Cutting Through the Noise: the Challenge of Marketing to Marketers

On this episode, Norman shares video strategies marketers are sleeping on, the process behind Acoustic’s recent website redesign, and why SEM is Norman’s #1 uncuttable budget item.

Acoustic is an open and independent marketing cloud and analytics provider. They’re reimagining marketing technology by lessening the burdens of repetitive tasks. By connecting it all in one single view, and by giving marketers more time to do what really matters: thinking bigger and putting themselves back into the work. Acoustic’s goal is to bring humanity back to marketing. They stand for marketers, and they help them aim higher. Everything Acoustic does is designed to solve the problems marketers face. The integrated platform allows customers to access all aspects of their marketing in one place, with a simple user interface that makes it easy to craft even the most complex and personalized user experiences.

Industry
Enterprise Software
Founded
2019
Norman Guadagno

Guest Bio

Norman Guadagno is CMO at Acoustic, where he is helping reimagine marketing technology. 

Norman was previously SVP of marketing at Carbonite, helping to successfully transform that company from B2C to B2B. He has also held senior marketing positions at digital marketing agency Wire Stone (now part of Accenture Interactive), Microsoft and Oracle. With both a B.A. and M.A. in psychology, Norman has always viewed marketing challenges first through the lens of human perceptions, motivations and emotions. Combined with a deep understanding of data, proven skills as a storyteller and rich experience as a business and people leader, his unique perspective on the social and business landscape today offers valuable insights for professionals across industries.

Guest Bio

Norman Guadagno is CMO at Acoustic, where he is helping reimagine marketing technology. 

Norman was previously SVP of marketing at Carbonite, helping to successfully transform that company from B2C to B2B. He has also held senior marketing positions at digital marketing agency Wire Stone (now part of Accenture Interactive), Microsoft and Oracle. With both a B.A. and M.A. in psychology, Norman has always viewed marketing challenges first through the lens of human perceptions, motivations and emotions. Combined with a deep understanding of data, proven skills as a storyteller and rich experience as a business and people leader, his unique perspective on the social and business landscape today offers valuable insights for professionals across industries.

Episode Summary

This episode features an interview with Norman Guadagno, CMO at Acoustic, where he is helping reimagine marketing technology. Over the past two decades, he has held a number of marketing and strategy roles with a deep focus on business transformation, marketing acceleration, and brand building. Norman was previously SVP of Marketing at Carbonite, helping to successfully transform that company from B2C to B2B. He has also held senior marketing positions at digital marketing agency Wire Stone, Microsoft, and Oracle.  

On this episode, Norman shares the video strategy that many marketers are sleeping on, the depth of thought that went into Acoustic’s recent website redesign, and why SEM is Norman’s #1 uncuttable budget item.

Key Takeaways

  • SEM and SEO have to work together.
  • You can’t just appeal to the rational side of your audience. You have to also appeal to the emotional side as well. 
  • People forget how video humanizes marketing through the “show” aspect of the “show don’t tell” side of marketing.

Quotes

“Nobody sees through BS faster than another marketer. There's a level of transparency, honesty, and integrity that I think marketers need to bring to the table when they're marketing to their peers.” 

“I have been and will continue to be–and the numbers prove it–a believer in search. SEM works no matter how you slice it. SEM is not a one and done. You have to water and trim the plants every single day because it really requires attention. You have to understand the market. You have to be thoughtful about what you’re investing in and continue to iterate.” 

“Our website is conceptually the center of our demand creation universe. No matter what else we're going to do, we're trying to bring people back to the website to spend time there or to download content or complete a ‘contact us’ form. I look at the website as a living, breathing, entity and the second you take your eye off it and say, ‘it's good,’ you're wrong. You have to cultivate it and think about the experience that you're delivering and be willing to change things.” 

“For a first time CMO, I’d give the following advice: You are going to make mistakes. That's part of the deal. Don't forget that in the making of these mistakes, that’s how you start to learn what's actually going to resonate with your audience and you can't be afraid of that.”

Episode Highlights

Episodes Transcript

  • SEM and SEO have to work together.
  • You can’t just appeal to the rational side of your audience. You have to also appeal to the emotional side as well. 
  • People forget how video humanizes marketing through the “show” aspect of the “show don’t tell” side of marketing.
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