Jessica Shapiro, CMO at LiveRamp, is leading and empowering her team to push up against marketing stagnation.
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[MUSIC]
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Welcome to Pipeline Visionaries.
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I'm Ian Faiz on CEO of Casping Studios.
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Today, I am joined by special guest, Jessica.
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How are you?
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>> I am good and I am very honored to be here.
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I love your podcast and I love the incredible talent you've had on this podcast
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So I'm honored to be amongst the guests.
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>> We appreciate it very much.
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And so today we're going to be talking about obviously marketing, pipeline
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development.
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We're going to talk about live ramp, all the cool stuff that you're doing there
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We're going to get into your background.
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We're going to talk about how demand,
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and growth work effectively with the broader marketing team.
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And much more in today's episode, as always, is brought to you by our friends
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at Qualified.
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Qualified is the number one conversational sales and
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marketing platform for companies, revenue teams that use Salesforce.
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Head on over to Qualified.com to learn how you can start having a smarter,
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faster conversation with your buyers right there on your websites.
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So let's get started, Jessica.
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What's your first job marketing?
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>> My first job in marketing, actually, I'll just take you back.
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I am from Seattle.
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I went to the East Coast for college.
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I moved to Washington, DC for a job.
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I graduated with a liberal arts degree.
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I had no idea what I wanted to do.
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But I knew through my life that I was always curious about people.
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I was always invested in relationships and communication and storytelling.
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Was something that was important to me and
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I was always developing that skill.
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I moved to the East Coast.
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I never thought I'd come back to Seattle.
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It felt like a small town when I left.
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But then there was a tech boom in Seattle and everyone was moving to Seattle.
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So there I went.
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I came back and I got a temp job in a small startup that I think six months
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later went under.
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But the CEO took a liking to me and he said, let me introduce you to our PR
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firm.
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I think you'd be a perfect fit for that.
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I went over to that PR firm and that firm represented a lot of small high tech
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companies who are in the process of going public.
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And so that lit my fire for technology, for companies in growth,
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for telling their stories and then also connecting that to the financial
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markets.
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So that was how I started marketing.
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And flash forward to today, tell us what it means to be CMO, a librarian.
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To be, I've been here for about a year and a half, it is a phenomenal job.
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It's been about a lot of transformation.
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When I came into Live RAM, though the company has been very successful,
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marketing was not seen as a strategic function that was driving revenue.
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We were doing a lot of things, but we weren't correlating that to the bottom
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line.
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We weren't correlating that to impact in the industry.
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And my job was to come in and it was really about restructuring the team,
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figuring out what we needed to do so that marketing had a seat at the table.
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And that we were driving revenue.
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So the first thing I did was take stock of the talent,
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figure out who we needed to make sure was in more important seats.
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It coincided with some layoffs, so there was some change in the talent.
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But we really worked on building that demand-gen engine and getting our pipes
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working,
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getting that waterfall there so that we could really understand what was coming
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in
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at the top of the funnel and how was it moving all the way through to the hand
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off
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to sales and then to close one.
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Once we got that infrastructure laid, the next big challenge was,
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what do we stand for?
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What is our brand?
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How are we differentiated?
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And a lot of work on figuring out how we were going to tell our story.
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And I believe that when you figure out what your story is
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and how it's differentiated and how to tell it at the different phases of the
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customer journey,
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and you can apply that to all the channels of demand-gen,
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that's when you start humming.
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Let's get to our first segment, The Trust Tree, where you go and feel honest
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and trusted.
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You can share those deepest, darkest pipeline generation secrets.
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Tell us a little bit about LiveRamp, what is the company and who are your
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customers?
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Yeah.
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So LiveRamp is a B2B enterprise SaaS company that focuses on data collaboration
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And just to put that into context, companies have first-party data.
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They value that data that customers give them.
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But the amount of data companies have is limited.
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And more data is more insight, is a better customer experience,
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and companies are always looking to increase their first-party data in a
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privacy-safe way.
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And so we bring companies together to exchange first-party data
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so they can drive stronger business and brand value,
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creating that brand loyalty by more personalized experiences
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and obviously driving more efficient campaigns,
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so they're driving more to the bottom line.
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And if I could just give you one small example,
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most people, a lot of people have a pet.
