Connected Marketing v The Silo Approach August 13, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Behavioural, Cross Channel Attribution, Digital Agencies, Marketing and Demand, Sales and Marketing, Search, Search Agencies, Social Media, Talent Management, Uncategorized.comments closed
I have been talking a lot recently about connected marketing. Maybe it will become one of the numerous over-used industry phrases.
I hope so as it’s bang on the money.
Fragmentation within disciplines
Yes, yet another new buzz word in the industry, is a challenge that many marketers face:
For example;
• Fragmentation in SEO – content and link strategies, black/grey/white hat, universal search, and social media optimization
• Fragmentation in PPC – localization, personalization, universal search, cross channel attribution
• Fragmentation in Display – Audience networks and Ad networks
Fragmentation in the Industry
Brands have a difficult choice to make in vendor selection. Is it?
Tier One/Full service agencies, larger specialist digital or search specialist, the pure play SEO, the pure play PPC and SEO company, the ‘boutique agency’, the freelancer, the technology provider and agency, the consultancy, the in-house team, or a combination of some/all?
Fragmentation within the Digital organization
Basically this relates to discord between;
- Sales and marketing functions
- Marketing, sales and operational and the specialist departments who are the knowledge backbone of the company.
- (The ‘Snake Oil Salesman’ v the ‘non commercial technical specialist’ -that’s another post on its very own!!)
- Discord and Alignment between emerging media teams, social media teams, search and display teams, media planners and buyers, technology and consultancy, affiliate, rich media and so forth
The list goes on…..
The Challenge
The common challenge marketers now find is how to ‘connect the dots’ and ensure that any search or digital discipline is not viewed in a silo. Clients want to see streamlined search and digital solutions.
Many practitioners tend to focus solely on their field of discipline (be it search, seo, display, email, or affiliate).
That’s fine as clients and in-house departments want to learn about specific domains of specialism. However – If you ask them would they like to see a little bit also on how this fits in their marketing mix and with other channels I bet most say yes.
Insights into a solution
If you are in the US and you agree, then you need to get to Connected Marketing week in San Francisco next week;
It will be the biggest gathering of interactive marketing events aiming to educate marketers on every aspect of the digital industry. Participating events include SES San Francisco, Online Marketing Summit (OMS), Jeff Pulver’s 140 Characters Conference, Email Experience Council, IAB and Tim Ash’s Conversion Conference.
http://www.connectedmarketingweek.com
“With ClickZ’s Connected Marketing Week, we’re launching a new vision of marketing – one that incorporates not just search but the reality that a successful marketing program has to incorporate an understanding of just how audiences are connecting and sharing vital information,” said Mike Grehan, Global Vice President of Content, SES, Search Engine Watch and ClickZ. “We’ve lined up the top organizations in the marketing industry to present, share and mingle with marketers during our festival.”
I am very interested to see how many speakers will just do a one product presentation.
Even just one slide on how it connects with other media would be nice, No?
The solution
In a follow post I will report on the key takeaways and show you how marketers can work closely in a matrix type structure to meet the changing demands of clients and their audiences. This will include;
• How to build better relations with their prospects by not just focusing on their core product in a silo and showing how their product and services ‘connect’ with the rest of the digital marketing mix.
• Giving insights into what clients want, how they like to see information shared, and how they view connected marketing.
For example – Search Marketing needs to connect the dots between;
Search management
Search optimisation
Crosss Channel Attribution
Digital optimisation
Onsite optimisation
Behavioural and re-targeting
• Provide examples as to how agencies and search/digital providers alike can build better relations with their in-house peers (marketing and product specialists) by sharing insight, avoiding conflict between domains of specialism, share knowledge on the different audience type profiles across their digital disciplines and win more business
If you’re a marketer, brand, consultant, specialist, or full service agency….We are all in it to win right?
Hence we should be ‘connecting the dots’ between our products and services and between our company colleagues and specialist departments (internally) to build an even brighter future for Search and Digital
Watch this space on how to begin to ‘connect them dots’
CEO’s give Marketing Grades – A B or C July 28, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Digital Agencies, Marketing and Demand, Sales and Marketing, Search Agencies.comments closed
Following on from my articles on Marketing and Innovation – I read a great article from Marketo recently that talks about what CEO’s want from marketing. Whilst some CEO’s may disagree, I think many forwarding think CEO’s will agree.
I am a big believer in Innovation of talent (let’s call it a hobby). In my experience changing the way you do things, optimising and retaining talent, and being more strategic and creative in how you approach Sales and Marketing is just as important as Innovation in products and service offerings. In fact, in many cases, it is far more important – What’s the point in investing big money in products and services if you cannot market and sell as efficiently as possible?
The article states that
“67% of CEOs give their marketing departments a grade of a “B” or “C”. Those that gave their companies an “A” did so because marketing programs made an impact in their organization, and marketing was able to document their contribution. This is key for the CEO to understand that the marketing dollars being spent are to create more revenue than what the programs are costing.”
