gning the marketing team for the future

The marketing industry is in a constant state of crisis. Budget cuts, changes to data privacy, new channels such as TikTok, which might disappear over night, and now generative artificial intelligence. Marketing is always exciting. It is always exciting to see what lies ahead.

This article discusses the future of marketing, and whether or not AI will play a part. Marketing leaders need to think about the future of their teams, and how they can keep up with what comes their way. They need to be innovative.

Three decisions are required by all marketing teams to create a future-friendly brand. They must be willing to breathe, be ruthless with value and identify timeless skills.

Keep calm and carry on

This phrase is often painted on t-shirts or mugs. The phrase was first used by the British government during World War II as a motivating message to help people survive horrendous situations.

It serves as a reminder to us today to slow down. Marketing teams should take a deep breath. Before we can solve problems, the teams must be in the correct mindset.

Marketing is a fast-paced field, but that doesn’t require you to be frantic. The best way to approach issues is to do so systematically and gradually. The decisions made in panic or fear are not the best. The worst-case scenario is given too much importance, and the positive possibilities are completely ignored.

Take a look at the reaction of the travel industry to pandemic lockdowns. The majority of airlines began to lay people off left and right. Many airlines were understaffed and unable to meet the increased demand when travel demand returned. Ryanair was the outlier, as they avoided major layoffs and rotated staff to cover all of the available flights. They were able to quickly recover to full capacity.

Ryanair did not make decisions out of fear or panic. The airline was right to assume that the travel restrictions would not last forever, and they were better off remaining optimistic. Even in the worst of situations, there are options. But you can only see them when you are relaxed.

Take a deep breath before you hire prompt engineers, buy the latest AI technology, or fire people. Sleep and then come back with a fresh perspective.

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What does marketing produce?

Marketing has lost sight of what it is actually doing for your business. This is not only about writing clever taglines, creating beautiful landing pages, or designing funny social media posts.

If you only think of marketing as a job, I can understand why AI technology is scary. You’re going to be replaced if your only job is to schedule social media posts.

Marketing is all about helping customers buy. This means educating customers, helping them to make a choice and then reinforcing positive aspects of their purchase.

Marketing will always be around because people love to purchase things. Although I enjoy visiting Nordstrom, I don’t like to shop at their stores.

Nordstrom has 20-30 employees so you are constantly interrupted by someone who offers to help. I’m never alone for more than 2 minutes. We like to buy but don’t enjoy being sold to.

Leaders in marketing must fight to create the right perception within their own organization. You will lose if other departments see marketing as a waste of time or money. Marketing is an essential part of driving revenue for a business.

All else is optional. It doesn’t really matter whether people or AI create or write your social media content, or if they create or write your images. The overall picture does not change. Let robots do the work. This gives humans time to consider the bigger picture.

Dig deep: Make revenue generation an enterprise-wide effort

What are timeless abilities?

The world is obsessed by change. We talk breathlessly about how X is going to change the world.

We tend to overestimate how fast and deep the changes are. Some people still use checks despite the advances in smartphones. I used to pay my rent with a cheque up until a few years ago.

Even though we may not think of smartphones as phones, many people still use them to make calls. Although it may seem that everyone is switching to electric cars these days, I’m willing to bet that gasoline cars will continue to be produced for at least the next 100 years.

Even in the world of robots, some things will never go out of style. People prefer to interact and make choices with other people. They also want to be entertained.

When building the marketing team for the future, consider the skills that are always in demand. Consider these skills:

• Customer Experience : What is the customer experience and how can it be optimized? This skill is a combination of psychology, empathy and creativity.
• Listening – In a world of constant talk, who is listening? What are the actual needs of customers that they don’t express?
• Creating Brands Forget about hacks such as mispronounced words, and instead look for people obsessed with creating 100-year-old brand.
• Value Mindset : Tools may be ephemeral but providing value will last. You should look for people that can distinguish between the two and who aren’t stuck in thinking of themselves as mere tool operators.

The conclusion of the article is:

It may be premature to declare marketing dead. Marketing will continue to exist despite the winds of change. But it does need to be reinvented. Marketing has been too obsessed with technology for far too long. Marketing is losing touch with its human element and how it can drive value to the business.

It’s good that low-complexity marketing tasks will disappear. This will force marketers to be more flexible and think about their roles. We are all in this people business at the end of day. It’s a challenge to see that through pixels.

The article Designing a marketing team for the future first appeared on MarTech.