Episode 9 – Heidi Bullock Unveils the Power of Data and AI in B2B Brand Building and Growth Strategies

Fatima Rangwala (00:33) In today's data-driven landscape, managing customer data, creating personalized engagement, and addressing privacy concerns are essential for business success and for individual users, which means getting more personalized experiences while keeping their data and privacy safe. This is ideally achieved through ABM, strong CX initiatives, first-party data strategies, consent management, interwoven with AI, and advanced analytics. Together, these elements empower businesses to deliver tailored experiences that resonate with customers.

But here's the real question, how can companies ensure diversity remains a priority in demand generation, particularly within sales and marketing functions? How are we ensuring data reliability in a world of AI revolution? Does AI truly go beyond customization to redefine customer experiences?

Well, to unravel this web of questions, let's hear it from the expert. Joining Martech Cube today is Heidi Bullock, CMO at Tealium, recognized as one of 2023's top 50 market techs influencing the Martech game. We'll delve into her leadership at Tealium, how she empowers revenue teams, and shapes the landscape of digital product marketing. Tealium is a brand connecting data for stronger customer relationships, ranking as a global leader in CDPs. With this inspiring motto in mind, this episode promises a dynamic discussion between Heidi and I as your host, Fatima, Strategic Content Head at Martech Cube.

Fatima Rangwala (02:15) Heidi, welcome. It's a great pleasure to have you. Thank you for having me.

Heidi Bullock (02:18) Yeah, thanks for having me. This will be a lot of fun.

Fatima Rangwala (02:21) Great. First off, huge congratulations, Heidi, on being recognized as a top B2B marketing influencer in 2022 and continuing that success thereon.

Heidi Bullock (02:31) Thank you.

Fatima Rangwala (02:34) Great. Absolutely. No, I mean, that's really fascinating and truly inspiring. With what you've achieved over 20 years of experience in marketing, working at both global enterprise technology companies and startups, I'm sure this insight is going to be quite invaluable, and I think the session is going to be quite exciting.

Heidi Bullock (02:52) I appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, I think my hope is that your listeners will walk away with not I'm really feeling inspired, but hopefully, I can prevent them from making some of the mistakes that I've made. That's the goal.

Fatima Rangwala (03:09) That's an interesting point, and I'm sure that's going to be quite interesting. I think before we get started into this exciting session and get talking about a lot of heavy topics and stuff, given your extensive and impressive track record, we'd really appreciate, and I think that goes with our listeners as well, if you tell a bit your background and your journey to becoming CMO at Tealium.

Heidi Bullock (03:33) Yeah, of course. I actually started my career in the life sciences space as a molecular biologist. My background is definitely in the hard sciences. And you know people could say, why, what does that really have to do with marketing? I think one of the things that I realized, two things early on. I started, obviously, in a very technical career, but I noticed that over time, it almost does not matter how well you know technology if you can't effectively communicate ideas in a way that people can consume them. I think for me, I made a leap from being somebody that worked in the lab and doing a lot of technical work, ultimately into product marketing. And I made that leap, again, because I had the ability and saw the importance of even if you're doing great technical work, again, if it's not something that everyone can understand or consume, or they're not understanding the business impact, it almost, it really doesn't matter, and it loses a lot of the importance. And so, I think that that was a really big thing for me. So, I understood early the importance of storytelling and making sure that ideas are consumable, you know, whether that's your internal teams, like your sales teams or external customers.

Heidi Bullock (04:52) So, that was kinda one. And two, the other thing that I think that starting in a very technical field was good for is you really start to have, I would say, a strong viewpoint and playbook around how to think through a marketing campaign. I always was somebody that kinda used the kinda scientific approach, like what is our hypothesis? What are, you know, how is…then..what is our ultimate goal that we're trying to achieve? Then what are the pieces that then support that? For people that know me well, I'm never somebody that says, Hey, you know, let's just do a webinar. Let's just send an email. It's like I always step back with, you know..what is our goal? What are we trying to achieve? And then thinking through, Okay, you know..what is the best tactic to then achieve that? So, I think starting in a scientific career was a really good thing, and I hope it's made me a better marketer. I think it has.

