The Steed Society presented Female Success Factor: The Digital S.H.E., an event that included a panel session and the Talking Pretty Social Media Lounge. The event took place at the Atlanta History Center on Saturday, March 24. Panelists included: JaKathryn Ross, executive director, Youth Entrepreneurs Atlanta Georgia-Pacific Corp.; Sunni Hickman, V.P. of marketing and media, Creaxion; Leeza Byers, president, Byers Workforce Solutions; Amanda White, research director, WXIA-TV 11 Alive; Faylene Bell, VP, marketing, Digitas; and Sonja Williams, founder, ShockTheory Interactive.
During the Q-and-A session, one audience member asked for a “quick and dirty marketing plan,” and here are a few tips that the panelists shared.
Be prepared for long hours and late nights.
Sunni Hickman, VP of marketing and media, Creaxion: “You have to be a multitasker, you have to be a serial-tasker. It’s hard, it’s hard work and [you have to work] long hours, but if you want it, you do it. That is the bottom line. After I put my kids to bed, I work. With technology you are always on, and you’re always available. The 9-to-5 — if that’s what you’re looking for — this is not it.
“To grow in this digital space, and to understand how digital apply to this whole marketing and technology, this is not an industry where you get to work at 9, you take a nice hour-long lunch and at 5 o’clock you check out, and that’s the end of your day. It doesn’t work like that. But the rewards of it are so fruitful. You have to do a lot of things at once.”
Analyze your business with a SWOT analysis.
Sunni Hickman advises: “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats apply to your business and it can apply to your life. This gives you perspective on what position that you want to take, or that you want to address a business situation from. And once you know your voice that gives you clarity that this is how you will approach various things. The power is in the idea and then we figure out what the best tactics are.”
Have a clear target in mind.
Faylene Bell, VP of marketing, Digitas says: “Who is your target audience? That will be the cornerstone of all the marketing that you come up with. I lean heavy on analytics for marketing perspective. You have to measure everything you’re doing. [Ask yourself], ‘How many customers am I going to convert?’ So you can figure out the price point and how the product should be sold, all the pieces should be together in the beginning before you even think about launching.”