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One of our customers is Hill's pet nutrition.
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And Hill's sells a lot of dog food, a lot of pet food.
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They don't have a lot of information about their customers
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because they sell their dog food through a third-party,
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a pet store, a grocery store, etc.
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So Hill's needs more data to understand how to more efficiently market.
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They come together within Albert's sins.
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They, in a safe way, bring together just the necessary data
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so that Hill's can understand what customers,
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their customers are doing at Albert's sins.
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And Albert's sins can understand what Hill's customers are doing in other
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places.
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They find out that Hill's customers are buying at pet food companies
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and they're also buying at the grocery store.
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What does that lead to?
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Hill's can do more marketing to customers about buying at Albert's sins
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so that when they're getting their groceries, they can also get their pet food.
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That makes it more convenient for them to get what they need.
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It makes it so that they're having more trips to where they can buy that pet
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food
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and it allows them to target those customers who have the overlap
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between Albert's sins and Hill's more efficiently.
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And what does that buying persona look like?
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What does that buying committee look like?
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Yeah, our primary audience is the marketer,
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which I have to say as a CMO is, you know,
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such a joy to be able to talk to marketers
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and to think about what marketers are thinking about.
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But obviously with every enterprise purchase, there is a buying committee.
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And in our buying committee is usually,
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if there's a chief digital officer, wherever the analysts sit, the CIO,
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and then definitely the CFO, convincing the CFO that the return
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on the investment in live RAM is going to be there.
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So that's our buying committee.
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How do you think about your marketing strategy and where demand fits within it?
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Demand is at the core.
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Again, I come back to everything we have to do
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is about driving revenue and you can't do that without driving demand.
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It doesn't mean that having a strong brand,
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getting thought leadership out there isn't important,
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but there's an end game.
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And the end game is to take that thought leadership
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and that brand awareness to get the right people interested in live RAM.
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When I think about how we're organized
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and what we think about is what is that buyer journey?
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We know that more and more people are doing their research on their own
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before ever talking to a human.
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So we invest a lot in simple content
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so that they can understand what we do
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and how what we do can solve their problems and be a benefit.
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We are very outcomes focused in our messaging
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and we think about serving the right data at the right time in the buyer
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journey
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and then making sure the SDRs are empowered with what we're running
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in terms of campaigns and messaging.
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And then there's a strong handoff to our sales team.
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And then we very meticulously look at that demand waterfall
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and we say what's converting the best or at what stage of the funnel
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are we getting stuck and we need to figure out what's going on there.
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Sometimes there's that moment where you realize
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there's a really easy solve to a really big problem
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where you can unlock a lot.
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And those are always amazing moments.
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Yeah, do you have an example of that?
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Off the top of your head?
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Recently, we found out that when our opportunities were coming through,
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there were starting to be a log jam.
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And rather than just, we have amazing SDRs,
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but just letting the SDR know,
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making sure that our client executive is new,
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making sure that the RVP is new,
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kind of setting an alert to the entire pursuit team
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so that the focus could be on that opportunity
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and it didn't get stuck in someone's queue
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because it takes a lot of people to understand how important
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that opportunity is.
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Obviously, we use all the criteria, the scoring, the band criteria,
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but still a client executive,
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we call them CLs, a client leader or an RVP,
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may have context, then SDR doesn't know
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or a marketing person doesn't know.
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So we've found that we've been able to accelerate
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the movement of opportunity through the pipeline
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beyond opportunity by that alert going out to enough people
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to make sure eyes are on the rise.
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You've sort of talked about in the past this idea of,
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you know, brand awareness and demand gen,
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how do they work hand in hand?
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I love the term brand gen,
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like what types of brand gen campaigns do you have?
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I think that you see a lot more brand gen type initiatives
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or things that people want to do that are more of a brand gen play
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because every brand campaign needs to have a little bit of demand gen in it now
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and every demand gen campaign, you want to have a little bit more brand
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involved in it
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to not be so transactional,
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but why is it so important that these work hand in hand?
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Yeah, such a good question.
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Well, first, I am a huge believer that a CMO needs to have really strong brand
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shops
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and really strong demand gen shops.
