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B2B Marketing in 2025
61 Plays6 years ago
This week on The B2B Mix Show, we welcome Mark Emond, founder & president of Demand Spring, a revenue marketing agency. Mark joins us to talk about the future of B2B Marketing by 2025.
During our discussion, Mark covers:
- What the B2B marketing org structure will look like by 2025
- How the B2B buying process will continue to evolve
- The balance between people's demand for privacy versus marketers' desire to personalize content and experiences
- The role of experiential marketing and in=person events
If you'd like to connect with Mark, you can follow him on Twitter at @Mark_DSpring, on LinkedIn, or visit demandspring.com.
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About The B2B Mix Show
The B2B Mix Show with Alanna Jackson and Stacy Jackson is brought to you by Jackson Marketing. Need help with your B2B online presence? Let’s talk!
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Transcript
Introduction to the B2B Mix Show
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the B2B Mix Show with Elena and Stacey. Each week, we'll bring you ideas that you can implement in your own marketing strategy. We'll share what we know and advice from industry experts who will join us from time to time here on the show. Are you ready to mix it up? Let's get started.
Episode 22 Overview: Hosts and Themes
00:00:18
Speaker
Hi everyone. I'm Stacey Jackson and I'm Elena Jackson. We are the co-founders of Jackson marketing. And in case you still haven't heard, we are also sisters. We're bringing you episode 22 of the B2B mix show.
Future of B2B Marketing by 2025
00:00:30
Speaker
Stacey, what's today's topic? Today, we're going to look to the future and talk about B2B marketing in 2025 and discuss marketing's role, organizational structure, practices, content, and what the Martek landscape will look like five years from
Guest Introduction: Mark Emond
00:00:46
Speaker
now.
00:00:46
Speaker
We've got a special guest who is going to give us his insights on this topic, Mark Emond of DemandSpring. Lena, why don't you introduce our listeners to Mark. Mark Emond is the founder and president of DemandSpring, a revenue marketing agency headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.
00:01:02
Speaker
As DemandSpring's founder and lead strategy consultant, Mark has a tremendous passion for developing advanced yet pragmatic demand generation strategies that deliver early results and long-term growth for his clients. However, Mark has not always been on the agency side of the table. In fact, he has over 15 years of client-side leadership expertise and experience with organizations of all sizes.
00:01:28
Speaker
He led IBM's North American Marketing Organization for Smarter Analytics and was responsible for the integrated market strategy, demand programs, channel marketing, sales enablement, and marketing operations efforts across over 100 individuals.
00:01:44
Speaker
Mark joined IBM through its acquisition of Cognos, a 1.2 billion business analytics leader as director of North American marketing and before the senior manager of global demand programs. Mark was one of the key demand generation leaders when Cognos captured the first Eloqua Markey Award for lead management and the Serious Decisions Return on Integration
Strategic Importance of B2B Marketing
00:02:07
Speaker
Award. Mark has also held marketing leadership roles at Watchfire and Corel. Mark, welcome to the B2B Mix Show.
00:02:14
Speaker
Thank you very much, Elena. I love your podcast, so it's an honor to be a guest on it. Oh, we love to hear people love it. Mark, before we get into the topic at hand, is there anything you'd like to share as far as additional background about yourself or demand spring? Well, I think, Elena, you really covered it. I think you recited more of my background than I can remember, so I don't think I have too much to add, other than just to say that
00:02:37
Speaker
I've been around a while and I have seen incredible growth in B2B marketing's posture and strategic nature in organizations. You know, I like to joke that when I started in my career, marketing's job was to keep the food warm and the beer cold. And today, you know, I think we really in many organizations have a really strategic seat at the table, at the C-suite table. And we are
00:03:00
Speaker
as we like to say at demand spring, standing taller than we ever have before. So I really believe it's the golden age of marketing today. We're going to talk about a little bit of the future in marketing, what that'll look like. And I think we'll even get more and more strategic in the future. But I think all in all, it's just a great time to be a marketer.
