Meet Your Customers Where They Are - An Interview With Jenny Stone

Meet your customers where they are, not where you want them to be. I had the privilege of interviewing Jenny Stone, Sr. Director of Business Strategy for one of the largest cloud-based technology companies in the world. Jenny has 15+ years of marketing strategy consulting experience and worked alongside marketing teams across nearly every industry.She has a B.A. in Photography and English and earned a master’s degree in information technology. Despite her master’s degree in IT and a background in front-end programming, Jenny felt the draw towards marketing tech services early in her career. Following the sage advice “to flow where the water goes naturally,” she once heard, Jenny has successfully navigated the marketing industry currents for years. As an established consultant and business strategist, her top three keys to success for marketing teams of any size are: 1) Have organizational visions and goals and move towards them as a united front. Map out a vision with senior leadership, ensure each contributor is aware of the goals, then sprint in the same direction to reduce bloat and improve efficiency. Be sure to make your goals: Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Realistic. Timely. Revisit those S.M.A.R.T. goals quarterly and adjust as needed.2) Hire great data analysts and leverage technologies and dashboards that allow for transparent real-time reporting visible to all business units. Use that data, interpret the results, and adapt accordingly. “It’s crucial in hitting topline goals and objectives,” she says.3) Listen to your customers. Conduct customer surveys, collect success call data and consider the gathered information at annual planning summits to improve your operation. When it comes to brand storytelling, regardless of industry, video is key to distributing your messages. Why? “Because we, as people, gravitate towards TV,” she says. “Regardless of age, videos outperform static content.”BUTWhen you create your marketing task plan, “take a look at the data mentioned above and get a sense of where your customers meet you,” she says. “Not every channel and media type will work for your audience.” And, by all means, if you’re venturing into new media outlets like YouTube, be sure your customers know where to find you. Two books she recommends, a third she swears by: 1) Email Marketing Rules by Chad S. White2) Atomic Habits by James Clear3) Everything by Seth Godin! Especially “This is Marketing.”Her favorite excerpt from Godin’s book:“Marketing is not a battle. It’s not a war or even a contest. Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem – THEIR problem. It’s a chance to change the culture for the better. Marketing involves very little in the way of shouting, hustling, or coercion. It’s a chance to serve instead.”An ethos Jenny lives by and imparts on others within her charge, including you and me, if you read until this point. Until next time. ✌️