Every marketer must answer the question, “Who is my customer” Madlibs with Howie Levy

You may not know Howie Levy, but as you will see from his Madlibs…he has incredible insights. Howie is the VP of Marketing for Appneta and is a valuable resource in online demand generation and overall marketing. I called him three weeks as we prepared for a couple campaigns. Lets call this Howie’s introduction to the Funnelholic audience, I know you will enjoy.

Howie’s Madlibs are below, please applaud when you are done.

1. The b2b buyer is more empowered and in more control of the buying process then ever before. Two factors are driving this trend, 1) “consumerification” of software in the cloud makes enterprise products easier to purchase and no longer require C-level approval and 2) The Internet has democratized access to expert information to help buyers make smart decisions for their business.
2. The biggest innovation in marketing is attribution analytics.  I don’t believe attribution intelligence is as pervasive as standard business intelligence so I am interested to see how technology develops in this area.  What I do know is paths to purchase are more complex then ever and marketers need to invest in multi-touch, multi-channel campaigns, so being able to expose the relative value of any touch by channel, campaign and offer is extremely valuable.
3. The coolest thing happening in b2b marketing is attribution analytics (see #2) and seeing companies begin to create content like media publishers.  Companies like Eloqua and Hubspot have been doing this for years but they have the unique advantage of targeting marketers.  Today more and more companies are creating content, free tools and web experiences as a discipline (i.e. Content Marketing), that speak to a particular customer persona(s), not just a buyer.  The end goal is engagement with an audience and development of a database of influencers & buyers.  That’s pretty cool.
4. My favorite marketing book is… I don’t have one in particular, I recommend learning from experience and not from a book.
5. My favorite social media channel is Twitter.  I am intrigued by the asynchronous nature of the platform and the power it puts on influence. More importantly I am curious how we refine using data from campaigns on Twitter to help us define what “influence” really means.  There will be influence that speak to brand marketers for reach metrics and then there will be influence that speaks to direct marketers around purchase behavior.
6. Social media for b2b is the new PR.  Traditional PR is dead and the best way to garner influence in the market is through social engagement with the right centers of influence.
7. b2b video is boring and dry.  Video, if done well, is a great medium. Unfortunately in B2B, a lot of the video material I see is just a repurposed whitepaper with a voice over.  I’d love to see some good ideas and creativity here.  Please send suggestions.
8. In b2b, the idea of a funnel still exists but movement through the funnel is generally not be linear.  I think we need “a funnel” to visualize the steps in a “selling” process because there is a natural progression with measurable stages or gates.  Businesses are ultimately using that funnel concept to forecast sales.  On the marketing side, I think we have much better data to expose how someone progresses inside, outside and around the funnel.  The challenge in marketing is trying to keep that buyer on the linear path and help sales be more predictable.
9. The first thing every marketer should do is answer the questions, “who is my customer, how would I describe their persona, what are their preferences/interests and where can I engage with them?”  Does this need an explanation?
10. Content marketing is a bit over-hyped right now and not a new concept.  I’ve read that Joe Pulizzi traces content marketing back to the John Deere magazine, The Furrow, published in 1895.  Certainly with the importance of SEO, Inbound Marketing and marketing automation, content has gained importance in the overall marketing mix.  I think we are just seeing a proliferation of companies that market content marketing to marketers so the topic is amplified.
11. The biggest mistake marketers make is not to align their efforts with sales.  I hate to use sports analogies but I was watching March Madness and think a basketball analogy is appropriate.  Marketing is the Point Guard whose responsibility is to feed the Center down low in the post for easy baskets.  Leads are Assists and Closed Won deals are points scored in the paint.  The success of the team is dependent on the trust and strength of this relationship.  There is a whole blog post here but this is one example.
12. The biggest myth in b2b marketing is (I have 2 here)…1. Social Media is a driver of lead generation and 2. complex marketing automation programs, with hyper targeted segmentation and sophisticated lead scoring rules have ameaningful impact on the business.
13. My favorite marketing technology besides marketing automation is CRM.  It sounds ‘old fashioned’ and out of date but marketing automation is only as good as its CRM sibling.  They sit side by side and the sum of the parts is what make them each so powerful.
14. Besides revenue, the metric every marketer must track is pipeline opportunities and pipeline dollars created.  Pipeline is the leading indicator of the health of any business and marketing has the most control over it.
15. My most forgettable marketing experience was attending any trade show.  They always sound so good but I am always left disappointed
16. Mobile marketing is obviously a huge trend that B2B marketers must acknowledge but they also have to be wary.  Not every business should run off and create a mobile app but for sure marketers need to think about responsive media that adapts to various devices.  I see lots of executive level folks working off tablets all day and I know I respond to 50% of my email while on my cell or iPad.
17. The next “hot-thing” in marketing will be Outbound Direct Marketing becoming cool again (inside joke for anyone who knows me)
18. In 2015, marketing will spend more on technology and hire more developers and engineers then ever.  I know it’s a general statement but marketing is becoming more reliant on technology. I don’t think a CMO can be successful without dedicated technical or engineering horsepower.
19. Over the next couple years in marketing, I can’t wait to see how technology evolves to bring more efficiency and visibility to the investment decisions we make to support the business (see attribution analytics #2).
20. Madlibs with the Funnelholic is ‘off the chain’.  Look it up if you don’t know what ‘off the chain’ means.  Its the throwback term from our days as Focus.  I loved doing this exercise with Rosenberg and appreciate being included.

Howie is currently the VP of Marketing at AppNeta. AppNeta makes software and analytic tools to help IT Professionals optimize the performance of business critical applications. Howie has 20 years of experience in Sales & Marketing and a successful track record of building early stage marketing services and online media businesses. Prior to AppNeta, Howie was the VP of Product Marketing at Focus, a leading B2B media company that was sold to Ziff Davis in 2011, and Director of Client Strategy and Development at QuinStreet (NASDAQ: QNST). Howie holds an M.B.A from Babson College as well as B.A. in Economics from Hobart and William Smith Colleges. You can connect with Howie online @hdlevy or via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/howardlevy/