Thanks a lot to Alexander for taking the time to do this Interview. “Marketer Interviews” is a interview series catalog where we interview the top marketers out there and present it in an organised and categorized format at interviews.observely.net .
Alexander Sumin is Chief Marketing Officer at ClaimCompass. To learn more about Alexander’s work go to https://www.alexandersumin.com/.

Question: Where are you working now, what is your role and how did you get here?
Alexander Sumin: I’m a cofounder of a company which helps travelers get paid when airlines screw up their flights. Officially, I look after growth and marketing, but that varies depending on the fires we have to put out.
I guess one of the more interesting bits of our story is that when we first launched, late 2015, the three of us (cofounders) were based in three different locations: Berlin, Glasgow, and Montreal. We all had our full-time commitments and worked on ClaimCompass on weekends and nights. Believe it or not, we got some decent traction and got into 500 Startups. That’s when it all changed and we moved out to California.

Prior to all that I worked for one of the larger chartered airlines in Montreal, did a bit of PR and Marketing at an agency in Berlin, and also worked for a couple of years as an analyst for the Canadian Federal Government.

Question: What is your favorite marketing area? (Social, SEO, Sales etc.)?
Alexander Sumin: Every once in a while I’ll get frustrated with pretty much everything, so that’s tough to answer. I guess what I enjoy the most is gathering user feedback and transforming that into tangible product features and seeing the positive impact on both: the users and the business. And there’s a lot that goes into that. My least favorite thing is seeing very high rates of users who come through paid channels and very low retention rates — it makes me feel nervous, that we’re not under control and at the mercy of these third-party platforms.

Question: What are your favorite books?
Alexander Sumin: Some of the books I’ve enjoyed are Hacking Growth, by Sean Ellis, most of Seth Godin’s books, From Zero to One by Peter Thiel, Angel Investing by David Rose, Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore, Blue Ocean by Renee Mauborgne and W Chan Kim, and The Startup Way by Eric Ries.

Question: What marketing related blogs, magazines etc. do you read to keep your skills up to date?
Alexander Sumin: I rarely do, but I think you can find most of the things you need to know in the blogs of Paul Graham, Andrew Chen, Brian Balfour. The First Round Review is also great, Social Capital’s Essays as well. There’s a ton of useful content out there, the challenge is to find the time to read it.

Question: How do you find good content?
Alexander Sumin: Define good content.
There’s this weird thing about content as if we all need to do it for no reason what so ever other than — having content.
To me, good content is that type of content that serves a particular purpose and does so, well. So if I want to rank for particular keywords, good content would be a piece on that topic that is high quality, gets traction and helps me rank higher.

Question: How do you get to know your target audience?
Alexander Sumin: I love talking directly to users and understanding their priorities, issues, the way they view our solution, etc. So I guess it’s a combination of a bunch of tools & Typeform, haha.

Question: What tools do you use for social marketing?
Alexander Sumin: Our social is pretty much running paid ads, so Facebook Business Manager and a bit of Buffer.

Question: What tools do you use for analytics?
Alexander Sumin: Mixpanel and Google Analytics.

Question: What CRM tools do you use?
Alexander Sumin: A big chunk of our back-end product is actually a custom quasi-CRM that we’ve built, so we don’t use anything external.

Question: What’s your #1 advice for people starting to get into marketing?
Alexander Sumin: If you’re an absolute beginner, start doing things. Like, write an article, publish it somewhere and try driving traffic to it. See if that’s something that you really want to do. There’s a ton of available resources out there.

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Alexander Sumin — There’s this weird thing about content as if we all need to do it for no reason… was originally published in marketer interviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Question: Where are you working now, what is your role and how did you get here?
Kelly Ann Collins: I’m the CEO at Vult Lab, a social media agency I started five years ago. We focus on social good campaigns — and we only work with companies and organizations doing good things. As we like to say, “We’re social media strategists who love one thing and one thing only: helping our clients to accelerate rockin’ ideas for a better tomorrow.💫”

Question: What is your favorite marketing area? (Social, SEO, Sales etc.)?
Kelly Ann Collins: Social media all the way! No matter what you do — chatbots, SEO, sales, web design, funnels, ads — social media plays a part in almost all things digital.

