On this episode of the Common Sense Marketer, we talk with Jenna Knoblauch who is the Vice President of Marketing at Dynamic Communities. Dynamic Communities creates technology-centric communities to exchange ideas on how to best maximize industry knowledge through education, enriched networking, and conferences. Jenna leads the team responsible for the strategy and execution of value-added membership programs for the Microsoft Business Applications Platform community.

In this podcast we address:

The importance of requirements

Building the right implementation team

Checkpoints for success

We asked Jenna why she thinks a marketing automation tool is such an important part of a modern marketing program and we asked her what's changed that makes this a necessity.

"The importance of marketing automation is to get to know your customers well enough that you can deliver a tailored personal experience but you don’t have to employ a staff of 1000 people to be able to deliver that. Automation allows you to store information about how people are using your site, how they’re using the pages, how they’re interacting with their content and store information on their role, their products, information that they’re evaluating and be able to deliver content in a way that is hyper focused and personalized to them without having someone sitting behind doing all the manual work."

The key thing that has changed in marketing is the access of information that people now have. There is no need to go to a storefront and do the research with a sales person on evaluating a product or service. Customers can do this online and they don't want to deal with irrelevant information. What they expect is a hyper targeted tailored approach to sales.

Marketing automation gives your sales team a competitive advantage. Ready to get started? Download our free guide.

ABOUT JENNA

Jenna Knoblauch is the Vice President of Marketing at Dynamic Communities. She leads the team responsible for growing Microsoft Business Applications user group communities globally and educating members about value-added training and educational opportunities relevant to success in their respective job roles and organizations.

Jenna has been working in the marketing industry for 13 years and has experience with B2B and B2C marketing strategy and execution. Data-driven marketing and continued evolvement of marketing technologies and channels continue to fuel her love of learning and drives her passion for marketing. In her spare time, Jenna enjoys spending time at the lake with her husband and two children, picking up a good book, traveling, and cooking. You can follow Jenna on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We have a special episode today just in time for the holiday season.

On this episode of the Common Sense Marketer, we speak to Mrs. Claus from the North Pole about a few of the digital strategies she has been using to send holiday greetings. From traditional snail mail to email marketing, the transition for Mrs. Claus and her team of digital marketing elves, has been an important one for the North Pole to maintain engagement with good girls and boys.

Listen in as Mrs. Claus explains her five strategies for executing email marketing best practices during the holiday season:

 

1. Make your list and check it twice with a list cleanse.

Tis the season for housekeeping. Most B2B companies lose 25% of their list each year to job changes and retirement, and before you send out your holiday card, it’s a good idea to check your list twice to ensure you have the best contact information for your key clients and prospects and improve your email deliver-ability.

2. Personalize for Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen.

Want to make your recipients feel truly special? Look for ways to personalize your holiday card beyond just the first name. Personalization can be achieved through variables pulled in from your CRM system that can help you create messages that speak to each person on your list as an individual. You can even look at incorporating variable images, like those offered by NiftyImages.

3. Santa Claus Is coming to your inbox, but only if you asked him.

The holiday season is a good time to check your email policies. Ideally, you should be asking for your clients and your prospects to sign up for your email communications throughout the course of the year. This makes it easier if you can demonstrate that the emails you’ll send them are worth their time and help not sell. When sending your holiday email, focus your send list to your opted in contacts, existing clients, and hottest prospects, not to all the people in your database.

4. Connect the email experience to your holiday gifts.

If you’re sending a gift in the good old fashioned mail (not using Santa), it’s a good idea to connect the theme of your holiday email with the holiday gift. This creates a seamless experience for your clients. Better yet, use a landing page from your marketing automation platform to customize a URL just for them to let each person on your list know how special they truly are.

5. What’s the reason for your season’s greetings?

The best performing emails are ones with a clear purpose: What’s your reason for the season’s greetings? Do you have an annual recap to share? Do you have a thank you discount for loyal clients? Have you made a donation to a nonprofit made possible in part by your clients’ support? Think about how many holiday emails you receive and how you can make yours a special experience for each person on your list?

