Posts

Showing posts with the label digital marketing

The Power of Influencer Marketing in B2B

Image
When many of us hear the term "Influencer Marketing" we immediately think of B2C examples involving celebrities on Instagram with exaggerated appendages hawking wares, but what about influencer marketing in a B2B context?  I've recently had the privilege of learning from and interviewing many experts on the matter - including the Global Head of Influencer Marketing at SAP,  Ursula Ringham .  Influencer marketing is about showing that other credible people, outside of your company, have similar views of the world. Influencer marketing in B2B often involves a company reaching out to associate themselves with a recognized person in an industry or market that has a high level of credibility, respect and positive influence.  Astute companies surround their brands and messaging with influencers that share similar views. Influencers are not just important in a marketing context, but companies have long chose influencers to join their board of directors, and/or become compa

Digital and Marketing Leadership: Robin Matlock, CMO of VMware on Marketing and Branding Strategies and the Role of Social Responsibility

Image
In this episode I have the privilege of sitting down with the brilliant and very busy CMO of VMware, Robin Matlock, at VMworld 2018, and taking a deep dive into marketing strategies, branding and the role companies should play in  serving the greater good.  Enjoy! ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict SVP Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc. Website Regalix Inc. View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Insights and Strategy from SAP's VP of Web Marketing Gail Moody-Byrd

Image
Kevin Benedict and Gail Moody-Byrd Kevin: Thanks for joining us today Gail!  Let’s talk about your title, Vice President and Head of Web Marketing at SAP.  What do you get to do in this role? Gail: It’s really an interesting new role. It was created to do a couple of things. SAP.com, the website, is going through a transformation and we are moving from a site that largely generated awareness and shared information, to a site that drives business value. The team that works for me does a couple of things. We manage the web pages for products and industries, and now we are responsible for the performance of the website. How are the pages performing? How are they connecting with our visitors? We are making sure that every interaction is a good one. We are giving website visitors a lot of opportunities, through chat and other things, to engage with the site.  We are also making sure that the hand-off from the website to the sales team is clean, clear and effective, and the leads the

Digital and Marketing Leadership: SAP Hybris' Global VP, Strategy and Solution Management, Jackie Palmer

Image
In this episode we discuss digital marketing strategy and SAP Hybris with Jackie Palmer, Global VP, Strategy and Solution Management at SAP.  If you are not familiar with SAP Hybris, it is SAP’s platform for customer engagement and commerce that includes five distinct areas: marketing, sales automation, customer service, commerce/e-commerce and customer data cloud.  Enjoy! ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict SVP Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc. Website Regalix Inc. View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Digital and Marketing Leadership: SAP's CDMO Mika Yamamoto

Image
In this episode, I have the privilege of interviewing SAP’s Chief Digital Marketing Officer, Mika Yamamoto about SAP’s marketing strategies.  We discuss why SAP decided to separate the CDMO role from CMO, and what each of their responsibilities are.   Spoiler Alert – The CMO watches after the SAP brand and aims to make it a top-10 global brand, while the CDMO focuses on demand generation and customer retention.  We also explore how SAP supports the EU requirements for GDPR, the global data protection regulation, and how it can actually be turned into a competitive advantage.  Enjoy! ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict SVP Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc. Website Regalix Inc. View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enoug

Digital and Marketing Leadership: Sophie Vu, CMO, Vibes

Image
In this episode, I interview mobile marketing expert and Vibes CMO Sophie Vu. Vibes has been a critical part of the core international mobile network infrastructure for decades, but did you know they provide all kinds of interesting mobile marketing apps, platforms and tools for marketers?  Watch this episode to learn how this rapidly developing market is evolving, and also learn what it's like to be a CMO in this environment.  Enjoy! ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc. Website Regalix Inc. View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in

Digital and Marketing Leadership Series: Efrat Ravid, CMO ContentSquare

Image
In this episode we dig deep into website analytics and customer journeys with digital marketing expert and CMO Efrat Ravid.  We explore the topics of romance in France, website habits in Germany, how to use activity-based analytics to help businesses understand exactly what content is working and effective, plus much more. This interview is valuable to any digital/website marketing leader or practitioner.  Enjoy! ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc. Website Regalix Inc. View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

My Interview with Digital, AI and Marketing Expert Chris Willis, CMO @Acrolinx

Image
In this episode,   Acrolinx   CMO, digital, AI and marketing expert Chris Willis, walks us through the use of artificial intelligence to ensure marketing, brand and message clarity and consistency.  Their platform “learns” content strategy, and makes it actionable across your enterprise. They deliver a comprehensive view of content quality, while monitoring key metrics and fine-tuning guidance with AI. ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc. Website Regalix Inc. View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Digital Expert Interviews: SAP's VP of Influencer Marketing, Jim Dever

