Today on the podcast, Stephen O’Rowe talks to Carlota Pico about his role as EMEA regional marketing manager at ActiveCampaign. Stephen describes the value of the skill set he built in mechanical engineering before earning an arts degree. He also explains how his analytical background helps him create successful customer experiences, zeroes in on the importance of localization for an effective marketing strategy, and tells us what qualities he looks for when hiring new employees.

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

Key takeaways

• To be successful in marketing, you need to utilize transferable skills. Marketers are no longer just creators; they’re also data analysts and personalization experts.

• Aligning products and customer experiences with different languages and cultures is the key to effectively localizing international campaigns in the EMEA region.

• When hiring new employees, some of the most important qualities to look for are honesty and a willingness to build on prior experience. It’s also important for them to be able to ask for help, no matter how much experience they might have.

• When carrying out any marketing campaign, you have to be side by side with your customer. It’s vital to focus on the exact customer persona you’re targeting, especially when it comes to localization.

• At pivotal moments, it’s important to meet the unique needs of your customer base. For example, providing customers with advice and content regarding how to develop a digital presence has been crucial over the past several months.

Our customers’ success is a reflection of our own business success. If our customers are not successful, then how can we expect to sustain success ourselves?

Rapid-fire recs

What’s an app or tool that you can’t work without?

To be honest, the ActiveCampaign app. I’ve been working really closely with our own product, and I have to say I’m enjoying it—it’s very easy to use. I can see why so many small businesses and solo entrepreneurs use ActiveCampaign’s automations to leverage marketing for their business. I know this sounds like a complete plug, but it’s true! 

A marketing influencer who you follow?

I don’t like to focus too much on one influencer; I follow a lot of them. I’ve found that it’s useful to look at their content with a critical eye and consider various perspectives. One who I do find quite interesting, though, is Gary Vee (Gary Vaynerchuk)—I’m a little bit addicted to his Instagram.

A valuable resource, event or group?

I’m going to recommend a book I read within the last year: “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek. It has really obvious concepts, but articulates them very well. It’s incredibly useful for decision-making and reflecting back on your life to consider why you’ve done certain things.

Make sure you check out the ActiveCampaign blog for more insights!

Connect with Stephen and Carlota on LinkedIn.

This post was edited by Jessica Farmer, a freelance content creator based in Madrid.

For more insights into marketing for customer success:

Really get to know your customer – Teodora Takacs, EMEA marketing director

Optimizing the customer journey – Hugo Faria, EMEA marketing manager at Kemp

Bridging the empathy gap – Amy Kelly, EMEA marketing director and customer experience expert

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