Here is a transcript generated by otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with Carolina Grønsleth, marketing manager for EMEA at Pexip, on authentic content marketing:

Shaheen Samavati 0:12
Hi everyone. I’m Shaheen from The Content Mix and I’m excited to be here with Carolina Grønsleth, marketing manager for EMEA at Pexip, a video conferencing company with headquarters in Norway. Thanks so much for joining us, Carolina.

Carolina Grønsleth 0:25
Thanks for having me.

Shaheen Samavati 0:27
So can you start out by introducing yourself and telling us a bit about what you do and what you do at Pexip?

Carolina Grønsleth 0:32
Yeah, sure. So my name is Carolina, like you pronounced perfectly. I’m the marketing manager for EMEA at Pexip. I started in April this year and I’ve done a little bit of everything since then. The company is growing at a super speed, we’re adding more marketing resources and fortunately, I’m able to narrow in on large event planning, partner marketing and partner enablement.

Shaheen Samavati 1:07
Okay and what was it like starting a new role in the middle of lockdown? It was April, when you started, right?

Carolina Grønsleth 1:15
Yeah, absolutely. So actually I was in quarantine, I was coming from New York and I had to stay in for two weeks. I basically started my time in Pexip at home from my own Mac, meeting everyone and doing trainings on video. So definitely a new experience, I think I was a little bit caught off guard how easy it would be to get integrated and get to know people. Within a week and a half, I think I had met 20-30 people from about 10-15 different countries. I would definitely not be able to have done that working across EMEA, meeting so many partners in that short amount of time.

Shaheen Samavati 2:02
So could you tell me a bit about what a typical day at work is like for you and your areas of responsibility, being responsible for EMEA marketing?

Carolina Grønsleth 2:11
Yeah. Typically, we have touch points with the internal teams, the field marketers, now we’re adding local resources to DACH regions, EMEA etc. So we have some touch points and then usually I have some meetings with two or three or four partners to either plan new activities, or check in on ongoing initiatives that we have. Lately, I’ve spent a lot of time working on our customer and partner summit. So we had our partner summit last week, virtually for the first time. I think last year in person, we were about a hundred people that met in Oslo, and this year we were 538 partners from 143 partners, and 250 local partner offices around the region. So it’s pretty incredible, the options and the reach that you have, when you do these things virtually.

Shaheen Samavati 3:20
Do you have any tips for how you’re able to make this virtual version of events so successful because it’s not so easy to go from in person events to virtual and have that level of participation?

Carolina Grønsleth 3:34
Absolutely. There’s a couple of reasons, we have a very dedicated group of channel partners that we work very closely with. So obviously, that plays a role. We really acknowledge the fact that there’s a lot of video meeting fatigue out there right now, the market just exploded with virtual events after the pandemic hit, right? People are just a little bit tired of virtual events, so we just decided to keep it simple, keep it really short. I think most of the sessions were, we had like 10 minute updates from each of the departments throughout our company that deals with partners, customer success, professional development, learning and enablement, etc. So we kept those super short, just a 10 minute update on what we’ve done the past year and what we’re doing to enable them for the coming year. The largest part of our event was a one and a half hour session of product updates, we have like 10 new features that we’re launching, so that was the major part. So I would just say, keep it short, keep it simple, allow for them to engage with you. Ask for questions that they may have, etc.

Shaheen Samavati 5:02
So making it practical and to the point so people know it’s going to be a good use of their time?

Carolina Grønsleth 5:07
Exactly. The survey results spoke for themselves. I think 70-80% were more motivated to work with us after after the event. They said it was just the right length and amount of content covered.

Shaheen Samavati 5:28
Very cool, it sounds like a super successful event. For context, could you tell us a little bit more about what Pexip does?

Carolina Grønsleth 5:37
Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned earlier that Pexip is a video conferencing provider. We specialize in simplifying complex video conferencing infrastructure. It’s a cloud based platform and it’s built to be infinitely scalable. We also help companies to integrate traditional video systems like Microsoft Teams and Google meet and also video conferencing units that you would have in your office space. Our customers range from medium sized businesses to global conglomerates and nonprofit organisations. We work with, I think now, it’s more than 15% of Fortune 500 companies, including Spotify, Vodafone, PayPal, and we also work with US department and Veterans Affairs. So government and health, etc.

Shaheen Samavati 6:38
Cool. So it’s a brand that’s B2B, enterprise level solution. So it’s maybe not something that the average consumer has heard of, but it sounds like it’s very widespread, working behind the scenes there and companies. Could you tell me more about who’s your target audience, especially when we’re talking about content marketing?

