It’s no secret that the marketing landscape is more complex today than ever before. Heightened buyer expectations for greater relevancy, the proliferation of customer touch points, interaction channels, and marketing technologies, and the growing role of data and data analytics have all added complexity to the marketing function.
To succeed, in today’s dynamic and complex marketing environment, companies must assemble teams of marketers who have the right skills and competencies. But, what specific competencies will a high-performing, modern marketing organization possess?
Tomasz Tunguz, a partner at the venture capital firm Redpoint, addressed this issue in a recent blog post titled The 9 Marketing Disciplines of Great SaaS Companies. Mr. Tunguz’ post was based on a presentation made at a venture capital conference by Bill Macaitis, the former CMO of Zendesk. Although Mr. Tunguz’ post and Mr. Macaitis’ presentation dealt specifically with marketing at SaaS companies, most of the disciplines are equally important for other types of B2B companies.
Here are the nine marketing disciplines that Tunguz/Macaitis identified, along with my interpretation of each discipline’s primary role(s).
Operations and Analysis – The team that is responsible for performing data analytics and for leveraging analytics to optimize marketing performance. Tunguz/Macaitis say this is the first team a company should build and that it is likely to become the largest team in the marketing organization.
Customer Evangelism – This team is primarily responsible for identifying and building relationships with potential customer evangelists and for leveraging customer endorsements.
Content – This team develops the company’s content marketing strategy and plan, and creates and/or curates needed marketing content.
Paid Media – This team manages the activities that involve the use of paid media channels, such as TV/radio/print ads, display ads, and SEM.
Website Conversion – Tunguz/Macaitis say this team is a group of front-end and back-end engineers who are responsible for optimizing the company’s website.
Product Marketing – This is the team that is focused on understanding specific customer needs (product-related), on segmenting the market, and on developing appropriate pricing structures.
Lifecycle Nurturing – This team is primarily responsible for strengthening relationships with existing customers.
Communications – Tunguz/Macaitis say this is basically the public relations team.
International – This is the team that manages the company’s marketing efforts in areas outside the “home” country.
What do you think? Does this list identify all of the core disciplines that a high-performing, modern marketing organization requires? What would you add or change?
Image courtesy of arisexpress via Flickr CC.
