A presentation by Dr. Debra Zahay-Blatz, Restaurant.com Associate Professor of Interactive Marketing, Head of Interactive Marketing Program at Northern Illinois University

1. Marketing Automation and
Demand Generation: A
Framework for Analysis
Dr. Debra Zahay-Blatz
Restaurant.com Associate
Professor of Interactive Marketing,
Head of Interactive Marketing
Program
Northern Illinois University
11/17/2010

2. Who Am I?: My Journey in B2B Marketing
started in Sales and Technology
• MBA from NU’s Kellogg, NOT In Marketing but
Information Systems and Finance
• Started in technical area, moved into sales support
then sales then marketing
• Worked for Dun & Bradstreet and MCI
Telecommunications
• Fast forward 15 years and I was Director of Sales &
Marketing (without a Marketing Degree), sound
familiar to B2B Marketers?

3. What we called integrated IMC
involved the sales force
• Sent letters to prospects in a particular
vertical industry
• Invited them to contribute to a newsletter
on a particular topic
• Sent direct mailers on these topics
• Timed it with sales force participation
• Netted millions on small investment
Zahay, ESOMAR, 2002

4. What else we called it….
• Database Marketing
• B2B Direct Marketing
• Lead Generation/Lead Management
• One to one marketing
• Relationship marketing
• Customer-centric marketing
• Customer Relationship Management
• You name it…..

5. Now, Marketing has become
an Interactive Marketing
Conversation
Evaluate Program Identify Strategic Targets
Build Database, website
Contact/Interact

6. Marketing is evolving/has
evolved/must evolve….

7. . . . And by the way I got my
Marketing Degree
• PH.D. in Marketing from University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000
• Research in customer databases and how
they can be used to create competitive
advantage, information use in NPD
• Parlayed my technical knowledge into
teaching internet and database
marketing, since 1999

8. What is Demand Generation?
Demand generation is the revenue-
focused set of activities of both sales
and marketing that gets quality leads
into the top of the sales funnel and
then helps sales pull opportunities
through the funnel quicker.
– Adapted from the Pedowitz Group

9. What is Marketing
Automation?
Marketing automation is a term that
describes an emerging category of
Web 2.0 and beyond technology
designed to improve marketing
efficiencies and drive revenue through
high quality lead generation and
management. These technologies work
to integrate marketing and sales
funnels.
– Adapted from the Pedowitz Group

10. Why do we do this (Marketing
Automation, Demand Gen)?
• WE WANT TO MAKE MONEY

11. What are the two ways to
position ourselves to make
money?
• Low-cost
• Differentiation (Value)
– Michael Porter

12. How do we make money other
than cutting costs?
• WE GROW, through leveraging our
strengths, our core competencies
Edit Penrose, The Theory of the
Growth of the Firm, 1959

13. Effective Demand Generation
Processes Aid Competitiveness
in Two Ways
• Fuel growth
• Provide a competence that is a source of
competitive advantage, BUT ONLY IF
THE SKILLS are difficult to imitate

14. So, Automation Tools can be
helpful, but they are only a
Technology
• Technology itself cannot be a source of
competitive advantage
• Technology can be imitated
• How the technology is used by the firm
CAN be a source of advantage
– Resource-based view of the firm

15. Therefore, Automated
Marketing tools…
• Are no substitute for understanding what
is going on with your prospect and the
buying cycling
• Are no substitute for working well with
your sales force
• Are no substitute for a culture where
everyone works to understand
the customer buying cycle

16. Remember but we had to
work with …
• Direct mail
• The telephone
• The sales force
• Some data bases, probably not integrated
• Manual lead tracking systems
• Poor lead qualification processes

17. Source: Joel Book, Exact Target

18. Traditional Customer Lifecycle is Now Officially Augmented
by Marketing Programs And Actions
Source: Marketo, Inc.

19. B2B Buyers Rely Less on Sales
Force and instead are….
Thanks to Adam Needles, Silverpop

20. Less reliance on sales force for information
means an….

21. Therefore creating value for the
customer can result from Demand
Generation/ Nurturing Processes
• Sales and Marketing must work together
• Marketing can find and nurture leads
• Marketing can support sales in nurturing
leads that it considers valuable
• Growth and profits can result

22. Warning!
• Many marketers still see
this process as a
management, not Value
CO-Creation
• Relationships can be
nurtured and developed
but rarely MANAGED
• There are TWO parties to
the equation (usually more
in a B2B situation)

23. Don’t Be a Stranger!
• Debra Zahay Blatz….zahay@niu.edu,
815-753-6215
• Friend me on facebook or linkedin as
Debra Zahay Blatz, follow my twitter feed,
@zahay