"It's kind of like being the mayor of a small town. Trying to address the needs of each group of members was challenging, but the only way everything ran smoothly," she adds. "It's a similar situation for B2B marketing and sales processes. I'm fascinated by what it takes to engage people and make sure they're happy and, naturally, loyal."
'Running things smoothly' has been an integral part of Ardath's life. "Since I've been a general manager or COO for most all of my career, running a business is a natural for me. It also helps that I can see the whole picture to help my clients determine the impact of their marketing efforts on business results," she says.
That management talent took her to the Midwest when her sister founded Einsof, a sales and marketing performance software company, and asked Ardath to run it. "It was a fast-paced immersion in technology," says Ardath, thinking back, but "I was too wimpy to last for more than seven winters in Minneapolis, so I moved home to California when I founded Marketing Interactions in April 2007."
Finding her passion
The move back coincided with a focus on her calling. "I've always been a writer and I learned through helping our customers create and use the right content to get the results they needed from the technology that I'd found my true passion. I also enjoyed working on the strategy, content and customer-engagement programs much more than I found I liked running a company," she says.
"Most all of my clients are high-tech companies," she continues. "A typical engagement is usually based on a customer-centric content strategy and nurturing framework for a longer-term complex sale. Everything I do is focused on B2B e-marketing, which involves anything that takes place online, from website user engagement to email marketing, from micro-sites to bloggingâ€"and, of course, content display, development and downloads."
As for Ardath's own blogging, "I started because I had a lot to say and I'm a prolific writer. I was really fascinated by the ability to share my ideas on a broader scale. I'm beyond thrilled that people find them valuable. Discontinuing the blog has simply never occurred to me," she says.
The biggest part of marketing her business
"Writing a blog is like a test bed to learn what's resonating with the readers interested in topics I write about. It helps a lot with my client work, as well. It also acts as a proof point that I walk my talk and helps people decide whether or not I have insights and ideas they think will be helpful in refining their marketing programs to produce optimal results. The blog is the biggest part of marketing my business and my best customer generation tool," she says.
Participating in the larger world of social media "means I have the privilege of meeting a lot of interesting people and participating in dialogues I wouldn't otherwise have available," she says. "It moves fast and helps me keep up on the latest and greatestâ€"or not-so-great developmentsâ€"in the ways business is getting done. But, it also helps me learn about my clients' customers and develop programs that integrate into their marketing mix," she adds.
"Social media is like my daily lab experience. I'm always learning through the generosity of others. And I try to repay that by making contributions I hope are valuable."
Ardath Twitters "religiously" and also uses LinkedIn, SlideShare and YouTube. "The exciting thing is to watch what happens when you're working with social media as an integral component to your overall marketing storyline," she says.
Why listening is so important
"Social media referrals help to spread your content farther than you could do on your own. If your content is indeed valuable to the referrer's networks, you've got attraction value. That's why 'listening' is so important. Social media has upped the ante on the concept of relevance. Relevance gets picked up while irrelevance either dies silently in the ether or is called publicly to task," she says.
Ardath hasn't been slowed by the recession, though it's "definitely been interesting."
She says she has "fewer projects so far this year, but they're bigger than my smaller projects put together from last year. Luckily I've stayed very busy. What I'm doing differently this year is more partnering. I've been fortunate to get pulled into great projects through partners who need to add content and e-marketing strategy to the solutions and services they can provide alone."
As to Ardath's sources of inspiration, she places some recent reads in the thought-provoking category: "Personality Not Included," by Rohit Bhargava; "The Marketing Accountability Imperative," by Michael Dunn; and "Rules of Thumb," by Alan Webber (cofounder of FAST Company Magazine). And even if you're not looking for a job, she recommends "another great book, written by my good friend Jill Konrath, which turns the job search upside down with the use of online tools and personalized sales strategies for creating the job you really want." That's at "Get Back To Work Faster."
Oh - and her busy schedule permitting - watch out for the fall publication of Ardath's own book: "E-Marketing Strategies for the Complex Sale."
Our thanks to Ardath for being part of our MyVenturePad community.