Fatima Rangwala (05:48) Yeah, I'm sure. I think that's quite the pivot from such a technical field to coming to marketing because it definitely combines analytical thinking with your brain and your DNA is so plugged in with all the algorithm and the creative strategies that no matter where you are, whether you're doing the science or you're doing the marketing, I think it's all about crafting compelling communication and narratives, as you said. I think it quite finishes off on a clean note for you. And glad we are off to a good start with that. Thank you for enlightening our listeners with that bit, Heidi.

Heidi Bullock (06:31) Sure.

Fatima Rangwala (06:33) Perfect. I think with the experience, as we said, that you've established, how do you plan to build your momentum in the years ahead alongside elevating that now that you're at Tealium, elevating the Tealium’s brand presence and marketing impact, how and what's your plan for the future?

Heidi Bullock (06:53) Yeah, so, I've been at the company just over four years, and I think any of your listeners know that you know building a brand is not something you do in two months. It takes time. I think the thing that I did a lot of thinking around is, you know what is…a brand has to really convey a feeling for people. You know, you're kinda winning the hearts and the minds of the people that are buying your products or services. And a good brand is really about preference. Like, I think a lot of times in the B2B space, there's a lot of debate around you know brand or demand. And to me, they're completely intertwined. It's not one or the other. And it's really that first piece where somebody, they can look at product A or product B, and why is there a preference towards one versus the other? You know this well in the technical space, there's so many products where at the end of the day, they're not that dissimilar. There may be some capabilities that are a little bit different, but there's other reasons that people will pick a product. And so, I think one of the first things I thought about is we at Tealium really want to be the trusted advisor.

Heidi Bullock (08:02) It's like the sentiment is a bit like your friend that you want to go study with, right? We may not be. We don't know that. In college, it's like, Hey, I know if I study with this person, it's going to go well, versus other people, they're going to talk the whole time. But we really try to be helpful and supportive. I think for me, a lot of what I think about moving forward is to grow our brand and expand. It's really three areas I'm thinking a lot about. Number one is really expanding through our partner network. I mean, one thing about Tealium is we really... One of our key capabilities is we try to be very much vendor-neutral, meaning we're going to work with the tech that you have and plug into that. I think expanding our brand a lot through partners is one of my strategies.

The second is really growing in key verticals. So, we have a pretty defined ICP, but definitely doing a lot more, I would say more deeply in key verticals. For us, then, I think the third thing that I'm thinking a lot about is you know, CDPs, they're kind of incredible because there's... This is an analogy that people might relate to, but it's almost like a microwave in your kitchen.

Heidi Bullock (09:14) A lot of people may buy a microwave for, Hey, I want to defrost chicken or vegetables. But guess what? You can pop popcorn, too. That's the amazing thing about CDPs. I think we're seeing that you know a lot of people initially were thinking about using them for creating better customer experiences. I can be and can create better segments and create the right message at the right time. That's amazing. But I think I'm also seeing a lot of uptick around AI applications, umm, a lot of other interesting applications.. a lot around privacy and compliance. So, I think what's exciting for me is I'm fortunate enough to work for a company where the technology is broadly applicable. So, I'm thinking about really growing our brand and some of those other areas as well. So, yeah, it's really partners, verticals, and then just thinking about deeper applications and how to build our brand with a different type of user.

Fatima Rangwala (10:11) Absolutely. I think having an all-rounder strategy is the best approach here. And it's quite holistic, you know, so to enhance just not creativity, but also come across as an agile product or a company which can just like seamlessly plug in and fit in with anyone. And of course, you know, just accomplish all that is in its charts. So I think that's, that's quite a good point. Uh, speaking of AI, uh, we've moved to the segment of, uh, you know, understanding how, uh, in light of AI's reliance on quality data, uh, probably AI has been enhancing customer experience strategies and, you know, overall marketing effectiveness by far, and AI is everywhere. I mean, it's, it's inevitable to now look at it. And that's a given. So, What steps? Yeah, I mean, what steps should we or do you folks at Tealium take to ensure data reliability and that being said is such an important and a very key, uh, you know, topic of the, of the industry and today's time, it's the data reliability, how reliable can it be, we've come from having, you know, uh, CDPs and we've got manual data where, you know, where we used to tackle and we used to look into it physically and manually. And now suddenly AI has been in the picture. So how are the challenges being addressed as AI has been influencing continuously as, you know, as we are growing around it and it's becoming more of an integral part of our daily jobs and routine. So what's, what's it that you do to ensure that kind of reliability on the data that we have?

