4 Marketing Strategy Predictions

Hi guys for those of you that don’t know me my name is ian and i’m vp of marketing at customergauge we’re an account experience software made specifically for b2b companies to get more revenue out of their accounts and blah blah blah blah blah you’re already bored let’s move on

okay so before we kick this thing off and i accept my award i wanted to say thank you to mi9 new zealand for reaching out to me and wait there’s there’s no award well what the hell am i gonna tell my mother barry so the award got lost in the mail or something um let’s move on let’s move on but seriously thank you to mi9nz for asking me to talk to you about my four marketing predictions for the post covid world so let’s dive right in and start with the obvious one

change will be a constant as marketers if you don’t think change is coming i believe you’ll be on the wrong side of history we’re already seeing massive changes in the marketing landscape as a result of privacy concerns and covid like no physical events less ip address identification capabilities for abm targeting struggles to land direct mail to intended recipients browsers blocking pixels and a bunch of other changes that are presenting marketers with new challenges every single day so how can you possibly prepare for an evolving landscape like the one we’re facing you’ll be well served to start scenario planning right now and this is essentially when you run through different scenarios to try and anticipate possible future outcomes and how they may affect your current marketing strategies and tactics then link your creative scenario planning to operations so you’ll be able to effectively implement a pre-existing planto react in real time to actual market changes

and that’s a hell of a mouthful and i’m sorry but there are some great examples of companies leveraging scenario planning during times of crisis to better navigate the challenges they present a great example of this is shell during the oil crisis go check it out point being i truly believe that the marketing landscape will continue to change in more profound ways faster than ever in the not so distant future and you better have a plan because pretending it’s not happening and just running the same playbook will not end well for you

okay enough doom and gloom let’s go on to prediction number two b2b marketers will reposition their messaging around saving money or making money gdps across the globe continue to dip significantly in 2020 and while some economists predict a v-shape recovery with rising cases of covid and countries like the u.s paired with high potential for a secondwave marketers must prepare for what seems like at least two years of economic uncertainty as companies continue to prepare for this long stretch of uncertainty tech and service budgets will tighten and tech stacks will be heavily heavily scrutinized businesses will start questioning what software is essential or not essential and i believe that companies will bucketize their decisions into whether the software service is making the company money or saving the company money marketers must pivot their messaging to align with one of these two buckets if they want to thrive in the post-covid world and if you’re out in no man’s land between the two buckets with no clear alignment with either just some fancy jargon i’m telling you right now you’re at risk

okay prediction number three mission-driven positioning will be the new growth lever for brands and marketers and let’s be honest with each other 2020 has been one hell of a ride already as an American i don’t really remember the last time i’ve experienced such an extreme range of emotions in such a short amount of time on the one hand i was filled with immense pride as a nation with hope forthe future as space x docked two astronauts into the international spacestation marking the era of commercial space flight it’s not out of the realm of possibility that my kids may get to personally experience space flight in their lifetimes that is a crazy crazy thought to me then on the other hand i can’t truly put into words how deeply saddened i am by the continued unjust treatment of the black community yeah i’m encouraged by the largest demonstration of civil rights solidarity in history across nearly every major city in the united states

in such a dynamic environment i do not think brands can sit on the sidelines mission-driven brands that take a stand for what they believe in and strive to affect change will be the new growth levers for businesses in 2020 and beyond there’s already great precedent for this by brands like north face standing up against environmental exploitation and nike against racial injustice and i believe this is just the beginning effective brands big and small will leverage emotional triggers and trust by aligning with social issues that better position their product or service in the mind of their potential consumers so pick your side be authentic stand up and go all ina nd finally last but not least prediction number four apple will release an iphone with 12 cameras sorry that was so stupid all right moving on

but seriously prediction number four is marketers will lead the buyer and customer centric revolutions and align their marketing efforts with revenue according to the harvard business review pay of cmos is on the decline versus all other c-level roles this is a bit concerning if you’re a marketer pair this with a couple of other high-profile marketing events like mcdonald’s cmo of the uk getting let goand companies across the globe clamping down on digital ad spend like coke halting all social media advertising and verizon clipping down on digital spend it paints a pretty bleak picture for marketers everywhere but it’s not really that surprising during times of uncertainty marketing is usually one ofthe first areas companies big and small look to reduce costs but i believe there is hope for us all if the correct steps are taken especially in b2b i believe marketers are at an inflection point the tide is turning and you better get ready for it or you’ll be left in the dust for too long marketers have focused on their needs their mql numbers their content but i believe we’ll look back on these last few months and identify this time period as the pointat which the floodgates opened

b2c marketers have known this secret for awhile and here it is make things easy for your consumers and they’ll buy more return more often and refer you more customers b2b marketers however have been stuck ina rut we know in our gut that buyer centricity is the right path forward butwe’re still dealing with our current realities we have our entire funnels baked to promote the generation of the mql that converts to wins in the single digits if we’re lucky to put it lightly we’re inefficient and we’re  only focused on our own selfish needs instead of focusing on what our buyers want and catering to their past to purchase i believe that this will change drastically over the next year good b2b marketers will be buyer-centric first and focus on generating revenue and pipeline for sales instead of mqls gone will be the days of asking prospects to fill out a 12 question form for an awareness level ebook and then running an sdr cycle on that action i believe that marketers will give away more information for free and ask fornothing in return then capitalize on high converting events that correlate directly with intent

yes some marketers are already there but i believe that we’ll see a shift at a larger scale over the next couple years and this next bit is super important once marketers align with revenue production at a deeper level it will be more and more difficult to deny their direct impact on the bottom line and their role will be solidified at the table in good times and in bad and speaking of aligning with revenue it’s not just for marketers if you want to get and keep the attention of your c-suite your ceo your cfo it’s all about revenue growth it never changes and if you want to see how b2b companies are aligning their account experience efforts with revenue in real time to prove the roi of their programs checkout customergauge.com thanks again for listening my name is ian till next time