Karen Steele
DEMAND GEN VISIONARIES
/
EPISODE
74
Spend Smart by Investing in Your Website
Karen discusses building demand gen teams on a global scale, why customer marketing is part of her DNA, and shares examples from her favorite campaigns. The interview wraps up with advice from Karen to Marketing Leaders about investing into their online presence, and explains how it’s a critical decision for growth.
Near is the world’s largest source of intelligence on people, places, and products. It’s the global leader in data intelligence empowering organizations of all sizes to make smart, strategic decisions delivering optimal business performance. Near unites marketers and operational data leaders by providing the most accurate, reliable source of data that delivers actionable insights on people, places, and products in both the physical and digital space.
INDUSTRY
Internet
FOUNDED
2012
WEBSITE
www.Near.com

Karen Steele is currently the Senior Vice President for Marketing at Near, a company that is the largest source of intelligence on people, places and products. Prior to this, she was the Chief Marketing Officer at LeanData where she worked on direct end-to-end marketing strategy, go-to-market execution and the day-to-day operations. Steele has a track record of executive marketing positions and is passionate about data, communications, engagement, advocacy and brand impact.

Episode Summary

This episode features an interview with Karen Steele, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Near, a global leader in data intelligence for businesses. Karen has an impressive track record as an enterprise Cloud Marketing Executive with extensive experience in scaling fast growth companies. Some of her past roles include Marketo, VMware, Saba Software, Cloud9 Analytics, Xactly Corporation, Informatica, Currenex, and more.

On this episode, Karen discusses building demand gen teams on a global scale, why customer marketing is part of her DNA, and shares examples from her favorite campaigns. The interview wraps up with advice from Karen to Marketing Leaders about investing into their online presence, and explains how it’s a critical decision for growth.

Key Takeaways

  • Looking to grow? Focus more on the customer, which starts by hiring the right positions.
  • For effective customer marketing, follow Karen’s Triple-As: advocate, adopt and advise.
  • The best campaigns go big or go home and avoid playing it safe.

Quotes

“Your website is your front door [to your brand]. Everybody communicates online these days. Everybody is going to look at your website first and do their own online research before they ever probably reach out and have a conversation with one of your sales reps. So, your website needs to have great content. It needs to be personalized... It needs to have great opportunities for people to engage with you and learn more. It is probably the most important thing you have to invest in.”

Episode Transcript

Episode Timestamps:

*(0:34) - Karen’s first job in demand gen

*(1:52) - Karen’s role at Near

*(3:08) - Segment: Trust Tree 

*(6:22) - How to build a marketing team 

*(9:53) -  Building trust in the B2B world 

*(14:37) - What makes a good leadership team

*(22:44) - Segment: The Playbook

*(31:47) - Potential future investments for Near

*(33:44) - Overhyped marketing trends

*(35:03) - Karen’s favorite campaigns over the years

*(42:07) - Segment: The Dustup

*(46:12) - Segment: Quick Hits

‍Sponsor

Demand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.‍

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