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Nobody could have predicted the poop show that was 2020. But what do marketing thought leaders predict for 2021?
Rishad Tobaccowala is the author of Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data, published by HarperCollins. Most recently, Tobaccowala was the Chief Growth Officer for Publicis Groupe (until January 2020), and continues to work with the company in a senior advisory role. Here are two of his predictions for 2021:
1. Marketers will invest in direct relationships with their customers. “Marketers will realize that the supply chain that needs to be most resilient is the chain that connects them to their customers and consumers and it is too risky to have Facebook, Google and others be the key gatekeepers. So, while using these platforms, they will invest in developing direct relationships through CRM, partnering with other marketers and ensuring that their long term future cannot be squeezed by the middle men. They will move dollars, even though less efficient in the short term, to new players from Pinterest, Snap, Tik Tok, LoopMe and others, to not be so reliant on one or two platforms.”
2. A third of the US economy will begin to face massive disruption due to new technology and the experiences of Covid. “Healthcare, with 18% of GDP, finance with 8%, and education with 7%, will face intense pressure. These three areas are truly intertwined with society and will change”
Susan Thomas, CEO of 10Fold, one of Forbes' top PR agencies, conducted a survey of 150 B2B tech chief marketing officers (CMOs). The survey revealed that although marketing budgets were reduced during Covid-19, most performance goals remain the same as before the pandemic despite marketing leaders’ concerns that numbers won’t be met this year. Here are two predictions from Thomas:
3. Technology will become the great equalizer for smaller businesses. “The rise of software as a service (SaaS) applications for every function of a business and for businesses of every size, robotics process automation (RPA), application developers with AI experience, and rentable technology as a service have created a great advantage for small businesses that would otherwise not be able to afford automation and access to sophisticated business analytics. With these benefits much more affordable and accessible, there is no reason even a small business cannot go digital to reduce costs and fuel growth.”
4. Victory will go to the swift and adaptable. “If there is one thing the pandemic taught us in 2020, it is to be nimble. We saw companies pivot to adapt to the needs of the workforce that was largely working from home, to shoppers that found it dangerous or very inconvenient to shop in-person, and even to those that needed to be entertained during what became very long and monotonous days. That meant sales cycles became shorter for solutions that were relevant to buyers. Unexpected items like trendy bicycles (selling for an average of $2,000 per bike) were out of stock for months. We also learned that buyers already feeling somewhat desperate based on the pandemic-based predicaments valued vendors that could respond quickly and offered easy access to products and services.”
Melissa Sargeant, CMO of Litmus, sees smaller budgets on the horizon:
5. Decreasing marketing budgets. "In 2021, marketers will experience budget cuts and even smaller teams. But, by doing this, companies are setting themselves up for failure. During an economic downturn, companies that pull back and starve marketing efforts, do not perform well. And, when our consumerism-driven environment reengages, those brands will be further behind than they were when they made those budget-conscious decisions. Ultimately, the pandemic has accelerated trends in business. Look at digital transformation and work from home initiatives, for example. But, if there were cracks within a business’s model beforehand, the pandemic brought those to light so now is the time for them to fix it, not bury it.”
Brian Wilson, CRO of SlickText, had this to say about SMS marketing, which is sending promotional campaigns or transactional messages for marketing purposes using text messages:
6. The biggest threat to SMS is SMS. “The biggest threat to text marketing is actually SMS service providers themselves - at least the ones who don’t take the necessary compliance measures. When contemplating different SMS providers, marketers need a service that will prioritize compliance and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) education. Customers who aren’t properly educated will experience watered down channel effectiveness. As a result, in the coming year, I believe providers will spend more time focusing on compliance education. It’s a win-win for marketers, too, as when adhering to compliance mandates, it helps build better, long-term, powerful relationships.”
Nick Runyon, CMO of PFL predicts:
7. More marketing integration ahead. "Because of our solely digital landscape, we’ll continue to see marketers recognize the impact and importance of the physical touch. It allows brands to level-up relationships by breaking through the clutter, enacting immersive, brand-associated touchpoints. With direct mail, it’s possible to create a remarkable experience throughout all stages of the customer journey - buying, onboarding, and customer retention. We’re going to see direct mail integrated into multichannel campaigns in a more mature manner than we’ve ever seen." -
Sherene Hilal, SVP of product marketing & business operations of Bluecore foresees:
8. Informed buyers will want to buy from informed brands. “This means evolving even beyond the age of personalization and entering an age of personal commerce, where consumers co-curate their experiences with brands to reflect their preferences at any given moment. They expect for brands to understand what they’ve bought in the past and help them to determine what they should buy next, based on all the data that they’ve consciously shared with them by engaging with their sites and channels. This is not just a matter of brands meeting consumers where they are; it’s about brands telling them what they want, when they want it.”
Jim Kruger, Chief Marketing Officer of Veeam, offers these two predictions.
9. Expect a stark divide in an organization’s marketing budget spend, followed by consequential impact, in 2021. “With the unstable economy projected to carry into the new year, there will be a resulting stark divide in marketing budget spend. On one end, companies will look to cut back on marketing budgets because they see it as a variable cost that can be managed up or down fairly easily. On the other end, companies will increase investment in marketing because they see driving demand and building the brand as top priorities.”
10. The ‘new normal’ of remote work is here to stay. “While we all await news and updates on the availability of a coronavirus vaccine, I believe the common line of thinking that we’ll all return to an office in 2021 will change. In fact, the traditional idea of remote work will no longer look as it did before 2020. Employees are going to continue to enjoy – and most importantly, thrive – in the new flexible work environments they’ve experienced since remote work became widespread. In the year ahead, companies will recognize the myth that you have to physically be in an office to be successful, and this time of flexible remote work will further prove that employees can be trusted and find a way to make it work and achieve results from any location.”