Image
In this episode I interview Jim Dever, SAP’s VP of Influencer Marketing, and learn how influencer programs work, the value SAP receives from them and the key strategies and tactics behind influencer marketing.  Enjoy! ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc. Website Regalix Inc. View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

My Interview with Digital Marketer, Account Based Marketing Expert and Terminus Co-Founder Sangram Vajre

Image
Sangram Vajre This transcript was edited for readability.  The original video recorded interview can be watched   here . Hello, I’m Kevin Benedict, Senior Vice President of Solutions Strategy here at  Regalix , and I want to thank all of you for joining this Digital Expert Interview series. I’m just thrilled to have as my guest today, Sangram Vajre. Sangram, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me, Kevin. I’m excited. Sangram is the co-founder and chief evangelist of Terminus. Why don’t you tell us about Terminus? We started Terminus in 2014. We thought that something was wrong with the way marketing and sales worked. Forrester came out with this research around 2014 that reported less than 1% of leads turn into customers. Thinking about that, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the way B2B marketing and sales is working if only 1%, or less than 1% is turning into customers. We are on a mission to build the best-in-class account-based marketing (ABM) platform

Digital and Account Based Marketing Expert Interview with Terminus' Co-Founder Sangram Vajre

Image
In this episode we dive into the strategies, tactics and digital technologies involved with account based marketing (ABM) – one of the hottest trends in marketing. We learn how ABM evolved, how it is different from traditional marketing, plus the impact it is having on sales and customers’ experiences today.  This information is not just important to marketers and revenue officers, CIOs and CDOs are now supporting and responsible for digital customer and prospect interactions so this information is important to all leaders. Even before a prospect becomes a customer, they are evaluating vendors based upon the quality of their experiences.  ABM is about using data, digital technologies, analytics and personalization to provide the best possible experiences for a prospect during their path-to-purchase journey.  It is also, of course, about sales teams being more effective at closing deals.  Enjoy! ************************************************************************ Kevin Bene

Data, Competition and the Evolution of Product Identity

Image
Digital Identities Everyone is talking about the massive volumes of new data available to businesses as a result of digitizing  just about everything, but I believe we are just getting started.   Every business process, piece of equipment, building, product, customer if they don’t already, will have a digital twin – a unique digital identity.  This digital identity is necessary because traditional relationships between manufacturers, brands, products and consumers is rapidly changing?  A business’ recognition and response to these digital identities will determine whether they will be digital winners or losers. Today, everything is generating data – websites, smartphones and apps, vehicles, manufacturing processes, home automation systems, smart cities, etc.  However, as much as technology enthusiasts like me talk and write about digital transformation, many products and processes still remain analog, but that’s changing. It seems every week we read about another retail chain f

AI and Marketing Mix Modeling

Image
In the course of my research on the impact of artificial intelligence on sales, marketing and customer experiences, I have been learning about Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM).  If you are not familiar with it, here is a quick description from our friends at Wikipedia. "Marketing mix modeling (MMM) is a way to optimize advertising mix (where money is spent on advertising) and promotional tactics with respect to sales revenue or profit.  It is an analytical approach that uses historic information, such as syndicated point-of-sale data and companies’ internal data, to quantify the sales impact of various marketing activities."  As I dug deeper into MMM I saw both the value and the complexity involved.  However, my liberal arts degree, in no way prepared me for it. The ideas and concepts around MMM have been used in the CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry for decades, but little outside of that industry.  The reason - it required massive volumes of data and greater comput

Digital Expert Interviews: VMware's CMO Robin Matlock

Image
In this series we have spoken with a lot of different experts on the impact of digital transformation on enterprises and industries – usually from a  backend IT system perspective. In this episode, however, we dig deep into the impact of digital transformation on marketing with VMware’s Chief Marketing Officer, Robin Matlock.  She shares her insights on how VMware embraces digital transformation, how marketing in general is impacted and how she approaches her job as CMO.  Enjoy! Kevin Benedict Senior Vice President Solutions Strategy, Regalix Inc. Website Regalix Inc. View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Is Silicon Valley Worth It?

Image
Have you ever wondered why technology start-ups aggregate in Silicon Valley like moths to a flame?   Office space is expensive.   Hiring employees in the valley is costly.   Competition for talent is fierce.   Buying a home is cost prohibitive and traffic is horrible.   Yet start-ups continue to locate here.   What are the attractants?   Let's consider the following: Traditional consulting practices promote the fact they have decades worth of accumulated business processes, system designs, economic models, methodologies and experiences from years of providing IT and business strategy consulting to large multinational companies.   The problem is the large legacy S&P 500 companies are not the models for agility and digital acumen today - think about the trouble GE is in.  Today the average number of years a company can stay in the S&P 500 is predicted to be only 14 years.  Today, agile Silicon Valley companies are the ones commanding the most attention. Havi