Here is a transcript generated by otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with Stephen Balogun, who is EMEA marketing manager at Cover Genius and an expert in lead nurturing:

Carlota Pico 0:13
Hi, everyone, I’m Carlota Pico from The Content Mix. And I’m excited to be here today with Stephen Balogun, who is EMEA marketing manager at Cover Genius, and has over 20 years of experience in marketing and communications. Welcome, Stephen, and thank you so much for joining us on The Content Mix.

Stephen Balogun 0:32
Hi. Thank you very much. Hello, everyone. Glad to be here today. It’s fantastic to be able to share some ideas with you.

Carlota Pico 0:41
Well, we’re all very excited to get this interview started off. Could you tell me a little bit about your background and also a bit about Cover Genius?

Stephen Balogun 0:49
Yeah, absolutely. So as you mentioned, I have over 20 years experience working within marketing. I guess I’m what you would call a generalist. Although in the latter stage of my career I’ve specialized in working within tech companies. So it all really started with Allianz or an arm of the Allianz organization. I used to work for an organization called Euler Hermes UK, which deals in credit insurance and indemnity. And I worked with them for a period of time. And that’s where I really got my formative years in marketing. And there I was marketing manager for risk services. So that was a really insightful kind of role to start within the organization. So over the years, I’ve worked in a number of different fields. I’ve worked in education in the private and public sector. And I’ve worked within media and then really, truly found my love in tech, starting with an American firm, called TechTarget, who are a publishing company, but they offer lead generation and really were at that time, at the forefront of demand gen. And that’s really where I got, you know, my grounding in demand generation, lead nurturing and sales enablement, helping sales teams to build pipelines and capitalize on that and really find an ROI for marketing spend, which has become a buy cycle of marketing now. There’s no point talking about a marketing campaign or strategy without considering what the actual ROI will be for the organization you’re working in. And then from TechTarget, I’ve then gone into technology, working with insurtech startups, working at cybersecurity firms. And yes, that’s taken me to where I am today, which is with Cover Genius, which is a fantastic organization. So, Cover Genius, just to give you guys a good insight into the organization, is an insurtech company. And you know, we’ve all had the experience of retail purchasing where we buy something online or we hire a car. And at the end, we’re offered an insurance service to protect our purchase. Well, this is where Cover Genius comes in. So they are an insurance company on the b2b side, who facilitate legacy insurers to be able to reach new markets and to take their products into the buy cycle into the purchase pathway. And on the consumer side, or the business to consumer side, on the retail side, that enabling retailers to be able to create new income streams by offering insurance at the point of sale. And, you know, they do that through the x cover platform. And then they also manage the claims process for x claims at the end. So that everything is tied in together and the purchases are made at a point of purchase. We’re seeing real, real success in doing that, both from the consumer side and from the business to business side of things. And it’s, you know, it’s a new world. It’s new world. Personalized, consumable insurance products at the point of retail. So it’s been a fantastic journey. And one that I look forward to continue.

Carlota Pico 4:28
Okay, how exciting. Well, that also makes me think about COVID-19, because I’m sure companies from around the world have had to up their game when it comes to insurance coverage during the health pandemic. How has your company played a role in terms of providing insurance to companies during these very difficult times?

Stephen Balogun 4:48
Yeah, so it’s been it’s been difficult. It’s been, you know, challenging for all of us. We now exist in a new paradigm where, you know, pandemic consideration has to be taken specifically in travel. And travel was one of our main verticals that we operated in, or operate in. And, you know, this has actually allowed us to exhibit one of our strengths, which is the agility of our business in the way that we can package insurance products to meet the consumers needs. I can’t go into too much detail. But in the next month or so, we will be releasing details of partnerships and products that we’re bringing to the market to, you know, help people at this point in time and that’s going to be something very exciting, but you know, I have to stay clear of that because I can’t give away too much information.

Carlota Pico 5:44
Okay, how exciting. Well, we look forward to learning more about that in the near future. Okay, let’s talk a little bit about skills. So skills in many cases can be taught and trained for but qualities however, are much harder to develop Stephen, so let’s say you’re promoted, I know you recently joined the company but let’s say you’re promoted and tasked with the responsibility of hiring for your current role. What qualities would you watch out for more than skills?

