Agile Marketing: Pivoting for the Future

One thing I remember thinking toward the end of grad school was that marketers have to be agile. I'm not a fan of using fluffy words, despite my love of writing, but "agile" is a good word. So is the word "pivot." Let's break those two words down before we get into what they have to do with marketing.

Agile, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is the ability to move quickly and easily.

Pivot can be both a noun and a verb. As a noun, it refers to a central pillar of some sort, while the verb describes a mechanism for change.

When I read Danny Goodwin 's article announcing Google's decline in market share, my instant thoughts centered around the need for marketing leaders and their amazing, talented teams driving growth and revenue to be agile and pivot. That's what we have to do in marketing, but that's what Google will do too.

I've talked about this before in previous articles—the pivot to AI and the impact on zero-click search. Marketers have to be agile with their strategies to change with how audiences, both B2B and B2C, engage with brands.

Search is pivoting. When social media was becoming the new shiny darling of marketing, I told anyone who would listen that search on social platforms would grow. And it has. Gen Z leads the way, with 46% using social media as their search engine. 78% of global users search on social media to discover brands and products.

What does this mean for marketing leaders? For starters, stop treating social so casually. It should be part of your SEO strategy. Use it for brand awareness, but also for demand generation. Be agile enough to pivot your search strategy to social.

As for Google—I don't think this is the end. While the greats usually come to their demise, they have brilliant people who will take this as a learning experience, not a failure, and they will pivot. They already are with Gemini's AI search. Maybe we just need to redefine what we think of as search market share.