How did you get to where you are today?
I was groomed for it from an early age. My Mom is a Realtor, so I grew up assembling direct mail pieces and promotional flyers at the dining room table. My Dad is a dentist in private practice, and I spent my afternoons after school watching his business in operation (and playing with his office supplies and dental equipment.)

What is interesting in Marketing in your space right now?
It’s probably not new to many of you, but I am very interested in Data and Customer Profiling right now. I am also drawn to NeuroMarketing, which I think is pure brilliance.

How do you get good ideas and inspiration?
From my community, from trusted sources, the world around me.

What campaign have you seen recently that really blew you away?
The way indie movies are hitting the scene, in a peer-to-peer, private screening format, is genius. The combination of Word-Of-Mouth/Product Review aspect with the Hyperlocality and Community aspect yields the root of Marketing – a win/win for product and consumer through effective distribution of a message.

If you were a font, which font would you be?
Helvetica

Please share a nugget of Marketing Wisdom with our readers?
Experiment. Test. Listen to your gut. Trust yourself.

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VP Sales: You marketers are all the same!  Your campaigns always look so slick.  You always are producing lots of “stuff”. But, when it comes to the tough questions, you never have answers!

Marketer: You want answers?

VP Sales: I think we are entitled to them.

Marketer: You want answers?

VP Sales: We want THE TRUTH!

Marketer: Pshh…You can’t handle the truth.  We live in a world that requires interest in our products and solutions and that interest must be strategically generated by people with elite skills. We have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You scoff at the marketing team, you curse our big budgets; you have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know – that while the cost of business results may seem excessive, it builds customer loyalty and scales revenue. My very existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, allows us to create a revenue-producing machine. You don’t want to know the truth because deep down in places that you don’t talk about at your pipeline forecast meetings you want me on that call; you need me on that call.  We use words like engagement, relevance, and calls-to-action.  We use these words as the backbone of a life spent building long-term relationships and creating demand. And you use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to people who rise and sleep under the very blanket of genuine interest that I provide and then question the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said “thank you for finding that deal” and went on your way. Otherwise, might I suggest that you stop questioning me and close the deal I just sent to you, either way; I don’t care what you think you’re entitled to.

VP Sales: Can you prove how much revenue you impacted last year?

Marketer: I did the job I was hired to do.

VP Sales: Can you actually prove how much revenue you impacted last year?

Marketer: You’re darn right I can.

———————————–

Can you handle the truth? The truth is I see organizations continuing to FAIL in 2010. Fail in understanding what mix of marketing and sales strategies actually drive the business to its revenue and growth targets. I believe this is because we all continue to isolate sales and marketing instead of evaluating performance within context of the entire integrated sales and marketing funnel. We continue to judge the effectiveness of marketing by eyeballs that hit our website – and NOT revenue. We look at sales efficiencies without the context of inbound demand and how it is currently managed. We aren’t putting in service-level agreements and holding both functions accountable for the greater short-term and longer-term objectives.

I am looking for MORE than a few good marketers in 2010. I am looking for the elite sales and marketing professionals that are driving change in their organization and developing a CORE COMPETENCY in Demand Generation for their business. And, when I say core competency, I mean those organizations that have established a revenue machine. Stay tuned as I track them down and share insights from the front lines of those that are adopting the principles of The Demand Lifecycle and dominating their markets.

A Few Good Marketers will succeed in 2010. Will you be one of them?

**And, thank you to Alex Shootman and the clever Eloqua team for letting me steal the movie reenactment idea.

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How did you get where you are today?
I have always been interested in the intersection of technology and business. I have held positions in marketing, network planning, technology consulting, management consulting and technical/sales training before settling into outbound marketing for early stage, enterprise-focused startups. From there I specialized in marketing communications, PR/AR, and lead generation with a focus on accelerating the sales process.

What’s interesting in marketing for your space right now?
The tools available to outbound marketing today are astounding. We are truly only limited by creativity and budget in developing and delivering more efficient lead generation funnels. With integrated reporting and systems, we can quickly trial new programs and measure their impact/ROI accelerating the pace of change/innovation in the marketing function.

