The Marketing Minds series share real-world stories from marketers showing how digital marketing has helped them develop their careers or businesses.
Sharlene Lopez
I am the founder of a branding agency that supports health tech startups define their purpose and grow their tribe for long-term sustainable growth. I am passionate about creating a world that is inclusive and equal. Eye catcher works with brands to achieve this. We empower founders and impassion teams to fulfil the brand’s mission through mentoring, building bold brands, and crafting change-making communications. LinkedIn | Website
What is your background in Marketing, and how did you come to be in the position you are in now?
I have worked in many aspects of marketing, from promotional marketing to sales, to research to communications. I am CIM trained but the best education has been over 20 years of life experience in the field. I toyed with sociology, anthropology, psychology, linguistics and philosophy and found by accident that marketing fulfils all of these
Which technical skills do you believe are most important in your role?
Tech is changing marketing profoundly as it is all other industries. However, the foundation of marketing does not change. The importance of the consumer insight is as key as it always was. In terms of knowledge, I don’t think it’s important to know specific skills, I think the attitude of willingness to experiment, learn and try again is more important
Which soft skills prove most useful in your role?
Listening skills. Empathy. Enthusiasm. Believe in people. Ability to draw insights from big data. Remember details. Keep your eye on the goal. Negotiation. Rapport building.
Which markets does your organization operate in?
We have a heritage of helping health entrepreneurs but are now looking to expand to support any brand that wants to work towards creating a more equal and inclusive world
Which Marketing or Business related book would you recommend to a colleague, and why?
Anything by Seth Godin as he is a hero of mine. Purple Cow, in particular, is outstanding. And my new intellectual crush is Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy. Watch his Ted Talks and you’ll see why
What can be one of the biggest challenges Marketers face in the industry you operate in?
I think the sheer volume of programmes and software that now exists makes it very hard for marketers to be masters at everything. I think that the goal has moved, and it’s important for leaders in the team to work together to create a customer roadmap, and then use specialists in the related areas, to implement.
How do you and your team overcome the aforementioned industry challenges?
We operate a virtual global team of talent with a core group of super-powered thought-leaders to create the customer roadmap. By sourcing talent from a global pool, our talent levels are much higher, our diversity is greater leading and the standard of life we offer, by remote working, means our creative output is superior.
Describe what a typical day at work looks like for you?
I spend the majority of my day connecting people, attending events, learning, understanding and talking to people about their stories, and working together to create an inclusive and equal world.
Please share digital marketing tools that help you and your team accomplish your goals every day.
Smart Insights has been key in our team’s and my professional development and keeping ahead of market trends and tools.
Google’s tools, be it apps, integrations with third-party tools, extensions, filters, calendars etc, my output is markedly increased due to being able to streamline, optimise and automate back-end systems.
Slack is another tool we use. It was the founder of Slack himself who we heard speak at a conference last month that said communication trumps talent in team effectiveness. Slack brings our team together. I’ve sat in offices and emailed those sitting next to me! At eye-catcher, we communicate better remotely than I did in real bricks and mortar offices.
The other tool is Insightly. I record everything in there about my connections, personal, professional everything. It’s so important to invest in relationships.
In your opinion, what are the most valuable skills a marketer in your role can have?
Belief in your mission and belief in the strategy.
What is your biggest career goal?
Having a real and measurable impact in creating an inclusive and equal world.
What are your most important KPIs (Key Performance Indicator)?
Social impact measurements.
What is unique about the organization you work for?
It’s mine, it’s mission lead, it’s virtual, it’s the next generation of consultative strategy teamed with passionate implementation and execution providing a clear ROI, something consultancies and traditional agencies are very poor at. Both charge for the service, the execution. We earn based on results.
What are the most important attributes you look for in a Manager?
Someone who inspires with an infectious enthusiasm, and someone who follows through on ideas.
Across the marketing mix, what medium has brought your organisation the best results?
When I get down to grassroots and meet with people, and just connect with them, no agenda, no goal, just human to human connection.
Describe one of the most successful projects or campaigns you’ve worked on. Why was it successful?
We worked with a Forbes recognised leading startup who was awarded £2 million in funding recently. They are changing the way we engage with private healthcare.
We researched their marketplace and followed our insight methods to understand how best to position the brand and its key messages. We communicated this across their digital media.
We also created a brand so strong, that inspired such belief that it achieved over £150k investment before it even had a single customer.
What is the best piece of work-related advice you have ever received?
We are all just people at the end of the day.
What do you see as the most exciting future opportunities in digital marketing that you are working on?
The next wave of ai, in particular, deep learning has the capability to make chat bots a whole new way of interacting with consumers. Real mass customisation is here! Integrating bots into messaging apps reduces app churn and brings the brand right to the customer.