Marketers are a passionate breed. Whether we’re crafting content, unearthing optimization opportunities, or digging into performance metrics to understand where we went right or wrong, we’re wide-eyed and determined.
Our work is a labor of love, and we’re often driven by special moments that spark awe, imagination, and a sense of accomplishment. Those moments that make us go “Boom!” Those moments where we can sit back for a few minutes and watch in wonder. I’m talking about those firework marketing moments.
What moments light up the marketing skies for some of our team members? See what makes them go oh, ah, and cheer for an encore.
Our Firework Marketing Moments
Ashley Zeckman
Senior Director of Digital Strategy
I’ve been fortunate to have many firework moments in my career, all of which have taken on different forms. Some have shot off a major spark (life changing!) while others were a small sparkle that continued to burn over time.
If I had to choose, I would say most of my top marketing moments stem from working with clients that trust us to innovate. I would consider myself a curious person and am always looking for a chance to test something new. Fortunately, we get to work with an amazing group of clients that see our team as true partners and are often open to trying something new in an effort to break free of boring B2B (as our CEO Lee Odden would say).
Who would have thought 10 years ago that B2B influencers would be a thing? Let alone, a content strategy that offers brands a way to reach more people in a meaningful way. I’m incredibly proud of the work our team has done in the B2B influencer marketing space and our efforts to constantly raise the bar and adapt to the needs of our influencers, clients, and our client’s audiences.
Caitlin Burgess
Senior Manager of Content Marketing
For me, the most dazzling moments happen during our team and client collaboration sessions. Effective content marketing is absolutely a team sport.
The time we spend together thinking through opportunities, developing strategies, or brainstorming workarounds for unexpected obstacles lays the foundation for those big sparkly moments (i.e. the launch of a campaign or smashing benchmark or goal metrics) that every marketer lives for.
Elizabeth Williams
Senior Account Manager
I seriously get fireworks each and every time a launch a new project for a client. Whether it’s our first blog and social promotion, or a big bang of a campaign launch—it’s what I live for!
A couple recent favorites were:
- VR asset launch for SAP Ariba
- Integrated campaign for Dell Outlet, including influencer videos, SEO-driven content, and paid advertising
- Integrated campaign for Prophix, including influencer videos and an ongoing content series
Jack Fitzpatrick
Influencer Marketing Strategist
If you would’ve told an 18-year-old Jack Fitzpatrick that he would be working at a digital B2B marketing agency, he would say, “Nah, that’s not for me.” And even as I entered the workforce after graduating, I was hesitant to call myself a “Marketer”—I’d usually opt for “Communications Professional.” Although, my title depended solely on my mood.
Nevertheless, my “firework” marketing moment came about a couple of months into working at TopRank Marketing. I was exerting creativity into my work and began to feel that I was truly contributing to the results we achieved as a team—something I never thought would happen to me when working at a marketing agency. That was when I realized I could really own the title of “Marketer” and be proud of the creative energy that I put into social media and influencer marketing campaigns.
Joshua Nite
Senior Content Marketing Manager
My favorite “firework” marketing moment was launching a particularly creative and cool eBook for our client, Pantheon, and watching the view count go up on SlideShare. It was a super fun project to work on and the creative theme was amazing.
Keith Widerski
Account Manager
It’s our client reactions that end up being my “firework” moments. When we make them look like absolute rockstar’s to their bosses and their boss’s bosses. That moment when all the time and effort pays off and we can showcase something tangible that we, collectively, as a team created and is now helping drive real, impactful results for our clients. At the end of the day, that’s what makes me most excited and keeps me coming back day in and day out.
This most recently happened when I launched my very first podcast influencer episode for SAP’s Tech Unknown Podcast. Being a part of it from the beginning, helping identify the influencers, sitting in on the podcast recordings, and being involved throughout the entire process from start to finish was amazing and truly eye-opening. You don’t realize (or appreciate) the amount of time and effort that goes into a production like this until you’re in it. Delivering an entirely new type of media (podcast) for our client and doing so on-time, with the utmost quality, and having it be a truly valuable piece of influencer content for them to leverage for years to come was something that was really unique and special for me to be a part of.
The best part? Our client’s reaction when the episode went live: “This is so amazing! You guys—We DID IT! We built this thing up from nothing. This is so awesome!”
Nick Nelson
Senior Content Strategist
As a content strategist, I talk a lot about the value and impact of planning content through topical clusters in alignment with a best-answer approach, matched to a very specific audience. And I firmly believe in it. Still, it’s quite reaffirming to see this belief validated in real life, as it did when we made some adjustments to the blog strategy for DivvyHQ.
Our teams partnered to create a laser-focus around DivvyHQ’s ideal customer profile (content marketing managers) and oriented our topical mix around their acute needs, questions, and pain points. Not only did we call out this audience directly with almost every piece of content, but we also weren’t afraid to let people who were NOT in this segment know that the content (and product) probably wasn’t for them. We also tweaked our paid search tactics accordingly.
The hope was that this would generate more highly-qualified leads and inquiries for DivvyHQ. And that’s exactly what happened. As one of the company’s co-founders told us: “The prospects coming through our website front door are much closer to our ideal customer than they have been in the past. What you’re doing is working!” BOOM! It’s beautiful to see sophisticated content strategy in action, driving explosive results. That’s why we do this!
Let Your Sparks Fly
We all have those boom-tastic moments that remind us just how much we love what we do. For our team, the sparks fly inside and outside company walls.
What about you? What moments sparkle, dazzle, and delight your as a marketer? Share with us in the comments section below.
Ignite your own marketing magic. Learn the 12 skills every B2B content marketer needs to create their own fireworks.
