Kyle Lacy, CMO at Lessonly, has spent the last eight years traveling the world speaking at marketing and technology industry events on topics including content marketing, collaborative consumption, consumer behavior, email marketing, technology trends, digital marketing strategy, demand generation, B2B marketing, and social media management. He is the author of three books: Twitter Marketing for Dummies (Wiley, 2010), Branding Yourself (Pearson, 2011), and Social CRM for Dummies (Wiley, 2012). The following titles have been published in five languages and seven countries. Kyle has also been recognized as one of Indiana’s Forty-under-40 by the Indianapolis Business Journal, Anderson University's Young Alumni of the Year, and TechPoint's Young Professional of the Year.
Marketing is all about experiences. Experience is the only thing that keeps any of us relevant. There is beauty in the simplicity of it.
MEDIA 7: Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? What inspired you to pursue a career in marketing?
KYLE LACY: I started my career in marketing early on in my life. My father helped me start a mowing business in high school and taught me the ropes of marketing a business and myself. Unfortunately, Picture Perfect Yard Care was not the Billion Dollar Unicorn I thought it was going to be so I went to college.
My interest in marketing grew as I was involved in a record label and the world of music business in undergrad. After graduating from college, I spent some time as a self-taught graphic designer at a small agency in Indianapolis. After learning the ropes (again), I started an agency focused on social media and branding. Entrepreneurship gives you the best marketing lessons. I had to market myself, the company and our products.
I was fully invested in marketing after I read the book Emotional Branding by Marc Gobe. The subtlety of the human emotion in product design and advertising inspired me. After that, I fell in love with software after stints at ExactTarget, Salesforce, OpenView, and now Lessonly. Marketing is all about experiences. Experience is the only thing that keeps any of us relevant. There is beauty in the simplicity of it.
M7: What factors do you take into consideration while designing different types of employee training courses?
KL: There are two types of learning – immediate and continuous. What does the employee need to know immediately while onboarding? Things like buyer persona, company strategy and team structure come to mind. And then, what does the employee need to practice continuously? Pitching, messaging, etc.
Now that companies have the remote infrastructure in place, they are focusing on hiring the best people, not just the most local. It’s exciting!
M7: What are the major advertising and marketing tools you use to hike up the brand awareness of your company?
KL: I’ll just publish our tech stack.
I believe the top three product marketing challenges were challenges before COVID-19. Are you able to enable all customer-facing teams with the right information related to your use case and personas?
M7: What do you see as the most noticeable change right now happening in the workforce, encouraged by the rise of digital technologies?
KL: The most notable change is the rise in hiring across the world. Now that companies have the remote infrastructure in place, they are focusing on hiring the best people, not just the most local. It’s exciting!
M7: What do you believe are the top three product marketing challenges in the post COVID-19 era?
KL: I believe the top three product marketing challenges were challenges before COVID-19.
Enablement – Are you able to enable all customer-facing teams with the right information related to your use case and personas.
Launches – How do you break through the noise (which is louder than ever)?
Pricing & Packages – This is impossible and takes a ton of effort.
M7: What do you read, and how do you consume information to stay at the top of your game?
KL: My main consumption points are Twitter, LinkedIn, and Revenue Collective (a membership-only community for revenue leaders). I usually follow and ask questions of peers outside of reading the trends newsletter.
M7: What is your marketing mantra to stand out in the HRTech space?
KL: The only thing that matters is the experience the prospect has with your brand. It’s the only thing that makes us relevant.
ABOUT LESSONLY
Lessonly is a powerfully simple training, coaching and enablement solution that's helping teams ramp faster, continuously improve and close more deals. Lessonly is used by over 3 million learners at more than 1,000 leading companies including Trunk Club, Jostens, and U.S Cellular to share knowledge, develop skills, and reinforce best practices. The result is faster onboarding, higher NPS scores, more closed deals, and a superior customer experience. Learn more at lessonly.com.