Interview with Monika Thomasberger, Senior Expert Marketing Communications, Telekom Deutschland
Interview Q’s & A’s:
BCM: What experience do you have in your field?
I have been working in the B2B Marketing Communications field for several years and have been able to gain different experiences from social media management, marketing automation, PR and digital dialogue marketing throughout my career.
BCM: Where do you see the potential associated with marketing automation?
In times of budget and time constraints, marketing automation is a valuable aid to marketers, as numbers and data are provided at the touch of a button and many tasks, which were once manually filtered out or discontinued, are now almost done by themselves. For example, you can find the interests of users on a website using only the basic information provided e.g. via emails, white-papers, newsletters, etc.
BCM: Which of your marketing measures or tools were well received by the customer? Please describe one of your success stories.
Customers appreciate suitable offers and they want to receive information, both online and offline. In the B2B area, however, the personal relationship with the customer is also very important. In the past, our campaigns have succeeded where they brought together all three elements. For one of our customer campaigns, we designed a personalized newspaper for the decision-maker, that had links to our business and to the customer. In addition, there was also an online campaign tailored to the customer. The positive customer feedback we received has been overwhelming.
BCM: Are there any new B2B trends that you are particularly interested in?
I am interested in current developments in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This trend will have a great impact on marketing and in a very short space of time and will change the way we communicate with customers. For example, chatbots are increasingly used in customer service. Although this technology is not essential yet, it will have a major influence on marketing in the coming years.
BCM: Thinking about the next generation, is there a topic that is particularly important to you?
In marketing, it is important not to consider anything a certainty. We have often been surprised by the successes, where the paths that were taken did not appear to be that promising at first. However, one should also accept failures and then have the courage to not keep projects artificially alive, forever and at any cost. The most important qualities in marketing are passion and creativity. With these points it makes it possible to shape any rough product into a success story.
The original interview was conducted in German for
