Behold, The Mighty Toaster!
Overview: I call it the “Toaster Syndrome.” I’m sure you can think of many
other names for it. It is the condition in which Marketing management is under
the impression that automating the marketing and demand generation process is
like purchasing a toaster. Buy a toaster, pop in the bread and voila! Two
minutes later you have toast. This is the first Demand Generation FAIL:
unrealistic expectations.
The toaster
analogy is actually perfect, since it is perceived as a simple device, yet is
full of complexities the average user can’t comprehend. Behold, the mighty
toaster!
What it is: A compact, electrical appliance that sufficiently warms bread
products to a crispy, semi-burned texture suitable for adhesions to butter,
jelly and other condiments.
What is does: The toaster converts standard electrical current
(120V, 60 Hz or 220V, 50 Hz) into controlled heat. By varying the amount of
current through the device’s heating element, the user can control the
temperature. A timer regulates the amount of time the bread is exposed to the
heating element, allowing the user to create a precisely toasted bread product.
What it means: Fast, convenient and safe breakfast
preparation.
When we look
closely at what the mighty toaster actually does, we begin to understand its
complexity. It converts electricity to controllable heat. It automatically
regulates the cooking time. It shields the user from heat and electrical shock.
It guides the bread product in and out of the cooking area. Most modern
toasters automatically adapt to different sizes and shapes of bread products,
such as frozen waffles and bagels. The user can generally set and forget a
toaster for consistent, properly cooked toast. Oh, and all this assumes the
delivery of standard electricity to your toaster and that somebody already
baked a perfect loaf of bread with which you plan to make your toast!
A toaster is
exactly like automating marketing via a demand center. Above, we identified three
distinct requirements for making toast: 1) Already-baked bread, 2) A reliable
source of standard electricity, and 3) a toaster. Let’s look at the parallels.
1.
Already-baked
bread: this is your marketing data. We looked at Dirty Data last week, and we’ll examine it again in another blog post. Data
is critical and without it you have no audience for your marketing and demand
generation efforts. If you have old, stale, moldy bread (data), it doesn’t make
for very appetizing toast (or marketing results). Again, more later.
2.
Reliable
source of standard electricity: this is your process. Again, we’ve looked at process in previous posts. If you don’t have any marketing process to
automate, it is just like a toaster with no electricity: no toast. If you have
poor or irregular processes to automate, it is just like a toaster with
intermittent or non-standard voltages: you might get toast, but it is just as
likely to be undercooked or burned as it is to be correct. And you might just
burn out your toaster in the process.
3.
And finally,
the toaster itself: this is your marketing automation platform (MAP). It is
like a deluxe toaster with lots of options with one minor caveat: your toaster
came from IKEA and you have to put it together. The more options on your
toaster, the more different ways it can be assembled. Like a toaster from IKEA,
most organizations will fail here not because the toaster is faulty, but they
could not figure out how to put it together in a configuration that works for
them. (see this
previous blog post).
Notes:
Don’t make assumptions about the quality of
your marketing data. Before you attempt to automate marketing and/or demand
generation, perform a thorough audit of your marketing data for the ability to
segment, score and route leads.
Is your marketing and/or demand gen process
documented? Do you understand your demand funnel stages, definitions, actions
in stage and triggers?
Does your MAP conform to your documented lead
management and campaign execution processes?
In next
week’s edition, we will look at Demand Generation FAIL number 2. Close to 100%
of all Automated Demand Centers have committed to this one. Ready, Fire, Aim!
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