00:03:16
Speaker
And those marketers who may be a little bit younger than I am and are experiencing early stages of their career, they're so lucky to be in a profession that is so meaningful to the overall customer experience and the top line results and the bottom line results of a company. Well, I'm not going to lie. There are some days I wish it was back to the, I'll keep the food warm and the beer cold because there's a lot to do in marketing on some days.
00:03:43
Speaker
Being close to the beer is not a bad thing either. Exactly. Let's dive into looking ahead to 2025.
Emerging Role of Chief Revenue Officer
00:03:51
Speaker
So we're going to set the stage to talk about what you anticipate the B2B marketing org structure to look like. Yeah, it's a great question and a great place to start. You know, as I said, generally speaking, marketing today is more important than ever before.
00:04:05
Speaker
and I think that is a trend line that will only continue. With the B2B buyer today engaging with marketing through so much of their buyer journey, we have become more important than ever before. The B2B buyer journey used to really be controlled by sales, much as B2C buyer journey for a considered purchase. When we used to go and buy a car, we would rely on a sales rep at a dealership for much of our education.
00:04:29
Speaker
And today, by the time we go and buy that car, we know the make, the model that we want, all the features. We probably know what the dealer paid for it. In the future, we want you to take a test drive. We'll do a virtual reality or an augmented reality test drive. It's very similar in B2B today, where the buyer interacts with digital marketing and marketing-driven content through much of their buyer journey. And the buyer is really in control. So we're more important than ever before.
00:04:52
Speaker
You know, one of the interesting trends that we're following is a new role that is really starting to emerge in more and more organizations called the Chief Revenue Officer. And that is bringing together sales and marketing under this singular individual and role. So I think we're seeing a flattening of sales and marketing. You know, the two organizations really coming together, even from an org structure perspective. As I think they should, we have to have sales and marketing working in a very interdependent manner. You know, it's a team sport today and certainly will be in the future.
00:05:22
Speaker
I think some of the other things I will see in terms of B2B marketing organizations in 2025, there's a lot that has been talked about with respect to the future of work and how AI will replace or augment workers. I think there's going to be three categories of ways to get the job done in the future. One is permanent employees, which still makes up a lot of our model. And when I say old school, I mean old as in the Roman Empire type model, where we
00:05:48
Speaker
higher people on our payroll. Increasingly contingent workers are becoming more a part of the mix. You know, I think the stats are right now in the US, 37% of workers are contingent workers and roughly 70% of them prefer
AI and Flexible Work Models in B2B Marketing
00:06:02
Speaker
it that way. It's their choice. And so I think we'll see more flex workers. And then the other thing is AI.
00:06:07
Speaker
There'll be things that are being done today by employees, not necessarily complete outsourcing of full jobs, but certainly the shifting of routine tasks to tasks that are better suited to AI. So I think you'll see more of a balance between permanent employees, flex workers, and AI. I think you'll see the continued evolution in terms of the strategic nature of functions within marketing, like marketing operations, putting marketing technology, like content,
00:06:36
Speaker
And I also think you'll probably see more organizations structuring themselves in alignment with the customer life cycle. So really identifying which marketing roles fit at the top of the funnel, the middle of the funnel, the bottom of the funnel, and through the customer life cycle and aligning roles there. I have a quick question for you. Over the past few years, we've seen changes in the way like millennials and now Gen Z is coming up and they kind of want it to be their own boss. So there's a lot more freelancers out there.
00:07:04
Speaker
Do you see that continuing to rise? So do you see her employees and flexible contingent employees kind of balancing each other? Or do you see one higher than the other as we move forward?
00:07:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great question. So I think the trend line will continue. And I think it's both a push and a pull there. I think certainly right now, millennials prefer experiences, they prefer aligning themselves with organizations that share their values and their beliefs. And they also really love flexibility. You know, I know in our organization, we have an amazing
00:07:39
Speaker
team of millennials across our service lines. We have millennials that have decided that they don't want to work in the same city that they're working in today. For example, one moved to Western Canada to be closer to great skiing last year. One is in France right now. One just bought a tiny house in North Carolina and moved from Boston. They really want flexibility. These are permanent employees that I'm referring to, but
00:08:05
Speaker
by the same token i think more and more millennials valuing the flexibility that contingent work provides exactly what the percentages and the mix will be like but i do know that i think you'll continue to see continued growth and i think organizations will embrace it more and more as well.