 

Thank you Mrs. Claus for speaking with us!

ABOUT MRS. CLAUS

Mrs. Claus was played by Natalie Jackson and her real job is the Marketing Director at emfluence, a Digital Marketing Agency + Marketing Automation Platform. Natalie oversees lead generation, messaging, customer engagement, and brand awareness for both the emfluence Digital Marketing Agency and the emfluence Marketing Platform. You can connect with Natalie here on LinkedIn.

On this episode of the Common Sense Marketer, we talk with Rob Triggs, the VP of Sales & Marketing for CRM Dynamics, a Microsoft Gold Partner and member of the Microsoft Inner Circle, representing the top 1% of global Microsoft Business Applications partners. Additionally, the company was a recipient of a 2019 Microsoft Impact Award.

Rob shares with listeners important insights that every business owner cares about today; how to get ahead of your competitors. The internet and the dramatic shift in buyer behaviour have left companies scrambling with respect to how adjust their sales and marketing strategies. Getting ahead of the competition and creating a presence for a business online has become one of the most important tasks for companies but also their biggest challenge.

Rob addresses some of the challenges he has seen on the road to digital transformation:

Customers aren't sure what marketing tactics and sales tools they should invest in.

After the tools have been bought, customers cannot get them to work properly.

How to use marketing automation for both sales and marketing.

Here are some questions Rob encourages you to ask about your own marketing automation and CRM strategy:

How aligned are your sales and marketing teams around who owns lead management in the organization?

How well documented is the lead qualification process and can it be mapped to conversion points on the web?

Who uses which tools in your organizations and who drives the business processes around those tools?

It's time to address your CRM and Marketing Automation strategy and see if you're on the right track.

You must have an agreement between the sales, marketing, and technology teams about business goals and a common set of objectives. Looking to get your team on-board with this process? Take this online assessment. It will take you five minutes to complete and it’s free.

ABOUT ROB

Rob has more than two decades of experience in the information technology space, working with Xerox, Soft Choice and now CRM Dynamics. He has been recognized as a results-oriented sales leader and direct selling consultant with significant experience in guiding companies through the rapidly changing sales and marketing landscape. A runner, keyspire positive leader, and true believer in “practice what you preach” values, Rob has a proven track record in helping architect sales and marketing effectiveness solutions. In this podcast episode, he also shares some of the techniques and insights that CRMD uses to help its clients stand out from the crowd in a competitive marketplace through his “Smarketing” marketing automation initiative.

The Common Sense Marketer is back!

On this episode of the Common Sense Marketer, we spoke to Brian Neuwirth, the President of UNEX, an industrial equipment manufacturer that specializes in manufacturing conveyors. Brian's grandfather founded UNEX in the 1960s, making Brian a third generation CEO of UNEX.

In this podcast, Brian talks three important issues facing all business today:

The digital transformation of business due to drastic changes in technology.

How the buyer journey has changed the expectations all customers in both B2B and B2C businesses.

The challenges caused by buyer behavior patterns and how organizations have adapted (or not).

Of the many interesting things we took away from this interview, was Brian’s comments about the “Amazon Effect”. The biggest changes happening in the manufacturing sector is the new expectation of delivery times. Amazon has changed buying behaviors drastically which has an impact on the entire supply chain. Customers now expect products to instantly get delivered to them where and when they want but on the manufacturing side, the product still needs to be made when inventory doesn't exist. Change in consumer expectations have pushed companies into a state of continuous transformation. Darwin's survival of the fittest, is now upon the manufacturing sector in the most dramatic of ways.

On this podcast and our blog, we often talk about the importance of your online presence. If you don't have one, you run the risk of not being around in 5 years, but if you are like 90% of successful companies worldwide, you are actively managing your online presence. The most important thing to remember online is that customer expectations and buyer behavior are continually changing and it is how you manage these changes that will keep your company above water in the coming years.

