Business Marketing In The Coming Decade: Frustration Or Opportunity

In between skiing the moguls last week I was thinking a lot about what this next decade will look like for business marketers. We wrote the “Disrupted” book to give you a road map of what to expect with the profound changes taking place right now because of technology and new applications. This is all happening faster than we could have ever expected…and you have a choice to make.

That’s right. The ball is in your court, but you need to decide if you’re business is going to look at this change as an opportunity, or become bogged down with anxiety and frustration. Seth Godin had a great post on this a few days ago. He framed this in big, drastic terms because the stakes are so high. “The revolution is in full swing and an entire generation is eager to change everything because of it”.

Let’s get started in this first week of the new decade. No better time than right now to get your business and team on-board for the marketing revolution!

Where to start?

1. Embrace change- Learn, experiment and test new things. This is not a one time thing…you will need to build this into your business process and culture because this change is happening over years and is not stopping.
2. Lead by example- Some of this new stuff is hard. Just mention blogging to your staff and watch them squirm. Participating in the community and becoming a trusted source takes time and a new kind of professionalism that needs to come from the top.
3. Measure everything- Huge economic advantage will go to the businesses that understand this revolution and know how to optimize it for their purposes. You can’t optimize unless you are measuring.

Get help if you need it. Things are moving very quickly and it is hard to keep up unless you are following technology and case studies very closely.

Here’s to the next decade!

What are you thinking?