This time of year, we see plenty in the media about the new marketing technologies predicted to take centre stage in months ahead. But, by the end of the year, we see that Aussie marketers remain slow to adopt. Why is this?
Fear.
Australian marketers need to take a more fearless approach to the activities they believe in and the technology they need to adopt in order to drive growth for their businesses. They need to take more intelligent risks and they need to be empowered to innovate and test by their C-suite colleagues.
The problem for many marketers is the reputation of marketing as a cost centre. This is a stigma attached to predecessors who have taken a reckless approach to investment in ad-hoc campaigns, or disparate technology adoption.
However, with the entrance of global customer experience leaders into the market (Amazon), marketers need let go of their inhibitions, embrace their role as the risk-taker and innovator and fight for what they need!
What does The Fearless Marketer look like, practically?
Take the recent growth of AI in marketing as an example.
The Fearless Marketer isn’t overwhelmed with the hundreds of applications of AI. They are laser-focused on what they believe is the single, best initial use case for their business. They have a plan, they are able to articulate the financials, efficiencies and the success metrics. When they sell it into the C-suite, they do not paint it as a silver bullet—they are practical about its use as a vehicle to achieve business goals.
Take Blackmores “Be a Well Being” Well Bot during this year’s Australian Open as an example. Blackmores focused on using a single application of AI to allow users to interact with a personalised well-being chat bot coach through Facebook Messenger or SMS. The bot also served discount codes and users were sent tailored samples…how cool is that?!
For the large enterprise marketer, with a bunch of useful content at their disposal, they may decide that applying AI to serve customers the most relevant content is the best way to dip their toe into artificial intelligence and show quick results. The retail marketer may initially trial chat bots in one campaign, or perhaps use voice control for one feature…the Fearless Marketer isn’t reckless, and doesn’t try to do it all at once.
To hammer it home…Fearlessness, is not recklessness
Fearless can often translate to reckless if the individual and company do not understand the difference between the two. The fearless marketer is data-driven and radically transparent about outcomes. In contrast, a reckless marketer will take unwarranted risks, act without a clear rationale and won’t communicate their learnings or losses—an approach which will surely lose the support of the C-suite.
For marketers to be truly fearless they must retain their agility and resilience both within their workplace and their mindset. The thin line between reckless and fearless can be easily crossed but by systematically and rationally implementing the most appropriate marketing technologies, marketers will be able to stay fearless rather than become reckless.
This means that the Fearless Marketer will not be overwhelmed by technological possibilities, but rather inspired by them to increase the frequency of data-driven decisions resulting in overall benefits for businesses. So, go-go-go!
By MD of Marketo ANZ, Will Griffith