What are the key priorities for a MarTech stack optimisation strategy to achieve?

– Improve marketing efficiency

What would your company use AI the most for?

– Create scaled hyper-personalised content

– Develop data-led marketing campaigns

What are the major roadblocks in trialling the new innovations in marketing technologies?

– No compelling event to change status quo

What are some of the significant changes to your customer outreach and retention strategies and how has it impacted the growth plan for upcoming years?

– Never before has customer service been so very important. There are a million other people out there ready to take your place and your customers if you let them. Listen to your customers – they will tell you what they want. For us retention is easy because we pay attention and we over service. Not beyond a sustainable point, but we make sure our customers are always serviced. We never over promise and we always over deliver. 

Outreach for us has always been minimal as we rely so much on word of mouth for our customers and are most often fully booked. We are selective in who we work with. It’s not about growth for me, it’s about service.

How do you balance experimenting with new technologies vs investing in current technologies that you already utilise?

– I tell my staff I am always excited to learn about new ways to do things and better ways of doing them – it’s all about being efficient without losing the personal touch. I go down a rabbit hole all too often so it’s easy for me to get distracted by shiny new things. So, the new technology has to be something that will make life faster and easy to adapt, otherwise, we double down on what we have. We’re very loyal.

How do you see the skillsets needed for the marketing profession changing?

– It changes every day. At one point is was all about generalists and then it was all about specialists and now we’re finally getting the budgets to afford both. That said, in today’s market, there is absolutely no excuse for bad communication skills. If you can’t spell, marketing isn’t the right profession for you. Now hear me out – there is so much tech out there today to help us write and improve our communications skills. If you can’t run a spell check over your copy at minimum, then what else are you missing?

The skillsets change between the industry and department of marketing you may be going into but having a good and basic understanding of web development, branding & design, language, and customer services are all things that will help you.

Plus time management. Working from home makes shiny new thing syndrome even harder to manage.

Currently, what are you primarily looking for in your digital marketing efforts? Awareness or engagement? Why?

– Engagement. We want people to share their stories with us and share our stories with their friends and family.

When planning a marketing budget, what are the top 3 concerns one should watch out for post COVID-19?

– Crisis Management

– Content Creation

– Community Management

Do you think people take influencer posts with a pinch of salt?

– We’re becoming more and more cynical every day. These days we’re more likely to be influenced by friends or celebrities than influencers. So yes, a whole big handful of salt.

How do you attribute sales to influencer marketing?

– Referral codes

What are the top 3 things on your checklist when choosing the right influencer to work with?

– Previous clients

– Past, present, and future alignments

– Personality

What is the one marketing platform / app / solution you can’t live without? Why?

– Sked Social. It is all my scheduling for all my platforms in one place.

What are your views on having a single stack? (e.g. Google or Adobe vs a mix of best stacks for each function)

– Google but spice it up.

How do you keep abreast of all the latest MarTech out there?

– I never leave the internet.