Here is a transcript generated by otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with Janine Michaels, marketing content manager at Featurespace, on how to manage content campaigns:

Shaheen Samavati 0:12
Hi everyone. I’m Shaheen from The Content Mix and I’m excited to be here with Janine Michaels, marketing content manager at Featurespace, which is a B2B software company specialized in fraud and financial crime prevention. Thanks so much for joining us Janine.

Janine Michaels 0:25
Thanks Shaheen. I was very honored by the invitation to join you and all the folks here on The Content Mix. Some background about who I am, like you said, I’m at Featurespace, we specialze in solutions for fraud and financial crime detection and prevention. It’s very exciting stuff, I work with a lot of very clever people. I’ve always worked in the technology sector and actually, it started many years ago at Autonomy Systems Ltd. I started in sales, but I realized that sales is a very hard job and that it’s difficult in a different way for marketing. I also had a great understanding of what the value of marketing is to the sales process and that intrigued me. So I was lucky enough in my following job at Transversal to get an opportunity to move into marketing and I’ve loved it since. I think I’ve been in marketing for 14 years now and it’s been a good journey. So I’ve seen a lot of changes in the digital innovations, how we started measuring marketing as well, there’s been a real journey, but I think we’ve come a long way in terms of the accountability that’s added on to the marketing work we do, we have to be so much more accountable from 15 years ago. It’s not just, here’s a nice brochure, it’s what has that achieved. So it’s been a real journey but I’m very, very excited about where I am now. I’ve got a great team that I’m part of and we have a great story to tell at Featurespace. We’ve just recently won an award last week, as a fast track innovator at the Hong Kong FinTech festival and they keep coming, we’re really busy. So we’ve got offices across a couple of regions. We have a team in Singapore. In Europe we have colleagues, two offices and we have a team in the US. The office is in Atlanta but we have people spread across the country. So Featurespace is doing really well. This year has unfortunately been a strange year for everybody. It’s been more strange in terms of the rising fraud and financial crime in general. We’ve got a lot of stories to tell and talk about the effects it’s having on just everyday people. Personally, I’ve been a victim this year already of a fraud attack, my bank was fantastic at catching it, the process they had in place was wonderful. They’re a Featurespace customer, by the way. I think everybody in my life and personal life have been victims of fraud this year in some shape or form. So we have a really strong agenda, we have a good story to tell and we have the technical expertise to back it up. Our technology started out of Cambridge University with absolute brains. Some of my colleagues, I consider them to be geniuses. So there’s a lot of learning on my part, as well, on the marketing side and content, on understanding exactly the origins of the technology itself and how that actually works for our customers, our partners, ourselves and how that impacts society as a whole. So we have good stories to tell.

Shaheen Samavati 4:18
So you’re the marketing content manager. You’re based in the headquarters in Cambridge in the UK. What’s your typical day like in your role?

Janine Michaels 4:28
So I mentioned previously, we have a team in Singapore, so they are essentially our feet on the ground in Asia Pacific. I have at least once a week a call with the team. So my day can start quite early with a call with either just the team or sometimes with partners and customers. Then of course, we move on to Europe and all the day to day normal hours here. Then I work very closely with my colleague in US marketing and also the US Commercial team. So days can be very long and I have a lot of stakeholders that are a key part of the work that I do. As I mentioned, it ranges from our engineers, data scientists and all their input on the amazing innovations that comes out of their teams, then me having to do a lot of self discovery, understanding that technology and finding its place in the environment we work in and the addressable market, so the fraud space. Then i’m translating that into a proposition that translates all the value that we bring to the market. So a lot of stakeholders. I should mention also, I’m very lucky at Featurespace, we have an in house team of subject matter experts. They’re made up of people who come from the financial services industry and have worked in fraud and financial crime prevention. So their insights, I turn to them quite a lot for insights and steer on positioning and the content we create. It’s invaluable as a content marketer to have that in house. I work with various stakeholders so my days have a lot of meetings but it’s all for the greater good, to get things completed and out to the market.

Shaheen Samavati 6:28
So you’re managing content creators, more than creating content yourself?

Janine Michaels 6:32
So our team has grown in the last 18 months. Featurespace as a business has had an amazing growth and the marketing team as well. So prior to me joining, I just celebrated my one year birthday at Featurespace last week, so I joined last November. My role was new to the business and the team because prior to that the content creation discipline was really split across the small team that they were at the time. Content is something somebody needs to own, somebody needs to be responsible and be a custodian of because it’s a discipline that needs time and focus, bringing people together and thought leaders etc. So Featurespace identified that as a key part of what we needed to do, so I came on board in that role. So I am working with a lot of different people but I also create the content as well alongside other people.