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And I actually came up through more of a communication brand career
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and made a purposeful shift over to demand
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so that I could be kind of equally strong on both sides.
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And when I think about an effective campaign,
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every demand impression is also a brand impression.
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I think of them together.
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That demand impression has to convey the right information
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at the right time of the buyer's journey,
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so I don't think of them as separated.
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Most of our companies don't have the luxury of just running a brand campaign
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and then running demand gen campaign.
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So I think about they have to be united.
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I think where we are doing more pure brand is in thought leadership,
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in PR, speaking, but the same time that really believes into our demand
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because if you're compelling in that thought leadership,
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you're driving someone to your website,
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you're getting someone to look at the next piece of content.
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We're smart enough to know who looked at our brand content,
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who attended our event, who attended our webinar,
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and then continue to bring them through the journey.
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So we have two major campaigns running now.
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One, all about data collaboration, one about media networks,
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and we think about the intersection of both brand and demand.
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I'm a huge proponent of integrated marketing.
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And to do integrated marketing well,
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you have to have all your channels lit up around the same idea.
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So strong blending of both brand and demand.
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Yeah, I think it's really silly that certain brand activities get just like
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labeled as brand.
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Like, you coming on this podcast, obviously,
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you sell to marketers, you have marketers that are listening.
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If there's a CPG marketer that's trying to think about data collaboration
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and how to access data from anywhere so it can be used everywhere,
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they should go to liverimp.com and check it out, right?
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At the end of the day, how is that anything but something that increases demand
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It's not like you just have a positive brand interaction.
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You send someone lollipop and they're like, "Oh, this is tasty.
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This brand is slightly more favorable to me."
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That's not really how it works in B2B,
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although I'm accepting lollipop donations,
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if anyone's listening.
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But you know what I mean?
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It's just silly that this new role of VP of brand content in COMS,
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which is, I think, coming a lot more popular,
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because they are directly tied to pipeline, whether or not they carry the
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number or not,
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but they are.
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All of their activities are doing that.
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I don't know.
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I kind of feel like it's a bit archaic, to be honest.
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I 100% agree.
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Two points on that.
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One is, I think, also the reverse community,
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where demand marketers can't just put out a bunch of stuff
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without having a really clear brand point of view.
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What is the value to the customer?
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Where is the white space?
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Where is the opportunity?
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I think it's really easy for us to, in the demand world, to be more reactive.
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And to be efficient, you need to be thinking about,
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how are you going to tell a story to bring someone down the funnel?
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So having that brand's story to guide, that's really important.
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And the second thing is, I believe everything has to be measured.
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Not everything can be measured directly.
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Obviously, a lot on the demand side can be measured directly.
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But some things can't, like PR.
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And in those cases, I believe you have to have proxies,
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so that you can measure the effectiveness.
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We use a share of voice measurement.
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How much share of voice do we have versus our competitive set versus who people
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are
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choosing instead of us and having that clear number that everyone's working
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against?
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I believe is the way to point a company and a team in the right direction.
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And for that team to also be empowered to see how what they are doing
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ladders up to where the whole company is going.
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And when a marketer knows their impact on the entire company,
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I find my teams are more inspired.
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Yeah, I heard from the great Scott Holden very early on in this podcast.
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And he's like, brand is about getting your message to as many people as you can
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And that inherently drives demand, right?
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When they hear your message, which your message is, you know, why they can
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improve
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themselves, save money, save time, save energy, make more money, whatever that
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message is,
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it's a brand gen thing, right?
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It's like that's what's going to drive someone to go, you know, fill out a lead
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form.
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Any other thoughts on brand, on demand, on structure, on market strategy?
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A couple of things.
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One is coming back to this idea of integrated marketing.
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I really believe that breaking down silos is critical.
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So within my team, I have a corporate marketing team that's thinking about PR,
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thought leadership, analyst relations, internal comms, content development.
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I have a growth team that's thinking about integrated campaigns.
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They're paid media-owned, earned event demand gen.
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I have marketing ops that really bridges things, but those teams have to work
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together.
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So, you know, one specific example, when we run an event, and an event, our
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customer event
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is our largest pipeline driver.
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It has huge satisfaction.
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It's been wonderful to see post-COVID that people come back and how much value
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you can drive in an
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event.
