Elizabeth Jackson insists that marketing should be fun. “That doesn’t mean easy—but fun,” she says. And for Jackson, marketing certainly has been, and continues to be, hard work. In fact, Jackson made the not-so-easy transition from marketing for major B2C companies—such as Procter & Gamble, Campbell Soup Company, and Summer Infant—to the B2B space. She says, however, much of that same know-how has enabled her to dive right in, excel, and take those B2B-specific challenges head on.
“Marketing is more than just brand building and marketing communications,” Jackson says. “It’s understanding the voice of the customer [whether a shopper or an enterprise], and leveraging all facets of our brand and company to build value for them.”
Marketing strategy: The approach that I always take to marketing is the who, the what, and the how. The who is the audience—in other words, who am I talking to? That could be broad segments, different industry verticals, [or] psychographics. The what is the thing that our brand stands for and what our value proposition is, and how we communicate that to our target consumer. The how is simply the way that we bring that brand equity to life, which includes all of the different vehicles and strategies that we put into place to make that happen and keep our promise.
Winning ways: My background is actually B2C. And when I came to HookLogic, what I felt was missing from our lead-generation effort was a reason to engage with our advertisers. So, I put in place a content strategy in which we had primary research and fantastic data with our retail partners—all about buying behaviors on e-commerce. That is, I set up a content strategy that was relevant to the target audience. We engaged advertisers—the who—with meaningful content—the what—which HookLogic had uniquely—the how.
Defining moment: When I look back on my journey, one of the biggest defining moments…was when I first became a mom. And with that comes navigating those career choices and balancing the professional with the personal. In 2004 I left corporate America to start my own consulting business, which had more flexibility. Two of my past clients hired me later on down the road.
Trend watching: The major trend that I’m seeing is clearly digital. It’s why I joined HookLogic.
Words to live by: Do the best that you can.
Good read: I love the touch and feel of a physical book. Right now I’m reading Caleb’s Crossing, a novel by Geraldine Brooks, for my book club.
Good advice: To be a successful marketing leader, it’s important to have a broad range of experiences.