With 4 key tips
Focus on the entire revenue cycle to deliver qualified opportunities and revenue
Build alignment between marketing and sales
Measure and forecast metrics that matter to the CEO
Be a strategic advisor that drives plans for future revenue growth
The full article is here
Right Media Exchange, Yahoo, Pilot For SEMs, DSP’s and Partnerships July 22, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Digital Buzz, Google and MicroYahoo, Marketing and Demand, Search, The Future.comments closed
Well. Quite a timely announcement was made today.
This follows on from my post 2 days ago and a recent post I wrote on Econsultancy on the rise of demand side platforms and the relationships with search.
Extract from my post ” Google’s purchase of Invite Media shows how serious this opportunity is. Yahoo has the technology, and many companies in the USA and in the UK are launching, testing and building DSPs as you read.”
Ramsey McGrory, Yahoo! VP and Head of Right Media Exchange has announced plans for Yahoo!’s display advertising exchange – Right Media Exchange.
With regard to SEM Ramsay states;
“We’ve augmented the DSP Pilot in two ways. One is that we’ve created another track with SEMs [which includes] Kenshoo, Marin, SearchIgnite and Efficient Frontier. They’re all significant partners of Yahoo! They all have either already said, or they are moving towards a more integrated product and service around a combination of search and display.
We love the fact that they are already significant partners and we’ve got great trusted relationships. They, by and large, have the DNA of a technology company that understands algorithmic disk‑based systems.
I think relative to the DSPs, they probably don’t have the same level of fluency yet in all of the different variables and all the different things that happen in display. So, we’ll be working with them more collaboratively on things like pricing strategy where they’ll take the knowledge that they have in search and try to apply it in display”
Retargeting – This is something I also mentioned in a recent post. Yahoo has a search retargeting product which has been very successful. Yahoo want to work with SEM;s and leading technology companies such as SearchIgnite to figure out the missing pieces between search and display buying in one platform.
Sales and Marketing Integration in a Digital Agency July 19, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Consultancy, Digital Agencies, Marketing and Demand, Search Agencies, Talent Management.comments closed
Two of the most important business competencies necessary to generate demand, capture revenue, and gain competitive advantage are Sales and Marketing. Many agencies find the current relationship between sales and marketing is more antagonistic than synergistic.
“Sales departments tend to believe that marketers are out of touch with what’s really going on in the marketplace. Marketing people, in turn, believe the sales force is myopic–too focused on individual customer experiences, insufficiently aware of the larger market, and blind to the future. In short, each group undervalues the other’s contributions. Both stumble (and organizational performance suffers) when they are out of sync.” – Harvard Business Review
This divide is down to 3 reasons:
Cultural – The Marketing and Sales department have vastly different groups of people.
Marketing have a traditional conception and view of marketing. The skill sets, educational, product and market knowledge, are far apart. Sales and Marketing need to know the product and market as a core skill. Marketing extends beyond just brand marketing and needs to generate demand (a lead in not necessarily qualified demand), engage, and be sales led with ROMI (return on marketing investment) targets.
Economical and Political – This relates to power, perception, and accountability in 3 of the for 4 P’s. Promotion, Place, and Product.
The fact is that innovation in sales and marketing structure will reduce costs and rapidly improve revenue. Politics, on the other hand, can ruin company growth – especially when looking at sales and marketing synergy. If someone is good at something – let them do it (be it an exec or a VP). Build around skill sets, experience, and results . If your objective is to get the best results then companies need to do this. Sadly, many companies fail to build Sales and Marketing departments based on objective factors and make subjective decisions based on ‘feeling’, personal relationships and agenda, length of service, or because they feel the need to take less risk averse strategy – an economic smokescreen. Subjective elements are important factors to consider but making decisions based purely on these factors alone will not get results.
Organisational – Strategies and programs have been developed in isolation, customer, and prospect information should not be silod and be shared.
Many Sales and Marketing departments have little/no communication with production/operational divisions. Product Managers/Teams should be collaborating closely with sales and marketing. This fuels marketing activity, messaging, and sales activity. Interdepartmental engagement and processes (the pitch/RFP at the end of the process) is a key issue that needs to be addressed rapidly within many organisations.
As Digital agencies become more competitive marketing faces a tough task. However, with so many engagement tools out there in a market full of Innovation it is surprising that few companies actually use ‘digital marketing to market their digital service’. It is even more surprising that many CEO’s do not look at innovation in Sales and Marketing structure and delivery.
Where is the Chief Revenue Officer ?
“Companies like these are saying that we have to find new ways of combining sales and marketing. We ought to think more in terms of what competencies have we to generate profitable revenue and in what combination do we now use them. And I think that can be very successful if it’s entered into that way.” – Rackham (Harvard Business Review)
The fact that the article below is from 2006 is testament to the fact that many companies still do not fully understand how best to integrate sales and marketing functions for the good of revenue.
Time to start again May 10, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Consultancy, Digital Agencies, Marketing and Demand, Talent Management.comments closed
It’s been February since I last posted!. Whoops
There are many topics I feel the need to talk about soon;
The change in the digital landscape over recent months
New Innovation in Marketing and Demand Generation
Search Expos, conferences, and events – The Good, Bad and the Ugly
Talent Management v Talent shortage in Digital and Search
I am hoping to start this week and engage the brain once more.
