Are you a modern marketer?

In association with

I’ve been doing what I do for over 17 years now. The (digital) marketing space has evolved, and we’re now seeing maturity and pragmatism where there was once confusion and spontaneity.

By Leon Calverley, Door4.

I think it’s fair to say that skills and attitudes to ‘digital’ haven’t entirely caught up yet. That isn’t surprising given the complex melting pot of creative, technology, marketing and business components to take account of.

So - here are five questions to ask yourself… are you a modern marketer? See if you pass the test!

Do you make digital decisions that are formed on complementing commercial strategy? (Or do you implement standalone tactics that are rooted in guesswork?) Does your digital thinking orbit your customers’ needs, and do you aim to solve actual problems they face, and questions they ask? (Or does your new website merely broadcast what you think your company does?) Does your digital thinking embrace integration of your digital services? Do you connect your website with CRM, your CRM with your e-marketing tools?(Or does every activity still sit in a rather painful, manual bubble of its own?) Do you communicate with customers appropriately at all stages of their buying journey, understanding the modern B2B/ B2C customer conducts 80% of their research before you even meet them? (Or do you wait for the phone to ring - thinking they’ll call if they want to do business with you?) Do you embrace personalisation? Do you recognise that technology allows our communications to be timely, relevant and personalised? (Or does ‘one-sizefits-all’ still rule… maybe customers like to be treated as a crowd, rather than an individual?) OK, so if you scored a few no’s, there’s no need to feel bad - just yet. The pace of change is relentless, and being a “modern marketer” takes effort and time. The key is to establish a roadmap, and understand how digital technology can help your organisation, and how you can exploit the data and skills available to you