When people hear the word “disruption,” they tend to immediately consider there to be negative associated connotations.
This isn’t always true however, and the significant disruption to the marketing industry brought on by the current digital transformation we now find ourselves in, is more than proof of that.
Over the last few years, the marketing department has become bigger than any other singular department.
Marketing now includes sales, customer success, products, internal operations, and more.
In many ways, it’s forced businesses to re-think the very business model they were founded on.
Out With the Old…
Even as recently as a few years ago, more and more marketing departments have begun to concentrate almost entirely on the digital real estate.
Then came the social media marketing push, which allowed them to reach niche audiences in an intimate new way.
Because of all this, marketing departments often existed essentially independently from the rest of a business.
So long as they had working knowledge of products and services, along with relevant information regarding customer demand, they had a huge amount of independence and many businesses benefited from it a great deal.
Those day are gone as now teams are using social media to provide customer support, engage during events, and more!
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..and In With the New!
One of the major benefits that the digital transformation has brought with it is growth hacking.
It’s the idea that if you build products that are optimized for the user experience (meaning they’re easy to try, use, and compelling in every way), the products themselves become a valuable part of your marketing efforts.
Growth hacking as a result of this goal user experience isn’t something that the marketing department can control, or should be fully responsible for.
This is the responsibility of the product team in conjunction with sales and customer success.
This approach, which organizations like Amazon and Netflix have already perfected, requires that product team to become marketers.
Incorporating questions and feedback from client facing employees on the sales and customer success teams.
The Merging of Marketing & Product
Marketing and product departments are beginning to merge to become one with content innovation playing a major role in making it all possible.
If marketing and product departments merge, meaning that both now have hands in both experiences and communications, suddenly content becomes the through line that connects them both together.
White papers, blogs, and other rich content are suddenly key to both the user experience and attracting the right type of attention.
Looking to the Future
The Marketing industry is always going to be in the midst of transformation to morph with the ever evolving needs of consumers, and the types of data we’re able to extract.
The people you’re trying to reach will always be growing (and changing), which means marketers must be proactive to make sure that the changes they implement are ones that align with new demands.
To find out more about the current digital transformation and the resulting innovative approaches to content, industry leaders will be providing insights here in Boston at the 2017 Content Marketing Conference.