AJ Alonzo: Testing And Creating New Marketing Demand Solutions

If at first, you don’t succeed, then try try again. As cliche as that expression sounds, it has a ring to it that really works within the field of marketing and the experimentation it employs. What makes marketing unique from a business perspective is that it is never shy of the type of creativity that drives teams into realms of experimentation prior instances wouldn’t have presented them with. In the case of a black swan event like the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses were forced to integrate themselves into the digital space. AJ Alonzo recognized the importance of this transition, and he credits the immediacy it provided for him and his marketing team's new approach to marketing and creative experimentation.

Who Is AJ Alonzo?

AJ Alonzo currently works as the Director of Marketing for demandDrive, an industry leader specializing in sales development and demand generation. This company provides its clients with a full-service sales development function as well as data & demand generation programs that enable them to optimize their sales & marketing processes while increasing revenue growth. 
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‍DemandDrive’s success comes from having a dedicated team of Sales Development reps that combine the best tactics in sales development and demand generation. They accomplish this by using industry-leading sales enablement tools in order to uncover and qualify new sales opportunities. AJ Alonzo’s work at demandDrive has him oversee all of the company’s content, branding and promotion efforts. AJ also manages a team of contributors within demandDrive who are committed to improving the company’s digital and social media presence.

demandDrive’s Approach To Team Morale In Uncertain Times

In his Pinchforth interview, AJ Alonzo noted that demandDrive is built on SDRs and that many managers handle SDR functions. This breaks down their efforts into a multitude of teams. AJ stated how in the past, efforts had been made to unite teams in terms of happy hour meetings. But the onset of the pandemic and gradual shift to remote work enabled the company to try an approach where the individual managers of these teams would have a greater scale of economy in boosting team morale. This approach of the greater economy provided a more experimental manner of collaboration that proved to be more intimate and personal among the team members of each team. Several of the experimental features of these collaboration efforts took the form of book clubs on the social side, while on the more professionally oriented side, AJ was very honest about how the work based content became gamified as part of the process of helping boosting team morale

How AJ’s Shift In Focus Evolved During Pandemic

Naturally, the wake of a global pandemic can be an offsetting experience. It was for many businesses, and in the case of demandDrive, AJ Alonzo and his marketing team were in a position where they had to carefully look at their goals bit by bit and how they were achievable. One of the more effective methods AJ Alonzo looked at was how they had room for a great deal of experimentation. This involved not only the adoption of new strategies, but also the resurrection of old approaches they had either tried nominally or had simply never tested to a full extent as something as podcasting or campaigning. In the end, AJ Alonzo and the demandDrive marketing team took steps that have evolved into what he called an innovation club. AJ described this approach as he and the team having weekly meetings where they present new strategies in order to determine whether they will work or not. They did this week by week, and even on a month-to-month schedule. AJ credits this approach and how it gave his team the ability to dabble with ad campaigns and how they could refocus on the use of ads on Google and Linkedin.

AJ’s Advice For Business As They Adopt Digital “New Normal”

One of the key pieces of advice AJ Alonzo provided when it came to how businesses should embrace the digital “new normal” that has resulted from the pandemic, is that they should keep a close eye and learn from peers. He also stresses that despite the observational nature of this approach, that they shouldn’t try to move at the same pace as the businesses they take inspiration from. Because a lot of companies are better equipped for digital integration as opposed to other companies, then that means that the difference in their infrastructures will greatly affect the capacity in which they operate and market themselves. It’s essentially a process where a business learns and applies something as opposed to just simply copying it. Companies need to make efficient changes, and demandDrive did that when they doubled down on their use of webinars and ad placing. But they also did it at their own pace, which is what every business should do in the wake of a massive shift in work structure.

Customer Retention vs Customer Acquisition

There is no perfect balance when it comes to customer retention or acquisition. However, AJ sees more potential for the retention aspect because of how in the long run, it generates more referrals and word of mouth that easily spread based on experiences provided to customers. At the same time, AJ believes that customer acquisition can help in building a greater inventory of which customer retention can operate through garnering newer customers to use in the long run of the referral process.

AJ Alonzo’s Advice For Marketing Leaders

AJ Alonzo and the marketing team at demandDrive have demonstrated that adaptability can be useful in response to an unpredictable event. AJ’s recommendation for marketing leaders comes in the form of that flexibility, but without losing themselves in the sheer splendor of the newly adopted tactics. AJ Alonzo doesn’t believe that even with new changes that a company adopts, that they should simply sell out their core business values for a magic solution or what they perceive to be a be all end all solution. He advises that they experiment and never shy away from creativity when it comes to testing out new strategies. AJ also advises that marketing leaders leverage their sales team and create efficient feedback loops for marketing sales. AJ recognizes the value that sales reps can provide for marketing departments by using customer information. By integrating a collaboration between marketing, sales, and essentially the customer, not only will a business be able to create new strategies, but they will be able to expand their prospects in increasing their consumer base for the long run rather than just on sufficient results from past experiments.