• Demand creation marketers should be business-minded, process-driven, analytical, buyer-focused technologists
  • Storytelling is necessary to create and justify the business case for marketing transformation
  • Creativity and communication are still a very important part of marketing, specifically demand creation

The Demand Creation Strategies team at SiriusDecisions just wrapped up a best practices webcast series, the replays for all of the webcasts can be found here.

The series includes the following webcasts:

  1. 2016: Five Demand Creation Trends for the New Year
  2. B2B Marketing Strategy: Building the Foundation
  3. The Demand Waterfall: Rethinking the Fundamentals
  4. The Eight-Factor Model of Lead Development Effectiveness
  5. Event Strategy: Tried, True, and Still Essential for B2B Marketers
  6. 5 Essential Traits for Demand Creation Marketers

During the last webcast, 5 Essential Traits for Demand Creation Marketers, I shared the importance of the following five traits:

  1. Business-minded. Demand creation marketers must have a deep understanding of the business to align and support the growth objectives of the organization.
  2. Process-driven. Demand creation marketers must also have a deep understanding of the processes to deliver consistent performance.
  3. Technologist. Demand creation marketers must be able to effectively marketing technology to bridge the chasm between the art and the science of demand creation initiatives.
  4. Buyer-focused. Demand creation marketers must thoroughly know their buyers, their needs and the internal buying processes in order to provide a buyer-centric experience.
  5. Analytical. With the emergence of data scientists, demand creation marketers must be knowledgeable about performance metrics – going beyond activity and quantity and getting to the who, what, where, when, why and how for each program.

StorytellerAnd the wrapper to these essential traits is an ability to tell stories based on facts and data. Storytelling is necessary to create and justify the business case for marketing transformation, technology, process change and investment,

One of the webcast attendees posed the following question, “Where do the old core skills of creativity and communication fit in? I know they are not enough, but have they gone away?” It was such a great question that I thought I would share my full response and let others respond in the comment section below.

Creativity and communication are still a very important part of marketing, specifically demand creation. In fact, creativity and communication should be evident in all of the traits shared above. Coming up with creative solutions to solve problems and communicate potential changes will help with being business-minded and process-driven and enhance demand creation marketers’ abilities to come up with ways that technology can be leveraged to achieve the goal. Being creative help marketers come up with relevant content for buyers that is tied to the appropriate stage of the journey. Being analytical requires a lot of creativity, and being able to communicate why a program, tactic or marketing channel performed the way it did is critical to being an effective demand creation marketer.

Click here for resources for Demand Marketing Leaders which will help you power your business through Art & Science.