Roger’s Uncover Letter

While my resume highlights the jobs I have held, the teams I’ve led, and the tools I have used, it does not tell the full story. Here, I’ll try to peel back more layers to give you a glimpse on how I approach marketing, leadership, and work in general. This is a very high level overview, and I’d love to have a conversation with you to get into the weeds even more, but hopefully this does a good job of highlighting who I am.

Summary: After writing this content, it dawned on me that the steps below are very much like the advice my parents gave me growing up. It goes something like this:

• Be kind
• Be truthful
• Pick your friends wisely
• Know your place
• Work hard
• Remember your family is here to help
• Don’t be foolish
• Lead by serving others

Now I’ll explain in marketing terms…

Marketing messaging: Many companies make the mistake of focusing on just how great they are, saying things like “we are the best ____ SaaS company out there.” News flash, prospects don’t really care how you view yourself. What they need to hear is how you can make their jobs easier, how you help them, what problems you’re solving and what efficiencies you're providing to them. I like to talk to prospects, product marketing, and to the sales teams, learning what messages resonate and with whom.? The message should be truthful, memorable and authentic, not oversold and gimmicky. And finally, don’t gate everything. When a prospect is ready to talk, they’ll let you know.

Target audience: The message needs to be delivered to the right people. Most companies do a good job of defining their total addressable market, and then they try to boil that ocean with their messaging. There are better ways. Start with defining the decision makers, their titles and roles within organizations. Look at key accounts, getting sales input, and target those titles/roles with ABM messaging fine tuned to each specific persona.?

Audience refinement: Some companies stop there when it comes to targeting, but that is just scratching the surface. Key decision makers are very important, but businesses are loaded with staff that drive process improvements. Don’t ignore the audience that can champion a solution up the chain to the ultimate decision maker. These internal influencers should be targeted with awareness messaging and equipped with content they can share up the decision tree, showing the benefits to the organization.?

Read the room: Data is abundant and should be used to reach ‘hand-raisers.’ Find and monitor the keywords that prospects use when looking for a solution that matches yours. Use this buyer intent data to find warm accounts and target them with your ads, sharing case studies and demos to convert them. Also look at engagement. What accounts have visited your website? Build targeted lists around these accounts to push awareness, educate, and convert.

Leave no channel unturned: Meet your prospects where they are, using channels like paid search, organic and paid social, website, blogs, content syndication, webinars, events and more. For high-value prospects, direct mail offers a unique path to start a conversation. Once you convert and get that valuable email address, don't abuse it. Put the lead into an appropriate email nurture that aligns to their persona and interest signals. Make it easy at all contact points for the prospect to cut to the chase and talk to an expert.

Use your full team: It is so important to work closely with your sales team throughout the lead generation process. Tell them about the ads you are running so they can speak knowledgeably when engaging with prospects. Ask sales about the quality of the leads you are delivering and if necessary, fine tune your targeting. Don’t neglect to ask them what prospects are asking and if necessary adjust messaging to address those concerns. Also make sure that leads are being followed-up with and not sitting there untouched. Help BDRs/SDRs with their outreach messaging.

Don’t be toolish: Sometimes I think new marketing tools come out every week. Don’t worry about always needing the newest and shiniest tool. Master the tools you have, use more than 10% of the capability of the tool. If and when you recognize a need for a function missing from your existing martech stack, then explore new tools. Always spend the budget as if the money is your own and invest wisely.?

Lead by example: One thing I’ve learned in life, whether it be from my upbringing, time in the military, or work experience, is to respect everyone. I believe in a servant leader model, and not asking people to do a task I would not be willing to do myself. Additionally, open and honest communication and expectation setting builds respect in both directions of the work hierarchy. A year-end performance review should never have any surprises.?

A final note: We are in the trenches together. If we are going to spend 40 or more hours a week working together, let’s have some fun. If work becomes too tedious, the quality goes down. Work is part of life and should be enjoyed.

Please reach out, share your thoughts and comments below, and let’s talk about how I could help your company ratchet up its digital marketing efforts. Thanks!