In the sixth episode of Business Banter by SkillsLab’s Jack Kosakowski, we speak with Yaniv Masjedi where he shares his experience and advice on how to become a master marketer in your 20.
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Yaniv Masjedi is probably one of the youngest CMOs you’ll meet.
He is a diamond-in-the-rough expert known for delivering incredible results.
Yaniv is also responsible for the rapid growth of Nextiva – a top cloud-based communication company.
With such impressive credentials and extensive experience as a marketer,
He’s the best person to talk about all things marketing.
In an intriguing chat, Jack and Yaniv talk about different tactics for becoming successful millennial marketers.
This is exclusive wisdom that today’s young marketers need so that they can succeed early in their careers.
Here are a few practical insights straight from the battlefield. Let’s dive in.
Early days. . .
Yaniv started really early in a sales role. It was an essential phase for him because beginner sales positions generally bring a ton of practical experience for marketers.
As luck would have it, the marketing manager at that company decided to leave, so there was a gap that needed to be filled.
Yaniv was allowed to join as a marketing executive (even though he had never worked in a marketing team before.) Naturally, Yaniv was able to build a foundation.
Plus, he was around an experienced CEO who knew marketing well. These formative years left a permanent impression on his mind and working approach.
… and that was really how Yaniv learned everything about the marketing function.
Then he started his journey with Nextiva, which operated out of a small office (almost the size of a minivan.) Over the years, the company grew, and it is over 1000 employees right now. The rest, they say, is history.
For a young person, is it recommended to start in sales?
If you plan to become a marketer in the future, you should know the basics of how sales funnel work, and what is the process of solving the pain for a customer.
The fact of the matter is that marketing is NEVER going to be successful without sales. You can run any campaign in the world, but if people are not signing up and you’re not able to keep customers, you know everything you’re doing is practically pointless.
So having that exposure and knowledge of the sales process are super valuable. It’s always better to have that kind of experience early on. The opportunity to have the sales skills under your belt will always prove to be significant.
Marketers should understand sales processes (and vice versa)
Just because you’re in marketing doesn’t mean you only focus on marketing. Marketers should acquire an understanding of the kind of struggles or challenges that salespeople face. Both sides need to spend time in each other’s shoes.
For instance, every salesperson should come and sit with marketers and watch how they set up a Facebook ad. It helps understand what marketers expects from them and how a salesperson can respond in the best possible way. That’s something Nextiva did right from the day one.
Yaniv also recommends sitting on sales calls with salespeople. Such activities help you understand your prospects and customers. It’s an enriching experience for a professional who aspires to become a world-class marketer.
But why should marketers monitor sales calls?
First, you get to understand the importance of “correct messaging.” You get to hear the exact words used by the prospect.
As a marketer, you can then start to tailor your language to the same kind of words and terminologies that prospect use during day-to-day interactions.
… and this is crucial. Unfortunately, most marketers start to become so focused on their industry that they start talking and writing in a typical “industry speak.”
A budding marketer could always monitor the prospect conversation, and then use the same style, tone, and words in the blog posts, emails, white paper, and videos.
You also get to understand the buyer journey and how prospects got to where they are. You can follow the sales process that goes behind the scenes.
It’s important to know that most prospects don’t just learn about a company, then pick up the phone and talk to them.
They’re going to research on Google, check out the reviews on their favorite social platform. So understanding the entire process is priceless.
What’s the most critical skill set that a young marketer can learn?
To answer this, you need to first focus on that ONE area of marketing that you’re passionate about.
New marketers can focus on any skill that supports sales, drives revenue, and bring qualified leads.
Having said that, digital marketing, content generation, and producing organic traffic through SEO are some of the most useful skills to learn.
But, you need to understand the right approach. For instance, when it comes to content creation, don’t think in the form of a checklist (like finishing a task, finishing an asana project, or a JIRA ticket.)
Don’t just finish the project and be done. Learn the real art, which starts with the distribution. Understand the way to get people to see your content and get it in front of more eyes. Distribution is arguably the most defining part of the game.
You can use old content and repurpose it through various social channels. For that to happen, you need to make x variations with x different messages for that one piece of content.
The problem is that most marketers do not understand social media. They don’t have the skills.
… and it is not rocket science. Everything comes down to using your posts in more than one form, through multiple channels.
So one needs to be resourceful, posting the same thing but maybe in different ways to increase engagement. Use different types of curation and creative at your disposal (like convert blog posts into short video messages.)
It’s time for innovation
A lot of poor marketing is a result of copying competitors. It’s the safest thing to watch your competitors and then make moves based on what they’re doing.
You should surely look at your competitors as inspiration but use out-of-box thinking to try new ways to market your offerings.
As a leader, you need to push the limits. As a marketing leader, you are required to foster an environment that allows others to succeed while letting them run with fresh ideas.
That’s how you support creativity – NOT when you shoot everything down and force people to follow a specific process.
Conclusion
Here’s what Nextiva does well. It brings together employees, prospects, customers, and every other stakeholder. The entire organization is good at managing relationships.
… and that’s the real key. Everything starts with relationships and internal communication.
With that in mind, here’s a bonus tip. Let’s present a unique (FREE) tactic that helps Nextiva gather a thousand impressions with minimal effort. The technique is called “LinkedIn takeovers.”
Essentially what happens is that the marketing team picks a topic every day and try to get as many people in the company to post whatever they want on that topic.
These messages are pushed out on LinkedIn, and Nextiva gets the highest degree of engagement over a hundred thousand views through their employee’s profiles.
This is so much better than using ONLY one single company profile page to advance your message.
It then becomes one of the best ways to turn every employee in your company into a marketer in one broad stroke (leading to massive ROI through simple innovation.)
Something young marketers can learn from!
There you have it – some real-life practical wisdom from a proven expert.
Now we’d like to hear your thoughts:
Considering how quickly the world of marketing changes, you might have some ideas of your own to share.
Go ahead and leave a comment and let us know.
