I am thrilled to be at 10th Annual Cisco Marketing Velocity, where – in less than two days – they have turned me into a true digital marketing believer! Yesterday was jam packed and began with 30-Minute Ecosystem Exchanges, in which Cisco partners met and were encouraged to forge new partner-to-partner connections and marketing relationships. Why? Because digital transformation is powered by partnerships between multiple partner types.
These valuable exchanges were followed by Tech 30 sessions hosted by Cisco experts and highlighting Cisco primary focus areas and business priorities. Along with that, the experts shared how partners can work together, and with Cisco, to deliver amazing results to customers.
During the opening general session, we learned that companies using digital marketing, which is defined as the convergence of multiple tech innovations enabled by connectivity, are growing more than 9 percent faster than companies not using digital marketing. The speakers included Wendy Bahr, Sr. VP of Cisco’s Global Partner Organization; Michelle Chiantera, VP of Cisco Global Partner Marketing; and Chris Dedicoat, EVP, Cisco Sales and Field Operations.
According to Chiantera, customer centricity is the “secret sauce” to successful digital marketing and that includes becoming “omni channel” and delivering the right content to the right customer at the right time. Today’s successful marketer must be highly curious and constantly evolving to keep up with changes in the digital world.
This morning’s keynote speaker Peter Hinssen, who is an author and “serial entrepreneur,” spoke about Beyond Digital Transformation: Preparing for the Day After Tomorrow. Hinssen pointed out that the five largest companies on the stock exchange are all tech companies that are involved in digital disruption of some kind. If you want to be as successful as them, you need to be willing to jump into the deep end of digital instead of just continuing to dip your toes into the shallow end of it, as many companies have been doing.
That can be difficult for some companies, however, because “day after tomorrow technologies” are brilliant and scary at the same time. As Hinssen pointed out, they can be Dystopian and Utopian all at once. The journey to digital transformation follows the same five stages of grief as in the book “On Death and Dying,” from denial and anger to bargaining, depression and acceptance. However, once you’ve made the journey and discovered how you can use technology to capture value and create that omni-channel, customer centricity about which Chiantera spoke, your company will be at the forefront of digital customer service.
Here are some of Tweets from Cisco Marketing Velocity:
