In 2018 there was a big change, it took place on the 25th May 2018.  It was the introduction of GDPR.

What changed?

Well the changes that had been taking place over the last 10 years since the global acceptance of the internet, mobile and social media as the new way to transact commerce.  This enabled a perfect storm.

The old world of advertising, cold calling, email marketing and events all slipped from the main means of demand generation into the legacy of the past.

While it could be argued that nobody looks at advertising anymore, this way of marketing where you advertise and i'm meant to call you just doesn't work.  People don't like these interruptions.  We also don't like the interruptions of cold calling and cold emailing.  Which is why we are so pleased that brands recognise this and are switching to social, we have technology on our side so I can and do block all cold callers.  Same with unsolicited emails, I just create rules so future emails end up in junk.

We also have legislation on our side through GDPR.

More and More CMOs come to us and say, "marketing doesn't work anymore".  We are also seeing more and more CMOs being fired who come up with old world plans.

Taking last years plan and reusing it in 2019 won't work, there has to be a restructuring and a moving around of budgets.

Once Marketing was clear, now even many of the "new" techniques such as PPC, SEO are being replaced by social.  The social selling ROI was proved 4 years ago, so social selling now has to part of the mix as if your competitors are doing, you are leaving money on the table.  Many of our clients are now mature enough to use social selling as a competitive strategy.

The critical thing for 2019 is that you need to experiment and trial things.  If you don't have social selling, then a pilot is a must.