An interview with Sarah Fruy, VP of Marketing at Rockbot
We sit down with Sarah Fruy, VP of Marketing at Rockbot. Rockbot automates digital media solutions (music, TV, digital signage) into a single unified platform for its customers
How did you end up at Rockbot and what problem does Rockbot solve for its clients?
I was drawn to the VP of Marketing opportunity at Rockbot because I’m passionate about supporting the creator community through my work. Rockbot provides licensed music and TV content to businesses with a portion of those proceeds going to musicians and people who produce television content. Too often these groups lose out on income opportunities because people consume their work without paying for it. In fact, you can be sued for playing unlicensed music and television programming in a business. This is one of the problems Rockbot solves for our customers. Additionally, our platform operates with a caching system to prevent downtime during internet outages, so the music and TV programs keep playing without disruption. Unlike our competitors who generally offer one type of media, Rockbot’s media platform consolidates music, TV, digital signage, and advertising in a single dashboard. From there, organizations can easily manage their media at anywhere from a handful to thousands of locations onsite or remotely.
As the VP of Marketing, what are your main responsibilities at Rockbot?
I oversee marketing strategies and programs in order to strengthen Rockbot’s market position and achieve our desired business goals while fostering a positive work environment for my team.
How do you lead your team to organize and improve the marketing-sales process to increase sales and enhance the customer experience?
I have a background in agile methodologies and aim to apply those to my work as much as possible. This means I try to break down complicated programs into smaller, more manageable tasks for my team. I apply a test-and-learn approach to new ideas. And I hold retrospectives after important initiatives to gather feedback about what’s working, what’s not, and what we should focus on moving forward. By operating in an iterative fashion, I can quickly pivot away from tactics that don’t achieve the desired results and lean into what’s working to make it better.
At ColdFire, when we look at our clients' Marketing and Advertising strategies, they vary greatly. Some have found a single, scalable client acquisition process while others thrive on a mix of top-of-funnel strategies. How would you summarize the overarching revenue-focused strategy of Rockbot, and what key elements does it encompass?
Rockbot attracts potential customers through various online and offline marketing tactics. Historically, we have had much success through SEO and paid search. We are starting to do more content marketing and testing various social media tactics. Additionally, word-of-mouth plays a crucial role as satisfied customers share their positive experiences with others in their industry, generating awareness and interest in Rockbot's music, TV, digital signage, and advertising solutions. Offering a free trial on our website further aids in converting prospects into customers. Moreover, participating in both industry and customer events enables us to increase brand awareness, reach the right audiences, and foster valuable connections with both current and potential customers.
What is an efficient marketing technique that you've implemented at Rockbot or previous companies, which you believe is underutilized by most management teams - and why do you think that is?
One technique that I have found to be effective is focusing on very specific personas with content marketing programs. Marketers often get a lot of pressure to produce a one-size-fits-all campaign. But in my experience, if you are speaking to everyone, no one is listening. The more specific you can get with your messaging and imagery the better – even if it means ignoring other key personas in the process. I think this approach feels scary to some people – like you are putting all of your eggs in one basket. However, my intention isn’t to stick with one segment forever but rather to focus throughout a quarter on that segment and produce evergreen content in the process that can be used as we move on to the next one.
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?
Yes, we are building out a stronger outbound motion with the sales team and that includes cold outbound efforts via email and social media with mixed results. It’s not a silver bullet, but it does build additional pipeline for the organization.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
