Once considered a ‘nice to have’ the strategic importance of marketing to an organization’s success is no longer open to question.  Marketers are judged on their ability to be creative and produce stunning media campaigns that support the sales effort. At the same time, they are expected to be au fait with the latest marketing technologies being introduced at an ever-rapid pace, all of which are supposed to make their lives easier.  The life of a marketer is no walk in the park that’s for sure.

I speak with marketers everyday who intuitively think that administration is a major part of their job. Filling in PO numbers, asking management for campaign financing, reporting, briefing requests to agencies, creative reviews and copying figures into and between spreadsheets.

Marketers generally don’t audit their search campaigns. But when they do it’s mostly because their campaign results don’t meet expectations or performance isn’t going well as it used to. So what people usually tend to do is put their search marketing up for tender, hoping that a new agency will get them back on track. However procurement takes time and once a vendor has been chosen, they typically take 3 months to ramp up and precious time has been lost from initial RFP to seeing actual improvements in performance, if this even happens.

Compared to a decade ago, some would argue that the marketers of today have it easy.  There’s a technology solution for pretty much everything from web analytics to ad serving.  But it’s not as straightforward as you might think.
 

How often do we describe things as easy?  Let’s meet at my office in New York – it’s really easy to get to.  Let’s grab a sandwich for lunch – it’s quick and easy.  Let’s save that on the Wiki – it’s so easy to navigate.

Well at least for your competitors it is.

Why is it that there seems to be such an oversupply of media inventory on the Internet.  Or is it just a lack of demand? Something that has always struck me about publishing on the Internet is that it’s so easy and the cost of production relatively low.  Consider the growth of user generated content, social media and mobile applications over the last few years as proof of this. Is all this content just digital junk or a treasure chest of supply?

That’s right, as a marketer you are no longer dependent on the annual capital spending plan to expand your digital technology capabilities or the 18-month queue of IT projects. Today your strategies and tactics can be automated and enabled by selecting the right platform and tools in the Cloud. There is a SaaS tool for every critical function that you might need to increase revenue, build customer loyalty, improve conversion rates and test or personalize everything.

A month or so ago I wrote an article for iMedia UK about the changing web and the implications for marketers.  The article explored how the web’s transition from a web of content to a web of applications will change two key things:

Remember 1999?  That rather wonderful moment when the advent of the web made everything possible and shattered the key economic principle that a business needed a revenue model to sustain itself?  And, of course, the promise to all of us that it would deliver fewer working hours, greater information and access to riches.  
 
The future gazing of 1999 confirmed one thing. Predictions are a mugs game and a really special kind of mugs game where technological advancement is driving change so very quickly.