00:08:20
Speaker
And when you look at the benefits it provides for organizations in terms of being able to mobilize and deconstruct teams quickly, the flexibility it offers in terms of payroll and hence the lower fixed costs they have, it makes a lot of sense. As far as AI, like you were mentioning, will become a part of the future of
00:08:38
Speaker
B2B marketing organizations. Do you have any thoughts on what skills that marketers should start cultivating now as part of their repertoire to be able to work with AI more effectively? Yeah, great question, Stacey. I think there's a few. So I think that AI is going to, as I said earlier, increasingly automate some of the routine tasks that marketers are doing. If we think of marketing automation right now, marketing automation is wonderful in so many respects.
00:09:06
Speaker
but it's still too manual or for my liking, right? We still, you know, humans still decide which messages to send through which channels at which time of day and on which day to individuals. And, you know, those are tasks that in my mind are much better suited to machine learning, right? Really, and especially at scale on a one to one level. So I think what it's going to do is render the work that humans do as being more focused on analysis and critical thinking.
00:09:33
Speaker
I think those are skills that in the AI era we're going to need to have. I think we'll spend more time thinking and less time doing. And I also think that, you know, some other skills, I think it's, you know, it's going to think AI and some of the other trends in technology, you know, voice powered content, for example, natural language processing.
00:09:52
Speaker
is going to make technologies easier to use for everyday users. But it also will require a really much deeper level of technical expertise for those managing platforms and applications that include AI. Not everyone obviously is going to have the passion nor necessarily the skills to drive that kind of deep technical level of expertise. But for those who are technically inclined, I think that is an area that if you can
00:10:17
Speaker
You know, become one of those. And we already see that today in marketing automation, where the demand far strips the supply of workers. It's going to position you extraordinarily well for the future. On that topic of AI and MarTech, what do you think the MarTech landscape looks like in 2025?
MarTech Landscape and AI Integration
00:10:33
Speaker
We've seen incredible growth in the last five years. We went from, what is it, 400 MarTech apps about five years ago to 7,000 today. Conventional thinking is that we're going to see consolidation, and that'll be smaller in five to six years. However, it's interesting.
00:10:48
Speaker
Research that was done by harvard business review is shown that it typically takes about twenty five years for an industry to go through the four stages of a life cycle to get from hyper growth to market dominance by two to three players who typically at full maturity control seventy nine seven industry.
00:11:04
Speaker
I'm not so certain we're going to see that consolidation over the next five to six years. I think we will see certainly some acquisitions, but I think you're going to see incredible growth in certain areas, voice-powered application, AI embedded within applications, machine learning driving greater precision in our efforts, chatbots replacing or augmenting business development or sales development or lead development functions. It's predicted
00:11:31
Speaker
that AI will drive 95% of all customer interactions by 2025. I think that's more of a consumer stat, but I absolutely think that trend will also lend itself to B2B. And I also think MarTech apps are really going to increasingly over the next five to six years have to become more focused on optimizing the customer experience. Hey, folks, let's take a break to hear about today's sponsor. And we are back.
00:12:00
Speaker
Let's talk about the buying process.
AI's Impact on B2B Buying Process by 2025
00:12:03
Speaker
We've seen over the past few years, B2C has really influenced how B2B buyers have changed and they have certain expectations. They want it more personalized. They want it faster. How do you see the buying process for B2B changing by the time we get to 2025?
00:12:20
Speaker
Yeah, this is a really fascinating area. So, you know, one of the things that we're tracking at demand spring is the role of bots in the buying process. And there's, you know, there's just really interesting insights on what B2C buying will look like bots in the future. There was an article that HBR published probably about a year ago that I recall reading.
00:12:39
Speaker
And it talks about a woman coming back home, a professional coming back home. And her smart speaker starts talking to her as she opens the door and says, in looking at your calendar, I see that you've got a new business trip planned. I've gone ahead and booked your travel in accordance with your travel preferences. I've arranged for dry cleaning. You know, the sensors in your clothes identified for me that you always need a dry cleaning. I've gone ahead and arranged for them to be picked up and dropped off on a certain date.
