If in doubt: Start! When everything's up in the air, getting stuck in a holding pattern is the last thing you need - B2B marketing agency for technology sector | London | Now

If in doubt: Start!

When everything's up in the air, getting stuck in a holding pattern is the last thing you need

Written by

NOW|Ken

We all get it:

Being decisive in volatile times is tough

That big strategic game plan for 2023:

How's that working out for you?

So you came back recharged after an awesome New Year’s break. Hunkered down and got started on that big fat marketing plan that was going to supercharge growth in 2023. Then what happened?

Just how far did you get into this plan before secretly starting to worry that maybe, you were just making the whole thing up? Chances are, you cantered your way through Q1 with a clear head and a degree of confidence. But are you really saying that those seminar events you’ve invented to pad out Q2 are actually going to happen? And that really pivotal “game changing” idea you parked into Q3 is just a pipe dream right (you took that from last year’s big fat marketing plan and just kinda jigged the words around didn’t you)?

The big problem we really have right now, is that everyone in every part of every business is really important. None of us have any wiggle room for error. All of us need to know exactly what to do. But not one of us has any clue what’s going to happen next. You can decide this situation is laughable, or that it’s tragic, but what you can’t do right now is take a long time to decide anything.

Having horizon goals for December 2023 makes perfect sense. Goals are great. But succeeding in 2023 means keeping it real.

We’ve worked out over the past couple of years that “it’s OK not to be OK”. These volatile, uncertain times have prompted deeper honesty and more compassion across our workforces – and our workers are better because of that. But from a business planning perspective, we really struggle to embrace the idea that “It’s OK not to know what’s going to happen next”.

We need to create plans with volatility and uncertainty built-in

Read the Agile Marketing Playbook

#Agilemarketing

What does that mean and how do we do it?

We’ve thought long and hard to work out what #Agilemarketing means for us, but what really matters to our clients is what it means for them. Here's how we do things:

Super collaboration:

Hybrid working has changed the game for all of us.

It’s awesome to see our clients in the flesh again, but the day-to-day working practices we’ve all adopted since 2020 have dramatically improved how our agency collaborates together and with clients. We’re not going back.

People in our agency today are woven together with clients. Goals, objectives and responsibilities are clearer. Blockers are solved with quick flash meetings. Updates and status reports are replaced with living plans and simple messages over Trello or slack or… well, whatever collaborative tool makes most sense. The businesses we work with today don’t think of us as “the agency”. We work together, as one team where no one is more than a click away. 

All on the same team:

Deeper teaming across the client and agency makes it much easier to find winning formations.

There’s no duplication or redundancy when everyone is a co-worker within one client/agency team. 

Like any full-stack agency, we’re well equipped and ready to execute marketing end-to-end. But it’s only the smaller SMEs and start-ups that really need the“marketing department in a box” approach. Most companies come pre-loaded with a range of great experts and skills. Deeper teaming means we’re able to work and collaborate much more effectively with client side team members.

Think our agile marketing style might be right for you?

If you’re like us, if looking ahead has never been so exciting and you honestly want to #keepitreal in 2023, we’d love to talk. Try things out with a 5 - 10 day marketing hackpack, or go epic with out agile marketing stack.

Discover marketing hackpacks See the full agile marketing stack Book a zoom

I think these guys do a great job and so does my wife.

Richard Fox, Toucan