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But it really requires our growth team to be thinking about, you know, the
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numbers, like,
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how many people can we accommodate and what's it going to look like and how are
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we going to
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deliver the most value with the space that we have.
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But then they have to partner so closely with our content team to say,
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"Who are the speakers we need to get on stage?
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What is the content that we get on stage?"
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And so, I believe one of my philosophies is that making sure you don't build up
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silos within
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your own marketing team leads to the best marketing.
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The interdependencies are key.
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I think second, when I had my first marketing leadership role, I was running
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the whole
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marketing team.
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My president said to me, "When you walk into the boardroom, you are head of
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marketing,
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and you are an executive of this company.
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You wear two different hats."
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And that was a big aha for me, and realizing that my job is leading and
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empowering my
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marketing team.
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A big part of my job is being super close to our head of sales, our head of
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product,
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our, you know, the other leaders in the company so that we are in lockstep,
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particularly with a sales organization.
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And so, as I'm asking my team to break down silos, I'm working to break down
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those silos
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at that leadership level.
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And I think we've been able to move more quickly because there's a strong com
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radery,
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and there's a strong understanding that we have the same goals.
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And when you come back to demand gen and about data and the power of data,
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the way those relationships have become strong is not just the human nature of
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building a
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relationship, but also being able to prove it with the data.
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Let me show you what we're delivering for that is helping your team.
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That's what builds strong relationships.
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So those are some of the lessons that I've learned in managing teams that are
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coming to play here at
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LiveRamp.
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All right, let's get to our next segment.
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The playbook, this is where you open up that playbook and talk about the
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tactics that help you win.
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What are your three channels or tactics that are your most uncuttable budget
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items?
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I've thought about this a lot because I've listened to your podcast.
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And I started with a differentiated brand and understanding that buyer's
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journey.
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It's not a channel or a tactic, but it is everything.
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If you do not get the whole company singing off the same page, it's very hard
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to make a difference.
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So for me coming in, it was taking that time to do the rigorous research,
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talk to customers, get alignment with our leadership, get a strong brand story,
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train our marketing, build the marketing materials, and then train our sellers
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to use those same
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stories as they are talking to their customers.
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So having the whole organization moving together, we revealed our brand
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platform
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at our major customer event, ramp up last February.
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And it was this incredible organizing principle around data collaboration.
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And so my not cut is strong brand strategy.
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And I believe a strong brand strategy is not stagnant.
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It has to live and breathe and grow and everyone has to continue to be aligned
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and new people
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come into the organization and they need to be trained and feel part of that.
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So that's number one.
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It's so great.
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And it's so true.
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It's like you spend all this time to come up with all these different things.
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You do research, you talk to people, you talk to customers, you talk to
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prospects,
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you craft and you craft. And it's like, if the sales folks don't know the
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message,
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if the rest of the employees don't know the message, then you know, what was it
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all worth?
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I love that.
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Absolutely.
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It's so often, and I've experienced it and it's lessons learned the hard way,
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but
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yeah, you cannot have it sit in a PowerPoint.
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So the second is ABM.
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And I know ABM is such a hot thing right now.
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But we think about ABM as one to one, one to few and one to many.
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So when you think about that integrated campaign, I even heard you say on
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another podcast,
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like it's a little bit antiquated.
24:19
And I think the new version of the integrated campaign is the ABM model.
24:26
And it's not that you don't have all the pieces you need an integrated campaign
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but it's how you're serving it up, how you're stratifying your customers and
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clustering them.
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So, you know, obviously starting with your highest priority customers and using
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the assets
24:47
for those campaigns to be very one to one, then kind of stepping back and
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saying,
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okay, well, can we cluster a few and get some traction because they're all in
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the same industry,
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they're all in automotive or they're all in healthcare.
25:06
And can we talk to them in a really personalized way?
25:12
And then one to many where we might be casting a broader net all with the goal
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of like getting
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them into a one to few type of ABM campaign.
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I love that. I had an experience earlier today where I was on a call with two
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of our leaders.
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And we were sort of having this problem that we've been trying to solve.
25:36
And one of them was like, hey, have we ever thought about using this tool?
25:41
And I was like, oh, that's pretty cool.