Question: Why do you love marketing?
Kelly Ann Collins: When I was a little kid you couldn’t tweet your president, or DM your favorite cartoon character. Now, you can. And, to me, this interactivity, is amazing. Invigorating even!

Question: What are your favorite books?
Kelly Ann Collins: Anything Grant Cardone. Sure, he’s a little crazy, but I am all about the hustle life.

Question: What marketing related blogs, magazines etc. do you read to keep your skills up to date?
Kelly Ann Collins: I love all the best blogs from Social Media Today and Social Media Examiner to Buffer and Adobe’s CMO!

Question: What brands do you like or follow on social media and why?
Kelly Ann Collins: I am 100% all about @Wendys. If you are not following them on Twitter you are missing out. It’s pretty awesome (whether you like fast food or not). Other fun brands to follow: @MoonPie and @DennysDiner.

Question: How do you find good content?
Kelly Ann Collins: I’m always on the lookout. But, if there is a specific topic I want to research I do a search on social media first for insights on what people are saying, what’s performing well and what’s not.

Question: How do you get to know your target audience?
Kelly Ann Collins: Research, research, research. After you have defined your ideal target market, you’ve got to really dig in and get to know the people in it. Look at the hashtags they use, where they shop, where they live, etc. A great tool for determining this information is WealthEngine, which can provide any organization or business with lifestyle data to enhance marketing efforts. You have to know your ideal customer well so you can tailor your content into messaging and visuals that will attract them to you, and your products and/or services.

Question: What tools do you use for social marketing?
Kelly Ann Collins: I love Buffer (scheduling and account performance analytics), Rival IQ (competitive landscape analytics), TweetReach (see how far your hashtag traveled), Unfollowers (see who unfollowed an account) and RiteTag (hashtag research).

Question: What tools do you use for analytics?
Kelly Ann Collins: Buffer’s new Buffer Analyze is pretty sweet for account performance, growth, etc. It even identifies account influencers. Props to them on it. I also love Rival IQ for comparing client accounts to competitor accounts.

Question: What CRM tools do you use?
Kelly Ann Collins: My favorite: Salesforce (with WealthEngine integration)!

Question: What’s your #1 advice for people starting to get into marketing?
Kelly Ann Collins: Practice makes perfect. Learn the basics and then just get in there and do it! You can learn all you want in school, but real-life, on-the-job training with people who knows the industry well is priceless!

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Kelly Ann Collins — Practice makes perfect. Learn the basics and then just get in there and do it! was originally published in marketer interviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Question: Where are you working now, what is your role and how did you get here?
Darren Foong: I’m very lucky to be working right now at a soft-spoken startup called ReferralCandy. Startups are very much about gambling on talent and stretching skillsets and rapid learning, and my previous ‘blogging’ role at a startup evolved into a product marketing role that allowed me to talk fast into a growth marketing role.

Question: What is your favorite marketing area? (Social, SEO, Sales etc.)?
Darren Foong: I started out in PR and writing, and so content always has a special place in my heart. To sell is human, and I love influence, persuasion, pre-suasion and all that. In the last couple of years, I have come to enjoy product marketing. Being able to work with engineers and designers and product managers to work on addressing customer needs and solving problems is exciting.

Question: Why do you love marketing?
Darren Foong: There’s an assumption here that I love marketing — can we verify this? Also, I would rather be making pay like an investment banker. But nowhere else do you spend up to eight hours a day doing your best to persuade, assuage, convince, and exclude as many people as possible en masse using the power of words, and weave in opportunities for shameless self promotion, provocative language and self-deprecating humour.

Question: What are your favorite books?
Darren Foong: My classics are The Score Takes Care of Itself and High Output Management. Understanding how incredible leaders think, manage, and motivate their team to make success not a surprise but a regular, repeatable, even automatic systematic item is great.

Question: What marketing related blogs, magazines etc. do you read to keep your skills up to date?
Darren Foong: I read a lot of the Ahrefs blog, the Hubspot blog, and those of the bloggers who guestpost on ReferralCandy.com

Question: What brands do you like or follow on social media and why?
Darren Foong: I have actually reduced social media consumption to almost zero. Beyond friends & family on Instagram maybe, I don’t really have the inclination to keep up with brands.