Carolina Grønsleth 7:00
Yeah, absolutely. So our target audience is IT decision makers, obviously, especially in large enterprises that have complex IT infrastructure. Most companies that we work with have about three to five different video conferencing systems or communication platforms. So simplifying their workflows and making sure that those can speak to each other, basically. We’re like the translating agency in between, but we also offer high quality video meetings, which we pride ourselves in. If you’re on video meetings for eight hours or more a day the audio quality and video quality really matters.

Shaheen Samavati 7:49
Yeah, absolutely. I imagine it’s more important than ever right now with the huge increase and use of video conferencing?

Carolina Grønsleth 7:59
Exactly.

Shaheen Samavati 8:04
Could you tell me what it’s been like and what your approach to marketing has been, like been like this year? Do you have any examples of any campaigns or content that you’ve put out that’s been really effective?

Carolina Grønsleth 8:16
Yeah. So obviously it’s been a challenging year. You know positively, we’re incredibly fortunate to be providing video conferencing in a time of a pandemic where everyone is working remotely and working from home. In terms of messaging, we wanted to make sure that we keep it authentic, and we want to be a supportive part throughout this process of communicating how we can support, how we can enable corporations to meet in a better way, without feeding into that fear. I think we focussed a lot on what are the issues that are going on that people are experiencing now and building up the content that will help people collaborate and meet in a better way. So one campaign that we recently launched is a new video series called Leading in a Changed World. This is Pexip’s guide to supporting remote workers and supporting them through business continuity during this difficult time. So we’re meeting with futurists, business leaders, world record holders, body language experts. So the overarching theme is communication, but we don’t mention any product. So one really, really cool video interview that we did using the Pexip service was to do the meeting interview remotely. We had this interview with Justin Martin, who was the youngest person to sail around the world and share his experience on how he was dealing with isolation. He was on the road or sailing for 328 days alone. So we’re gathering that, meeting with interesting people and sharing those tips and tricks on how you deal with isolation as we are keeping our families and everything like that at home. That was a really cool campaign.

Shaheen Samavati 10:48
Yeah, we’ll definitely have to include the link to that in our blog post that goes along with this episode. So you’re working with the EMEA region, could you tell us what does that mean? Which markets do you work with? How do you localize or how do you make your content resonate in the different geographies that you work in?

Carolina Grønsleth 11:11
Great question. So now, I think we’ve more than doubled our team in the last couple of months since I started in April. We’ve added local field marketers to the EMEA region, the DACH region, we’re now looking to hire someone in the UK and Ireland. So that allows us to do a lot more when it comes to localizing our content and our ongoing campaign. Obviously, that’s more challenging than ever, because it’s not like we can sit down and make a one year plan and then stick to that in terms of localising the main themes that we want to run with. The success factor here has been working super closely with the local sales teams and then adopting the messaging there, depending on if you’re in lockdown, or you’re moving back into the office or back to lockdown again. So it’s constantly changing, we have to be really agile and just pivot and change our messaging weekly. So it’s definitely a challenge but we’ve been successful working closely with the local teams, getting their support to make sure that we’re on point and that we’re relevant, that we’re addressing the challenges and the pains that the local customers are experiencing.

Shaheen Samavati 12:48
I’m debating whether to ask more about that. Do you actually work in the different languages in the markets or is it more just like adapting the approach?

Carolina Grønsleth 12:55
Yeah, we work in local languages as well. So we translate our campaigns into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, we localize both language wise, but also in terms of messaging.

Shaheen Samavati 13:12
Absolutely.

Carolina Grønsleth 13:13
So it’s quite an extensive operation that requires a lot of teamwork and everybody pitching in to help us with that. Now that we’ve grown so much, we’re engaged with a local translation agency that will help support us in the bigger projects like, one pagers, white papers or website translations, etc. Obviously for the local campaigns, we rely heavily on sales, because they’re the ones who know the customers best. They know the pain points. They know what’s relevant and current.

Shaheen Samavati 13:51
Yeah, that makes sense. So let’s go to your personal story. Can you tell us more about your background and how you got into marketing in the first place?

