Marketing Means Business!

[Jen Smith]

Some folks seem to believe that marketing is a department staffed by people with a very strong attachment to crayons and colour palettes, where you crank a handle and a lead falls out. Somewhere that is consumed with campaigns and detached from fiscal reality.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

Marketing is a discipline that exists beyond the marketing team and should extend throughout an entire organization. It’s not just ‘coloring in’; it’s what we say, to whom and how, to positively impact the bottom line. It’s how we articulate what our business can do, what it delivers and what makes us different. It’s about knowing our audience and being where they are so we can make mutually profitable connections. We find the call to action and deliver it in the right way, at the right time so that people feel compelled to do business with us.

From the start of my career in marketing through managing programmes, campaigns, strategic teams and now a division, marketing has always been to me a powerful blend of art and science. We don’t start with a blank sheet of paper and a packet of pens – we start with business principals and are driven by delivering value to partners, customers and shareholders. We are scientists applying a little magic to our formulas; we are creatives that mean business.

And because we mean business, we’re fiercely competitive. We plan strategically and execute cleanly because we want to deliver higher performance by revenue, product line and profitability than the industry average. In fact, forget industry ‘average’, we want industry excellence.

I’m delighted to be the CMO of a company that shares my passion, and sees marketing as a discipline , not just a department. So strong is our belief in the business value that marketing drives that we’re sharing it with our partner community at Progress Exchange 2013 where we’re dedicating an entire track to Business Enablement and Marketing Empowerment for Partners. The team and I will be delivering sessions dedicated to accelerating revenue, monetizing applications and growing your businesses. And there won’t be a crayon in sight.

Do you have your own marketing means business story to share? Want to find out more about the marketing track? Here’s how you can get in touch:

• Follow me on Twitter: @jegriffinsmith
• Join the Exchange 2013 conversation using #PRGS13
• Connect with the Progress team on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/progress-software
• Book your place! www.progress.com/exchange

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