Kudos’ Margaux Morgante: Marketers Must Filter Ideas and Focus Attention

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Margaux Morgante landed her first job out of college at a law firm. She joined as a marketing coordinator, playing a key role in the firm’s entire marketing and business development strategy. It was a huge remit for a new graduate, but her greatest obstacle wasn’t the scale of the challenge. It was managing her bosses, although not in the way you’d expect.

Margaux says she had to fight to keep stakeholders focused and realistic. One partner asked for their own blog, she recalls. But with only a couple of hours free per month, Margaux knew they’d never be able to maintain it. She learned to ruthlessly evaluate opportunities and prioritize resources. It’s a skill that’s served her well throughout her career, especially in fast-moving startups.

I caught up with Margaux, who currently leads the communications team at Kudos, to discuss how she sorts good from bad opportunities and how non-marketers can best contribute to marketing.

How do you evaluate opportunities at Kudos? What differentiates a mediocre interview opportunity from an attractive one?

At first, we said yes to everything. But we realized that we were putting a lot of effort into PR activities that weren't generating enough of a return for it to be worthwhile.

Once you start gaining traction, you need to vet your opportunities. When I'm working with our PR partners or seeking opportunities, I’m evaluating the potential results. Does this podcast have a large enough listenership? Does this publication have a large enough reach?

Executives will say yes to every opportunity. But I know what our CEO’s capacity is and that his time is valuable (and in high demand). I need to filter opportunities to get the best return on his time. 

Once you start gaining traction, you need to vet your opportunities.

We also gauge the effort required. A podcast involves a heavy lift on marketing’s side because we're doing the research, writing the brief, and working with the host. For the most part, our CEO just has to book an hour for the recording. 

Compare that to a contributed article. Even if we write it, he has to edit it. We have to go back and forth on revisions. It’s a big investment.

Departments like demand, product, and HR often ask for support from content. Is it tough to balance external demands and internal objectives?

I love that question because it's so important. When I think about content, I picture the sales funnel—all the way from awareness to post-sale. When I'm working on something, I sort it into one of those stages. At a glance, I can see if one stage is getting more attention than another.

For example, we spent about a month working with our onboarding team on a guide for new clients. That was it for customer success for the year. After that, I moved to PR and top of funnel (TOFU) blog and eBook content to support sales and demand generation.

I worked closely with every department to understand what they needed at every step of that funnel. It’s easy to get carried away, but visualizing our content investments lets me see if I’m spending too much time in one area. 

Tell me more about those partnerships. Do you ever get pushback when you recommend changes?

That's an interesting one because everyone in marketing has come across a one-pager or document and thought, “Oh god! Are we really sending this to people?” Like in any job, you need to build trust and demonstrate value. There’s a bit of a push and pull.

Sometimes, it's us saying, “I think we should revamp this document. Would you mind if we took a stab at some edits?” After a few changes, people see your value and understand what’s possible. Then they start coming to you.

Like in any job, you need to build trust and demonstrate value.

But it’s always hard at the start. You don’t want to go to someone and tell them something doesn’t look good. You need a team and a culture where everyone understands they’re working towards the same goal. When it comes to brand, that means everything generally has the same look and feel. Part of marketing's job is to explain why that’s important.

Often you’ll lack authority to make changes to sales or HR content, right? How do you develop the soft power to get things done?

It's about developing a personal relationship with people. If it’s the first time you’re talking to someone and you’re roasting their work, that’s not a great way to start a relationship. But if you regularly ask someone how their weekend was and talk about the latest episode of The Bachelor, it makes it a lot easier.

Getting to know your colleagues on a personal level, pays huge dividends

It takes effort and time, but in my experience getting to know your colleagues on a personal level, pays huge dividends in all areas (beyond the obvious payoff of friendship at work).

The same goes for interviewing internal stakeholders. Internal stakeholders across all departments are a great resource for content, but if the first thing I ever say to you is, ‘Can I interview you for a blog?’ you might be a little bit nervous or taken aback. On the other hand, if we're already connected and know and trust each other, you're probably more likely to do the interview with me and understand that I will do right by you and not waste your time.

Perspectives is a weekly series interviewing the best marketing leaders. Subscribe for interviews straight to your inbox.