Carolina Grønsleth 14:02
Yeah, so that’s I would say a series of random events. I would say it started when I was 18-19. I wanted to go backpacking, but I hadn’t applied to a college after high school or anything like that, and I really did not want to go to school. I just wanted to experience the world and meet new people. So my mom obviously saw her chance to bargain with me. So we made a deal because I needed to move back home. I moved out when I was 17 and I took my last year of high school in a different city in Norway. So when I then needed to move back to save money for this backpacking trip, she saw her opportunity and she made a deal with me. She said, if you apply to college to get a degree, I don’t care what it is just get one, you can live with me for a year to work and save money. So I did that and I applied for one school and that was Berkeley College in New York. So I studied fashion and marketing actually, I wasn’t too keen on the fashion part so I stuck with marketing and management. Then I lived there for three years to get my degree, I worked for a year in a shop in Soho and then I moved back to Norway. The first job that I got in Norway was with EF Education, which worked with language education, where I did sales and marketing. Then an old coworker of mine there had moved on to another job, and they needed another teammate to work with the largest real estate and hotel mogul in Norway. So I moved over there to work more specifically with marketing campaigns, supporting mall managers doing different and engaging digital campaigns, but also events at the actual malls. Then from there, I moved on to work as a marketing manager for Norway for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, I worked there for about two years. Then I saw this awesome opportunity in Pexip, but I really wanted to go back to working for a smaller, more agile company. I saw this opportunity for Pexip. I checked them out and I saw on their website that one of their corporate or company values was no bullshit and I just thought, yes, this is a fresh and cool company to work with. They’re pretty small, it’s like this little Norwegian IT adventure.

Shaheen Samavati 16:54
So it’s actually your first time working at a regional level in EMEA, right? So how is it different what you’re doing now, compared to what you did before?

Carolina Grønsleth 17:08
It’s definitely more challenging in the sense of juggling the cultural aspects and language, not only the language but the tone of voice, right? Like the German market tends to be more formal, Norway is very informal, Spain and Italy has a totally different culture. So there’s a lot more considerations to make before you go live with any type of campaign. You really need to consider your messaging and have that last quality check and work closely with the sales team to ensure that you’re hitting the spot.

Shaheen Samavati 17:51
Absolutely. So, what do you think are the most important skills for marketers today?

Carolina Grønsleth 17:59
Oh, gosh. Tricky question.

Shaheen Samavati 18:04
Or in your role, for example, what skills do you think are important?

Carolina Grønsleth 18:09
I think it’s really, really important to be able to stay in tune and stay relevant. I think also, it’s a benefit if you’re a great storyteller, to have the ability to identify those great stories, because a lot of the steps that we work with now is creating advocacy pieces, and thought leadership content, and that sort of stuff. So I think that’s definitely helpful. But in terms of your personal skills, being agile, being flexible, being able to juggle all these different projects and requirements and changes, it changes all the time, especially now. You have to be able to just jump on the next train and leave a project behind that wasn’t working, or is not relevant anymore. So being able to navigate in a chaotic environment, stay cool and stay authentic, stay transparent and honest, and all that stuff.

Shaheen Samavati 19:17
Yeah, being multifaceted as well. Marketing now not only requires all those creative skills that you’re talking about, but a lot of technical skills as well. So it’s something where you have to stay on your toes, no?

Carolina Grønsleth 19:32
Exactly. Well said.

Shaheen Samavati 19:38
Any advice you would give to someone just starting out today in marketing?

Carolina Grønsleth 19:43
Yeah, definitely. I read this article, when I was in between my education job and the Pure Marketing job that I did with the malls. It basically said that women tend to self limit a lot more than men do. So I think we’re like 50% less likely to apply for a job if we don’t meet 100% of the requirements. So that really made an impact. This was credible research, I think it was Harvard Business Review or something like that. So I figured if they did all this research on that, it’s probably true. So I’m gonna keep that in the back of my head for every opportunity that I see or I’m presented to. I don’t self limit and I don’t self reject. If I want to do something, I’m curious and I would love to do something, I’ll just apply for that job, I’ll ask for that opportunity and be a little bit unafraid and fierce in the way that you approach new challenges and new things that you’ve never done before. I think that’s the most important advice. I have this friend, she has a engineering degree but she’s still working in retail. A lot of her study buddies all have jobs, but she keeps revisiting her degree book because she wants to brush up on her knowledge before she applies for the job. So that’s the type of stuff that I’m talking about, go for the opportunities and let other people do the rejection part for you. I think if you get rejected, see that as an opportunity to explore something new or learn from that, what could you do differently.

Shaheen Samavati 21:50
Yeah, that’s great advice. Put yourself out there and take chances. Cool. So I wanted to ask you about some of your recommendations. First of all about how do you stay up to date on marketing trends?

