Be a Marketable Marketer in the Novel Economy

Part 1: Re-Skilling, Up-Skilling, and Staying Connected

This March, I was thrilled to learn of my inclusion in the inaugural class of Salesforce Marketing Champions. However, this exciting news was somewhat bittersweet as that very same week, I also found myself jobless amidst the onset of the global pandemic. This left me wondering how I could still effectively contribute to the collaborative community of marketing thought leaders I had just become a part of in a meaningful way when I no longer had direct access to the tools and real-world business problems to solve that inspired my selection as a 2020 #MarketingChampion.  

When faced with significant disruption, I have often looked to the wisdom of celebrated Digital Anthropologist and Futurist, Brian Solis, who happened to be going through his own personal transformation, having just joined Salesforce as its Global Innovation Evangelist in March of 2020.  Given my enduring enthusiasm for Brian’s prolific work, it came as no surprise that he is making immediate impact in his new role at Salesforce, including a very thoughtful analysis of what he coins as the Novel Economy that is emerging. A particular statement of his really resonated with me: 

This isn’t a race toward normalcy or the status quo. It’s a moment of transition, and reflection, to build the future we’ve always dreamed about.

Like Brian, I have long held the belief that being a digital-first business, and professional, is the way forward, and have actively put this belief into practice throughout my many years as a marketer.  Current circumstances have shined a bright spotlight on just how imperative digital transformation is for organizations, and individuals, to survive and thrive in the face of what’s now, and what’s next. Reflecting on these guiding principles over the past several months, I have embarked on a journey to be a marketable marketer and #MarketingChampion in this #NovelEconomy, and am sharing what I learn in a series of blog posts, starting with my approach to remaining relevant and resilient by re-skilling and up-skilling.  In later posts, I’ll cover how I’m reimagining my own career trajectory and goals, approaching my job search, and navigating the emergent opportunities in our evolving virtual world.  

Stay Current, Connected, and Committed to Lifelong Learning

One of several silver linings in our Novel Economy is an endless explosion of ways to connect and learn virtually like never before. Here, I’ll focus on some of the many ways I’ve found to nurture relevant connections and skills that align with what it takes to be a Salesforce Marketing Champion. 

Trailhead Self-Guided Learning 

With the day-to-day demands of a job, it can be hard to prioritize formalized training and development.  Salesforce has built an incredible resource for learning both hard and soft skills with Trailhead, and best of all, they have made it accessible to anyone at no charge.  They even include complimentary access to many of their products via a Trailhead Playground where you can go under-the-hood, and experiment with your newfound skills. Being newly unemployed has afforded me the opportunity to really get immersed in all that Trailhead has to offer, including a chance to get better acclimated to Salesforce products and methodologies where I didn’t have as much hands-on experience.  Here are some of my favorite learning trails: 

• Skill Up for the Future with Trailhead: This is a great 101-level overview of how to navigate, and leverage Trailhead in your career development. 
• Collaborate with Quip: The Salesforce Marketing Champions program leverages Quip as the central hub for collaboration, so I thought it was time to get to know this tool better.  I was pleasantly surprised by the unique and powerful features that combine the best parts of project management, document sharing, and collaboration. 
• Inclusive Marketing Practices: A core reason why I’ve remained such a loyal customer and advocate of Salesforce is their culture of equality, and commitment to diversity and inclusion.  This module provides a closer look at these values, and how you can put them into practice in your own career. This module is also part of a larger Trail on Cultivating Equality at Work for anyone who wants to dive deeper. 
• Go Digital Fast with Salesforce Customer 360: The most successful marketers I’ve met understand the importance of viewing the customer relationship as a holistic journey from acquisition to retention and advocacy.  This trail provides a roadmap from the Customer 360 experts at Salesforce.  
• Optimize Data, Audiences, and Digital Advertising: Marketers are inundated with data, and this trail provides practical guidance on how to understand and maximize it in ways that connect with audiences in a personalized, non-intrusive way.  
• Get Social with Social Studio: This is a great way to get introduced to one of my favorite Salesforce products, from putting an ear to the ground to understand your target audiences, competitors, and macro market trends, to operationalizing social engagement across the Customer 360 journey.  
• Get Started with Distributed Marketing: Learning how to successfully execute marketing strategies and tactics from a distance is certainly front and center in the minds of all #MarketingChampions, and this trail delivers a simple roadmap to help you be effective.  
• Measure Your Marketing Impact: If you struggle to connect all the dots that prove your value as a marketer, rest assured that you’re not alone! This is a great overview of how Salesforce products work together in concert to deliver unassailable insights that measure real ROI, not just vanity metrics. 
• Reopen Safely with Work.com: The speed with which Salesforce launched their new work.com offering to help customers navigate the Novel Economy, while keeping their workforce and communities safe, is nothing short of awe-inspiring.  For anyone looking to not only survive, but adapt and thrive amidst unprecedented economic change, I’d highly recommend stepping through this trail.   
• Build a Personal Portfolio: This hands-on project walks you through the process of building a personal portfolio site leveraging Salesforce Communities, a powerful product that was entirely new to me. 
• Build Your Career in the Salesforce Ecosystem: Whether looking to maximize your investments as a Salesforce customer, thrive as a partner, or aspire to become a member of the Salesforce team, this Trail provides a roadmap of all the opportunities available to you. 