How do you get good ideas and inspiration?
Meeting with customers, sales reps, lead qualification reps and even attending shows keep me grounded in the current state of affairs in the sales process. Reading online resources detailing current best practices is another great source of ideas. Finally, business books provide a constant source of interesting concepts.

What campaign have you seen recently that really blew you away?
In the current economic environment, simplicity is key. We have developed some great new scripts that came out of simple joint telemarketing calls and brainstorming. The results have been great Our latest marketing automation programs also take their inspiration from watching great sales people and how we can automate some of these great best practices.

If you were a font, which font would you be?
Comic Sans. Simple, clean and fun.

Please share with us a nugget of your marketing wisdom for our readers.
Continually innovate by sharing your results with others and learning from them. There are so many great marketers doing wonderful things – we can learn a lot from each other. We just need to make time to get together and share best practices – and this is not always easy or convenient.

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How did you get where you are today?
Art, design and writing are my passions in life, so marketing is a natural extension of what I enjoy doing. As part of my creative work, I started doing graphic design in paste-up, and then picked up desktop publishing skills. After studying writing for my undergrad I did communications and marketing work for some media and arts companies and for an agency, then eventually found my way to high-tech. The complexity of high-tech adds another level to marketing that I find exciting.

What’s interesting in marketing for your space right now?
There’s a lot of buzz about Web 2.0 and what it means for the B2B world. Marketers are always looking for new vehicles to tell their story, but I think it’s important to consider the right strategy for your specific business and for reaching your specific consumer. Not every method is right for every business and even within Web 2.0 there are many different approaches and strategies to consider, and the differences really do matter.

How do you get good ideas and inspiration?
One place is from marketing award competitions. You get to see what some of the leading agencies are doing.

What campaign have you seen recently that really blew you away?
I really like the Sprint Now Network “Statistics” campaign (link 1 and link 2) think it’s really current and it advances a number of their brand attributes in a subtle, seamless way.

If you were a font, which font would you be?
Font selection out of context? Okay, I’ll humor you. Optima, occasionally Neue Helvetica.

Please share with us a nugget of your marketing wisdom for our readers.
Know what success looks like and how you’ll measure it for every facet of what you do. That allows you to have transparency on what your impact is for the business.

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How did you get where you are today?
Never stop trying; never stop learning. Sounds simplistic but sometimes it’s not easy.

What’s interesting in marketing for your space right now?
We’re doing a lot of live video – virtual conferences, virtual product launches. Very well received in our market to save productivity/travel time.

How do you get good ideas and inspiration?
Brainstorming with colleagues mostly, and reading other companies’ campaigns (not competitors necessarily, just everyone). I’m always listening and thinking of how I can parlay something into an interesting campaign.

What campaign have you seen recently that really blew you away?
Actually it was an event, not a campaign — the virtual conference we recently produced. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well-received the chat functionality was. We think of chat-rooms as old (AOL) technology but in conjunction with a live video-streamed event, it was a fantastic medium for the participants to feel together and present at the event. The participants had a ball, chatting each other “virtual beers” at happy hour and virtual bagels first thing in the morning, plus their questions were answered as soon as they were asked.

If you were a font, which font would you be?
Oh I don’t know…maybe Helvetica since it’s my favorite and sounds like it could wreak havoc if need be.

Please share with us a nugget of your marketing wisdom for our readers.
Don’t try to please everyone. Marketing is very subjective and remember who your “subject” is. Visualize them, then keep them engaged, entertained, and interested in your products and services.

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How/why did you get into marketing?
While interning as an editorial assistant for a magazine during college, I found myself more and more interested in how the publication actually brought in new business. After all, you need to sell a page of advertising to justify having a page of editorial in the first place.

What campaign have you seen recently, that really blew you away?
The story of TOMS Shoes is pretty interesting. You have a small maker of casual shoes with a marketing strategy that hinges on generating publicity and building communities around their unusual business model – for every pair of shoes they sell, another pair is donated to a needy child. This approach has garnered a strong following among celebrities and ordinary consumers who are attracted to both the shoes’ laid back style and the company’s “conscious capitalism.” As the company’s sales have increased, so have their charitable efforts, which in turn broadens the appeal and reach of TOMS’ message even more.