Stephen Balogun 6:14
Yeah, so this is a really interesting role, because obviously, it’s a leadership role within the EMEA region, but it’s also autonomous whilst not being autonomous. So that’s gonna sound quite intriguing to people who are hearing it. So my responsibilities are for the EMEA region, but I work as part of a global marketing team. I have counterparts in North America and also in APAC, and we report directly to the management team of the organization. So whilst I am responsible for delivering campaigns, projects and supporting the partnership within my region, and innovative ideas, to increase not only the brand awareness of Cover Genius, but also to create pipeline and opportunities for the partnership team. I’m also working as part of a global team, sharing ideas and supporting each other in the task of doing this on a global level. So I think one of the key skill sets that you need coming into this role is to be able to spin many plates, the ability to juggle multiple projects, the ability to communicate across different regions and cultures, and to understand the nuances of those different geographies. And also, the ability to stay awake at different times of the day, because I may be taking a call at six or 5am in the morning, but equally I could be taking a call at midnight or later. So yeah, so I think flexibility and the ability to really react spontaneously and collaborate with people from different backgrounds in different geographies, I think those are key skills that you need apart from obviously the marketing ability and experience.

Carlota Pico 8:09
Absolutely. Okay, so what about key nuances for the European market? What are some of the nuances that have really surprised you throughout your experience in marketing in the EMEA region?

Stephen Balogun 8:24
Yeah, so I mean, let’s talk about traditionally, in terms of content marketing, or direct marketing, at markets, you could not direct market to the French market or the German market in the same way that you could in the UK. For a start, there are different rules and laws around you know, the way that you can reach out and communicate with people. Obviously, we’ve got GDPR laws that we have to adhere to but in some geographies that even more stringent. So as a classic example, in Germany, you require a double opt in, you know, in order to be able to have someone in your database so these are things that you need to be aware of, you have to take into consideration when making your plans.

Carlota Pico 9:14
Okay, so now moving into your field of expertise, which is obviously lead generation, lead nurturing. First, let me define what lead nurturing is for audience. Lead nurturing is a process of developing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel and through every step of the buyers journey. So with that definition in mind, Stephen, for a b2b company, how do you map a customer’s journey?

Stephen Balogun 9:43
Yes, I’ve seen this transition. So this is quite an exciting area for me because traditionally it was about how do I present the right information at the right stage of the buy cycle to my potential clients. And the idea is, you know, if someone’s at the start of their cycle, they require more information, they require information that’s quite clear in general about what they need, because they might not even realize that they have a need. And as they move through the funnel, and they start getting into the consideration stage, this is where they start looking now, and thinking about various options to solve their problems. And you have to present yourself as an option in that and maybe compare yourself to some of the other solutions and sell the unique selling points of you know why to choose your product over another. As they get to the decision stage, they’ve probably shortlisted now and then looking at, you know, making a decision between one or two products. So this is where you start getting some testimonies in there, you start getting some product specifications out there. So you’re getting into the nitty gritty of why your product is the unique product, and how you communicate that using all the different forms is really important. Now, that all sounds, you know, quite complex, but it’s fantastic because there are many tools out there now that can help you sort of map and track all of this. So one of the things that I love doing, because you know, marketing and sales is a symbiotic relationship, despite what people might tell you. We do get on with each other. And I think increasingly we do in this day and age. One thing I like to do is to be able to show or demonstrate to my sales team the power of the lead nurture the demand generation campaigns that we’ve run. So I’m able now to illustrate where a potential lead came into the pipeline, and show all the touch points and how we’ve influenced that lead throughout the buy cycle to the point where they have had a very valued and and good conversation with sales and potentially ended up as as a client. So to be able to demonstrate that graphically, and to be able to show that, to be able to give data to the touch points is really invaluable. And you know, there are many tools out there, many CRM systems that help you do that. Currently, I’m working with one called HubSpot. But you know, there are many tools out there, Salesforce, Eloqua, there’s so many tools.

Carlota Pico 12:33
Excellent. So then my next question would be, how do you create engaging content for all those stages?

Stephen Balogun 12:41
Yeah, so it’s really taking yourself out of your position and thinking as a consumer, or as the target audience, and really thinking, right, I’m at the awareness stage, right. So what’s my mindset? Do I understand I have a problem? I’m looking for education, I’m trying to read content that’s going to engage me without, you know, boring me or giving me too much detail that I switch off. So you know, that consideration has to go into whatever content you create, be it digital content or be it video, for example. It also goes into where am I syndicating this content? Where am I putting this content? And where are people engaging with it? You know, you really need to understand the target audience. You need to break them down demographically and firm-o-graphically. So demographics being what type of person they are, what’s their role, what do they do and then firm-o-graphically in terms of the company that they work at, you know, understanding that organization, what their position is in that organization. And also, you know, it’s very important when creating content to understand that you’re influencing many people. So traditionally, you’ll hear sales and marketing say, yes, we want the head of the organization, the decision maker, that’s who we want to talk to. But the realization now is that actually decisions are made, not by individuals but by teams. So it’s very important that you’re influencing every person that’s going to be part of that decision making cycle. You know, there’s going to be a decision maker, yes absolutely. But there’ll be influencers as well. You know, there’ll be people with budgetary control, there’ll be people with operational control, and you have to ensure that the content that you’re creating is able to influence that myriad of people. So that’s really important to take into consideration.

