How Marketing Leads Can Navigate the Time of Uncertainty

Marketing leads (and others) like to talk about “eras” and “ages.” But I resisted the urge to refer to an “era” or “age” of uncertainty, preferring to reserve these terms for periods of hundreds or thousands of years. “The dot com ERA”? Come on.

But when we encounter technological or governmental changes that take place in mere days, we need to do things in different ways.

Three tips for dealing with uncertainty

Here are three tips that I am following for dealing with uncertainty. And if you are a marketing lead for your company, the third tip applies especially to you.

Tip 1: De-emphasize long term planning

Note that I didn’t say to stop long-term planning entirely. Heck, Bredemarket has worked on go-to-market processes and plans for three clients over the past couple of months—plans that assume you have months, not days, to execute a launch. 

But sadly, the accuracy of any long-term plan is probably not high. 

  • If you assumed that the U.S. management of its nuclear assets would maintain its low level of risk, that changed in a single day when the responsible people were mistakenly fired. We will see how many of them return to work.
  • Similarly, if you assumed maintenance of the status quo in the generative AI world…what were you smoking?

So while long-term planning is (in TLOI terms) important, short-term planning is very important, and short-term execution is critically important.

Tip 2: Expect the unexpected

This is always a good tip, but especially so today. You and I can name many times when something surprised us, and we had to scramble to adjust.

For example, many of us have received a terse request to meet with our bosses the next day. (Maybe more than one such request over the years.) The next day, after meeting with the boss and an unannounced third person, we adjusted to the new reality that our boss is no longer our boss, and we no longer have a job.

So how can we prepare for the unexpected? By definition we can’t. But we can at least be alert.

  • Question all your assumptions. (Yes, even that.)
  • Determine what you will do if the unthinkable happens.

Tip 3: Move quickly

Normally things remain constant for a day or two. So take advantage of the temporary certainty. When you can, execute now.

For marketing leads:

  • Get that content out. Conceive, draft, review, fix, and publish. Don’t spend months searching for the perfect words; there aren’t any.
  • Publish before  the content goes stale. If you’ve been working on an explanation of a Biden Administration executive order…put that work on hold or kill it entirely.

And if you’re swamped and don’t have the time to generate the content, or write the proposal, or perform the analysis, call on the short-term help here at Bredemarket to bail you out.

Before it’s too late.

CPA

To learn more, you can watch Bredemarket’s short, medium, or long videos about my “CPA” marketing and writing services. I can work with you to fill your content, proposal, and/or analysis gaps.

Short:

Short

Medium:

Medium

Long:

Long

Process

Luna Marketing Services asked us on Instagram when we last went over our current processes.

My answer: January 18, 2024.

The illustration shows just one part of one of my processes. I don’t share the rest of this particular process, but it governs creation of most of my “CPA” materials.

In fact, I am about to start a short writing project for one of my clients, and I will start by asking these seven questions.

But not in Word. In the client’s Jira.

Don’t forget that processes require flexibility. Don’t complete processes for the sake of completing processes.

An Eventful Monday

Now that I’ve formally scheduled the release of my talkie—it’s even an “event” on Facebook—I may as well provide a description of what my talkie contains.

  • First, the video is 3 minutes and 40 seconds long, which for me is long. And why you won’t see it on Bluesky or Instagram. But you will see it here; it’s already scheduled.
  • Oh, and I talk. The video alternates between shots of me at Bredemarket world headquarters and shots of textual/image descriptions incorporating Canva’s finest AI-generated music. If you’ve seen my other videos you know the…um…score.
  • I start by introducing the subject of “marketing and writing services” and identifying MY hungry people (target audience). 
  • Then I explain, in detail, what Bredemarket’s “CPA” services are NOT…and what they ARE.
  • I briefly touch on the questions I ask my clients. If you’ve read Bredemarket’s “Seven Questions Your Content Creator Will Ask You,” you’re already familiar with these questions.
  • Then I do something that some sales professionals would NEVER do—reveal my pricing up front.
  • Finally, my call to action is for interested prospects to book a meeting with me on my CPA page. If you don’t already have the link to that page, you’ll get it on Monday.

Well, that’s that. Come back Monday at 8:00 am Pacific Standard Time / 1600 GMT.