m u lt i v i e · 2019-11-21 · b2b marketing as an example. it's never been easy, but the...
TRANSCRIPT
� M U LT I V I E w·A S T A G WELL C O M P A N Y B2B MARKETING: IT'S NOT GETTING ANY EASIER
In a general sense, digital transformation has made life easier on businesses. All the processes once manually carried out ... all the paper documents and records necessary ... computers and electronic systems can manage in mere keystrokes what could previously take minutes or hours - or may not have even been possible.
But in a few respects, digital transformation has actually complicated things. Take B2B marketing as an example. It's never been easy, but the digital age has shifted the paradigm, leaving B2B marketers staring at a complexity lacking historical context and reference. It's an evolving model being built on the fly as new technologies and new best practices are introduced.
Let's begin with an honest reality: B2B marketing is difficult. Anyone who maintains otherwise is probably trying to sell you a snake oil solution. Marketing is no longer simply an accepted cost center in the budget. Today, there are bottom-line expectations. Marketing must manage and promote the brand, drive sales and leads, and demonstrate ROI while increasing efficiency and keeping expenses in check. Business marketers must figure out the new internal decision-making processes of customers while aligning legal, financial and operational limitations. It's no small order.
Though marketers have been adapting to digital transformation from the outset, plenty of challenges remain. From implementation of digital technologies and processes to adjusting them for a changing customer experience landscape; from data and content needs to scaling, measurement and regulation concerns, the layers of complexity can stack up in a hurry. In this paper, we'll examine some of these challenges in detail while offering a bit of insight about dealing with and overcoming them. The information here won't make B2B marking simple, but can help demonstrate the complicated landscape today's B2B marketers must navigate.
TECHNOLOGY
Technology, the very thing giving rise to digital marketing, brings with it new challenges - and marketers are concerned. In an Episerver study, marketing departments were twice as concerned about disparate/disjointed technology than the IT department, and 33% of marketers strongly agree that disparate/disjointed technology is holding them back from their digital agility goals. This compared to just 16% in the IT department. More than half of marketers (57%) believe their businesses deliver a poor digital experience to customers, compared to only 31% of those in IT.
In other words, marketers fully understand the disruption digital transformation is having and recognize the need for businesses to modernize operations. Such modernization requires an appropriate culture, and 57% of marketers said their company maintains a culture resistant to adoption of new technologies.
It's more than just culture that stifles digital transformation, though. Six in 10 B2Bs identified legacy software as the primary weakness deterring digital agility, and half of B2B decision makers said they lack funding to execute digital transformation projects.
Marketing departments were twice as concerned about disparate/ disjointed
technology than the IT department, and 33% of marketers strongly agree that disparate/disjointed
technology is holding them back from their digital
agility goals.
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