No, I tell a lie. I follow @TheEconomist for pithy comics, compelling captivating pictures and stories told in captions. I also listen to Babbage and Money Talks off Economist Radio (podcasts) and — ooh, they’ve got a new one.

Question: How do you find good content?
Darren Foong: Aptly for someone who works at ReferralCandy, I tend to come across good content when it’s shared in conversations or forums. Asking someone for their favourite book or recommendation is a great way to find new books to read (and a person you could start asking is Ryan Holiday or Siquan Ong).

For movies, I triangulate between RottenTomatoes, R/Movies and Wikipedia. If the plot seems terrible when I spoil myself via Wiki, then it might not be worth watching. Yes; I spoil the endings of movies and books. If your movie relies only on a twist or a surprise to succeed then it might not be worth watching twice.

Question: How do you get to know your target audience?
Darren Foong: The team at ReferralCandy regularly push to talk to customers, and we encourage every member to participate in “Customer Success for a Night”. In my work producing case studies and so on I talk to customers, and take every excuse to poke them every few months.

Question: What tools do you use for social marketing?
Darren Foong: Freelancers.

Question: What tools do you use for analytics?
Darren Foong: Google Analytics, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, Quicksight, Redshift, Segment

Question: What CRM tools do you use?
Darren Foong: N/A

Question: What’s your #1 advice for people starting to get into marketing?
Darren Foong: Don’t start. Really, the hours are terrible, the work is exhausting, you can make more money in software engineering and I don’t need the competition of young, enthusiastic, hungry people learning everything and experimenting their way to success. Go work in a bank.

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Darren Foong — I have actually reduced social media consumption to almost zero. was originally published in marketer interviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Question: Where are you working now, what is your role and how did you get here?
Taru Bhargava: I’m currently working at Foundation Marketing Inc. Foundation is a B2B content marketing agency based out f Halifax, Canada. My role at Foundation is multi-dimensional and on a day to basis, I get to handle external clients as well as internal brands.
How I got here is pretty interesting. But long story short, I’ve known Ross Simmonds for a while and have always admired his work. So when he shared that he had a spot open at Foundation, I was quick to jump and leverage on the opportunity.

Question: What is your favorite marketing area? (Social, SEO, Sales etc.)?
Taru Bhargava: Most definitely content marketing! I can say that social media marketing and SEO comes next in that order.

Question: Why do you love marketing?
Taru Bhargava: What I love about my job is the ability to tell engaging stories, have a peek into the inside of so many businesses, identify the pain points of customers and then weave them into content that drives traffic and generates revenue.
The best part? No two days are the same and there’s something new waiting for me every day. I can wake up and write blogs, create copy for landing pages or work on my side gig as the sun sets.

Question: What are your favorite books?
Taru Bhargava: My all-time favorite book is Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. But when it comes to books on marketing the list keeps on evolving. At present, I’m itching to read Atomic Habits — have read tons of good reviews about it.

Question: What marketing related blogs, magazines etc. do you read to keep your skills up to date?
Taru Bhargava: Great question! In no particular order, I love the following blogs:
>Intercom
>First Round Review
> Drift Blog
> Buffer
> Co-schedule
> SmartInsights
> CXL

Question: What brands do you like or follow on social media and why?
Taru Bhargava: I mostly follow B2B & B2C brands on social media. A lot of these display some good work, which is always inspiring.

Question: How do you find good content?
Taru Bhargava: Thankfully I’m surrounded by some amazing content creators across social media and communities and by virtue of it I’m blessed to discover noteworthy content each day.

Question: How do you get to know your target audience?
Taru Bhargava: We do thorough research and deep-dive to understand their needs, behavior, expectations and then go on to create personas.

Question: What tools do you use for social marketing?
Taru Bhargava: We majorly use Buffer.

Question: What tools do you use for analytics?
Taru Bhargava: Google Analytics to identify web traffic and Ahrefs for SEO purpose.

Question: What CRM tools do you use?
Taru Bhargava: None at the moment. But have used Hubspot extensively in the past.

Question: What’s your #1 advice for people starting to get into marketing?
Taru Bhargava: When I moved from sales into marketing (without any tertiary qualification) the only thing I did was to be fearless. Learn, experiment and evolve is my mantra!

