The increasing demand for marketing teams to create unique, customized content has left overburdened marketers and digital transformation leaders in a scattered state. The resulting need to prioritize visibility and balance in the workplace has become more imperative than ever before, yet teams are lacking the tools and clarity needed to successfully do so.

At Adobe’s recent virtual thought leadership event, Gaining Visibility to Drive Results: Aligning Marketing Teams With Corporate Goals, panelists in the marketing and digital transformation space came together to share the importance of establishing a seamless internal marketing system that can effectively meet rising B2B user expectations.

Moderator Melissa Harvey, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Adobe, began the discussion by asking the panelists how their teams approached pivoting to a digital-first marketing strategy.

“What last year proved is how many companies really didn’t understand what digital transformation meant,” said Jaime Punishill, Chief Marketing Officer at Lionbridge Technologies. “We all got exposed to that last year because suddenly, you took away all of the rest of the toys, and frankly it’s the world’s greatest A/B test.”

Jaime added that he was fortunate to have implemented a digital-first strategy before the universal shift to remote work, and since then, has continued to build out the stack, motion, and talent needed to continuously support it.

Patrick Bernardi, SVP/Chief Marketing Officer at HuFriedyGroup, mentioned that transitioning to a digital-first strategy has allowed him to become more autonomous in his day-to-day work. “I don’t have to wait for anybody to send a message out,” he pointed out. “I can control the dialogue. I can control the journey.”

Having bandwidth and flexibility are crucial for marketers when it comes to setting and reaching goals. In supporting this goal-oriented mindset, Melissa proceeded to ask the panelists how tools such as data tracking and identifying the right metrics can help marketers achieve success.

“We want to know how many opportunities we’ve been able to help get,” said Marianne Parkhill, Director of Content Marketing at Elsevier. “There are a lot of things leading to that big number that are important to keep an eye on, and I think they all have to relate back to what your goals are.” Marianne mentioned that one of her team’s primary marketing goals is to grow awareness, which they’re achieving by implementing more web-oriented strategies such as SEO.

“We have now moved into a data-driven universe,” added Jaime. “It starts with clean, clean data… I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to find a way to carve that out in your prioritization set.” Jaime highlighted that without an organized data set, the only thing that marketing teams will be capable of scaling is information that is neither useful nor beneficial.

Continuing on the topic of prioritization and ensuring that marketing teams are de-siloing, Jaime mentioned his CEO’s request for a daily virtual standup comedy show once the pandemic hit. He highlighted the benefits that this daily routine had on his marketing team, sharing that it taught them to truly “understand what it takes to make a piece of content” and deciphering “whether or not it has any impact.”

Addressing this virtual workplace balance, Melissa wrapped up the panel discussion by asking how the panelists’ teams have continued to both stay connected and remain productive while working remotely.

Patrick raved about the positive impact that remote work has had on his team.

“I would contend that it was our finest hour,” he answered. “I saw more personal development and growth from younger team members than I’ve ever seen.” Patrick added that he luckily hasn’t witnessed any issues with collaboration since making the virtual shift, and that his team has been busier than ever before.

“Our quality of all of our assets is so much better and our speed to market is so much better,” seconded Marianne. “Everyone is flourishing… I think it’s really one of the best things we did.” She revealed that her team loves the creative freedom that comes with being able to generate unique, customized content almost instantly and with ease.

Prioritizing visibility within and throughout marketing teams continues to be a pressing objective for today’s digital leaders. Though establishing a balanced workplace is no easy feat, an aligned environment brings new opportunities for marketers to create a competitive advantage with their work, operate more efficiently, and produce better end results.