00:13:06
Speaker
The sensors in your fridge have detected which foods need to be reordered and has placed those orders with the local grocery store and arranged for delivery time. And even genomics, Thomas Friedman, the author of The World is Flat, does a lot of talking today about genomic-based AI moving forward. So sensors in our watch or on our clothes will send genomic feedback to suppliers. You know, Stacy, your magnesium levels are low. Your sensors in your food is detecting.
00:13:33
Speaker
It's time to reorder supplements. I've gone ahead and reordered them for you. So, you got to make sure your bank account is full. Yeah. Exactly. So, you know, this kind of bots buying from bots and, you know, it's not only your bot interacting with a supplier, it's your bot interacting with a supplier's bots, right? So, they're in the ordering.
00:13:56
Speaker
And what we're keenly interested in finding out is what will this look like in B2B? And I think a lot of the B2B buying process is pretty rote today. Typically, if you're buying a technology or even office furniture or manufacturing equipment, you define your business requirements, you define your technical requirements, and then you have buying teams who do the evaluation process, do a lot of the research process
00:14:23
Speaker
And a lot of that, again, I think you have humans on the front end identifying your business and technical requirements more informed by machine learning than ever before moving forward.
00:14:32
Speaker
Then I think a lot of the evaluation of which technologies are out there, which products are out there that need our requirements can be automated. That's the one really interesting thing that we're tracking is the role that bots will play in the buying process, automating some routine tasks. Then again, going back to what humans do best is analysis and decision-making based upon the data and the research and the insights that have been gathered.
00:14:56
Speaker
It'll be interesting to see how all this plays out, especially with those buying teams and committees. Like you said, how can a bot navigate necessarily or help navigate those different personalities and goals that each of those people have to kind of streamline the process?
00:15:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's a really good point. I think at the end of the day, human interaction is still so critical when it comes to the element of trust. We, as you guys know, and this is, I'm sure, absolutely true in your business, people buy from you because they trust you. They get to know you.
00:15:30
Speaker
You build a relationship with them and they trust you. Awareness plus affinity plus trust drives purchases. That's not going to be replaced. I think what could be replaced is the research process and then the human to human interaction with brands still is essential in that buying process. It's just something that augments the process that AI might play.
00:15:55
Speaker
We have a client that we've worked with in the past that does some AI pricing configuration things. So maybe even the buying process as far as how the sales rep can more immediately react to what customers need or how market changes will be part of that overall interaction and how things change through AI. Absolutely.
00:16:18
Speaker
As far as buyers go and their concerns, we've seen lately over the past couple of years, especially with the advent of GDPR that people are getting even more concerned about privacy, but marketers on the other hand are wanting to pursue more personalization.
Balancing Personalization and Privacy Concerns
00:16:37
Speaker
So how will we see the balance by 2025 on that personalization versus privacy issue?
00:16:43
Speaker
Yeah, this one's a fascinating struggle, isn't it? You've got the paradox of, you know, we as consumers or business customers increasingly being concerned or even outraged over the use of personal data by technology and social media companies. Obviously, you know, Mark Zuckerberg in front of Congress as an example, yet we want brands to tailor
00:17:05
Speaker
our experiences. We're not simply living our lives anymore. We're documenting them. We're sharing them online. So we give away our privacy much more than we ever have. And we want that kind of tailored experience, the Amazon effect. And the other thing that happens too is giving away our privacy is much more invisible than it's ever been. We really don't feel it.
00:17:27
Speaker
There was a recent experiment that was run by two communications professors where they created a fictitious social media platform and people were asked to read the terms and conditions before registering. Only 25% of them looked at the terms and conditions. 98% of the registrants signed consent without even noticing that one of the terms in it was that it required them to surrender their firstborn child.
00:17:53
Speaker
So we are as guilty as the technology companies and social media companies that we blame for abusing our privacy. We want tailored engagement and we don't do the necessary oversight that it takes to shepherd and safeguard our privacy. There's an increasing level of oversight from government. We've seen this with GDPR in Europe.