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Taru Bhargava — Learn, experiment and evolve is my mantra! was originally published in marketer interviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Question: Where are you working now, what is your role and how did you get here?
Nikolay Terziev: Right now I work as a senior SEO expert and product definition specialist. I got to this position thanks to my extensive 8+ years of experience as an SEO consultant.

Question: What is your favorite marketing area? (Social, SEO, Sales etc.)?
Nikolay Terziev: If I have to pick only one it has to be SEO.

Question: Why do you love marketing?
Nikolay Terziev: Marketing is all about relationships. That is what I most love about it. How it connects and solidifies consumers and companies.

Question: What are your favorite books?
Nikolay Terziev: Best book I’ve read recently -> Start with Why

Question: What marketing related blogs, magazines etc. do you read to keep your skills up to date?
Nikolay Terziev: I like to follow people instead of reading particular blogs, but there are few that I like. SparkToto, Ahrefs Blog, Backlinko, Moz, SEO by the Sea, Fast Company

Question: What brands do you like or follow on social media and why?
Nikolay Terziev: There are lots of brands that I follow for various reasons. I like to keep track of news, updates, releases and other relevant info. There are few brands that I follow for their posts and wordplay or captivating videos or photos/images.

Question: How do you find good content?
Nikolay Terziev: When you work what I do it’s quite easy to find good content. I visit and discover interesting new sites. Often I get send cool links from friends or colleagues. However, what best works is to allow ads to appear in your feed and actually click on those of them that are really cool.

Question: How do you get to know your target audience?
Nikolay Terziev: The first approach is through data from our tracking tools. Next level is when I sit down with customer support or at least send them a brief of what I need. If that doesn’t help then online — forums, blogs and other platforms that mention our brand.

Question: What tools do you use for social marketing?
Nikolay Terziev: We use Buffer.

Question: What tools do you use for analytics?
Nikolay Terziev: We use Google Analytics

Question: What CRM tools do you use?
Nikolay Terziev: We have a custom build CRM.

Question: What’s your #1 advice for people starting to get into marketing?
Nikolay Terziev: Pick an area and learn everything there it is about it. Read every day, try new things and don’t be afraid to make decisions. The decisions you make will help you grow.

This interview is part of the “Marketer Interviews” catalog project. A service by observely — your automated competitor analysis delivered to your inbox

Nikolay Terziev — Marketing is all about relationships was originally published in marketer interviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Question: Where are you working now, what is your role and how did you get here?
Dragan Berak: I work as an independent SEO consultant, focusing mainly on technical SEO. However, I love all aspects of SEO.

Question: What is your favorite marketing area? (Social, SEO, Sales etc.)?
Dragan Berak: SEO, paid ads and email marketing.

Question: Why do you love marketing?
Dragan Berak: Because I enjoy exploring behavior patterns and their impact on decision making.

Question: What are your favorite books?
Dragan Berak: Start with Why, Leaders Eat Last, Getting More

Question: What marketing related blogs, magazines etc. do you read to keep your skills up to date?
Dragan Berak: Search Engine Journal, Diggity Marketing

Question: What brands do you like or follow on social media and why?
Dragan Berak: I follow many famous and less famous brands because I want to learn and understand what they are doing and why — to improve their marketing and visibility.

Question: How do you find good content?
Dragan Berak: Google search and newsletters.

Question: How do you get to know your target audience?
Dragan Berak: Visiting places they visit and listening to their problems.

Question: What tools do you use for social marketing?
Dragan Berak: Buffer, SEMrush, Bitly, RocketLink

Question: What tools do you use for analytics?
Dragan Berak: Google Analytics, SEMrush, CrazyEgg

Question: What CRM tools do you use?
Dragan Berak: Hubspot

Question: What’s your #1 advice for people starting to get into marketing?
Dragan Berak: Don’t forget you’re addressing to people, not robots.

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Dragan Berak — Don’t forget you’re addressing to people, not robots. was originally published in marketer interviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Question: Where are you working now, what is your role and how did you get here?
Ayunda Zikrina: I am currently working at Niagahoster, a web hosting company in Indonesia part of Hostinger International based in Lithuania. My position now is Social Media Specialist. I used to work as a Chief Creative Officer at Pijar Psikologi, an online psychological consultation platform. I moved here to pursue my passion in media, especially social media as platforms that help business speed up and grow.