Here are some questions Brian encourages you to ask about your own strategy:

Do you have documented buyer personas?

Do you have an active testing protocol for your digital strategy?

Are you making your web presence a priority?

Are your marketing and sales teams aligned on this priority?

Do you have the right tools in place to manage this strategy?

If the answer to any of these questions are a no, there is a good chance the "Amazon effect" will slowly creep up on you. It's time to address the digital strategy within your company.

Contact us at [email protected] to discuss how a Competitive Analysis can create custom recommendations and strategies to help your business combat the "Amazon effect". 

ABOUT BRIAN

Brian C. Neuwirth is President of UNEX Manufacturing, Inc., a leading provider of material handling and carton flow solutions for distribution centers and warehouses. Previously, Brian was VP of Sales and Marketing at UNEX and held several other positions in the family-owned business. He graduated from Susquehanna University with a BA in Corporate Communications. He received a Mini-MBA in Digital Marketing from Rutgers University. Brian is a member of MHEDA. UNEX is a Marketing CoPilot client and HubSpot and Dynamics 365 CRM user, committed to the digital transformation of their sales and marketing function.

Available on iTunes.

On this week’s Women Talk Tech podcast, we talk to Carissa Allen, who is the Worldwide Business Applications Sales Strategy and Planning Lead at Microsoft.

Like many other women we have spoken with on the podcast, Carissa "accidentally" ended up in the high tech sector and she has many observations about young girls and a career in tech. Growing up, Carissa was a people-person and soon realized how technology connected people but Carissa wasn't drawn to tech. Although technology constantly surrounds us, there is something that is not drawing young girls and women into the tech sector and Carissa feels many companies have blind spots when it comes to diversity.

“…Often, you will find women or under representative minorities in the room more so than 20 years ago but the behaviour hasn’t changed. Its still a culture where people are talking at each other and the loudest voice will win. They don’t feel their voices are being heard all the time."

Carissa discusses some of the blind spots organizations have with respect to diversity:

Organizations will say "they have women in the company" and think the numbers are enough but they don't stop to consider if their voices are being heard and acknowledged

Organizations need better tools to communicate and ensure women's voices are heard

Organizations need to do a better job listening and presenting information for people to digest and feel comfortable reacting to.

Organizations need to create a culture that drives diversity and inclusion with less aggressive communication and better collaboration internally. By doing so, women will be drawn to these organizations and want to be part of them.

About Carissa Allen

Carissa has worked in the technology sector for over 20 years. She has held multiple roles in Enterprise Account Management, Field Marketing Strategy and Execution, Partner Management, and Dynamics Sales and Marketing Strategy experience. Carissa currently works at Microsoft's Worldwide Business Applications Sales Strategy and Planning Lead.

Carissa grew up loving people and her passion for collaboration and helping others helped spark a passion for technology. Carissa has been honored with multiple awards and recognized as a compelling presenter able to demonstrate the “art of the possible” with internal teams, customers and partners. Connect with Carissa Allen on LinkedIn.

Available on iTunes.

On this week’s Women Talk Tech podcast, we talk to Cathy Tracey, a Global Sales Director for Dynamics 365 at Microsoft. Cathy has over 25 years of experience in Sales and Sales Leadership.

Throughout this episode, Cathy continually focuses on the importance of being bold in the technology sector, especially as a woman. She also addresses how to set boundaries and not allow others to speak over you and how to have your voice heard at the business table. One of the key pieces of advice we took away from Cathy was about perseverance...

"You have to persevere. There are always going to be challenges or things that are put in front of you that only working hard and only making sure that you know your stuff is going to help you get over those hurdles. You need to make sure you find your lane, find your niche and be the best at that... that's how you can add value whether you're in sales or whatever your lane may be..."

Be OK to Have Your Voice Heard

Cathy speaks about how women need to persevere and overcome difficult situations in the workforce. There will always be challenges and struggles to be a woman in the workforce but sometimes you absolutely need to persevere and overcome these hurdles simply by working hard and knowing the problem and solution.