Carlota Pico 14:47
Okay, you mentioned HubSpot as one of the tools that you use, but do you use any other tools throughout this entire process?

Stephen Balogun 14:56
Well, there’s lots of different tools that you may use. So for example, ZoomInfo is a good way to explore organizations and to try and understand who’s who within a target company. So, you know, we’ve got away from the days of what I call mass marketing, where if I’ve used the analogy of fishing, its I’m taking a big net, and I’m just throwing it out in the ocean, and I’m just trying to get any fish. We’ve moved away from that. We’re now headed towards ABM which is account based marketing. So we’re looking at what is our ideal client, how much revenue did they generate a year, what’s the size of their business, how many people do they have working for them, all of these things, right? And in order to attract that ideal client, then we start tailoring our marketing to that organization. So when looking at choosing the right bait, if I go back to my fishing analogy, so now we’re putting the right bait on our hook. And we’re not just fishing in the entire ocean, we’re fishing in a portion of the ocean where we know that the client lives or that fish lives. And then we’re gonna, you know, put our hook out and catch that fish. So that’s basically ABM and a fisherman analogy. Don’t ask me where I got that from. It’s just something that popped into my head. But that’s the analogy. And there are several tools that help you along the way, tools for understanding the organization, its revenue, what the critical roles are that you need to improve within that organization. So ZoomInfo is one that we might use. There are ready made tools out there such as LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a tool, a fantastic tool for networking and targeting your specific audience. And then getting all that information and plugging it into your CRM system, as I said before, we’re currently using HubSpot, but there are so many. And you really need to decide, you know, what are the key features that you need from your CRM system, when you make that decision, and then ensuring that the whole organization buys in and uses it because the tool is only as good as the information that’s fed into it. So there are a number of different tools out there that you could be making use of in that way.

Carlota Pico 17:27
I love your fish analogy, so I’m going to use it as well. What if my fish are spread all across the ocean? How do I target fish that are everywhere?

Stephen Balogun 17:39
Yeah, so the ocean, I guess, in the world, as we say, what you’ll notice is that there are behavioral traits for these fish, in terms of places that they go, mediums that they use, and you can’t always just shoot out and hope that you attract the fish. You have to at times go to where they are. So be at events where they congregate. These are very important and you know, personally from my perspective of my current organization, Cover Genius, we’ve gone away from the traditional just exhibiting, because that’s so yesterday. What we want to do now is we want to control the narrative, we want to tell the story. We want to be engaged in panel discussions, we want to be challenged, we want to challenge the status quo. We want to be talking to legacy providers and challenging them with the agile way that we do things now. We want to bring case studies to play but bring them to life by directly engaging with the audience. We want to be doing thought leadership pieces. So to go back to your question, what we’re doing now is we’re observing where the fish go and then we’re taking ourselves there and engaging them with the right bait at a point of contact.

Carlota Pico 19:08
Hey, I love this. I do want to put some of this theory, some of this fish theory into real life fish action. Could you talk to me about a campaign that you lead? Why you lead that campaign? What were the results? So some of the theory put into real life action and how you were able to meet all of your KPIs through that action that you took?

Stephen Balogun 19:35
Yes, I mean, I’ve touched on events. So let’s say at my previous company, I was working for a cybersecurity firm. And traditionally, before I came, whenever they went to an event, they went to a cybersecurity event. And you know, they’re surrounded by competitors and you know, people looking to purchase cybersecurity services and when I came, I said to myself, well, why do we want to be one of many? Why can’t we be one a few. So I took a look at our account list, the target audience, and looked at the product and the type of organizations that need our services. And I realized that we can verticalized it in terms of we could look at financial companies, we could look at insurance companies, we could look at retail. And then what I decided to do is rather than go to a cybersecurity specific event, I would go to a industry event. So I go to an insurance event, talking about the future of insurance. And then what I found was that we would be one cyber security firm out of maybe two out of 30 exhibitors. So all of a sudden you are unique in that audience because they’re going, they’re thinking they’re going to be speaking to technology firms in specific verticals that they used to, but they’ve not considered that actually a cybersecurity firm is going to be here. So straightaway, we get better engagement. And then what we do is we come and tell a compelling story from an insurance perspective, this is how we help insurance firms, and this is the results that we deliver. So the result of that is that the engagement goes through the roof. But not only the engagement, we’re not just talking numbers, we’re talking quality, because the type of conversations that we’re having are of so much better value to the sales team in terms of closing deals. So I made it very clear at the onset, when I started creating my demand generation plan for the year, that yes, we can talk about volume and fill in the pipeline with as many leads as possible. But actually, I’m more interested in conversion. So I want to do things that are going to mean that we might not get as many leads in the pipe, but we get a higher conversion rate. And this basically helped us achieve that goal.

