‘’Am I actually of any use to my organisation right now?’’ is a question running through some people’s minds in the current climate. Many friends and peers I’ve spoken to feel their skills and working approaches, developed over their careers, feel redundant right now. Can they deliver what an organisation needs, with dwindling budgets and a lack of ‘good news’ to shout about?
There’s a danger that our inner critics are trying to persuade us that some of our experience is irrelevant – they are wrong. Or at least partly so. Intelligent marketing and communications principles still exist and the importance of measuring the success of these activities has never been more vital. If marketing and comms teams stop prospecting now, you will feel the impact of that on your business in three to six months’ time. And then, even if you rekindle those prospecting efforts, the benefits will be similarly delayed.
As well as leveraging existing skills, the pandemic creates an urgent need to build new ones. In fact, what we’ve seen is that organisations that were able to keep their marketing and comms approach going and learn new skills to adapt, emerged most strongly during the previous recession.
As an advocate for lifelong learning and someone who likes to keep occupied during worrying times to avoid overthinking, I have also decided to utilise this period to educate myself and learn new skills. Much of my personal focus has been to upskill myself on technologies that will help automate reporting, in order to better present true business outcomes to our leadership team but this could be different for you or your organisation. Think about where the knowledge gap is for you and your teams. There is a wealth of free resource available online and I’m sure you’ll be surprised at the talents you’ll uncover within your business, if you ask around.
At Hotwire, we’ve been sharing knowledge and advice for evolving marketing and comms approaches both internally and externally via our HotComms Toolkit. We’re covering everything from moving physical activities to digital, measurement frameworks, and planning preparedness. We’ll be adding new content to this weekly to ensure we’re all ready for the upturn as and when it arrives. If there is anything you’d like to see added or that you would like to contribute, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line at: heretohelp@hotwireglobal.com