We’re thrilled to introduce the latest addition to our team of experts, Julia Tong, Digital Marketing & Automation Specialist. From her marketing automation prowess to her graphic design skills, Julia will be instrumental in furthering our mission to showcase growth-stage B2B tech startups’ salient points so they can grow in a very real and measurable way.
How did you hear about SalientMG and why did you decide to join the firm?
I first heard about SalientMG (SMG) on LinkedIn and saw the description: “We are not consultants, we are senior doers.” That truly spiked my passion because that is exactly who I am. I enjoy strategizing and executing the work. I have always been a doer and I believe that SMG is the place where I can fit in.
I am also inspired by SMG’s informative content in the website’s Our Insights section. I really enjoyed reading the blog, case studies, and thought leader articles about social listening, branding, and the relationship between sales and marketing. I respect the team who made the concepts behind those insightful and unique topics.
Describe your role and what you’re most looking forward to in your position.
My role is to provide strategic solutions to deliver on client business objectives. I use marketing technology to build successful partnerships and product offerings. I am most looking forward to collaborating with our amazing team to provide strategic solutions for our client’s SMART objectives, meaning they’re specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
What is your personal philosophy about the purpose and power of marketing?
The purpose of marketing is to support our global society’s economic system. This sounds big, I know, but it’s true. Marketing is a way to communicate and connect from one perspective to the rest of the world. Not only do we need marketing to connect, we also need marketing to refine our reach and targeting. This process builds the foundation of economical movement, and is what drives our society to evolve.
What is the best piece of advice someone gave you and how has it impacted your personal and/or professional direction?
The best piece of advice that I’ve gotten is to value the journey over the destination. This strongly ties into the process of marketing automation and bringing our users through the marketing funnel. In this example, the journey is the process of nurturing and connecting with our users. This mindset has helped me in my professional philosophy, and has been a founding principle for my work.
You’re truly a jack of all trades in that you’re both a digital marketer and graphic designer. How does your work in the digital space inform your work as a designer, and vice versa?
My work in the digital space helps me refine my graphic design concepts in a significant way. We can all create something beautiful and informative. However, who am I informing? What type of beauty am I aiming for? The digital space’s knowledge and research is the canvas, and the design is the art within that canvas, but it’s a very unique piece of art that contributes to the business’ SMART goals effectively.
My work as a graphic designer helps with creative problem solving and structure building in the digital space. Marketing technology and automations share the same language and foundations as the tech space. We almost always forget that designing is using technical skills to express creativity. Because of these concepts, I am always able to benefit from both for each other’s needs.
We specialize in helping growth-stage technology companies. Real tech talk here–how would you describe your everyday technological prowess?
I am very tech savvy. I can use technology to make art, create video games, manage business’ marketing technology, and perform office technical tasks. I am always the person fixing the printer, the controls of a fish tank’s fan, etc. My technical brain helps me solve many problems. I also love tech, and I’m always on top of the modern technological trends.
What is one thing your colleagues don’t know about you (yet)?
I’m a professional singer. My main performing genre is R&B, but I listen to everything. I have a degree in music production and sound engineering. My music background actually helped me a lot with marketing because it’s all about audience management—what people will relate to, when to create, how to create. And sound engineering is very technical in nature as well.