magazine.seat2meet.com

source: magazine.seat2meet.com

The success of digital media has made the inevitability of change so frequent that it’s hard to avoid getting disrupted. As a matter of fact, disruption is happening rapidly than the change itself. A digitally integrated business model, re-designed approach to engage customers, and lucid view of customer experience has made pivot an integral part of a business process. And, marketing is one function where the heart of digital pivot lies. The traditional approach of “Push” marketing no longer works in contemporary model. Marketing is undergoing an evolution that impacts startup and emerging businesses much more than anything else. Marketing has become more than marketing, something that requires opposing skills to succeed. And, it’s challenging for a startup or emerging business to retain skill specific plethora resources.

While, every business is aware of the change but not everyone knows the way to harness it. To succeed, a business need not require innovate every time, but make practical use for new innovations. The pragmatic utilization of innovation depends upon the knowledge of your team. It is not enough to be aware of jargons like big data, strategy, customer experience, digital marketing et al, but of knowledge on how to leverage them in best interest of your business. The best way to gauge that gap is to look at your executive team. If you still find them talking and fighting the last war over again than planning for tomorrow then there are some serious gaps to mend.

The evolving marketing function, or Marketing 2.0 as we say, spans across technology, operations, strategy, customer, sales, and organization. A business needs to integrate them to be able to manage integrated marketing process, something where customer-centricity is at core. It has become real-time, co-creating, and iterative. The success of digital technology has made the decision making pyramid flat. Todays’ marketing is no longer sequential, but fluid and dynamic. The accountability of a business’ success hinges upon marketing these days. Modern CMO isn’t a “Chief Marketing Officer”, but “Collaborative Marketing Officer”.

The modern marketing challenges has given birth to a new breed of service called “Marketing Process Outsourcing”. This acts as a holy grail for startup and emerging businesses that don’t have fat pocket but deep ambition to succeed. Marketing today is like undergoing a surgery, you can’t expect to hold the scalpel in your hand. It’s time to pass on the baton called scalpel to be able to become future ready.

About the Author: Sushant comes with more than a decade of experience around consulting entrepreneurs around functional strategy & planning; helping them establish a profitable business venture. He could be reached at LinkedIn or at contact@366pi.com.