A Marketer’s Personalized Touch

By Gregory Pings

“Technology is a core aspect of my role,” Annie Martin wrote, “it allows me to promote our business, engage with new and existing suppliers, and research trends and new opportunities.”

The job is a very good match for this millennial Operations Executive.

Emojis and emoticons can add a personal touch to business messages, but doing it well is difficult. Martin advised to proceed carefully: “Mostly, I avoid them. I am much more formal with people outside the business, unless I know them on personal level.”

Martin works at Pinnacle Document Solutions Group, a print and IT provider in southern Wales. This Xerox Gold Partner offers the company’s full line of printing hardware and managed print services. She builds brand awareness for Pinnacle, and ticked off her responsibilities:

“I manage our social media platforms, aid in the design and content of our website, create flyers, sales collateral and advertising campaigns as well as organize and promote events. I just started writing blogs — my first article will report on a charity bike ride as part of Team Pinnacle.”

The big 3 essentials

Her ideal work environment is Pinnacle’s head office in Cardiff with laptop, telephone and the radio in the background.

“It’s usually tuned to BBC Radio 1. I can concentrate better when I have some background noise.”

Good music aside, Martin says technology, contact and knowledge are essential ingredients to her job.

“Social media is invaluable to create awareness,” Martin pointed out. “When I create an event on Facebook for our work-focused or charity events, I get responses within five minutes. It saves a ridiculous amount of time.”

She gets knowledge just about everywhere: Industry professionals, the internet, courses, webinars, seminars.

“I love to learn, so I’m always looking for new information,” she said. “It broadens and builds what I learned through my degree in events marketing and management, and it gives me new perspectives on my role.”

Certainly technology makes us more productive, and gets work done quicker. It also makes it easier to communicate with people.

Be it person-to-person, machine-to-machine, machine-to-person or vice-versa, the page is anything that holds useful information. “Useful” can be defined by timeliness, accuracy and accessibility. For instance, a stream of 1’s and 0’s if perfect for a machine but frustrating for most humans. Moreover, despite a machine’s ability to meet all definitions of “useful,” it’s not always able to convey the appropriate emotion or urgency behind the message. Sometimes, in order to set the page free – as we say at Xerox – you have to plant yourself in front of a person or pick up the phone.

“Social media, WhatsApp and email are my main forms of communication. I very rarely pick up the phone and talk to people. However, I work with a diverse demographic so I need to make sure I adapt my communication methods depending on who I need to contact and the nature of the message,” Martin explained. “A follow up phone call is more personal and gets answers straight away. Besides, I like talking to people.”

Without a phone call, can an emoticon pass for a personal touch?

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It’s difficult to say.