Marie and Cathy discuss:

The importance of sales and sales leadership

Finding your strengths and discovering your value

Being bold and finding your lane

What tech companies can do to step up

It's time for women to speak up, check out LinkedIn's Gender Insights Report for a better understanding of the gender imbalance of today's work force. 

About Cathy Tracey

Cathy has had roles in tech for more than 25 years in Sales and Sales Leadership and over 13 years at Microsoft. Cathy “fell into tech” when she bought her first business with her father. From there, Cathy met a consultant who hired her right away into the tech industry. Cathy's love and curiosity for business combined with her creativity and problem-solving skills, she has had a successful career in technology and sales. Connect with Cathy Tracey on LinkedIn and Twitter.

“You are the CEO of your career”

Available on iTunes.

On this week’s Women Talk Tech podcast, we talk to Kari Mirabal who is an international networking speaker coach, and innovator who teaches people how to network smarter. Kari has decades of professional networking experience and previously a recruiter in the IT industry. Kari has loads of observations about recruiting in IT and she's witnessed first-hand the struggles women have gone through in a male-dominated industry.

Throughout this episode, Kari offers listeners advice on how to deal with some of the issues women face in the industry such as speaking their truth, having a voice and being aggressive. A simple but powerful piece of advice we took away from speaking to Kari was about language...

Language is a gift

Women need to begin to move away from the word “think” and statements such as “I think this is true” to “believe” and “I believe this is true”. It’s difficult for women to be assertive at times but Kari outlines the importance of holding your ground and being direct. Men tend to network very differently and are more direct. Kari explains why it’s important that every woman works to use more direct language to orchestrate the career they want.

Learn more about Kari and her new book Naked Networking (coming out May 2019). 

About Kari Mirabal

Kari Mirabal is an international networking speaker and coach who helps large corporations, universities, and even small businesses learn how to “Network SMARTER.”She is a public speaker who generally speaks about networking on the market. Kari has been engaged by some of the largest companies in the world to help inspire and empower individuals to reach their personal and professional goals. Kari has decades of professional networking experience and loves to share her successes and failures to give audiences a new perspective on taking risks, speaking up and thinking positively.

Kari has a TedX Talk on career dating that we encourage listeners to listen to which is about “dating your career the way you date romantically”. Kari speaks about finding what you truly love, exploring new roles by networking and asking good questions. Kari is also releasing a book in 2019, so stay tuned for, “You Already Have The Know”. Her book encourages women to take more risks and go after what they truly want. We encourage you to connect with Kari on Twitter and check out her blog!

Meet the woman who built the largest online engineering community on Instagram

Available on iTunes.

On this week’s Women Talk Tech podcast we talk to Mina Dezz, Founder of the largest online community on Instagram "Iron Ring Girls" created to bring women in engineering together. Mina was a graduate of Civil Engineering in 2014 from the University of Toronto and is currently working in residential construction building custom homes. Mina impressively built a community of over 20,000 followers and created the guide “Building a Powerful Mind while Studying Engineering”.

This episode addresses the common challenges women experience in Engineering such as loneliness, independence, and the drastic change in environment. Mina speaks about her experience throughout university and how proper preparation can help manage this change a lot better.

Marie and Mina discuss:

The challenges girls face transitioning from high school to university

How to prepare for the engineering journey

The importance of communication and people skills in engineering

Dealing with uncertainty after graduation

Mina provides many helpful tips and strategies for dealing with a profession that is mostly men, many of which the technology industry should be adopting today. Her advice "always ask" is one of the most important lessons all young women should learn as they work their way up no matter what the career choice.

Follow Instagram's Women Talk Tech and Iron Ring Girls for daily inspiration.

About Mina Dezz

Mina has been working in the field of engineering since she graduated in 2014. She graduated from Civil Engineering with a minor in Engineering Business from the University of Toronto. She started working in urban transportation design but switched to construction after 2 years. Mina currently works in residential construction, building custom homes.

