As we enter what is hopefully a more manageable phase of the Covid-19 crisis, at ModComms we’ve been reflecting on the lessons we have learned since the first UK lockdown in March 2020.
The nature of our client projects shifted dramatically. For example, we’ve seen a greater focus on virtual rather than in-person events, even leading to our Virtual Reality Arcade service becoming a Team Engagement day using return-couriered VR headsets. The ways we worked with our team and clients changed too, with more virtual meetings and less face-to-face.
Those who know me as the founder of ModComms, also know that I act as a professional futurist. Throughout the pandemic, I was frequently called upon by clients to provide a calm and rational view of how the world is changing and what clients can do to thrive in it.
Much of ModComms’ client work aims to help B2B marketers be the best they can be, no matter what the circumstances around them.
In 2020, in the early phase of the pandemic, it rapidly became clear the world had changed forever. A tried-and-tested business acronym came to the fore; you may well have heard of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Agility). It was regularly touted as a useful way to understand the modern business operating environment, but it always felt a bit negative to us.
Part of our issue with VUCA is that it treats uncertainty as a surprise. We think Covid-19 isn’t the last future shock we’ll face. Rising temperatures from climate change will lead to more extreme weather events. These will shake supply chains and test our resilience. More home working means more digitalisation and devices, which will be wonderful – but also increase the threat of cyber attacks. We think that the sheer pace of change means that uncertainty should be the default position. And we think it creates a new world of opportunity. We see a new, more optimistic VUCA: Velocity, Unorthodoxy, Collaboration, and Agility.
To share our vision with you, ModComms is delivering a new half-day B2B marketing workshop for in-house client teams. It aims to help you make sense of what’s changed and what you can do to thrive in the post-pandemic world.
We’ll start by explaining the new VUCA and then drill down into actionable contexts:
The trends driving change in the new world, how marketers reach customers, and how marketing teams need to operate
Homeworking and how it’s changed the labour market.
– What it means to B2B Marketing teams – The generational differences which home-working has accentuated, and how it changes the way you will reach multigenerational customers.
– Business travel; how less travel and fewer in-person meetings have made marketers a bigger part of the sales process.
The New Team and the changing dynamics of the workplace.
– Full-time employment in terminal decline – The growth of gig working and portfolio careers – how B2B marketers can increase talented capacity without corresponding headcount.
– Why continuous learning is the new normal (and how easy it can be!)
Automation
– With increased investment into Martech automation development, we look at your options and how your team can – and must – move up the value chain.
We then drill down further into the broad strategies your team can adopt in the post-pandemic world:
– Everything is going hybrid – both your marketing and events.
– Tone-deaf marketing is finished, and the ways in which we communicate must change accordingly. And we’ll help you look at marketing automation in a new way.
For example, have you got a conversational marketing process in place to personalise the automated experience? We examine the role of becoming a trusted friend to your customers and prospects. There’s opportunity not only in being a problem solver, but also in creating a sense of belonging to counter a growing sense of loneliness and isolation.
Then we get into the fun stuff. How can we up our webinar game? Make use of automated video production? Use asynchronous video (a key aspect of personalising the marketing experience when dealing with prospects in diverse geographies)? We’ll bring plenty of fun exercises for your team to experiment with.
Looking further out, we’ll provide your team with a workable understanding of the upcoming role of Artificial Intelligence. This matters, as AI is the foundational technology layer powering so many changes this century. And armed with this understanding, we look at the technologies that will power B2B marketing in the next five years and beyond. What will Web 3.0 mean going forward?
Throughout this workshop, your team will have plenty of opportunities to reach their own insights and understand what these seismic social and corporate changes will mean to them.
There’s more to follow but were confident this half-day workshop will help B2B teams make sense of the post-pandemic world, with clarity and direction about how to move forward meaningfully.