Author: David Howard
At a recent client conference, I was asked the question what was the most significant change that I had seen in the last 20 years of working in Marketing and Communications?
It is a great question and one that demands a bit more granularity than ‘digital’ as a response.
I think the greatest change, by virtue of its relevance to every business, is how much marketing is now so fully integrated into everyday business operations as well as sales performance and at such a fundamental level.
Consider this, how much influence would marketing or communication have had on the location of offices or production sites 20 years ago? Or dictated the make-up, size, scale and efficiency of a distribution fleet or field sales force? There were, and still are, board level roles that have responsibility for such decisions.
And yet, with the advent of a fully digital economy that is what has effectively happened. Being found/visited by new customers, being in ‘prime locations’, the ‘value-equation’ of those locations, the efficacy of the ‘sales force’, even what the showroom or store looks and feels like, is all SEO and UX.
Gone are the days when we were just responsible for coming up with some ‘offer’ to get people through the door, we are the door now and much of what is behind it. Content really is king. Google’s search quality guidelines are clear. Effective content needs to regularly demonstrate E.A.T, ‘Expertise’, ‘Authoritativeness’ and ‘Truthfulness’ as well as maintaining an on-going relevance and interest. This is no longer selling the business. This IS the business.
The next time you are thinking about that marketing ‘overhead’ and the cost of content creation, remember we really are what we E.A.T.