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Battling Random Acts of Demand Marketing

A recording is now available for the March 2019 Demand Marketing webinar featuring speakers Mika Yamamoto (VP/GM of Marketo, an Adobe Company) and Adam Needles (CEO, ANNUITAS) titled Digital Demand Transformation – Demand Marketing’s Next Step. The two marketing leaders take thirty minutes to discuss a variety of topics but focus on the central theme of a movement away from ‘Random Acts of Demand Marketing’ and towards a more perpetual, contextually relevant dialogue with buyers that emphasizes improved customer experience and orchestration between marketing and sales throughout the Buyer’s Journey.

In listening to Mika and Adam discuss the pitfalls of campaign-based, tactical outbound engagement with buyers I was reminded of the old saying that “even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.” Traditional, tactical Demand Marketing activities have led to a state where we fail more than we succeed at meaningfully connecting with (and converting) prospects and customers. You will have the occasional success story when you ‘batch and blast’ a good piece of content, sponsor an event or host a webinar – but when you don’t make an effort to adapt your messages and interactions to the Buyer’s Journey then your Demand Marketing efforts will be erratic and inconsistent.

These one-off successes are the backbone of traditional B2B Demand Marketing, but are not the recipe for longer-term, predictable, sustained success.

Digital Transformation (generally speaking) has been defined as the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. The qualifier at the end of the definition about customer value is the key element when thinking about it from a marketing perspective, as the improvement of the customer experience (which includes their experience before they become customers) should be acknowledged as the heart and soul of Digital Demand Transformation.

The entire apparatus of people, process, content and technology needs to be operationalized around the buyer’s needs, and Marketing and Sales need to be more than coordinated or aligned — they need to be orchestrated. Technology needs to support the buyer journey, not dictate it. There is a very real opportunity for Demand Marketing to be more ‘right place, right time’ and adaptive to a buyer’s needs, but it is not an easy shift.

Check out the recording to gain insight into guiding and managing change in your organization, as well as guidance for creating a revenue-driven marketing organization. Topics include:

• The 5 elements of Digital Demand Transformation
• Moving to a perpetual, customer-centric Demand Marketing dialogue that improves the customer experience
• Adapting to (and recognizing) buyer needs as they change, and shifting to serve them more effectively
• Defining Sales and Marketing KPIs that drive actual business growth
• The underlying “best in class” tools and technology to enable the journey 

You need to have a culture that is ready for Digital Demand Transformation, because more than marketing needs to shift and change. True change will impact Marketing, Sales, IT, Finance and the rest of the leadership team, so strategic planning and change management expertise is required. Learn more here  — and access the webinar here.