Marketing Has Changed, But Are We Still Giving People the Tools to Succeed?
Not to age myself, but I remember a time when most businesses didn’t even have a marketing team. If you were lucky, there was one or two people doing a bit of everything- campaigns, copy, events, brand, PR. It was simpler. You might not even have had a website.
Fast forward to now: marketing teams in global companies are hundreds strong. It’s multidisciplinary, always evolving, and no one person can do it all. From automation platforms to analytics, content engines to compliance, there are few other functions in a business that are expected to stay across so much, with so little consistency.
And yet, while marketing has changed, how we support our people hasn’t.
Back in the early days of my career, I was lucky. Offices were full. People of all levels, from all departments, worked side-by-side. That meant exposure, hearing how senior leaders made decisions, how they managed meetings, how they paced themselves, adapted tone, or wrote emails. No one sat me down and explained these things. I picked them up by being in the room.
That kind of informal learning has all but disappeared.
Hybrid working is here to stay, and I understand why. But while it offers flexibility, it has also stripped away what I call ‘ambient learning’, the kind of development that happens when you’re around people doing the job well. When you see it. Hear it. Absorb it.
Even when teams go into the office, it’s often on different days. You end up on Zoom calls, in headphones, surrounded by people, but not with them. Senior leadership is in meeting rooms. Junior talent is in the dark. What are they learning? How are they levelling up?
The skills gap we’re seeing isn’t just about marketing know-how. It’s about the things that surround it:
How to communicate clearly, in writing and in person
How to brief properly, and read a room
How to manage up
How to run a project end-to-end
How to adapt tone for different stakeholders
These aren’t soft skills. They’re power skills. And right now, too few people are being taught them.
Training budgets are thin. If they exist at all, they’re often tokenistic - £200 per person, which wouldn’t cover the cost of a one-day conference ticket, let alone meaningful development. And while on-demand learning platforms have their place, they’re one-way. They don’t offer feedback. They don’t answer questions. They don’t help people practise in the moment.
People are at the heart of transformation. If we want to get our businesses where they need to go, we need to invest in getting our people there first.
So, what do I advocate for?
Assign mentors from day one- real, regular mentorship, not just a name on a slide
Use your own people to run sessions on communication, project flow, influencing
Be clear, consistent, and repetitive with your business goals - don’t assume people know
Share progress, celebrate momentum, and reconnect people to purpose
People want to feel progress. They want to understand where they fit in and why it matters. That takes communication, not just in town halls, but day-to-day. Over-communicate the mission, the role of the team, and how it all connects.
I really applaud the businesses investing in people, not just platforms. Talent is leaking from the workforce in droves and there’s no endless supply. If you’ve got good people, keep them. Develop them. Make them feel seen.
Because relationships with people aren’t transactional. And if you treat them like they are, they’ll leave.
Marketing is change- it always will be. Let’s make sure our people are supported to grow with it.
Let’s Talk.
If you’re navigating change — a merger, transformation, or a moment where brand and marketing need to lead, I’d love to help.
👉 Email me directly: andrews_samantha@hotmail.com
👉 Or message me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-andrews/