Marketing Eggspert Interview: Kimberly Crossland of SavvyCopywriters.com
Welcome to our interview series, where we introduce you to marketers around the globe. Every few weeks, we’ll dive into best practices and tips from people who live and breathe marketing. To be considered for an upcoming interview, please contact [email protected].
Tell us who you are and what you do.
I’m Kimberly Crossland, a content marketer who’s unreasonably obsessed with making words resonate on screen and in print (but mostly on screen). You can find some of my ideas on my website SavvyCopywriters.com
What aspect of marketing do you focus on? What audience?
Today’s world moves fast. A year ago, I would’ve said that I focus exclusively on content creation. Now, I’m starting to lean into the tremendous shift the world is seeing to data and . Specifically, customer journey . For years, the amount of data we’ve been able to gather has grown but now we’re finally learning ways to harness that data and turn it into action items that’ll spur growth. So, today I focus on content marketing still but am starting to take a bigger slant on using data to form strategies and build out that content based on what’s needed throughout the customer’s journey.
How long have you worked in marketing?
I started in marketing while I was still attending the University of Arizona. There, I worked for the athletic department (Go Cats!) while I finished out my education. Then, I started my career overseas in Copenhagen, Denmark where I went full boar in International marketing with a software startup. That first full-time marketing job started in 2005. I only took a 2-year hiatus from marketing to try my hand at management, but quickly returned to this world and haven’t looked back since.
How has your field of marketing changed since you first got started?
In 2005, Twitter was just starting to be something interesting for marketers to explore and the idea of planting landing pages focused on specific keywords or locations on the bottom of websites was just starting to be used as an SEO tactic. Mobile marketing didn’t even exist because the iPhone hadn’t made its debut yet.
Today, Twitter is killing it for B2B marketers, that SEO strategy is now a huge no-no, and having a mobile strategy is a must. The way customers—both in B2B and B2C—interact with the world has taken a dramatic shift and marketers have had to adjust alongside it.
What’s one big mistake you see people make in your area of marketing?
Not keeping pace with the shifts we’re seeing. The world’s moving quickly and very few businesses (mine included) are keeping up with current customer demands. That’s because it’s hard. We’re fumbling in the area of marketing because as soon as we think we have one area figured out, something changes. Algorithms shift. Data accessibility grows. There’s a lot happening and it’s becoming incredibly hard to keep laser focused on what you need to do for your customers to succeed. Where there used to be a pretty solid one-size-fits-all strategy that could help businesses succeed, there isn’t anymore. Hence, the heavy focus on data. Not enough marketers are leaning on their data and customer journey to uncover what their buyers need at every stage of their journey, and then developing a marketing plan around that.
If you could give your audience just one piece of advice about marketing, what would it be?
Dig in! Dig into all that’s available to your company. There are loads of plug-ins and apps that you can use to really get a strong idea of what people want from your brand. Eat that up and then pivot as necessary.