25:43
No, I hadn't, but we should probably look into that.
25:46
We got off the call and then on Slack, 20 minutes later, a different person in
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the company
25:51
tagged me and those leaders and a few other people and was like,
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have we ever thought about this tool? And I was like, dang, I don't know.
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I don't know.
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I love that.
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Right. I'm like, I don't know if they're running ABM campaigns like our company
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I don't know like what they're doing, but the fact that within within like 18
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minutes,
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both people had this like epiphany one in a meeting and one on Slack.
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You're like, this is what ABM is, right?
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It's like, yeah, like this is why multi threading is important.
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This is why like all the stuff is why going to the end user and to leaders
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makes sense
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because like one came from a leader, one came from end user.
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Like it's just that stuff is like that is ABM in a nutshell to me.
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And, you know, we're small, we're like, you know, an SMB.
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So I doubt that it probably was necessarily doing that, but who knows, right?
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Like who knows?
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And also just have that kind of idea in your head around like, that's the goal
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of ABM.
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Like if we can kind of think about like what it should feel like in the end,
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it's just inspiring to work on it to get there.
26:55
Yeah.
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And I love when we can kind of surround our customer and then I can actually go
27:02
in and
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talk to that CMO.
27:04
You know, that's it.
27:04
I'm part of the campaign because we target CMOs and marketers.
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And when I can step into an ABM and be another dimension, another channel, that
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's powerful.
27:18
I'm curious, like, how do you think about those other personas that you were
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talking about?
27:23
Getting them on board, you know, getting the, you know, the chief buyer, the C
27:30
MO
27:30
on board to, you know, improve their data.
27:34
Collaboration is one thing, but then getting the CIO and the CFO,
27:40
and it's an entirely different question.
27:42
Yeah. It's a great question.
27:45
Actually, we've been talking about this recently because, you know, obviously,
27:50
resources are limited.
27:53
So, you know, to do all of your campaigns in Triplekit and to buy in Triplekit,
28:00
to target all those Bushsonas is not realistic for most companies.
28:04
It's not realistic for us.
28:06
So, the way we have approached it is to squarely go after the CMO,
28:12
but to create content to help that CMO talk to the CTO or the CIO or the CFO.
28:21
So, empower them to be that champion.
28:29
And then once we move it into, we're really talking, we're really getting into
28:37
deep into the selling
28:39
cycle. That's when we can bring some SMEs from our company in to engage with
28:44
those personas.
28:46
But for the top to mid funnel, it's been about choices and it's been about,
28:52
let's go after that CMO, but let's think more broadly, what does that CMO need
28:57
to accomplish?
28:58
They don't just need to accomplish driving more revenue with the media budget
29:05
they have
29:05
or increasing their first party data so they can deliver more personalized
29:12
experiences.
29:13
They also need to be able to talk to their peers about why this is so important
29:20
for the business.
29:20
I love that because, you know, so often sort of like sales enablement gets like
29:26
chucked in in one
29:28
sort of bucket, like who owns that? Is it marketing, what part of marketing,
29:34
etc, etc.
29:34
And I think that's such a great point that like especially in today's buying
29:40
climate,
29:41
where convincing that CIO and that CFO are way harder than they were two years
29:46
ago, especially in
29:47
tech, that having those resources for them to say like, hey, I know this is
29:52
going to be pushing a
29:53
massive rock uphill for y'all. That's probably going to take six months, but
29:57
here's the resources
29:59
that you have when you go and go with the CIO and the CFO and everything. I
30:01
love that. That's great.
30:02
Yeah, anything genders and attachment with that CMO like we're in this with you
30:10
, we realize what
30:11
you're what you're about to go do. We're going to go do this with you. We're
30:14
here to support you.
30:16
Okay, what's your third uncuttable? Customer testimonials. So often it's just
30:24
marketing speak.
30:25
And we have found that having our customers tell our story, having our
30:30
customers talk about how
30:32
their business is transformed because they work with live ramp is the best
30:38
marketing we could ever do.
30:40
And one thing we have this customer conference and we spend a lot more time.
30:47
You know, our customers are in stage talking, but how do we capture that in
30:52
video and get that
30:54
on social and get that in webinars and get our customers to feel like we're
31:00
actually building
31:01
their career and their profile because we want them to be in our webinars, but
31:06
they're telling
31:06
our story. So I think it's about really undercing the power that our customers
31:12
have.