Heidi Bullock (12:00) Yeah. So I think taking a step back, I mean, I think a lot of companies, a lot of the large global enterprises are looking at AI for the reasons that everyone's excited about, right? It can ultimately make sure that, you know, certain use cases are more efficient, right? You can sometimes get a lot better results and… and quicker to which is really exciting.

I mean, there's a lot of amazing applications. And I think just to keep things simple. And many people know this. If you just kind of think about machine learning as an example, which isn't which isn't new. And I think of it as a subset of AI for some for for basically for us to understand, like for an algorithm to make.

You know, a good prediction or generalize a pattern. All of that's dependent on data, right? So think about it this way. It's almost the same analogy of like garbage in garbage out, which I know everybody understands. But it's kind of like, so what are people supposed to do? And I think the biggest challenge that we see is often. That there's two things.

One, often companies are sitting on a lot of data that that's really not the problem. It's just that the data sometimes is in different silos. It might not be accessible by all teams. And the bigger thing that I would highlight is your AI models are only going to be as good as the data that you're collecting, and I think for for for us at Tealium, the big thing that we think a lot about because our product helps, you know, collect data, bring it together and then activate data in real time.

And the big thing that we talk about with AI is data needs to be consented, right? So people have to opt in. You can't build models of data that people, they, oh, I didn't even know I agreed to that, right? It needs to be filtered. And enriched and then obviously done in real time. So as an example, you could be building a, say for a retail company, if you're building a model and it's based on data, that's like say months old, how that, that might be really, or that might not help you at all.

And so it's exciting is with Tealium and we collect data in real time, but we can also, you know, enrich that data with data that's maybe in your data warehouse. CRM or any other location. So the key is having the right data. So then, you know, the models and, and, and, and your AI initiatives are effective, right?

And that's what, that's what everyone wants. And I think to me, that's what I see is slowing people down right now. It's like, we, we, we have, we have the algorithms, we're ready to go. We've got data scientists that, you know, are brilliant, but the problem is, oh, wow, we have this data that sits over here and this data that sits over there.

And that's what's slowing people down. So I think, you know, if I could offer one piece of advice to people and it's, and it's, everyone knows this, right. It's just have a thoughtful data strategy. That's true. When you're, when you're first putting a CRM system in place, that's true. When you're building your mark.. marketing automation out.

And more so than ever, I really believe this, that data. It is your competitive advantage, right? Like your customer data, it's everything. You understand what people buy, what they like. You can understand the health of a customer. And so it's the number one thing people should be focused on and making sure they have a good strategy in place.

Fatima Rangwala (15:15) That's great. I mean, I think, yeah, and that's so important that brings me to the next question that is it also depending on the personalization? Because if you do not have the right data, you're not going to get the right data unless you have it through a key of or probably a passage of personalization.

So is it, is it only not, it's, is it limited to customization or do you think that it's beyond customization to provide that kind of a better customer experience? And of course, AI playing a major part in that. So what are the kind of, uh, you know, steps again, and what are the challenges that, um, when you, when you were to collect the right data of the right brand and then project it to your customers? And have them, you know, the, you have them, the clean, clean data, the filter data. You don't have them, you don't give them anything that is unwanted. So that's completely, uh, depending on what sort of steps are taken in, in terms of building that kind of, the algorithm or the program. Of course. Uh, speaking of the game changers in the initiatives, so machine learning is always going to be, you know, just a part and parcel of AI. So how are the early adopters, uh, using these advancements in machine learning and combining with, uh, you know, AI and personalization and going beyond customization to provide that kind of a CX experience?

Heidi Bullock (16:53) Yeah, I mean, I think I think folks in the in the consumer space like the, you know, B2C companies are, are, are..many companies do this well.

