So far in our B2B Marketing Trends Series, we have looked at Revenue Impact Marketing, Intent Data and Conversational Commerce. In our 3rd and final article looking at B2B Marketing and Ecommerce we dig deeper into how technology is playing a larger role in the marketing function and how you can stay ahead of the curve.
The Rise of the CMTO – Chief Marketing Technology Officer.
There are thousands of digital marketing tools – hundreds for each part of the buying process. From pay-per-cick (PPC) ad platforms with retargeting to social media publishing tools to video production and distribution to recommendation engines, live chat, optimised search, Content Management…
They all need to talk to each other. They all need to work to deliver a better customer experience and not add more friction. The rise of the Digital Experience Platform – the motivation behind Adobe’s acquisition of Magento and Saleforce buying Demandware (rebranded as Salesforce Commerce Cloud) is a recognition of the interactions between online behaviour, data, algorithms and ecommerce sales.
A balance needs to be struck between acquiring data and overstepping the boundaries when it comes to privacy or surveillance!
Every tool has a cost. Usually a monthly subscription based on users or usage, and it can all add up! With Revenue Impact Marketing in mind, each of these tools will make a different contribution to sales.
Then there is the talent element. Many tools never deliver their full potential because of a lack of expertise and resources to manage them. Something as ‘simple’ as retargeting is often never implemented because of a lack of training budget to support the implementation of a bright and shiny piece of marketing tech.
The reality is that the Marketing Director or CMO is probably not a ‘techie’, and the IT department doesn’t really ‘get’ marketing. So optimising the martech stack isn’t easy.
The concept of a Chief Marketing Technology Officer, which could be a fractional or outsourced role is akin to a Product Lead for marketing. This is someone who understands both the needs of marketing and knows how to look at metrics like “time to value” and how to run an RFP process.
Marketing as a Service (MaaS)
For the same reasons that you might need a Chief Marketing Technology Officer, you might need a different way of doing marketing – especially in a post COVID-19 world.
While your internal people may understand your products and services better than an agency could, they may not be up to speed on the latest technologies, trends and best practices. Digital transformation and technologies are creating new business models and operating modes.
The concept of Everything as a Service (XaaS) represents a shift in business thinking. You don’t need to own your own plant and equipment. Some airlines don’t even own the engines on their planes.
What if you could have the right marketing person, who understands the right technology and is an expert in the right tool at the right time? On-tap. Someone who is compensated and incentivised on Revenue Impact Marketing principles.
Your MaaS team could include a Fractional CMO, who is responsible for strategy, a CMTO who owns the marketing stack of systems and tools, experts in CRM and content creators.
B2B Leaders should leverage a MaaS agency with experience in a variety of areas to match the knowledge and skills gaps of the current team, whether it’s Account Based Marketing, demand generation, analytics, or content marketing.
What Next?
Even before 2020, business to business buyers were changing. They are getting younger, and they are expecting the same purchase journey as slick B2C sites like Amazon or Sephora. They have more access to information, from peers through social media and influencers on platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube.
Months of having to socially distance and restrict physical movement will have an impact on business events going forward. Conferences, Trade Shows and Exhibitions may become a smaller part of B2B marketing, replaced by virtual tools.
Marketplace dynamics and relationships are also changing. Technology is starting to ask questions about the need for distributors, resellers and other third parties. Just as a retail store’s ecommerce site can be open 24/7 and sell to the world, so can B2B companies take advantage of selling directly to customers.
The benefits of an online sales channel fit well with the larger B2B trends, whether they are Revenue Impact Marketing, Intent Data or Conversational marketing. All of these activities are supported by data and analytics driven by ecommerce tools and platforms.