Welcome to this MarTech Series chat, Lynne, we’d love to get to know, tell us about yourself and your journey in the B2B tech market, what’s it like as second time CMO of Acquia…

My journey as the CMO of Acquia started back in 2008. After serving as CMO for nearly three years, I left to run a nonprofit and then rejoined in 2016 to lead the marketing organization into its next phase of growth. When I returned, I fell in love with the company all over again—from its culture to its people and the technology. Between my two-part tenure at Acquia, I’ve seen many changes in the martech world and have been particularly excited that marketing has become so data-driven.

One of the main reasons I’m so passionate about Acquia is its roots in the open source Drupal community and commitment to supporting open, interoperable technologies. Each day, I get the opportunity to work alongside the most creative and passionate group of individuals toward something that not only makes my life as a marketer easier but our customers’ lives as well.

Prior to Acquia, I got my start doing classroom training on software and was a sales engineer. Eventually, I joined the marketing team at Lotus Development, which is where I discovered my passion for the field. I became a general manager of a product division and went on to be vice president of marketing. After Lotus was acquired by IBM, I worked there for another couple of years before hitting the startup circuit. I ended my time at IBM as the VP and general manager of the Internet Applications Division.

After IBM, I got bit by the startup bug again and served in a few CMO roles at Systinet, which was acquired by Mercury Interactive, and JackBe, which was acquired by Software AG, before I joined the Acquia team.

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How are you seeing B2B marketers today evolve in terms of their processes and strategies: what do you feel is something marketers in this market need to do more of given current dynamics?

The strongest B2B marketers are excellent storytellers. They understand every phase of the customer journey and demonstrate empathy for customers. Marketers really learned the importance of using language that connects with customers at an emotional level during the pandemic. Now, they’re needing to carry that forward, and capture the imagination of customers by helping them understand what’s possible, through outstanding storytelling.

Another area that marketers need to bring to the fore is customer data analytics. Particularly as we likely move toward tougher economic times, marketers must be able to make smart decisions about what customers value and want based on analytical data.

There is a lot of pressure on marketers and sales teams to enable better buying journeys and online experiences for customers: can you share a views and tips on how teams should be collaborating more for this?

What are some of the gaps that most B2B marketing teams still have in your view (those that you commonly notice) and what best practices would you share for them?

Less than one-third (28%) of marketers say they can create digital customer experiences with little or no IT help. Low-code or no-code tools are the answer. They enable marketers to optimize their operations with little to no involvement from IT. A successful customer experience strategy requires a flexible approach that brings together all sources of data and embraces new technology to understand changing markets and keep up with new patterns of customer behavior.

Additionally, with all of the turmoil experienced over the past two years, B2B marketing teams need to continue keeping empathy at the forefront. This often starts with clarity around a corporate statement about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments. Not enough brands have prioritized this.

Also, I’ve noticed some marketing teams still opting for jargon rather than genuine and authentic language. B2B marketing teams need to focus on building brand loyalty and communicate that they’re there to make customers’ lives easier and better, while meeting them where they live—on the web, on mobile apps, on video or social platforms, in customer contact centers or stores.

Beyond ditching cliché phrases, marketers should convey an understanding of their customers, how current events have changed their relationship with the brand, and focus on creating and sustaining engagement. One of the best ways to scale empathy is with personalization.

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Five thoughts on the future of B2B marketing and martech…!

First off, I’ve seen the role of the CMO change: today they’re not only chief marketing officers, they need to be chief market officers. They should understand more about desired customer outcomes and customer journeys than most did in the past. They need to use this information to develop strategies that reflect rapidly evolving market dynamics, accounting for all stakeholders, and aligning with broader business development goals.

I’m also seeing marketers prioritize managing “content chaos.” As we all know, content comes in many forms, and has countless sources and destinations. It changes with new messaging, visual styles, and product updates. All of this makes it difficult to manage. Bringing content together, creating a content workflow, being able to rapidly send it anywhere, and tying it to revenue are all key today.

Brand is still important and can’t be neglected. You can attend to your brand in part through a strong focus on your ESG pledge. We know consumers and B2B buyers alike want to buy from brands that they trust and know is giving back to the world.

Get ready to do more with less support from your IT team. Many martech products today allow marketers who don’t have technical backgrounds to create very sophisticated digital experiences using low-code or no-code tools. Building new pages on a website, for example, used to require support from application developers, which generally meant significant delays in how quickly marketers could move from designing a digital experience to rolling it out to customers. Today they can do all of this themselves.

Finally, creating marketing strategies that respect customer data privacy and preferences is critical. Most marketers understand that the phase-out of third-party cookie support by browser makers in two years will require a substantial shift in tactics, but most yet to have first-party data strategies ready to enable meaningful personalization. This matters for B2B marketers just as much as it does our B2C colleagues.

Some last thoughts, takeaways, before we wrap up!

All the technology in the world won’t matter if you aren’t a great manager to your marketing team. Supporting your people and fostering their growth is critical. Don’t lose sight of that, particularly now.