And I think we've seen there's so much data that, you know, illustrates that if you can deliver the experience that your customers expecting and that that's, you know, making sure that it's sure personalized, but it's at the right time. And more importantly, you know that their privacy is respected throughout the journey is an as an example.

If you're dealing with your health care company, you know, you may not want to receive a newsletter that talks about something that maybe is very private with your health that that may be a not what you're looking for. So, I mean, I think many of your listeners have heard about, you know, the privacy paradox where you know consumers and buyers they want personalized, you know really relevant experiences, but they also want their privacy upheld and I think that goes back to my earlier point. You have to have a thoughtful, proactive, you know, data strategy where, you know, you have the ability not to just rely on third party data, but collect zero and first party data of your customers and buyers.

So, you know, if they have particular privacy preferences, you know, say, just as a simple example, don't sell my personal information. Or, you know, if I'm interacting with my bank or, or, uh, even a physician, you know, maybe don't text me those, those results or my bank or my banking information, everybody has the preferences, right?

And the key is making sure that people at organizations can accurately collect that data in real time. That's kind of number one. Make sure that you can actually collect it, whether that's, again, using a solution like Tealium. We also partner with, um, you know, CMPs as well, such, you know, OneTrust, TrustArc, uh, tools like that, where a lot of, you know, consumer companies, I think, are very active in using tools like that to make sure, um, that, uh, that, you know, when somebody's on your website that, you know, consent can be app appropriately managed, but that's part one.

The second part is making sure that those those preferences are upheld throughout the journey. And again, going back to why real time is important, you know, Fatima, if you, you kind of say, ‘Hey, I didn't mind getting, you know, a text message about this maybe three weeks ago, but then you're then maybe you find I feel like that they're texting me too much. Maybe I actually want to change that. That's really important. You want the ability for all these uh, you know that for technology to reflect that so that way people are continuing to get a positive and a good experience, right? And that's why real time matters. Because if you change something, you don't want that reflected two days from now.

We've all experienced that right where you opt out of just a simple example. You opt out of an email. And you continue to get those emails. It's like, why is that happening? Yeah. It's because systems are, it's not real time data. Um, it there, it's not reflected that way. It might be, you know, uh, delays. Like sometimes it's like, it's can be a long time.

Right. And that doesn't work for people. So yeah, it's just really important to make sure that, that everyone listening thinks through that, like, how are you collecting data, whether that's on your website, it's client side or server side. You know, how are you then managing those preferences and making sure that they're upheld?

I think that's, that's so, so critical for creating, you know, really good personalized experiences.

Fatima Rangwala (20:19) Great point, Heidi. And I couldn't agree more. Uh, you know, we've read your, um, report by Tealium, the fifth annual state of the CDP report that was released earlier this year. And. Shifting our focus to that, I think it explains exactly what you've, you've just mentioned, you know, about, uh, consented, you know, management platform, the CMPs and the CDPs along with that.

Um, so yeah, when, when we talk about that report, uh, which, which came out earlier this January, could you please explain what first party data is before we move into talking about consent management and, you know, I think our audience would absolutely appreciate it, starting with the basic definition of first party because that's something new on that report and it gives, it gives us a more idea about, you know, there's an interesting dynamic at play.

Between the real time data and AI when it comes to enhancing that kind of a CX experience. And I've read that report and it quite, quite is intriguing for us to understand, you know, the dichotomy which serves as a crucial asset, you know, for companies who are actually aiming to remain agile and resilient in the industry, uh, along with, of course, achieving, uh, you know, good data and serving the right customers at the right time to the right audience at the right platform. So all of this, but yeah, so it starts with first party data and that brings us to that question. So I would love to understand that from you.

Heidi Bullock (21:58) Yeah, I mean, a lot, a lot of folks traditionally, I mean, especially I would say, you know, in B2B has have depended on third party data historically, right? And third party data is data that's collected. Maybe it's from a partner or a media buyer, or even sometimes it's it's not, it's not necessarily a known source.

