Agile marketing
by Martin Dower.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” now has a timeframe measured not in years, but in weeks.
The traditional marketing plan used to be a re-hashed version on last year’s version, but not any more.
The digital world is moving so fast that re-hashing last year’s success is a formula for standing still – and that means failure in the digital world. But what the hell can you do if re-hashing last year’s plan won’t work?
What is that “something different”? Usefully, the web is full of ideas, innovators and new products – the rate of pretty amazing news stuff is staggering and it’s all out there, for free. No need for expensive courses, or expensive consultants that re-cycle old ideas.
You need to get agile, be flexible and try lots and lots of new stuff. It’s a golden era for digital marketers as control of digital services has been wrested away from IT/developers and placed in the hands of us.
Do it yourself
Digital marketers have never been so empowered. We can use platforms such as WordPress to directly create content, applications and digital services. We can buy services off the shelf for a few pounds a month that replicate what used to take whole IT departments years to churn out. And we know what our customers need.
We need to think about becoming consumers ourselves, we need to buy-in the right services, learn the basic skills and get on with innovating now. This starts by reading, learning what’s out there, what’s trending, what’s falling and from there we can make valued judgements about the direction and velocity we need to go in.
It’s thought that most marketers spend just one day a month researching trends. If you’re lucky that translates into 12 days a year and that’s nowhere near enough time.
20% is the magic number
It’s a day a week, or 48 days a year learning – and that makes you 4 times better informed than the average marketer. That is a huge advantage and whilst the cost might seem to be high, the benefits in knowledge and opportunities gained outweigh the cost ten to one.
And the kicker? Despite fewer hours available for operational delivery most companies are likely to see an increase in productivity. More for Less.
What are you learning this week?
Digital resources and tools such as Twitter, TED, FlipBoard, Medium and eConsultancy are all free and it’s quick and easy to curate your own digital feed. Keep your eyes open to new trends and spend time networking with like-minded folks and you’ll find reading the future suddenly gets a whole lot easier.
And start to write. It helps you to focus your reading and also shows measurable output from your learning.
