Natalie Cunningham

Maropost

Chief Marketing Officer

Terminus

Senior Vice President Marketing

Boardable, Board Management Software

Vice President of Marketing

Conga

Senior Director, Marketing

Hotel Engine

Vice President Marketing

Intelligent Demand

Vice President, Integrated Growth Strategy

Group Director, Growth Strategy

Demand Generation Strategist

RedRover Company

Digital Strategy Manager

Lead Digital Strategist

Green Line Marketing Group

Marketing Account Strategy Manager

Somerset Apartment Managament

Marketing Director

Genetics of Memphis

Director of Marketing and Public Relations

Natalie is a hands-on marketing executive with 15+ years of experience specializing in go-to-market (GTM) transformation for scalable revenue growth. She cut her chops in B2B and B2C marketing agencies, consulting on demand creation, ABM, digital, and positioning for start-ups, scale-ups, and global enterprises. Now, as a metrics-driven executive in high-growth B2B SaaS, she specializes in GTM alignment, re-positioning, category creation, and M&A. She is an active thought leader and public speaker in modern marketing transformation, the role of the CMO, and GTM strategy. She’s passionate about servant leadership, DE&I, and personal growth.

“I can never use the words ‘brand’ or ‘brand awareness’ with other execs” lamented a CMO at a $125 million SaaS company. Then another SaaS CMO shared, “It’s the same thing at our company, ‘brand-spend’ is considered the fluffy stuff that doesn’t drive revenue.” These are not isolated incidents.

You could visit hundreds of marketing departments from San Franciso to San Jose and never actually hear the word “brand.” It’s not that tech marketing leaders don’t believe in brand, it’s just that most have to disguise their efforts. Allow me to offer a theory on how we got here. 

Many CMOs now divide their marketing budgets and departments into Revenue Marketing or Performance Marketing and everything else. An innocent word choice, right? Who doesn’t want marketing that is focused on revenue or performance? Certainly, CEOs, CFOs, CROs, and investors all seek more revenue. So far, so good. 

But what does that mean for the rest of your marketing department? That they aren’t working to drive revenue or improve performance. That they are doing the fluffy stuff? 

When I press CMOs on this they explain their Revenue/Performance teams are focused on deploying direct response vehicles (i.e. paid search, content syndication, webinars, etc.), capturing leads, and nurturing these leads into opportunities and ultimately, pipeline. They do this with a lot of technology, constantly testing and optimizing. When it’s working, it’s measurable and even scalable. The outcome is fine. It’s the word choice that’s problematic.  

Why not just call this part of your marketing “demand capture?” Because that’s really what’s happening. Buyers already in the market for your product or service are metaphorically raising their hands and saying, “It’s okay for you to engage with me about your service.” 

As for the 95% who aren’t even thinking about your product or category? What about them? What are you doing to generate their interest? To help them recognize a problem they didn’t know they had?  To get them to see that the gain of change is worth the pain of change? Or just to generate awareness of your service before the salesperson calls? Or to differentiate your offering from your competitors? What are you going to call that kind of marketing? 

One simple solution for those fearful of sounding fluffy is to call the rest of your budget “demand creation.” That’s what you’re doing. Hopefully. Now, both parts of your budget focus on demand (generating it and capturing it). This opens the door for you to put the MARKET back in MARKETING. And creating markets is the domain of great CMOs. 

Word choice matters - especially for budget components. If “brand” is a dirty word at your org, leave that fight to the pundits. Just don’t create a trap for yourself by designating one part of your budget as revenue-related.  

If you have a euphemism for brand-related spending, please share it. We're gathering quite a collection in CMO Huddles.  

I'm adding a new program type to my marketing plan. 

It's called "marketing marketing." Every marketing team I know spends a not insignificant amount of time educating, creating awareness, gaining buy-in, and convincing stakeholders of marketing's value. Much like we educate, create interest, and convert prospects into customers. Why not plan for it like we do any other initiative? 

The main question for me is why in 2024 the role of marketing is still so misunderstood. I certainly acknowledge that other functions deal with some version of this, as well -- shout-out to our friends in customer success ✊. Solidarity, y'all. 

However, CMOs continue to have the shortest tenure of any executive. More often than not, new marketing leaders are handed misaligned expectations and resources with a side of narrow ownership and broad accountability. The power a modern marketing function can wield in building a successful business is clearly undervalued. These aren't small hills to climb. It takes time, thought, data, planning (re-planning), gravitas, backbone, and an incredible amount of patience. 

So, as I begin assessing performance in 1H so far and planning for the back half, "marketing marketing" will get a bit more thought and maybe even its own KPIs this time. Stay tuned for updates.🤞 

#marketingstrategy #cmoinsights


My inbox right now... 

🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕 🌖 🌗 🌘 

Marketers will take any excuse to use emojis in a subject line, am I right? 

Short-term demand gen is an oxymoron...

And I used it today 🤦‍♀️ . Rookie mistake, Cunningham.

Let's recap what I SHOULD have said:

If we're talking short-term, 

📈  What we actually mean is pipeline generation.;
🔒  and that's really just demand capture; 
💡  which assumes we've already spent the time, investment, and effort to create problem awareness and solution demand in our target market; 
🕵‍♀️  aaaand also assumes we've, I dunno, maybe made sure that problem-aware, solution-ready prospect at least knows who our company is and what our product does. (cough, cough...brand awareness matters) 

Moral of the story, we need some help with demand gen because clearly I can't be trusted. 

Join us, will you? I'm #hiring a Demand Gen Manager to join our North America team at Maropost. Come help us build demand in the long, medium, and short-term.  

#demandgenjobs #b2bmarketing #b2bsaas #jobalert

🚀 Buckle up, folks! The sales dev function is in for a wild ride in the coming year, but let's first address the drama—rumors of its demise. 💼💡

While some on this platform might proclaim "the death of the SDR," I see a different narrative unfolding—a story of evolution and adaptation. 

Over the next few years, I expect we'll see the function evolve in a few ways:

1. Data-Driven Mastery: Forget crystal balls; SDRs wield data like wizards. Cold calling might be on life support, but data-driven insights? They're the superheroes of tomorrow's sales game.

2. Hyper-Personalization: One-size fits all pitches are so last season. SDRs craft messages so personalized, prospects think they're mind readers. It's not sales; it's Miss Cleo! (shout-out if you got that reference)

3. AI-Powered Assistants: Say hello to the SDR's new bestie—AI-powered assistants. They're like caffeine for productivity, leaving SDRs more time to charm prospects with their winning personalities...and products.

4. Collaborative Selling: Sales isn't a solo sport anymore; it's a team effort. SDRs team up with marketing, customer success, product, and execs to deliver knockout experiences. It's like the Avengers, but for revenue.

5. A rebrand: Let's be honest, we're obsessed with rebranding concepts in SaaS. Most of the time it's just the same concept in a new package (see ABM/ABX, demand gen/growth, brand/demand creation). In this case, I think we might have an exception to the rule, with the change in the SDR function so significant it truly warrants a rebrand. What will we call it? I'm not sure, but I know it will be an acronym.

🔮 Alas, I have no crystal ball so this is only my opinion. What's yours?

#SalesDevelopment #FutureofSales #B2BSaaS #SDR

🌟 Proudly Introducing Our Platinum Partner: Maropost! 🌟 

As we gear up for Retail Fest, let's give a big shoutout to Maropost, our Platinum Partner. They're pioneers in redefining how businesses engage with their customers. 

Stay tuned for how Maropost will elevate your Retail Fest experience. 

See you next week!

#RetailFest #Maropost #GoldCoast #InnovationInRetail

Major LinkedIn feature gap.

You can't use a meme and a job posting on a single post. Moreover, how am I ever supposed to demonstrate my "fun leader" personality to all the best product marketing candidates in a meme-less environment?? How, I ask you?!? 

As an elder millennial, I am deeply offended. 

Anywho, here's my super boring text-based post about a zero-percent boring job opening on my team! We're building some game-changing commerce products at Maropost. But this isn't Field of Dreams, so we need a top-notch product marketer to help us take them to our global market. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Collaboration across Australian and North American teams is critical in this role; as such, we are looking for candidates in Mountain and Pacific Time.  

#jobalert #productmarketingjobs #b2bsaas #commercejobs

Congratulations to Retail Express by Maropost on winning the Omni-Channel Excellence/Innovation Award! 🏆
 
Omni-channel retailing has seen massive growth over the last few years. This award recognises an organisation who created a solution that helped this growth and took retailers to the next level. 

#OmniChannelExcellence #VIPAwards #VIPAwardsAPAC #VendorsinPartnership #Partnership #Innovation

Taplio

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