Another month, another Customer Spotlight! Hosted in the Iterable Community and excerpted here on our blog, our Customer Spotlight series focuses on the creative geniuses who work tirelessly behind the scenes to build great campaigns.
In each Customer Spotlight, we ask a marketer questions about getting started in their career and what makes them tick. We’ll also throw in some fun questions unrelated to marketing to learn what our customers like to do when they’re not using Iterable!
Have questions for our marketing gurus? Send them to us at blog@iterable.com, and we might feature them in an upcoming Customer Spotlight!
October Customer Spotlight: Sean Kennedy
For October’s Customer Spotlight, we’re excited to introduce you to Sean Kennedy, Product Marketer at Zapier.
Zapier is the leading automation platform for connecting over 1,300 different tools and services, such as Facebook Lead Ads, Slack, Quickbooks, Google Sheets, Google Docs and more.
Sean has worn many hats over the years—from working in web development and design to writing content. But he’s happiest working in the inbox as an email geek and tackling the challenges of email marketing and user engagement.
He’s also one of the people behind Really Good Emails and enjoys sharing inspiration and ideas on how to make email better.
Keep reading to hear how Sean got his start in marketing, what he likes most about using Iterable, his most prized possession, and more!
- Name: Sean Kennedy
- Title: Product Marketer
- Company: Zapier
- Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Hometown: Kelowna, BC, Canada
How did you get your start in marketing?
I got my start by working in sales as an account director at a boutique web agency ten years ago. I had recently finished my business degree and went back to school for digital media design. I’ve always loved technology and helping create solutions and experiences for people.
So while I learned how to design and build websites, I gained experience by handling sales and helping market the business. This was great for me. As I gained technical experience, I eventually started moving from sales into other roles within marketing teams for web agencies.
What do you love about your role?
The thing I love the most about my role is that I get to focus on helping and advocating for our users to make their lives better.
Whether it’s developing education solutions to help them use our product better or working on our email and communication strategies—everything comes down to giving our customers a delightful experience.
There’s always more work to be done but I really do enjoy the problems we’re solving and the projects I get to work on.
I think working in email as a whole is also exciting because it’s a niche that—when done well—can really impact a brand and surprise or delight the customer. And creating those moments make all the hard work worth it.
What do you like most about using Iterable?
I think the biggest thing we looked forward to when we moved to Iterable was the ability to leverage our data. We have millions of customers and each has a lot of data connected to their account.
While we were able to use the data in our old system, Iterable is making it easier for us as marketers to use that data to create hyper-personalized experiences for our users without extensive help from our engineering teams. Our less technical team members are able to easily create emails, too, which makes processes easier.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
When I was in school, I got to interview the CEO of a very well-known web studio. His advice was this: “Take risks, be ready to be ‘wrong’. This is the path to creating work that is original, interesting, and often groundbreaking.”
I’m not sure if it’s the best advice I’ve ever received, but it’s definitely something that has resonated with me throughout my career.
The other good advice, which is super cliché, is to “treat others as you’d expect to be treated.” (Thanks, mom!) This applies to your personal life, but I think very much to your work life as well—especially in email.
When I think about sending an email or writing content I’m always thinking about what I would expect if it was sent to me. It’s advice that has helped keep me in the shoes of our customers.
What is your most prized possession?
I think my most prized possession is actually an intangible item: time with family. We all work hard in fast-moving industries but it’s having that quality time at the end of the day that I cherish the most.
With our newborn son, I feel fortunate that I work from home and can always be there for them when needed. I think I’d be really unhappy if work or other life obstacles kept me from my family.
Join the Conversation
If you also use Iterable, then you can gain exclusive access to our thought leaders and all our special content by joining the Iterable Community.
There you can learn more about Sean, including his advice for new Iterable users and his strategy for working remotely. Read the full interview transcript, post your questions and get the conversation started!