31:13
And another company is really want to hear the real scoop from companies that
31:18
look like them.
31:19
I wish I could show you our our Q3 marketing plan because I would show you that
31:26
two of the
31:27
points you just listed are literally on there, which is the first one is like,
31:31
you know, how we're
31:33
doing ABM and how we're thinking about like sales enablement as part of that
31:37
and then
31:37
customer stories. But like that that's the sort of stuff that I think like
31:42
there's so many ways
31:43
that you can do it now. And you need to be thinking of all the different ways
31:47
that you're doing it,
31:48
not just the premium video on your website, but all those other ways.
31:54
I absolutely agree. It can actually be a light lift for the customer because
31:59
you get the right
32:00
material and then you just slice it a ton of different ways and
32:05
making that that just such a valuable asset go far is important. And that's
32:17
worthwhile for us.
32:17
Okay. Any other thoughts on on uncuttable budget items or maybe something that
32:25
's your
32:25
most cuttable budget item, something that they are not going to be investing in
32:29
Yeah, I actually just had this conversation with my team. I really
32:35
fundamentally believe in the
32:36
power of analyst relations. And I think if you can get into a Gartner magic
32:42
quadrant or a
32:42
forester wave, like there's so much power in that. We have not historically
32:49
invested a lot
32:51
in analyst relations. We have subscriptions, but we have not been working on
32:56
establishing the
32:57
category. And I came in and I said, we are going to do this. But the reality is
33:02
I don't have the budget right now to hire the senior person to make that happen
33:07
. So I have made
33:08
a conscious decision that for the next six months, we're not going to do
33:12
analyst relations. I want
33:14
to do it. I see the value. But I think as marketers, as leaders, we have to do
33:20
that thinking to say,
33:23
where am I just dabbling? And where can I really make an impact? And even some
33:29
of those things,
33:30
like, are important things. Analyst relations is really important. But I just
33:36
can't do what I need
33:37
to do to get a magic quadrant. So I'm going to let that go so we can generate
33:43
more revenue.
33:44
And I can have a bigger, better business case when we come into the next fiscal
33:50
year to make the case
33:51
to hire that person to go after analyst relations.
33:54
How do you view your website?
33:56
How do we view our website? We are overhauling our website right now. And that
34:04
is because our website
34:06
needs to be our front door converting high conversion. These hand raisers, they
34:16
got to move fast.
34:18
When they go to our website, they got to find what they need to find quickly.
34:21
They need to get
34:22
to go person quickly. So we are big believers in drift. Drift has been a great
34:27
tool for us.
34:28
And we did our brand overhaul to make things more simplistic. The talk and more
34:40
plain language
34:41
help people find what they need to find faster in terms of words. But we haven
34:47
't
34:47
yet gotten that onto our website. So we are getting close to launching that.
34:54
And we will like crazy the A/B testing, analyzing it. I think that our website
35:03
is so critical since,
35:05
you know, the latest data, 86% of people do their research before ever talking
35:10
to a human.
35:11
So our website needs to like function as our sales force without a person
35:17
living on it.
35:19
And so our website is key. And that's a big investment area.
35:26
All right, let's get to our next segment, the dust up where we talk about
35:29
healthy tension.
35:30
Of that's with your board, your sales team, your competitors or anyone else.
35:33
Jessica, have you had a memorable dust up in your career?
35:39
Yeah, I think that a dust up I've had a couple of times as a dust up. Most CMOs
35:46
have had at some
35:47
point, which is show me the money or show me the results. Why do you need to
35:54
spend so much and
35:55
what is it getting me? I think we have better tools now to make those arguments
36:01
. But even
36:02
five years ago, it was harder. So I remember when I was at SAP Concur and we
36:10
were transitioning
36:12
from we had been bought, concur, and bought the SAP, we were transitioning in.
