An interview with John Fazio, Marketing Manager at Northland Communications Company
We sit down with James Fischer, the Marketing Manager at Northland Communications Company. Northland Communications provides unified business communications that have helped thousands of customers stay connected throughout Central New York.
How did you end up at Northland Communications Company and what problem does Northland Communications Company solve for its clients?
I was recruited by the People & Talent team to meet the department needs. We unify business communication. Our trusted technology powers the collaboration that redefines how companies operate. Driven by superior service, with reliability, security, and support guaranteed, we deliver quality connections between our customers and their customers.
As the Marketing Manager, what are your main responsibilities at Northland Communications Company?
Our team delivers services across analytics, automation, content, email, public relations, search, social & social listening, strategy, and web for Northland Communications. We provide solutions and inbound strategies to drive performance that take a full-funnel approach to marketing—build brand at the top of the funnel; generate leads and convert sales in the middle; and increase customer loyalty at the bottom.
To get a bit more technical, what are some of the acquisition channels that have worked well for Northland Communications Company and why do you think that is?
Unlike most hosted UCaaS providers, our customers get a dedicated Lead Technician and a dedicated project coordinator to guide them through the installation and customized training. Our private and secure application that does not come from a public cloud and is fully encrypted. Our ongoing investment into our core network is a value-add to all customers protecting them & mitigating the risk of malicious intent. On top of all that, our entire team is local and available just minutes away.
What role does your Marketing team play when it comes to organising, operating and improving your marketing-sales funnel?
Customer experience is critical and mapping a journey is hard. That's because it's never-ending and constantly evolving based on every interaction. These micro-moments compound, telling a clearer picture with every click, share, comment or like. 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience, aligning multi-channel platforms. And while we're able to listen in, our customers are reacting to our brand, attributing the direct effectiveness of our marketing, business development, sales, customer service, project coordination, and technical support programs.
At ColdFire, when we look at our clients' Marketing strategies, they vary greatly. Some have found a single, scalable client acquisition process while others thrive on a mix of top-of-funnel strategies. If you had to summarise the high-level LeadGenMarketing strategy of Northland Communications Company, what would it be?
We understand that no matter the channel, our challenge is consistent in determining how we communicate value and maintain two-way engagement through multimedia, data-driven, and repeatable marketing communications strategy to drive actions. We walk the path to purchase to build repeat relationships, using analytics and predictive modeling at scale. We have an effective relationship between sales and marketing. This provides us a holistic marketing strategy approach, so our company can get the best competitive advantage to lower lead & acquisition costs.
What is a Marketing technique that you've used at Northland Communications Company or at previous companies which you believe is underutilized at most Marketing teams - and why?
Oftentimes it is hard to see the forest for the trees and getting caught up in the operational realities of a company can distract from objectives and reduce the focus on execution or tracking. If there are one thing sales have over marketing, sales have little trouble proving its worth to the company. They simply point to a number and claim, 'we did that.' Marketing isn’t so cut-and-dry. We have built revenue attribution models that identify which marketing actions have contributed to actual bottom-line revenue, and by how much, fundamentally changing how we approach marketing and improving financials within Northland.
Marketing can happen using combined tools and methodologies. Which has worked better for Northland Communications Company and why do you think that is?
I don't think you can build a discernible brand that sets us from our competition using paid media alone. In fact, no single tactic is capable of performing such a mammoth feat all by itself. Instead, it’s knowing which of the thousands of available marketing levers to pull, and when—from lead nurturing and content marketing to brand strategy and magnetic creative—that aids us in beating our larger business goals. Our full-service approach is all about giving potential customers the information they are looking for–even if they don’t know it–in a creative and an engaging way. We call it 'hyper-personalized.' It aligns with how people are naturally consuming content as impersonal ads become more and more obnoxious in a desperate race to the bottom for clicks.
Has your Marketing team experimented with some kind of cold outbound strategy (like cold email)? If yes what was the general outcome and if no, why not?
We have tested in various macro- and micro-acount based marketing initiatives based on specific industries, job titles, or decision-makers.
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