Shaheen Samavati 7:45
I see. So it’s a mix of content creation management, collaborating with other content creators and internal and external stakeholders. So your target audience, you mentioned that you have a lot of different stakeholders, but who are you really creating the content for?

Janine Michaels 8:01
So we’re very fortunate in fraud and financial crime prevention. We’re very clear about who we want to work with and what we are addressing for the market. So that’s a really clear first point of call. So anyone whose job is around risk and fraud prevention, detection and financial crime, money laundering, those are the kinds of people we are trying to reach. Essentially what we do at Featurespace, with the ARIC Risk Hub which is our platform, is we’ve created a platform or tool for analysts or investigators in fraud and money laundering, to help automate some of the detection that is just really impossible for people to spot by eye. We create so much data now, there’s so many data points that you can use on a customer. So your behaviour as a customer might be different from how I purchase or use my card, for instance. If I regularly spend money every day at Costa Coffee in the morning, buying coffee, that’s normal for me, but if you do it out of the blue in London, but you’re actually based in Madrid, that, probably you can infer, is a bit suspicious. What we do is we take a lot more data points, a more holistic view of the whole behavior, then we are able to say that this really is out of character for Shaheen. So yes we do talk to a lot of tech scientists and technical people, but we address issues that actually people who are at the frontline of fighting fraud in financial institutions, that’s who we write for and share what we do in that for them.

Shaheen Samavati 10:01
These are people working inside of the financial institutions, I suppose?

Janine Michaels 10:05
Yeah, payment processors. So yeah, finance based.

Shaheen Samavati 10:09
I see. So could you share an example of a campaign or a piece of content that worked really well for you?

Janine Michaels 10:16
So I think saying this is probably speaking the same old drum but I do think it’s worth mentioning. We started this year at Featurespace with all the best laid plans, like everybody else in the world, every business, every marketer. Because I was also new into the role I had a really great plan, it was going to be so amazing. Very quickly, I think it was the 16th of March, we were told in the UK to work from home just before the lockdown started. We knew from the very next day that we needed to change our plans so we did that. So yes, although we were reactive, so was the rest of the world. I think the manner in which we proactively changed our plans and our tactics, it’s really testament to the people I work with, it was amazing. So all the campaigns we ran this year have delivered something for us and we’re very proud of that, under the circumstances. If I had to call a real example of a campaign, in a previous role I worked in. Sometimes as a business, you have this outlier customer who’s bought your software or your product and the used case is there, you understand because they bought it. But you have suspicions that perhaps there’s actually more of a used case for the industry as a whole. So, for us to validate this, I should mention the customer was in real estate for estate agents, as we call them in UK. We wanted to validate their suspicions, so we decided to do a test campaign and see if our suspicions were right. So we set aside some budget but what we did was, we engaged with an industry expert. This guy is really just groundbreaking in the field of smarter homes, connected devices and all these sorts of things and just new homes, homes of the future and how they would look, what they would look like. So we engaged with him, we also engaged with the leading industry publication. Between those two parties, we got really, really useful, really valid, really great insights, not just on the issues that we wanted to address with our solution, but actually on the behaviour of the industry, like what resonates with them. So that really influenced how we approached the campaign, the content we created and where we wanted to reach the people, which was really helpful. The marquee point of that campaign was a lunch and learn that we organised at a venue in London. Within an hour of the first invite going out, we were oversubscribed. I think it’s testament to the effort we put in, but also relying on people who know what they’re talking about, using external expertise. We only know what we know, it’s important to try and fact check and sanity check that your story is the story that people will react to. So I think that’s a good example of really reaching out to not just people inside your immediate network, but also outside that really have that value that you’re looking for to bring to the market.

Shaheen Samavati 14:02
On the topic of sourcing content, I imagine in a company like Featurespace, you have a lot of subject matter experts among your ranks, but those people might not be the same people who are writing the content. So how do you get all that expertise into your content? I know that’s a challenge a lot of content marketers face.

Janine Michaels 14:22
So that’s where all the meetings come in, right? I think one of the key things for me is really to make sure you get a good brief at the early stages, it’s really important. Part of creating the brief for me, a lesson that I’ve learned, is at that stage really considering who are the stakeholders in this process, in this project and going to them and understanding. For us the stakeholders vary from technical to commercial side and in between. So it’s really important to hear from the respective individuals what it is they perceive this project to be, the story to be, the theme to be, how they see that working for us, for instance, at Featurespace. Then the trick is to actually bring that together and then the next step for me is to condense that, put it back out to everyone, give everyone a chance again to review that. Hopefully you’ve covered everybody’s angle or insight that they bring. Once you’ve got that agreed, you need to continuously socialise that through the business and to all the stakeholders. I think by way of communicating constantly what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, you get an opportunity to get constant feedback, as well. You stay top of mind with the project that you’re doing, the topic you’re working on. I think there’s another element to this where actually, by way of keeping people in the loop, you might go off to another meeting and something comes up in there or somebody mentions something. You go, you know what, that’s valuable to that stuff Shaheen’s working on, so that helps with that. So it’s tough, but you have to put yourself in a position where you’re actually quite eager to reach people. If they don’t want to talk to you, that’s up to them to tell you, right?

