Author: Lisa Bodine

It’s Time to Demand More From Your Marketing Team

Posted on October 24, 2019 by - Business Tips, Strategic Marketing

Marketers just read that headline and cringed. They’re giving us the evil eye through their screens, thinking: “What do you mean, MORE? We’re already doing EVERYTHING!”

  • Emails
  • Newsletters
  • Social media
  • Blogs
  • Flyers
  • Branding
  • Advertising
  • Digital marketing
  • Handouts
  • Analytics
  • Reporting
  • Tradeshow materials
  • Business packages
  • Event Planning
  • Public Relations
  • Crisis Communications

It’s true! Marketing covers a lot of ground and our work is essential to business growth. So, how can we sit here and proclaim that marketing should start delivering more?

Because we know they can.

Demand More From Your Marketing Team

More Strategy

Marketing isn’t supposed to be reactive. It should be forward-thinking, smart and strategic. Every effort should drive your business in the direction you want it to go–and when marketing is aligned with your business strategy, there’s no telling what you can achieve.

Now is the time to include your marketing team in strategic planning, so they can create all-encompassing solutions that help you reach your goals. 

More Advocacy

Marketing supports all business functions—and should be your cheerleaders, your yes-people, your sounding board and your advocates. That also means marketing shouldn’t be an afterthought.

If you want marketing to back you and your ideas, start including the team in strategic-level meetings. You’ll be impressed by the ideas and support that come as a result.

More Reliability

You should never have to wait on marketing. They should be the very embodiment of hustle because their work supports sales, customer service, financials, technology and more.

You must be able to rely on marketing to deliver, because when they don’t, everything suffers. The best way to ensure your marketing team keeps a pep in their step? Set realistic expectations, and then give them the resources they need to succeed.

More Ideas

Marketers get into marketing because they have big ideas on how to drive sales and customer engagement. Marketers are little idea factories just waiting for someone to say “go!”

Give your team the space they need to experiment, and they’ll blow you away with creative solutions that get results. Every time.

More Solutions

Are you adding a new product or service? Expanding into a new market? Trying to attract a new customer demographic? Growing your internal team?

Look to marketing for strategies and solutions to help meet your goals. Marketing will come up with creative ways to solve a problem, and they never shy away from a challenge.

Add a Fractional CMO to Your Marketing Team

This is a lot to ask of a marketing team, we know—especially if your marketing team is a powerhouse of one. The Giant Voices account management team often holds the role of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for our clients.

We can handle just about everything from setting sales goals, overseeing company branding, creating key messages, developing collateral, managing digital marketing assets, event coordination and more. This is why adding a fractional CMO or marketing leader to your team can seriously transform your success.

We work with you and your marketing team to deliver strategy, value and results that drive your business forward. The best part? Our CMOs come fully-supported by the entire Giant Voices team. 

Interested in learning more? Contact us.

Giant Voices Announces Jena Mertz as Partner, Director of Operations

Posted on August 29, 2019 by - News

Duluth, MN: Giant Voices, LLC announced Jena Mertz has been promoted to Director of Operations and has become a partner at the firm, effective July 1, 2019.

Joining Pascha Apter, CEO, and Lisa Bodine, President, Mertz adds depth to the Giant Voices ownership team with her experience in client services, marketing and sales alignment and operational excellence for the company.

“We are thrilled to have Jena truly invested in the future of Giant Voices. Jena’s strategic insight has served our clients well and helped grow our company throughout the past six years. She knows our clients’ industries and is energized to help take Giant Voices to the next level.”

Pascha Apter, Giant Voices CEO

Jena Mertz has been an essential part of the Giant Voices team since 2013, bringing expertise in sales and marketing to help organizations strengthen brand awareness with internal and external audiences.

With nearly fifteen years of experience in sales, marketing and business management—she is a multifaceted strategic resource for clients. She has executed results-driven strategy and marketing initiatives in a wide range of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, technology, non-profit and more.

In her previous role as Director of Client Services, Jena oversaw client relationships and developed strategic marketing plans that drive sales and operational growth for clients. As a partner of Giant Voices, Jena will continue to manage key client projects, while also focusing on managing organizational efficiencies and strategic growth for the company.

Jena grew up in Minnesota’s Brainerd Lakes Area before moving to Duluth. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. She followed a passion for design, sales and marketing to grow herself into the ambition of business ownership.

When she’s not tackling strategy or operational needs for Giant Voices, you can find Jena out enjoying Duluth’s biking and hiking trails. Jena lives in Duluth with her husband, their two daughters and a loveable black lab.

