Developing plans and strategies for marketing today is more challenging than it has ever been. Today’s marketing professionals must be experts in everything from analytics, data modeling, consumer behavior, and technology all the way through more artful elements such as campaign creativity and design.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the elements that have contributed to the marketing landscape:
Consumers have more power
Consumers today expect to have a different relationship with brands and businesses than in decades before. Customers have increasing access to information, which means they have become more discerning perhaps more skeptical but certainly less loyal.
Because of this, traditional selling doesn't work anymore. Companies’ practices are under increased scrutiny, forcing marketers to be totally transparent in communications. Not only this, but social media has given consumers a voice and they expect a two-way dialogue, meaning that responses and solutions to problems need to be faster and more personalized.
Additionally, with the emergence of ecommerce, customers’ purchasing behavior is more global which is providing them with greater access to lower cost channels. This has ultimately put pressure on marketers to develop new ways to deliver value.
Fast-paced
Today’s marketing landscape is moving faster than ever before. The rise of the Internet and, hence, the shift from traditional marketing to digital marketing has played a big role. Before the Internet, companies could take their time developing magazine or TV ads. But today’s marketing needs to be current. The rapid pace of technological developments of forcing marketers to decrease time to market for new products in order to keep up with competition.
In order to keep up in this fast-paced environment and keep customers happy, more and more marketers are using marketing automation to streamline CRM tasks and workflows. Marketing automation focuses on the scheduling, segmentation, and tracking of marketing campaigns – keeping marketers tied to a constant pulse of what the customer desires leading to the need to communicate personally in the real-time.
Technology
One of the biggest catalysts of change for marketing professionals has been technology. Today’s marketers must manage more technology than ever before. The CMO is no longer just the executive with brand concerns around flashy ad campaigns. Rather, they are leaders who must be conversant with emerging technologies.
The wide variety of marketing channels available, spanning from social networks to distribution platforms like YouTube, offers more options than ever to reach consumers. Consumers are also impacted by technological changes in marketing. They’re targeted by more ads than ever before, often with higher relevance to their interests due to the huge amount of data they share.
With this, marketers must be able to develop and manage strategies for reaching customers through each channel. Good advertising no longer means just delivering the right message in a compelling way; it also means delivering the message in the way that audiences prefer to receive it. Luckily, martech (aka, Marketing Technology) systems are making it easier for marketers to manage relationships with customers and, ultimately, this can enable a competitive advantage. That is if you know how to use the technology.
As consumers have become more sophisticated and the landscape more crowded, developing plans and strategies for marketing today is the most challenging it has ever been. Check back soon for part 2 of How Complicated is Marketing These Days? Part 2.