Marketing Sandwiches..yum

Question: If you could have the gift of either having all industry information or the ability to see the buyer journey, which would you choose?

My mentor in marketing has been instrumental in helping me apply the old adage of "marketing mix." We often complicate the simplest concepts and lose sight of the purpose of marketing.  Marketing has become so broad but through it all it's always about..

Being in the business to  promote our service and research prospects.

I'd like to speak more so on B2B marketing and how aspects of marketing are sandwiched.

"Email marketing is not enough"

There used to be a time where all you had to do was write great copy and send it out via automation tools.  That's still important but we've upped the ante!  Emails that follow a template for every single customer are no longer as effective.  There are useful email tools that track open rates and click-throughs which is good, but they don't effectively measure who responds to the mails.  There's more layers being added for effective email marketing that addresses deliverable objectives. 



Answer: I'd hope you choose the second option.  Companies from 20-30 years ago had the ultimate advantage in controlling information that their customers couldn't see.  The leverage B2B companies had is dwindling and lately, the focus has been on truly understanding their customers path to purchase.

"If you are talking digital now, you're already behind"

It's simple.  Older industries like manufacturing are just now realizing the benefits of leveraging "digital" resources to get more appointments, revenue, and sound strategy.  They are also behind and by the time they get caught up, there will be another wind of sound practices they will need to implement.  According to a survey from Gartner, CMO's do not use the term "digital" as much anymore.  8-10 years ago SEO was the buzz term (that made a lot of marketing companies money). Then everyone remembered how "Content is king."  Now you have all these tools and practices that sandwiched together, create validity and end results. 

"Sandwiches with various ingredients"

I LOVE sandwiches... ice cream sandwiches...BLT's, chicken sandwiches, etc.  The point is there are so many different ingredients in each sandwich but the end result is something tasty and filling. All the marketing strategies discussed have various ingredients added that create something so good and authentic.  Results from marketing can come from anywhere.  There's no need to complicate an already complicating process.  Think of marketing as a sandwich created by a sandwich artist.  If you appreciate a good sandwich, it never hurts to look at how others make their sandwich.