Australian marketers are lagging behind - here's why
More than two years ago, a former CMO for a tech company in Australia that I worked with rang me from her new role in London and said, "Marketing is so different over here."
"The systems and processes are excelerated by the use of technology so much so that our sales process is automated to the nth degree - you really have to come over and see it."
"The systems and processes are excelerated by the use of technology so much so that our sales process is automated to the nth degree - you really have to come over and see it."
Basically, in layman's terms, the company that she now was the CMO of had sales automation and marketing automation, complementing their customer relationship management software and e-marketing. This same company, from startup to billion dollar success story, catapulted to the height of its industry not just because it has a great product, but because the software and systems they use, backed by creative content drove leads to sales people who then closed them.
It's not rocket science, but something that I am afraid to say, three years on, is still a problem in Australia with many CMO's still behind the eight ball when it comes to implementing software to drive more meaningful leads to their sales teams. Marketing is not just about having an advertising campaign, a brochure website and some brochures.
Sitting in the hub of technology in Atlanta, a city that I have grown to be very fond of, I see the newest of technologies being developed in marketing and how they are changing the way in which we interact with our customers and turn prospects into leads and ultimately, a closed sale.
Many CMO's know about marketing automation, but have not implemented it within their companies nor have they allocated budget to it in the next 12 months. This is ludicrous because those who adopt smart, intuitive technologies such as marketing automation will catapult ahead of the pack within 6 months of implementation.
Marketers need to stop having their heads in the clouds, and editing last year's marketing strategy with slight modifications rather than throwing it in the bin and starting from scratch.
It's a new market out there and it is changing in a dynamic way that will necessitate marketers to be technology driven whether they like it or not and old-school creative that is not intuitive will do very little other than "look pretty".
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comments ( 2 )
Jenee Feikles
31 Jul 2016Thanks!
ReplyNicole
01 Jul 2014Great write up and very interesting perspective. Technology is vital to running a successful marketing program. I love being here in Atlanta because the technology startups are on the rise and the networking is amazing! The knowledge share really helps me keep up with the speed that my global clients want to move.
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