Marketbridge, Author at Marketbridge

Marketbridge celebrates client success with major wins at MUSE Creative Awards and TITAN Business Awards

Posted on October 29, 2024October 28, 2024 by Marketbridge

BETHESDA, MD – ( October 29, 2024) – Marketbridge today announced 16 wins across two awards programs, including five MUSE Creative Awards and 11 TITAN Business Awards. The accolades recognize Marketbridge’s groundbreaking marketing campaigns for global brands, including Chevron Lubricants and Graebel.

“We’re thrilled to see our clients and the Marketbridge agency team recognized for their innovation and creativity in B2B marketing,” says Richard Hill, Managing Director, Marketing and Growth for the Marketing Services Group at Marketbridge. “These winning campaigns all have something in common. They’re bold, took chances, and challenged B2B marketing norms. We’re proud to have such great clients that trust us every day to help build their brands, drive demand and reinvent growth.”

The MUSE Awards is not merely a celebration of talent; it stands as a testament to the limitless innovation and vision that propel the creative and design industries forward. The TITAN Business Awards was created with a singular goal: to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of organizations and entrepreneurs on the global stage. By giving recognition to both small enterprises and large corporations alike, the Awards are committed to fostering inclusivity and equal opportunity for all, whether they are well-established brands or emerging start-ups. Thousands of award submissions were received in 2024 from around the globe.

Select accolades across the two award programs for Marketbridge and clients include:

MUSE Creative Awards
- Gold Award for its Chevron Delo Expert Video Series (Chevron Lubricants – Social Media and Video, B2B categories)
- Silver Awards for Integrated Marketing for its “No Compromise” campaign (Chevron Lubricants – Integrated Marketing and Direct Mail categories)
- Silver Award for Integrated Marketing for its “Often Imitated, Never Duplicated” campaign for Graebel.
TITAN Business Awards
- Platinum Award for Marketing for its “No Compromise” campaign (Chevron Lubricants: Oil & Gas Marketing and Account-based Marketing Campaign categories)
- Gold Award for Marketing for its “No Compromise” campaign (Chevron Lubricants: Best Integrated Marketing, Business to Business Marketing, and Energy Marketing categories)
- Gold Award for Marketing for its “Often Imitated, Never Duplicated” campaign (Graebel: Business to Business Marketing and Best Account-based Marketing Campaign categories)
- Gold Award for Marketing for its Chevron Delo Expert Video (Chevron Lubricants: Oil & Gas Marketing and Best Video Marketing Campaign categories)
- Silver Award for Marketing for its Chevron Delo Expert Video (Chevron Lubricants: Business to Business Marketing and Best Social Media Marketing Campaign categories)

“We’ve been on a journey to experiment with ABM. Working on this campaign with the Marketbridge team has validated how powerful account-based can be as a GTM motion, when done right,” said Tasha Johnson, VP, Global Marketing at Graebel. “It was a really big deal for us, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with what we’ve achieved together.”

“This campaign showed us how different a strategically targeted ABM program is from a traditional media play,” said Walt M. Collier, Americas Brand Manager for Delo engine oils and ancillary products, a Chevron brand. “In addition to delivering on objectives, it provided learnings we can use in future campaigns, including optimizing MarTech and tracking to help our sales force capitalize on momentum and connect with engaged prospects.”

Launched in September 2024 combining five best-in-category firms, Marketbridge integrates the capabilities of a strategic growth consultancy and a marketing agency, accelerating performance with zero signal loss from strategy through execution. It is a unique marketing consultancy offering integrated, end-to-end growth services, including strategy consulting, marketing and communications, data science, analytics, and technology solutions that enable some of the world’s most ambitious brands to reinvent growth.

“Innovation is the heartbeat of progress,” said Thomas Brandt, spokesperson for the International Awards Associate (IAA), the organizer of both awards programs. “The MUSE Awards recognize those who break new ground, challenge norms, and set new standards in their fields. The TITAN Awards honor those who set new standards in the global marketplace. This year’s winners exemplify the spirit of pushing the boundaries and daring to lead.”

To learn more about and see Marketbridge’s award-winning work with Chevron Lubricants, please click here or here.

To learn more about and see Marketbridge’s award-winning work with Graebel, please click here.

