Keeping Humanity at the Center of Marketing with Ceros’ CMO Jamie Gier

Jamie Gier knows what people want. From a young age, she was seeing gaps in the market and finding ways to bridge them – her eye for business had her selling ash from Mount St. Helens’ on a cross-country roadtrip when she was just a kid. 

But the business side of things will always be second to the human side of a company, and that’s where Jamie’s unique eye for storytelling plays a major role in Ceros’ success. She finds a way to meet the needs of the customer with a storyteller’s grace. 

“The reality is that you have to be very relevant to a community, and you’re feeding them based on both the heart and the mind. So, intellectually – what are we providing to them that makes them better at what they do? From the ‘heart’ perspective – how do you tell the stories and help them see a better version of themselves in what you can provide?” 

Her strategy is paying off. Ceros is a rapidly growing software company that keeps culture and creativity at the heart of everything it does. Their mission is to help customers unlock their creativity and build exceptional content using their unique and powerful design platform and resources…all without writing a single line of code. 

So how does Jamie manage to acquire new clients, find ways to help them meet their needs while also keeping focus on their narrative – all while leading a team of her own? Tune into this week’s episode of Marketing Trends to find out!  

Main Takeaways

• Keep humanity at the center. A lot of business is focused on data – numbers and figures and profits and losses… but it is important to remember that people are the heart of every endeavor. If you’re leading a group, make sure to take time to connect with them. Ask your client about their reason – the passion that got them to start their business. Remember that your team lead’s daughter had a softball tournament this week – and ask how it went. Those are things that people remember. 
• Data as a substantiator of tactics, not a driver of tactics. Data has changed the marketing game, but it isn’t everything. In fact, the sheer amount of data we are able to collect can be overwhelming. It’s important to use a targeted strategy. For Cero’s, they know three things: some of the data is useful, some should be ignored, and all of it should be secondary to a client’s narrative. The data should substantiate strategy, not create it. 
• Never be the smartest person in the room. Make sure that you’re always learning. Surround yourself with experts, and never stop asking questions. Your curiosity will inform your growth. 

Key Quotes

“A lot of aspiring professionals don’t have a lot of opportunities right in front of them. And if anything, my story might provide a little bit of hope and encouragement that you can come from a small town, not go to an ivy-league school, come from a broken family, and – by pure grit and determination – do whatever you want.” 

“I was charged with capturing the stories and voices of the people who would be impacted if they didn’t have access to the product that we were selling at the time. And it occurred to me then how important my role was in making sure that their voices were heard… that was the very beginning of being intentional about the industries that I wanted to participate in – where there was some kind of social impact for the wellbeing of other people.” 

“What led me to stay in the industries that I’ve been involved in… is the story around how we make our customers [the focus], not necessarily the product we’re selling.” 

“We have to learn to take off our functional hat and be relevant to the broader organization. We need to be able to have an opinion, an experience to share on other aspects of the business, besides what we can do every day in marketing – whether that’s in product strategy, customer access, HR, the programs that make sure we’re attracting the best talent… it really propelled me to have a broader appreciation for all other aspects of the business and getting closer to it.” 

Bio

Jamie Gier has believes in working with leading technology companies to make a change. From healthcare to education, she is always trying to improve the way people learn, work, and live. Her teenaged son always gives her a reason to be searching for a way to make the world better. 

Her twenty-five year marketing career has focused on scaling and growing businesses by creating impactful brands, designing revenue-generating go-to-market strategies, and leading high performing teams across product marketing, corporate communications, public relations, digital marketing, and demand creation.

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