Should you change your marketing? — Kelford Labs Weekly

As you might expect, the types of marketing questions I’m getting these days have a certain... theme, or flavour to them. One of: “What on Earth am I supposed to do?”

I try to notice when I’m repeating myself, as that suggests there might be some general purpose suggestions I can give. And I’ve been saying a few similar things about change, about strategy, about flexibility lately.

So this week’s newsletter is the answer to a question I’m getting a lot, and a question you might be asking, too:

“Should I change my marketing to fit an unpredictable market?”

The short answer to that question is, “Yes.”

The slightly longer answer to that question is, “Yes, but you should always be adapting.”

And the really long answer to the question is:

When circumstances change, we have to change.

And we’ve got to change our marketing, too.

Why? Simply because our position within the market, within the mind of the consumer, can shift out from under us.

Maybe our low, low prices have become much more expensive due to circumstances outside our control.

Or maybe our premium, up-market position has become more of an unattainable luxury than we want it to be.

Or maybe our unique competitive advantage has been ripped away by a savvy competitor or a market regulation.

That’s why the art of marketing strategy, of building a structure to work efficiently to get what you want, requires (no, demands!) welcoming change.

I mean, like me, you might like to imagine yourself as an unmoving object to which customers should just be naturally drawn. But that’s a fantasy, a fiction.

Because, like it or not, the customer is always moving, the market is always shifting.

And we need the flexibility, the resources, and the outright energy to change with them.

Change means flexibility 

In our marketing, that means building a strategy that is flexible. That doesn’t pin us down into long-term contracts or commitments that can’t be budged or adjusted if the situation changes.

We need a strategy that encourages us to stretch, to reach for a new market, to try out a new creative approach. To bend instead of break.

Practically speaking, that means baking in the necessity and inevitability of change into every decision we make. It means asking ourselves, “What would it take for this good decision to become the wrong decision?” and hedging our bets to avoid the worst losses if we get a bad break.

It means preserving a multitude of options so that if one thing doesn’t work out, we know exactly what to try next, and for how long, so we can keep working at it until it works.

More than anything, though, it means seeking out and savouring the feeling of change, of growth, of adjustment. It means actively looking for ways we can be more flexible and more free to manoeuvre.

This is a mindset shift as much as a tactical one.

So that we don’t become distracted by everything going wrong and instead we can focus on what we can do right.

Right now, and for as long as it takes.

Change means focus 

To avoid becoming overwhelmed by everything outside of our control (yes, that’s a long list), we need to focus intently on what we do control.

On what we can actually see, experience, and learn from.

And that starts with our current best customers. We need to work hard at understanding what they value most about us. How they receive, experience, and talk about that value.

We need to stop fixating on our current or past sources of work, as those might dry up or disappear in a new context.

Instead, we want to become obsessively focused on our current and past sources of value, the thing we deliver that no one else can, and how we can demonstrate that value at a distance.

To new markets, new audiences, new prospects, new customers.

Our job as marketers is not to predict the future. No, it’s to prepare ourselves, our companies, and our customers for it. To be ready no matter what happens next, because we stayed flexible.

Because we stayed focused on just what we do best, and on just who values it most.

So we can continue to find them, wherever they might be, and however we might need to reach them.

But how do you find what to focus on and the customers who appreciate it most?

How do you build a flexible process to adjust on the fly?

How do you prepare to adapt to circumstances that can’t be predicted?

How do you adjust your marketing to fit an uncertain market?

That, and more, in next week’s newsletter.

In the meantime, send me your questions about this week‘s newsletter and whatever’s on your marketing mind! Reply to this email or visit our website to get in touch.

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