Marketing Automation and Demand Generation: A Framework for Analysis

Dr. Debra Zahay-Blatz

Restaurant.com Associate Professor of Interactive Marketing,

Head of Interactive Marketing Program

Northern Illinois University

11/17/2010

Who Am I?: My Journey in B2B Marketing started in Sales and Technology

• MBA from NU’s Kellogg, NOT In Marketing but Information Systems and Finance

• Started in technical area, moved into sales support then sales then marketing

• Worked for Dun & Bradstreet and MCI Telecommunications

• Fast forward 15 years and I was Director of Sales & Marketing (without a Marketing Degree), sound familiar to B2B Marketers?

What we called integrated IMC involved the sales force

• Sent letters to prospects in a particular vertical industry

• Invited them to contribute to a newsletter on a particular topic

• Sent direct mailers on these topics• Timed it with sales force participation• Netted millions on small investment Zahay, ESOMAR, 2002

What else we called it….• Database Marketing

• B2B Direct Marketing

• Lead Generation/Lead Management

• One to one marketing

• Relationship marketing

• Customer-centric marketing

• Customer Relationship Management

• You name it…..

Now, Marketing has become an Interactive Marketing

ConversationEvaluate Program Identify Strategic Targets

Build Database, websiteContact/Interact

Marketing is evolving/has evolved/must evolve….

. . . And by the way I got my Marketing Degree

• PH.D. in Marketing from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000

• Research in customer databases and how they can be used to create competitive advantage, information use in NPD

• Parlayed my technical knowledge into teaching internet and database

marketing, since 1999

What is Demand Generation?

Demand generation is the revenue- focused set of activities of both sales and marketing that gets quality leads into the top of the sales funnel and then helps sales pull opportunities through the funnel quicker.

– Adapted from the Pedowitz Group

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is a term that describes an emerging category of Web 2.0 and beyond technology designed to improve marketing efficiencies and drive revenue through high quality lead generation and management. These technologies work to integrate marketing and sales funnels.

– Adapted from the Pedowitz Group

Why do we do this (Marketing Automation, Demand Gen)?

• WE WANT TO MAKE MONEY

What are the two ways to position ourselves to make

money?• Low-cost

• Differentiation (Value) – Michael Porter

How do we make money other than cutting costs?

• WE GROW, through leveraging our strengths, our core competencies

Edit Penrose, The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, 1959

Effective Demand Generation Processes Aid Competitiveness

in Two Ways• Fuel growth

• Provide a competence that is a source of competitive advantage, BUT ONLY IF THE SKILLS are difficult to imitate

So, Automation Tools can be helpful, but they are only a

Technology• Technology itself cannot be a source of

competitive advantage

• Technology can be imitated

• How the technology is used by the firm CAN be a source of advantage– Resource-based view of the firm

Therefore, Automated Marketing tools…

• Are no substitute for understanding what is going on with your prospect and the buying cycling

• Are no substitute for working well with your sales force

• Are no substitute for a culture where everyone works to understand

the customer buying cycle

Remember but we had to work with …

• Direct mail

• The telephone

• The sales force

• Some data bases, probably not integrated

• Manual lead tracking systems

• Poor lead qualification processes

Source: Joel Book, Exact Target

Traditional Customer Lifecycle is Now Officially Augmented by Marketing Programs And Actions

Source: Marketo, Inc.

B2B Buyers Rely Less on Sales Force and instead are….

Thanks to Adam Needles, Silverpop

Less reliance on sales force for information means an….

Therefore creating value for the customer can result from Demand Generation/ Nurturing Processes

• Sales and Marketing must work together

• Marketing can find and nurture leads

• Marketing can support sales in nurturing leads that it considers valuable

• Growth and profits can result

Warning!• Many marketers still see

this process as a management, not Value CO-Creation

• Relationships can be nurtured and developed but rarely MANAGED

• There are TWO parties to the equation (usually more in a B2B situation)

Don’t Be a Stranger!

• Debra Zahay Blatz….zahay@niu.edu, 815-753-6215

• Friend me on facebook or linkedin as Debra Zahay Blatz, follow my twitter feed, @zahay