Shaheen Samavati 16:27
Yeah, definitely. So you mentioned before, from the campaign’s you’ve done this year, that you’ve gotten something out of all of them. I was curious, how do you measure the success of your campaigns?

Janine Michaels 16:40
So again, my role is new and the ownership of the content creation for campaigns and lead generation is new for us. So this year has been a lot about creating benchmark data. We do know that we had the Adobe Suite before on performance on some of the technical work we did. To date, I found out we did some reporting last week, and I’m happy to say that we’ve tripled our lead generation in numbers. I’m not going to tell you what those are. It’s a really good indicator, we’ve produced a lot of interest and a lot of engagement. So we measure by engagement and that is not just in existing accounts that we’re targeting prospects, but our customers and also of course, net new leads. So marketing qualified leads that ultimately turn into sales qualified leads and that’s looking good too. We have a long sales process at Featurespace, we have a very complex solution. It’s important we get it right, because it’s a very important issue that we’re addressing with the technology. So we need to get it right from the outset. So sales cycles can be quite long, 12 to 18 months. So all this work we’ve been able to deliver on this year should produce some great results next year. So if you talk to me again next year, hopefully I’m going to say to you we’ve just broken more and more records, right?

Shaheen Samavati 18:14
Yeah, definitely. That’s definitely true, in B2B it tends to be a long term play.

Janine Michaels 18:21
Yeah, we measure engagement and ultimtaely we measure sales qualified leads. This year has put a bit of a halt to it, but we are hoping to move more towards ABM next year.

Shaheen Samavati 18:38
I was curious, your role at Featurespace, compared to the previous places you’ve worked, is it a more high growth, changing environment than before? What challenges does that bring?

Janine Michaels 18:52
No, actually everywhere I’ve worked has been high growth, I’m used to this pace. At Featurespace, it’s my first year in the role and it’s a great company, we have a great set of values. The key ones that always resonate with me is be kind, not just to ourselves and to our colleagues, but to our customers and our partners and delight them as well. So those are important values that really the company this year has really shown us and it’s amazing. I think it’s a unique situation to comment on, is it how high growth, how fast paced is it? To me this year, yes it has been but I think it has been for everybody, because for everyone in whichever role or industry you work in, change was the order of the day this year. Everybody had to embrace change very, very quickly. So for me, I’m used to that, we are high growth company, we’ve got great ambition, so it’s not going to change for us.

Shaheen Samavati 20:08
How drastic was the change? Did you have to change the channels that you’re working? Were events part of what you did before?

Janine Michaels 20:14
Yeah.

Shaheen Samavati 20:16
So that was the main change?

Janine Michaels 20:17
Yeah, of course. So events were a pretty strong part of that, there’s key industry events like Money 20/20 that we would always go to. It’s a shame because those industries as well were obviously really badly affected this year, but a lot of them have come back strong, with strong virtual offerings but it needs work. Again, we’re a technology business, tech has always been part of what we do, we have a strong digital strategy in the team and that just keeps evolving like it should. Digital changes constantly, so we have learnt new ways of doing things as well as a business like digital tricks. I think we’ll be expanding a lot more on that going forward, because there’s a lot of value in it. We’re not unique as a business to discover that this year there’s ups and there’s a silver lining to every bad situation and we’ve learnt a lot this year.

Shaheen Samavati 21:24
Yeah. Like you said, everyone’s face changed but I think being in a very fast paced startup probably makes you more used to that change and gives you somewhat of an advantage of being able to adapt.

Janine Michaels 21:35
Yeah, totally. It’s also the nature of the industry. If you work in a company in the tech industry that isn’t, then I don’t know. I think the tech industry is superb.

Shaheen Samavati 21:51
So I want to ask you about some of your recommendations. Do you have a productivity hack you recommend?

