Sharon Cronin had a deep love of reading and consuming content as a child, so it wasn’t a surprise that she found herself working in marketing as an adult. After completing her master’s degree in marketing at the Technological University of Dublin, she worked a variety of marketing roles across companies in her native Ireland. Late last year, she settled into her current role at Schneider Electric.

As the marketing manager for Ireland, Sharon is responsible for acting as the voice of the consumer for the Irish market and making sure everything—down to the finest of details, such as graphics on emails—is localized.

In today’s episode, Sharon sits down with Shaheen Samavati to discuss the importance of localized content and what’s unique about marketing in Ireland. She also offers advice on how to create stand-out digital events and the most important skills for marketers today.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or on YouTube, and listen to the podcast on Apple or Spotify.

Rapid-fire recs

  • Sources of inspiration:
    • Anne O’Leary, CEO of Vodafone Ireland. “What I’ve always admired about her is that even though she’s in such a mega role, she always makes time for other things, like exercise. She’s a firm believer in having a work-life balance and not letting your health fall to the wayside.”
    • Kelly Becker, Zone President for Schneider Electric UK & Ireland. “In the short time that I’ve known her, she’s fascinated me. She’s not afraid to take chances and juggles a lot of things at once. She’s someone I’d consider a role model.”
  • Productivity hacks:
    • To-do lists. “I have a notebook on hand at all times. I also try to adopt the ‘two-minute rule.’ It’s very easy to get distracted when you’re getting notifications for things left and right. But if I look at something and see that it can be done in two minutes, I’ll do it. If not, it goes on the to-do list.”
    • Walking meetings. “Now that everyone’s working remotely, it really helps to get up and get some fresh air, especially when trying to brainstorm. It reduces distractions, gets the blood flowing and brightens up your day. It also helps to provide a sense of normalcy now.”
  • Favorite platform: LinkedIn. “It’s great for networking and sharing content, among other things. It has lots of great features, whether or not you’re doing paid media campaigns or organic sharing.”
  • Useful resources:
    • Product Marketing Alliance. “I obtained a product marketing certificate through them and I was just blown away by the content they have—they’re unbelievable. The course itself was excellent and their continuous learning is absolutely excellent as well.”
    • HubSpot. “Inbound marketing is something I really care about and their blogs and white papers have always been great and up to date.”
    • The Content Mix. “It’s brilliant to see what people from different industries and careers can bring to the table. It’s always great to learn from people and their accomplishments.”
    • Econsultancy and LinkedIn Learning. “They both run excellent courses. I love the variety of options and the fact that many of them are easy to take on. When you’re working full time, it can be difficult to take on big courses.”

I’m a firm believer that to drive marketing, we need good content. After all, it’s in everything we do. We’re not going to make the sale—that’s what the sales team is for—but we’re working with the sales team and giving them the content and resources to back up what they’re doing and be successful.

Connect with Sharon and Shaheen on LinkedIn.

This post was edited by Mary Kresge.

For more insights into localized content:

To see the full transcript, click on page number 2 below.

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