And first party data is information that's collected directly from the buyers themselves. And so when they interact with your website or any of your, you know, kind of key marketing, it's information that they're directly providing to you. And so the good news with that is it's going to be more accurate and its information that they've actually decided to give you, right?

Whereas third party data, it might be, um, something that in some cases that buyer's not even necessarily aware of. And, and, and we know that that's, that's something that is, you know, I, I just think with third party cookies going away, there, there's just a lot, there's just less dependence on third party data.

So it's really critical for organizations to have a thoughtful strategy around collecting zero and first party data again, that buyers directly give to you. Um, and again, it's beneficial because it's going to be a lot more accurate and it's something they're actually providing to you, right? And they're very aware of it.

So it's, it kind of is a win win for everybody.

Fatima Rangwala (23:24) Exactly. And, uh, yeah, so as marketers, you know, we, we are also aware about, uh, you know, moving into these days, of course a cookie list landscape, and we are quite into the deeper abyss of, uh, completely that kind of a background where we are set up against, uh, you know, thinking that consent management. So how is it well received by the marketers? That's something that that also intrigues me. Uh, you spoke about consent management, but has it been really well received? Being well received by a lot of marketers are, are we, are we still falling out of the loop, how are organizations creating and reacting to probably all these strong data governance practices, you know, just to build that kind of trust with the customer or to, to have their brand, you know, right in front of the right customers, um, you know, in front of the eyes or to just give them a better, better image about, you know, that, oh, you know what, my brand is good. Or, you know, I have got one of the best services for you or the data for you, but at the backend and then at the hindsight, something else has been going on.

So how is the entire consent management, uh, the idea of it being received in the market?

Heidi Bullock (24:25) Yeah, it's I mean, it's a really good question. And I would say I would say this in two ways. It's almost like when you tell people to be healthy, you need to exercise. You just have to do it right. You just have to do it.

And I think that we're in a world now like if you market internationally, I mean, every pretty much all the key regions they have that I mean, there are very strict privacy laws. Germany has had that for a long time as well as Canada. Um, and now, you know, I can't really think of an example where, um, there are not some type of privacy law and regulations.

I mean, there's, you know, CCPA, there's GDPR, there's, I mean, there's regulations in Australia, Japan, you name it. And so it's not really a choice for people and the way I would answer it is, you know, I think a lot of marketers, this is just the honest answer. No one's looking for more work. I think everybody's, you know, overloaded and has a lot to do, but you just have to do it.

You have to make sure that people understand what data you're collecting. And how it's being used. And the good thing is when you're when you're honest and direct about it, it does create more of I think you have more trust with the company that you're interacting with. So the net net is it's a good thing.

And I think that you know, all anybody wants is transparency. But I mean, your question is, you know, how are people responding to it? I mean, I think a lot of the consumer companies by default had to act fast. You cannot afford fines. And it's just like not people just businesses can't afford it. It just doesn't make sense.

And so I would say B2B has been a little bit slower to follow, but even now you go to most websites and they're very clear about, you know, ‘Hey, do you opt into this? Do you not like, do we, we want to make sure that you can, you know, Opt in to certain preferences or not. We want to make sure you know how your data is being used.’

It's, it's really hard to think of an example where that does not happen. So anyway, I think it's something it's like back to my earlier point. Did everyone love it and probably not, but it is something that everyone needs to do and take seriously.

Fatima Rangwala (26:53) Yeah, and I think it's again, inevitable and unavoidable. So that's that that leaves plenty of room for exploration. Having said that, and I think I'm far from an expert being here and just scratching the surface here. So while some businesses may still be in the early stages, you know, for the adopting AI, and I go back to my point again, AI this time is with ABM efforts.

And how is the trend, you know, working out to be among the marketers, especially with AI tied up with ABM. So, the trend is towards greater integration as, you know, organizations are always recognizing the value that it brings and the myriad of possibilities and opportunities that awaits. But are there risks involved, particularly in kind of pinpointing the ideal target or the ICP as you earlier mentioned when we began chatting.

So what are you more about the criticality of the ICP to ABM? Or are there any other factors that I should also be considering.

