Most digital marketing teams are starting to think about ways to implement account-based marketing (ABM) in their businesses. Neville Letzerich, Chief Marketing Officer of HotSchedules, is diving into the trend with Demand Frontier’s help.
Which marketing investments are you prioritizing in 2018?
“2018 is really about demand generation and account based marketing; we did nail our campaigns this year, we got to do that on a broader basis but then also we got to get more account specific, so there are key targeted accounts that we’re making specific plans for and then executing in a very targeted fashion, so we gotta get the best of both worlds this year.”
What are the biggest challenges to executing your marketing vision and plan this year?
“I think the biggest challenges we faced this year were just velocity and scale. So we know we need to go fast, obviously in a SaaS business the earlier you bring revenue the better, because you get more of it throughout the year, so we’ve gotta go fast but we’ve got to do it right, and we’ve got a small agile team so being able to scale effectively, you know what’s important, you keep it important. It’s going to be really incredible for us.”
How is marketing technology helping your marketing efforts? How is it hampering it?
“We rely heavily on technology; it helps us scale, it gives us better visibility, better measurement, helps us execute like we need to. Which is a good thing, we were on a great complex if you will, marketing stack, the challenge we’ve got with it is I’ve relied on it very heavily yet at the same time I wanted to make sure we are getting the most out of it and a lot of these tools take a lot of depth and a lot a time to go deep, and that is a tough thing to do in balance with everything else we’ve got going on a daily basis.”
Can you give your perspective on Demand Frontier’s business model, work, team and relative cost?
“We love Demand Frontier, I think it’s been one of our great strategic advantages. The nearshore model that Demand Frontier uses has been great for me to scale my team, but also having local resources here in Austin, makes all the difference. So I have people here that I can talk to locally but then scale in a nearshore way. It’s a game-changer for us, and our account management has been outstanding. The relationship has been phenomenal, I can’t say enough good things about them.
The Demand Frontier team is absolutely phenomenal from Todd all the way to Maylis , who manages our account to day-to-day execution. I really look at them more as an extension of my team than an outside vendor, so they truly are a partner-extension of the Hotschedules marketing organization and they treat the business that way. When I call with questions or concerns, they’re right back to me very quickly, and get stuff done, so when we get to celebrate at the end of a very successful 2018 they are going to be right at the table with us.”
How is Demand Frontier supporting your marketing goals?
“Demand Frontier helps us with almost the full breadth of what we do, from MarTech stack but down into the campaigns. We are also looking at them to help automate some of our account based marketing activities, so as I look in for help to scope the campaign, execute, create content, and then look at some of the more detailed work that we are doing, that’s right what they do, it’s right in their wheelhouse.
The other side is just the accountability and the tracking. I love how metric-oriented they are, they want to make sure this is a success and they right align with us along on those pieces. I think Demand Frontier delivers an outstanding value proposition, I don’t want to tell everybody publicly the great deal they’ve given me but when I think about just the cost of doing business fully stateside vs having a nearshore operation, this has allowed me to scale in ways I could have never done locally or with local agencies.”
– Neville Letzerich, Chief Marketing Officer, HotSchedules.
