Q&A with Ryan Phelan, Marketing Chief / Fractional CMO at Origin Email

Q&A with Ryan Phelan
Ryan Phelan, Marketing Chief / Fractional CMO at Origin Email has nearly two decades of global online marketing experience focusing on driving GTM strategies for high growth SaaS software and Fortune 250 companies. Ryan is a respected thought leader and nationally distinguished speaker with a history of experience from Adestra, Acxiom, BlueHornet, Sears Holdings, Hewlett-Packard (Global), Skype, First National Bank of Omaha, and U.S. Bank and others. In 2013 he was named one of the top 30 strategists in online marketing and is the Chairman Emeritus of the EEC Advisory Board.  

MEDIA 7: With two decades of global online and email marketing experience, how do you see the online marketing landscape evolving as we tread through uncertain times?

RYAN PHELAN:
What powers marketing best is that it's predictable and influenced by data. That has changed.
Here’s what’s coming in the next 12 months: At every level, from B2B to B2C, you have to throw your marketing plans out the window. These uncertain times not only detail the unpredictability of commerce but also highlight consumer unpredictability. Companies must start weekly strategy sessions that rely on following the news, statistics and customer sentiment. Start war rooms – virtual or not – that look at how to speak to different parts of the country.

These war rooms look at each channel to ensure that the message is consistent and ties into the socioeconomic channels in cities and states across the country. We also need to look at new ways of communicating with customers. Communications have to focus on the emotive and empathetic part of marketing instead of "Buy this." This is a challenge because it requires non-traditional, non-predictable thinking. It requires a strategic approach, which most marketers aren't used to taking. I've written often about the need to set down a strategy first and then figure out the tactics later. This need is more present and more fluid today than ever before. What's your strategy for this week? For next week?

That fluidity in the strategy-making process is going to be a challenge for most marketers. You can see this today in the absence of advertising from Fortune 100 companies. Rightly so, many have pulled back on ads to rethink their strategy. Finally, systems like CRMs  are not designed to rapidly react to events or predict what will happen. All that investment we put into our systems to help us plan our marketing will now have to pivot. We will be reworking technology to fit in with a narrative that is not planned far in advance but created weekly. These uncertain times have created chaos and is testing the resolve and creativity of marketers across the spectrum.


"B2B companies should adopt ABM technology to level up their communications and react quickly."

M7: What according to you are some of the most innovative go-to-market strategies that today’s high-growth tech companies should be using?

RP:
The most common strategies in B2B revolve around marketing automation, account-based marketing and search engine optimization. Most companies that invested heavily in marketing automation have a lot of programs running but ignore most of them. They send massive amounts of communications, but they aren't in touch. I review their technology to help them recognize intent signals like number of web visitors, time spent on site or on specific pages and what pages they visit. I also audit programs and match them up with qualitative data sets that indicate whether they're sending the right messages at the right times in the right channels.

Then there are companies with a few automation programs. They're focused on just the basics of communications and automation. They need to re-optimize existing programs and invest quickly in new programs that recognize intent. Account-based marketing is a game changer and is true marketing at its best. ABM has two definitions. One is on the sales side, where ABM takes a group of accounts and tries to influence them with personalized, ungated content. On the marketing side, ABM is used to drive traffic, to recognize intent and to reverse-influence users. The marketing side recognizes that people are coming to the property and reverse-engineers content that drives higher intent. Both use ungated content. ABM uses buyer intent that indicates "I'm going to check you out before I want to talk to you." These customers want to learn more before they'll take a phone all or walk through yet another demo.

B2B companies should adopt ABM technology to level up their communications and react quickly. SEO is something B2B marketers should get up to speed on. CEOs hate to spend money on natural search, and that's a mistake. Companies that focus on boosting natural or organic search are finding their investments are paying off, and it complements their paid-search strategy. I advise companies using both paid and natural search to hire an expert to do the work. SEO is not something you can teach yourself and master in six months.

M7: What are some of the common mistakes that modern marketers make in running their digital marketing campaigns? What are the strategies you would recommend to minimize or eliminate those errors?

