Marcia Trask
Principal Analyst
Author Insights
Blog
To Build A Better Marketing Plan, Revisit Your Approach To Planning
Static annual plans often collect dust on a shelf. Leaning into the planning process can help you build a more dynamic and effective marketing plan that drives forward the objectives of the business.
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Blog
Clairvoyance Should Not Be Required For Revenue Planning
Marketing, sales, and customer engagement leaders need a structured, facts-based approach to achieving revenue and growth goals. Learn what that requires.
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Blog
Une Organisation Marketing Agile : Qui En Profite ?
Il n'y a pas de mystère quant à savoir qui bénéficie de l'adoption du marketing agile. C’est un bénéfice pour…tous ! En savoir plus.
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Blog
Agile Marketing: Cui Bono?
There’s no mystery as to who benefits from agile marketing adoption. Marcia Trask shows that the lineup of beneficiaries includes marketing teams, leadership, internal stakeholders, and external customers.
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Blog
Process in a Time of Crisis
- In the “people/process/technology” triangle method of issue resolution, process is the underutilized approach
- Automating processes, conducting process audits and adopting agile methodologies can drive effectiveness in times of crisis
- Process improvements are a low- to no-cost approach for greater efficiency in uncertain times
Blog
Five Tips for Building a Better CMO Dashboard
- CMOs need relevant and timely marketing performance updates for effective decisionmaking and planning
- From the beginning, CMO dashboards should be designed with the audience and their information needs in mind
- Effective dashboards tell a logical story, as measurement results are not always intuitive or readily actionable
Blog
Eight Steps for Navigating Technology Procurement
- Getting approval to purchase new technology is just the beginning of an often-complex procurement process
- A successful procurement process includes clear business requirements, a vendor short list and a structured RFP review
- Expedite results by building internal stakeholder relationships and communicating proactively throughout the process
Blog
Technology User Adoption – The Winning Approach
- User adoption is crucial to technology implementation, but can take time to achieve
- Vendor training is the beginning, not the end, of the user adoption process
- Understand user roles, prioritize role-based training and provide ongoing support
Blog
The Top Five Marketing Skill Sets for 2017
- Marketing skills have become an increasingly urgent topic for B2B CMOs.
- Marketing leaders are faced with a growing skills gap fueled by sweeping organizational and technological changes affecting the marketing function.
- The data from SiriusDecisions’ 2016 global CMO study is clear – an overwhelming majority of CMOs plan to acquire, revise or enhance the skill sets within their marketing function over the next two years.
Blog
DIY Tech Options for Marketing Enablement
- Marketing enablement is an emerging function that systematically equips marketing staff with the competencies to succeed in their job roles
- Marketing enablement functions are challenged by the lack of dedicated technology solutions to support their efforts
- Savvy leaders use a DIY approach to leverage existing technology to address their marketing enablement needs
Blog
Conversations With CMOs – What’s Top of Mind?
- Regardless of company size or industry, the majority of B2B CMOs are focused on the same short list of key topics
- Account-based marketing (ABM), brand strategy, change management, organizational design, planning and technology are currently top of mind
- Marketing professionals can leverage a variety of resources to support CMO initiatives in these areas
Blog
Marketing Operations: Trending Topics
- Defining and effectively measuring marketing influenced pipeline is top of mind for operations practitioners
- Developing and executing impactful buyer needs-based campaigns remains an important issue
- There continue to be questions on organization structure and alignment between sales and marketing operations
Blog
Maximize Your MRM Implementation
- Successful MRM implementations address pre- and post-implementation workstreams in addition to technology selection
- Workstreams include requirements gathering, relationship building, implementation prep, training, user adoption and system support
- Leverage cross-functional working teams and a proactive communications plan to ensure project success
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How to Pick the Right MRM Solution
- The explosion of new marketing resource management (MRM) solution offerings gives marketers many choices – and a need for structured decisionmaking
- First define requirements in the four areas of MRM functionality: planning/budgeting, project management, asset management and communications
- Evaluate build vs. buy and suite vs. pure-play considerations to develop a focused list of MRM solutions to meet requirements
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What Companies Really Think About Their Marketing Skills Gaps
- B2B organizations can come together in shared experiences of marketing competency development and marketing enablement
- While it’s important to train marketers to use new tools, it’s vital that they understand foundational marketing skills
- Keep in mind that marketing managers need enablement, too
Blog
Building a Better Marketing Plan
- One of the questions we are frequently asked is “What makes a good marketing plan?”
- To sort out the confusion around building a good marketing plan, it’s important to separate the inputs from the outputs
- Inputs into the marketing plan can be grouped into three categories
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X Marks the Spot: Competency Maps Lead to Marketing Skills Treasure
- Discover benefits that.competency mapping can bring to a B2B marketing organization
- B2B marketing teams are grappling with a significant level of change that is fueling a growing skills gap
- Creating a list of core competencies, and aligning them to marketing functions, allows leaders to build focused competency maps
Blog
Six Campaign Questions that Marketing Must Answer
- As marketing organizations adopt an integrated campaign approach, there’s often a struggle to create buyer-centric campaigns
- We’ve created a list of six fundamental campaign planning questions that we challenge you to answer
- The SiriusDecisions Campaign Framework assists with marketing planning and execution to align the overall organization to business goals
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Spelunking in the Marketing Skills Gap
- B2B marketing has changed dramatically due to technology shifts, the popularity of data and analytics, and empowered buyers
- The gap between what marketers used to do and what they must do now is getting wider
- Many skills fall into the categories of messaging, content strategy, technology and analytics
Blog
Doubled Investment, More Technology and Greater Responsibilities: Happy Anniversary, Marketing Operations!
- The need for marketing operations has increased because of changes in the buying process, marketing technology, and buyer and customer data
- Current marketing operations staffing levels vary based on.company size but range from 4 to 5 percent of total marketing staff
- To support the needs of stakeholders, marketing operations’ range of responsibilities is extensive and diverse
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