00:18:15
Speaker
Castle in Canada, the new California legislation that's coming into effect in January, Brazil. And so it'll be fascinating to see which one wins. The two are really mutually exclusive. I think at the end of the day, individual users will have to decide. I think what we will see is brands being forced
00:18:32
Speaker
by government regulation to really put more control in the hands of users to decide, much like GDPR, do you want to accept the use of cookies on this site? And what it's going to do for vendors and suppliers is create a lot more complexity for managing platforms and the apps that deliver our content and manage our privacy.
00:18:48
Speaker
Yeah, there's definitely a lot going on there and that Stacy is the GDPR person on our end and I just, I'm like, you deal with it.
Human Interactions in a Digital World
00:19:04
Speaker
I want to circle back around to what we were talking about a minute ago about human connections and interactions and where do you see experiential events going and how much do you think people will seek out those connections when we're living in such a digital world?
00:19:19
Speaker
I think they absolutely will seek out those human connections. I think we are hardwired as humans to form relationships, and face-to-face connections is a big part of our hardwiring. Face-to-face interactions also have a huge... The research shows that face-to-face has a huge impact on our health and wellbeing, including our mental health. It builds trust. That's the foundation of successful business relationships.
00:19:39
Speaker
So, you know, I think there will continue to be pressures on face-to-face, obviously the use of technology, social media, maintaining relationships rather than having to actually get together with people, you know, contingent work, remote work. But, you know, overall, I think, you know, the notion that for marketers, live events, trade shows, conferences are going away, I think is folly. I think people absolutely need face-to-face and I think it will continue to be a big part of the mix.
00:20:07
Speaker
Now, you know, going to an online event versus a face to face event is a huge difference. It's, and I guess for me, I, I make a friend everywhere I go just about my family makes fun of me, but I just couldn't imagine not having.
00:20:23
Speaker
a lot of those interactions and those face-to-face experiences because it's a completely different way of interacting with someone and getting feedback from them and understanding them than just having a conversation via email or social or even just watching an online event. I just can't match and it would go away.
00:20:40
Speaker
Yeah, I couldn't agree more Elena, you know, and I think the benefits we get from them are very distinct. I think when we, when we tune into a webinar or virtual event, it's primarily information gathering. When we go to a live event, I think there's definitely an information gathering element, but I think so much of that is building relationships, building trust, having a human connection with individuals, which is a completely different outcome that, you know, you're, you're driving than a virtual engagement.
00:21:07
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And it's harder to multitask while someone's talking to you face to face. Is it though? Is it though? Because I see people taking their phones out while I'm talking to them and I'm like, really? I'm right here. Focus on me. Am I that boring?
00:21:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's a pet peeve of mine too, Elena. So as far as the sales and marketing relationship, and we all know there's a ton of conversations about alignment, you think we'll all get together for a kumbaya moment by 2025?
Future of Integrated Sales and Marketing Roles
00:21:44
Speaker
Or how will that all pan out by 2025 with sales and marketing?
00:21:48
Speaker
As I said earlier, I think we will be flatter. I think sales and marketing will be more in alignment, both figuratively speaking and literally speaking in terms of organizational alignment. Not in all organizations. I think absolutely you'll still see, you know, many, many, probably the majority of organizations by 2025 still have distinct
00:22:07
Speaker
lines of business marketing and sales, but I think increasingly we're starting to see the seeds of that today. The chief revenue officer will unite the two. I'm in progressive organizations who realize that the buyer is in control and it's an interdependent buyer journey where sales and marketing really need to be agile and working together to react to the very interdependent and ongoing back and forth nature of the buyer interacting with sales reps face to face around the phone.
00:22:36
Speaker
and with marketing channels, right? And the technology also really is a huge enabler of success in this regards, right? Where we've got to increasingly feed the digital body language and the digital engagement of prospects through to our reps so that they can ensure their talk track and their engagement is tuned not only to what they have been talking to, you know, in a one-to-one manner with the prospect.
