Spark discussions that matter – Robert Dekker, global marketing guru

Carlota Pico recently got to talk with England-based Robert Dekker, former chief marketing officer at CPIC Global. This international real estate company specializes in investment opportunities in Pakistan, and particularly projects that are linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, part of China’s One Belt One Road initiative. Robert shared how CPIC is opening audiences’ eyes to the reality of present-day Pakistan through content creation, how the company managed to double its social media reach and engagement in less than two years, and some sage old-school advice for great marketing.

Watch the full conversation in our YouTube video above, and listen to our podcast and read our recap below.

Key takeaways

The division between sales and marketing has largely dissolved, which is a result of how people throughout the B2B and B2C sectors inform themselves. Now you have to work harder to get the right people in the right conversation at the right time.

Database management products such as Salesforce are great tools to use as your customer base grows. However, if you don’t know who people are and the value they have, then a large database is somewhat futile.

Pre-pandemic, CPIC relied heavily on sales events, investment seminars and other gatherings that allowed for face-to-face conversations. Interactions are different now; potential customers want to cut to the chase. You have to meet their new needs, which in CPIC’s case meant creating more marketing materials such as brochures.

When it comes to generating leads and attracting followers, keep in mind that some channels are great for audience interaction, while others are better for providing information or creating content that audiences can easily share. Know your channels and their functions, and don’t blindly jump on bandwagons.

Try not to overload customers with useless or unnecessary information; you want to make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for. Great content is simple and transparent.

You have to start with your customer—not with your product, or your service, or what you think is right—and build everything around that.

Rapid-fire recs

A book that you’d recommend?

I recently read “Eyes Wide Open,” which touches on the notion that in a world of information overload and so-called “experts” and “influencers,” we have to be much more critical of the information we consume and how it affects us.

Your favorite app at the moment?

I’ve been using Drops to brush up on my French and German skills during these last few months, since we’ve been at home quite a lot. I like this app because it’s not traditional learning; it’s gamified learning, so it’s easy to spend time on the app and have fun while learning at the same time.

An event that you find valuable?

To be honest, the fact that we’ve eased out of lockdown and I can see my family and friends again is the biggest and most important “event” that I have at the moment. I think we’ve all come to really appreciate human connection and interaction recently.

Connect with Robert and Carlota on LinkedIn.

This post was edited by Mary Kresge, a freelance content creator based in Madrid.