Marketing used to be a fairly straight forward profession, doable when leveraging a well defined set of competences and techniques, gaining a certain kind of experience over time, and keeping an eye on what everyone else way doing.
Those aspects have not gone away, of course, they are a good starting point -- reliable and reassuring, like the dial tone when you pick up the phone. If that's all you've got, that rigid approach will cost you today.
At the risk of restating the obvious, things have become exponentially more interesting today. The adoption of digital tools, customer mobility, and mainstream use of social technologies require a broader mix of competences to sort out the added complexity.
While this is simple to point out, developing great products and delivering services worth coming back for is not that easy. I asked 7 friends who are both marketers, and technologists, visual thinkers, analysts, and product pros, to share their forecast for Marketing in 2014.
This guide was the result of their contributions in addition to mine. For easy reference, you will find this new compilation with the other guides, articles, and podcasts available for free on this site.
A special thank you to the contributors who set aside time during their busy holiday schedules to share from their learnings and experience. In alphabetical order and listing just one of the many accomplishments:
- Leslie Bradshow, COO, Guide - @LeslieBradshow
- Scott Brinker, co-founder and CTO, ion interactive - @ChiefMartec
- Tara Hunt, Digital Strategy Consultant, LimeFoundry - @Missrougue
- Bob Knorpp, Host, The BeanCast Marketing Podcast - @BobKnorpp
- Aliza Sherman, Founder Cybergrrl/Webgrrls - @AlizaSherman
- Adam Singer, Analytics Advocate, Google - @AdamSinger
- Nelly Yusopova, CTO, Webgirrls International - @DigitalWoman
What this new environment is forcing us to do is to face the practicality of our solutions head on -- we just cannot afford to try everything, and we should not be stuck in perennial "we need more data" mode. We have enough of everything.
To put it in the words of the late Steve Jobs#:
When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.
Most people just don't put in the time or energy to get there. We believe that customers are smart, and want objects which are well thought through.
So they are, and so we must.
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Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effects on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here.