About Marketbridge

Marketbridge brings together the capabilities of a strategic growth consultancy and a marketing and communications agency to accelerate performance with zero signal loss from strategy through execution. Our interdisciplinary team of 260 consultants, data scientists, technologists, marketers, creatives, and communications experts is attuned to the needs of ambitious growth leaders and uniquely equipped to deliver what’s needed now and next. We offer strategy consulting, marketing and communications services and data science analytics, and technology solutions with a focus on strategic integrity, measured efficacy, and speed to impact. Marketbridge supports Fortune 50 through high-growth and challenger brands in financial services, healthcare, and technology, including MetLife, Microsoft, Guidehouse, Chevron, and Flex. Reinvent growth at marketbridge.com.

About International Awards Associate (IAA)

Established in 2015, the International Awards Associate (IAA) is a global organization that is dedicated to recognizing professional excellence and outstanding achievements in various industries. As the organizer of a wide range of prestigious award programs such as the MUSE Creative Awards, MUSE Design Awards, Vega Digital Awards, NYX Awards, NYX Game Awards, TITAN Business Awards, TITAN Property Awards, London Design Awards, NY Product Design Awards, French Design Awards, and many more, IAA aims to honor, promote and encourage professional excellence, from industry to industry, internationally and domestically, through award platforms that are industry-appropriate.

Website: thetitanawards.com

Facebook: titanbusinessawards

Twitter: titanawards

Instagram: thetitanawards

Media Partner: Muse.World

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Technology leaders believe gen AI will disrupt go-to-market strategy, customer experience and product development according to Marketbridge survey

Posted on October 1, 2024October 24, 2024 by Marketbridge

BETHESDA, MD — (October 1, 2024) — A new independent survey revealed that Generative AI is revolutionizing sales and marketing across technology companies by enabling highly personalized customer interactions, automating complex processes, and providing deep data-driven insights. Furthermore, this AI disruption will enable them to pursue impressive new business models and market growth opportunities that were not available previously.

“The Impact of AI on Go-to-Market Strategies, Programs, and Investments” report from Marketbridge, a strategic marketing consultancy, surveyed C-Suite technology leaders and go-to-market decision makers across sales, marketing, strategy, and customer success functions from major hardware, software, networking, and security organizations in North America. The survey respondents answered several key questions including:

Where they expect the greatest AI disruptions will occur across sales, marketing, and strategy
How soon they expect new AI-driven go-to-market models to emerge
Where AI adoption will open up opportunities to create new value
Which Sales, Marketing, and Strategy jobs-to-be-done need to be redesigned the most
How they plan to apply AI to elevate customer experience and optimize pipeline creation

Key survey findings highlight a new era in AI-driven go-to-market strategies, programs, and investments for technology organizations:

Greatest AI Disruptions to Sales and Marketing:
- 57% of C-Suite executives believe that AI will disrupt how they structure their organization to capitalize on new opportunities while 53% state it will impact how they innovate their product portfolio mix to meet customer needs and 58% relay it will change how they explore new business model opportunities.
Large Tech Companies Concerned About AI Startups:
- 66% of respondents from technology companies with over $1B in revenue expressed concerns about threats from nimble startups and emerging leaders planning to unveil new Gen AI solutions.
AI Delivers Immediate Value in Sales and Marketing:
- 52% will use AI to deploy marketing and sales resources more cost-effectively to capture market opportunities.
- 52% will use AI to position solutions in a more personalized and relevant way at scale to best align with buyer needs.
- 46% see the greatest value creation coming from analyzing vast amounts of data to optimize performance and return on go-to-market investment.
AI To Transform Customer Experience:
- 60% will use AI to customize customer interactions while 56% will create new marketing content and assets and 54% will develop differentiated messaging.

“Sales and marketing leaders from technology companies of all sizes must embrace AI as a catalyst not just for product innovation but go-to-market innovation as well. The changes already underway to the competitive landscape, commercial workflows, and employee skillsets are substantial and permanent, justifying such transformation,” said Mike Kelleher, Managing Director, Technology Vertical Lead at Marketbridge. “AI will enable leaders to unleash powerful new business models, boost customer experience, streamline sales and marketing processes, and deliver unparalleled value to their customers. Now is the time for technology leaders to invest in AI-driven go-to-market strategies or risk becoming eclipsed by more aggressive, forward-thinking competitors.”

