David Crane
Why Demand Gen Marketers Need To Automate Media Partner Management
We marketers are incredibly diligent about refining prospect data once it’s inside our marketing systems. Lead nurturing, scoring and predictive analytics tools have turned us into physicists with our data. And we continually strive toward that perfect equation to build stronger customer relationships. However, we...
Insights from #MarTechChat on Dirty Data
I think it’s safe to say the second MarTech Tweet Chat was a success. All in all, this particular #MarTechChat – focusing on the importance of prospect data quality and the prevention of dirty data – has generated 349 tweets that reached over 200K people...
Three Thoughts on Marketing Ops and Demand Gen Alignment
Over the last couple weeks, we’ve been surveying a few marketing experts to gain feedback on what we’re seeing as a growing issue within marketing; namely, misalignment between demand generation and marketing operations teams. This is seemingly the result of marketing’s expansion in responsibility...
Prospect Data Quality by the Numbers [Research Report]
Marketers are recognizing more than ever the need to improve lead quality. In fact, we’ve seen survey after survey (Salesforce, ANNUITUS, Asscend2) that clearly highlight deep frustration among marketers regarding the quality of their prospect data and how improving lead quality is a No.1...
A Few (Completely Subjective) 2014 Demand Gen Learnings
Rather than add to the annual deluge of upcoming-year predictions, I thought it’d be more helpful, if only slightly, to go through a couple things I’ve learned this year while engaging with demand gen customers, marketing tech vendors and influencers. Hopefully, these learnings will...
16 Demand Gen Terms We Should Agree On
Ask ten marketers to define demand generation – or lead velocity or sales-qualified lead, for that matter – and you’re likely to get ten definitions that are at least slightly different. Demand gen is evolving quickly, and the majority of those practicing their craft are more...
Marketing Ops’ Favorite 4-Letter Word
Our first #MarTechChat TweetChat session was exactly what we were hoping for – great insights that illuminated both important trends and intriguing debates within the world of Marketing Ops. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who participated in the session, especially our two headlining practitioners:...
Inside The Mind Of A GE Marketing Ops Executive
When it comes to enterprises with a complex range of marketing needs and seemingly overwhelming goals, few stack up to GE. That’s why we were very excited to have the opportunity to interview Ramiro Ramon, General Manager of Marketing Strategy & Operations for GE...
Marketing Metrics Matter…With a Standardized Process of Measurment
A couple weeks back, Scott Vaughan’s post titled “Marketing Standardization: The Must Have for Marketers in 2015” exhorted the need for marketing orgs to standardize data, systems, measurements and expectations to free valuable resources that would be better used for other endeavors. While I...
From the MarTech Experts: Tips for Successful Change Management
Managing change is the toughest part of any marketing transformation, especially regarding the adoption of new technology. This isn't new news. Yet, the pace of change only seems to be accelerating, and we marketers are prone to neglecting this critical element in our organizations. Below…
Marketing Tech at Dreamforce: A Developing Story
As we brace ourselves for the inevitable barrage of Dreamforce ’14 “takeaways, “learnings” and “insights” blog posts to hit our inboxes over the next few weeks, I figured it may be helpful to recap some of the biggest marketing tech-related comments about Dreamforces of...
Marketing Ops & Tech Summit: Past, Present, Future Of Ops
Marketing technology has garnered a staggering amount of attention in recent years as startups take advantage of today’s low capital requirements to address the myriad challenges marketers face in the digital, customer-centric marketing era. Tech solutions continue to automate processes and measure outcomes in...
2015 Budget Prep: Finding The Right Marketing Tech Providers
For marketers, technology stack complexity grows daily. We’ve reached Rush drum-set status. Three years ago, most marketing teams could count their tech solutions on a hand or two. Now, most marketers are dealing with more tools than a Cowboys Stadium security guard. Yet inefficiencies remain....
Marketing Ops: Only the Analytical, Adaptable and Hungry Need Apply
The digital era has provided marketers with the ability to measure and analyze the outcomes of their efforts. No longer a company’s “arts and crafts” team, marketing departments are leveraging metrics and systematic management techniques to generate real business value. Marketing Operations spearheads this...
Offline Data is the New Black
One of the things I love most about the marketing tech industry is its rapid evolution — new solutions create new opportunities, which result in innovation that circles back to new solutions. What’s more, I’m lucky enough to have a job that’s almost entirely...
Applied Integrations 101
There’s been a tremendous amount of talk about the importance of integrations lately. In fact, it was a key theme at Oracle Interact this year. Kevin Akeroyd, general manager of the Oracle Marketing Cloud, recently stated in a CMSWire blog post: “Unlike the past,...
Do You Need a Quick and Easy Lead Gen Process?
With the growing adoption of marketing automation technology, most marketers are focusing heavily on post-lead-gen processes such as nurturing leads and personalizing conversations with prospects. Advances in marketing technology have driven this newfound emphasis, and with good reason — buyers are navigating their own...
The MarTech Revolution: Why You Must Adapt
Technology has always been a driver of substantial change. Irrigation tools and techniques caused the Agricultural Revolution in the Fertile Crescent, navigational instruments and innovative accounting techniques spurred the Commercial Revolution that laid the foundation for the world economy, and machine tools and interchangeable parts...
Aligning MarTech and Marketing Ops — An Interview With Gary Katz
I recently interviewed Gary Katz, Founder and Chairman of Marketing Operation Partners, for research I’m conducting on the challenges and opportunities regarding the simultaneous growth of marketing tech and the Marketing Ops role. What resulted was a 52-minute conversation of great value. Here, I...
Platform Wars: Episode 3 — The Integrate Perspective
This is the final of three installments discussing the “Suite vs. Open Platform” debate. The first post discussed arguments for open platforms versus all-in-one marketing solutions. The second provided arguments for marketing suites. (If you haven’t yet read them, I suggest doing so before...