Marketing Digital Transformation Success

Digital transformation of the Marketing department is a top priority for every B2B CMO (except perhaps those who are about to get fired for not paying enough attention to digital transformation).

We’re an integrated marketing agency that gets B2B marketing digital transformation like no other. If you’re struggling with your transformation program, odds are we can help. Until then, here’s a little perspective on the current state of digital transformation in marketing.

Oh My, How Far We’ve Come

According to leading research firm Forrester, CMOs in the United States will be spending more than $122 billion a year on marketing technology (martech) and related services by the year 2022.

Wow. In the seventies and eighties, what did it mean to be a tech-oriented marketer? It meant you had a fax machine in the office.

For those of you who still know what a fax machine is, think of how far we’ve come in the digital transformation of the marketing department.

Sure, it’s been a series of fits and starts.

In the nineties, we all rushed to build brochureware websites, and, for a while, in the current millennium, we all went gaga over social media (still going strong in fact) and most of us have gotten real busy looking at how big data and artificial intelligence can improve Marketing’s prospects to add value to our organizations.

But looking at the big picture, it’s only now, very recently, that all the pieces have come together to truly allow us to make the most of marketing digital transformation.

Indeed, today, we’re wisely obsessed with data, user experiences on our digital marketing channels, personalized engagement and Account-Based Marketing (ABM) enabled via digital technology and, always, trying to make the most of a plethora of marketing software solutions we’ve purchased.

But how’s it really going? Have we digitally transformed the Marketing department yet? Are marketing agencies that talk big with respect to digital transformation really delivering the goods?

Room for Improvement

Our take on the digital transformation of marketing is that the hype far exceeds actual performance.

We work with global B2B brands, and, frankly, many of them are struggling with the transition to digital. They think they are digitally transformed if they’ve moved their data and their apps to the cloud. Big deal. That’s not what marketing digital transformation is all about.

The big strategy consulting firms (McKinsey & Co. being my favorite since I am an alum) describe digital transformation as tapping the power of digital technology for a complete rethinking of every aspect of a business. To them, it’s not digital transformation if you don’t completely reinvent an industry’s value chain and deliver novel new business models that leave the competition in the dust.

Before we get to that grand vision of digital transformation, how about we just focus on not sucking at digital marketing? How about if we start by getting really good at digital marketing and making the most of what we at Walker Sands refer to as our our respective digital ecosystems for marketing?

Let’s start there. Let’s crush the skepticism in the rest of the C Suite, where the Luddites are still (annoyingly) saying “I’m not really sure if the digital strategy is working.”

If five percent of your leads currently come from digital marketing, let’s get that to thirty percent in a hurry. Let’s make sure that the revenue attribution for your organization’s biggest successes this year track back to your digital marketing programs, including your web presence, all your digital campaigns, and your marketing automation software system.

Marketing Digital Transformation: Rapid Results Delivered

To us, digital transformation is all about the fundamentals. Technology is a means to an end, not an end in itself, right? So, let’s start by using technology and digital marketing channels to get you better business results.

Whether you need results in a hurry or are ready to make big plans that will deliver big results over time, our digital transformation experts are well-positioned to help you master marketing digital transformation and get the results you need.

First things first. Let’s use digital to drive outsized increases in your revenues and let’s do that by improving your execution on the basics.

Once we’re done with that, we can move on to reinventing your entire industry and transforming the business with digital. Everything in due time. Hard by yard, cinch by the inch, as we like to say around the agency.

To learn more about our B2B digital marketing services, including those provided by our marketing automation consultants and demand gen experts, please get in touch.