MarTech Fest Recap: Marketers Need a New Way Forward

I recently had the pleasure of presenting in-person at MarTech Alliance’s “anticonference,” MarTechFest Global 2021 in London and I have to say, it was great to be back on stage presenting in front of real, live people! I spoke about all things Precision Demand Marketing and got the chance to sit in on some sessions, chat with peers, and most importantly, connect. It’s amazing that what we’d all taken for granted 18 months ago – the ability to meet in person – can feel so refreshing and energising today.

The key themes that emerged from the conference were that the challenges we face as marketers are becoming more complex, customers are behaving differently, and the technology landscape continues to grow. Think about how events have evolved into a hybrid of in-person and virtual, and how those changes have affected our events strategies. Or when Facebook’s family of social platforms (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) suffered a worldwide outage a few weeks ago, that meant an opportunity for LinkedIn and Twitter to capitalise on new audiences. The world shifts with a moment’s notice and B2B marketers must be ready to respond.

At MarTechFest, I presented on a buyer-driven, omnichannel approach to B2B marketing called Precision Demand Marketing to support this new world. It’s a flexible and connected way to rethink our team structures, strategies, and technologies, while providing the scaffolding for your team to succeed today. It’s time for an upgrade of skills, knowledge, and technology.

To do so, I outlined the five pillars of a Precision Demand Marketing approach:

1. Target: We need to be able to identify and target the right buyers, accounts and buying committees, and we need to do so with precision. Leverage the power of intent data and data intelligence to inform and build your target lists for both today and the future
2. Activate: It’s important to activate across multiple channels to scale your demand marketing programs and orchestrate account and buyer experiences. This includes display advertising, event marketing, content syndication, digital events, and social media marketing.
3. Connect: Amplify your reach, boost pipeline generation, and increase conversion opportunities by connecting the data from your martech stack. Connecting your data is foundational to marketing with precision.
4. Measure: Proper measurement is key to understanding and optimising your programs. If you aren’t measuring the right metrics, you can’t refine your account-based tactics, monitor budget, track ROI and defend your marketing spend. Measurement is an opportunity to learn and optimise your programs across your channels.
5. Govern: Accurate and compliant data is the cornerstone of successful marketing campaigns. After all, if your data isn’t right, how can you reach the right audiences, activate them, measure the impact of your programs, and grow and scale your efforts?

The takeaway? We have an opportunity today to create better, more targeted, connected, and personalised experiences for our buyers. The world will continue to change, and we too must evolve alongside the changes. How we think about events, social, display, content syndication and other channels will continue to shift. But with change comes opportunities, and the opportunity for precision is now.