The past few years have been marked by significant societal changes and disruption. In no particular order: COVID-19, the climate crisis, remote working, the economic recession, the cost-of-living crisis, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the explosion of AI, mass layouts in the tech industry, and more. The marketing world also had its share: Google’s increasingly volatile organic results, the appearance of AI into pretty much any marketing task, the tightening of privacy laws and the demise of the cookie, the continuing rise in paid media costs, the introduction of GA4, the rise of TikTok and Reddit, and again, the tidal wave of AI generated content on the Internet.
How marketeers have probably been feeling for the past few years – Source: On Fire – KC Green
These changes have been dizzying and have created a state of constant instability – a state of ‘never normal’.
Marketeers now must constantly review their plans and strategies because of external factors, eagerly waiting for the time when it will all settle down. Well, I’m afraid we’re in for a ride – it’s time to accept that the new normal is now a never normal where things evolve constantly at a faster pace than ever.
Don’t despair! Change can be good and bring new opportunities. You just need to embrace it. Here’s how:
- Plan for the unexpected to increase your organisation’s resilience
- Use Micro Pivots to adapt your strategy and plan to shifts but keep your overall objectives and vision in mind
- Set aside some budget and resources for experiments
- Streamline your tech stack to gain a competitive advance in a world where everyone has access to tech
The Impact of Global Events on Business & Consumers
Marketeers cannot ignore world events as they have an impact on their consumers as well as their business. For example, the consequences of COVID-19 or the Russian invasion have affected everyone economically or personally.
These events have shown how fragile our global supply chain is – a container ship stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021 stopped $9.6 billion worth of trade! This event combined with the increased demand for shipping during the pandemic caused a large rise in prices both for businesses and consumers. The war in Ukraine added to this instability causing an energy crisis across Europe as well as having grave humanitarian consequences and political impacts.
Ever Given container ship blocking the Suez canal on 27th March 2021 - Source: Wikipedia
World events affect how businesses trade with potential impacts on their costs and activities, but they can also change the way consumers buy. We’ve seen a big change in consumer trust recently which is having an impact on how businesses present themselves to their audience. The pandemic also forced a lot of organisations to shift to an online offering which set a higher bar in consumers’ expectations.
The Concept of VUCA
The muddled reality you’re experiencing has a name: VUCA - Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. This acronym was created in the 1980s after the fall of the Soviet Union to explain the global instability that ensued and is now used in leadership management. It characterises the four challenges that occur from a succession of unstable events.
Source: Harvard Business Review
The VUCA concept teaches leaders to identify and respond better to the challenges caused by an unstable environment. The idea is to embrace change and be prepared for anything. Take the time to create plans for the unexpected, keep part of your budget and resources to experiment, don’t be afraid of making decisions with limited data. These are all skills that add resilience within your organisation in times of instability.
Micro Pivots
A VUCA environment calls for agility in business. Google recommends replacing your 5-year plan with what they call micro pivots. This doesn’t mean you should ditch your long-term vision, but that you’re allowed to deviate from the plan from time to time as the path to your objective will no longer follow a straight line.
We tend to create quarterly plans for our clients and ensure we keep room for flexibility by adapting monthly or weekly to changes in the operation plan performance. In the digital marketing world, things move quickly so you can’t afford to not change because it wasn’t in your original plan. The only constants are your objectives and long-term vision, how you get there will need to evolve to maximise performance in response to external factors.
Watch our Digital Marketing Answered episode to discover how to create a good marketing plan
Embracing Digital Transformation
The pandemic accelerated digital transformation for most businesses – and then came AI. Technology is moving at its fastest pace ever and organisations are struggling to keep up. Marketeers grapple with new challenges – trying to coordinate a remote team; understanding how to make the most of AI or wondering whether it will replace you; integrating marketing tools to get the insights you need; collecting data while abiding by new privacy requirements. It’s a minefield!
Making the Most of your Tech
Marketeers have access to more technology than ever which means some tools or concepts are no longer a differentiator but a necessity. Consumers demand smart personalisation (not just their name in an email), they want to look at reviews about your business before making a decision, they expect well-crafted emails and websites that load fast with outstanding UX.
The differentiation factor against competitors is no longer in the tool you use – although some are definitely better than others – but more in how you use it. Many businesses come to us because they’ve invested in a tool like HubSpot or Klaviyo but aren’t making the most out of it. They know it can transform their marketing but they don’t have the resources or knowledge internally to reap the benefits – and AI can’t fix it for them. That’s where we help them streamline and exploit performance from their tech stack. It is important to ensure everything integrates seamlessly so that data is accessible between systems and you have a single point of truth. Having good 1st party data to understand your audience deeply and then craft outstanding journeys for them is a vital competitive advantage.
Your MarTech should be optimised to quickly gain insights from your data and use these insights to solve your audience’s challenges. Combining various data sources into one source of truth, building insightful reports from it, automating your workflows, experimenting and testing, and ultimately crafting personalised messages to your audience is how you consistently win. Disparate systems that don’t share data or that impede marketeers' ability to implement need to be identified by an audit and removed/replaced from your set up.