Why This Matters

In addition to the survey findings, the Marketbridge report also provides six strategic recommendations to help technology leaders capitalize on the AI go-to-market revolution, including:

Identify Emerging AI Growth Segments
- Every go-to-market leader must identify and prioritize areas that can create the next one billion dollars in growth as they look to unlock new revenue streams.
Reimagine AI-Enabled Jobs to be Done
- Identify high potential jobs across marketing, sales, and strategy that are primed for AI disruption. From there, redesign new AI-enabled workflows and unlock AI efficiencies to enable greater go-to-market success.
Recognize Changing Buyer Needs
- AI options are transforming buyer expectations and preferences. Therefore, empirical tracking of shifting wants and needs is essential to guiding adjustments in customer targeting, promotion timing, sales offers, and support tactics.
Position Next Generation Solutions Uniquely
- Crisp, clear positioning of AI solutions is critical right now. CMOs must craft stronger messaging to outshine nimble competitors while CROs must equip direct sales and partners with impactful AI-infused value propositions.
Reinvent Routes to Market Where Needed
- Sales leaders must reassess their mix of direct and indirect sales channels to reoptimize customer coverage as customers may have new expectations on how they want to engage with vendors and purchase solutions.
Activate High Performing Motions
- New AI strategies unlock value only with effective activation. Marketing and sales leaders must co-create and execute unified demand generation campaigns, account-based marketing programs, and tactical sales plays to build and convert new pipelines.

To access “The Impact of AI On Go-to-Market Strategies, Programs and Investments” report, visit https://marketbridge.com/resource/the-impact-of-ai/.

About Marketbridge

Marketbridge launches new marketing consultancy for growth-focused organizations

Posted on September 4, 2024November 6, 2024 by Marketbridge

BETHESDA, MD – September 4, 2024 – Marketbridge, together with its financial sponsor RTC Partners, has launched a new marketing powerhouse that integrates five best-in-category firms: COMM, fama PR, Intelisent, MarketBridge and Quarry. This new consultancy offers integrated, end-to-end growth services, including strategy consulting, marketing and communications, data science, analytics, and technology solutions.

“We’ve built a dynamic new consultancy to meet the strategic marketing needs of three types of clients: Fortune 500 companies that must reinvent growth, organizations in highly complex and regulated industries, and high-growth challenger brands seeking to increase valuation,” said John Shomaker, Marketbridge CEO. “I’m pleased to bring together some of the best and brightest minds in consulting, analytics, public relations, creative and data as we unveil Marketbridge, the industry’s premier consultancy for growth-focused leaders.”

Today, organizations struggle to drive impactful growth and sustain profitability amidst ongoing market turmoil. Growth, marketing, and revenue leaders must boost the performance of critical go-to-market functions to aggressively prioritize impact on the bottom line.

According to LinkedIn’s Global B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey, which queried over 1,900 marketing leaders, 76% of CMOs believe they’re under pressure to prove ROI in even less time than they were two years ago. Furthermore, almost half face increased pressure from the C-suite to show how their marketing initiatives will drive concrete long-term revenue growth, while 84% state that to meet C-suite expectations, they must strengthen their skills at demonstrating marketing’s impact on the bottom line.

Marketbridge’s unique model helps growth-focused organizations and their leaders answer the following questions and execute for optimum results:

How do I ensure my brand stands out in a competitive market?
How do I best align my sales and marketing to optimize conversion?
How do I calculate what’s working and what’s not across the marketing mix in real time?
How do I rationalize my budgets and optimize marketing spend for the greatest ROI?
How do I optimize my channel mix?
How do I reach new markets and audiences?

Most marketers partner with disparate agencies that work in siloes, resulting in higher costs and disjoined initiatives that don’t generate and move leads through the marketing funnel quickly and cost-efficiently, according to Brice Chaney, Managing Director, Chief Revenue Officer, Marketbridge. “Organizations want to move away from that fragmented model with higher velocity, integrated sales and marketing initiatives that drive growth and profitability. That’s why Marketbridge has the potential to emerge as a key game-changer for clients,” said Chaney.

Marketbridge comprises more than 260 professionals across six locations in the United States and Canada and partners with more than 150 clients worldwide, including many of the most respected market leaders across the technology, financial services, healthcare, industrial and consumer sectors, including Microsoft, Guidehouse, Chevron and Flex, among others. Its services feature four best-in-class solution areas:

Go-to-Market Consulting – The Marketbridge Go-to-Market Consulting team takes a needs-based, data-driven approach, delivering specific and actionable recommendations that answer our clients’ objectives.
Marketing and Communications – Marketbridge’s Marketing and Communications experts work in lockstep with clients to build audience-centric MarComm plans and programs, develop resonant messaging and create show-stopping buyer and seller experiences that deliver on their objectives. In addition, Marketbridge also has strong partnerships with key demand generation and digital marketing leaders including the Association of National Advertisers, 6sense, and DemandBase.
Marketing Science – Marketbridge’s experts bring rigor, deep marketing intelligence expertise and data-centric problem-solving to optimize performance and chart new paths to growth.
Technology Solutions – Marketbridge technologists help growth leaders build, integrate, orchestrate and optimize a martech stack that is bespoke to their organizational needs and purpose-built to support their growth objectives.

“Marketbridge represents an exciting new opportunity in the space to enable growth leaders to accelerate performance from strategy through execution at a time when they face increased pressure to generate meaningful ROI from their marketing initiatives,” said Bill Zengel, Senior Vice President, B2B Practice Leader, Association of National Advertisers (ANA). “Quarry, Marketbridge, and COMM have all shared their expertise through ANA’s peer enabled exchanges and their innovation has led to multiple ANA B2 Award wins in the past and their innovative work and expertise has resonated with our Corporate Client-Side Marketer Members. Moving forward, we are excited to see how this new integrated marketing consultancy can serve our members and the greater global marketing community.”

About Marketbridge

Marketbridge brings together the capabilities of a strategic growth consultancy and a marketing and communications agency to accelerate performance with zero signal loss from strategy through execution. Our interdisciplinary team of 260 consultants, data scientists, technologists, marketers, creatives, and communications experts is attuned to the needs of ambitious growth leaders and uniquely equipped to deliver what’s needed now and next. We offer strategy consulting, marketing and communications services, and data science, analytics, and technology solutions with a focus on strategic integrity, measured efficacy, and speed to impact. Marketbridge supports Fortune 50 through high-growth and challenger brands in financial services, healthcare, and technology, including Microsoft, Guidehouse, Chevron and Flex. Reinvent growth at marketbridge.com.

About RTC Partners

RTC Partners is a private equity firm that invests in and builds strong businesses with committed management teams in the professional, business, and healthcare services industries. The firm’s dedicated emphasis on human capital, combined with its thoughtful approach to organic and inorganic opportunities, allows organizations to unlock the next stage of growth while enabling sustainable and long-term value creation for all stakeholders. RTC is actively seeking additional platforms and add-on acquisitions in its markets. For more information, visit www.rtcpartners.com.

RTC Partners announces investment in COMM, the latest addition to its powerhouse marketing services platform

Posted on July 4, 2024September 26, 2024 by Marketbridge

Miami – March 6, 2024 – RTC Partners, a growth-focused private equity firm, today announced an investment in COMM, formerly CommCreative, a Boston-based marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing strategy, demand generation, account-based marketing, and marketing technology solutions. COMM joins four prior RTC investments – fama PR, Intelisent, MarketBridge, and Quarry – which together partner with leading brands to accelerate growth across a spectrum of client marketing and sales initiatives.

Founded in 1994 and led today by partners Ashley DePaolo, Joanna Bittle, Janet Sefakis, and Alex Nosevich, COMM combines strategy, data, and storytelling to help brands connect and interact with their audiences. The 50-person team provides a range of in-demand marketing services, including branding, creative, media strategy and buying, digital, lead generation, web development, and social media to B2B, B2B2C, and B2C clients. The agency possesses deep experience in high-growth and high-value business categories such as cybersecurity, SaaS, healthtech, financial services, manufacturing tech, and retail. Key clients include Bose Automotive, Raymarine, Wilmington Trust, Guidehouse, PTC, and RSA Conference. COMM also partners with various adtech providers including 6sense and Influ2.

“The COMM team and its deep capabilities and industry expertise are tremendous additions and accelerants to our vision of integrating growth strategy together with leading in-market programs, informed by marketing science and technology, to drive growth for our clients,” said John Shomaker, an Operating Partner with RTC Partners and CEO of the marketing services platform.
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“The entire COMM team is energized by the boundless opportunities this partnership presents for both our valued clients and dedicated team members,” said Ashley DePaolo, President of COMM. “We are thrilled to join forces with these four best-in-category agencies to build a marketing and sales organization where collective expertise, innovation and passion converge to deliver unparalleled value.”
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The combined platform currently comprises more than 260 professionals across six locations in the United States and Canada and partners with more than 150 clients worldwide, including many of the most respected market leaders across the technology, financial services, and healthcare industries. Ashley DePaolo, Partner and President, and Joanna Bittle, Partner and Strategy Leader, will remain in their current roles and join the platform’s senior leadership team.

About RTC Partners

RTC Partners is a private investment firm that specializes in building middle market growth platforms. Together with management partners, RTC builds market leading companies through a combination of acquisitive and organic growth, while establishing highly professionalized corporate infrastructures that are capable of scaling organizations to the next level. The firm’s strategies focus on high-growth niches of professional, business and healthcare services industries. The RTC team has successfully completed over 70 transactions since 2017.

https://www.rtcpartners.com/

RTC Partners announces four investments as foundation for powerhouse marketing services platform

Posted on November 13, 2023October 24, 2024 by Marketbridge

Miami, Florida, November 13, 2023 — RTC Partners, a growth-focused private equity firm, today announced it has closed strategic growth investments in four industry-leading, North America-based marketing and sales services firms – fama PR, Intelisent, MarketBridge, and Quarry. Bringing these firms together establishes the foundation of an integrated and data-driven platform designed to drive value creation across a wide spectrum of client marketing and sales initiatives.

These high-impact, data-driven marketing services firms span go-to-market strategy and analytics, demand generation, public relations and marketing effectiveness measurement. Backed by RTC Partners, the platform delivers growth-focused leaders management consultancy-class capabilities with boutique-level client service to develop and execute integrated, high-performing programs that drive positive business outcomes more efficiently and effectively.

“We are solving a significant gap in the marketplace,” said Tony Brindisi, managing partner, RTC Partners. “Many growth executives are struggling to align their go-to-market plans and operating models to support rapidly changing business objectives. They need both strategic guidance and expertise in operational execution to deliver results. Most marketing firms offer one or the other – but typically not both,” continued Brindisi. “These first four firms comprise the resources, high-quality senior expertise, and reputations of excellence to deliver on the unmet strategy, execution, and analytics needs of ambitious enterprise growth leaders. We are excited about the potential this will unlock for existing and new clients.”

John Shomaker, an RTC Partners operating partner, has assumed the role of chief executive officer of the platform. According to Shomaker, “We consistently hear from growth executives at the largest and most ambitious companies that consistent and predictable growth is increasingly challenging and complex. The fragmentation of media, marketing, and sales over the past 20 years creates an imperative for growth executives to create a relevant, seamless and scalable customer experience. Addressing this challenge is the fundamental driver of our integration strategy and value proposition, that combines high-touch senior-led strategy, data-driven insights and exceptional execution across marketing and sales, anchored by a culture of collaboration and excellence.”

The combined platform currently comprises more than 220 professionals across five offices in the United States and Canada and partners with more than 150 clients worldwide including many of the most respected market leaders across technology, financial services, and health care industries. The founders and principals of each firm remain in their leadership and client services roles, including Keith Watson, Matt Flanagan, and Ted Weismann from fama PR; Mark Mandell, David Lavoie, Carrie Donahue, Steve Erbentraut, and Todd Black from Intelisent; Bashar Mardam-Bey, Andy Hasselwander, Brice Chaney, Mike Kelleher, Melanie Russo, and Steven Lewis from MarketBridge; and Tony Mohr, Meredith Fuller, Mandey Moote, and Richard Hill from Quarry.

About RTC Partners
RTC Partners is a private investment firm that specializes in building middle market growth platforms. Together with management partners, RTC builds market leading companies through a combination of acquisitive and organic growth, while establishing highly professionalized corporate infrastructures that are capable of scaling organizations to the next level. The firm’s strategies focus on high-growth niches of professional, business and healthcare services industries. The RTC team has successfully completed over 70 transactions since 2017.

https://www.rtcpartners.com

Media Contact: Ted Weismann, ted@famapr.com, 617-986-5009

Measuring the long-term impact of brand investments: Challenges and solutions

Posted on October 24, 2023October 3, 2024 by Marketbridge

In the hyper-connected digital era, where immediate results and short-term metrics often dominate the marketing narrative, communicating the long-term benefits of brand investment to finance-focused decision-makers can be challenging. Using a seminal study that bridges the gap between theory and practice, this article explores the common challenges faced by marketers and provides actionable best practices.

Insightful Revelations from the Binet Study

In 2010, Les Binet and Peter Field unveiled groundbreaking findings about the significance of “extra share-of-voice” (ESOV) for predicting long-term market share growth among UK consumer brands. They found that brands with higher ESOV experienced growth, while those underinvesting in brand marketing saw a decrease.

Key takeaways from the study include:

A brand maintaining a 10-point advantage in share-of-voice (“extra” share-of-voice) could anticipate a yearly market share growth of about 1.5 points.
Brands using emotion-rich “System 1”* messaging built stronger connections, increasing the chances of long-term market share growth.

* System 1 messaging relies on emotional and intuitive appeals to evoke immediate, unconscious consumer reactions.

The study’s findings highlight the importance of brand building and competing for share-of-voice to achieve lasting market share gains. By investing in advertising and creating emotional connections with their audience, companies can build a strong brand identity that drives sustainable growth.

Challenges to Measuring the Impact of Brand

When CMOs advocate for brand investments, they face the tough task of quantifying benefits to CFOs. How do you measure the essence of something intangible yet undeniably powerful? Why is it so hard to measure the impact of brand marketing?

Lack of Direct Causality: Unlike performance marketing, where ad spend directly correlates with sales, brand marketing slowly molds consumer behavior requiring longer-term tests.
Persistency of Brand Effects: Brand investments have long-lasting effects that accumulate over time, making it harder to pinpoint the impact of individual campaigns or strategies.
Data Quality and Access: Accurate brand impact measurement requires diverse data sources, including consumer surveys and sales data. This can be challenging, particularly for new or resource-limited businesses.

As a result of these complexities, companies often fall into the “Brand Measurement Trap,” prioritizing short-term, easily measurable tactics over long-term brand building. Without the tools to properly assess brand marketing impact, businesses could miss avenues for sustained growth.

Best Practices for Measuring the Impact of Brand

Using the following five best practices, CMOs can deliver measurable data showing the value of brand investment.

1. Embrace a Long-Term Vision

Re-define brand marketing not as a mere expenditure but as a strategic long-term investment. Upper funnel investments take longer to manifest than down funnel performance marketing tactics. Harness ad stocking—a technique applying campaign stimulus over a defined period post-launch. By correctly using ad stocks—and staying patient—the full temporal impact of the campaign will be captured.

2. Prioritize Attitudes Before Behaviors

Remember that “System 1” messaging primarily influences attitudes rather than immediate behaviors. These attitudes, in turn, shape long-term actions. Therefore, an effective two-stage model first measures how advertising affects attitudes and then evaluates how these attitudes impact metrics like leads, sales, or revenue. This involves tracking awareness, affinity, and comprehension before, during, and after a campaign.

Changing attitudes offer a significant advantage; after one positive impression, the “halo effect” can lead to a long-lasting positive connotation of the brand name. There’s a reason you still remember jingles for brands you watched on television as a kid but don’t remember the junk mail you receive every day in your mailbox.

3. Adopt a Multi-Stage Modeling Approach

Employ a modeling approach that considers the potential impact of upper funnel marketing on brand health metrics. To determine the total ROI of these efforts, link three models together: (1) Brand Marketing Impact on Sales, (2) Brand Marketing Impact on Brand Health, and (3) Brand Health Impact on Sales.

4. Invest in High-Quality Data Sources

Prioritize high-quality data sources like consumer panels, social media listening tools, and third-party research studies. While these sources may incur higher costs, they yield valuable insights to enhance decision-making.

To gauge relative brand share-of-voice without substantial survey expenses, leverage existing data from Google and social media platforms. Companies like Honest Marketing and Cashcow utilize Google’s Search Console and Google Analytics to gather information on brand-related impressions, clicks, and mentions. Others rely on social media reach as a proxy for brand awareness, analyzing post-performance to refine future brand strategies.

5. Test Big or Don’t Bother

Conduct tests with sufficient scale. Unlike direct mail, upper funnel ads don’t yield immediate returns with small investments. Instead, they follow an “S-curve” pattern, with modest impact initially, exponential growth at scale, and eventual saturation. Continuous testing and refinement are key for an effective brand measurement strategy.

Unlocking Growth and Measurement Tools

Companies that successfully reframe brand investment as a long-term strategy, attain extra “share-of-voice” through sustained upper funnel marketing campaigns, and engage the five best practices outlined in this article will not only achieve significant growth over time but will also have the tools for measuring their efforts.

3 channel partner challenges hindering your revenue growth

Posted on October 17, 2023October 3, 2024 by Marketbridge

With the tech economic slowdown likely extending into 2024, businesses must adapt their resources, budgets, products, and partners to the new selling environment. As buyers delay large transactions, subscription services that are cost-efficient or vital to daily operations (like SaaS for payroll) will gain prominence. Given tech firms’ reliance on channel partners to seize market opportunities and deliver value-added services, companies must ensure their partners can effectively develop and sell new Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS) solutions.

Our direct client feedback and survey responses revealed that partners often struggle to adapt customer experience and solutions to embrace new XaaS-driven revenue streams. In the pursuit of XaaS success, tech leaders face three prevalent channel partner challenges:

Misaligned Go-to-Market Objectives
Unmet Service and Delivery Expectations
Lack of Data-driven Engagement Models

1) Misaligned Go-to-Market Objectives

Swift pivots to XaaS models can result in inconsistent and confusing partner strategies and programs. Whether due to a lack of strategic vision or a lack of partner communication, it’s not uncommon to find a company trying to run two partner program “flavors” at the same time—one for traditional on-premises sales (which might be a large legacy revenue stream) and another for XaaS selling (which has different channel partner program characteristics). Businesses that haven’t thought through where XaaS revenues will come from and which partners are best positioned will struggle to grow.

Partner sales channels deliver 3x more XaaS revenue than direct sales channels (Figure 1), but not all partners are created equal when it comes to XaaS suitability. Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs), and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) are best positioned to deliver clear recurring value to line-of-business decision-makers because they are embedded in their operations, delivering always-on outcomes with the potential for “moment of truth” experiences. Traditional Value-Added Resellers (VARs) and System Integrators (SIs) are more transactional, with client interaction on an “as needed” basis with extended time between purchases. During economic slowdowns, VAR and SI partners are far more likely to experience delays in client purchases, hurting a company’s potential to drive XaaS revenues.

The Fix: Align Objectives and Deliver on New Goals

To remedy misaligned go-to-market objectives, there are two primary areas of focus. First, redefine and quantify where new as-a-service revenue will come from (in other words, prioritize your growth pathways). Second, once the market opportunity has been refreshed, make the necessary partner network adjustments to your channel strategy, capture new revenue, and focus on partners with stickier relationships with clients.

2) Unmet Service and Delivery Expectations

Partners’ struggles to meet service and delivery expectations have become more complex with the introduction of XaaS offerings. The days of simply selling and installing a solution are over. To maintain a subscription contract and potentially expand it with add-on services, partners need a broader set of skills for ongoing support.

While many traditional partners have tried to enhance their customer service abilities, this transition has been slower and more challenging than businesses initially anticipated. As a result, partner performance has suffered, leading to dissatisfaction among tech firms with their partners’ capabilities throughout the sales process.

The Fix: Enable and Train “XaaS-Ready Channel Partners”

To tackle this challenge, companies should enhance partner skills in new delivery models and recruit and enable top XaaS-ready partners. Expectations also need to be clearly defined for each partner type. Along with training partners, setting thresholds of competencies/certifications, tracking performance against those expectations, and intervening on an ongoing basis can course-correct each partner and raise the performance bar for each and all.

3) Lack of Data-Driven Engagement Models

XaaS solutions generate an abundance of data, yet many partners lack the capabilities to use these new datasets to deliver value for customers. Businesses must aid partners in harnessing data, conducting analysis, and prescribing better experiences. With only 30% of respondents “very satisfied” with how XaaS partners service their customers with great experiences, honing in on the data and using it to build a better experience is a first start.

The Fix: Build an Always-On Insight Engine

With subscription and hardware-as-a-service solutions, businesses have access to individual and aggregated customer usage data that was previously unavailable. Companies can use these insights to prescribe to partners precisely what message to deliver to customers based on usage behavior, but they must first invest in building the data analytics solutions to extract that data. We call this an “always-on insight engine,” one that feeds actionable intelligence to specific partners in a conveyor belt fashion. A constant stream of actionable insights (“Hey, partner. Here’s what you can do now and why.”) will not only strengthen the vendor-partner relationship but drive incremental sales.

Overcome Challenges in the Race to XaaS Success

CROs must refresh channel strategies to outperform the competition. To deliver the predictable business outcomes and customer experiences needed for a winning subscription model, companies must focus on finding the right mix of partners, enhancing those partners’ skill sets, and leveraging customer usage data.

Only 35% of tech CROs and executives are very satisfied with partner performance

Posted on January 25, 2023October 24, 2024 by Marketbridge

BETHESDA, Md., January 25, 2023 – As technology businesses increasingly rely on channel partners to cover market opportunities, sell solutions, and deliver value-add services to customers, Marketbridge’s new report shows that only 35% of Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) and executives are very satisfied with partner performance heading into 2023. The report, “A CRO’s Guide to Transforming the Channel for XaaS Success,” highlights the challenges and priorities in the channel as vendors push to develop and sell new as-a-service (XaaS) solutions in the face of an economic slowdown.

The shift to a subscription economy presents major go-to-market challenges for vendors. Technology vendors must upskill partners on new delivery models, recruit the best XaaS-ready partners, and convert brand-new buyer personas, all while enabling partners to deliver recurring business outcomes. The report’s findings, based on both quantitative benchmarks and interviews with industry leaders, provide a clear path forward for CROs to transform their partner channels for XaaS success.

According to the report, modern partners (MSPs, CSPs, SIs, ISVs) are two times more likely to ‘significantly increase’ XaaS revenues in the next five years. However, only 35% of respondents on average were ‘very satisfied’ with partner performance outside of initial opportunity identification. Executives were also three times more likely than managers to believe they are behind the competition in quantifying the right number and mix of partners to deliver target revenues.

Mike Kelleher, Senior Vice President of Marketbridge’s Technology Practice, said, “The channel is at a critical juncture. CROs must take a holistic view of their partners and focus on developing a modern, sustainable model that leverages the right mix of partners to drive growth in the subscription economy. This report provides a framework for partner transformation in 2023 and beyond.”

Access the report here.

Today’s marketing analytics organizations are falling short; Marketbridge conducts a study to understand why

Posted on January 17, 2023October 24, 2024 by Marketbridge

BETHESDA, Md., January 12, 2023 – Marketbridge, a leading go-to-market consultancy, released its Marketing Analytics Benchmark Study today. This online survey will establish a baseline for the current state of the marketing analytics function across different industries and company sizes.

While marketing analytics as a discipline has grown exponentially over the last decade—with hundreds of billions of dollars spent on technology, data assets, and talent—it still struggles to provide value in many organizations. Furthermore, with a recession likely in 2023, budgets are likely to be cut for teams that can’t show concrete value.

“Overreliance on magic bullets, black boxes, lack of analytical skillsets, and sub-par reporting have all contributed to marketing analytics falling short of high expectations,” says Andy Hasselwander, Chief Analytics Officer at Marketbridge. “We are trying to help marketing analytics leaders get a sense of where they stand relative to their peers, so they’ll be better able to prioritize improvement areas in a constrained budgetary environment.”

Marketbridge’s new study will act as an important resource for marketing analytics professionals looking to understand where they are on the path to advanced analytics and where they can improve.

The study, which takes approximately 20 minutes to complete, assesses marketing analytics functional capabilities across seven areas: source systems, data pipelines, analytical data storage, business intelligence, data science, organization, and capabilities. All answers remain confidential and will be used to build a detailed benchmark report aimed for launch in the second quarter of 2023.

The benchmark study complements Marketbridge’s robust, 40-page whitepaper, “A Roadmap to Modern Marketing Analytics,” which details best practices across the seven functional areas covered in the study.

“Although the whitepaper provides a lot of advice for improving data management, structure, and analytics, we want to establish a state-of-the-art baseline at real companies,” said Hasselwander. “This will allow analytics leaders to pause and focus on the improvement areas that really matter to assess a baseline of performance.”

Participate in the benchmark study here.

Author: Marketbridge

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Today’s marketing analytics organizations are falling short; Marketbridge conducts a study to understand why

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