RP:
The biggest mistake is that email marketers favor tactics over strategy. They don't look at why someone reads their emails instead of how they read them or how to send to them. From promotional to triggered emails, from welcome messages to cart abandonment, any kind of email message you can think needs to have a strategy, a "why" behind it. Entrepreneurs who say they don't have time to map out email strategy are missing the boat, and I question their leadership abilities. You don't have to plan out a strategy a year in advance, or even a month. Maybe you plan on Friday for the week ahead. You don't have to map out each point in your strategy either. But you do have to have at least the broad outline.

I'm a big believer in planning a strategy retreat, where you and your team take yourselves out of the day-to-day rat race and plan strategy for the coming year. Even a half-day can work if you can keep the focus strictly on strategic planning – the "why" of what you want to do. Most importantly, you need to get everybody on board with it, first in the conversations and then in the planning and execution. Things are different this year – the strategy you might have planned out so carefully has just blown up – but you can always get the gang back together to come up with new strategies.


"The true sign of an insider is giving back to your industry community without pitching your company or self-aggrandizing. That might mean you join an organization and help others learn and do their jobs better."

M7: From your experience, what are technology companies not doing enough for customer activation?

RP:
Recognition of intent. I don't think a lot of SaaS companies are looking for those signals the way they should. What are companies doing to look at pages on-site that indicate high intent? How do you recognize those signals so you can act on them, whether through your marketing automation, sales, email or phone calls?

We aren't thinking about intent on a scale to match the need. A lot of companies go through an exercise where they point-score their prospects. You have to start thinking about what combination of behaviors recognize intent. Consumers, whether in B2B or B2C, give off signals that they're interested. Companies can recognize and react appropriately. Not every action means you should pick up the phone and call them. Recognizing intent signals means you know what you need to do next to move that person down the spectrum so they become a lead or request information or indicate you can call or email them or contact them in some way.

M7: How important is channel integration for the success of a marketing campaign? What are the most essential components of a perfectly orchestrated campaign?

RP:
I have never seen a perfectly orchestrated campaign.
What we have instead is coordinated channel distribution. This means I have an idea, and I spread it out evenly across my channels. We see this in big-box communications at Christmas. The retailer will have a theme, and you see that theme in every email, tweet and social media post. That's just a coordinated campaign. A truly orchestrated channel integration means I come up with a strategy and a sub-strategy for each channel that respects the purpose and capability of that channel.

I would ask: How can email support my theme? Then, integrate these actions and insights to other channels. For channel propensity, I've done studies where we looked at consumer cohorts and what the primary method for communications should be. Sometimes it's email. Sometimes it's social. Other times it's direct mail. A truly orchestrated campaign looks at integration of data not just across channels but also customer propensity. That's why I say I haven't seen truly orchestrated campaigns. It takes a lot of work to get to that Nirvana, but you can get there through small steps if you use incremental innovation, which builds on one small improvement at a time. It won't happen overnight, but you can orchestrate over time and gather learnings along the way.


"It takes a lot of work to get to Nirvana, but you can get there through small steps if you use incremental innovation, which builds on one small improvement at a time."

M7: You have a regular article on Marketing Land. Could you tell us about your library of thought leadership blogs, white papers and presentations?

RP:
I focus on two audiences with my Marketing Land content. I try to speak in some articles to people from C-level executives on down to the specialists working on the front lines. What I try to do is write on things that matter, things that move the needle for the marketing program. My strategy is to write about things they can put into practice today – a playbook for their marketing programs.
I try to point out what's happening in the world. We're all looking for answers, especially with COVID-19. Nobody knows the right way to move forward. I call on 20 years of experience to suggest things to try, to show where reality and theory get in the way. I try to help save people from the mistakes of the past. I've seen where theory gets in the way of reality. I want to dispel all thoughts of rainbows and unicorns.


M7: What advice would you give to young digital marketers from the point of sharpening their skills as a marketer?

RP:
Whenever I start a session with a new client, I show a slide listing authors that marketers should read consistently. A lot of people write about digital or email marketing, but I think there are about 40 who have a valid voice in our industry, and those 40 are on my list. So, the first thing I suggest is to read and soak up all the knowledge that's out there. The second is to ask questions. It's infuriating to run into marketers who think they know everything. There's no room for cockiness in this career. I have been in email marketing for 20 years, and I learn all the time. I ask the stupid questions. We are always learning.

