Wed. April 25, 2018
Fat City Banquet Center, Old Sacramento
Marketing is a dynamic profession, and the April AMASV luncheon panel featured three local marketing leaders who have powerful perspectives and strategies for keeping up: Erika Bjork, an expert on corporate citizenship, interactive marketing, crisis communications and brand strategy; Karen Meier, the marketing manager for the national window and door company Anderson Corporation; and Rashael Parker, the director of advertising and creative at Raley’s.
Advice and observations from the panel included staying focused on your customers personally and through data; being clear on your goals and metrics even as the landscape changes; and maintaining full visibility of your marketing funnel no matter what tools you’re using. Specific tidbits included:
- Everything starts with a relationship of trust with your audience—without that, you’re finished. [Erika]
- To engage with audiences, you now need to have a digital mix of relevant content with targeted, paid calls-to-action. Then you optimize by analyzing behavior. [Rashael]
- Use your data to reach your customers in innovative ways. Anderson doesn’t wait for potential customers to enter the home improvement funnel—they know their other interests and communicate with them proactively. [Karen]
- Effective marketing combines strategy and execution of a plan with a recognition and use of opportunities when they arise. [Erika]
- Having goals is important, but knowing how they will be measured is essential. [Erika]
- We will always need to evolve ROI. Defining success for digital is the current battle. Back in the past, the equivalent to CTR was a call to a toll-free number or a purchase from a retailer. Now, we need to look at how many people have come into our database or called, and booked, because of digital. We have to look at everything that feeds into website to see how it performs. Only by looking at everything in a collective fashion can you analyze the total program. [Karen]
- Although marketing has shifted dramatically and digital is taking over, don’t write off some traditional methods completely. Print remains a cornerstone for both Anderson and Raley’s, but you have to overlay digital on top of it and use data and personalization effectively. [Karen/Rashael]
- Digital is great, but you can make yourself into a commodity. Keep engaged personally with your customers through events or whatever way makes the most sense for your industry. [Erika]
- You are responsible for you and your team staying current in marketing. The world is changing too quickly not to pay attention. [All]
Check out our upcoming luncheons for more opportunities for industry expert feedback, visit our Events page here.
Author Information
Tom Hinds is the Director of Communications at U.C. Davis and a VP at Large for the AMASV. Connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhinds/
