Entering 2021 Do Marketers Have To Choose Between Cost Savings and Efficiency?

The answer is no. You can choose to deliver both to your marketing organization.

Let’s face it, 2020 has been a brutal year for marketers and there’s no sign heading into 2021 that things will, in the near term, get much better. Therefore, we are seeing almost every business reviewing and reorganizing its marketing operations in response to the economic slowdown and new “Ways of Working” caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

If you are a marketer and are this situation, here are a few thoughts on what you should be considering as you plan for 2021 and beyond:

How do I drive the greatest amount of efficiency into our organization?

Three things need to be reviewed in order to drive the greatest amount of efficiency and effectiveness: People, Process, and Platforms.

People: do I have the right talent in the organization in order to address the coming challenges?

Process: does my organization work well together and with our agency/3rd party partners?

Platforms: is your AdTech and MarTech environments optimized to deliver the data and insights we need?

Build agility into your organization.

Practice “lean marketing” design for change and employ agile thinking. Whatever you do, the ability to address immediate challenges needs to be built into your organization. If agility is implemented correctly you will likely achieve both cost savings and efficiency.

Finally, truly, embrace digital marketing transformation.

A lot of marketing organizations talk the talk but haven’t really embraced a digital transformation.

Such as: Embrace AI as a necessary part the future. Build data driven AdTech and MarTech platforms into your planning, measuring, and optimization process. Social and Influencer marketing should be reviewed as key parts of the current trends in digital transformation.

Consider optimizing your agency eco-system.

Because of budget cuts you’ll likely need to look at your agency relationships and make some decisions. Important topics to consider are:

What scope can and should we bring in house? And how will that impact your agency scope?

Are my agencies prepared for the continued disruptions that will come in 2021 and beyond?

If I am going to make a change what is the right structure for my agency eco-system? Consolidate? Hire specialty firms?

There is more to consider but if you start with the above, you’ll have addressed some of the critical cost and efficiency issues many of our clients are facing. Want to chat about it? Please reach out!