Welcome to the Show, Diane Vanasse

On this week’s episode of The Common Sense Professional, we are joined by Diane Vanasse. Diane is the senior director of Marketing Communications for Credo Technology Group.
 

 

With more than 20 years of experience in marketing communications and public relations, Diane has worked with Fortune 500 companies both internally and as trusted partners. Diane’s media relations expertise spans broadcast, trade, consumer, business and social. She has been successful in creating brand marketing campaigns around new products and initiatives. Some of Diane’s favourite challenges include tackling critical corporate communications around mergers, acquisitions, and crises. She loves marketing complex technologies while balancing the needs of all stakeholders. 

 

B2B Marketing and Sales: The Common Sense Relationship

Diane works as a marketer in the B2B space. Everything she does as a marketer centres around ensuring that marketing efforts are done with the goal of helping the sales team gain revenue. Whether it’s as simple as implementing a system in the lobby for customers to receive a welcome message when they arrive for a meeting or larger efforts such as creating useful assets that the sales team can use to communicate with customers, it is important to keep the sales team at the forefront of marketing efforts.  

 

For Diane, striking this balance is not a challenge: 

 

“I don’t like to think of it as a challenge, actually. I like to think of it as an opportunity to be really in connection with our sales team and understand what they are doing from day to day […] In a B2B company, having that close relationship with sales is imperative as a marketer. You can’t survive without it. They can’t survive without you.” 

 

For Diane, getting positive feedback from sales on how the marketing team has helped them is the most important part of her job.  

A B2C Mindset in the B2B World

When working in the B2B space, there is often rhetoric surrounding companies, businesses, and brands. It’s easy for language like this to make us forget that B2B buying and selling is still all about people. Diane works to centre a people-first business culture in her marketing efforts. 

 

“I firmly believe that a B2B company should always have a B2C mindset in the types of materials and programs they run from branding and marketing. It creates a bond with the customer,” Diane explains, “Everyone wants to deal with a cool company… no one wants to deal with a company that ships you a 50-page dusty document that no one has copy-edited.” 

 

Diane tells us that centring people using a B2C mindset should permeate every aspect of your business. It should show through on you websites, data sheets, informational videos, and even in merchandise and swag.  

 

For Diane, branding is all about balancing a line without going too far. Your customer doesn’t want to see you spending money on a Superbowl ad… that would be too over the top. But focusing on the customer experience when someone walks into your office for a meeting or ensuring you have a solid presence at a trade show, are the things that will make customers want to work with you and associate positivity with your brand. 

 

Tools and Information in Decision Making

Effective marketing efforts and business practices boil down to people and tools. Diane works to center people on every level of her marketing practices, from prioritizing the sales team to centering a human approach to customer experience. However, Diane also tells us that business tools and tech are just as important. 

 

There is a breadth of tools out there today – tracking, CRM, Marketing Automation, etc. – and although it feels overwhelming to sift through everything that is available, technology integration is imperative for the success of your business.  

 

These tools are valuable for marketers to understand which content is getting results. What links are people clicking, what videos are they watching to the end, and what emails are they opening… it all comes down to understanding what your audience is responding to. Embracing this technology is among the best things a marketer can do for their business. 

 

Connect with Diane

Thank you to Diane Vanasse for joining us on the show. Listen to Diane’s full episode for a more in-depth conversation on the topics highlighted in the show notes. Plus, hear Diane recount what the experience was like as a marketer to ring the bell at Nasdaq. You won’t want to miss this! 

 

Keep Up With Diane on LinkedIn

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