Marketing
Cobra Carbide
Our Role
Marketing Development
Timeline
2017 - 2018
When a person typically thinks about B2B, you might imagine large corporations, extremely targeted advertisements online, or a swath of data being passed around between tight-knit associations.
But there is a level of business that operates very similarly to small business, like a corner store.
A hometown hero that can be looked upon by the local community as a staple of what it means to be a company that provides a high quality product.
Cobra Carbide could be the equivalent of David to the Goliath that is the global CNC Round Tool Manufacturing Industry, if you were to compare sheer company size and volume.
Cobra was different. A smaller company by size, but a cutting-edge competitor by skill.
A company built on the backs of innovative design, supreme expertise, and lean manufacturing that enabled it to keep up with the demands of several growing industries, including:
• Aerospace
• Military
• Medical
• Automotive
& much more.
It can be a daunting endeavor to apply for a marketing job with a large corporation, especially if they sit with a staff of a few dozen.
You have to be bold. You have to be present. You have to command respect.
My passion for marketing was inspired by this company's passion for round tools.
Meeting with the sales staff, learning about milling, different materials, and uses for purposes in practically every other industry on the planet, it was all extremely fascinating.
My mind quickly raced with two primary questions:
Now, I didn't know how I would execute on everything, but I would soon go to great lengths to exceed myself on a weekly basis.
You need to be able to teach yourself the solutions to problems before others realize the problems.
There is a level of autodidactic inspiration needs to thrive within you, because working in a cubicle SUCKS.
It will be draining.
You have to make the process fun.
When I began at Cobra Carbide, I was fresh out of teaching myself the ins-and-outs of Search Engine Optimization & Social Media Marketing.
Not an entirely impressive portfolio at that point, but it was enough to get me in the door.
One of the first questions they asked me about was Email Marketing & Website Design.
I knew just enough that I had a starting place in mind. But the rest would have to be learned on-site.
So began my corporate marketing department development experience.
One of the largest misconceptions with working in a corporate setting is the idea that you have to have everything figured out at once.
This simply couldn't be farther from the truth.
The most important piece of information I can pass on is this: everything you do must somehow loop into everything else you do.
Case in point: Email Marketing → Social Media Marketing → Branding & Media → eCommerce.
My natural progression of problem-solving led me down this path for Cobra Carbide.
Upon improving the writing / design of the email newsletters that were going out, I began to notice that much of the materials that were being served to clients were sorely outdated.
I'm talking media that was standard a decade or two prior to that.
So began the task of duplicating my role and becoming familiar with the basics of visual design / branding.
The results were better than what myself or my superiors expected.
When much of the marketing & automation systems were set in place, I was promoted.
With this promotion, came the next daunting task of taking over Amazon eCommerce, training a few employees to my processes, and the most challenging task of all: running advertisements against the global competition.
These additions to my plate would culminate into effecting sales brought in from digital sources to heights never before reached in the company.
From these boosts in productivity, came the need to duplicate my abilities onto another person.
When you're working in a corporate environment, you're going to be asked to not only wear multiple hats, but teach others how to wear multiple hats themselves.
This is exactly the process I took with someone who (at the time) was considered my protégé.
Upon successfully training this person at performing my marketing system flows, making meaning out of analytics, & deciding on future marketing plans leading to further sales, I took my leave from the company.
You're looking to break into the corporate world via digital marketing, what have we learned so far?
My advice for anyone looking to work with B2B Companies to impact their marketing: it takes time to gain interest, it takes time to build trust, but once your systems prove to work, there is very little standing in your way of success.
