Driving Demand – necessary for marketers, but easy to fall into the trap of the same rational messages, over and over again. 

But with the right confluence of data and creativity, lighting can strike, and you could be developing the most impactful demand campaign of your career! Or your creative brain could be bone dry. 

So how can you balance data and creativity to drive exponential demand? How can you balance empathy for the emotional side of decision-making with the all important messages that your rational business needs cherish and champion? 

Hear success stories from our Guest Speaker, Ben Grossman, Chief Strategy Officer of Doner Partners Network, about putting creativity to work to drive demand and help brands matter more to their audiences. Ben has been through the trenches of the marketing world and has set the strategy for some of the world’s foremost brands, including Google, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Stellantis, Lincoln Financial, Eaton, Blue Cross Blue Shield, L.L.Bean, Vistaprint and many more. 

Hosted by Nikki Candito - VP of Demand Strategy and seasoned B2B Marketer. Nikki has the real-world experience of getting down and dirty into the nitty-gritty of our jobs and finding success in them, and failure too! No story is too small not to share. 

And  

Tricia Ruiz, Content Manager, and storyteller. Tricia has been telling stories as an actor for the past decade on a stage and brings the creativity of theatre to the hall of B2B. Every voice matters and deserves to be heard - her mission is to elevate others - those who have done the work, to tell their story. 

What you will learn: 

Where to prioritize data and where to prioritize creativity in demand program creation.

How to understand customer empathy and learn from their voice. 

How to shift your demand program to maximize your team’s creativity. 

Ben Grossman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bengrossman/

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It’s far too easy for B2B marketers to become fixated on one or two KPIs and lose sight of what really drives revenue, particularly in the age of digital-first, multi-channel campaigns. Not only do the old go-to's of CPL or CTR not encompass every digital touchpoint, but they also tend to ignore influencers and other key contacts in the group decision-making process. This results in missed opportunities and fatigued first-party lists.

Lana Warner, Director, Partnerships and Client Strategy at Lotame, says marketers need to take the initiative to collaborate with sales to create a complete, data-driven view of their customers, from the high funnel to repeat purchases. Ths close collaboration should also extend to data partners, to ensure they are keeping pace with the rapidly evolving technologies that B2B decision-makers rely on.

Warner suggests that marketers ask how their data partners plan to manage and refresh their contact data as new tech and workforce shifts, such as The Great Resignation, reshape the B2B landscape. If your partner isn’t employing identity graph or machine learning analytics, you probably need to be looking for a new data partner, she says.

Lana Warner, Director, Partnerships and Client Strategy at Lotame

Listen to learn the following:

✅ How marketing and sales need to cooperate to build buying group models that include late funnel or unexpected signals to paint a complete picture of your best customers.

✅ Why you should always be on the lookout for new or revitalized tactics for data-driven segmentation, such as working closely with publishers to overlay your data and target hyper-valuable prospects.

✅ Why you need to ensure that your data partner is using the latest technologies to ensure that its data is clean, comprehensive and relevant.

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Digital marketing has opened the door to a new world of potential customers who were once off most B2B sellers’ radar. But with these new audiences comes the challenge of quickly engaging them with information that’s relevant to their daily work. A customer service manager might become a great advocate for your ticketing solution, but they aren’t likely to make it to page 15 of that C-Suite whitepaper to see what’s in it for them.

Kathi Gray, Digital Marketing Manager at OpenText, says expanding her target audiences to include influencers and other Buying Group personas has been a key challenge in the information management giant’s push to digital-first marketing. A relationship with OpenText represents a major investment for most customers, and so the focus has always been on the C-Suite and their need for the big picture, Gray says. But channels like social and programmatic display are driven by quick-but-powerful messaging that starts a conversation – or sometimes lets a smart marketer edge into an ongoing discourse.

Gray says intent data is more important now than ever in identifying what prospects really want to talk about. Marketers have to be eager to listen and adapt, she says, and they need to regularly revisit their increasingly complex digital campaigns to optimize for what’s working.

Kathi Gray, Digital Marketing Manager, OpenText

Listen to learn the following:

✅ How optimizing multi-channel digital strategies is a continuous process of reviewing performance metrics and finding the best ways to engage key Buying Group members.

✅ Why digital marketing is moving away from its classic mission to “educate” and is focusing on “engaging” prospects around quick, compelling messages.

