MarTech360 Interview With Wendy Mak, Chief Marketing Officer, Link Group

“Watching the dramatic evolution of marketing through tech, AI and automation is nothing short of amazing. We’ve gone from calculating ROI on spreadsheets and diarising social media content, to dynamic, intuitive dashboards and automated social media management.” 

Hi, Wendy, could you tell us something about your professional background, how has your professional journey been so far?

With experience in various roles, different industries and operating environments I’m a broad, generalist Chief Marketing Officer which means that I manage and lead all aspects of marketing, communications and growth. My skills aren’t pigeon holed into a category or area, hence I’m more of a chameleon who adapts and adjusts all of experience to what is required in that particular moment. For example, I’ve had CMO roles where I’ve need to be highly commercial and focused on growth and client propositions, but in other situations it’s been more about developing strategic visions and transforming and re-imagining existing teams or building a whole new function in a greenfield environment.

How, according to you, have marketing technology and marketing automation changed the entire marketing landscape?

It’s dramatically changed how we do things, how we measure success and how we serve our clients and their end-users. As a marketer who’s been around for more than 25 years (I’ll leave you to do the math on how old that makes me!!!), watching the dramatic evolution of marketing through tech, AI and automation is nothing short of amazing.

We’ve gone from calculating ROI on spreadsheets and diarising social media content, to dynamic, intuitive dashboards and automated social media management. We’ve seen user experience go from being broad and at best personalised by a cohort or broad demographic, to now having technology that creates personalised, tailored experiences online.

Conversely, are there challenges with marketing technology and marketing automation?

I think the key challenge which we are grappling with and slowly solving, is how do you replicate the personalised and highly automated experience online, into the “real” world offline. It’s not a new challenge but one that I don’t think anyone has truly perfected yet. Technology and automation has allowed us to deliver such rich, targeted content and user experience online but the minute that connection is broken and we step out of that, the experience is disrupted.

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What are your go-to approaches to create new marketing and communications functions?

When it comes to greenfield environments, or even transforming existing teams, I find it always helps to map out the “why, what, who and how”. “Why” does the function exist? How does that align with your organisation’s purpose? Answering this allows you to set the overall team vision and strategic priorities.

Then you need to establish “what” you need to achieve these strategic priorities, from which you’re able to develop a tactical implementation plan and timings. Next you’ll need to work out “who” you need. This is about the skillsets required to execute including gaps, overlap of skills and cultural fit. Finding the right “who” is never a quick process, but critical as we are successful when we have the right people, with shared values, focused on the right things.

Finally, the “how”. This is all about making an upfront investment to develop your foundational policies, processes, systems and tools – in short, the ways of working and operating rhythm you would like to see in your team.

After the COVID-19 pandemic struct the world companies have more actively shifted to hybrid work arrangements. Does a hybrid work arrangement make reimagining things difficult or easier?

I think it’s been a bit of both. It’s definitely been harder to maintain and create strong team bonds with less in-person interaction, especially with newer team members. I’ve also found that some concepts – especially when you’re trying to reimagine new ways of working – are harder to explain virtually. In that respect I still think that in-person time together as a team is critical to have everyone truly connect and share your vision.

That said, hybrid work arrangements have also been amazing for team morale as we are all enjoying new levels of flexibility. I know that some organisations have struggled with productivity but my own experience with my team is that the level of flexibility and trust that we’ve given them is being returned to us with consistent, high levels of productivity and everyone still bringing their all to the table.

When it comes to leadership and decision-making, how do you re-imagine teams, and how do you decide what you need to create a new team would all be relevant?

Mostly by accident and not design, I’ve landed mostly in teams that were sort of working OK, but not working brilliantly to achieve their best potential. I think you often just instinctively know that something isn’t working, like driving a car in the wrong gear – it’s moving, but you don’t feel it’s driving right.

That’s usually the trigger for me to take a step back and analyse all aspects of the function – from our strategy, to the goals we have set for ourselves, the processes and systems we have in place (or maybe they aren’t in place at all!), through to the people in the team and whether the right balance of skills are in place.

You kind of almost end up unpicking and pulling apart everything that exists in the function and team and trying to work out how you’ll put it back together again. As part of that process of re-imagining the team, you’ll also work out if you need new or different tools, systems or skills, or even an entirely new strategy!

According to you, how is product experience related to the customer’s overall experience with a product and what can marketers do to further enhance this experience?

My personal view as that we can and are better marketers when we have product experience. Whether you’re an avid user, or have direct product marketing and development experience, understanding a product inside out can only ever be a benefit when it comes to creating better UX, go-to-market strategies and acquisition campaigns.

Could you name some platforms/tools that you use for marketing?

We use a multitude of platforms and tools so it wouldn’t be fair to name them in case I accidentally leave some of them out! But there’s no secret tool or platform for us – we use CRMs, social media platforms, marketing automation. I think the trick is making it all work and integrate together, and importantly making it work securely. Information and data security is paramount to us, as I’m sure it is for everyone, so making sure our integrations and connections all work without compromising security is our no 1 priority.

Do you have any words of wisdom that you would like to share with all the marketers out there?

I like to tell my team that we have a number of principles that we like to uphold and guide our ways of working.

1. Produce GREAT work
2. Find solutions, not problems
3. No surprises within the team – talk openly and have each other’s back
4. Adapt – because things always change
5. Always look ahead and be prepared

Thanks, Wendy!