Once you have a clear understanding of the business and its users, you can develop a strategy that aligns with your goals and objectives. Each platform or channel becomes a part of that story.
Media7: How has your professional journey in digital advertising helped you develop expertise in content, creativity, strategies, and analysis of digital platforms?
Gabriela Giorgio: During the first two years of my career, I worked at an advertising agency, starting as a Community Manager and then transitioning to the role of a Paid Social Media Analyst at iProspect. I had the opportunity to collaborate with brands of various sizes and purposes, ranging from fashion to automotive. I discovered that larger brands often had many aspects already figured out, whereas medium and small businesses undergoing digital transformation were faced with numerous new questions regarding their business strategies and were much more agile.
I learned from established processes implemented by larger companies and adapted them to suit the needs of smaller enterprises. This experience equipped me with valuable tools that would prove instrumental in my next challenge: joining my first startup, Agrofy. I initially joined as a Social Media Strategist, but due to my curiosity and versatility, I also worked in email marketing, brand management, and even offline events.
Since then, my career has taken me on various paths. I have worked as a consultant, as a Chief Operations Officer in an agency, and even in a fintech startup called Reba. Throughout these experiences, I have come to realize the importance of focusing on asking the right questions to truly understand the business and the target users.
Once you have a clear understanding of the business and its users, you can develop a strategy that aligns with your goals and objectives. Each platform or channel becomes a part of that "story". It is crucial to continuously monitor and track key metrics that indicate whether you are heading in the right direction.
Ultimately, having strong guidelines and a well-defined strategy is essential. When you have clear principles and guidelines in place, everything else falls into place more easily. It provides a framework for decision-making and ensures that everyone in the organization is aligned and working towards common goals.
M7: In your opinion, what are the ongoing challenges faced by digital advertisers today and how do you navigate them to find effective solutions for your clients?
GG: SEM & social media are saturated with advertisers, there's no news to that, but in recent years it has become just too expensive. I think all of us were solely focused on the conversion aspect, neglecting the importance of strong brand strategies, and it simply doesn't work anymore. We need to go back to the basics: getting customers to know our brand not just when they need it, but even before that, by delivering high-quality content. We must truly understand our customers and their use cases in order to be in the right place at the right time. Additionally, having an amazing product is crucial; it should go beyond meeting their needs and be something they genuinely love and talk about.
M7: Can you provide an overview of the services offered by SpaceGuru as a storage company for urban residents?
GG: The concept is quite simple: you have belongings in your home that you want to keep but it's troublesome to arrange for the correct storage volume that most storage facilities require in advance, as well as hiring transportation. Then, you end up forgetting what you stored and have to visit the storage facility to check. SpaceGuru offers a simple, secure, and digital solution for this. No heavy lifting or dealing with multiple people required. You inform our agents about what you want to store, and we provide you with a storage and transportation budget for the day of your choice. We take care of packing everything for you and transport it to our storage facility where it is cataloged and photographed. You can view the items you have stored with us through our app, where you can also request the objects to be returned to you. If you decide you no longer want the items, we can sell them on your behalf. Our service covers various use cases, including decluttering your home, moving with a partner or colleague, or going abroad for a year.
M7: How do you measure the effectiveness and ROI of acquisition and growth strategies? Can you provide an example of a metric you used to track success in a previous role?
GG: Our goal is to acquire new users, and while we do pay based on cubic meters, we don't solely focus on the number of users we acquire each month. We also consider the amount they save with our service. We closely track Leads, MQLs, SQLs, and closed deals. Previously, we relied solely on CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) as a measurement, but now we use the payback period to evaluate our efforts. Since January, we have seen a 60% improvement in this regard. This shift is due to the high inflation in Argentina and the fluctuating dollar exchange rate. These factors make it challenging to gain a comprehensive understanding of our costs using a rigid metric like CAC alone.
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You have to really understand your value proposition in order to communicate it. What differentiates you from the rest. That's crucial.
M7: In your experience, what strategies are effective for creating compelling and engaging content, and how do you ensure that it resonates with the target audience?
GG: You have to really understand your value proposition in order to communicate it. What differentiates you from the rest. That's crucial. Then, understanding how users express that value in their own words, how they speak about your product, and what problems they think you solve for them. That's where creativity kicks in—how can you communicate this in an emotional or fun way? At SpaceGuru, we employ various strategies to think creatively about what the user may lose if they don't choose us and what other problems they might have if this were not a concern. One campaign that worked particularly well for us was comparing it to the cost of something else, such as saving the price of a pizza. This approach proved highly effective for us. And then, with all of that, you test a lot. You can use real-time feedback or focus on delivering the content your audience needs to know. From that key content, you can adapt it to different channels.
M7: How do you approach training marketing analysts to enhance their skills and capabilities? Can you share a specific example of how you have successfully trained your team in the past?
GG: I think the best approach is always to go back to the problem, describing it in the most accurate way possible, stating the problem you want to solve, the deadline, and clear guidelines on what you want to achieve. Give them time to think and provide them with tools, such as explaining what factors to evaluate if they don't know where to start. And then, from the first draft or proposal, ask a lot of questions to understand their perspective and how they envision the solution, and make adjustments accordingly. I believe the most common mistake is trying to solve problems for them—I've done it a lot. But in the end, it's frustrating for both leaders because they can't delegate, and analysts because they don't learn quickly enough. For example, our conversion rate has dropped. Okay, let's summarize all the potential causes we've had in the past and analyze the data one by one. Is it the same across all our channels? Have we made any changes in the channels we're investing in? Is there a technical issue? Has anything changed in the business? Asking the right questions and providing plenty of feedback are the keys for me.
M7: Can you elaborate on your experience in planning and drafting cross-channel branding campaigns? How do you ensure consistency and alignment across various social media platforms and channels?
GG: Firstly, our brand needs to be well-constructed with clear guidelines. This often takes a lot of time, as it involves developing a clear brand strategy that defines your identity and the topics you will address. When it comes to a specific campaign, it should obviously be aligned with the previous work. The ideal approach is to start with a key piece or message and understand how it can evolve across platforms where your audience is present—whether it's more visual, content-driven, or flexible. It's not about repeating the same thing, but about working with the same campaign idea while maintaining a cohesive thread that users can connect with. If we're going to collaborate with an external influencer who is unfamiliar with the company, it is essential to provide them with the necessary brand information for generating content.
M7: Can you elaborate on the significance of content syndication in digital advertising and how it contributes to reaching a larger audience and maximizing campaign effectiveness?
GG: I believe that content syndication provides greater agility when it comes to testing. If you have a well-oiled machinery for conceptualizing a campaign or content and adapting it to different platforms, you can test and learn much faster than if you try them separately. Because often the most challenging part is finding that campaign that truly resonates with the user's pain points, which then inhabits different platforms or channels with different moods. They may laugh about a problem on TikTok or seek solutions for it on Pinterest or in a blog article. A well-thought-out and well-distributed campaign yields far greater results than a hundred poorly conceived ones. Distribution is the key to unlocking its full potential and ensuring that your efforts truly pay off, enabling you to think about future campaigns with time, creativity, and passion.
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I believe that content syndication provides greater agility when it comes to testing. If you have a well-oiled machinery for conceptualizing a campaign or content and adapting it to different platforms, you can test and learn much faster than if you try them separately.
M7: How have you leveraged email campaigns to drive desired actions, such as conversions, sign- ups or purchases? Can you share specific strategies or tactics you employed to encourage recipients to take action?
