Out with the Old, In with Marketing Automation: Benefit or Spammy

09/07/21 • 55 min

Changing the Game with Digital Engagement, Presented by SAP

The Buzz 1: “Automated emails, triggered emails, drip email marketing...phrases often used by people considering a marketing automation system...where there’s email, unfortunately there’s spam... plenty of marketers are willing to cross the line to try to generate more leads ... They rent lists full of bad addresses and unqualified prospects...too aggressive with frequency and offers...a desire for a quick and easy return. Acting on that desire however can bite you squarely in the arse.” [www.net-results.com/blog] Today there's a solution to over-complicated processes, underqualified leads, too little use of customer data and personalization – Marketing Automation. What is it? Marketing automation utilizes technology to streamline and improve the efficacy of marketing efforts (Salesforce). It allows you to target audiences better and provide them with relevant content, all at the exact right time of their buyer’s journey. But some people say Marketing Automation is almost too good at its job because as soon as a customer or prospect shows a bit of interest in your product or service, a slew of uninvited spammy promotional content begins appearing. Do they get annoyed, click off and abandon their journey with you? Question on the table: Has Marketing Automation transformed the industry in the right ways? Does automated marketing do its job too well? How will the inevitable cookies-less web impact the benefits of Marketing Automation? We’ll ask Neal Schaffer at PDCA Social, Kirill Kniazev at Motili, and Alisha Seegmiller at SAP for their take on Out with the Old and In with Marketing Automation – Beneficial or Spammy?

Previous Episode

Brand Marketing in a Post-Pandemic World

The Buzz 1: “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is -- it is what consumers tell each other it is.” (Scott Cook, Intuit co-founder) The Buzz 2: “Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business.” (Steve Forbes, Forbes magazine editor-in-chief) The Buzz 3: “A great brand is a story that is never completely told.” (Scott Bedbury, Brandstream CEO) The Buzz 4: “Whether B2B or B2C...We all are emotional beings looking for relevance, context and connection.” (Beth Comstock, Imagine It Forward author) The American Marketing Association [www.ama.org] describes “brand” as “...a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” More than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic where volatility, complexity, and uncertainty have been at an all-time high, a brand’s ability to get attention, be remembered, and be an educational resource has become more imperative than ever. That, in conjunction with consumers wanting their buying power to reflect their personal values, has placed extreme pressure on brands to get it right. Given all of this, what role does branding play in the buyer’s journey and has that changed since the pandemic began? What could or should companies do to be better at reflecting the social climate or should they not engage in that conversation? What other impacts will the pandemic have on the future of branding? We’ll ask Alicia Tillman, Mike Grehan and Dennis Thomas for their take on Brand Marketing in a Post-Pandemic World.

Next Episode

Social Media Marketing aka Building Your Boat While Sailing

The Buzz 1: “Social media allows big companies to act small again.” (Jay Baer @convince Marketing) The Buzz 2: “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” (Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO) The Buzz 3: “We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.” (Erik Qualman, author, The Focus Project @equalman) Social media has dramatically affected how we navigate every aspect of life. Its impact on marketing is no exception, as in how it catalyzed the transition from push- to pull-centric marketing. According to MIT Sloan Professor Sinan Aral, “Social media is rewiring the central nervous system of humanity in real time. We’re now at a crossroads between its promise and its peril.” This crossroads is forcing marketers to sail a boat they’re still building while battling the stormy seas of short attention spans, political correctness, new social channels and other powerful waves. Argh! What impact will all of this have on the future of social media marketing? We’ll ask social media agency owner Janet E Johnson, Mike Grehan at SEMPO and Anna Millman at SAP for tips to help your social media marketing stand out amid the high seas noise and find friendly trade winds. Tune in for Social Media Marketing aka Building Your Boat While Sailing.