The COVID-19 crisis has impacted nearly every profession and created new necessities. For marketers, it’s made us more agile and far quicker. We need to stick with new ways of working and thinking, remove the barriers that were restricting us, and deliver marketing that is more authentic and personal.
We face a tremendous opportunity to recreate our profession. Research shows that customers engage with customized content, and 80% will only engage with brands who deliver it. Yet fewer than 10% of companies feel they are personalizing the conversation as well as they could be.
Why the gap — and how has it changed? It takes time for people to adapt to new things, like the platforms and channels we have had at our disposal. Right now that adoption cycle is speeding up, and it’s become clear that we cannot do today’s job with yesterday’s tools.
Necessities Drive Innovation
Marketers needed a nudge to drive innovation by knocking down barriers. Challenges -- such as long timelines between idea and deliverable and rigid infrastructure --had been holding back great ideas and leading us down paths of least resistance.
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We couldn’t have imagined a WFH reality, where virtually everyone who can work from home does, where we all shifted gears and ran with new ideas when the old ones didn’t work -- and did it all lightning-fast.
Nearly every industry created new norms and delivered authentic work:
Emerging Technology Will Continue to Accelerate the Curve and Drive Momentum
As we transition into our new normal, technology will smooth our paths and help us continue to work, physically connected or not:
It’s the Right Time for a Redo
While this crisis has had devastating impacts, it has sparked innovation and presented opportunities. Marketers can leverage them to:
Marketers can exceed new consumer expectations, importing new channels and changing the tone to deliver a two-way conversation that provides true value. WFH has proven that we’re up to a challenge.