It’s Not About You: Multichannel Marketing for Your Prospects

For many startups and small businesses, marketing is a challenge because of their limited resources, whether it’s time, money or talent. Yet, they are faced with an ever growing choice of digital marketing channels: web sites, PR, social media, search, pay-per-click, events, and email, in addition to traditional media such newspapers, TV, and radio.

In the past, businesses promoted themselves and their products and services by pushing advertisements and promotions to their audiences on traditional media. Many of today’s buyers are more likely to gather information, such as user stories, research, white papers and other content on the web long before they ever contact vendors. Thus, marketing communication is not as much about you (the business). It’s about providing more information than promotion, which prospects (your target audience) are looking for and educating them.

This session will bring together experts with digital marketing, content marketing, and journalism backgrounds in tech and health sciences to discuss questions such as:

1. How startups with tight resources determine their marketing communication priorities?

2. How content marketing works, how to create content for marketing, and how to measure success?

3. What gets a journalist interested in covering your story and how a reporter would like to be contacted?

Dale Bertrand, Founder, Chimaera Labs

Dale Bertrand is an entrepreneur and marketing expert. He is the owner of Chimaera Labs, a digital marketing agency that specializes in search, pay per click advertising, content marketing, and email automation. Prior to founding Chimaera Labs, Dale served in web development and marketing roles at GrabCAD.com and Pixability. He earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering at Brown University.  www.chimaeralabs.com/contact-us/

Michael Gerard, Advisor, degology

Michael Gerard is a data-driven marketing executive who is an advisor at degology. He was chief marketing officer at Curata, where he led demand generation initiatives at the content marketing and curation software company.

For almost 10 years, Michael was Vice President in IDC’s Executive Advisory Practice where he led a staff of consultants and researchers who delivered benchmarks, best practices, and consulting services to marketers and sales leaders at companies such as HP, IBM, Intel, and Citrix. He also held sales and marketing positions at companies such as Millipore and Keenan Software. Michael earned his MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Ameeta Soni, CMO, 

Ameeta has been working with technology startups in many roles – marketer, founder, consultant, board member, and advisor.   She co-founded fitness app provider FitTrace, and served as Chief Marketing Officer of PlatformQ Health, a digital media company focused on the healthcare market and VFA, a SaaS provider acquired by a private-equity backed company.  Ameeta chaired the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge and is a mentor at Techstars and LearnLaunch accelerators.  She is also a Charter Member of TiE Boston and former Overseer of the Boston Museum of Science.  Ameeta is a frequent blogger and speaker on marketing, digital, and strategic partnerships.  She received her MBA from the University of Chicago.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameetasoni

Robert Weisman, Business Reporter, Boston Globe

Robert Weisman has been a business reporter and editor for The Boston Globe since 2000. He began covering the technology industry but moved to healthcare and life sciences industries seven years ago. Prior to the Globe, Weisman was a business reporter and editor for the Hartford Courant and the Seattle Times. He is a graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication. www.bostonglobe.com

Millie Kwan, Founder, CEC Business Solutions, Moderator

Millie Kwan is a digital marketing consultant with more than 20 years in IT development, management, education, and research. She is the founder and owner of CEC Business Solutions, a company which provides digital marketing services to small and medium-sized businesses. Prior to starting her own company, Millie taught at Babson College, ESSEC Business School in Paris, and the University of Hong Kong. She has also led library automation projects at University of Rhode Island and the HELIN Library Consortium. Millie received a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Boston University and MS in Computer Science from Washington University in St Louis. She is a Vice-Chair of Boston ENET.