✅ Why digital-first communication has actually led to building stronger relationships with customers and co-workers.

Connect with Kathi Gray on LinkedIn

linkedin.com/in/kathigray

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Actionable data is the lifeblood of modern B2B marketing. But without common definitions and standards, data loses its value. And you might be surprised to learn that marketing can be an organizational leader when it comes to setting such guideposts.

Data Analyst Theresa Kushner says true data quality begins at the collection stage, where siloed groups often cultivate stats and data points that suit their objectives, but not those of the entire organization. She recalls a conflict between a company’s sales and product team over late shipments. Turns out, the product team was simply changing the schedule to ensure “on-time” deliveries, regardless of when orders actually shipped.

Experiences like these led Kushner to conclude that marketing can be the “glue,” as she puts it, to help develop and maintain a core set of standards about how data defines your business. This begins with the most fundamental of definitions – exact who is your customer? The answer is not as clear-cut for many businesses as it should be, she says.

What you will learn from this episode:

✅ How CMOs need to focus on creating a single, clear personal entity that accurately combines all the various data and representations they collect about each individual buyer.

✅ Why marketing can be the “glue” that ensures everyone, from sales to customer success, is working from the same definition of who the customer actually is.

✅ Why marketing needs to expand its view of data beyond basic demographics and transactions to understand the real cost and opportunities of serving customers.

Theresa Kushner,

Consultant, AI/Analytics, NTT Data

Connect with Theresa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresakushner/

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Every contact with a B2B prospect impacts their ultimate purchase decision. To win their business, you need to gather, understand, and precisely act on enormous amounts of data that tells you who your prospects are and what they need. That’s the vision behind MerittB2B’s decision to join forces with True Influence to create a new, comprehensive customer data and campaign execution platform.

“We’re going to be the unique set of complementary assets that creates a unique value proposition to the marketplace, and let people chase us,” said Rob Sanchez, CEO of MeritB2B, about his company's recently-announced decision to acquire True Influence.

Sanchez and RK Maniyani, True Influences’ CTO, say that the combination of MerittB2B’s advanced data management and analytics capabilities and True Influence’s demand generation services and intent data technology will create a platform that encompasses most of the digital journey.

Near-term plans for 2022 include pumping new data feeds from MeritB2B into the True Influence Marketing Cloud™ and scaling up demand generation services for MerittB2B’s existing customer base. The ultimate vision is to create a Customer Data Platform that empowers revenue marketers to execute on a complete view of their prospects and accounts.

Rob Sanchez, CEO, MeritB2B

RK Maniyani, CTO, MeritB2B

What you will learn from this episode:

How MeritB2B’s data and analytics expertise will combine with True Influence’s campaign execution and measurement services to create a comprehensive digital platform.

Why combining campaign, demographic and transactional data creates a new level of customer intelligence.

How differences in corporate culture and process can actually be an asset in innovation and cross-learning.

You can connect with Rob on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rob-sanchez-275750b

You can connect with RK on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rmaniyani

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By building data-driven pipeline strategies, enterprise Revenue Marketing can be the cohesive force that aligns sales and marketing operations behind a common goal – revenue. Aristomenis Capogeannis, Director of Revenue Marketing for NVIDIA, says that he tells his team to base every decision on omni-channel data – not instinct or intuition.

A data-driven approach is especially critical for a massive business like NVIDIA, whose audiences and products range from consumer to data center. Capogeannis says his role is to win buy-in for new approaches with “snackable” data points that clearly show the revenue win, then build integrated pipeline strategies that let individual teams execute on what they do best.

Aristomenis Capogeannis, Director, Revenue Marketing, NVIDIA

Listen to learn from Aristomenis Capogeannis’s episode:

How a commitment to omni-channel attribution is essential to modeling out personal and account-level purchase journeys.

Why net new leads need to be presented with a cohesive set of informational experiences that let them direct how they want the conversation to proceed.

Why enterprise revenue marketers need to make the transition from executional to strategic thinking.

Connect with Aristomenis Capogeannis on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aricapo

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Decision-makers can interact with your content 50 or more times during the complex B2B buying journey. Rachit Dayal, the Chief Marketing Officer, APAC, for leading CXM provider Merkle, stresses that each of these touchpoints, particularly in the high funnel, doesn’t have to be a home run. Content is just a way to get your message across, Dayal says, and so long as it’s enjoyable and provides useful information it’s done the job, regardless of delivery format.

