How B2B CMOs Can Prepare for 2021

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The challenges of 2020 have set the stage for big changes in 2021 (and beyond). For optimistic marketers, this means that 2020 is the fertilizer for a beautiful 2021, but it’s going to take a progressive, agile, and strategic mindset to reap the rewards. To discuss upcoming changes in the way that buyers buy and sellers sell in the context of marketing, Brent Adamson, distinguished VP at Gartner, joins Drew for his fourth episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Joined by a live audience, Brent answers questions about how CMOs can plan for 2021, positing that marketers shouldn’t necessarily be focused on creating high-quality content. Instead, marketers should be brokers of information and experiences, building the confidence of their customers and prospects by coaching them through a world overwhelmed by thought leadership. Be sure to tune in to this productively disruptive episode—it might just change the way you think about marketing for the better.

Today’s guest CMO audience: Dux Raymond Sy (AvePoint), Mandy Dhaliwal (Dell Boomi), Dan Marks (previously of Hancock Whitney, now Infusion), Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek (Skillsoft), and Simon Schaffer-Goldman (Case Paper).

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • How to enable buyer confidence
  • Why customer engagement is about sensemaking
  • Brent’s predictions for the future of marketing

For full show notes and interview: https://bit.ly/3hXTA0s

Raising the Bar with Virtual Events

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If you’re looking for an example of a high-quality virtual event, you’ve got to check out Skillsoft’s Perspectives 2020. Drew did, and he was absolutely blown away by the online summit. In fact, it was so engaging that he just had to interview their CMO, Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek (Michelle BB for short) to learn more about the work that went on behind the scenes to create a global experience that rivals pre-COVID physical events. 

In this episode, Michelle generously shares the details behind the making of the event, as well as other tips, like how they’re measuring its success and how they plan to use the momentum to generate demand. We’ve also got a special Q&A session with a live audience of CMOs: Gabi Zijderveld from AffectivaIan Howells from Sage IntacctHolly Rollo from RSA Security, and Mark Floisand from Coveo. And while you’re here—be sure to check out Skillsoft’s Post-Perspectives e-book!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • How Skillsoft pivoted from a physical to a virtual event
  • Michelle BB’s tips for planning and executing virtual summits
  • Highlights and successes from Skillsoft’s Perspectives 2020

 

Why B2B Storytelling (Still) Matters

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How can a business discover its brand story? The first step, according to David Altschul of Character LLC, is to identify the story’s conflict. Now, this isn’t the classic “good vs. bad” conflict that you tend to see in Marvel movies—a brand conflict is between two positives, think “independent vs. social” or “strong vs. soft.” That’s what Character specializes in, and they’ve helped some big-name clients (think Walmart, Amazon, Wendy’s) embrace such conflict and infuse it into the way they do business.

Why does this matter in B2B, you ask? Well, there are a few reasons. At the outset, brands with story set themselves apart from competitors that are just selling products; when the buying committee comes together, story unifies the c-suite’s perspective of your brand; and finally, story gives you a framework for making decisions no matter what you come up against, even a pandemic.

Tune in to this week’s episode to hear David’s expert advice on discovering brand story, and how to align the goals of your business across the board. He also answers questions from our live audience of three CMOs: Kevin Alansky of Higher Logic, JD Dillon of Enphase Energy, and Dave Bornmann of Naylor Association Solutions.

Rebranding in a Pandemic – An Amazing CMO Story

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Imagine you’ve spent the past year preparing to rebrand your organization. You’ve ticked off all the boxes—strategized with a cross-functional team, developed a robust communications plan, and defined your brand purpose—and you’re finally ready to start rolling things out, but then, the COVID pandemic brings the world to a halt. This is a moment for a big decision, do you still rebrand? Or do you put things on hold?

For Julia Fitzgerald, CMO of American Lung Association, the answer was to forge ahead. After all, if they were going to make their new brand promise real, if they truly were dedicated to fighting lung disease, then this was the perfect opportunity to do it. The rebrand didn’t come with all the bells and whistles that it normally would have, but this, perhaps, makes it that much more real. After all, as Ben Franklin once said, “Well done is better than well said.”

Tune into this week’s episode to hear about all about American Lung Association’s rebrand and how they’ve agilely pivoted their marketing efforts amidst the COVID pandemic, and if you want to learn how a rebrand can translate to demand generation, check out our recent report, here.

What a CEO Wants in Their CMO

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We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: no CMO can succeed without the backing of their CEO. Countless CMO guests on the show have talked about how crucial it is to have that top-down support, and on this special episode, we’re joined not only by the CMO of Wasabi, Michael Welts, but also by his CEO, David Friend. With a strong working relationship that most would envy, they talk about how they’ve built their brand and grown their customer base from 1200 to 15,000 in just two years.

The key thing David was looking for was a “simplifier” CMO, and with Michael, he found just that. Through bold marketing, Michael and his team developed a strong value proposition, “1/5 the price of Amazon and 6x faster” and based their sales strategy around the three Wasabi “peas:” price, performance, and protection. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear how to build a B2B demand gen machine, measure metrics outside of revenue, and have the CEO-CMO relationship that dreams are made of.

Why CMOs Should Be CXOs Too

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Now more than ever, people want simplicity. They’re looking for simple solutions to complex problems, simple language to describe complex ideas, and simple experiences in an increasingly complex world. That’s why this week’s episode, recorded pre-COVID, is so poignant. Mika Yamamoto, the CMO and CXO of F5 Networks, joins us to share the ways she has transformed how they do business by asking one simple question: “Does this remove friction or add delight?”

Mika discusses the advantages of combining the CMO and CXO roles, they’ve given her a unique end-to-end perspective that has ultimately led to innovative, measurable changes for F5’s employees, customers, and prospects. With the battle cry “code connects us all,” tune in to hear all about how to best measure customer satisfaction (spoiler, it’s not NPS) and how to align your employee’s day-to-day interactions with the larger goals of the organization.