Our Industry Person of the Week is Sunshine Spaulding. Sunshine is the Marketing Manager at Electro Static Technology (AEGIS® Shaft Grounding Ring), an ITW Company.
Q: How did you get started working in your field?
Sunshine: Decades ago I was a buyer for a computer company during the big PC boom in the 90s, but I knew it wasn’t for me. I decided to take a temp position at a similar company in their marketing department working on sales events. It didn’t take me long to figure out that Marketing was where the fun in the corporate world was at. Company by company, I was able to expand my knowledge and grow my positions.
Q: What do you love the most about your job? What are you most proud of?
Sunshine: Marketing is the perfect marriage between left and right brain. On the one side you have data and results. On the other you have creativity and psychology. And when you really get your marketing right, you have something that compels people to act.
In B2B, pulling these two together can be especially challenging and also extremely rewarding. You don’t get to lean on brand personality as much so understanding your audience and being inventive with routine concepts is important. But when you pull it off and see high engagement on posts or ads you know you did it right.
Q: What advice would you give to someone considering this line of work or new to the field?
Sunshine: Marketing is not finite and you will never be able to coast. Every day there are changes in the way we communicate, measure, and learn. Marketing is at the forefront of it all. 20 years ago social media didn’t exist and now we have whole departments dedicated to it. I am constantly going to seminars, taking courses, and reading articles to stay on top of marketing trends and technologies. And even then there are areas of marketing I don’t even touch.
Q: Can you talk about a project you recently worked on?
Sunshine: Oh where to start! SMBs usually have a very small marketing department, and mine is no exception with a team of two (plus some agency help). Last year I worked on a lot of foundational restructuring which included new branding, audience segmentation, and a new website. We are now diving deep into a larger communications strategy and building out campaigns for our different vertical markets.
Connect with Sunshine on LinkedIn.
THANK YOU, SUNSHINE! WE LOOK FORWARD TO KEEPING UP WITH YOU THROUGH THE #PUMPTALK COMMUNITY!
KNOW AN AMAZING PERSON WHO IS MAKING VALUABLE CONTRIBUTIONS WITHIN INDUSTRY? NOMINATE THEM TO BE AN “INDUSTRY PERSON OF THE WEEK”!
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