Tag: Eric Eden

Best Strategies to Improve Your Marketing Technology Stack

Posted on by Drew Neisser

In this second installation of Drew’s interview with Eric Eden, CMO of Receipt Bank, they discuss additional strategies to improve your marketing technology stack. Be sure to listen to part 1 of this conversation on episode 71 of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

You have to have the right technology stack in place in order to be effective in today’s B2B marketing environment. After securing a budget and receiving buy-in from company leadership teams, selecting the right pieces to add to your stack is the next big step.

There are countless programs and applications available, but CMOs must avoid getting caught up in the newest, shiniest options on the market. By identifying your organization’s marketing and revenue goals you can then decide which programs will help you achieve those goals. Hiring the right staff and giving them the right training will ensure these pieces will positively impact your marketing efforts, which will drive leads to your sales team.

Don’t miss the engaging conclusion to Drew’s conversation with Eric – be sure to catch this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Click here to listen.

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Marketing technology stack additions are expensive and extensive – ensure you know what it entails upfront to avoid disappointments later on

Adding a new piece to your organization’s marketing tech stack puzzle can be a complicated, lengthy process. In order to receive the highest level of buy-in from company executives, they have to understand all of the costs associated with the new product. Eric explains to Drew that CMOs have an organizational responsibility to outline all of the costs of the purchase, implementation, and staffing so that other key organization members are not caught off guard later on in the process. It’s better to have to fight harder for new team members upfront than try to secure additional budget figures after committing to a piece of technology. To hear Eric fully explain why being upfront when considering a new piece of technology is so critical, don’t miss his interview on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Why the people you hire to manage the technology can make or break its success

Very few companies already have the necessary team members in place to handle a new piece of marketing technology. Drew and Eric discuss the importance of having multiple employees that can handle writing a campaign, implementing the campaign, and then analyzing and reporting on the data. If you only rely on one employee to handle these tasks the chances of critical information going unnoticed rises significantly. Your organization’s tech stack team needs to be flexible, highly skilled, and knowledgeable about areas such as system security and data flow. CMOs need to be able to convey this necessity to company leadership in order for new tech stack pieces to be most effective. Eric explains that “You’ll avoid countless problems by hiring the right people with the right skills.”

Avoid “new and shiny” distractions to focus on what your business truly needs

There is an abundance of programs on the market that can satisfy any B2B marketing need. But Drew and Eric urge listeners of this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite to not be distracted by the “latest and greatest” programs or products. As the CMO of your company, you have the responsibility of identifying what it is you want to achieve and then finding a system that helps you achieve that goal. If you simply set out to build a marketing system, you can build layers forever. You should also avoid system overlap. Revenue goals and budget restrictions will also help you narrow down the available options. Finding the right piece of marketing technology and seeing it succeed within your company will be worth the extensive upfront research. You don’t want to miss this conversation and more, so be sure to give this episode your full attention.

What You’ll Learn

  • [0:30] Drew reviews part 1 of his interview with Eric Eden
  • [1:18] You have to understand all of the costs associated with implementing and staffing a new piece of technology
  • [6:03] Your tech stack team for new technology needs to be flexible and highly skilled
  • [9:54] Don’t get caught up in the new and shiny applications, focus on what systems will help you achieve your organization’s goals
  • [16:31] Narrowing your universe through account-based marketing (ABM)
  • [17:48] Using business intelligence to visualize your tech stack data
  • [20:15] Eric’s biggest frustration and challenge in B2B marketing technology stack spheres
  • [24:24] The future of B2B marketing technology and how artificial intelligence will impact the industry
  • [26:47] Final thoughts on marketing tech stack tools and the importance of product contract negotiations

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Using a Refined Marketing Technology Stack as a Revenue Generator

Posted on by Drew Neisser

When Drew recently asked a crowd of CMOs how much revenue marketing should directly generate, most said 5-15%. However, Eric Eden, expert CMO of Receipt Bank, claimed that marketing should be a company’s main revenue generator, bringing in 80% of all sales.

This uncommon point of view is explained and detailed on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Eric and Drew talk through the first two main steps of how to turn your marketing efforts into a revenue machine. They discuss the importance of having a solid foundation marketing technology stack, all of the details behind why evidence-based marketing is the norm, and how to secure a substantial marketing budget for your team. You can listen to part 2 of this interview here. 

You’ll learn a lot from part one of this conversation, so give it your full attention. Click here to listen.

Why a CRM is a foundational basis needed for any successful marketing or revenue-generating campaign

Eric explains on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite that without a functional and clean customer relationship management technology piece, your marketing will never turn into a revenue generator. He continues by saying that, “If you don’t have a good marketing technology stack that enables your demand generation engine, everything falls apart.” A solid CRM piece allows you to track leads, understand what is encouraging or hindering contract success, improves integration between marketing and sales teams, and is necessary when putting together a budget proposal. If a CMO is looking at upgrading a single piece of their marketing strategy, having a bombproof CRM platform needs to be at the top of the list. To hear why CRM technology is so critical, and to understand why Eric is so adamant about this piece of technology, be sure to give this episode a listen.

The importance of understanding evidence-based marketing to secure a substantial budget

Gone are the days where the phrase, “it’s complicated, just trust me!” can be successful in budget meetings with company executives. In order to secure the funds marketing teams need, CMOs need to understand how to articulate their marketing in in terms of data and evidence of success. The burden of proof lies with the CMO to persuade others why marketing as a revenue generator can work for the company. You have to determine how to frame things in such a way that makes people comfortable with spending dollars on marketing, build a common language that all teams and levels of employees understand, and prevent any misconceptions. Once you have set the stage and brought people over to your side of the budget debate, you can then begin to determine what percentage of the budget should be spent on each potential customer, and the ROI that would come from each prospective contract. This framing turns marketing into an investment, not a cost, and is the key to massive success. To hear Drew and Eric’s conversation surrounding evidence-based marketing and how it can ultimately be used to generate revenue, don’t miss this episode.

Transform your ordinary marketing campaigns into a massive revenue generator through automation

After a functional CRM piece, the next step to generate revenue is marketing automation –  the second most popular piece of a technology stack. Eric urges listeners of this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite to understand that automation cannot and does not happen overnight, or even within 90 days. A truly successful marketing automation plan can take upwards of 6 months to design and implement. But the time investment is 100% worth it. By hiring talented sales people and allowing them to actually sell your company, without getting bogged down by monotonous tasks, you are ultimately generating more revenue for the company. Automation allows more integration between the marketing and sales teams and setting the correct timeline expectations upfront will prevent mishaps later on down the line. Drew and Eric have a great conversation about marketing automation and the connections it has to revenue generation on this episode, CMOs in every industry need to hear it.

What You’ll Learn

  • [0:29] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Eric Eden
  • [3:05] How to lay the foundation for marketing to become a revenue generator
  • [6:00] Why the burden of proof for success lies with the marketer
  • [8:27] What exactly is evidence-based marketing, and how do you define your strategy?
  • [13:57] Eric walks through his process for securing a substantial marketing budget
  • [22:02] The essentials for your company’s tech stack and additional layers to consider
  • [28:22] What’s the next step after creating a solid CRM piece?
  • [33:39] Why isn’t it more common to combine the first two layers of your marketing stack?

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Resources & People Mentioned

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