• MarTech Today
  • Sections
    • Ads
    • Marketing
    • Content
    • Sales
    • Analytics
    • Management
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • Follow Us
    • Follow
  • MarTech Today
  • Ads
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Mgmt
  • Resources
  • More
  • Events
    • Follow
  • SUBSCRIBE

MarTech Today

MarTech Today
  • Ads
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Management
  • Resources
  • More
  • Events
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Martech: Management

Meet The MarTech Speakers: Laura Patterson, President & Co-Founder, VisionEdge Marketing

How Marketers Can Earn Better Grades From The C-Suite

MarTech Today on February 18, 2016 at 2:00 pm
  • More

Programmed by Scott Brinker, The MarTech Conference, March 21–22 in San Francisco, features marketing technologists from leading brands and agencies who will share their experiences and expertise. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be speaking with several of these speakers to learn more about them — how they got to where they are, how martech is managed in their organizations, what advice they can share about working in the martech industry and more.

Today’s interview is with Laura Patterson.

As President of VisionEdge Marketing (VEM), Laura Patterson is a champion of performance-driven marketing. An early pioneer in the science side of marketing, she is the author of the book, “Marketing Metrics in Action.” Before VEM, Laura spent 20 years in the industry, including 14 years at Motorola, where she began in sales and ultimately became Director of Customer Marketing and Brand Strategy.

We recently spoke with Laura about her thoughts on how marketers can earn better grades from the C-suite and why it’s so important to thoroughly understand the marketing process before adopting and using technology.

Keep reading for an up-close and personal interview with Laura. Then secure your place to meet her at MarTech. Register today!

Tell me about your background. How did you end up where you are now?

I entered the world of marketing in the late 70s, well before marketers had anything like the technology we employ today (Remember the blank computer screens with blinking green lights?). For nearly 20 years, I worked on the corporate side of marketing — financial services, healthcare, enterprise and application software and hardware. There have been a lot of changes!

While at Motorola, my customers included tech companies like Apple, Cisco, Logitech — companies that were building out the technologies we’re using today.

In 1999, I made the switch to consulting. As a data-driven tech person, I wanted to combine my marketing strategy and customer experience work with my marketing science and operations background. We formed VisionEdge Marketing to help marketers use data and science to measure and improve their marketing. That was 17 years ago.

Right from the start, we focused on helping our customers make their marketing customer-centric, measurable and actionable — words that no one was using at the time. This is still our focus.

You’ve done some recent research about marketer personas. Can you share what you learned?

For 15 years, we’ve been conducting the marketing performance management study. As a result of the data, we’ve identified three personas: Value Creators, Sales Enablers and Campaign Producers. The Campaign Producers are the most “traditional” marketers, those who create content, build campaigns and websites and manage events, etc. The Sales Enablers see themselves “in service” to the sales team, and their job is all about generating leads with their primary focus on the pipeline.

The Value Creators, however, are more focused on how to align marketing to the overall business strategy, to create and extract value, and to move the business needle. They’re the ones earning the “A”s from the C-suite.

What are these “A” marketers doing differently? They’re spending the time to develop business acumen and learn the language of the business. They’re not just focused on output statistics like downloads, page views, open rates, fans/followers, leads, etc. Their marketing operations expand beyond automation to serve in a more strategic role designed to transform Marketing into a Center of Excellence. While all marketers today are digging deep into the realm of data, the “A” marketers know exactly what data they need and why, because they are focused on the bigger picture. They make their data more relevant to the business and use the data to help them align their efforts to business outcomes. Not sales outcomes, business outcomes.

Theirs is a longer-term, overall market view, looking at issues such as how to build customer loyalty [and] improve customer experience and when and where to expand products. These are the marketers that are getting the attention of the C-suite.

When marketers can successfully combine business acumen with customer insights and relevant data, they become more credible to the C-suite — and thus more influential within the organization.

What will you cover in your presentation at the MarTech Conference?

The presentation is titled, “With Credibility Comes Influence and Relevance: How You Can Employ Performance Management to Achieve All Three.”

In this session, I’ll share more insights about how marketers can learn from these “Value Creators” to gain better marks and drive marketing success within the organization. Specifically, I’ll share six areas where best-in-class marketers are excelling, as well as how marketers can use performance-based marketing to improve the value of marketing.

What are your thoughts on where we are now with marketing technology?

So many marketers are focused on the tools when they really need to understand the systems and processes first. My dad was a handyman, and he had a great expression: “If you don’t have the skill to use a tool, then using a power tool will only enable you to do more damage, faster.”

There are two things here, really. First, before you even pick up a tool, you need to understand the process and the system for using it within your business. For example, you need to understand why you’re sending an email before you concern yourself with building out a branded template. What are you trying to accomplish, and how will you measure your success?

Second, you need to know which data is relevant before you pull it. So many marketers are getting bad marks from the C-suite because they’ve purchased all kinds of marketing tools and are presenting all sorts of data, but too much of it is not relevant. The C-suite is saying, “You’re giving us all these numbers, but we don’t get the sense that you’re moving the business needle.”

We’re at a point where marketers now have the power tools, but they don’t have all the skills to use them effectively.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in marketing?

Be willing to work hard. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and be willing to say, “I don’t know” when you don’t. I also think it’s important to understand the process, to be able to map out workflow and really understand the “why” of what you are doing. You need to know the process before you learn the tool.

And — this may sound obvious — don’t be afraid to pick up the phone to solve a problem. I recently had an issue with one of our martech platforms, and it took 10 days of back-and-forth email before someone finally called me. We solved the problem in five minutes once we were on the phone. That’s 10 days’ use of that platform gone.

Tell me something we might not learn from your LinkedIn profile.

I used to run triathlons, but I’ve given that up and now do yoga, which I find to be both a great workout and a great way to reduce stress.

And I love hardware stores (I’m enamored with power tools.)


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech Today. Staff authors are listed here.



About The Author

MarTech Today
MarTech Today is a daily publication covering digital marketing industry news, martech trends, strategies and tactics for marketing technology professionals. Special content features, site announcements and occasional sponsor messages are posted by MarTech Today.

Related Topics

Channel: Martech: ManagementMarTech Conference

Subscribe to receive daily martech news and expert insights. See terms.


We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.
See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

MarTech 2021: March 16-17

MarTech 2021: Sept. 14-15

MarTech 2020: Watch On-Demand

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • Digital Marketing Report Q4 2020: Benchmarks and Insights for 2021
  • Data SEO – The Next Big Adventure
  • Getting Started with Email Marketing Automation
  • The State of Local Marketing Report 2020-2021
  • Quality CRM Data: The Key to Delivering Great Customer Experiences
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • How to Avoid the Digital Transformation Trap
  • How to Build a Marketing System of Record
  • Meet BIMI: The brand-boosting email security marketers must have for 2021
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

Receive daily martech news and analysis.
Martech Today
Download the Martech Today app on iTunes
Download the Martech Today App on Google Play

Channels

  • Advertising
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Social
  • Commerce
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Management
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • SMX

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars
  • MarTech Conference

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff
  • Connect With Us

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • iOS App
  • Google Play

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Your privacy means the world to us. We share your personal information only when you give us explicit permission to do so, and confirm we have your permission each time. Learn more by viewing our privacy policy.Ok