Question: What is your favorite marketing area? (Social, SEO, Sales etc.)?
Ayunda Zikrina: Since I am a social media specialist, my favorite marketing area of course social media. It’s amazing how the shift happens from connecting people socially to marketing over the years.

Question: Why do you love marketing?
Ayunda Zikrina: It enables business to gain deeper insight about its most important stakeholders, customers. I have a background in psychology, and though it has nothing to do with marketing, but it’s somehow connected in how I observe people’s interaction with each other and actions toward the decision of choosing a service or buying a product.

Question: What are your favorite books?
Ayunda Zikrina: I’m not really a bookworm, but Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh about his story with Zappos was something I enjoyed reading so much.

Question: What marketing related blogs, magazines etc. do you read to keep your skills up to date?
Ayunda Zikrina: I am not really following any marketing related blogs. Most of the essentials blog reading I read is related to social media trends. Usually provided by Buffer, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Falcon.io etc.

Question: What brands do you like or follow on social media and why?
Ayunda Zikrina: Nike, Starbucks, Liverpool F.C. Nike because why not? That Kaepernick’s ads is really something I am amazed of. Not just for the message but also the effect on the brand. Starbucks for its user generated content. And Liverpool F.C, well just because. I’m a huge fan.

Question: How do you find good content?
Ayunda Zikrina: By looking at what other brands creating (including our competitors) and try to create one for my brand, either following the same steps or create our own. I usually paid attention to how it relates with the company value.

Question: How do you get to know your target audience?
Ayunda Zikrina: Through native analytics in each social media platform and by interacting with them in social media every day. Posting the posts and do lots of trials and errors. Seeing which one works, which don’t.

Question: What tools do you use for analytics?
Ayunda Zikrina: Buffer Analyze, Google Analytics and Native Analytics in each social media platform

Question: What’s your #1 advice for people starting to get into marketing?
Ayunda Zikrina: Be sensitive to what your customers really need. Get to their pain point and try to give it a solution.

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Ayunda Zikrina — Be sensitive to what your customers really need was originally published in marketer interviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Question: Where are you working now, what is your role and how did you get here?
Annali Wallin: I am Customer Success and Marketing Manager at Ocast. My role is broad and I dance between tasks daily. As Customer Success Manager, I am passionate about ensuring my clients are successful with our product and challenge them to improve their own product catalog, workflow and media marketing. As Marketing Manager, I am constantly evolving our lean marketing activities and strategy — typical for a fast-paced and growing startup.

Question: What is your favorite marketing area? (Social, SEO, Sales etc.)?
Annali Wallin: I gravitate towards customer-centric marketing in general and enjoy the potential of email marketing and SaaS in-app marketing strategies.

Question: Why do you love marketing?
Annali Wallin: I love marketing because of the influence on the economy to drive more successful businesses but mostly because of the ability to make people feel emotions and positively.

In a society that needs more positivity, it’s satisfying to add even a touch of entertainment, ease and positive impact to someone else’s day.

Question: What are your favorite books?
Annali Wallin: TOO MANY — Top reads include Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin, All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.

Question: What marketing related blogs, magazines etc. do you read to keep your skills up to date?
Annali Wallin: Buffer, Bannerboy, AdAge Podcast, SaaStr Podcast and more. I’m a big podcast listener.

Question: What brands do you like or follow on social media and why?
Annali Wallin: I’m a twitter fiend — I enjoy @buffer and @campaignmag for consistent content to read on the go. On Instagram, I follow @marketing_humor for a little chuckle and enjoy again, @buffer, for their aesthetics, employer branding and inspiration through various marketing verticals — check it out!

Question: How do you find good content?
Annali Wallin: By dedicating time to research and browse for new content and being open to new sources. Referrals from friends as well — nothing like classic WOM.

Question: How do you get to know your target audience?
Annali Wallin: The best way is with data and personally. We use Google Analytics mostly and a lot of customer contact, research interviews and consistent surveying.

Question: What tools do you use for social marketing?
Annali Wallin: Buffer. It’s a great tool to use for a simple UX and all social channels in one place.

Question: What tools do you use for analytics?
Annali Wallin: Google Analytics, Google Search Console, HotJar.

