Hannah Delaney is VP Marketing at SaaS business Infinity, previously representing Samsung and HTC, and answers our questions in the latest of Press Gazette’s Marketing Maestro interviews. This series is produced in association with Lead Monitor, New Statesman Media Group’s marketing content arm.
What has been your proudest achievement in your current role?
I joined the team at Infinity just six months ago, but already feel a huge amount of pride in what we’ve managed to achieve. Of course, it helps when you’re marketing to marketers; I understand their pain points and know how much difference a product like ours would have made to me and my team in previous roles
I joined the business when an upgrade to our Google Call Ads integration was about to launch; I’m proud of how the team united to launch a campaign that not only reached customers but communicated the value of the integration effectively.
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Which media channels do you see as most important and best value when it comes to marketing spend and activity?
Of course, some channels are more cost effective than others – consider the amount of awareness you can generate via social media, compared with the amount of budget you’d need to replicate that across TV, for example. But the most valuable channels and activities are the ones that engage your prospects and customers and encourage them to take the actions you want. So rather than choosing to invest in a ‘flavour of the month’ channel, you should invest in doubling down on your measurement and monitoring so you can identify the channels and activities that are the most important/valuable to you.
What is the best way to improve your social media output?
It goes without saying, but you always need to start with a clear plan. Secondly, I think marketers need to stop viewing social as a broadcast channel. Instead, it should be seen as a two-way street, and a chance to build your profile within established communities by contributing something genuinely valuable. If you can become a trusted source of information, rather than a constant ‘message pusher’, this will ultimately enhance your reputation. You will engage more people and ultimately generate more leads.
What are the key differences between B2C and B2B marketing?
The key difference between B2C and B2B marketing lies in how the two are perceived, both by businesses and marketers. Too often we get preoccupied with how we should be adapting our communications for B2B and B2C audiences. The truth is, humans are behind all decisions, and we need to consider how to best engage them, regardless of what they’re buying. Naturally some channels may change and budgets might be different, but when you strip it back the principals of marketing to a consumer vs marketing to a business are the same. To do both well, you need to market to and engage a person.
What for you is the key to any successful marketing campaign – what actually makes a ‘good lead’?
A good lead for me is determined by a prospect’s propensity to buy – the higher this is, the greater the ability to shortcut pipeline velocity is. The aim is to engage people and be able to communicate value clearly and concisely so they can lead the sales process themselves. All we’re doing is facilitating the purchase, rather than selling.
How important is technology in modern marketing?
Technology has a hugely important role to play in the marketing mix, not just through automation and efficiency. Being able to gather and accurately analyse data on a scale that isn’t possible through traditional means is where tech’s real value comes into play. Being able to get to the heart of what customers are truly thinking – and in our case saying – reveals how they feel, and that is game changing for marketers.
What are the biggest pain points in a marketing campaign?
It’s frustrating if you don’t have full visibility on how a campaign has performed. We’re all very good at measuring online performance, but the increasing complexity of the path to purchase means this data only shows you a fraction of the results you’re generating and using to inform future decisions. It’s important to remember that only 11% of consumers are considered to be exclusively “online customers”; so by not including offline transactions in your analytics you’re leaving an enormous gap.
And finally, if you could ask your peers for one piece of advice or help, what would it be?
I would like to expand my personal network in the SaaS space. It would also be beneficial to attend more networking events where I can spend time with other marketers in similar positions to discuss our challenges and share some solutions.
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