Keeping Pace
The marketing world was already moving fast but AI completely trumped that and it’s now moving even faster. New AI tools are released every week, every marketing tool out there has released at least one AI functionality, and large language models keep evolving and expanding the limits of what is possible.
A representation of the colossal size of the MarTech landscape - Source: Martechmap.com
This pace is dizzying for most marketeers working in house. How can they keep up with their industry and consumer trends as well as MarTech? Specialists are the answer. Marketing agencies and true specialists can keep up with the pace because that’s what they’re dedicated to. Agencies have experience across multiple industries which means they are more likely to come up with new ideas or new ways of doing things. Combining the power of industry knowledge within your in-house marketing team with the expertise and know-how of a cutting edge agency can give you the momentum and differential you need to stay competitive.
Shifts in Marketing Tools Performance
Adding to the chaos of external factors, we’re seeing shifts in the performance of certain channels and marketing tools. For example, Google Ads and other paid platforms keep removing options from marketeers, replacing them with automation and AI. Although some of these changes can help, we’ve seen accounts that once made good profits on these platforms have had their performance negatively impacted as opportunities are removed and costs increased.
The answer is diversification. You can no longer afford to only focus on one or two channels. It’s too much of a risk for any business. We work with clients across channels and with differential strategies to de-risk their business and ensure that whatever happens, they have performance resilience. Remember the VUCA framework – always plan for the unexpected.
How to Be Agile?
For your organisation to be resilient in the face of the never normal, you have to be agile. But what does this mean?
1. Iteration is Key
Review and iterate your plan following the micro pivots methodology. Stay focused on your objectives and long-term vision but allow flexibility when planning. For this to work, you need to ensure that everyone internally and externally is aligned with your objectives though, otherwise micro pivots will turn into unnecessary distractions.
2. Embrace New Technology
Your competitors usually have access to the same tech as you do. The difference is in how you use it. Make sure your tech stack is optimised to deliver accurate insights and operational actions, fast. Then, embrace testing new technology to gain a competitive advantage. You really need specialist technology expertise to maximise your use of the available technology. This is not simply in selection, auditing or implementation but ongoing operational use of the technology. You need to make sure that you are using the technology to the maximum. Did you know that by June 2024, HubSpot had already implemented 80 AI enabled features in its technology? In-house teams simply can’t keep pace with knowing about this rate of change, let alone using it to maximum effect.
3. Fail Faster to Win Faster
Don’t be afraid to try things and them potentially failing. Set aside budget and resources for experiments but make sure they are set up for you to learn from them whatever the outcome. You will inevitably fail sometimes, but with correctly structured experiments, you will learn and win more. In this way, you can identify new opportunities before your competitors and stay ahead of the competition.
Learn about the importance of risk and experimentation
4. Monitor Key Metrics
Keep your finger on the pulse by identifying key metrics for your business and how this performance cascades down the organisation. Each department should have clear goals and easy access to the appropriate reports to be able to measure whether they’re hitting them or not. You can use methodologies like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to give the clarity on how small successes build to the primary objectives. Being clear on what needs to be achieved will help your team stay focused on their objectives and not be distracted. Remember the saying “What gets measured gets done.”
5. Stay True to Marketing Principles
Although your landscape is changing, marketing core principles aren’t. Don’t get blinded by all this technology and keep in mind the core principles of marketing. Know your audience, understand their pain points, be there at the right time, in the right place, with the right messaging.
6. Prepare for the Unexpected
As a leader, make sure you set aside some time to prepare for the unexpected. Spend time building your knowledge of the wider space that you operate in so that you are more ready to make decisions rapidly if needed. Organise brainstorms with key people in the company to go over potential scenarios of change within your industry. Ensure that you observe on external events critically by thinking how they may impact your business. Follow the VUCA principles to make your business more resilient to change.
7. Promote Team Flexibility
Ensure your team structure allows for flexibility, delivering work fast and independent thinking. Can they speak up to management and will they be heard? Are there any silos between teams (internal or external) that might prevent collaboration? Is management heavy handed or do they allow their team some freedom to be creative? Your internal structure and the way you work with external partners is key in your capacity to be agile.
Learn more about agility with lessons from the ‘Magnificent 7’ in this Forbes article
Ride the VUCA Wave for a Stronger Business
Change is inevitable and you need to accept the never normal as your new normal. Marketing is changing fast, but don’t let the waves toss you around passively. Instead, learn how to steer the boat and draw opportunities from the turbulence. As Ayrton Senna said “You cannot overtake 15 cars in sunny weather… but you can when it's raining.”
The Innovation Visual team is hungry for knowledge and always on the pulse of marketing trends. We don’t just follow trends blindly though; we assess our clients’ situation and apply the best solution for them based on their objectives. Our expert knowledge in MarTech combined with acute understanding of marketing principles means we can streamline your data to craft competitor-beating campaigns that will drive revenue.
Contact us today for a discussion on how we can support you in beating your competition in the never normal.
