My New Year’s Resolution is to be a more effective advocate for brand building in the recession we now find ourselves in. I suspect there isn’t a marketer in the country not going through the same conversations about orienting spend towards short-term activation and generally having to think about immediate demand.
Brands are the best insurance against heavy weather that money can buy
I completely understand why, it’s the reality of how challenging the environment is for every business. But brands are the best insurance against heavy weather that money can buy: they smooth out demand shocks, they build value perception to maintain price premium and they pull in consumers and shoppers even when times are tight. Time and time again the winners in recession are the ones who hold their nerve and find a way to invest for the long-term, but that relies on marketers making the case for it effectively.
On a more personal level, I’m resolving to spend a little less time listening to how other companies are managing the brave new world of hybrid working and a bit more time listening to what will create the conditions for my and the wider Little Moons team to be at their best. It feels like I haven’t been able to move for ‘how to make hybrid work’ opinion pieces in the past year. While they’ve been helpful to a degree, it’s now clear that the solution is more likely to be found within than from the wider industry and if we view it as a tool to enhance belonging to the organisation, you have to start with what your people actually want.
We’re living through a time of uncertainty, where the current economic climate, rising costs and job security are top of mind for many people. Against this backdrop, people and businesses are prioritising their needs and really considering how they spend their time and money.
Marketers have to be cognisant of how the world is changing and tell stories to audiences in a very different mindset
As we go into 2023, marketers have to be cognisant of how the world around us is changing and tell stories to audiences that will be in a very different mindset. My resolution is to stay even more grounded in the external context to ensure we meet audiences where they are at and offer tangible solutions to help.
My personal goal is also to listen more, read more and to spend more quality time with my family. In and among the throes of a buzzing international role - with the joys of timezone jenga - it can be tricky to manoeuvre the delicate dance of a healthy work/life balance, especially when much of our work is now taking place at home. My resolution is to find a bit more equilibrium for both myself and for those around me.
Working for a rapidly scaling B2B SaaS startup across multiple markets whil setting up the inbound marketing function from scratch has not been without its challenges in 2022. We’re figuring out how to work as a new team across countries, trying to understand different buyer intent by market, and developing new sales and marketing processes alongside implementing a new CRM system.
My New Year’s resolution is to try and carve out focus for the team to test and learn more
On the positive side, this gives us a brilliant opportunity to put in place a marketing engine fit for today’s buyers focused on high revenue intent (and not just leads). It, however, throws up the issue of marketing’s effectiveness measurement as we’re doing a lot of things at once so it’s difficult to untangle the effects. My New Year’s resolution is to try and carve out focus for the team to test and learn more within each channel before moving on to the next challenge.
On a more personal basis, I have derived a lot of benefit in 2022 from joining a number of different tech and digital marketing networking groups enabling peer-to-peer advice and cross vertical knowledge on the state of the market. In 2023, my New Year’s resolution is to formalise this experience and seek out NED roles in other tech scale up companies and expand into the portfolio space.
