Elle Woulfe is self-proclaimed marketing nerd and the VP of Marketing at LookBookHQ. She joined the company just a year ago, but don’t be fooled; she is a #martech guru. She previously worked with other marketing technology companies including Eloqua for four years and Lattice Engines for three. Fun fact: Elle is currently the only American employed by LookBookHQ, which is based out of Toronto, Canada.
Here are some more fun facts to get to know Elle Woulfe better:
What is her favorite book?
“Well, since I studied English in college and I am a voracious reader, this is a tough one for me. I don’t do non-fiction, so I would have to go with Midnight’s Children, For Whom The Bell Tolls, The Remains of the Day, and A Little Life.”
Top marketers she looks up to?
“I look up to marketing professionals who were mentors of mine. I look up to Brian Kardon, CMO of Fuze. He is the yin to my yang. Jim Williams, who is the VP of Marketing at Influitive, who helped me learn how to use the left side of my brain as much as the right. Doug Sechrist, VP of Demand Marketing at Infusionsoft, who is the most scientific marketer I have ever met. I also tend to take a lot of inspiration from people who don’t work in marketing, like the Astronaut from Space Camp.”
What would she be if she weren’t a marketer?
“Professional ice cream tester or travel writer!”
Check out my full interview with Elle Woulfe here:
Now, here are my favorite takeaways from my time with Elle:
Everybody’s Doing #ABM
LookBookHQ is a content marketing automation platform focused on helping marketers get people to engage with more content every time they click. It also gives marketers in-depth behavioral data on content engagement.
The LookBookHQ team’s ABM strategy involves using a segment of the inside sales team to focus only on target account cultivation. This small ABM team is constantly trying to build a strategy to penetrate accounts from an outbound perspective.
“I think that everybody is doing account-based marketing in some way; they just may not be calling it that,” Elle explains. “Every company understands who they are successful in selling to and then applies those resources and efforts toward target accounts.”
Elle goes on to define LookBookHQ’s unique take on ABM as horizontal demand gen. The market for content marketing automation has to be expanded and a category has to be built, so some of the traditional lead-based funnel is still in place. She says that they have to create content and put a lot of things into the universe so that companies will understand who they are and what they are doing. Account-based marketing complements those lead-based efforts.
“We track our marketing-sourced and sales-sourced funnels separately,” Elle explains. “The sales-sourced funnel focused on target accounts converts down the funnel three times better than horizontal marketing sourced funnel.”
How LookBookHQ Does ABM
The LookBookHQ platform facilitates account-based marketing by helping customers create targeted micro-campaigns in the form of individual landing pages or microsites for specific accounts. This allows clients to see what each customer is interested in. They also inform the sales team of real interest and intent on exact content.
“I think that this is one of the coolest things in ABM right now,” Elle says. “Technology like LookBookHQ allows marketers to do things at scale like they haven’t ever been able to do in the past.”
Breaking Through the Noise
With so many martech companies emerging, breaking through the noise and having a presence in the marketing technology community is something that is difficult for many startups. Elle was able to shed some light on the way LookBookHQ is able to stand out among the rest.
The secret is creativity. It’s important to remember that all buyers are people, being clever and creative really goes a long way. Whether you’re sending an email or promoting your product via social media, you are trying to gain permission to market to someone. When the permission is given, people will pay attention if the message is unique and stands out to them.
Something that makes LookBookHQ different is their approach to grab the emotions of the customer. They build campaigns and themes to be funny or provocative to drive customer engagement.
Another piece of advice Elle gave is to have less focus on analytics and more focus on marketing. Especially if you sell to marketers, you have to leverage marketing as a discipline. If you want to see good performance from your marketing, it has to be great marketing. You may fail and the analytics may prove that, but failure is a part of the success. You have to push the limits and challenge the status quo to create an awesome outcome and stand out among the rest.
Get Sh*t Done
Elle says that her best advice for any new CMO is that no executive has the luxury of time, so you just have to get stuff done. Her mantra is “done is better than perfect,” because when working in marketing, you have to prove yourself and be willing to get things done quickly.
In her first couple of months at LookBookHQ, Elle cranked out a new website in six weeks to prove herself and prove her willingness to get sh*t done. She says that operating with a sense of urgency is the best thing you can do as a new CMO.
Another tip that Elle shared is that she dedicates 100% of her success to the awesome team she hired. As a new CMO, you can’t afford settle with B or C talent. You have to surround yourself with people who are better than you at the things you are the weakest at. Even when you don’t plan to hire anyone else, keep that door (and a little bit of budget) open for someone great who may come along.
Take a chance on people you feel could be a great asset, she advised, as breaking the status quo could be one of your best moves as a CMO. In hiring, experience is important, but character and willingness to learn are equally important.
I really enjoyed talking with Elle about B2B marketing. As you can see, she’s a talented marketer with tons of experience. Don’t forget to follow her on Twitter at @ellehwoulfe.
Learn More About Account-Based Marketing
If what Elle had to say about account-based marketing piqued your interest, here’s a resource you’ll love. Sangram Vajre, CMO and Co-Founder of Terminus, recently released his book Account-Based Marketing for Dummies — managing to make his readers feel the furthest thing from dumb. Click the banner below to download the first chapter of the book for free!
