The Future of B2B Marketing
Forrester analyst Laura Ramos posted an interesting and challenging article on the Forrester Blog for Interacting Marketing Professionals this week, where she outlines the future of B2B marketing and hypothesizes that the profession may become obsolete as its value within a company becomes increasingly difficult to measure.
Ramos writes:
“Unfortunately, I see marketers focus take a narrow view that causes them to miss seeing the impact of these trends looming ahead. When I ask B2B marketers, “What is marketing’s charter or mission at your company?,” most often I hear “We generate demand.” This goal is very hard to measure. Why? Because most B2B products are highly-considered sales involving a sales force or indirect channel where marketing gets caught in the middle or brushed to the side. Marketers who simply want to know which tactics work best and which statistics matter fail to see beyond the front of the funnel. Without this broader perspective, marketing will become obsolete as the Web, blogosphere, and social networks let businesses connect buyers directly with product development and bypass marketing all together.”
No doubt an interesting topic and one that is central to our idea of using the latest technologies to serve as a valuable link between sales and marketing teams. As the lines between these teams continue to blur, marketing’s ability to collaborate effectively with sales and embrace new roles within a company’s infrastructure will be key to avoiding the fate that Ramos presents.
Marketing can certainly continue to play a valuable and relevant role, yet effective lead nurturing and demonstration of ROI is only going to become more important. Now more than ever it is time for marketers to become proactive masters of these new tools and embrace technology and changing processes as the way forward in terms of actively engaging an audience and seeing beyond “the front of the funnel.”
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