Although the purpose of marketing is the same as it ever was — connecting a company with its customers — the actual engine of marketing is in the process of being rebuilt from the ground up.
Same shiny, red car on the outside, but a radically new engine under the hood, running at a different speed, on different fuel.
So how exactly do you rebuild that engine in your organization?
If you’re a B2B marketer, Adam Needles has just published the manual you’ll want to have in your shop, Balancing the Demand Equation: The Elements of a Successful, Modern B2B Demand Generation Model.
I’ve been a fan of Adam’s for many years with his Propelling Brands blog, covering marketing innovation and demand generation. He’s also the Chief Strategy Officer at Left Brain DGA, a demand generation agency, and was previously the Director of Field Marketing for Silverpop. In other words, he’s a master mechanic of modern marketing engines. (Have I taken this metaphor too far?)
The book has two main sections:
First, a (re)orientation for marketers who need to understand the dynamics of the new era of B2B marketing that revolves around “Buyer 2.0.” (For more on this, see my interview with Steve Woods of Eloqua on his latest book, Revenue Engine.)
Second, a blueprint for managing this new kind of marketing within your organization. Adam emphasizes two shifts required in marketing management: (1) a focus on “educating” prospects, rather than “selling” to them; and (2) adopting an “operations mindset” in the structure and flow of these reframed customer interactions — with particular consideration paid to the middle-of-the-funnel.
That first shift is the foundation of content marketing. But the second, which has received far less attention than it deserves, is the heart of the new wave of marketing operations.
For the mere price of a book, it’s a bargain to tap into Adam’s experienced and inspiring thinking on these topics.
