That marketing has changed radically over the past ten years should come as a shock to precisely no one. Much has been written about this topic, so I won’t waste anyone’s time with laundry list of changes.
Instead, let’s focus on the top 5 things founders who need high performance marketing organizations need to know.
A large part of the buying cycle happens before your sales team engages. What’s the first thing anyone does when they need to solve a problem? They search for solutions online and do their own research.
Your solution needs to be easy to find, easy to understand, and clearly map to the buyer’s pain points. Clarity and brevity matter. Then make it easy for the prospect to engage.
Especially in crowded markets (like security), top-down selling is increasingly hard to do. The average C level exec is inundated with vendor requests and (usually bad) pitches. They don’t want one more. Be sure you’re prepared to enter the organization at lower levels with targeted offers (trials, free software). And look for marketing strategies that run counter to the herd.
Increasingly Product led growth, where the product IS the marketing, is a big part of the product mix. Marketing leaders must be able to align with product (also, product leaders need to understand and embrace this).
Marketing technology/automation is increasingly critical. And effective marketing organization heavily leverages technology to increase efficiency and reach. Expect to spend money ensure that your team knows how to assess the value of these investments.
A related point — You need to have a developer on your marketing team. This is one of the highest ROI hires you’ll make, because it allows your team to move fast and do things that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.
Your marketing leader (and team) needs to embrace all of this. This can be tough for people who spent most of their careers doing marketing the “old” way. It’s a struggle to stay current.
But the most effective CMOs and marketing leaders spend the time to get experience with the new world order.
A word of caution here — experience can be a double edged sword for founders looking for a CMOs or other senior marketing leaders. You want the benefit of experience and domain expertise, but you also need to be sure you’re hiring someone who can work fluidly in the new world of marketing. Take note of the experiences they tell you about, and ask how they stay current.