Carolina Grønsleth 22:04
Yeah, good one. I don’t know if I do this very efficiently but I do have this method where I need to stay on top of my blood sugar. So I book this 30 minute slot in my workday, where I call it eat and read. So whenever I find an article or video, or report that I want to read that I don’t have time to visit here and now. I’ll save that in an inbox in my Outlook, and revisit that once I have that little lunch break. I think the most frequent time when I do professional development is from a specific relevant issue or a problem. Something that hasn’t been working, then Google is my best friend. I just go out there and explore, you write your pain point out there or your issue, then somebody else has already thought about that. So I get inspiration and professional development from anywhere, everywhere, all the time.

Shaheen Samavati 23:14
So I guess I can also count that as your productivity hack. That’s one of my usual questions too.

Carolina Grønsleth 23:18
Oh that’s a good question. I’m kind of OCD about this kind of stuff. So in my calendar, I use color coding for the different types of meetings that I have. So I use categories in Outlook to color code the different types of meetings that I have. So if I have an internal meeting, that’s purple. If I have a partner meeting, that’s orange, if I have my eat and read, that’s yellow, because yellow is professional development. That really allows me to get a quick look at my week and say, there’s just too much internal meetings here, which ones can I cut? Which ones can be an email, which one can be just a quick video meeting to make a decision about something or check in. Then I revisit where are my partners, who haven’t I spoke to for a while or heard from in a while and I revisit the projects, etc. So I think using color codes and always being aware of what meetings or what you’re spending your time on is definitely a big one. I try to keep the internal meetings on a minimum and spend as much time as I can with the partners.

Shaheen Samavati 23:41
That’s that’s a very cool tip. I’m gonna try that. I don’t know if it’s possible with Google Calendar, I’m gonna look into it.

Carolina Grønsleth 24:52
It really works.

Shaheen Samavati 24:53
Yeah I never thought about it that way. When you see you have all these meetings and they all look the same, having colors would really help to keep track of where you’re spending time on what kinds of tasks, right?

Carolina Grønsleth 25:04
Yeah, exactly.

Shaheen Samavati 25:07
So I also wanted to ask if you recommend any favorite software tool or app right now that you’ve discovered recently?

Carolina Grønsleth 25:17
Not discovered recently, but I use an app called Lumosity. I do it every night and I have a reminder before I go to bed to do my Lumosity training. It’s like an online programme app consisting of games that claim to improve your memory attention, flexibility, speed processing and problem solving. It’s really fun but I also feel that it does help with concentration, logical thinking and that sort of stuff. I don’t know if that’s a placebo effect or not, but when assembling IKEA furniture with my boyfriend, I’m definitely a lot snappier when it comes to figuring out which bolts and screws go where.

Shaheen Samavati 26:09
I won’t tell him you said that. So who’s a professional role model or a source of inspiration?

Carolina Grønsleth 26:23
Great question and I wish I had a great answer for this because I think it’s really cool when other people do that. But I get my inspiration from wherever and whenever. I have the Medium app on my phone and I do visit that whenever I have a free moment. I obviously, like everyone else, will check into TED Talks every now and then, and also something else called BrightTALK, which is really great. So that’s part of my 30 minute lunch break, I’ll watch a little short webinar on content creation, or digital marketing or whatever, just to squeeze in some professional development inspiration. But I don’t really have one source, of inspiration or a person or a role model.

Shaheen Samavati 27:31
No, those are all great sources of inspiration. Do you recommend any other resources for marketers like online communities, publications, podcasts, anything that just stands out?

Carolina Grønsleth 27:48
I think BrightTALK. I really like it. They have tonnes of different topics, so it’s easy to filter and search, if you have a specific area that you want to visit more.

Shaheen Samavati 28:02
Okay, definitely will check that one out. So we’re reaching the end of the interview, so I just wanted to give you the chance to share any parting advice or final takeaways for other content marketers in Europe?

Carolina Grønsleth 28:13
Yeah, I would say keep it real, keep it authentic. I think once we revisit our messaging, and ask is this resonating with us, is it resonating with our regional teams? You’ll be successful in your campaign. That’s obviously hard to do because you fall into a track of your habits or your planned campaigns but I think it’s super important to just check in and reevaluate all the time is this current, is this relevant, especially in times like these.

Shaheen Samavati 28:15
Yeah, definitely. Well, that’s a great note to end on. Thank you so much, Carolina, for sharing your insights with us today.

Carolina Grønsleth 28:57
Thank you so much for having me.

Shaheen Samavati 29:04
Yeah, thank you. Thanks everybody for listening in. For more perspectives on content marketing in Europe check out TheContentMix.com and keep tuning into the podcast for daily interviews with content experts. See you next time. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai