• by Norman Guadagno , Op-Ed Contributor, October 9, 2018

In a data-driven, data-rich world, marketers must stop to understand both the challenge and the opportunity that’s presented for them to reach customers.

Marketing today is more difficult -- and different -- than it has ever been before. Part of this is due to its ever-changing definition and expectations of what marketing entails, part of it is because we’re up against so much competing noise. Because marketing is constantly evolving, it’s imperative that marketing leaders build teams of integrated, holistic thinkers that are agile and ready for change.  

Marketers are not customers, and therefore, need to put themselves in customer shoes to understand the daily floodgate of content they are receiving. The way customers consume data is not how industry leaders consume data – they are already doing countless different things each day.

If, for example, a customer searches for “Oreo” online, she is more likely to select the first link than fish through pages of results. With all the competing data and content brands are up against, marketing leads must consider the immense amount of information consumers are seeing on a consistent basis when crafting their story.

Many companies seek to check every “marketing box,” and appear on every available platform in an effort to enter into and own a conversation.

However, this isn’t always where the ideal customer is consuming content. It’s highly unlikely a business customer will choose Pinterest to seek out their next data backup software. It is less about being in front of everyone all at once, and rather understanding when and how to be in front of the right audience.

There is a generation of workers entering the marketing industry with skewed notions of what it means to be in marketing in 2018. Some believe that all marketing centers around social media -- or, on the opposite extreme, some think the only way to demonstrate success is through deep analytics, measurements and tracking.

Marketing is everything. Workers must now be highly skilled in data & analytics, communications, social media and importantly, business at its core. Effective marketers must understand the intricacies of business and how a company generates revenue. They must develop a new understanding of buyer intent and use a comprehensive approach to get in front of the right customers at the right time. At the end of the day, marketers are storytellers at heart — and it is these stories that connect customers to companies.

For this reason, marketers must recruit and build teams of holistic thinkers, keeping the customer behavior top of mind. It is increasingly important to understand where the primary customers consume data and meet them where they are. We need to recruit individuals who can push back against internal pressures to do everything and be everywhere.

Instead, recruit -- and grow -- people who are savvy enough to be in the right places, at the right time, on the right channels: a holistic thinker.