Q&A: Pam Didner on Using Martech to Become a Digital Disruptor Yourself

Twenty years of digital disruption has put many CMOs, marketing directors, and brand managers on edge with the realization that, often, you’re only as good as your last numbers, and digital disruptors could target you at any minute. How do you fight back? Better yet, how do you become a digital disruptor yourself?

You could ask Pam Didner, a marketing consultant, writer, speaker and author of two books: Global Content Marketing and Effective Sales Enablement. She’s given presentations and workshops all over the world—in the United States, Europe, South America and Asia—on future trends, content marketing and sales enablement. In addition to sharing her marketing thoughts on her website and in her quick 7-minute podcast, she contributes articles to the Guardian, the Huffington Post, Content Marketing Institute, and other publications. She recently shared her experience, marketing insights, and knowledge on everything from marketing AI, customer data management, and machine learning (ML) in the following Q&A.

Treasure Data: You were a speaker at Content Marketing World this year. What was your biggest takeaway from the event?

Pam: My biggest takeaway: Content in different forms—from blogs and podcasts to videos—continue to play a critical role in both sales and marketing. And different formats of content require different ways of optimizing. For example: although SEO is SEO, the emphasis on video SEO may be slightly different than text SEO.

Treasure Data: With all of the change happening now, how do B2B marketers avoid getting disrupted?

Pam: Focus on your customers. Understand how your customers search, consume content, and buy. In addition, dive in and comprehend their pain points, challenges, and aspirations. Tailor your outreach to your customers’ journeys. It may sound easy, but it’s hard to execute.

Treasure Data: How can marketing leaders develop a more data-centric, customer-centric business?

Pam: We need to make sure that we have a clean database, then we need to make sure that data is integrated. The next step is to articulate questions we want to address, then conduct analysis or build models to address the questions. Unfortunately, it takes budget, time, and resources to do this right. This is something that marketers need to slow down and think through: how to use data to tackle bigger customer issues.

Treasure Data: What are you most excited about as a marketer today?

Pam: I am excited about learning new technology and the ability to use data and insights to further understand our customers. However, let’s be careful not to blindly follow the recommendations generated by machines. We need to be both an artist and a scientist in the digital marketing landscape.

Let’s be careful not to blindly follow the recommendations generated by machines. We need to be both an artist and a scientist in the digital marketing landscape.

Treasure Data: What do you predict will be the most important martech trend in 2020 and beyond?

Pam: AI and machine learning, especially how to leverage AI and machine learning to refine your customer experience and facilitate overall purchase journeys and sales engagements.

Want to Achieve the Customer Data Mastery You Need to Be a Digital Disruptor?

As Didner points out, to be a digital disruptor, you have to be a master of customer data—and have capacity to present your customers the right offers, content and personalized customer journeys that convert. And you have to have the AI and machine learning capabilities to do this every time, perhaps thousands or even millions of times a day, automatically. If you’re interested in martech that makes becoming a digital disruptor look almost too easy, check out this fast, easy Dummies Guide to Enterprise Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), or see what Forbes says about personalization and martech.

About Pam Didner

Pam Didner’s forte is creating successful global marketing plans that meet local marketing and sales teams’ needs. She is strategic in nature and tactical in execution. She also specializes in sales, marketing and internal/external communications consulting, keynote presentations, corporate training, and planning sessions. For more about Pam, visit her website and follow her on Twitter.