David Alexander is Chief Marketing Officer at Everbridge, a company whose suite of products empowers enterprises and government organizations to anticipate, mitigate, respond to, and recover stronger from critical events. He’s also an Executive Professor at Texas A&M University, where he brings his extensive marketing experience to bear for the benefit of undergraduate marketing students.
I wanted to sit down with David to chat about Critical Event Management and also more broadly about contemporary marketing issues, including marketing austerity, the need for measuring and optimizing marketing performance, understanding the customer journey, and future-proofing strategies against emerging technologies. Our conversation highlights the importance of data visibility, automation, and customer experience in terms of driving business growth, along with the evolution of marketing’s role in the customer journey, particularly in the post-COVID era.
Additional topics covered in our talk include:
- The definition of “Critical Events,” which may include weather events, political events, and other events challenging the readiness and resilience of corporate entities.
- The importance of data visibility, automation, and effective communication for building relationships with CFOs, CROs, and CEOs.
- How Using data and AI can be used to make informed marketing decisions.
- AI’s impact on marketing, including automation, creativity enhancement, and decision-making.
- How AI represents an opportunity for students to learn new skills and stay competitive in the job market.
- In a marketing context, the importance of the importance of focusing on existing demand and harvesting it before creating new demand.
- The importance of a “single source of truth” for KPIs in B2B marketing.
- Why marketers need to learn to “speak the language” of other organizational departments in order to have their communications understood.
- The importance of identifying and building relationships with key decision-makers in the organization, and how Everbridge uses a multi-threaded approach to reach these individuals.
- The key role of thought leadership in building relationships and driving engagement.
- How people at different levels of the organization can be used to provide thought leadership, not just the CEO or chief security officer.