Janine Michaels 21:59
Yeah, it’s more like a wish list, an ambition of mine, a constant goal. I really try to cram as many meetings in on a Wednesday. It’s going to sound weird, but I think that having a day of meetings on a Monday is so counterintuitive, because you’ve really just come back into the office, you really need to get back up to speed of where you left things. So giving yourself a chance to get up to speed and maybe finish a couple of things in time for meetings that you need to present, that’s important. So Wednesdays, I try to cram in as many meetings as I possibly can. Then I have Monday and Tuesday to really ramp up, present where I’ve got to up to at that point, then Thursday and Friday I move things forward after those meetings, after the feedback, the next steps. So Wednesdays, I try to have my meetings.

Shaheen Samavati 23:04
It’s a Wednesday today.

Janine Michaels 23:06
Yeah. I think the other thing that’s not as much of a productivity hack, but I also have a little bit of a pet peeve about is people asking for deadlines to be on a Friday, especially close of business because nobody does anything with it until Monday. With content, sometimes you’re so engrossed in it and so much in the thick of it, of the story you’re telling, having two days like Saturday and Sunday away from it is good. Sometimes I find myself on the Sunday going, I forgot to include that, we should talk about that. Then on Monday morning, at least you have a chance to revise again and include it. So yeah, I also wouldn’t ask deadlines at close of business on Fridays, I always put Monday lunchtime.

Shaheen Samavati 24:06
That’s a good tip for anyone who’s assigning content. So do you have any apps that you recommend or favorite app of late?

Janine Michaels 24:17
Yeah. So I have a couple of apps that i’m pretty much addicted to. One of them is such an old game. It’s called Jungle Marble Blast and it’s basically a frog just shooting balls and I find it quite cathartic. It’s really mindless and I don’t have to think too much so I really enjoy that. I also have one, it’s called Design Home and you just earn points and I love the rewards from decorating rooms.

Shaheen Samavati 24:50
Fun recommendations, I like it.

Janine Michaels 24:55
I like to unwind quite a lot, I need to do something low need on the mental capacity, you know?

Shaheen Samavati 25:06
Yeah, definitely. Who’s a leader who inspires you?

Janine Michaels 25:13
There’s a few and I chose Jacinda Adern because I think she’s taken a lot of flak this year. It’s not about the women angle necessarily, I think it’s the leadership angle. She’s just really taken a lot of criticism, but she stuck to her plan and it’s really delivered. I have family in New Zealand, and they are extremely proud of their leader and that’s, what you want, right? She’s pretty amazing.

Shaheen Samavati 25:50
Definitely. Any recommended group or hashtag to follow?

Janine Michaels 25:55
So this isn’t marketing related or business or technology. A very good friend of mine is involved with an organization in Cambridge called the Cambridge Rare Disease Network. They’re having a “Rare Fest”, they call it and it’s virtual like everybody else’s events this year. I think it’s in a few weeks but the hashtag for that is #RAREfest20 and it’s the Cambridge Rare Disease Network. I wanted to talk about them because COVID is such a rare occurrence, hopefully. It also proves how something can come from nowhere and really disrupt and destroy lives. COVID is getting a lot of attention, because of the number of people it affects, but there are people that have very rare and unique diseases that don’t get the same research, input or funding to find solutions for that. So what they do is very, very special. So yeah, take a look at what they do.

Shaheen Samavati 27:03
Sounds like a great cause to support, I’ll definitely share that with our audience. We’re reaching the end of the interview but I just wanted to give you the chance to share any parting advice for other content marketers in Europe.

Janine Michaels 27:16
So I kind of touched on all of these before. For me, get a good comprehensive brief at the get go and make sure you include all the right stakeholders as well. If you’re not sure who they are, ask. That’s really, really important. Get a good brief in place, make sure you’ve covered all the bases, socialise it constantly, communicated it to all the stakeholders and anyone else who wants to listen, because it makes your job easier when you get to go live. People are already anticipating it, and they bought into it, so there’s a lot of internal selling that’s been done if you keep communicating it through the right people and the people who need to know. Then time, I always ask for time, time is such a gift when you work in our roles. You need time to research in my job and I think everybody else in content. It’s important to also learn, we’re constantly learning about new topics we have to address, right? So you need time to get yourself educated, then you need it to sink in and then you need to connect it and that’s with your own internal story but also the external story. So time is important. So factor in a lot of time on projects as well, because this is always something that comes out of the left field, right?

Shaheen Samavati 28:40
Yeah, absolutely.

Janine Michaels 28:42
A good brief, communication and time.

Shaheen Samavati 28:46
Yeah, absolutely. Great tips and a great note to end on. So thank you so much Janine for sharing your insights.

Janine Michaels 28:54
Yeah, it was great being here. Good to meet you, as well.

Shaheen Samavati 28:56
You too. Thanks to everybody for listening in. For more perspectives on the content marketing industry in Europe check out TheContentMix.com and keep tuning into the podcast. See you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai