Marketing’s goal used to be pretty straightforward: build a pipeline of qualified leads to hand over to the sales team. The model changed a little bit depending on the audience and the vertical, but essentially marketing material and actions, from awareness level to consideration, were used to build a pipeline.
While lead generation is still very much part of marketing, the goals for the marketing department have evolved significantly. The audience is everywhere and needs to be addressed personally. Every touchpoint — whether a Tweet or a call to a call center — has to be treated as one cohesive customer experience. As a result, marketing has to evolve beyond lead generation and become a champion of a complex customer experience.
