Editor’s note: I will never forget my last in person meeting with Liese Gardner. It was March 12, 2020, Catersource + The Special Event’s first collaboration as a co-located event was near the finish line. I was heading to the escalator up to the staff office and there she stood. I don’t remember the exact exchange, but she shook her head and pretty much predicted the future. This was the end of events as we knew it for a very, very long time. Not something I wanted to hear, but Liese has always had true insight into the behavior of consumers. It’s a pleasure to be able to print her thoughts on 2022 here today.
Is the Metaverse already here? With the announcement that Facebook changed its company name to “Meta,” Mark Zuckerberg opened the floor to this post-COVID question. If living in a Meta world is to live in a digital world, we might be halfway there already. During lockdown, our daily in-person interactions went online with Zoom get-togethers and events, Facetime calls, shopping on Amazon, instant messaging across all platforms, texting, and more.
How does that affect you and me as business owners and entrepreneurs? We’ve realized that we are living in a new, online world and we have responded fast. We began to revamp our websites, realizing that new clients will now have to find us online. Our languishing SEO is now front and center as we make sure that we are optimized for our ideal clients and we upped the ante on our email marketing, especially following several big outages of social media that reminded us that we are just renting space there.
Bottom line. We are all paying attention to our message through our websites, email marketing, and social media. It’s a content marketer’s world now! The most important thing that can happen in 2022 is that we make the final move and flip the switch on sales. It’s not about “Pay attention to me! I have something to sell you!” Now, it’s about “I have paid attention to you, and I am/have your solution.”
In 2022 we will continue to form deeper client relationships. We will show up, not just as brands, but as the people behind those brands. We will learn to be empathetic. We will build relationships and alliances not just “clients.” Whatever it might be now, the metaverse of business is looking bright!