What’s interesting in marketing right now?
Never before have marketers had so many tools at their disposal for executing increasingly targeted and personalized campaigns. And while buyers certainly benefit from more relevant marketing, I’ve recently been reminded through both personal and professional experience, that there is a point where a marketing message is so relevant that the recipients can’t help but be aware that they’ve been targeted because of their online behavior. This is not always a comfortable feeling. It will be interesting to see how marketers best leverage this wealth of knowledge in ways that facilitate sales and are truly helpful to potential buyers without raising privacy concerns.

What enewsletters, websites or blogs do you regularly read/visit to get ideas and inspiration?
I subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds. Some of my favorite feeds are the B2B Lead Generation Blog for practical marketing tips, Freakonomics Blog for questioning the conventionally held wisdom of just about any topic and Psychology Today for really interesting insights into human behavior.

If you were a font, which font would you be?
I don’t know. Haven’t taken the Facebook quiz. At work, I am Calibri by default.

Please share a nugget of your marketing wisdom for our readers.
At essence, a marketer’s responsibility is to facilitate the acquisition of profitable business for the company. Marketers who do this successfully will earn the respect of sales, finance and the C-Suite.

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How/why did you get into marketing?
I got into marketing when I was a senior in college. I was a supervisor at the student store and I was in charge of marketing and promotions for school supplies. I had direct access to my customers, since I was on the sales floor the majority of the time, and could tell right away whether a promotion was successful or not.

What campaign have you seen recently, that really blew you away?
I am always impressed by the zipcar.com campaigns. They are great at executing integrated marketing campaigns across social networks, emails, and transit stations. Their sidewalk marketing campaigns are genius.

What’s interesting in marketing right now?
I have seen some cool integration stuff between social media and CRM systems. Having the ability to centrally manage social media platforms and measure marketing campaign activity for social networks is really powerful. I am excited to learn more about it.

What enewsletters, websites or blogs do you regularly read/visit to get ideas and inspiration?
I read ClickZ Experts on a regular basis. They always have great articles about email marketing optimization and also news about the industry. Digital Body Language is a great blog for Eloqua tips and ideas. I use Eloqua on a regular basis, so I am always looking to see how others use the system. I also just discovered Linked in Groups which are great for collaborative discussions.

If you were a font, which font would you be?
I would have to say Verdana. It’s a simple typeface that is very readable on computer screens. As a marketer, I know how important it is to get your message across in emails and websites; a legible font is key!

Please share with us a nugget of your marketing wisdom for our readers.
When starting a new promotion or a new marketing campaign, send it out to colleagues or friends and ask them to explain it back to you. It’s easy to get caught up in creative brilliance, and you may be missing the simple point of who you are and why customers should buy from you.

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Kris Shorter: Marketing Manager at Roche Diagnostics

How did you get where you are today?

4 Words – Path of Least Resistance

What’s interesting in marketing for your space right now?

The entire Life Science Research Community is trying extremely hard to capture as much of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds coming from the NIH as possible. Companies and institutions that do a superb job of this will have a giant advantage over their competition.

How do you get good ideas and inspiration?

I constantly ask myself, “What would Jack Bauer do?”.

What campaign have you seen recently that really blew you away?

Samsung LED TV Series campaign.  Samsung’s recent television ad portraying a digital  humming bird is extremely interesting from a creative and visual standpoint.  I also think their messaging does a nice job of trying to distinguish themselves from the competition.  When you visit their website, they maintain the same look and feel of the ad and have a very cool and dynamic product selection guide.

The Clip

The Web Site

If you were a font, which font would you be?

Chiller.  Because it sounds cool.

Please share with us a nugget of your marketing wisdom for our readers.

