The Hiddens Risks of MarTech

Finding myself among the 145 million American’s who personal information was compromised by the gargantuan Equifax data breach, I welcomed the chance to talk with cybersecurity expert Norman Guadagno, senior VP of data security company Carbonite. Our conversation was both scary and enlightening as Guadagno pointed out how poorly Equifax handled the crisis, the inevitability of having your personal and company…

Your Inbound and Outbound Lead Gen Must Have THIS…

Do you know the one thing that ALL inbound and outbound lead generation strategies need to succeed? (See the answer below, but first consider this): Where do you “lead” your inbound leads – and what do you give them when they get there? How do you market to outbound prospects? You give them content, right? Sometimes that content is your…

B2B CMO: Building a Marketing Engine

When Paul Gottsegen grabbed the CMO reins at Mindtree in 2013, he noticed a major deficiency in both himself and his team—there wasn’t a single marketing technologist among them. Throwing down the gauntlet, Gottsegen shocked his team by mandating they all become more tech-centric since until that point, “everybody thought that was someone else’s job.” While Gottsegen admits there have…

Why VR is Worth Testing Now

Creating more immersive experiences has been the goal of storytellers since humans first gathered around the campfire and added a lion’s roar to their tale of the hunt. The stunt-loving film director William Castle electrified seats in the ’50s for “The Tingler” to literally add extra shock value! John Waters infamously included “Odorama” scratch and sniff cards for screenings of his…

How to Be A More Creative Marketer

Marketing technology has done wonders for the practice of marketing. It has refined, streamlined and taken the guesswork out of some formerly nebulous areas of the industry. But martech and the need to support ideas with data have increasingly pitted marketing against its roots: the art of creativity. The question today is, “Which side is the real driver of innovation?” If…

B2B Marketing: Salesforce + The Trust Revolution

Fourteen years ago, Simon Mulcahy startled his boss by turning down a promotion. He then proceeded to a pub (“This is what you do in England,” he said) and was later joined by his wife to ponder their future. Together they reviewed an issue of The Economist that listed the best places to work and live in the world and, remarkably, they…

One CMOs Approach to Global B2B Marketing

When you spy the occasional B2B ad campaign that is both surprising and relevant, veterans of the trade can’t help but wonder, “Why wasn’t that new ‘organ’ rejected by the corporate body?” To answer this question, it helps to spend time with the top marketing surgeon (aka CMO). In the interview below, Lauren Flaherty, CMO at CA Technologies, helps dissect the…

B2B Marketing: How to Rebrand

It’s inevitable that a new chief marketing officer will launch a new campaign within 18-months of taking the marketing helm. In many cases, this new work will be no more effective than previous messages, simply because it’s like a new coat of paint on a rickety old house. However, when the new campaign is combined with an innovative product or…

B2B Healthcare Marketing: It’s Time to Get Real

Maybe it was his years on the agency side but Burt Rosen, chief marketing officer of HealthSparq, a health care software solutions provider, just refuses to speak health care. Describing the industry as an “echo chamber” that has “little to no idea how to talk to people,” Rosen is a man on mission, looking to reshape not just the vocabulary…

B2B Marketing: Finding a New Name

One of the most bizarre yet pervasive quirks of the business world is that everyone thinks they are a qualified marketer. The collective rationale is that because they consume products like other humans, their opinions must be valid. Well folks, I’ve witnessed a rocket launch but that doesn’t make me a NASA scientist. Marketing is an increasingly sophisticated discipline requiring…