Heidi Bullock (28:02) Sure. I mean, I think the first thing with ABM, I mean, and it's a, it's a popular marketing strategy. So for your listeners, account based marketing. And for me, the first thing that every marketer needs to do is just understand the right go to market for your business.

So if you're a company and you're selling, you know, widgets on your website and they're $10 each. And say everyone can, can use them. It's, it's very, but like, as an example, if you're selling laundry detergent or ice cream, I mean. I it's, it's, it's, you don't necessarily need an ABM strategy, right? ABM is important when you're selling to a very distinct group of buyers.

There's a higher price point. Um, as an example, um, you know, again, it's not something that's $10 that's on your website. It might be $50,000, a hundred K like, and so for a lot of B2B marketers, ABM is a great strategy because, again, your mom isn't going to go, like, my mom's not buying Tealium, right? Like, it's, it's not a consumer product.

So, yeah, so I think, I think identifying, you know, your ideal customer profile, like, what are the best verticals or businesses for you that not only are going to buy your product, but they're going to be successful and, and, and most importantly, uh, stay true to that, right? They're going to be loyal. They're going to continue to buy your products and services.

So there's expansion opportunities. That's why you want to use IBM or ABM. And I think the most important thing around it is, I'm just going to say this word. It's really alignment.

It's not a marketing strategy. It's, it's a revenue strategy.

And it involves, you know, your marketing team, your sales team, your SDRs, if you, if you, you know, are using an SDR model, and it's really kind of that idea of, I've used this analogy a lot.

It's like, it's not a relay race. It's a soccer game, and everybody's passing the ball and working together. To ultimately get into that account and be successful. And I just think the number one thing is how do you work with your sales team and your SDR team? Like who's doing which activities and how can you each kind of play to your strengths to ultimately drive those meetings in the accounts that you care about?

It's really important. And then I think you asked about AI about that and, you know, AI can be used in so many different ways, whether that's you know, optimizing your messaging, um, scaling, helping scale your content for key verticals, which is tough for a lot of companies, right? It can even be used to help identify like, ‘Hey, here's some, here's some great accounts.’

Um, you know, uh, can help your kind of refine your ICP if, if you look at historical data, but then, um, you know, basically also use different data inputs to refine that there's, there's so much that can be done there. So, I mean, but the key to me is that it's a strategy. You need to make sure it makes sense for your business.

And ultimately you need to make sure that your internal teams that you work with are your partners, because it won't succeed if it's just your marketing team doing this in isolation.

Fatima Rangwala (31:01) Absolutely. I think it's a very well put up point by you, Heidi, and how is it in the context of dynamic, um, touch points, you know, so are there any customer interactions across various touch points? Um, so if probably you could give us an example on that.

Heidi Bullock (31:16) Oh, sure. I mean, I, I think with ABM, another key thing to think about is you're not selling to one person. I mean, wouldn't that be nice? It'd be a lot easier, but typically, I mean, like Right. I mean, the, the deals we see, I mean, they're, they're on average, 20 different people are involved, right?

Like there's going to be somebody who's the user. There's somebody that's the decision maker. There's somebody that, you know, maybe it's the IT person. That's going to be a big influencer. They're like, ‘Hey, you know, if, if, if you say as an example, Tealium already works with all the technology we have. Great.’ Um, but that person matters. And so, um, I think the key is thinking about, you know, the different folks involved in these deals and how to best engage with them, um, not only from like a messaging standpoint, but what is the content that they need and when. And so to your point about different channels and being dynamic, as an example, like keeping with the one I'm using, if you know that a C, you know, a CTO or somebody in IT is an influencer, they may not be the user of your product, but you need to get to them.

Maybe, um, a webinar around your product is not what they're going to engage with. They're busy, right? They're not going to sit there for an hour and watch that. But maybe if there's some report that you could make sure that. You know, if they go to your website, there's a triggered campaign that sends that to them. Great. That, that could be a really, really good way to do it.

And I mean, I think you're at your point that you might be getting to is there are tools that, you know, can help to map out some of these flows more dynamically. I mean, we're looking at a product called copy AI right now, that, you know, is kind of a really interesting way to do that.