36:17
I had to make the
36:18
case for our budget. And it was very hard to, through our attribution models,
36:26
to prove the case
36:28
for the need for marketing. And there we were developing campaigns and I
36:36
decided that we were
36:37
going to go completely dark on our marketing. I think it was a four month
36:43
period. And then
36:46
we lit up all of our channels. And I do believe that the most effective
36:53
marketing is when you have
36:55
layered your message in every possible channel, what people are speaking about,
37:00
what's on your
37:01
website, what your demand gen is, what your PR is. So we went from zero to
37:07
lighting it all up.
37:08
And then measuring that, both in terms of pipeline and brand awareness. And the
37:16
results
37:18
were so powerful that I was able to secure my budget. I love it. That's awesome
37:24
. Okay,
37:26
let's get to our final segment. Quick hits, these are quick questions and quick
37:29
answers,
37:30
just like how Qualify.com helps companies generate pipeline quickly, tap on
37:34
your greatest asset,
37:35
your website to identify your most valuable visitors and instantly start sales
37:40
conversations.
37:41
Quick and easy, just like these questions go to Qualify.com to learn more.
37:44
Jessica, quick hits,
37:46
are you ready? Yes. Number one, what's a hidden talent or skill that's not on
37:51
your resume?
37:52
I can stand on my head for a really long time. I wish I could say I could stand
38:01
on my arms,
38:02
that is just not happening, but I can stand on my head for a really long time.
38:06
Do you have a favorite
38:07
non-marketing hobby that indirectly makes you a better marketer?
38:14
I really love to read fiction. I love historical fiction. I just finished
38:21
reading Hello Beautiful
38:23
by Anne and Napolitano. And I think that letting your brain wander and be a bit
38:33
free from
38:35
business books and what you have to do in your day is a generator of ideas. And
38:42
for me,
38:42
as I started by saying, how did I get into marketing, I have this curiosity.
38:49
And that's
38:49
what led me down that path. And it's so easy once you're in an organization and
38:53
you have a big job
38:54
and you have a family to have your curiosity go to the fault of the wayside.
39:01
And I think
39:02
reading helps me and I tap back into that curiosity, which leads to good
39:07
marketing.
39:08
If you weren't in marketing, what do you think you'd be doing?
39:11
If I weren't in marketing, I would own a local luxury women's consignment shop.
39:24
Ooh, fun. I really believe that beautiful things have multiple lives. And I
39:33
love when I see
39:34
someone love something and pass it on so it can have another life. I think
39:39
there's a huge
39:40
environmental story there. I think that there's a just extending the life of a
39:46
beautiful thing is
39:47
wonderful. But more than that, we have a shop in Seattle that I love. And when
39:54
I go in,
39:54
I feel a community. There's I always run into someone. I know the people who
40:01
run it just know
40:02
everyone. They're introducing me to someone else. I meet another marketer. I
40:06
meet another
40:08
something I've found resources for lots of things by just being there. And so I
40:16
think
40:17
my love of relationships, my love of fashion, my curiosity, I think I would
40:22
love to own a shop like
40:24
that. That's so fun. Final question here. What piece of advice would you give
40:28
to a first-time
40:29
CMO who's trying to figure out their marketing strategy? First-time CMO. Build
40:36
a good network
40:37
around you. That doesn't just include people in your company, but people
40:42
outside where you can
40:43
ask the dumb questions. You can feel like you're not alone because you're not
40:48
alone.
40:48
Understand the data. The data is power. Invest the time in understanding your
40:57
waterfall. Be the box
41:00
at the table when it comes to knowing how your marketing organization works and
41:08
empower your team. If you're a first-time CMO, you're find those stars and
41:15
leverage them
41:16
and make them bigger stars. I think cultivating talent is a huge role of a CMO.
41:23
And if I were a
41:24
new CMO and I started this a year and a half ago, it's finding those tremendous
41:30
people who make
41:31
everyone better. Jessica, it's been absolutely awesome having you on the show
41:35
for listeners.
41:36
Go to live ramp.com. Check them out. Obviously, if you're in marketing,
41:39
you should definitely go check them out. Live ramp.com. I just got any final
41:45
thoughts, anything to plug?
41:47
Ian, I just say it's been such a pleasure speaking with you. I love the podcast
41:55
. I feel like I'm
41:56
always learning. I look forward to connecting in the future. Awesome. Thank you
42:02
so much. I
42:03
really appreciate it. We appreciate you. Spend time with us.