Live Instruction via Trailhead Academy

This July, I had the amazing experience of taking one of Salesforce’s live instructor-led courses via Trailhead Academy, and would highly recommend this to anyone.  Right now, the classes are exclusively virtual, and whether you are looking to shore up your skills as an administrator, consultant, developer, or architect in any number of Salesforce’s products, there’s a course for you.  For marketers, there’s a full learning path covering core CRM, B2B, and B2C marketing use cases where you can dive deep on the full range of Marketing Cloud solutions and Pardot.  

Salesforce has implemented several programs that help make this deep-dive instruction accessible regardless of budgetary constraints.  As a military spouse, I am incredibly fortunate to qualify for the Salesforce Military program that provides an amazing range of career development and networking benefits to military veterans and their families.  Another great program that provides unbelievable re-skilling and up-skilling opportunities is Pathfinder.  Given Salesforce’s 1-1-1 philanthropic model, there are undoubtedly many other wonderful ways they are supporting communities and society at-large with their products, people, and resources for you to get to know as you reflect on and reimagine your career in the Novel Economy.    

Connect and Collaborate with the Salesforce Ecosystem

Since the dawn of our digital world, Salesforce has continually established itself as a true pioneer in digital transformation and cloud-based business, creating a vibrant, open ecosystem where customers and partners come together to collaborate and innovate.  They nurture a very active online community where you can engage with their leadership and subject matter experts as well as your marketing peers and partners.  Here are some of my favorite ways to stay connected: 

Trailblazer Communities: Whether looking to brainstorm around ideas, find solutions and partners, or network with your peers locally as well as worldwide, Salesforce nurtures a wide range of Trailblazer Communities that are likely to suit your needs.  For marketers, be sure to join the general Marketing Cloud and Pardot groups. If you live in a major metro area, you should also look out for local Trailblazer Communities where you can network on a more personal level.  For example, I live in Indianapolis, and we have a B2C Marketing User Group, a B2B Marketing User Group, a Women in Tech User Group, a Salesforce Admin User Group, and a Salesforce Saturday User Group that all meet either virtually or in-person on a monthly basis to stay connected.  You can search for similar local groups in your area here.   

Salesforce Live: As a marketer who’s managed her share of events over the years, I’ve always been like a kid in a candy store at Salesforce’s world-class, in-person events like Dreamforce and Connections.  Their execution of virtual events similarly sets the gold standard.  You can browse upcoming broadcasts as well as an archive of their recent events here, like the recent Marketing In Motion webcast that featured several of our #MarketingChampions.  If your schedule allows, you’ll experience a little extra magic by attending their live broadcasts where you can interact with fellow attendees and moderators right within their video player, or continue the conversation on Twitter.  

Salesforce Blog:  You’ll find a wealth of content organized by industry, job function, geography,  topic, and solution.  I’ve particularly enjoyed their recent “Leading Through Change” series, as well as their massive marketing library where you just might find a Marketing Champion or two featured. 

Salesforce Resource Center: This is a goldmine where some of the richest content assets the Salesforce team has assembled live, organized similarly to their blog by topics, roles, industries, locations, and even by type of content.  They’ve again done a great job of providing timely resources for thriving in the Novel Economy, as well as tons of research and guides designed for modern marketers.  

Marketing CloudCast: The delightful Megan Hostetler and Tina Rozul introduce you to trailblazing marketers in a fun podcast format.  They just wrapped their miniseries on “Leading Through Change”, and kicked off a fresh series of content called “Moment Makers” that is chock full of actionable advice on how to be a marketable marketer.  

Twitter: Salesforce has really embraced Twitter as a key channel for staying connected with their trailblazing customers, investors, and partners in real-time.  Here are some of my favorite follows: 

• Marketing Champions: Keep up with all the 2020 Salesforce #MarketingChampions, and make sure to follow fearless leader, Guilda Hilaire (@guilda_h) 
• Salesforce Family:  This list includes the official Twitter profiles for Salesforce’s core business units and products
• Salesforce Employees:  You’ll find many leading voices at Salesforce on this list. I always make sure to keep up with what CEO @benioff and Global Innovation Evangelist @briansolis have to say
• Salesforce MVPs:  The MVPs have established themselves as key voices within the ever-growing ecosystem of Salesforce customers and partners

Celebrate your Accomplishments by Making it Official

I was fortunate to begin my journey with Salesforce products way back at the beginning of my marketing career in 2002 when SaaSy was still part of their logo.  Though I’ve been a customer and advocate ever since, I’ve not yet taken the plunge and formalized my experience with official credentials, but that is hopefully about to change. Stay tuned to find out if I earn my shiny new Salesforce Certified Administrator Certification next week, which will hopefully be the first of many credentials I attain.  If you also aspire to prove to yourself and the world that you’ve attained the knowledge and experience to make things official, Salesforce’s Certification Days are a great opportunity to sharpen your preparation for a certification exam in a half day webinar that’s free of charge.   

What's Next?

Have you found other ways to be a marketable marketer in the #NovelEconomy?  If so, please share! You can connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter (@saracamden), or trailblazer.me.  I hope I brought you some valuable tips and resources on how to re-skill, up-skill, and stay connected to the Salesforce #MarketingChampion ecosystem in my post. Next time, I’ll dig into how I’m reflecting on and reimagining the trajectory of my career as a marketer, and applying it to my job search.  Mahalo!