3 Things Every Business Owner NEEDS to Know About Inbound Marketing

Posted on October 15, 2015 by - Inbound Marketing

Unless your last name is Van Winkle and you’ve just awoken from a really good nap, you’ve probably heard the term “inbound marketing.”

My business partner Pascha Apter and I recently attended INBOUND, Hubspot’s annual conference where inbound marketing geniuses gather to learn and connect regarding best practices in the industry.

We were excited to hear from thought leaders like Seth Godin, Brené Brown, Darren Rouse and Brian Clark.

(Giant Voices, our strategic marketing firm, is a certified Hubspot Partner Agency.)

If you’re new to inbound and get a sinking feeling when you contemplate learning yet another marketing skill set, chin up! The ROI of inbound makes learning it well worth the effort.

To get you started in this brave new marketing world, we’ve distilled the most important information you need to know about inbound marketing into three easy-to-swallow insights.

What You Need to Know About Inbound Marketing

Inbound Insight #1: Inbound marketing begins with a mindset shift.

Inbound marketing is advertising flipped on its head. Rather than—or in addition to—paying to push your message out to target customers, you draw your target customer in with free content that speaks to their problems and desires.

On his blog, Seth Godin once wrote, “Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them. It recognizes the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing. It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.”

He calls this approach permission marketing, but we think it’s a great definition for inbound marketing, too.

Inbound Insight #2: Inbound marketing has a learning curve.

Just as with any other new technology or marketing technique, there’s a learning curve to inbound. 

  • How do you create content so compelling people will share it—and that will ultimately feed your bottom line?
  • How do you design a website strategically to maximize conversions?
  • How do you set up automated email workflows?
  • What the heck is a CTA, anyway?

Investing in expert guidance as you get started with inbound marketing can help ensure you don’t waste time or money and instead garner a substantial ROI.

Inbound Insight #3: Inbound marketing works.

Hubspot’s statistics speak for themselves. From a Hubspot Marketing blog post called 31 Business Blogging Stats You Need to know in 2021: 

  • B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67% more leads than those that do not.
  • Marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI.
  • Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website.

Elevate Your Inbound Marketing with Giant Voices

Giant Voices is a certified Hubspot partner agency.

At our strategic marketing firm, every deliverable we execute for our clients ties back to content that helps drive sales. To learn how inbound marketing and a strategic marketing partner can increase your sales and customer satisfaction, contact the Giants today.

3 Giant Inbound Marketing Insights

Posted on September 16, 2014 by - Business Tips, Inbound Marketing

While I don’t travel much for work these days, I do appreciate when I have the opportunity to get out of our Giant headquarters and explore what’s happening elsewhere in the world.

I am currently in Boston, MA, for INBOUND 2014, HubSpot’s annual conference where inbound marketing geniuses gather to learn something and connect regarding best practices in the industry. 

I’m looking forward to hearing from acclaimed thought leaders like Simon Sinek, Guy Kawasaki and Malcolm Gladwell.

Inbound 2014: Come Together. Get Inspired. Be Remarkable | Giant Voices

On my way to Boston, I read the second edition of “Inbound Marketing – Attract, Engage and Delight Customers Online,” by the cofounders of HubSpot, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah.

It was an easy, meaningful read. A few things resonated with me that I want to share:

  1. If you own, manage or market in a B2B business and you don’t know the term “inbound” as it refers to marketing (not call centers), we need to talk.
  2. If you’re not engaged in social media marketing (especially LinkedIn marketing), there’s still time to start.
  3. Marketing and advertising effectiveness in today’s environment is less about the size of your budget and more about the magnitude and caliber of the content you’re creating.

At Giant Voices, every deliverable we execute for our clients ties back to content that helps our clients drive sales. It’s not just about pretty pictures (although we do craft amazing strategic creative for our clients).

The same is true for you entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and marketers that report internally. If you are not thinking about inbound marketing as a successful lead generation strategy—about how you can drive sales through engaging, meaningful and educational content—you’d better start polishing your resume.

For those of you that know me personally, you know I’m a modest yet competitive woman.

After reading “Inbound Marketing,” I’m incredibly proud to say that we have a team of Giants that is strategically on target to help our Giant Clients reach their revenue ambitions.

My wicked-smart (I am channeling Boston) business partner, Pascha Apter, and I are on the right track with our investment in HubSpot.

We are versed in the inbound methodology as part of a larger marketing strategy. We create compelling content. We help our Giant Clients strategize on the most appropriate channels to push messages out through. And, the best part: our Giant Clients can measure and attribute their increase in sales to our actions.

That’s truly a Giant accomplishment for our team.

Lisa Bodine, Giant Partner + President

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