Question: What CRM tools do you use?
Annali Wallin: Hubspot, Monday.com

Question: What’s your #1 advice for people starting to get into marketing?
Annali Wallin: Be curious and adventurous — those are the people that change the world and learn the most. Find a mentor that allows you to push your own limits, the limits of those around you and shares their knowledge. Regardless of marketing, I believe the secret to success is having a balance stubbornness to push for your ideas, openness to other ideas and mostly, kindness.

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Annali Wallin — Be curious and adventurous — those are the people that change the world was originally published in marketer interviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Question: Where are you working now, what is your role and how did you get here?
Martin Raamat: We’re currently building a startup company called Mediamodifier.com which is also a tool for marketers and entrepreneurs. I am the co-founder and content producer with a few million other tasks. The idea for the product came from my own need — as an entrepreneur, I often needed quick marketing visuals for my company website or social media channels, but creating such content is very time consuming and requires design skills or specific software. Thus, an idea was born to create an easy to use tool which helps anyone sell their products and showcase their designs.

Question: What is your favorite marketing area? (Social, SEO, Sales etc.)?
Martin Raamat: Mostly SEO, because I like the challenge of coming up with creative content for the actual users while also feeding the search engines with enough important data to get ranked for the right keywords.

Question: Why do you love marketing?
Martin Raamat: Because marketing is a mix of rocket science and creativity. There’s the technical side of gathering information, experimenting, measuring and analyzing data, and then there’s the creative side of advertising. In the end, you can see how one word or image can make or break a marketing campaign.

We all hate it when a stranger knocks on our door and tries to sell us something we don’t need. Now imagine that someone who’s selling protective iPhone cases knocks on your door just 15 minutes after you’ve unboxed your new iPhone. What a coincidence?

Good marketing gives you a great chance to find the right people, so you could sell them something they actually need.

Question: What are your favorite books?
Martin Raamat: I love books with great stories, mostly inspirational biographies of other entrepreneurs. It’s fascinating to read how people got started and developed their businesses.

Question: What marketing related blogs, magazines etc. do you read to keep your skills up to date?
Martin Raamat: I don’t specifically follow any marketing related blogs but instead a lot of entrepreneurs and investors. They often try to sell you something, so if they get my attention, I often analyze their campaigns to see what they did right… or wrong.

Question: What brands do you like or follow on social media and why?
Martin Raamat: None. I don’t want too much noise on my social media accounts. When I’m curious and want to see what a company is up to in social media, I go to their pages and scroll down to see what they’ve posted for the last six months to see if they are active or not.

Question: How do you find good content?
Martin Raamat: By reading articles and following newsletters of creative people and entrepreneurs.

Question: How do you get to know your target audience?
Martin Raamat: At first, you simply guess who they are. Once your business gets more serious, then you must find out who they are. Basic tools like Google Analytics and Facebook Insights (Lookalike Audiences) also give you a good head start.

Question: What tools do you use for social marketing?
Martin Raamat: Buffer for the management side and keeping things together. Also, I cannot answer this question without mentioning the very same tool we’re building — Mediamodifier. It’s great for all DIY marketers who need visual content for their social media channels. We made it because we needed it our self to showcase various product shots and website mockups.

Question: What tools do you use for analytics?
Martin Raamat: Mostly Google Analytics, Mailchimp and data from Facebook Pixel.

Question: What CRM tools do you use?
Martin Raamat: The CRM features of Mailchimp.

Question: What’s your #1 advice for people starting to get into marketing?
Martin Raamat: Know what you are doing, and why you are doing it! Before doing any marketing, make sure you set yourself goals about what you wish to achieve in the end. It’s not a good idea to start a marketing campaign without thinking about the results first.

If you don’t know what the real value of the product you are selling is and to whom you’re selling it to, then you aren’t selling at all — you’re most likely just wasting time.

Be creative.

This interview is part of the “Marketer Interviews” catalog project. A service by observely — your automated competitor analysis delivered to your inbox

Martin Raamat — Marketing is a mix of rocket science and creativity was originally published in marketer interviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Question: Where are you working now, what is your role and how did you get here?
Alex Medick: Right now, I am doing my own venture called The New Standard. TNS is a digital marketing agency and consultancy based out of Las Vegas, NV. I started the company for casual freelance gigs outside of my corporate marketing job back in 2014. But as demand for my services grew, I decided in 2019 to go all in. Things are insanely busy, but that’s a good thing!

