Maria Robinson, Chief Marketing Officer at Airship chats about the future of B2B marketing while sharing a few top CMO best practices:

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Hi Maria, share with us more about your journey as CMO so far?

Over the past two decades, I’ve led marketing and growth strategies across B2C and B2B industries for global SaaS companies. I have a strong track record helping organizations unlock next-level growth and business results by reshaping brand positioning and go-to-market strategies using deep customer insights and rapid experimentation to deliver innovative customer experiences that solve their needs.

Throughout my career, the thing that has excited me most is the opportunity as a marketer to have a meaningful impact on customer acquisition and revenue growth. The marketing landscape is in a constant state of change and brands today are tackling some exceptionally hard problems:

• Customer acquisition costs are up 60% over the last five years.
• Referral traffic from social media is declining.
• Data deprecation is hindering effective targeting and personalization.
• 60% of Google search queries end without a click.
• Consumers today use more than 70 core digital touchpoints.

This new landscape demands a new approach to customer experience that prioritizes personalized, connected interactions across all channels, including websites and apps. I joined Airship as CMO because they’re tackling these issues for the world’s leading brands – like Alaska Airlines, BBC and The Home Depot — building off a rich heritage of first-to-market support for mobile and AI innovations.

I saw a unique opportunity to help other marketers navigate our always-on, digital economy and rapidly changing consumer behaviors. Brands today need to think differently and engage customers in more relevant ways, and our clients trust us to provide guidance and solve these pressing business issues. Airship makes it easier to scale customer experiences with AI and gain the actionable insights needed to deliver breakthrough performance across all channels and digital touchpoints, particularly with the real-time context and immediacy that consumers’ mobile interactions demand.

What top learnings and takeaways as a seasoned CMO would you share with those climbing up the chain to that marketing level?

I think the most important thing to remember is that what got you here, won’t necessarily get you to the next place. Modern marketers have to be ready to scrap old, ineffective sales and marketing playbooks and build agility into their teams and multichannel marketing programs.

Marketing and digital experience teams are tasked with ambitious growth and efficiency goals, all while navigating seismic changes happening in our industry and world — from consumers’ rapidly increasing digital interactions, to the accelerating pace of technological change — including shifts in web and mobile interactions, as well as AI advancements. To sustain success, you have to be curious, eager to evolve, and constantly learning and experimenting.

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How can modern CMOs and marketing leaders impact the entire AI deployment and AI powered martech optimization process in their organizations today?

Marketers play a pivotal role in shaping their organization’s approach to AI. It’s not just about implementing the latest AI technology or tool, but rather strategically integrating AI to drive more operational efficiencies while creating breakthrough customer experiences.

Marketers can champion a human-centered AI strategy, where AI is augmenting, not replacing human creativity. We can and should be the voice of the customer, ensuring AI implementations are focused on improving the customer experience.

For example, at Airship we developed Journeys AI to help marketers deliver more tailored and impactful customer experiences. We’re making it easier for marketers to build cross-channel journeys. In one click, marketers can turn goals and prompts into a customer journey complete with all cross-channel message content, which can then be fine-tuned by anyone on the team with a no-code, visual editor and complete experimentation capabilities to optimize results.

AI should empower marketers to orchestrate and optimize meaningful customer experiences for every individual at scale.

What has been the most common type of martech that you have relied on over the years to drive marketing outcomes?

I don’t believe any one channel or tool is the secret to marketing success, and in fact, I think leaning too heavily in one area will cause your entire strategy to lose effectiveness over time.

Take email for example. While many marketers still over-index on it, email isn’t obsolete; it has evolved. It’s now a vital component of a broader omnichannel strategy that combines SMS, push, wallet, apps, websites and more. If you’re not using email as part of your mix, you’re probably restricting your reach, but if you’re using it in isolation as a single channel or within individual departments, you’re operating with blinders on.

The most important thing I’ve learned is to avoid complacency. Don’t get stuck doing what you’ve always done. The marketing landscape is constantly evolving, and so should we.

A few top martech innovators and martechers (people / tech brands) you’d like to shout out to before we wrap up?

As a road warrior, I think the work that Alaska Airlines has done is incredible. In fact, Airship powered the first mobile wallet boarding passes for Alaska Airlines back in 2013, and now we’re seeing it completely change the way airports are designed. Airports are eliminating boarding pass kiosks entirely. Alaska Airlines has reshaped the entire travel experience around mobile.

I’m also inspired by Dr. Ali Arsanjani. He’s the director of applied AI engineering at Google Cloud and the head of their Global AI Center of Excellence. His vision for Vertex AI and how they are embedding generative AI into everything is fascinating. It’s opening up the next wave of innovation in martech.

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