How did everything go digital?

They say, 'If you want the right answers, learn to ask the right questions'

Currently reading 'Hacking Marketing' and truly admire MarTech guru Scott Brinker doing just that.

Love that the book starts with addressing the digital dynamics that have become the central theme of literally everything in our lives: we're hurtling on this buggy ride of change towards a future unknown but it's certainly going to be digital and intelligent, and super-smart.

Reproducing a para from Hacking Marketing here for context...

"How did my business go digital?" With apologies to Ernest Hemingway, "Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly."

But, what Brinker asks later is at the crux of what defines an organization's digital journey: 'How should Marketing Management evolve to best leverage these modern marketing methods?'

In the world of traditional marketing so far, it has been all about spending a good deal of time on strategy, then planning, then campaigns, then vetting the right agencies before you went into execution. Then come reports and studies. Rinse, repeat.

Basically, all pretty Linear. Organised. Logical. LOL, yes! :-) A process. The theme suddenly changes. So does the backdrop.

Enter special characters. A whole lot of them. It's the era of digital marketing now.

By now, there's simply no time for "hatching" those LOL plans. Today, the management is expected to juggle the same old LOL along with their SM feeds on-the-go, influencing & engaging with the world on multiple channels and platforms, establishing thought leadership, applying analytics and so on... and with lesser staff too.

If that wasn't enough, we're dealing with stakeholders who anyway had little appreciation for the role per se and now it's even worse with all the myriad metrics and tools - oftentimes the focus is on what we didn't achieve rather than what we did compared to our peers and competitors.

The takeaway then is that the first thing that needs to go under the digital rollercoaster is the traditional thinking and the conventional ways of looking at the problem. The key lies only & only with the marketing management - for tools and platforms, and channels and devices are aplenty. It is the management's ability to prioritize and execute outside of the LOL that will decide how marketing evolves with marketing technology.

What's your take on the subject? Would you like to share one tip how your marketing management set itself on the right path?