Carlota Pico 22:07
Okay, I love that example. Thank you so much for zooming into it. We are going to be moving into our section of rapid fire questions which are basically your recommendations to our audience. To get the section started off, I’d like to ask you about your source of inspiration. So an influencer, professional role model that you really admire?

Stephen Balogun 22:26
Yeah. So it’s funny. One of the my biggest influences when it comes to marketing actually is a gentleman called Andrew Davis. He’s an influencer. He’s a social media influencer. He’s a friend of mine, very close friend. He’s actually my son’s godfather. We grew up together. We went to school together in university and you know, I’ve watched him grow. And Andrew Davis is someone who is able to eloquate and simplify the mysteries of digital marketing to firms and companies. So he has a lot of speaking engagements and workshops that he does with companies and brands to help them understand how to use their digital tools to really meet their business objectives. And the way he thinks and the way he creates these workshops, and the way that he teaches is really quite inspirational and the way that he sees the digital space. So he’s someone that I plug into quite a lot. We have very long conversations about the power of social media in the digital space. And, you know, it’s always interesting and hours fly by whenever we engage. So, he’s someone that inspires me. And then beyond that, on a more personal level, my biggest inspiration are my children just because it’s all for them, everything I do and the fact that they keep me motivated to keep doing the best I can every day. So that’s it. I’m not really someone that very too often looks externally for motivation. I try to motivate myself, but you know, these two motivations are critical in my development.

Carlota Pico 24:19
What a sweet response Stephen, I’m sure you inspire children equally as much as they inspire you. And moving into my next question, what groups, publications, hashtags, different types of resources would you recommend to our audience?

Stephen Balogun 24:38
Yeah, so you know, LinkedIn is a wonderful tool. It’s one that I make use of on most days. It’s a tool that allows you to subscribe to groups so that you get the bulletins and the updates in terms of what’s going on, and to be honest, I still register myself for links and threads that come through Google searches. So I get alerts. So I set alerts around news, around my industry, around insurance, around insurtech, around e commerce. So you know, those little bulletins into my inbox and digests is how I keep myself up to date with what’s going on. In terms of hashtags, that’s a really interesting question. Because I don’t subscribe to one particular hashtag. But what I tend to do is I’ll type in a hashtag, depending on my project, and see what shakes and I also have, you know, influencers that I know speak on specific topics that I tend to follow, we follow as an organization and I follow just to keep aware of what’s going on and things like that. But yeah, I guess, in a nutshell, to answer your question, social media and Google are the tools that I use to keep up to date with what’s happening.

Carlota Pico 26:05
Okay, excellent. And to finish up this interview, what’s your favorite app at the moment and why? You already mentioned LinkedIn so let’s think about a different one.

Stephen Balogun 26:19
It’s a good question actually. What do I use every day? I do use Twitter as well. But I think I’m leaning more towards Instagram now. Just because I think that there’s a there’s a lot more happening on there at the moment. I do still use Twitter although my personal opinion is that Twitter’s become quite toxic. In recent times, you know, the ability to have valuable conversations seems to have gone out of the window. You never know if you’re speaking to a real person anymore, but yes, those social media tools are my favorite tools at the moment.

Carlota Pico 27:03
Excellent. Well, Instagram seems to be a very common response that I’ve had throughout The Content Mix interviews. And I think part of it is because it’s so visually appealing. And as humans, we’re very visual creatures. So I think that has to do with its influence.

Stephen Balogun 27:21
We’ve become even more so if I dare say, you know, because video content is the biggest digested content online. At the moment we’re more about visual, as you say. So that’s something companies really should take note of and tap into.

Carlota Pico 27:37
Well, on that note, we are at the end of our interview, Stephen, thank you so much for joining us on The Content Mix. It was a pleasure to meet you and to pick your brain on lead generation and different powerful tools that one can use in order to attract new attention to your brands. Thank you.

Stephen Balogun 27:54
Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

Carlota Pico 27:56
The pleasure was ours. And to everybody listening in today, thank you for joining us on The Content Mix. For more perspectives on the content marketing industry in Europe, check out The Content Mix. We’ll be releasing interviews just like this one every week so keep on tuning in. Thanks again have a fabulous day and see you next time. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai