Understanding the impact of marketing functional areas

Field marketing, digital marketing, demand generation, MarComm, PR, B2B marketing, trade marketing product marketing, technical marketing...argghhhh...so many terms!! A lot of people don't truly understand the distinction between each of these disciplines or roles, and I don't blame them. Depending on what organization you look at, these roles could be very distinct or combined into a generic "marketing manager" role. While the names don't really matter, the outcome certainly does.

In enterprise or business to business marketing, where we have one corporation trying to sell products, solutions or services to another corporation, there are several disciplines of marketing that come together to create a memorable brand or story, including but not limited to:

1. Demand Generation and Field Marketing

This is the team that generates interest in your offering and brings in leads for the business. This is your team that plans and executes campaigns using channels such as email, social media, digital marketing, inside sales, events (physical or virtual). At the end of the day, they are measured for the number of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and sometimes Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) they bring in. In larger organizations, field marketers work along side Sales teams and run events and campaigns specific to geographic regions to accomplish regional goals.

2. Content Marketing and Product Marketing

This is the person on your marketing team that builds the value proposition and story for your product offering. They connect the dots for the customer in explaining how what you offer solves their specific problem, and drive interest in your offering through blog posts, solution overviews, video content, effective presentation decks, and much much more. These individuals work closely with both the Product and Marketing teams to develop and disseminate the organization's message. These marketers are often referred to as Content Writers, Product Marketers, Technical Marketers. However the scope of product marketers is not just limited to content writing. Product marketers cover a gamut of activities including competitive differentiation, sales enablement, analyst relations, product demos and much more!

3. Public Relations (PR) and Marketing Communications

This is typically a separate division within larger organizations that handle the PR strategy and execution. This team ensures your brand or your product is top of mind for potential customers, whether it be through articles in a trade magazine, a segment on a news channel, nomination for an award or even participation in specific events or speaking opportunities. This team again works closely with other areas of marketing to ensure the right message is being sent out to the right audience at the right time.

4. Brand Marketing

This is the area of marketing that deals with the organization's overall brand definition and presence. Brand marketers are responsible for things like visual brand (e.g. logos), brand awareness through campaigns, website design, corporate events and more.

As a company grows from a startup to a mature business, its marketing needs evolve and while demand generation is typically the very first stage of marketing as it generates leads for the business, as the organization becomes bigger and more successful, the other areas of marketing become more prominent.

Where is your business at? Do you have an established demand generation engine? Do you need a stronger story or materials to enable and excite your sales team with? Are you ready to solidify your brand awareness, and are you taking advantage of marketing communications strategy to stay top of mind?

Feel free to reach out to me to learn more and assess your marketing maturity and needs.