Rebecca Martin is known as an “unflappable veteran” of Minnesota’s emerging technology industry with close to 20 years of experience.
She has held marketing leadership roles at Trissential, Stellent, and Oracle, and most recently was Director of Integrated Marketing at data protection and security company Code42.
She currently holds the role of Chief Marketing Officer at Calabrio, a workforce optimisation (WFO) platform. We caught up with her to find out more about what her role involves, how Calabrio measures its success, the skills she needs to be effective at her job, and the customer journeys that have impressed her lately.
Please describe your job: What do you do?
I am the Chief Marketing Officer for Calabrio and I’ve been here three years. I’m responsible for lead generation and pipeline marketing, content strategy, customer marketing and corporate communications.
I love what I’m doing and the space we’re in—a very interesting place to be these days because Calabrio is a customer experience intelligence company and everyone’s interested in improving the experience they’re providing customers. We have a phenomenal solution to help them do that.
Whereabouts do you sit within the organization? Who do you report to?
I’m on the executive team and report to Calabrio CEO Tom Goodmanson.
What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?
On a typical day, I tap into my creativity, fast problem-solving, multi-tasking and prioritisation skills. And my people skills are on full display—compassion, empathy, and the ability to motivate and inspire the best in my team.
Tell us about a typical working day…
We just acquired a company, so my role has shifted quite a bit to focus on successfully integrating the two businesses. Our mantra throughout this process is that overcommunication is a good thing—so a lot of my time these days is understanding what employees are missing and helping fill those gaps with helpful communications.
What do you love about your job? What sucks?
I love our coffee. And I love my team! What I don’t love is there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish it all. I hate leaving a pile on my desk for the next day!
What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success?
Our job is to put Calabrio’s best foot forward. If our current and prospective customers understand the value we bring to the market and the problems we solve for them, we’ve done our job. We believe that you don’t get what you don’t measure. So KPIs like “# of engaged customers” and “# of marketing opportunities generated” and “# of marketing-generated opportunities closed/won” drive our work.
What are your favourite tools to help you to get the job done?
What we do is very visual, so Microsoft PowerPoint is a saviour in helping tell our story to the rest of the business. And I manage my day in Outlook. As a team, our marketing technology stack is significant—we rely on all types of tools that drive efficiency into our work.
How did you end up at Calabrio, and where might you go from here?
I’ve worked for enterprise cloud companies throughout my career and because this was the direction Calabrio was headed a few years ago, it was a perfect fit. Frankly, I’m not sure where I’ll go from here—am too heads down in my current role to think about it!
Which customer journeys have impressed you lately?
While not necessarily a recent example, Nike By You is one of my favourite campaigns by a brand looking to turn online shopping from a traditionally impersonal experience into an opportunity for customers to personalise their shopping.
Not only did this campaign ensure customers remained engaged with the brand and its products through a unique customer experience, but it was a fresh idea and fun opportunity for those loyal to the brand to express individuality. In my opinion, much like other fashion accessories, you can really get a feel for someone’s personality by the shoe they wear and this is why Nike By You was a winner in my books.
What advice would you give to new marketers?
Know thy customer. Inside and out. That’s the key to any successful marketing initiative you’ll ever take on.