Lisette Huyskamp, CMO at Productsup chats about her new role while sharing a few top-of-mind marketing and martech best practices and tips:

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat, Lisette! Please tell us more about your (new!) role at Productsup.

I started with Productsup in January 2021 as their Senior Vice President of Marketing, where I helped lead global marketing functions, growing the department, driving go-to-market strategies, and assisting the general growth of the company. Now moving up to the title of CMO, I’m excited to lead such a strong marketing team while working on development, innovation, brand awareness, and consumer engagement for Productsup.

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What are some of the challenges that are plaguing marketing minds of today that you’d like to highlight?

Working in the industry for more than 20 years, I’ve seen marketing teams and executives thrive and starve, both usually for the same reasons. One of the challenges I’ve noticed is building an agile organization that easily adapts to change. IT and marketing are both such dynamic industries, from creating/utilizing new measurement or communication tools to identifying trends via physical locations and online platforms. The most successful teams I’ve been part of are not afraid to change methods, processes, or tools to capitalize on whatever is trending at the time. It’s also important to retain as much talent as possible. Lastly, there is no greater asset to a successful marketer than meaningful data. I recommend marketers to look at data not just for marketing costs justification, but to get the full story of the buyer and their shopping journey, where they look when shopping, and what matters to them.  

What are some of the top digital marketing processes and trends that marketers of today need to be paying more attention to?

I think all marketers need to better understand how to use quality data to make intelligent decisions for the brand. This starts with the ability to identify quality data, which is not synonymous with large amounts of data. Quantity does not equal quality. Marketers who are able to identify major customer trends from their datasets AND can utilize them for a marketing plan will find the most success. At the same time, they are navigating increasingly complex paths between products, services, and customers. One can’t simply optimize campaigns here and there. What’s needed instead is a radical rethink, a move from mere optimization towards truly transforming relationships.

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As marketers find new martech processes and martech tools to help them measure their analytics and enhance outreach and campaign efficiency, what are some of the top factors they should be keeping in mind to optimize this?

I have yet to see a martech process or tool that requires no human intelligence – While tooling enables you to make smarter decisions, leading to enhanced outreach results and campaign efficiency, especially with the advancements with machine learning and AI, there is still a need for human intelligence and experience to make it successful and get the best ROI possible. The tool is a medium to determine the solution, but it should never be the sole solution. 

Optimization is also not the sole solution either. Martech tools can provide a pretty in-depth analysis of consumer trends within minutes (seconds even), but by sacrificing time for the full picture, you miss opportunities your company/brand can utilize on the marketing front. I encourage marketers to look at the full picture and make bold steps. 

A few thoughts on the future of marketing and the future of martech?

When it comes to the future of marketing and martech, I’d advise marketers to keep the four E’s in mind on whatever project they work on: engagement, experience, exclusivity, emotion. Consolidation of your tech stack is also increasingly important. A piecemeal approach won’t get you far. You need strong platforms that give you full control over your business and enable agility and growth. 

Top martech tools that you’ve often relied on (and why!). A quick dive into your martech stack at Productsup?

Supermetrics – I like this tool as there’s a good integration with Google Data Studio, along with many other connectors. 

ON24 is great for marketers looking to run webinars, record online events, and engage with participants in a stellar way. 

Bynder is my go-to digital asset management solution. It helps us make better use of our marketing assets. 

Qlik is my favorite business intelligence platform: amazing data processing speed and great UX. 

Some last thoughts and takeaways for marketing and sales leaders to keep in mind through 2021?

I encourage marketing and sales leaders to think big and align with the business. I also encourage them to be transparent with each other, especially when it comes to what’s feasible and what’s not. Don’t be afraid to disrupt the status quo. Stay agile, so you can respond to fast market changes. And keep learning! I think getting it 80% right is fine, as long as you learn from it. If you focus on perfection, you might still not get it 100% right, but you’re likely to miss the learnings. 

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