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Chapter - 15
Learning Objectives

LO1: Discuss the imperative need of using technology

in B2B Marketing.
LO2: Recognize the need for B2B Marketing
Automation and illustrate the emerging trends.
LO3: Understand the relevant technologies in Business
Marketing operations.
LO4: Study the various B2B Marketing Automation
functions.
LO5: Discuss top MarTech platforms in B2B Marketing.

Internet evolution compelling the Chapter - 15

use of technology for B2B firms

History of Technology Use in B2B Marketing

Pre-Internet Era – Manual B2B marketing operations like

field marketing, print media, brochures, physical events,
channel logistics public relations and TV/radio broadcast
– traditionally a mass marketing “direct” approach
Dawn of Internet – Since 2000, automation of “only some”
operations like frequent updates to a customer database,
direct marketing call-in lists for mass emails or SMS, use
of secondary market research and published news data
Post-internet Digital Era – 2010 onwards, the technology
boom created huge disruptions (VUCA) in all industries,
and an immense potential for opportunistic CMOs, by
way of digital marketing and customer intelligence 2

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Disruptive trends influence the use Chapter - 15

of internet in business marketing

Range of opportunities – Is technology a boon? Or menace!

VUCA World – Disruptions in world affairs are a constant

phenomenon. Every VUCA wave offers both a challenge
and a potential, based on how a B2B firm may respond
Internet marketing – First waves of automation in B2B
• Lead generation – from business cards to online customer databases
• Support Operations – disjoint spreadsheets to intelligent reporting
• Sales enablement – partner training kits to online product demos
• Customer service – delayed services to multimodal call centers
• Promo campaigns – printed brochures to mass e-mail marketing
• Ad messaging – choice of push (mass) -vs- pull (focused) publicity
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Impact of exploding data from the Chapter - 15

use of SMAC Technologies

Emergence of cloud-based marketing data warehouses

Holy grail for B2B industries – An enormous fortune got

revealed for several legacy B2B industries from decades
of customer and enterprise data they had collected. But
only if cloud/big data analytics could extract its true value!
Customer data – personal demographic data (age, name,
income) and psychographic data (values, social habits)
Enterprise data – market data like past purchases, price
sensitivity, upsell/cross-sell, sales forecast and inventory
Cloud data warehouses – Traditional CRM systems SAP,
Siebel and SFA got transformed by the entry of Big Data
technologies like SAS, Hadoop and Apache Spark 4

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Does technology use affect speed Chapter - 15

and predictability in marketing?

Understanding the new-age customer value chains in B2B

24 by 7 customer analytics – Speed of data collection

and data correlation from both internal and external data
sources has become very critical to understand the
anytime-anywhere digital customers in the online world
Mass Mktg to Digital Mktg – The SMAC world brought a
fundamental shift in customer acquisition – the spray-
and-pray templates gave way to personalized content
with compelling call-to-actions for lead conversion
Funnel to flywheel – Most always-online customers do not
follow a linear buying process. Rather a round-the-clock
global access to random customer touchpoints is vital!
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Marketing Automation is the Chapter - 15

modern trend for B2B firms

An integrated technology platform to accelerate Mktg ROI

Melting pot – Entire B2B value chains can be orchestrated

where multiple customer touchpoints, custom content,
events, channel members, supply chain ops and overlap
segments all come together on one marketing platform
Automation areas – use of marketing technologies for
• Precise targeting – STM techniques to deduce macro and micro
segmentation variables for the most predictable target outcomes
• Meaningful engagement – businesses, partners and customers
need the most relevant and value-centric marketing experience
• Higher conversions – real-time lead profiling and buying decisions
• Round-trip data analysis – customer insights all around the flywheel
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Opportunities for Automation with Chapter - 15

Marketing Technology
Use of MarTech for research and market intelligence
Marketing Area Opportunity to automate its process with MarTech
Database Maximize the value of enterprise and customer data
Marketing With real-time analytics from customer and enterprise databases,
marketers can fine-tune messaging and timing of future campaigns
Target and Focus on the most predictable channel and customer targets
Segment-based With a large range of segmentation variables available, marketers can
Marketing converge on the most promising targets quickly and accurately

E-mail Adopt click-through visual reporting to optimize e-mail mktg

Marketing With visual click-through reporting, marketers can analyze links in an
e-mail getting the best response in the pay-per-usage funnel model
Social Media Influence inbound mktg to trigger the most valuable channels
Content Mktg Refining channel design to deploy alternate digital content for
customers based on their social media sentiments and feedbacks
Lead Mgmt Maximize Prospect Engagement throughout the life cycle
and Routing With a single platform for SQL and MQL, the lead mgmt process can
be streamlined through out the cycle to influence faster closure rates
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Business Model Trends from Chapter - 15

