How to communicate well with marketers (or anyone really), with some bits from Stephen Covey, Brene Brown, and myself. :)

1. WHAT MARKETERS WISH
DEVELOPERS KNEW
and other such folklore
@dustinnay

2. WHO IS THIS GUY?
 Marketer by trade
 Not a developer
 9 years in marketing, 7 years in SEO,
web design, and WordPress
 Worked with solopreneurs and Fortune
50 (and a lot in between)
 Married with 2 daughters
 Enjoy hiking, snowshoeing, gardening,
photography, film making, classical
music
 Love board games, Dungeons &
Dragons, including designing games
 Ich kann Deutsch
@dustinnay

3. @dustinnay

4. @dustinnay

5. @dustinnay

6. “An ‘ideal marketing mind’ would be balanced equally between
analytical and verbal abilities, with excellent communications
skills, including listening. Marketing practitioners should be
well-organized, self-motivated, conscious of time, and
somewhat aggressive; emphatic, understanding, and solutions-
oriented, with a firm grounding in the behavioral science; and
imaginative, creative, expressive,
and persuasive. The ideal practitioner would be cordial
and congenial, easy to work with, and would truly
enjoy meeting new people in new places.”
- University of Arkansas at Little Rock website -
@dustinnay

7. @dustinnay

8. “… [they] don't understand how to necessarily
optimize a page for SEO…they create form fills
that submit via jQuery… …a lot of modern
designs consist of a lot of jQuery that isn't always
conversion code friendly. I would always want my
developers to think of how analytic data is
tracked on any page they code and that they
understand those processes.”
- Steve, ad agency -
@dustinnay

9. “…Great devs will want to push their own
tech/skill limits and try new things, which isn't
always great for marketers. Sub-par devs
typically just want to "complete" a task, which
also yields poor results for marketers. The best
devs have the soft skills to have conversations
with business about our needs are able and
modify their work to fit those goals.
- Jesse, in-house marketer –
@dustinnay

10. “I took initiative at previous companies to get to
know the Manager or Director … [this] was
meant to get us on the same page, and help us
understand one another's roles. This led to really
great discussions. Devs would often ask me
questions about optimizing, how they could write
code or make changes that were friendly for
search engines and the marketing teams efforts,
and if what they were working on needed our
input.
(continued)
@dustinnay

11. “These discussions always led to bigger and
better things. Because we as marketer's also
don’t understand them… I would often make
requests that seemed easy, but because of our
working relationship, they took the time to
describe to me why they weren't easy,
impossible, or needed to be done differently.
They could have just said "No", but they didn’t.”
- JJ, in-house marketer –
@dustinnay

12. COMMUNICATION
Maybe a big deal?
@dustinnay

13. “
”
Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential
ingredient in effective communication. It's the
foundational principle that holds all
relationships.
Steven R. Covey
@dustinnay

14. @dustinnay

15. TOP COMMUNICATION MISTAKES…
1. Communicating only through department heads
2. Making assumptions
3. Not asking why
4. Inviting marketing to the conversation too late
@dustinnay

16. @dustinnay

17. TOP COMMUNICATION MISTAKES…
1. Communicating only through department heads
2. Making assumptions
3. Not asking why
4. Inviting marketing to the conversation too late
@dustinnay

18. SOME SOLUTIONS
Initiate dialogue (you will pleasantly surprise them)
Be open and honest about your real opinion (with tact)
Ask questions with intent to listen and understand
@dustinnay

19. SOME SOLUTIONS
• Create checklists to ensure
communications are consistent
as personnel change
@dustinnay

20. BRAVING
@dustinnay
http://www.wellfitandfed.com/business/braving-anatomy-trust-wilderness/

21. B – BOUNDARIES
You respect my boundaries and when you are
not clear about what’s OK and what’s not OK,
you ask. You are willing to say no.
@dustinnay

22. R – RELIABILITY
You do what you say you’ll do. At work this
means staying aware of your competencies
and limitations so that you don’t over-promise
and are able to deliver on commitments and
balance competing priorities.
@dustinnay

23. A – ACCOUNTABILITY
You own your mistakes, apologize, and make
amends.
@dustinnay

24. V – VAULT
You don’t share information or experiences
that are not yours to share. I need to know
that my confidences are kept and that you are
not sharing with me information about other
people that should be confidential.
@dustinnay

25. I – INTEGRITY
You choose courage over comfort. You
choose what is right over what is fun, fast, or
easy. And you choose to practice your values
rather than simply professing them.
@dustinnay

26. N – NON-JUDGEMENT
I can ask for what I need, and you can ask for
what you need. We can talk about how we
feel without judgment.
@dustinnay

27. G – GENEROSITY
You extend the most generous interpretation
possible to the intentions, words and actions
of others.
@dustinnay

28. TWO FINAL POINTS
Soft skills will do more to advance your career as a
developer than anything else you can do
The way you talk about people when they are NOT
present will define your relationship as much as when
they are.
@dustinnay

29. DISCUSS!
@dustinnay

30. “
”
Don't try to win over the haters; you are not a
jackass whisperer.
Brené Brown
@dustinnay

31. THANK YOU!
Dustin Nay
dustin@whiteglove.digital
@dustinnay