BUDGET IS A BIG WORD: PRIORITISING MARKETING CAPABILITY IN B2B TECH
In this episode of the Spotlight on B2B Tech Marketing, we're joined by Jessica Dye, Chief Marketing Officer at JATO Dynamics.
With 15 years of leadership experience in B2B tech marketing, Jessica has successfully built a self-sufficient marketing function based on the principle that every team member plays a crucial role.
She shares her insights on creating a revenue-generating marketing department, the importance of capability over budget, and strategies for effective B2B tech marketing.
Jessica discusses the value of content marketing, the role of thought leadership, and how to demonstrate marketing's impact on business outcomes. She also touches on the future of marketing, including the potential impact of AI and the enduring importance of human-to-human communication.
EPISODE OUTLINE AND HIGHLIGHTS
[00:25] Introduction to Jessica Dye
[01:44] Building a Marketing Team
[03:39] Marketing on a Limited Budget
[05:42] Content Strategy and Lead Generation
[09:03] Marketing Pillars: Brand, Thought Leadership, and Pipeline Generation
[11:17] Thought Leadership and Content Creation
[15:34] Content Types: Snackable vs High-Value
[20:22] Marketing Budget and Team Capabilities
[24:28 ] Marketing Metrics and ROI
[25:59] Future of Marketing and AI
[29:30] Closing Thoughts on Marketing's Value
THE POWER OF IN-HOUSE MARKETING CAPABILITY
Jessica emphasizes the importance of building a strong in-house marketing team with diverse skills. She argues that having the right people with the right capabilities is more valuable than a large budget spent on external agencies. A lean, agile team can pivot quickly, respond to market changes, and create impactful content without lengthy lead times.
This approach offers several key advantages in the fast-paced B2B tech landscape:
Agility and Responsiveness: With a capable in-house team, companies can pivot quickly in response to market changes or emerging opportunities. Jessica emphasises how her lean team of 19 can turn around campaigns in just a few days, compared to the potentially longer lead times when working with external agencies.
Deep Industry Knowledge: In-house teams immerse themselves in the company's products, services, and industry on a daily basis. This deep understanding allows for more authentic and informed marketing efforts, which is particularly crucial in complex B2B tech environments.
Cost-Effectiveness: While it might seem counterintuitive, a skilled in-house team can often deliver better ROI than relying on expensive agency retainers. Jessica mentions achieving ROIs of 16 to 25 times the investment on some campaigns, demonstrating the financial efficacy of this approach.
Seamless Integration: An in-house team can more easily collaborate with other departments, particularly sales. This close alignment ensures that marketing efforts directly support overall business objectives and contribute to the sales pipeline.
Rapid Iteration and Learning: In-house teams can quickly test, learn, and refine their approaches. This continuous improvement cycle is often more challenging with external agencies due to communication barriers and contractual limitations.
By championing in-house capability, Jessica illustrates how B2B tech companies can create more impactful, efficient, and aligned marketing functions that drive real business results. This approach not only optimises budget use but also positions marketing as a strategic driver of business growth.
CONTENT STRATEGY: FROM SNACKABLE TO HIGH-VALUE
At the core of Jessica Dye's marketing approach at JATO Dynamics is a sophisticated content strategy balancing easily digestible "snackable" content with more substantial, high-value pieces. This strategy is designed to nurture leads through the buyer's journey, gradually building trust and demonstrating expertise.
THE BENEFITS OF SNACKABLE CONTENT
Snackable content, such as short blog posts, social media updates, or brief video clips, maintains consistent engagement with the audience. It keeps JATO Dynamics top-of-mind without demanding significant time investment from potential customers. This content serves as a way to regularly touch base, share insights, and provide value in small, manageable doses.
Complementing this are high-value pieces like comprehensive industry reports, detailed whitepapers, or webinars. These serve as the "hook" in Jessica's strategy, designed to capture qualified leads by offering substantial, unique insights that showcase JATO's expertise.
Jessica cleverly likens this approach to dating, saying you need to "go on a few dates before asking someone to marry you." This analogy underscores the importance of building relationships with potential customers over time. Snackable content acts as those initial dates - light, engaging interactions that build familiarity. The high-value content then serves as the proposal - a more significant ask that comes after establishing a relationship.
A CONTENT-LED LEAD GENERATION STRATEGY
One of the most innovative aspects of Jessica's strategy is how she transformed JATO's existing PR efforts into powerful lead-generation tools. By creating landing pages for their regular press releases and market analyses and requiring contact information for access, they turned what was previously just good PR into a steady stream of qualified leads.
Jessica highlights the creation of anticipated annual publications as a particularly effective tactic. These reports, such as their yearly CO2 analysis, have become events that their audience looks forward to. This approach not only positions JATO as a thought leader but also creates a predictable, cyclical opportunity for lead generation.
By implementing this nuanced content strategy, Jessica has created a marketing engine that not only showcases JATO Dynamics' expertise but also directly contributes to the company's bottom line through a steady stream of qualified leads, while providing the sales team with warmer prospects.
TODAY’S GUEST
Jessica is a strategic and creative marketer with 15 years' leadership experience across technology, telecommunications, data and research, with a particular interest and expertise in building and developing marketing functions within global B2B organisations.
In her role as Chief Marketing Officer at JATO Dynamics, Jessica has successfully built a self-sufficient marketing function based on the principle that every person in her team has a part to play in the positive impact marketing has on the business.
From custodian of the brand, to thought leadership and brand awareness, the role marketing plays is fundamental in any organisation. Jessica believes that good marketing is about establishing the ability to amplify and extend differentiation and market position across multiple channels globally, and in doing so brings significant impact to the business from brand and revenue perspective.
You can connect with Jessica on LinkedIn.
OUR HOST
Karen Lloyd is a passionate marketing head-hunter and recruitment expert specialising in marketing and C-suite in the technology sector. With over 25 years of experience in the recruitment industry, Karen brings a unique depth of expertise that sets her apart from most recruiters.
Over her career, Karen has accumulated a wealth of experience that includes serving as a Board Director and being actively involved in growing a business for 13 years. Karen has been a part of five start-ups, giving her first-hand knowledge of the critical importance of hiring the right people.
Currently, Karen is the founder and Director of Armstrong Lloyd. She leads a very special team that partners with businesses and empowers them to build industry-leading marketing teams for some of the most exciting B2B technology brands - from small agile and disruptive start-ups to global giants providing a wealth of product and service offerings.