There's different AI tools that can help with this, but the key for people to know is like with ABM, you're dealing with not just one person, but, but many, and they all have their own journeys. There's no perfect science around what those journeys are, but you just kind of have to understand like, ‘Hey, if I, if a C a CFO is involved, what are the things they need to know?’ ‘If a CIO is involved, what do they need to know?’ If the marketing team or the power users, what do they need to know? And just make sure that you're providing that content to them and the channels they engage with. And that's kind of, I think the key to, to get right.

Fatima Rangwala (33:25) Right. I think that's quite a, quite a detailed and a broader approach. And it's an ongoing process, to be honest, with all these things and with AI coming around. And we have so much more to cover below the tip of the iceberg, to be very honest. And your conversation totally resonates with our ideology as, uh, you know, at what MarTech Cube we follow and I think on this thought, Heidi, it's, it's really been, um, amazing to delve into these topics with you.

Um, you know, could, could you also share a memorable takeaway, probably, or phrase to leave our audience inspired?

Heidi Bullock (34:02) Sure. Yeah, I mean, I think I think something for everyone to think about, especially in marketing. Many of us think a lot about marketing externally to customers and, you know, maybe potential customers.

But I think I would leave people with as a marketer, your job, it's equally as valuable to market internally. And what I mean by that is your executives have to understand what you're you're thinking about as well as your revenue teams. And I think that the number one thing that I'll go back to that I started with is making sure that what you're talking about is consumable for people.

So if your sales team. is not going to learn about your new product or service by reading a 60 page, you know, deck that you built in Google Slides. Don't do that. Maybe they'll, they'll learn about the product better and be able to sell it more effectively watching a four-minute video. So just always remember, like your job is to make things consumable.

And if you can do that, well, you'll be successful.

Fatima Rangwala (35:02) Spot on. I think that's quite a key takeaway. Appreciate your time, Heidi. Thank you for sharing your valuable insights with us today. Really appreciate it.

Heidi Bullock (35:12) I appreciate it.

Fatima Rangwala (35:13) Thank you so much. And thank you to all our listeners for tuning into this episode of MarTech Cube. Don't forget to subscribe to our socials and stay updated with the latest episodes. Until next time. Thank you, everybody!

Heidi Bullock's career journey from molecular biology to marketing underscores the transformative power of effective communication in technical fields. She emphasizes that bridging the gap between technical expertise and business impact hinges on the ability to convey complex ideas in accessible ways. Heidi's approach to marketing is deeply rooted in a scientific methodology, where campaigns are driven by clear hypotheses, strategic goals, and tailored tactics that align closely with business objectives, rather than relying on generic strategies like webinars or emails.

Central to Heidi's philosophy is the notion of brand building in the B2B space, where differentiation often lies not in technical superiority but in brand preference. She advocates for cultivating trust and support to win over customers amidst technical parity among products. Her strategic vision for Tealium focuses on growth through expanding partner networks, deepening presence in key verticals, and exploring innovative applications such as Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and artificial intelligence (AI) to broaden the brand's impact.

Heidi also stresses the critical role of data in driving AI initiatives and personalized customer experiences. She highlights the necessity of a robust data strategy that ensures accuracy, compliance, and real-time responsiveness, essential for effective AI implementations. Addressing the privacy paradox, Heidi underscores the importance of respecting customer preferences while delivering timely, personalized interactions to build enduring trust.

In the realm of marketing strategy, Heidi champions Account-Based Marketing (ABM) as a holistic revenue approach that demands alignment across marketing, sales, and SDR teams. AI plays a pivotal role in optimizing messaging and identifying key accounts, further enhancing the strategy's effectiveness. Additionally, Heidi emphasizes the significance of internal marketing, advocating for clear, concise communication within the organization to ensure alignment with executives and revenue teams, thereby making strategic initiatives both consumable and actionable.

Heidi Bullock's insights underscore a strategic approach to marketing that prioritizes alignment, data integrity, and effective communication as fundamental pillars of success in today's competitive landscape. Her journey from the lab to marketing leadership exemplifies the transformative potential of leveraging scientific rigor and clear communication to drive business growth and brand impact.