If 2020 was the Year of the Pivot, then we might call 2021 the Year of the Ponder.
The early days of the pandemic had us scrambling to stay on top of day-by-day and sometimes hour-by-hour changes. But now we’re ready to make our way forward and take a longer view. So pondering (and planning and preparing) is the name of the game.
Pondering what, exactly? For starters:
- How to scale during an ongoing pandemic
- How to keep teams efficient and motivated while working remotely
- How to prioritize tasks, workflows, and communication
- How to stop spending so much time on Zoom
Marketers in particular have felt the impact of these ups and downs, having to scrap campaigns and rework strategies at the drop of a hat. But there’s a silver lining to all this chaos.
Weathering so many storms put CMOs and marketing teams exactly where they’re most effective: on the cutting edge, where they’re able to see what’s coming with more clarity and acumen than most. It’s also why they’re leading the charge when it comes to understanding what to prioritize as they move into 2022 so that their organizations don’t just survive, but thrive.
So, what can we learn from these pioneering pivoters and ponderers?
Here’s what matters most for CMOs as we approach the next phase of work within an ever-shifting landscape.
Keeping things in-house
In many ways, the pandemic put marketing departments into overdrive, demanding from them maximum flexibility and lightning-speed turnaround times. It’s no surprise, then, that many organizations (23% to be exact) who had previously used external marketing agencies brought the work in-house. This allowed them to trim their marketing budgets, boost their agility, and really lean into their brand voice at a time when it was needed the most.
This doesn’t mean that agencies are going on the endangered list anytime soon though because they still offer countless benefits such as:
- Defining strategic direction
- Growing and scaling new business
- Contributing fresh and diverse expertise
- Drumming up new sources of creativity
Investing in tools for remote work
With a huge slice of the workforce working from home, it’s no longer possible to tap a colleague on the shoulder, knock on the boss’s door, or hop into the conference room to touch base with the team. But collaboration, efficiency, and a smooth and transparent workflow are all still the key ingredients to a successful operation.
So what’s a CMO to do?
The answer is simple: invest in technology.
Video conferencing, team chats, project management software…the options have exploded since 2020, and more are popping up every day, and with good reason. The vast majority of marketing teams — more than 80% — who had access to these technologies credit them with not just maintaining their efficiency, but actually increasing it.
One teamwork solution that CMOs are turning to is a Work OS. This type of all-in-one platform makes it easy for whole teams to connect and create, whether it’s to track workflow, share assets, collect data, and just plain communicate.
Demonstrating marketing’s impact on the bottom line
If you’ve been in marketing for any length of time, you probably know that marketing teams usually have to strategically toot their own horns when it comes to proving their impact.
This is because the value that marketers bring to an organization — especially in terms of customer retention, branding, and engagement — can be hard to measure. Without putting numbers and hard data about how they benefit the bottom line, it can be easy for marketing teams to be seen as a drag on company resources.
This is another key area where a Work OS is worth its weight in gold. By tracking things like workflows and KPIs, a Work OS becomes the tool that clarifies just how much work and value the marketing team produces, shining a bright light on how essential these professionals are to the success of the organization.
Setting their sights on scaling up
For a lot of organizations, their 2020 annual report reads like a horror story: financial losses, slow growth, missed targets, and other things that make the C-suite’s tense up. It only makes sense, then, that many organizations are looking to make up ground by focusing on growing and scaling up in 2021 and beyond.
The tried-and-true method for successfully scaling a business requires a few key pieces:
- Attracting talent with the necessary skills and experience
- Sourcing budget to fund recruitment and development
- Investing in technology that streamlines, centralizes, and aligns workflows
When all of these elements come together in the right way and at the right time — that’s when the magic (i.e.: growth) happens.
We’re not done pivoting
Going forward, organizations have to be flexible. CMOs who want to stay ahead are working to curveball-proof their teams and processes so that no matter what comes down the pike, they’re ready.
For teams to work together seamlessly, without getting bogged down by miscommunications and data silos, they need the right platform. With monday.com Work OS, they can cut through the static and speed an idea along from imagination to execution in record time.
Need to reimagine a marketing campaign? No problem.
Recreate a core brand message? Check.
Redefine a strategy? All in a day’s work.
Get ready for the next normal with confidence and clarity
For a deeper dive into what CMOs and other marketing leaders are focusing on as the year winds up, including the main obstacles they’re facing and actional steps they’re taking to excel, access our infographic, The Future of Marketing: How CMO’s are getting it done in 2021 and beyond.
Find out how monday.com can work to streamline your organization’s processes and have your teams running full-throttle and request a demo today.