Dayal’s content strategies lean on creativity and a willingness to experiment across all channels, including consumer or lifestyle video. His philosophy is informed by his experience in different markets, where prospects’ expectations and reactions to content can vary widely.

Rachit Dayal, Chief Marketing Officer, APAC at Merkle

Listen to learn the following:

How to build distinct content strategies for long-range enterprise campaigns and for smaller B2B deals that fall within the existing budget.

Why B2B marketers need to stick with their creative ideas and tactics beyond “Season 1” and give them time to build momentum.

How B2B marketers can learn a lot from B2C’s focus on just making potential customers want to get to know you.

 

Connect with Rachit Dayal on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/rachitdayal

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Q4 is typically a challenging time for B2B marketers, as they face pressure to help land last-minute revenue and keep the ball rolling toward a solid Q1. Jessie Johnson, a principal analyst at Forrester, says now is the time for marketers to stay focused on enabling their prospects and target accounts to make the right purchase decisions and “stop counting leads,” as she puts it.

The best plan for accelerating momentum in Q4, Johnson says, is to listen to the signals Buying Group members are creating on your website and in your digital channels. Put your resources into facilitating the next step in those conversations. That’s the definition of enabling a prospect, which Johnson says is the real goal of ABE – not simply generating clicks that don’t move the decision forward.

One smart way to accomplish this is to identify content that is already connecting with Buying Group champions and then personalize it for an amplified outreach to influencers, Johnson says.

Jessie Johnson, Principal Analyst, Demand Marketing, Forrester

L:isten to learn the following:

✅ How to maintain focus on your prospects’ goals while amplifying successful tactics to build momentum and kickstart conversations heading into the new year.

✅ How the consumerization of the B2B buying experience has raised the expectations of prospects for real-time, self-guided purchase support.

✅ Why careful planning of your content will allow you to cost-effectively create personalized tactics that can accelerate momentum in your pipeline.

You can connect with Jessie on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessiejohnson/

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News that Apple is tightening privacy settings in its email services, along with a new wave of regulations coming under the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), has some B2B marketers questioning the future of email in connecting with in-market prospects.

Ray Estevez, True Influence’s Chief Information Officer, says marketers should embrace these changes as a step in the ongoing evolution toward omni-channel strategies and reporting. Email opens, the tracking metric most directly impacted by Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection initiative, is already a low priority for B2B marketers, who should already be focused on what content is driving clicks and first-party engagement. Don’t rely on platform providers like Apple as your main source of behavioral data.

Estevez also encourages B2B marketers to invest in attribution and analytics systems that show how email, programmatic, inbound and Connected TV (CTV) work together to build relationships. Privacy should be viewed as a best practice, he adds, and marketers should view new regulations like California Privacy Right Act (CPRA) as a baseline for building their plan moving forward.

Ray Estevez, Chief Information Officer, True Influence

Listen to learn the following:

✅ How Apple’s recent email privacy changes and the CPRA are likely to affect how marketers can measure email response.

✅ Why B2B marketers need to move toward omni-channel strategies that move prospects toward deeply engaged first-party relationships.

✅ How multi-channel attribution and purchase journey modeling is the key to generating revenue and proving ROI for your marketing budget.

Connect with Ray Estevez on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayestevez/

Read Ray's article, mentioned in this episode, right here: https://trueinfluence.com/zero-party-data-what-it-is-how-it-can-benefit-your-business-and-how-its-different-from-other-data-types/

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In this Accelerating Revenue Series episode, Joe discusses his own strategies for the coming year and how he’s planning to make an impact, not only by driving revenue but by helping shape the direction of the fast-growing marketing tech and services company. 

He stresses the importance of getting a commitment from sales to see these strategies through to the payoff in SALs and improved engagement metrics, which may not happen until six or more months from now.

Joe Martin, VP of Digital and Demand Marketing at Scorpion

Listen to learn the following:

How to communicate the value of marketing strategies to build buy-in from the entire company, from the CMO to Sales.

The importance of revisiting marketing metrics and identifiers on a regular basis, to guarantee the strategies you’ve laid out still sync with the business’ goals.

How to evaluate key partnerships to ensure they are an asset, and not a distraction, for the strategies you’ve set.

 

Connect with Joe Martin on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemartinmba/

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