MarTech Interview with Nikki (Cassidy) Stone, Executive Vice President, Managing Director at Zenith

Nikki (Cassidy) Stone, Executive Vice President, Managing Director at Zenith highlights more on how brands can build deeper connections with customers despite recessionary times:

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat, Nikki;
”Marketing in 2023’’ is about setting up for new challenges and trends: a few thoughts on how you see B2B marketing shape up through the next few months?

Marketing in 2023 has great potential for the B2B space. It however requires an agile approach, especially when it comes to forecasting. We have just begun what we have dubbed the Great Re-Forecast, a time where forecasting has never been more critical.

The Great Re-Fe-forecast is accelerated forecasting schedules, as an example, those who have traditionally forecasted quarterly are doing so monthly, those who were monthly are doing so weekly, and the former weekly forecasters, are now looking at forecasts daily. This added layer of diligence seems to be a must for most in the space, though approach with some caution of making decision too quickly without performances really having a chance to deliver. This is where having a clear understanding of your KPI’s and what you are measuring as success is going to be the guiding north-star to decision making.

Hyper personalization in digital campaigns is the ideal goal, and audience fragmentation seems to be its greatest challenger.

Looking to media formats that can support one to one and targeted one to many could yield improved ROI.  Think Connected TV, and Competitive conquesting, and programmatic out of home with digital and mobile retargeting. Reminder – even in the B2B space, the end users you’re trying to connect with are still consumers, and personalized messages will resonate with them better, as they are bombarded with cold calls or mass messaging. They want to believe that you understand what are perceived to be unique challenges.

A few marketing practices and martech tools that you feel should be in greater focus as B2B teams navigate what is often being pegged as a recessionary time in 2023?

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, staying on top of your marketing campaigns can make all the difference.

Talk to your team/agency to create a dashboard that provides real-time insights into how your campaigns are performing. A best-in-class dashboard will not only give you information on KPIs like viewability and click-through rate, but it can also help you forecast sales and analyze trends.. During the great re-forecast, this tool will help you make decisions quickly and accurately. Having close to real time data, will be your biggest ally for forecasting.

A recession can be tough for business, but it’s also an opportunity for brands to connect with their customers on a deeper level. When times are tough, customers expect empathy, humanity, and understanding from brands. A brand can only achieve this with personalization which necessitates a base of high-quality data to support it.

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Some creative ways for marketers to drive better impact through personalization tactics and common flaws they should avoid when doing so?

Purpose matters, however, it only wins when it is authentic. Consumers are increasingly looking to spend their money with companies that align with their own values, and it’s important for brands to be authentic in their messaging. These two things line up to the company or brands personality which can very by market.

Understanding the above means that to deliver personalization, you cannot skimp on creative assets. A million permutations is not necessary, but you need more than you think . Without the assets  it limits how many media formats you can use, and the ability to use dynamic creative optimization (DCO) to get the right message in front of the right target audience at the right time.  A message that should have an evolving story as that consumer is working their way through the sales funnel.

A few thoughts on the future of B2B marketing and B2B martech?  

B2B Marketing should have a strong outlook for the foreseeable future. Leaning into AI can help in the B2B space by providing insights into customer behaviour, automating processes, and providing predictive analytics. AI can also help with customer segmentation, personalization, and marketing automation while supporting marketing campaigns, providing insights into customer preferences, and helping to optimize campaigns for better results.

Using the right martech solutions will support the vital insights gathered are based on facts and not based on a statical anomaly or a short-term tendency. Many times, insights are built upon a limited time frame which leads to assumptions and presumptions. When analyzing data, it’s important to look at long periods of time to identify truth in the trends, peaks, and valleys to quantify your insights in fact.

Tip: ensuring your martech is highly compatible with each other will remove friction from the system. B2B is rarely just serving up an ad and then sale, as such as highly tuned email and sales channels are hyperconnected to the outcomes marketing creates to work in harmony, creating a trye opportunity for B2B sales.

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