Last week I mentioned a recent survey by IBM indicating that 78 percent of CMOs expect more complexity in marketing over the next five years, but only 48 percent are prepared to deal with it.
That’s a big disconnect.
So let’s bridge the gap, because it’s not enough to just forecast complexity. You have to be ready to meet it head on and know how to deal with its intricacies.
Here are five ideas to get you started.
Know the difference between complicated and complex. There is a distinct difference between complexity and complicated. A complicated challenge is when you can only identify either the start or the end of a situation, leaving you to develop a strategy without a starting or stopping point. It’s much like starting a road trip, only to drive aimlessly around the company without direction. A complex challenge is when you know the beginning and the end of the challenge, just not how to navigate the in between. Knowing both endpoints empowers you to strategize the best, most efficient way to get from A to B. (Here’s more on this topic in another blog post.)
Embrace the complex. In the IBM survey, a majority of the CMOs identified as a complexity increasing their company’s use of social media, mobile applications and tablet applications. But their company goals and personal goals didn’t line up. In identifying what skills they personally need to succeed in the next three to five years, only 25% said they needed to acquire social-media expertise and 28% said tech savviness. Instead, a majority of CMOs said they needed leadership, customer insights and creative thinking. Those are great things, but see the disconnect? In order to deal with the complexity, you have to embrace it, not just identify it.
Recruit a social media specialist. News flash—social media is here to stay. And as social media increasingly becomes a way for companies to communicate with their customers, you have to make sure you have designated resources dedicated to building your community of brand evangelists. We all know how powerful word-of-mouth is—who wouldn’t want to have a community of followers singing their brand’s praises, both online and off? Plus, a strong community allows your company to ask deeper, more involved questions about your brand’s products or services. If you haven’t already, get someone on your staff who is responsible for maintaining a dynamic online presence for your company via social media channels and developing a community of evangelists.
Hire people to help you navigate the complex. Creative thinking is critical, there’s no way around it. That’s why partnering with a marketing agency is a no-brainer. One, it adds perspective and objectivity. An outside perspective is invaluable to any company—it brings an objective eye to a business and can simplify the complex. Also, an agency is ready to deal with the complex today. There are proven marketing solutions that agencies have developed and tested that can be rolled out immediately. By hiring an agency, you can leverage the methodology of these solutions at a fraction of the cost that it would take you to develop them alone. An agency with the right experience may have the right solution for the job you need done right now.
Embrace marketing automation. CMOs are recognizing that there are a slew of prospects out there who are well into buying the process, researching products and services online—but these people are invisible. Their identity is concealed—and without a name, purchasing role and contact info—these prospects can’t be systematically marketed to. Marketing automation solutions such as Marketo can provide anonymous web visitor identification functionality, which reveals the identity of these anonymous buyers. When you know who they are and what they’re looking for, you can more effectively time your message to arrive at the right time. With marketing automation, a little data mining and elbow grease, it’s possible to continually harvest fresh names for the funnel—buyers who, just days before, were anonymously browsing your site. If you’re not using a marketing automation system yet, it’s time to start. This step alone will take you a long way in dealing with the increasing complexity coming down the pike.
Key takeaway: Begin taking critical steps toward embracing complexity and meeting its challenges head on. Don’t wait until it gets complicated. Identify the skills you need to acquire, embrace social media, partner with a marketing agency and adopt marketing automation. Do these, and you’re a step ahead of most.
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