It is very important to understand and be able to stratify your current customer base – as well as the prospects that you are either not working with or do very little business with.  I always try to develop a contact strategy based on these segments and then allocate a higher percentage of budget towards the top prospects and less towards prospects with low potential.  For instance, a high-end direct mail campaign with telemarketing follow-up may be utilized for top prospects and a simple nurturing email campaign may suffice for those prospects with low potential.

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I also have been following Aaron on Twitter for some time and have really enjoyed his insights and blog posts.  So well, in fact, I am blatantly stealing his idea with this Marketing Masters series. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and so I see it only fitting that Aaron is featured first on our humble imitation.

Aaron Strout: CMO at Powered Inc.

How did you get where you are today?

Well, for an old guy like me, that’s a “bigger than a breadbox” type question. But in fairness to your project, I’ll give it a shot. It all started with waiting tables and bartending. That’s where I learned a TON about customer service and multitasking. I taught myself what I know about the Web back in the early 90’s (which had roots back to my dad’s computer programming career in the 70’s and 80’s). Fidelity Investments taught me nearly everything I know about marketing. And then in the early 2000’s, I took the people skills I acquired from aforementioned waitering/bartending jobs and started down the online “social” path with LinkedIn and Facebook. Oh, and then along came Francois Gossieaux who taught me a ton about marketing 2.0. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Barry Libert, my last boss, who taught me how to properly channel my thought leadership skills.

What’s interesting in marketing for your space right now?

The intersection of “social” and “marketing.” There are two keys to this phenomena… a) great content and b) measurement and insight. Social marketing in my mind is the future of business.

How do you get good ideas and inspiration?

From a number of different traditional and new media-esque sources like NPR, marketing blogs and Twitter. Most importantly though, getting together with friends like Dave Evans, Kyle Flaherty, Bryan Person, Peter Kim, David Armano, Jim Storer and Tim Walker – along with my super smart colleagues at Powered – helps me distill these new ideas into “implement-able” tactics.

What campaign have you seen recently that really blew you away?

Hmmm, I’m not sure there’s anything that’s blown me away. However, I’m a big fan of what smart CMO’s like Jeffrey Hayzlett of Kodak and Barry Judge of Best Buy are doing. Those guys are good people to watch.

If you were a font, which font would you be?

As boring as it sounds (love the question though), probably Calibri. It’s simple, clean but easy to read. I always try and keep things simple and make any of my recommendations to others prescriptive.

Please share with us a nugget of your marketing wisdom for our readers.

I’m a huge believer in Karma. To me, that means that I try and do nice things and be respectful of anyone and everyone, irrespective of what they might offer back to me. What I’ve found is that in the grand scheme of things, this always pays back in spades. It also makes people happy and grateful which are nice traits to see in people. I also am a big fan of work/life balance although I’m not always as good at practicing it as I would like.

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[Photo Credit: Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com and bub.blicio.us]

I have found networking with other marketing and demand generation professionals one of the best sources of ideas over the years. And, in the age of slashed travel budgets – figured Aaron has provided us with a great format to translate this experience online. I am going to call our series – Marketing Masters: An exchange of ideas and inspiration for the progressive marketer.

So, the questions for our series include:

(1) How did you get where you are today?

(2) What’s interesting in marketing for your space right now?

(3) How do you get good ideas and inspiration?

(4) What campaign have you seen recently that really blew you away?

(5) If you were a font, which font would you be?

(6) Please share with us a nugget of your marketing wisdom for our readers.

I will keep this page updated with a complete list of responders as they come in and we post the responses. Of course, it is only fitting that we feature Aaron as our first Marketing Master.

Happy Networking!

1. Aaron Strout: CMO at Powered, Inc.
2. Kris Shorter: Marketing Manager at Roche Diagnostics
3. Teresa Almaraz: Channel Marketing Manager at Bella Pictures
4. Christie Flanagan: Manager of Marketing Programs and Operations at Fatwire
5. Barbara Ware: Director of Marketing at BravePoint
6. Rebecca Hagen: Director of Marketing at Lumeta
7. Larry Stein: Director of Marketing at KACE
8. Amanda McGukin Hager: Regional Manager, North American Programs at SolarWinds

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[Photo credit: Chad Baker/Ryan McVay via Getty Images]