and easy-to-use console.

Learning the lessons of Isandlwana
The lack of centralised control and coordination that can hamper emarketing campaigns is potentially costly, often translating into confused consumers, missed opportunities and lost business.

Yet, with the right structures in place and armed with the latest emarketing software tools, there's no reason why marketers cannot consistently deliver coordinated, effective online campaigns. Rather like Chelmsford himself, who learnt the painful lessons of Isandlwana, and defeated the Zulu Impi of King Cetshwayo at Ulundi six months later.