Back in late 2019, Drift surveyed over 130 marketing executives to assess the state of marketing leadership and modern marketing teams.
Little did we know that COVID would soon be turning our world upside down.
A year later, as the vaccine rollout continues, some form of normal appears to be on the horizon. For me, normal means being a full-time, remote CMO and a new mom:
Lillian and I getting ready for RevGrowth at Drift HQ!
What does normal look like for you? I want to hear how your experiences over the last year have shaped you and your marketing team.
That’s why today we’re launching Drift’s 2021 Marketing Leadership Survey to the entire marketing community.
Marketers who take this short five to seven-minute survey will receive first access to the 2021 report on the state of modern marketing teams and key marketing trends. And to make the process even easier, you can take the survey right from this blog 👇
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us. In the spirit of sharing, here are some of the big lessons Drift’s marketing team learned over the last year:
Empathy is a Superpower
2020 was a difficult year for everyone. And I believe empathy and compassion are what got us through the ups and downs.
Empathy was a key theme for our 2020 marketing team – from the emails we sent to the offers we created to the causes we supported. Here are some of the Drift Marketing moments I’m particularly proud of over the last year:
- We Won’t Be Silent
- Turning Words into Action: Takeaways from Boston Tech’s Anti-racism Panel
- 5 Email Templates to Make Your Marketing Outreach More Empathetic
- 5 Email Templates to Make Your Sales Outreach More Empathetic
- It’s Time for Business Leaders to Step Up and Help Their Communities During COVID-19
- How Keet Health Used Drift to Onboard 35 New Clients in 40 Days During the COVID-19 Outbreak
- Putting our People and Customers First: Drift’s Response to Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Embrace Digital & Keep Innovating
From virtual events to digital advertising, COVID forced companies to embrace digital channels when physical spaces shut down.
For most marketing teams, success came down to both the talent and tech they had in place.
We asked our 2020 respondents to rate how confident they were that their marketing tech stack would help them reach their goals. 69% of marketing leaders fell somewhere in the middle, stating they were only somewhat confident in their toolkit.
Our guiding mission at Drift is to meet buyers and customers on their terms. I took this to heart in 2020 when it came to investing in new technology for our tech stack. For example, virtual events platforms were a huge focus for us when we were bringing RevGrowth to life.
We’ll be asking this same martech question again in our 2021 survey. I’m really interested to see what big bets you made on digital experiences over the last year:
Company Culture Transcends Physical Spaces
It’s no secret that our leadership team was pro-office prior to COVID. That changed in 2020. Seeing how successful our team was, even while we were miles apart, showed that company culture transcends physical spaces.
Now that Drift is a remote-first company, we’ve had to explore new ways to deliver a great employee experience at home. Here are a few key changes we’ve made as a company and team:
- Weekly rituals go virtual: Our Monday Metrics and Show and Tell rituals went virtual last year, and they’ve only leveled up since then.
- We’ve revamped our employee onboarding: Many of our employees started at Drift remotely. Now that this is a permanent switch, we’ve ramped up our onboarding process to set remote employees up for success.
- We’re rethinking benefits: Free lunches, lounge areas, cool technologies – there’s no question that the Drift offices had a lot of perks. Our People team has been working diligently to translate these perks in our remote world. For example, we’ve recently introduced monthly stipends and a new vendor to match employee charitable donations.
- We’re focused on fun: We have a designated “marketing fun committee,” or MFC for short. This group of awesome marketers creates virtual experiences and competitions for the team to keep things fun and everyone connected.
Share the Small Wins & Happy Moments
The shift to remote work and embracing a remote culture was made easier by Slack. And one of my favorite Slack channels at Drift is called The One Thing I Love Today.
The concept is simple: Share a photo or comment on a special moment that brings you joy today.
Take the 2021 Marketing Leadership Benchmark Survey
None of the above would be possible without my incredible marketing team.
They pivoted, stayed scrappy, and rose to the occasion each and every time over the last year. I can’t thank them enough ❤️
Now it’s your turn to share your story. How did you overcome the challenges of 2020 and 2021? What inspiring marketing moments will you share?
Take the survey and let your voice be heard:
