In this Tech Corner, we welcome Elisha Miller. Elisha is the Digital Marketing Director at Berkadia, a leader in the commercial real estate industry. Elisha currently works fully remote, utilizing Microsoft Teams for collaboration. Outside of her primary role, Elisha recently launched Find Your Surge, a digital learning community for marketing professionals. Find out more about finding your Surge here.
AMA: Are you currently involved in AMA or another marketing organization? If so, how has your involvement helped you in your organization/professional career?
EM: I will be joining AMA following our conversation. I am excited to open up and seek out learning opportunities within the AMA community. I have been involved in similar organizations throughout my career, including the SMPS (Society for Marketing Professionals Organization) a Architectural focused marketing organization. Involvement in these communities has helped me run and scale my own side business regarding time management for marketing professionals as well as perception changing.
AMA: How did you discover Marketing was meant for you?
EM: I didn’t get the opportunity to go to college and was recruited right out of high school. I Initially worked for a graphic design firm in a customer service role and fell in love with the creative process. This helped me recognize that marketing is very grounded and revenue based. Digital marketing is a mix of creative, digital and data/analytics, as well as sales and operations focused. I found the data intriguing and recognized that a lot of digital marketing is fluff unless it has good data to back it up. I am a big believer in data not only supporting your messaging, but driving it.
AMA: What Marketing Technologies (Martech) used in your organization?
EM: At Berkadia, we use Salesforce, Pardot, WordPress, Hubspot, Canva, as well as a fully integrated development team.
AMA: What do you like/dislike about MarTech?
EM: I would say I dislike corporate bureaucracy, it is challenging sometimes. As far as what I enjoy, in my role, I have the ability to bring tech and marketing teams together in harmony. They don’t always see eye to eye, so creating a strong partnership with the development team is integral to create solutions that function for marketing’s needs. For example: Hubspot is a quick ready to use platform that enables marketing to stand up quickly and test before developing customized solutions. I recognize that my team is marketers, not developers, therefore Hubspot is the perfect solution that does not eat up development resources before fully understanding long-term tech needs.
AMA: How open are you to implementing new forms of MarTech in your organization?
EM: I am a curious person by nature, and always open to new and emerging technology in the space. My company has requirements that need to be met by technologies we use, and I always need to keep that in mind. The MarTech industry can be overwhelming with so many options to choose from. I usually wait a year before considering changing or introducing new technology so we have truly tested the software and the company is not using unnecessary resources and money that they otherwise wouldn’t need to spend.
AMA: Thanks for your time today Elisha, anything else you want to say as we wrap up?
EM: It was my pleasure to be here. I would encourage more people to get into the dynamic world of marketing. It is an ever changing, fun, creative, and exciting field to be in. I think it is important for individuals to spread their wings and ultimately obtain a better ROI that the company will value.