Marketing Automation Predictions For 2013
The marketing automation platform (MAP) space has evolved during the last 12 months. Noting this trend, SiriusDecisions highlighted six ways the MAP market has evolved and broke it down into three broad categories: Marketplace Dynamics, MAP Technology and Customer Usage.
The Marketplace Dynamics
SiriusDecisions predicts that the MAP market will continue to consolidate, mainly those catering to the SMB market. In addition, non-traditional MAP offerings will enter the fray as content management system (CMS) vendors continue to incorporate MAP functionality into their product offerings.
With the growing revenue opportunity in the channel marketing and management (CMM) software category, it’s no surprise SiriusDecisions expects many CMM vendors will expand MAP offerings to channel organizations.
MAP Technology
According SiriusDecisions, leading MAP vendors will increase the sophistication and usability to their software offerings, and extend to organizations’ corporate web sites as well as include basic workflow processes.
Customer Usage
Recent research indicates that many marketing organizations are no longer simply scoring leads, instead they are delving into a more rigorous approach.
“Only 8% of B2B organizations leverage their investments to drive customer marketing,” said SiriusDecision’s research analyst, Jay Famico. “As organizations mature in their use of marketing automation, we see them leveraging their MAP investment beyond net new demand generation. A MAP can be used throughout the customer lifecycle, from delivery of training materials during onboarding to maintaining service levels and monitoring customer satisfaction.”
“Inbound marketing is a mandatory part of an effective #B2B marketing mix.” - SiriusDecision’s Group Director Jay Gaines at the #DemandCon keynote in Boston:
Cracking The Code Of Social Selling
Yesterday I braved the sweltering New York City temperatures to attend an equally heated discussion at the SiriusDecisions Social Selling Forum.
It was a great conversation. Sales and marketing personnel from ADP, Pitney Bowes and SAP, among others, shared their challenges, current initiatives and questions centered on social selling.
Jim Ninivaggi, Service Director, Sales Enablement Strategies, who led the event, noted that what we’re doing in the B2C world as consumers—like using social media and mobile to make more informed decisions — buyers also are doing in the B2B world. This is changing social selling.
The bottom line is that social is a largely untapped goldmine for not just B2B companies, but for marketing and sales reps, particularly. While many companies use social often at the top of the funnel, it also can be sued throughout the journey from cold to close — and beyond.
And as VP and Practice Director of Technology Jonathan Block noted, social media doesn’t lose effectiveness later in the buy cycle — if anything it becomes more important to other initiatives.
The group discussion was particularly interesting, as we talked about using social media to accomplish a number of different things including:
· The engagement points with B2B buyers, and how they are increasingly empowered upon their first interaction with sales.
Salespeople need to adapt to this shift, and understand directionally, what the buyer is interested in and what the buyer is interested in so they can more efficiently facilitate the discussion, and provide value that helps the buyer understand why they should continue the dialogue, and ultimately make a purchase.
Shifting Sales Environment Creating New Role For Enablement Solutions
· The organizational structure of social media, and how a lack of centralized ownership has led to an absence of strategy.
To the earlier point, changing sales engagement dynamics calls for a shift in the sales approach, and while most marketing sales organizations have recognized the seismic shift, many have done little to adjust.
· Applying the SiriusDecisions customer buying lifecycle framework to social strategy.
It’s critical for companies to understand the buying cycle stages, such as education, solution and vendor selection, to determine how social is used in each, as well as the most appropriate engagement resources that salespeople should be providing buyers.
· The role of social analytics and the need to provide the sales force with training on how to optimize their usage of the tools.
Social monitoring tools can effectively provide powerful market and competitive intelligence. Monitoring should be proactive (research-oriented) and reactive (defense-oriented).
Tapping Into The World Of Social Influence To Drive Sales
· Governance & policy providing an effective social execution framework.
If you’re going to call your company social, everyone in the organization has to be “socializing,” or leveraging social media, but you can’t expect everyone to know rules without implementing formal policies to help employees leverage social effectively.
-Amanda F. Batista
Continue the social selling conversation by following the #sdforum hashtag on Twitter.
Strategizing Your Marketing Organization Design: Tips To Accelerate 5 Changing Roles
Today’s B2B personnel wear so many hats — from content to social media optimization — there are a variety of operations that require an “all hands on deck” approach.
This morning at the SiriusDecisions Summit, John Neeson and Marilyn Reap highlighted the current marketing structure, and how it’s changing as a result of market factors and increased sales requirement.
As a result, today’s marketing disciplines cannot be confined to individual marketing functions; instead, they are required in various phases.
So what’s going on? Market changes are impacting and challenging the CMO, as well as the traditional marketing structure. And what should we do about it? We need to assess our team’s marketing skills and determine the most appropriate development to align the organization and drive efficiency.
Marketing roles are emerging due to changing buyer journey and sales needs, so it’s time to plan for these new roles and skills:
1. Social Media- product marketers, demand gen professionals need social media skills; those communication skills need to be embedded in the company culture.
2. Customer Marketing- the customer experience begins before they are an actual customer, and kicks into high gear once they become one.
3. Marketing Technology- marketers need technology to optimize their processes and operations, and this requires an investment in marketing technology, as well as a new skill set to leverage its full potential.
4. Content Marketing- the buyer calls the shots, and content is an integral part of the purchase process. Organizations need to empower personnel to understand target buyers and the most appropriate content offers across different phases and interactions.
