In my eight years at Red Sage Communications, change has been the norm rather than the exception. When I started with the website and marketing firm, most of our customers came to us for a basic website, a logo, a brochure, or some other similar basic item. Now, it is a website that is search engine optimized and mobile friendly, a strategic online advertising and social media plan, and advice on how to reach their customers since many of the traditional advertising and marketing methods are no longer working as well as they did not so long ago. The hard part is that by next year, that whole list could change again. Here are three major changes in our industry and how we survived them.
1. The Rise of Social Media
The decline of newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio (some more than others), and the birth of social media have changed how we reach and communicate with our audiences. What was once a one-way line of communication has suddenly become a two-way conversation with customers being able to provide instant feedback. Some companies have embraced this new way of communicating and have succeeded, gaining loyal fans of their brands who will advocate on their behalf. Other companies have not been able to give up their old school marketing styles and have either been ignored on social media or, worse, have created negative perceptions.
2. The Introduction of Smart Phones
Just five years ago, smartphones made up only about 20-25% of all mobile sales. This year, smartphones account for almost 75% of all mobile sales with expectations of that number increasing to 80-85% by the end of the year.This year, Google’s Mobilegeddon announcement put even more urgency on the move to mobile-friendly websites. In a scramble to keep up with the new way people were accessing websites, developers created mobile apps, mobile-only versions of website, and more recently, responsive websites. For a web developer, knowing what will be just a trend and what is a lasting solution for mobile has been hard to determine.
3. The Boom of Online Advertising
As more and more people have turned to the internet for their source of just about everything, marketers have followed. This means the days of placing easy print or TV ads where the rules were always the same have ended and the days of constant rule and medium changing have begun. We now spend our days keeping up with rules changes from Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others, worrying about whether our ads that were fine yesterday now violate a new content/graphic rule or if we’re going to be able to afford to stay competitive as all of our other competitors start bidding on the same two spots at the top of Google’s AdWords placement in the search results. If that was not enough trouble, we also have to predict when our audience is going to leave an online medium and where they will flock to next. We may have a “desk” job, but we’re exhausted by the end of the day just from the sheer effort of keeping up with the changes.
How We Survive:
Staying relevant within disruptive industry change is not an easy process. It takes a conscious effort to recognize, prepare, and manage change as quickly as possible. Here are three ways that Red Sage has survived change as a company, and how I have survived change as a practitioner.
1. Change is Going to Happen. Accept it.
Red Sage: “But, that’s the way we’ve always done it,” is a death sentence in the world of marketing (and really any business). If you accept the fact that things are always going to change, you will start preparing for change rather than reacting to it.
Me: It feels as if my job changes every day. What I do and how I do it is constantly changing. Knowing that change is inevitable, I expect it rather than hate it.
2. Keep Learning.
Red Sage: One of the trends that I’ve seen in the marketing world is to hire a young marketing person simply because they use social media. There is a real danger for older marketing professionals who refuse to keep learning, because they could push themselves right out of a job. It is true also for agencies who refuse to keep up with change. Making the time to continuously learn new skills and watch for change is as important as taking caring of today’s client work.
Me: I struggle with finding time to keep learning. It takes a determined effort to make sure that learning doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of busy.
3. Do Not Forget The Past.
Red Sage: Just because the industry may have changed, it typically does not mean that you should forget everything that you have done in the past. While advertising has moved from print to online, it is still advertising and many of the same ideas that made print ads successful can be applied to online versions. The same goes with even social media. It may be a two-way conversation now, but reaching your audience with the right message, at the right time still applies. Embrace change, but keep your foundation of knowledge and experience too.
Me: Knowing that change doesn’t always mean completely new keeps it from feeling so overwhelming.