Mina is also the creator of the largest online community of women in engineering on Instagram "IronRingGirls". She has written her entire experience in studying engineering in her guide "Building a Powerful Mind while Studying Engineering".

Connect with Mina and join her community on Instagram: @ironringgirls

Strategies to get more women into the tech sector

Available on iTunes.

On this week’s Women Talk Tech podcast we talk to Elena Baeva, Founder and CEO of 365 Talent Portal, a career hub for Microsoft Dynamics professionals. Elena spent 22 years in the enterprise technology industry working for global software vendors of which 9 years were working directly for Microsoft. Elena is also a Board Member of The Women in Technology Network (WIT) in the UK and the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) in EMEA.

This episode addresses the state of the technology sector on a global scale in terms of women and diversity. Elena and Marie discuss specific strategies for how the Microsoft community and the community at large can start fostering more women in the technology industry. Here are three ways you can help your organization attract more women:

1. Recruitment techniques

Create proactive campaigns with Universities/Colleges

Create apprentices/internships

Create specific programs for mothers returning to work

Showcase successful hires

Demonstrate diversity and open culture

Offer flexibility

2. On-board with learning

Peer to peer learning

Online learning – Access the DynamicsLearningPortal

Proctored exams

Microsoft courses are available

3. Nurture and mentor leadership

Mentorship - Find people close to their age

Sponsorship – Get management involved

Access to resources – Find WIT Network and reach out

For a better understanding of gender parity on a global scale, download the Global Gender Gap Report from 2018.

About Elena Baeva

Elena spent 22 years in the enterprise technology industry working for global software vendors of which 9 years were working directly for Microsoft. She lived and worked in many countries around the world which helped her enormously with appreciating different cultures and building local connections. Elena is currently based in the UK but her work spreads across 134 countries.

Throughout her time at Microsoft, many of her contacts wanted to hire IT consultants and it became apparent that there was no easy and cost-effective way of finding them. Elena and her team set up 365 Talent Portal and help hundreds of companies who need Dynamics 365 professionals or training.

The company attracts professionals by offering free access to online Microsoft Dynamics 365 training and resources which helps the consultants keep their skills and certifications up to date. The team runs many initiatives to attract new talent to pursue a Microsoft Dynamics 365 career. As a result, Microsoft Partners & End Users can access thousands of vetted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Consultants on the portal and hire them, while cutting their typical recruitment fees in half due to the subscription plan pricing model.

Connect with Elena on LinkedIn here and here. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the Women Talk Tech Podcast on Instagram!

Being a Woman in the Executive Boardroom

Available on iTunes.

On this week’s Women Talk Tech podcast we talk to Nikki Gore of Siren Marketing, a long time marketer in the tech sector. Nikki reflects on her personal journey of being a women in the tech sector and how the technology industry has impacted her career.

Marie and Nikki discuss the obstacles women face in the tech industry, both remembering the days when they were the only women in the executive wing. While organization`s today realize the importance of gender balance, the technology sector specifically still looks like an old boy`s club. In order to truly achieve gender parity in the board room and on an economic scale the challenge is twofold:

We need to find more and better ways to get women into the technology sector (the fastest growing sector in the world).

We need to keep women in it.

This episode also touches on the importance of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. As large enterprises become more conscious of their social impact, it will become increasingly important for those wanting to do business to be able to demonstrate a programmatic approach to social impact and sustainability. There is a huge opportunity for technology companies to use social impact, corporate social responsibility and sustainability as both a brand and competitive differentiator.

For a better understanding of gender parity on a global scale, download the Global Gender Gap Report from 2018.

About Nikki Gore

Nikki is a global marketing leader with 25+ years’ experience developing and implementing integrated marketing strategies, and building high-performance marketing teams for B2B technology companies. She runs a marketing consulting firm helping small to medium size B2B tech companies build up and scale out their marketing capabilities. In her spare time, she is a hockey mom and an autism advocate with a passion for corporate social responsibility and sustainability.

Connect with Nikki on LinkedIn and Twitter.