Patchwork marketing with XPON's Jennifer Killian

Jennifer Killian, Chief Marketing & Experience Officer at XPON is no stranger to the rapidly evolving world of marketing. A dab hand at helping brands prepare for the future, here she explores the techniques she's used to add value across her career.

I’ve always had the bug for working in technology, specifically start-ups and innovative companies. As a young marketer in my native US, I once worked at an emerging technology  service provider, trying to sell software as a service long before it was cool. 

Being able to provide technology to smaller, challenger businesses is something that appealed to me back then, as it does now. I like the idea of helping growing businesses to boost their competitiveness and levelling the playing field against the stronger incumbents.

In time I became fully immersed in the AdTech world, at AdBrite. It was an innovative,  high-flying, cash-burning startup that evaporated during the Global Financial Crisis. After AdBrite I moved to Australia to do my MBA, or as I called it, my GFC sabbatical. I then returned to Silicon Valley to work in brand management for a few years before heading back to Sydney and joining WiseTech Global. 

Now at XPON, I have benefitted from the ‘patchwork’ of global experience that has encompassed trade, brand, digital marketing, AdTech and everything in between. 

Across my career, I think I’ve gained a good insight into what really drives innovation in business. Here are a few things I’ve learned. 
 

1. Upskilling is an integral part of growth

The only way we have credibility as a software business is by proving we're on top of the trends that influence what gets built. Knowing, for example, what governments are thinking so we are across new policies being implemented. And that means upskilling constantly.

Upskilling allows us to stay ahead of the curve, and to future-proof the business. That’s why a strong internal learning culture is an important business value. 

One of our core values is curiosity. We expect that everyone in our business, in order to be the best they can be, continues learning and building on their skills.  

As employers, we have to find ways to continue to provide growth opportunities for people. It’s important to find the right training partners - like we did with ADMA - which are relevant to what we’re trying to achieve. From this standpoint we can gain a better understanding of why we’re doing what we’re doing, and why we have the products we have. 

The most successful businesses moving forward will be those investing in technology. But not just as a budgeting exercise - I mean making a dedicated investment of human resources and time. Time taken to better understand the current usage and future potential value offered by their technology. The entire executive team ought to be involved in learning and developing the data strategy.

What that means is there's inevitably going to be knowledge gaps. So you have to create a subculture amongst leadership teams where everyone feels safe enough to admit where their blind spots are. 
 

2. Adapt for a first-party data world now

The ‘cookie apocalypse’ and impending regulatory changes may feel like a looming disaster, but with foresight we can unlock new value. 

At the moment many marketers still depend on third-party data. Some will be caught up in the panic-tsunami and will inevitably freak out when third party cookies are tossed for good. 

Those who aren’t prepared won't be able to empirically describe the problem to the rest of their business. They simply won't have the data. Suddenly, all their marketing investments are going to become less effective, and they're going to burn customer loyalty.

Those looking ahead would be wise to identify the value that can be unlocked when first-party data fuels the marketing engines. I strongly believe that if you have powerful data - while it might be complex - it needn’t be complicated.

The greatest opportunity for businesses like ours now is to configure our own tech to make this new environment less cumbersome for those that are going to need it. 
 

3. Don't ever settle with the first version

Companies that are really successful build a culture of learning, and as a general rule, prioritise continued improvement. 

Some brands are happy to lean into consulting firms to conduct a digital transformation - something that can be a great catalyst to modernising a business. There’s nothing wrong with this, but I believe businesses have to be set up to iterate. When this approach is ingrained in the culture, it's easier to make decisions to hire new capabilities as the business grows.

There are plenty of people who talk about how agile their businesses are, but they usually mean it only in terms of operations and delivery of certain products. Building real agility into your strategy is going to be a bellwether for success in the coming years. 
 

4. Tech needs to be a marketer's best friend

The best results we experience in life come when both sides of the brain work together, and that is something that applies equally to marketing. I believe we shouldn’t separate marketing from technology - they need to work together. 

It’s only recently we’ve seen technology advance to create a ‘full-stack’ capability to support the creation of a more holistic marketing strategy. For those still dragging their feet, there will soon be a sense of urgency to unite these functions, as marketing isn’t getting any simpler.

People outside of our industry have this idea of what marketers are and what they should be doing. But the biggest challenge facing marketers today is the pace of change in the role itself. It’s amazing how complex it's become and how many different technical skills marketers need to have. Those who lean into technology and new innovations will gain vital tools to improve their businesses.