Yanping Zou is a professional, driven and detail-oriented marketing specialist with over 6 years of experience in B2B marketing.
She is currently responsible for Marketing and Business Development at Aaronn Electronic, an Embedded IoT solution provider and system integrator with 28 years of industrial know-how.
Why did you choose a career in marketing, how did you start?
I enjoy working with people and being creative on the job. I started my career with an internship at a publication house in Germany. Attending events, networking, website management, lead nurturing were part of my daily jobs and it was a nice experience.
Tell us a bit about your professional path until now.
I started with an internship at a German publication house and gained experience in the media field, website management, event organization, networking. Then put the above experiences effectively into my current role as a B2B marketing manager. My responsibilities include but are not limited to event management, online marketing (paid campaigns, website management, SEO, social media), content management, market & competitor analysis, brand management, and presented the company at various industry events and exhibitions.
What advice do you wish you got when you started your career in marketing?
Firstly, be self-discipline and ready to work under strict deadlines.
Secondly, be a life-long learner, always be learning and open to new marketing tools, ideas, and platforms.
Last but not least, keep a sense of humor under great pressure. Being a marketer can be very stressful when facing strict deadlines and KPIs.
Top 3 learnings in your marketing career that brought the most value?
1. Be a lifelong learner.
2. Be open to new ideas and always seek new inspirations.
3. Invest in networking.
One result you are really proud of as a marketeer
I am really proud I managed to increase leads by 40% during a 12-month period through website relaunch, PPC campaigns and digital events.
What’s one important B2B marketing trend that will gain popularity in 2021, in your opinion?
I would say that video marketing, especially short videos, are growing in 2021.
Which is the strongest social media channel in 2021, and why?
Linkedin. We are seeing more and more business partners becoming active on this platform.
What would you recommend to businesses that want to grow in 2021? What about the tactics they should avoid?
Know your customers, who they are? How do they surf the Internet? Where do they buy things from? Spend a little bit of time to do your buyer personas and buyers’ journey; after knowing this information, you can start making the touchpoints in different stages of the customer journey by generating content, campaigns, events etc.
The most important tactic businesses should avoid is doing everything without knowing where their customers are. It wastes time and resources but brings you nothing.
Can you name one digital marketing tactic that you find overrated?
Digital fairs – people are getting tired of all kinds of digital events during the corona time, the conversion rate is also disappointing.