GG: In email marketing, segmentation is key. The more specific the message and content are, the better the performance will be in terms of achieving your desired outcome from the user. Onboarding is crucial, determining what messages the user receives at the moment they register and ensuring that subsequent messages tell a story, complement each other, and avoid repetition. For example, first clearly introduce the service, then delve into more attractive features, success stories and positive reviews from other users, include educational videos demonstrating the process, and provide credibility. Automated email journeys are excellent because they ensure that if a user takes a desired action, they won't continue to receive emails that may cause confusion or annoy them. This is especially common in e-commerce, where a user makes a purchase and continues to receive emails saying, "Don't forget to buy this!" These are the significant differences that take care of your database. Make sure that whoever receives your email will find value in it, and if they don't have it anymore, they won't receive it further.
M7: Do you think inactive subscribers can be re-engaged through an email campaign? What approaches would you take to win back subscribers’ lost interest and encourage them to re-engage with any brand?
GG: Yes, but not everyone. I believe it is crucial what message you have to communicate and to whom. It's not the same for someone who hasn't opened your email in a month as it is for someone who hasn't done so in a year. If you know that they have stopped engaging with you for a specific reason and you have updates that can change the situation, I think it's something we should work on. Communicate it, monitor the open rates, the interaction, whether they unsubscribe or not. Essentially, I believe that what you have to communicate must be very powerful to reconnect them with your brand. If the strategy is simply bombarding them with similar messages, you are likely wasting time and resources for your team. If you have a new strategy or feature of your product that you believe can re-engage them, it's a matter of breaking it down into multiple messages: one more impactful, another more educational, or perhaps involving an influencer or expert who speaks about your brand and brings freshness to your communication.
M7: Building a high-performance team is crucial for success. Can you elaborate on how you built and nurtured a team of branding, UX/UI, and performance experts? What steps would you take to ensure collaboration and synergy among team members?
GG: I love building teams, it simply fascinates me. Especially when I can count on diverse profiles that have different perspectives and solutions on a subject. I have coordinated work cells with people ranging from data analysts to developers and product specialists. In that sense, today we are all part of the marketing team, but we are professionals solving specific types of problems and working on particular projects.
At the end of the day, I believe it's about choosing incredible people who are passionate about your product and effectively communicating the problem to be solved, while supporting them in finding solutions from a business perspective. In our SpaceGuru team, we have a system of weekly and daily meetings. On Mondays, we discuss the most important updates for the company and what lies ahead, whether it's for the current week or the future, to ensure alignment. With the whole team present, including growth, brand, and UX, everyone starts thinking about how it impacts their work and the ideas they can contribute.
We also share daily updates on what each person is working on, including myself, so that if anyone has something to contribute, they can do so and choose to participate or contribute to another project if they believe their skills can add value. At the end of the day, I think we all trust and respect each other. We know that if someone joins a project, it's because they believe they can bring an added value, a perspective that can benefit both the project and the team. Each team member works on projects where they can fully develop their potential and generate the maximum impact in their discipline.
When a project is completed or we see results, we gather as a team to share and celebrate. We celebrate achievements or discuss what we have learned. The key lies in fostering a culture of trust and learning.
M7: Looking ahead, what is your outlook for the future of digital advertising in terms of emerging technologies, consumer behavior and potential industry shifts?
GG: AI is certainly changing the way we create content, but I'm curious about how it will behave in terms of content consumption and advertising. Brands will continue to want to purchase advertising space, but will they do so based on keywords within queries to various AI platforms? Some predict the death of paid or organic search engines. However, years ago, similar predictions were made about voice search, and while voice search is used, at least in Argentina, traditional search engines still dominate a significant share. While the way in which content is consumed is already changing, many people are using platforms like YouTube as a search tool or even TikTok. Whenever there is a prevailing trend, a counterculture emerges. I believe it is not a coincidence that in response to something as impersonal as AI, the value of human connection is increasingly appreciated—people speaking, sharing their experiences, and how a brand made them feel. In fact, LinkedIn recently launched a variant in its algorithm to address this. The lack of resources is also bringing back the value of creativity, of truly ingenious and shareable content. I think interesting times lie ahead with many changes and debates about what constitutes quality content and what users value.