“what’s the best way to say no to marketing requests from the community?”
…By not saying no.
If another department is interested in the community, you want to encourage and support their enthusiasm. You want your marketing team to know the community can help them achieve their goals and be an indispensable asset for them.
It’s hard to do this if you’re keeping them away from the community.
But you probably can’t say ‘yes’ either.
‘Yes’ can take you off your strategy, become a distraction, and can result in the community becoming flooded with exactly the kind of requests and promotions which might upset them.
Instead of a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ focus on the ‘how’ and ‘when’.
If another department wants to be engaged in the community, have the materials in place to engage them. This should include:
- The benefits of the community.
- The needs and desires of members (and the rules for engaging members).
- A summary of the current strategy.
- What a department needs to provide to gain each benefit.
- The process of engaging the community and the time-frame to results.
If marketing wants to be involved, great, explain the resources they need to provide, the best ways to get their results, and the time-frame. If they’re still eager after that, even better.