5. Digital Marketing- as noted previously, technology and content is driving the change in the organization-wide approach to digital marketing. Companies need to understand how to leverage digital marketing in conjunction with other operations.
Most CMOs, the speakers noted, comment that some roles are being reversed, while others are changing in scope. For example:
· Event marketing is integrated with the program manager;
· The Marcomm manager now has an increased use of marketing agencies;
· Big ad agencies are out, while small, boutique agencies are in;
· Corporate communications overlaps with content strategy and social operations with a greater focus on the entire enterprise;
· Web marketing is now a centralized strategy executed regionally, while it used to be contained to one team; and
· Campaign managers now have a broader role that’s more strategic as an integrated journey manager.
If you were given 10% more budget, where would you spend it?
While marketing dominates, branding is often viewed as a luxury and is becoming more integrated into traditional marketing. In a SiriusDecisions survey, 35% of respondents said they’d take their extra budget and optimize demand creation while 17% said branding. A smaller percentage (13%) said content, as the high volume of it still needs to be more current and aligned to buyer’s journey.
Today the CMO faces pressures around measuring ROI
CMOs commented that most marketing discipline are going through change; the following 3 are priorities:
1. Demand creation- Changing from outbound campaigns and direct response — to inbound campaigns, outbound campaigns, sales-driven campaigns, demand centers and web resource federations. This model must be accelerated for success.
2. Sales enablement- Changing from sales role, part of sales operations, part time marketing role — to specific sales role, new marketing role, product marketing capability, which is becoming a more specific role than marketing.
3. Customer Marketing- Changing from part time role to a customer experience and service-exclusive role, including a product marketing capability. It’s also becoming more of an exclusive role reporting directly to the CMO.
SiriusDecisions Key Takeaways:
1. Start with the buyers journey
2. It’s not what’s in each marketing box, it’s about how they collectively operate in the ecosystem
3. Some roles are enablers
4. Others are disciplines
5. Technology and content are needed throughout the ecosystem
The Anatomy Of A Next-Gen B2B Campaign
This morning at the SiriusDecisions Summit, Tony Jaros and Craig Moore highlighted the need for marketers and salespeople to think differently about campaign initiatives.
SiriusDecisions glossary term:
Campaign- a tightly orchestrated set of jobs that feature inputs from a broad range of aligned marketing functions.
So how does the campaign “chain of events” look? Your outward communication with prospective buyers seeds your demand, and that demand is loaded up into your salesforce and nurtured. The salesforce is enabled with content and tools developed by sales and marketing to help accelerate the deal.
In order for a campaign to stick, though, according to SiriusDecisions, an organization must commit to it for more than a week. We talk a lot about thought leadership, particularly as it relates to content marketing collateral. These thought leadership efforts will need to be accentuated and supported, and that takes time, Jaros said.
“Sending out one piece of content is just not good enough,” he said. “It needs to be a continuous effort of prioritizing the solving of one need over others.”
How do you make case? Sales enablement!
Sales enablement is not a one size fits all endeavor, and organizations have to consider the various campaign types to understand how to progress prospects effectively. Campaign types:
1. New concept- Here you’re dealing with prospects who have an unrealized need. You need an investment emphasis that focuses on demand creation to identify early adopters that are not fully aware of their need yet. Educate the market and help them realize the need.
2. New paradigm- Ask customers to change the way they solve an existing problem. Balance efforts between demand creation, sales enablement and reputation. Identify alternative solutions that provide business value. Focus on sales enablement to provide tools and resources that demonstrate value in your solution.
3. Established market- You’re dealing with experienced buyers: people who understand products and market well. They need to see compelling value for solutions and services that help them make and save money. SiriusDecisions recommends strong investment in sales enablement here.
SiriusDecisions Key Action Items For Campaign Optimization:
Marketing:
• Audit current state of linkage between reps, demand creation and sales enablement.
• Bring together a core group of marketing function to pilot a complete long-term campaign.
Sales:
• Align operation/enablement activities with the proposed marketing campaigns.
• Ensure acceleration activities are tied to the types of leads that sales will both create and receive.
SiriusDecisions Managing Director and Co-Founder Rich Eldh welcomes nearly 1,000 B2B sales and marketing professionals to the 2012 Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The Sales & Marketing Alignment Solution: Innovation!
Sales & Marketing Alignment has always been the thorn in B2B companies’ sides. But today, Rich Eldh, Managing Director and Co-Founder of SiriusDecisions, encouraged approximately 1,000 attendees at the SiriusDecisions Summit today in Scottsdale, Ariz. to think about the paradigm differently.
“The focus on sales and marketing alignment has not been over discussed or over-valued,” Eldh said. “We’ve recognized it’s a mandate to continue down this journey.”
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Marketers and salespeople need to work collaboratively to drive success, and similar to a symphony orchestra, Eldh said, everybody has a role and responsibility.
Marketers and sales people strive for attention from buyers to promote revenue growth. Today’s buyers are educated and empowered, and the old-school touches and tactics simply don’t make the cut. But if sales & marketing organizations are tightly integrated, that impacts revenue health positively.
“The question isn’t whether you need to align sales & marketing efforts, it’s what are the results you’re going to get!” Eldh said.
Even more telling, SiriusDecisions has found that organizations that do effectively align their sales & marketing strategies realize a 5.3x revenue growth and 6.2x profitability growth.
“Sales and marketing integration and alignment is in fact innovative because it’s enabling us to improve upon our process and communication as we grow our companies.”
Stay tuned for more Summit takeaways from the DemandGen Report blog!
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