In the ever-evolving landscape of marketing, I believe marketing professionals are currently finding themselves at a significant crossroads. Traditional strategies that once yielded significant results are no longer delivering the same impact. Account-Based Marketing (ABM) didn't turn out to be the silver bullet many had hoped for. Multi-touch attribution failed to provide the reliable insights needed to refine successful tactics. Even stalwarts like email, paid social, and SEO are underperforming compared to their heydays a decade ago. Finally, as we stand on the brink of anew era that will surely be indelibly marked by generative AI, the uncertainty about its potential impact adds another layer of complexity to the current marketing equation.
The Shifting Tide of Buyer Behavior
Conversations with CMOs and cybersecurity marketing teams over the past two years reveal that despite the abundance of marketing technology, achieving goals has become harder than ever. Clearly, macroeconomic factors play a role, but there's also a sense that all the technology has potentially generated the opposite effect that we had all predicted it would have—it has made our jobs harder.
The Traditional Playbook is Failing
The traditional B2B marketing playbook, which involved using gated content to capture leads, nurturing those leads until they were sales-ready, scoring them, and passing them to an SDR for qualification, is no longer as effective. This approach, which scaled by hiring more SDRs and focused on measurability and attribution to revenue, served well 15 years ago.It moved marketing from being seen as "arts and crafts" to a critical component of the revenue discussion. However, this playbook is foundering in the face of the current climate of buyer indifference. Buyers have become savvy to these tactics, are overwhelmed, and prefer to do their research anonymously, within the "dark funnel," making it difficult for marketers to gain visibility into the buying process.
Over-Reliance on Measurability
The most recent focus on measurability has led to over investment in demand capture activities, which are easier to measure in the middle and upper funnel, and under investment in brand building and awareness. While these metrics provided some amount of clarity initially, they also constrained marketers, preventing them from investing in activities that are harder to measure but crucial for long-term success. It has also brought the entire marketing discipline to a moment of reckoning where the expectation of automation has become the default practice, and a generation of “set it and forget it” marketers are now coming to grips with the fact that they may have neglected some of their responsibilities toward longer-term strategies.
According to the Gartner CMO Spend andStrategy Survey 2024, despite having the highest reported budget this year, CMOs are struggling with the lasting impact of inflation and a mixture of internal and external factors making it hard to achieve their budgetary targets. Marketing is increasingly viewed as a cost center, with colleagues doubting its contribution to profit required for growth.
Back to Branding
As a result of these factors, I predict that brand marketing will make a strong comeback in the immediate future. I believe this will be spurred by the concerns about the impact of generative AI on a brand’s perception of authenticity. To make a brand feel and convey human emotion, it must stand out and appeal to human emotion in some way. It also must be stated, for the record, that marketers seem to have forgotten in the most recent B2B marketing era that all demand generation performs better when supported by a strong brand. It's not just about the colors, logo, or website design; it's about what your target market thinks and feels about your brand when you're not in the room.
As Jon Miller, founder of Marketo and Engagio, stated in a recent webinar, “Your brand is the emotional aftertaste left by all interactions with your business.” Every interaction should reinforce your core positioning and values.
To succeed, your brand needs to provide value, and the best places to start are:
- Educate the market. Offer insights, tutorials, and resources that help your audience solve problems or achieve their goals.
- Produce quality content. Put some skin in the game- and take the stage. Be brave enough to be there live to present, or to have a strong opinion. It will help you stand out.
- Own your topic/solution category. Ensure you have an angle or a differentiated point of view and a team of people who can convey it to the market.
- Stay close to your customers. Go above and beyond in helping your customers navigate challenges with your products or services and help them tell their stories about their experiences with your technology.
- Build community. Create platforms or forums where customers can connect, share experiences, and support each other and ensure that feeling is associated with your brand.
What do all these tactics have in common? They’re hard. They require a lot of contemplation, reflection, grit and determination. None are easy - but it is the kind of work that pays significant dividends. This isn’t a short game with instant gratification - it’s a long game. That means a marketer must swim against the current tide of demand capture activities that are intended to feed the short-sighted MQL monsters.
The Importance of “Skin in the Game”
The goal of marketing should not be to automate every aspect and remove human interaction but to create relationships and connections. This includes leveraging events, digital connections, content strategy, direct mail, and other personalized outreach efforts to build rapport before diving into a sales pitch.
Traditional metrics like MQLs and marketing-sourced pipeline can be problematic because they often fail to capture the complexity of the buyer's journey. Instead, focus on account-level metrics and qualified buying groups. Engagement is a critical leading indicator. Remember the old adage: “before people spend money with you, they spend time with you.” Tracking how much time prospects spend with your content and how many accounts move from "not in market" to "in market" can provide valuable insights.
Embracing the Future with Authenticity,Engagement, and Innovation
The marketing landscape may be changing, but the core principle remains the same: provide genuine value to your customers. By putting your skin in the game and focusing on authenticity, engagement, and innovation, you can navigate the complexities of today's market and build lasting connections with your audience.
If you'd like to brainstorm the best way to position your brand and design your campaigns, we'd love to partner with you. Get started here and we’ll look forward to speaking with you.
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