The impact of the digital industry on the global economy is deepening. In the past thirty years, every additional dollar invested in digital technology has been able to leverage a $20 increase in GDP (according to “Digital Spillover: Measuring the True Impact of the Digital Economy”). Digital technology reshapes the world we live in and brings new momentum for the digital transformation of businesses.

Today, “marketing automation” technology has become the standard product for B2B enterprises to improve lead conversion rates, and JINGdigital, a marketing technology company, is showing its prowess.

Recently, Hong Kai, Chairman & CEO of JINGdigital, which has been working in the field of local marketing automation for many years, was invited to the “Innovation Path” program to have a conversation with Zhu Xun, a famous CCTV host, sharing the rise of JINGdigital in the Chinese marketing technology (MarTech) market.

⬇️Click to watch the complete interview⬇️

As a key program of China Central Television, “Innovation Path” focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises innovating in China’s development over the past two years. The program highlights those engaging in innovative entrepreneurship, telling stories of entrepreneurship in progress, sharing real entrepreneurial experiences, and conveying the positive energy of “new era” entrepreneurs’ ambition, struggle, and innovation.

Image: Zhu Xun’s Exclusive Interview with CEO Hong Kai, Chairman of Jingshuo Technology

Invited to the “Innovation Path” program, Mr. Hong Kai has over 20 years of experience in strategy, marketing, management, and entrepreneurship. He boasts an enviable career history with Siemens, Bain Consulting (as Managing Director), and Cisco (as Senior Vice President for China). JINGdigital is Mr. Hong’s third entrepreneurial venture. Not only shining in his career, Mr. Hong also holds an MBA from Wharton School, a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master’s degree in Engineering from RWTH Aachen University in Germany.

Image: Hong Kai, Chairman and CEO of JINGDigital

During the conversation, the CCTV host asked Mr. Hong to introduce “what is marketing automation,” to which Hong summarized:

“Marketing automation essentially helps the marketing departments of growing businesses use technology and artificial intelligence to accomplish tasks that are difficult for humans, thereby significantly improving the conversion rate of sales leads. Previously, businesses (especially B2B businesses) spent a lot of budget on acquiring sales leads, but many of these leads were wasted, not followed up over the long term. Some sales leads might not become customers immediately, but that doesn’t mean they have no commercial value. Marketing automation software continuously interacts with sales leads through digital touchpoints, thereby stimulating their purchase needs, and this ‘incubation’ process is efficiently completed by the software.”

The CCTV host also expressed her doubts, “I don’t know if I understood correctly, is it like continuous precision (advertising) targeting? Does it have some relation?”

Hong further explained that the similarity between “marketing automation” and “precision targeting” lies in their personalized interaction with thousands of individuals, but the former is conducted across all channels like emails, official accounts, corporate WeChat, online/offline events, and serves the conversion of sales leads by mobilizing multiple functions within the company (such as marketing, telesales, sales departments), whereas the latter is a relatively simple ad reach conducted in the public domain.

Image: JINGDigital’s New Marketing Technology Platform

After a preliminary understanding of JINGdigital, the CCTV host asked, “What other reasons have contributed to the development of the marketing automation industry?”

Hong replied, “First and foremost, the subjective willingness of companies is strengthening. The path to growth driven by traffic has been proven difficult to achieve. The only way out is to continuously optimize each link of the marketing funnel, improve the overall conversion rate, and significantly enhance sales efficiency and the lifetime value of each customer through data empowerment on the sales end. Of course, this is subjective logic. Objectively, marketing automation had already emerged abroad by 2004, but until JINGdigital’s founding in 2015, nearly ten years later, there were no marketing automation companies in China. One reason was the lack of subjective willingness from companies at that time; on the other hand, there was no corresponding private domain carrier in China to help businesses more conveniently reach users.

Abroad, marketing automation is mainly achieved through emails, as there is a habit of reading and writing emails in the foreign business environment, but in China, emails are not a very effective way of reaching out. It wasn’t until after 2014, when companies started to open official accounts en masse, creating a wave, and official accounts replaced emails/SMS and other common private domain carriers abroad. When subjective willingness exists and objective conditions are ripe, marketing automation truly began to emerge in China starting from 2014-2015.”

Beyond technical products, Zhu Xun also expressed curiosity about JINGdigital’s “customer success system”.

Hong Kai explained why this was important, saying, “We are a SaaS (Software as a Service) company, operating on a subscription basis rather than a one-time purchase. Essentially, it’s a type of software that allows customers to use it with very low barriers. The core element of this business model is the renewal rate, i.e., whether enterprises are willing to continue using your software next year and the year after. The standard for continuation is whether enterprises have found value in your software and services, feeling successful or seeing results. When customers onboard our product, it’s just the beginning, an opportunity for interaction between both parties. The real journey requires continuous communication between the customer success team and the client, because the product is static, but the usage scenarios are dynamic. How to achieve results with the product is the question that the customer success team needs to answer for enterprises.”

Following this, the CCTV host asked, “Based on your six years of experience, what is the biggest challenge you face now?”

“Talent shortage,” Hong Kai answered. “Although China is ahead in the field of digital marketing for ToC, in B2B sectors, such as manufacturing and high-tech, there is still a significant lack of operational talent. Especially, the marketing departments of domestic B2B enterprises often have fewer staff. This leads to some enterprises affording the software but lacking the operational capacity to utilize it effectively, to let the technology achieve its intended results.”

Hong Kai also introduced JINGdigital’s approaches and thoughts on these challenges.

“Firstly, making the software product more intelligent and integrated, so that operational staff don’t need too much ‘senior’ knowledge to set up a whole set of industry data tags and corresponding marketing scenarios, turning the methodology into part of the product. Secondly, establishing a customer success system, continuously interacting with customers to explore usage scenarios. Of course, due to the significant differences in application scenarios and measurement standards across industries, the team is also divided according to industry, focusing on industry-specific deep dives.”

Lastly, the CCTV host asked Hong Kai, if he could summarize this entrepreneurial journey with a few keywords, what would they be?

Hong Kai responded, “Firstly, trend. Secondly, persistence. Thirdly, openness, maintaining an open mindset.”

“In any era, there are opportunities given by the era. What we’re in right now is the best time for B2B marketers. First of all, our traditional industries are starting to ‘hurt’; leads are becoming more expensive, and at the same time, companies like JINGdigital have appeared, offering enterprises a way out of dependency on traffic. This is a trend. How do we seize this wave and carve out our own territory in the blue ocean? We believe that China’s B2B enterprises will overtake their foreign counterparts in the next few years, using more diverse digital touchpoints and innovative power to surpass them in the digital marketing field. Persistence is the second point; every founding team has its own DNA, how not to betray one’s original intention, that’s persistence. Thirdly, often the goal is there, but along the way, there will be many contradictions to the initial assumptions, and at that time, it’s necessary to be flexible and open enough to overturn one’s own assumptions.”

At the end of the program, having gained a deeper understanding of marketing automation, the CCTV host also wished that more growth-oriented enterprises could benefit from it.