00:23:00
Speaker
but also what the prospect is engaging with online. Yeah, I think that you're right. And like we've started seeing a lot of marketing teams taking on the SDRs where they're coming under their area as opposed to being under sales. So I think you're right. It'll kind of flatten out.
Mark Emond's Dream Job Aspirations
00:23:15
Speaker
We have one more question for you and we like to wrap it up with a just for fun question. So if you weren't the founder and president of demand spring, what would be your dream job?
00:23:23
Speaker
Yeah, I like I love it when you guys ask this question to your other guests. And I was thinking about this last night. Now, can I give you two? Is that possible? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Here are my two. So the one is it's actually not instead of demand spring, demand spring hopefully will lead to this in that, you know, one day as I as I seek to scale back at demand spring, one thing I would love to do is we live. So I'm I'm Canadian. I live in a little village that has actually been kind of subsumed by the capital of Canada, Ottawa.
00:23:53
Speaker
and our village has a main street, which is part of its charm. Main street could use a little bit of revitalization, so I would love to contribute to that. I've got a vision of really helping to
00:24:03
Speaker
kind of beautify and create some development that really encourages a more vibrant kind of walking main street. So that's number one. Yeah. And then number two is a basketball coach, which is kind of interesting for people who know me because I actually did not play basketball growing up. So I'm Canadian.
00:24:24
Speaker
I played hockey, it's compulsory here, like, you know, going to school. But my daughter is a basketball player and last year they needed a basketball, they had no volunteers to be a basketball coach, so myself and one of the other dads volunteered.
00:24:40
Speaker
And I absolutely loved it. Got bit by the bug of basketball coaching. I've heard every YouTube video, every book there is to know, and absolutely love it. And yeah, that would be my second thing. Love to, you know, the Toronto Raptors or Canadian team for this one championship. If I could be a coach on their coaching staff, that would be amazing. There you go. We'll have to start putting that out on social.
00:25:05
Speaker
There we go. So, Mark, before we totally close out, is there anything else that you'd like to address as far as how B2B marketing will change or evolve by 2025?
Exciting Future in B2B Marketing
00:25:17
Speaker
I just think it's going to be a fascinating ride, you know, where, as I said off the top, we're more important to our organizations than ever before. That's only going to continue increasing.
00:25:26
Speaker
and the pace of change driven by technology driven by how people consume content driven by the need to really be relevant in our communication to drive engagement through all the noise.
00:25:39
Speaker
is only going to continue accelerating. So it's going to be a fascinating ride. And I'm so encouraged by the young marketers that I work with today. They're just so, so intelligent, so smart, so technical, and they really get the need for great customer experiences. So I think marketing is in great hands. I think we'll continue to see great growth. And I look forward to seeing and participating in it over the next five to six years.
00:26:02
Speaker
Mark, thank you so much for taking time to speak with us today. If listeners would like to follow you online or get in touch, what are the best ways for them to connect with you? Yeah, I mean, they can go to our website, first of all, demandspring.com, learn more about us, and then they can follow me on Twitter, mark underscore dspring, and also on LinkedIn as well, Mark Eamon. We'll include all those connection points in the show notes. Excellent. Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you, Stacey and Elena. Really appreciate it.
00:26:31
Speaker
Okay, people, that's a wrap. If you want to get in touch with me or Stacey, you can hit us up on social. On Twitter, you can find Stacey at Stacey underscore Jax. That's S-T-A-C-Y underscore J-A-X. And you can find me at Elena underscore Jax. That's A-L-A-N-N-A underscore J-A-X. And hey, maybe you're not a Twitter fan. Looks up on LinkedIn, Stacey Jackson or Elena Jackson. We will respond to you with any questions you might have if you reach out to us.
00:27:01
Speaker
Finally, don't forget you can also leave us a voicemail on the Anchor mobile app. Alright people, thanks for joining us. Have a great week! Bye! The B2B Mix Show is hosted by Stacy Jackson and Elena Jackson of, you guessed it, Jackson Marketing. If you need help with your B2B inbound marketing efforts, visit us at JacksonMarketingServices.com.