Influencer Interview With Top Marketing Expert, Mark Lennon

Hello Marketers! In today’s interview, we had the opportunity to speak with Mark Lennon

Mark Lennon is the CEO/Founder of Espresso B2B Marketing, located in San Francisco, California. Espresso helps its clients grow through content marketing and other B2B marketing strategies.

In the following interview, Mark Lennon shares with us his journey and knowledge about B2B marketing.

Hey Mark Lennon, How Did You Become Passionate About Marketing and Technology? What Made You Choose This Profession?

Prior to my career in marketing, I was in sales for 12 years. I sold software and services for startups (TopTier Software and eGain), midsize companies (QAD) and very large companies (SAP and Capgemini). I made the switch to marketing at a time when content marketing and marketing automation systems were emerging. They were new and exciting. I could easily see how they could bring huge improvements to B2B sales and marketing. I decided to launch an agency devoted to B2B growth marketing leveraging content marketing strategies and marketing automation (and other) technologies.

As a CEO/Founder of Espresso B2B Marketing, What Unique Challenges And Opportunities Did You Find In Your Journey? Who Mentored You In This Role?

In the early days, I read everything I could find. Marketing books, blog articles, white papers…everything. Marketing was changing faster at that time than it had during the previous 50 years. It seems like a new SaaS marketing company was formed each month. It was (and still is) challenging to shift through this onslaught of new technology and sort the pretenders from the contenders.

My mentors were book authors (like Ardath Albee and Brian Carroll). Another mention was HubSpot. They were producing an enormous amount of content on the new ways of marketing. We’ve been a HubSpot partner for 11 years. And HubSpot continues to be one of our mentors.

What Are Your Predictions for MarTech in the Future?

There will be consolidation. We’ve already seen a lot of that. Salesforce bought Pardot. Adobe bought Marketo. But there’s still a ton of innovation in martech, so I’m not expecting the number of new companies entering the space to be less.

I think AI in martech will become more common. And I think (hope) buyer intent signals become more powerful and more accurate.

Can You Please Explain How AI Tech Companies Are Changing Their Approaches to Lead Generation and Prospecting?

Using AI, you should be able to discover patterns in your prospects that wouldn’t be obvious without AI. AI should be able to tell us which prospects are more likely to buy. AI should be able to guide us to build custom audiences that are more likely to buy. We could use those custom audiences to make our advertising more effective.

You’re One of the Most Influential Thought Leaders in B2B Marketing. Tell Me, How Do You Create and Maintain a Vibrant Online Community?

I don’t devote as much time to this as I should. But one thing that I do is reach out every week to people through LinkedIn. I’m constantly expanding my network. So when I post on LinkedIn, more people see it and can engage with me.

What's the Secret Sauce in B2B Marketing That Has Always Worked For You?

I learned this in sales and it applies to marketing. You always need to focus on your target customer. What makes them tick? What are their goals or challenges? How can you help them succeed in their job? You need to show them how you can help them. That’s the goal in successful sales and in successful marketing. It’s not about you. It’s not about your product. It’s all about the target customer.