Past
Marketers bought keywords and ran campaigns in bursts, with a form behind every offer.
ACADEMY · DRONICS · MAKE THE MARKET AND YOUR PARTNERS SELL YOU
Learn DRONICS-D: Digital demand
Be there, with a plain answer, when a buyer who is already looking searches.
Motion: Digital demand (search, paid and email for buyers who are already looking) · Owner: your CMO and channel head
Four steps: read the letter, read the lenses, take the self-assessment, then pick one or two gaps. All learning paths.
Free. No sign-in. Nothing you answer is stored.
Test one search or email idea small and prove it before asking for more budget; then put effort…
Know the buyer better than anyone: use their own words for the question, and deliver value befo…
Statements are from this letter's self-assessment. Nothing is pre-filled and nothing is stored.
PAST AND FUTURE
DRONICS-D: the story in two lines
Marketers will work differently with agents. This is what changes for this letter, and what stays with a person.
Present to future
Search, paid and email stay, but they serve buyers who are already looking, with plain answers and relevant timing instead of volume. The work runs always-on, in small tests.
What the agent does
Drafts answer-first landing copy and email variants marked draft, watches the agreed signals each week, and proposes which small test to stop or continue.
What the marketer or CMO decides
The budget, the audience and the offer; whether a test continues; whether to use a form at all.
Shifts used here: S3 From campaigns to always-on; S5 From gated assets to open assets; S6 From attribution software alone to self-reported answers and simple signals. Read the full framework and sources.
1. What the agent does
Agents check, draft, map and record. A person approves anything that leaves the company.
- Build or refresh the demand map: what a buyer who is already looking types, asks and compares.
- Check the client's own pages and listings against those questions and flag gaps.
- Draft search pages, ad copy and email sequences that answer the question first, using only verified proof.
- Package a brief for the strategist: what to publish or fund, where, and why.
- After human action, record enquiries and the buyer's own account of how they found us, and update the maturity position.
Where a person approves
- The strategist or CMO approves every page, advertisement and email before it goes out, and any claim about the client.
- Paid spend is set and changed only by a person; agents never start or raise spend.
- Email goes only to people the client has a right to write to; the strategist confirms the list and the opt-out.
- Named companies are examples of a type only; never imply a relationship with them.
Maturity scale (DRONICS): Unaware, Reactive, Targeted, Orchestrated, Demand engine. Full letter page
2. The leader lens
How other well-regarded B2B marketing leaders would approach this letter, each named with a source. These are their opinions, not evidence about any company, and none of them has a relationship with Foundronics.
How to apply
- L10 (Conant): Be relevant, not noisy. Send email only when the term, the role and the buying stage are known, and be present in the window when an account moves from learning to wanting to talk. No spray emails.
- L3 (Fishkin): Do not treat traffic as the goal. Look at enquiries, conversion and where the buyer actually saw us, even when no click came back.
- L11 (Walker): Add a plain "how did you hear about us?" question to the main enquiry form, and call buyers after a win. Software attribution misses much of this.
A person decides: the strategist approves which leader-lens suggestions are used; agents draft and check only.
Sources for this lens
- L10. Be relevant, not noisy. Reach buyers in the window between learning and wanting to talk, and work with the buying group, not one contact. Source
- L3. Traffic is a poor goal. Measure leads and conversion, and be where the audience already pays attention, even when no click returns. Source
- L11. Add self-reported attribution (“how did you hear about us?”), win-analysis calls and market surveys to software attribution. Source
3. The CMO lens
What a good B2B CMO would do for this letter. The lens follows the public writing of Dave Gerhardt. It is our reading, not his endorsement of Foundronics.
What a great CMO would do
- Test one search or email idea small and prove it before asking for more budget; then put effort behind what compounds.
- Know the buyer better than anyone: use their own words for the question, and deliver value before asking for anything.
- Measure what matters (enquiries, meetings), not vanity numbers.
A weekly rhythm
- Mon: refresh the demand map and the list of buyer questions.
- Tue: draft one page or one email sequence (`draft`).
- Wed: list the questions buyers asked that we do not yet answer.
- Thu: strategist reviews and approves what goes out.
- Fri: record what came back and how buyers say they found us.
An example
Hypothetical (a security-software vendor, illustration only): the agent finds that buyers ask how long a rollout takes. It drafts a plain page that answers that first, using only a verified customer fact. The strategist decides whether to publish it.
What to avoid
- Do not buy reach before the page can answer the question.
- Do not read attribution reports as the whole truth.
- Do not send email to people who have not agreed to hear from us.
A person decides: Where to spend effort and money on buyers who are already looking. Agents draft and check; the strategist decides.
Sources for this lens
- P2. Do short-term and long-term work together. Test a channel small, prove it, then invest in channels that build up over time. Source
- P7. Keep to the fundamentals: know your customer, use simple direct language, give value before asking, be transparent, measure what matters, and earn word of mouth. Source
- P10. Attribution informs a decision. It does not make the decision. Source (from a third party’s summary; check before quoting)
4. Check yourself
A free self-assessment for DRONICS-D. It takes a few minutes and needs no sign-in.
Take the DRONICS-D self-assessment
The examples on this page are hypothetical illustrations. A named company is an example of a type, never a customer or partner of Foundronics.
Next: DRONICS-R Referrals and resellers · All learning paths · Foundronics Certified (roadmap)
Know the letter? Now score your own company.
The FOUND Score is free and needs no login.