For the last several years, I have been a VP of Marketing for a holding company that works in the data insights space. After a while, I just kept feeling that I wanted to be my own boss and do my own thing. So, I took the plunge and the business keeps coming. I am enjoying TNS more because of the freedom to work wherever and under my own guidance, without having a board of directors to each day.

Check us out online at WeAreTNS.com

Question: What is your favorite marketing area? (Social, SEO, Sales etc.)?
Alex Medick: Social, Website Design and Marketing Consulting are my bread in butter. It’s what I love the most and what get’s me excited when a client gives me the opportunity to do so.

Website design is your digital business card. It’s a living breathing tool that can help you gain new customers and inform the world about what you do for a living. If done right, websites are no longer static, but they are ever-evolving to grow with the business and customer.

Social is great, if done right! I’m not a big proponent of “influencer status.” I believe that social is a tool where you can connect directly with your customer. Where you can develop personal relationships with each person that supports your company by way of purchasing your product / service. There is no better way to create one-on-one experiences with you audience than social. Also, social ads is wildly incredible with the targeting I am able to do. To be able to tailor ads for my specific audience is absolutely wonderful.

Lastly, the consulting. This is my jam. I love being able to advise and guide companies to reach their marketing goals. I love to dive into the team and help them grow as an engaged partner and member of their squad. Then, when the ball is rolling, I step back and they know that I am always here for them as time goes on. I love this aspect of marketing and consulting.

Question: Why do you love marketing?
Alex Medick: I love marketing because it is at the corner of art and science. You can use data to inform and methodologies to inform your tactics, but you have to use art and creativity to implement them. Also, to help take a client’s idea and turn that into a reality with an audience that actually wants the product is incredible.

Hell no, it’s not easy. But I love it.

Question: What are your favorite books?
Alex Medick: I have too many favorite books. I read one or two a month, so I guess I will try and narrow this list down to the top 5.

1. When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead — Jerry Weintraub
2. The Third Door by Alex Banayan
3. Without Their Permission by Alexis Ohanian
4. Angel by Jason Calacanis
5. #AskGaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk
6. Question: What marketing related blogs, magazines etc. do you read to keep your skills up to date?
   Alex Medick: To stay up-to-date, I am constantly stalking the latest trends on twitter, reading updates from companies like Hubspot and Buffer, joining marketing communities on Slack, and listening to podcasts.

Marketing is always evolving, so it’s important to stay on-top of things.

**Question: What brands do you like or follow on social media and why?**
*Alex Medick*: My favorite brands to follow on social are Buffer, Hubspot, Hootsuite, and then I follow a lot of marketers and entrepreneurs.

**Question: How do you find good content?**
*Alex Medick*: One of my favorite ways to find good content is through Inside.com — a news curation website that emails news based on categories I choose on a daily basis.

It’s one of the best content sites out there. It’s not meant for content curation, but it helps to get the wheels turning for great marketing content.

**Question: How do you get to know your target audience?**
*Alex Medick*: Its all about the data, baby! I use tools like Facebook analytics, Google analytics and the company’s CRM to get to know my clients audience. If it is a new product without an audience to examine, I like to use HubSpot’s buyer persona creation tool and test, test, test!

**Question: What tools do you use for social marketing?**
*Alex Medick*: There is really only one tool that use for social media marketing and Buffer (Publisher, Reply and Analytics). There is of course Facebook Business Manager as well for running social campaigns.

**Question: What tools do you use for analytics?**
*Alex Medick*: For analytics, I use Google, Facebook and Buffer Analyze.

**Question: What CRM tools do you use?**
*Alex Medick*: I use one main CRM tool — Hubspot.

**Question: What’s your #1 advice for people starting to get into marketing?**
*Alex Medick*: My number one piece of advice for people getting into marketing is to know that there is so much free education out there on the internet and that there are so many people in the marketing community that are willing to help you and guide you succeed. You don’t need to panic and go through everything alone! Join the community and participate! Be a part of the culture.

This interview is part of the “Marketer Interviews” catalog project. A service by [observely — your automated competitor analysis delivered to your inbox](https://observely.net)

Alex Medick — I love marketing because it is at the corner of art and science was originally published in marketer interviews on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.