As 2021 fades into memory and we greet 2022, we can take stock of test outcomes, ourselves, and what we want to try and accomplish in 2022.
Look back at 2021
We have been in a pandemic for 2 years and it has accelerated changing attitudes about remote work. We have re-examined what work looks like and how to continue to be effective without being physically in the same space. I've been working remotely for over a decade and I must admit sometimes it's really hard but I think that's mostly because of the mindset of others. Now that they have seen/lived another way to work that is just as productive, they can adapt to the new normal on how to interacts knowing there is a portion of the workforce that is remote.
Notable Marketing News and Trends
In the early part of the year there was much focus on the the demise of the 3rd party cookie, but that can has been kick down the road to 2023 for Google Chrome
During the pandemic some big brands tested pulling back on digital ad spend and found not material change to their pipeline
Just about all "in person" events went digital, some became free and some reduced their duration... it'll be interesting to see which remain digital only
There were controversies that spurred the some marketers to pause or exit marketing on Facebook entirely and signaled a focus on social responsibility
Influencer (with expertise) marketing is the new kid on the block for B2B and could be something to add to your tool box
Google’s new algorithm, SMITH (Siamese Multi-depth Transformer-based Hierarchical) algorithm allows for the possibility of housing numerous (related) topics on one page
In terms of data providers, there is an ongoing consolidation as the established providers swallow up the smaller niche players adding to their offerings with new types of data or breadth of data and new services beyond data
This is not a comprehensive list, just some of the big items that caught my attention in 2021. What's also notable are the area we collectively haven't made progress (surprisingly).
Our planning and budgeting processes haven't evolved much and many times are just incremental changes to last year's plan without any real scrutiny. I think we can do better, check out my 2 part post on Business and Marketing Planning.
ABM is still top of mind and still seen as a new approach and still hasn't been adopted and implemented with close coordination with sales teams. Somewhat related, most marketing orgs still operate in a lead based manner vs aligning with the business and sales on Buying Units and Deals.
In the MarTech stack, Marketing Automation (which is near and dear to my heart) as a whole has only see incremental enhancements with tactical feature improvements (i.e. simple AI/ML for subject lines, send time optimization, content recommendation) but no improvements to wholistic user experience and coordination through a long consideration and sales cycle. No evolution or existing functions... With few exceptions these platforms existing functions look as they did more 10 yrs ago... why hasn't rules based scoring been replaced by Predictive (Machine Learning) scoring? and the same with the built in Attribution models. This might be why they missed the opportunity to be the unifying glue for all experiences across the MarTech stack... which Customer Data Platforms are now vying to be (check out my 3 part Blog on CDPs covering What they are, how to deploy, and how to evolve).
I'm very surprised there isn't more wide adoption of Machine Learning in Marketing Analytics. There is still so much rules based simple models. I know I'm a little biased as this is my passion. But we can objectively see predictive analytics is far more accurate when implemented properly. The rise of the Citizen Data Scientist has been extremely slow. I think this is because there are few tools that focus on enabling the Citizen Data Scientist as an extension of the Data Science team. The Data Science team remain the experts and the authority of what is accepted but some project can be farmed out to other teams with the right tool and training (i.e. Alteryx Designer).
The silver lining is these are areas are opportunities where we can use to shine and become stronger than the rest.
MarketingOptimized
2021 was a year of relaunch, focus and rediscovery. I relaunched my MarketingOptimized site and tried to focus and write more regularly as well as share interesting tools and resources to help us upskill. I know writing isn't my strong suite. Hoping my ideas and thoughts are coming across. But it's a necessary step. Writing help organize thoughts. As I write, I see adjacent topics or interactions between ideas etc. It help me see what I should include to help someone understand the ideas I'm trying to share... better than I could if I were just talking. Piecing together these framework put me into my happy place but they do take quite a bit of time... especially for someone that isn't great a writing.
I felt compelled to form these ideas into a framework for a number of reasons:
it helps me further self-examine my ideas and spot holes or areas that need more thought and detail
it helps others I work with understand what I'm about, what I think, how I think and perhaps educate or at least entertain a little with my silly musings
hope it can help others tackling these problems... giving them a starting point and map to solve the problem
Growing up I like to watch Historical fantasy TV shows... There would always be a Kung Fu master that needs to lock themselves away from the world to train... to refine their martial art and come up with a new ultimate move / combat style. 2021 was a little like that for me... I tried to turn my ideas into Frameworks so I and other can more easily implement. I don't think any of the ideas are new. They are all fairly intuitive, they just needed to be organized a little to help us all more easily make use of them. Don't have that ultimate move yet... :)
What's in the near Future?
Most people will be writing about new year's resolutions. While I do believe in constantly striving to improve one's craft whether that is professional or personal passion. I don't focus on it exclusively at the beginning of the year. Some unsolicited advice. We should look for aspects of what we love in our profession as we do with hobbies. That way, it's not a chore but a privilege to spend time on it. This doesn't mean we will not get frustrated or love every part of it... but as a whole we will love the journey we are on versus just focusing on getting to a destination (company, title, etc). There's always a chance that you might not make it to your destination because of circumstance or other reasons. But if you are enjoying the journey then it was time well spent.
In addition to the what you do... there is the how it's done... more specifically the cadence. Let's say you love to run... some are long distance runners others are sprinters. One isn't better than the other... they are just tuned to be better at one of those styles... while each could do a little of the other for a short period of time but it won't be natural for them. Some love the hustle and bustle and don't love planning... while others like to plan and contemplate. While I can function in the prior I prefer the later.
I'll continue to write. Blogs are the most straight forward outlet. Sharing interesting news and articles takes time to curate and select but I'm not sure it is as valuable as frameworks and posts. I also wonder if I should look at the effort to do videos or podcasts to reach more people but my interest are like my children and I need to spend time with each of them.
What would you like to see? Topics? Formats? Where should I share so you can find my content more easily? Comment below.
