Many of my blogs have focused on what I see from businesses that are either making or are preparing to make the shift from traditional B2B marketing to the modern approach of Demand Generation.
Knowing where to start is daunting as there are so many permutations available, and the levels of risk is often perceived as too high. Some businesses will start to manage the process themselves with a vast choice in technology, required skill sets and multiple third party providers. This group may or may not continue or start to engage with a Demand Generation specialist, while others will go direct to the third party.
Regardless of size, industry, turnover, geographical location or position in their own buyer journey there are similarities, which link this proactive and innovative group.
Common issues of a modern B2B Marketing Department
1) Willingness to inject needed change to differentiate the overall business from their competitors. This is a necessity as without this there will not be the correct level of business buy-in, appreciation of what is required and realistic expectation of results. 65% of B2Bs feel their marketing department could do a better job staying in touch with their audience.
2) Tightening of the marketing and sales relationship required from one of disconnect to a more collaborative and uniformed approach to driving revenue for the business, long term.
3) Lack of or no budget when it comes to investing, and deploying a digital marketing landscape. Only 33% of companies who use both CRM and marketing automation said the two integrated well.
4) Current marketing team is small in size, has a traditional approach and culturally too product focused and not customer centric. Only 8% of businesses rate their marketing teams strong across all digital areas.
5) No time or budget to recruit a team which spans the Demand Generation functions of inbound, marketing technology and content with the resource to then manage and deploy.
These may look like a lot of reasons not to change how the business functions between marketing and sales and it’s easier to carry on as you always have done. However, this does no one any good in the long term. An approach that has been working well with our clients is Demand Generation as a Managed Service. The business is able to implement the required change through the support and access to functional specialists and marketing technology such as Marketing Automation Platforms on a monthly basis over an agreed period of time, working to an agreed plan. The main thing here to point out is that both parties are committed. It is not simply left to one to drive the activity, it’s a partnership to drive success and deploy the ultimate infrastructure that works.
To learn more about how your businesses can succeed when it comes to modern marketing download our infographic to understand what is required functionally in Demand Generation. Alternatively if any of this is resonating with your business contact Andrea Glenn on AGlenn@ledgerbennett.com for more information.