Marketing Automation in B2B

New marketing models for B2B e-commerce firms in India
Business Model Opportunity to automate its process with MarTech
Inventory Model E-commerce activity for goods and services owned by the e-
commerce firms, sold to consumers directly on their website
Social Media Firms gain large-scale website traffic on social media platforms with
Networks attractive content, that leads consumers to their e-comm portals
Aggregator Model A networking model where the e-commerce firm publishes inventory
of goods and services provided by partners, under its own brand
E-marketplace Another networking model in which an online firm acts as mediator,
though the sellers and buyers transact directly at agreed price points
Transaction Broker Broker or middlemen agents run this market – typically with a large
Model inventory size, for a small commission fee for each transaction
Advertising These firms use the sale of advertising designs, by placing their ads
Revenue Model on high-traffic digital channels like web, smart phone, social media
Affiliate Marketing Advertising model in which the e-comm firm compensates 3rd party
Model content publishers (called affiliates) by generating a big lead traffic

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Intelligent technologies that boost Chapter - 15

B2B Marketing Operations

AI/ML based digital intelligence for an always-online world

Artificial Intelligence – seeks to mimic human capabilities

like voice/image recognition and web search prediction
Machine Learning – an AI system that can automatically
learn and improve with “modeled” training data sets
AI/ML applications – benefits in AI-based Marketing
• AI-generated Content Curation – real-time context sensitive content
• Voice Search Chatbots – devices that read/reply to human voices
• Lead Scoring – a propensity-based modeling to forecast lead profile
• Dynamic Pricing – predictive algorithms for economical factors

Powerful B2B Marketing Operations Chapter - 15

with Big Data and Cloud

Unprecedented customer insights and market analytics

A powerful combo – These two technologies Big Data and

Cloud Computing go together in delivering an extensive
productivity and ease-of-access to B2B firms globally
Three key benefits – a) Speed to Market b) Data Quality
and Customer Insights and c) Utility-base Infra Payments
Key applications –
• Customer Insights to Cross-Sell – richer segment and channel data quality
• Personalized Service – big data analytics across many digital touch points
• Optimize Order/Reorder Transactions – intelligent supply chain partnerships
• Flexible Content Strategy – standards for content creation and distribution
• Faster Lead Nurturing – round-trip lead scoring and conversion factors
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Real-time B2B Marketing Chapter - 15

Operations and CRM Automation

“Integrated platform” for B2B sales and marketing leads

Predictive Analytics – statistical data models and

algorithms are computed in the artificial intelligence and
machine learning systems for B2B marketing automation
Analytics Reporting – platforms like SAP HANA have
extensive reporting templates for data visualization and
decision making for future campaigns and ops plans
Sales CRM Integration – the core idea is to integrate both
sales and marketing teams on a consolidated platform,
so that a homogenous working relationship takes shape.
Also, an integrated database of both SQL and MQL
prospects will enable a faster closure to the lead cycles
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Methods and Practices for Chapter - 15

Marketing Automation functions

Typical key functions of a marketing automation platform
MarTech Area Methods and Practices
Intelligent Lead Creative Landing Pages with CTAs, Functional Forms for various
Management digital devices, Blended Scoring of SQL/MQL and Lead Nurturing
Dynamic Content Personalized e-mail composers, persona-based recommendations,
Creation progressive form-filling and dynamic calls-to-action buttons
Predictive Roundtrip analytics to insights, marketing analytics dashboards,
Customer Insights predictive modelling for segments and lead qualification frameworks
Mobile-based Responsive website design optimized for various mobile handsets,
Personalized Mktg targeting advertising displays and mobile-friendly e-mail composers
Account-based Use of look-alike modelling to model personas and segments, target
Marketing following/engaging on social media and retargeting ads
Social Media Strategic choice of fit-for-purpose social media platforms, listening
Marketing strategy, following strategy and regular Social ROI assessment
Sales and CRM Strategic choice of an integrated CRM platform, data importing
Automation strategy and conducting joint sales and marketing campaigns

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MarTech Platform Landscape Study Chapter - 15

for B2B Marketing Firms

Competitive space with many choices for digital marketing

Highly competitive space – MarTech software platform

space is getting crowded with global and Indian firms.
Highly competitive with new players emerging very often.
MarTech Today Journal – Annual survey of top platforms
SalesForce Pardot – a global MarTech leader in large
B2B marketing space, has a wide presence in India
HubSpot Marketing Hub – a top inbound digital marketing
platform, suitable for small-medium and medium startups
Zoho CRM – an enterprise marketing automation product,
dominant presence in small/medium startups and SMBs
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Three popular brands of Chapter - 15

MarTech platforms in India

SalesForce Pardot | HubSpot | Zoho CRM
Platform MarTech Area Example Features
SalesForce Streamlined Lead Lead Nurturing, Lead Qualification and Automated
Pardot Mgmt Segment Profiling
Content Mgmt Intuitive content organization, dynamic content
creation and content forms/landing page composers
Sales Alignment Campaign automation with marketing promos
Hub Spot Lead Capture and Advertisement designs for lead profiling, lead capture
Conversion form designs and e-mail/call tracking of prospects
Personalization Operations automation like tasks, social posts and ads
Smart Content Intuitive textual/image layout designs and CTAs
Zoho CRM Campaign Template design based workflows for automating
Automation email, social media and SMS based campaigns
Lead Generation Lead scores, smart popups, lead attribution reports
Lead Management Lead importing and scoring with sync’ing across sites
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