This month we go backstage with a shiny new CMO, Eric Jan van Putten who is fresh in post at Dynamicweb, an eCommerce content platform, after a diverse marketing career working through the B2B tech marketing ranks. Ian Truscott sits down with Eric and finds where this new CMO finds his marketing mojo…
Hi Eric, tell us a little bit about yourself and your current role
Hi, I’m Eric Jan van Putten and I run marketing at Dynamicweb. My past 10 years+ experience ranges from field marketing to marketing operations to leading marketing in international software vendor companies that have strong ties to ‘Experience Marketing’.
I love marketing technology, it can do so much these days only being limited by anyone’s imagination, business ethics, and the law. Marketing is a function that works in close collaboration with sales, customer operations, and product strategy, certainly in the case of Dynamicweb as I’m one of the buyer personas.
What would be top of your rider for your next marketing gig?
I find the soul of the company very important. Does it welcome change, where does it prioritize business result and employee happiness. Does the sales and marketing department welcome new ways to become jointly successful?
It makes a huge difference when you have likeminded people around you that try to go the extra mile in offering a better experience on each channel, to each partner and each potential and existing customer.
What or who are your marketing influencers?
Over the years I had the pleasure working with several great CMOs, Technical Marketers and great colleagues. While I’m thinking about it, it might sound strange, but it was mainly my mother that wakened my interest in marketing during her freelance marketing & communication days.
Of course, with my interest in tech and IT education before my Marketing degree I went off in a more Digital Marketing direction.
During my years in marketing, it would be CMOs like Scott Anderson and Ian Lowe that I hold to high regard. And I believe that ‘The CMO Manifesto: A 100 Day Action Plan for Marketing Change’ by John F Ellett is one of the best books I have read on the topic.
If I was Spotify, what would I play first thing Monday morning to get you going?
Big fan of the classics, Long Cool Woman by The Hollies and Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival will certainly blast from my workplace speakers at least a couple times a week!
That said if I have time before and between meetings to listen to music its usually some ‘work at home piano’ music on Spotify. In the afternoon it goes to mentioned kind of music, where after 5PM the dial goes to 11 ;).
The curtain pulls back, you step out on the stage of your new marketing gig – what do you open with?
Trying to get the organisation excited about the marketing direction we are going with. A story that gets everyone excited and pointed in the right direction, get the right people to join the mission. It creates alignment and motivation and makes us all successful.
If you are able to get these things done, you are setup for joint success!
The audience is dancing in the aisles, it loves that track. What keeps the house jumping?
A strong and compelling message to your audience, customers, partners and potential customers – they are what keeps the house going!
Everything else, ranging from situational changes, technology changes, organizational changes all keeps the team and you busy. Keeping the momentum going of a successful marketing organization is to keep the team happy and challenged with new exciting campaigns, company opportunities combined with individual opportunities.
You’re playing a huge stadium; how do you know the audience can hear your tune?
Over the past couple of years Marketing has shifted towards business KPIs that matter; revenue and/or pipeline is what enables you to adjust if necessary.
Of course, opportunities in the mid and enterprise market for solution vendors like Dynamicweb do take a while to show up in the pipe. It becomes about keeping an eye, but highlevel view, on typical flags like lead flow and conversion rates through the funnel. Marketing has a direct impact on each step, from bringing them in to getting them converted into sales ready and converting leads.
If there was a billboard chart for marketing trends, what would be your Number 1?
The ability to adopt new technology, processes and skillsets and the ability to apply this in a creative way – marketing is shifting fast and faster. Consumers are able to have more information at their fingertips than ever before.
We already see that the channels we have grown accustomed to perform less and less over the years. Go back a couple of years and your Linkedin Ad could get thousands of views for a couple of bucks, your email open rate was over 30%, even display advertising was able to get you direct results.
The ability to adopt, test and roll out new technology and make full use of it is what can give any company the competitive edge.
What would you throw from your hotel window into the Rockstar CMO pool?
There is not a one size fits all solution – digital transformation continues to be important, but its not the same in each industry or company.
Take a good look at where you are as an organisation, what your mid to longer marketing strategy is and how that fits into the business, and plan and work accordingly. Find the right technology that helps you serve your customers in a way that you can. Then stick to the plan and execute against it.
What’s got you rocking today?
I’m excited to be at Dynamicweb, and organization that is rapidly growing in the mid- and enterprise market with our integrated Digital Experience SaaS Platform that consists out of strong individual solutions like WCM, Ecommerce, Digital & Email Marketing, and Product Information Management (PIM). Where even Forrester acknowledges that we are in the top 20% of fast-growing B2B organizations!
It’s hard to find reasons NOT to be rocking today! Going to be exciting times!
If there was a marketing hall of fame, who would you induct?
I would literally up the game on this and would induct a couple of CEOs. They are the ones that have given their CMOs the room to help make the company successful. They are the ones that set and follow the direction, influenced by the CMO I’m sure, and have all other departments follow.
In that list I believe a couple of names like; Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and Satya Nadella have demonstrated what vision combined with focus can truly do for an organisation!
Any final words before you drop the mic?
Marketing in 2020 has never been so interesting. You get to be creative, ranging from creative with messaging and design, but also processes and applied technology. You need to be analytical, almost everything has become measurable. There are solutions for everything these days and even more experts to support you in getting to your goals. My advice would be to get a good focus on the company and marketing strategy. Focus on what moves the needle, what drives results. Do that and drop anything that is just noise!
Thanks Eric!
About Eric
Eric Jan van Putten currently runs Marketing at Dynamicweb. He believes that marketing is a function that works in close collaboration with Sales, Customer Operations, and Product Strategy.
Eric’s experience over the last 15 years ranges from field marketing to marketing operations to leading marketing in international software vendor companies that have strong ties to ‘Experience Marketing’. His take on change management with a strong focus on people, process, and technology with emphasis on the people has made him a strong collaborator in all functions related to company success.
You can learn more about Dynamicweb on their website or connect with Eric on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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