Next, find a mentor. This is the person you go to with stupid questions and to get career advice. I'm not talking about getting free consulting but talking with someone who can point you toward the best way to go with your career.

Finally, give back. The true sign of an insider is giving back to your industry community without pitching your company or self-aggrandizing. That might mean you join an organization and help others learn and do their jobs better. Write articles. Lead webinar. Answer questions on community forums. Speak at conferences.

The true insiders bend over backwards to help others without directly benefiting themselves.


M7: You love cooking during your free time. What are the cuisines you have tried and would want to try using your culinary skills?

RP:
I have a collection of about 400 recipes. I enjoy all kinds of cooking. I love Italian food. My mother-in-law is Italian and taught me well. I'm known for steaks and have gotten into sous-vide – a method of cooking in which you put food in a vacuum-sealed bag and cook it in a temperature-controlled water bath. I thoroughly enjoy it. It lets me be creative and experimental, and I've got enough equipment to have a product showcase on QVC.

If you want to see my creations, find me on Instagram.
Give me a recipe, and I can riff. But I'd love to learn how to make food on the fly. I'd love to be as good as the guys on Chopped, where you walk into a kitchen and you're told, "Here, you get this and this and this. Now make something."

ABOUT ORIGIN EMAIL

Origin Email Agency is a group of diverse and experienced digital marketers who know that marketing can be tough in the execution but when you step back, truly step back, you can create greatness. 

Most professionals are focused on the tactics when that's generally what we all are good at.  What companies worldwide need is effective strategies to define the "why" first and the "how" second. 

That's where we come in.  Creating mind-blowing, technology agnostic strategies for some of the largest and smallest companies across the globe.

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Integrate Launches Media Division, Pipeline360, for Holistic Demand Generation

PRWeb | January 11, 2024

Integrate, a leading B2B marketing demand management platform, today announced the launch of Pipeline360, its media arm that offers an all-in-one integrated media solution for content syndication, account intelligence enhancement, and digital advertising. Pipeline360 incorporates what was previously known as the Integrate Lead Generation Marketplace with multichannel, full-funnel, global campaign management, including real-time analytics, lead validation and standardization, and enhanced segmentation. In "The 2024 State of B2B Pipeline Growth" survey conducted by Pipeline360 and Demand Metric, 80% of B2B marketers report getting new qualified leads is mission critical or an urgent priority, yet 53% of B2B marketers report not being able to meet their pipeline goals. Additionally, an overwhelming 93% of B2B marketers say that data compliance and accuracy is a priority at their company. "This gap in marketers' ability to meet pipeline goals underscores the complex intersection of challenges B2B marketers face today - budget constraints alongside rising targets, a convergence of brand and demand, all while facing heightened scrutiny on data privacy," said Jeremy Bloom, co-founder and CEO of Integrate. "We developed Pipeline360 to provide our customers with a flexible solution that makes it easy and seamless to generate a robust pipeline enriched with high quality leads. This complements our SaaS platform's capability to connect, govern, and measure performance across multiple demand channels." "The 2024 State of B2B Pipeline Growth" survey found that the #1 challenge in marketing today is budget constraints (50%) followed by economic slowdown (40%) and impossible targets (32%). In response, B2B companies are adapting to fewer resources by consolidating teams and/or job responsibilities (79%), cutting travel budgets (33%), and relying on agencies (33%). The survey also found that 61% of B2B marketers who use content syndication were able to reach their goals as compared to 45% for those who do not use content syndication. However, the survey also found that 37% of respondents have not considered using content syndication for lead generation, 38% don't know what content syndication is, and 35% don't understand how it works. "These data suggest that more than a third of B2B marketers are not maximizing the tools and channels available to them, and by not leveraging the power of content syndication, advanced display advertising, and a full-funnel approach, they're losing out on pipeline and revenue," said Tony Uphoff, President, Pipeline360. "That's why we created Pipeline360 - to support marketers to maximize the value of a multichannel approach, bring their brand and demand efforts together, and drive marketing pipeline in a scalable, compliant, and predictable way." "The 2024 State of B2B Pipeline Growth" was conducted with global research and advisory firm, Demand Metric and surveyed 400+ B2B marketers across North America and the UK. The questions were fielded in Q4 of 2023 to unveil key challenges, investments, and priorities for demand marketers. To learn more about "The 2024 State of B2B Pipeline Growth," please visit our blog, "B2B Marketing Trends: The Realities of B2B Marketing Pipeline Growth in 2024." To learn more about Pipeline360, please visit www.pipeline-360.com. About Pipeline360 Powered by Integrate, a leading B2B marketing solutions provider, Pipeline360 solutions combine three powerful demand generation tools: targeted display, content syndication, and a comprehensive marketplace model. Pipeline360 ensures that marketers achieve 100% compliant and marketable leads by effectively engaging with audiences much earlier in the buying cycle, connecting with buyers at every stage of the process, and optimizing programs to drive performance. Pipeline360 enables a strategic, holistic demand generation approach tailored for the reality of today's B2B purchasing process. Customers include high-growth and enterprise organizations like Salesforce, Cisco, Dell, and VMware. For more information, please visit www.pipeline-360.com. About Integrate Integrate offers a cross-channel demand management SaaS platform for enterprise B2B demand and marketing operations teams. Integrate accelerates speed-to-business value through powerful integrations, delivers 100% marketable and compliant leads with trusted governance, and provides AI-powered insights to enhance and expedite smart decision-making. Integrate works with high-growth and enterprise organizations like Salesforce, Microsoft, Akamai, and Pluralsight to power their B2B marketing strategies. For more information, visit www.integrate.com or engage with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.

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Collibra Shines with Multiple MarCom Awards for Excellence

Collibra | November 08, 2023

Collibra receives multiple MarCom Awards, including two Platinum and three Gold Awards, recognizing achievements in design, publications, and podcast production. Highlighted among Collibra's successful projects is 'The Data Download' podcast, which is focused on the data community, AI/ML, and data governance education. The MarCom Awards, sponsored by the AMCP, celebrate creative excellence in marketing and communications, emphasizing the importance of creativity and branding in a competitive market. Collibra, a renowned data intelligence company, has recently announced its remarkable success at the MarCom Awards, where it garnered numerous prestigious accolades for marketing and communications. The company's outstanding achievements were acknowledged with two Platinum Awards, three Gold Awards, and one Honorable Mention, spanning categories such as creative design, publications, and podcast production. One of the highlighted endeavors among these accolades was 'The Data Download,' a podcast dedicated to the data community, AI/ML, and data governance education. The MarCom Awards are a prestigious platform that celebrates the exceptional achievements of creative professionals involved in the conception, direction, design, and production of marketing and communications materials and programs. The judges, who are seasoned industry experts, seek out companies and individuals whose talents transcend the conventional standards of excellence and serve as exemplars for the entire industry. Collibra received the following awards: Platinum Awards Collibra Impact Report Category: Creativity - Design | Annual Report / CSR Collibra Impact Report Category: Publications | Annual Report | CSR Gold Awards The Data Download Podcast by Collibra Category: Web Based | Web Element | Podcast Collibra Partner Program Brand Guide Category: Creativity - Design | Identity Suite Collibra Partner Program Brand Guide Category: Creativity - Design | Program Guide Honorable Mention The Data Download Podcast by Collibra Category: Creativity - Design | Identity Suite MarCom stands as one of the most renowned and longstanding creative competitions globally. These awards are sponsored and evaluated by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), a leading organization with a 28-year history comprising thousands of creative professionals. Denise Vu Broady, the Chief Marketing Officer for Collibra, remarked that in today's highly competitive market landscape, strong creativity, branding, design, and content have become more important than ever for brand differentiation. She expressed her enthusiasm in observing Collibra's efforts being acknowledged with multiple MarCom honors. She further conveyed her excitement in sharing this recognition with their broader team and extended her gratitude to them for their diligent efforts in earning these awards.

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