I recently heard a criticism of someone for being “reactive” in their digital marketing role. Tonight I want to stand up for them and offer my wholehearted support because I am 100% behind them being reactive in their role.
What is Being Reactive?
There are a couple of definitions of the adjective reactive:
- showing a response to a stimulus.
- acting in response to a situation rather than creating or controlling it.
The second of those two definitions is probably the most appropriate because in digital marketing things happen. And when things happen you have to act. Of course, part of that last definition states that the reaction is a response to the situation and that status has the option of it being created or controlled. It’s almost as if reacting is a negative action and creating or controlling a situation is the positive aspect.
By its very nature, digital marketing is working in a fast-moving environment and reacting to situations is better than not reacting.
The Opposite of Reactive Is?
Before looking at the dark side of the word reactive, let’s quickly explore the synonyms.
- active
- aware
- compassionate
- conscious
- receptive
- sensible
- sensitive
- susceptible
- sympathetic
With the exception of just one of those words, they are all positive. The most relevant terms are active, aware, and receptive, all being traits I’d expect of the very best digital professionals.
So what is the opposite of reactive then?
- ignorant
- impassive
- indifferent
- insensitive
- merciless
- senseless
- unaware
- unconscious
- unfeeling
- unfriendly
- unsusceptible
There are some odd ones in that list but they’re all negative, apart from the last one. I don’t value any of these traits in a human being, I’d rather my staff were reactive.
Why Do I Value the Reactive in Digital Marketing?
I totally understand the definition about there being an option to create or control situations in digital marketing, but that’s just not how the industry works. If we could 100% create and control what happens in the digital marketing world then there’d be an issue – not everyone can rank #1 or even top 3, top 5, top 10 for every single product or service they provide. There are strong brands that do dominate certain verticals but it’s not at all common. Besides, that’s why we do digital marketing – to react to the situation and do something about it, be that short, medium, or long term.
Let’s look at it this way…
Digital marketing agencies are very busy and thus they need to be organised. Planning is key and so scheduling work is an absolute necessity. Resourcing and project management are artforms in themselves, so account managers should have these skills.
And when schedules are tight, everything _should_ work like clockwork. But life isn’t like that.
One particular aspect of planning is this – small jobs with low value retainers typically have just a few hours worth of work in them. Do you schedule all that work in one block to be efficient with time and resources, or do you plan it in small chunks? There is no definitive answer because every job is different. However, when you look at an account regularly you can respond to any dips in organic ranking or handle budgets in PPC. You can see relevant industry events and respond to them.
The flip side of this is that if you don’t spend regular time on a digital marketing project then you can miss any problems. If an organic competitor puts major effort and budget in leapfrogging your project, then you may lose out on ranking, clicks, and sales – but for how long? A day? A week? A month? And what about PPC? Sure, you can set budgets but what if you burned it all in a short space of time and then your ads aren’t running?
Being reactive in digital marketing is important. And expected.
Don’t Just Sit There, DO SOMETHING!
Reactive. React.
Active. Act.
Respond. Responsive.
If you’re not doing any of these things, you are just sitting there. But here’s something extra to help out with that – we need to make decisions. We need to be decisive. What will be the consequences of your inaction? If it will leave a huge hole in your pay per click budget or look bad on your report when there’s a massive dip in your organic ranking and traffic, then you need to react.
On the other hand, there may be no problem to leaving something until the schedule rolls around again.
What does matter is having the experience to make the correct call. Innate ability works too.
So don’t write off being reactive, it is a hugely valuable skill to be able to react. And if it “messes up your schedule” then that’s cool too; you should be skilful enough to be able to adapt to changes because that’s what happens in life, in business, and especially so in digital.
Sometimes it’s best not to react, other times it’s best to react. but ultimately it’s a superpower and not an impediment. Be reactive with pride.
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