Interview with Christine Jacobs Pribilski, VP, Worldwide Marketing, IBM

Tell us about your role and how you got here?

As the worldwide leader of performance marketing for IBM Hybrid Cloud, my team and I bring subject matter expertise to our integrated marketing teams to drive more effective (conversion) and efficient (ROI) demand generation.  I’ve such amazing opportunities throughout my career afforded to me from the outcomes and results I drive and how I collaborate and partner with teams to be an ongoing change agent in the fast-paced tech world.

What is the most exciting part about being a Women tech leader in the industry?

I’ve spent my entire career in tech direct marketing and love every minute of it. I am incredibly passionate about paving the way for others in marketing and the industry, learning side by side every day with others who share the same passions. It’s such an exciting time to be a marketer, where we not only have permission but an expectation to drive meaningful contributions to the business.

What are your expectations and likely key takeaways from the ON24 Webinar World 2018? Who are you huddling with at the event?

We have made incredible strides with our webinar program in the past year working with ON24, so I am delighted to share our learnings and success story in ‘casting’ with the attendees at Webinar World with the hope that other marketers can see what’s possible. In the same vein, I’m looking forward to learning how other B2B marketers have fueled their webinar programs so we can apply these to our own “casting” program.  And of course, networking and meeting other fellow marketers who share a passion for marketing is always a highlight of any conference.

How should a B2B marketer better leverage webinar marketing tools for effective lead generation?

I am such a champion of webinars, or “casting”, as I like to call it. Casting has come such a long way with the intersection of martech, analytics and content marketing. Casting is not only a viable format to deliver relevant stories and content across the buyer’s journey but also a way to deliver multiple touches in a single event, accelerating prospects forward in their buying journey. In addition, casting platforms can now offer incredible behavioral insights to help marketers become more impactful on next right step.  Finally, casting is a great way to extend reach of event content to drive net new prospects and once engaged, offer targeted casting series to keep them coming back where we can create upsell/cross-sell opportunities and, ultimately, drive overall advocacy.

Which automation tools and technologies best benefit marketers in fostering better-personalized conversations?

There is a breadth of engagement widgets to utilize with the ON24 platform to personalize the live conversation and the conversation that takes place after the event. The widgets we typically use for casting events are the question and answer, survey, polling, Twitter and live chat. Each one has its unique benefits. For instance, the Q&A widget has been very beneficial with product updates or new offerings events because the attendee can privately send in questions pertaining to their unique IT usage and get resolutions in real-time.

How do you leverage webinar marketing tools to engage with your online audience? How does it help you build a strong sales pipeline?

First, we acknowledge that we always don’t know exactly where an attendee is in the buying stage. With that, we try to set up the event to be inclusive wherever they might be in the buyer’s journey by introducing a breadth of offerings on the audience console for them to choose from. If they are ready to try, we have a trial offer. If they are looking for more proven examples we have case studies for them and if they are looking for a free consultation we have a contact form. All these and more let the attendee decide where they are, instead of trying to guess what we believe they’re looking for next. Once we know where they are in the buyers journey we can more efficiently help them with their decision process. The pipeline naturally gets stronger because we are addressing their needs at the right point in time.

Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read:

I tag Philip Kotler, the father of modern marketing. I would love to understand his perspective on the new world of digital marketing automation.

Thank you Christine! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.