How Can Marketing Impact the Entire Customer Journey?

Amy (00:02)
content doesn't just resonate, right? It builds loyalty and trust, which are the ultimate competitive advantages in a crowded market, in my

Benjamin Ard (00:36)
Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Amy. Amy, welcome to the show.

Amy (00:41)
Hi Ben, thanks for having me.

Benjamin Ard (00:42)
Yeah, Amy, I'm excited to have this conversation. I think it's a conversation that's really timely here at the beginning of 2025, where marketing teams really need to focus and figure out where to spend their time and effort. But Amy, before we dive into that, let's get to know you a little bit, a little bit of your background, your career. And then we ask every guest, what do you love about content and what do you love about marketing?

Amy (01:04)
name is Amy Stephen. I'm the vice president of marketing at HMP Global. I've been in marketing for about 20 years. I started as an event marketer. was doing, you know, big family shows for a event company. It's really where I got my start.

for a company called Global Spectrum. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. And so was working for, you know, like these, we'd go to college stadiums, put on big shows, family shows. might hit like Disney on Ice, Globetrotters. had Elton John, you know, bigger, shows, bigger name shows like that. I won't get into some of the divas that we've had come through.

But I did that for a really long time. And so when I decided to have my nights and weekends back, I got out of that. And so I worked in some various, various places, but I ended up back at, know, getting into HMP Global. I've been, I've been with them for about five years and I really love it because it's a, it's a healthcare first company. We're going into our 40th year.

It's a omni-channel market leader in healthcare events, education and insight with a mission to improve patient care. So we partner with leading experts around the world. We deliver more than 450 annual events per year. So kind of going back to my roots if I'm still doing events, but I do have the flexibility of my nights and weekends back, which is nice. And then we're delving into

you know, more medical strategy, omni-channel marketing for our pharmaceutical and medical device customers through our new sector of our business, is HMP Collective, which I've been fortunate to help build and brand since the inception about two years ago. So that's been a big part of what I do as of recently. And so to answer your question, what I love about marketing and content marketing, I mean, so much of it.

It's ever-changing, it's evolving. I think there's so much to talk about. Where I started and what we're doing now is so different. For one, I have a laptop. I don't have a desktop. I'm actually, I have a laptop that I can carry around. No, but I think it's so different. It's so digital, the AI, everything that we're doing, the behavioral data, the insights that we have on our first party.

data is so incredible. We're just smarter.

We don't have to the data is doing. We know doing. And so that's powerful. And so I we have that data to work with.

Benjamin Ard (03:32)
And 450 events. That is impressive. So hats off to you and the whole team, cause that's amazing. I have been in businesses where they traveled a there's a lot that goes into that kind of stuff. So that's pretty incredible. So hats off to everyone on the team.

Amy (03:44)
Thank you.

Benjamin Ard (03:45)
So today's subject, marketing can impact the entire customer journey, not just the acquisition side of things. So Amy, when we talk about this subject, I've been in those businesses, I've talked to countless number of marketers, the business just looks at them and says, all I care about is leads or acquisition, things like that. So.

When we look at it in this statement that marketing can make an impact on the entire journey, not just acquisition. How do you really align with the rest of the business, help them with their goals, really focus on the entire customer journey? How does marketing make a meaningful impact there? How does that work? How do you align with everyone there?

Amy (04:27)
it's a great question. I think, first of all, I'll start with, as a marketer, if your goal is to just put butts in seats, I think your well is going to dry up very quick. So all marketers should be implementing the end-to-end customer journey strategy that provides this comprehensive view of the customer experience across

all touch points beginning to end from initial awareness to post purchase advocacy and loyalty. So I think from an in-person or virtual events, if you want to start there, you have this before, during, and after mentality. So this may mean having a customer service representative to help book their hotel accommodations under the conference room block or assisting them with registering their group.

And then while on site or during the event marketing does a fair amount of communication through email, text message, app communication if able, suggesting networking events like Q &A, cocktail receptions, keynotes, and so forth. But then that's kind of where most of the effort ends. It kind of goes quiet for a few months and then picks up maybe a few months later for the next sales cycle. Maybe there's like a thank you email.

or how to claim credits. So that's kind of typically that's kind of where it So here's where I think we could do better. We could communicate year round with content. We could keep their attention. We need to stay relevant. It's that boy next door you always liked. He never left. So there are a lot of tools out there to acquire this first party behavioral data.

that can help you with your content marketing strategy. This approach, I feel, has largely been the most successful strategy when keeping our customers engaged year round because

content doesn't just resonate, right? It builds loyalty and trust, which are the ultimate competitive advantages in a crowded market, in my

if you'd agree.

Benjamin Ard (06:22)
Yeah, love that. That makes perfect sense. So, you know, one of the things when we look at helping our customers throughout the entire experience is really putting ourselves in their shoes. How do you personally do that? How do get your team to do that so that you know where and how to improve their experience?

Amy (06:39)
Yeah, that's a good question. I think finding opportunities to personalize your experience quickly is key. And I use the word quickly because there's power and speed. So if you want to break through the noise, my advice, be the first one there and give them something they can use right away. So I know what I like and how I like to be treated. So everyone who knows tell you that I'm extremely impatient and I hate to wait.

And that's probably a testament to the world we've built, right? And I want it, and I want it right now. I want it right in my fingertips. So I feel that the people that are getting through to me are fast, they're correct, and they're offering purpose or an immediate solution. So that's how I like to play as well.

Benjamin Ard (07:21)
I love that. So on the marketing side of things, there's always a million opportunities and we're talking here. It's expanded, right? You're not just focusing on the acquisition side of things. You're focusing on the entire customer experience. So even in this circumstance, this is probably even greater than most people really, you know, really realize. How do you prioritize all of the opportunities? There's gotta be a million ways you can improve this experience.

How do you know where to focus and spend your time and efforts?

Amy (07:49)
It's a very good question. this saying and it may get mixed reviews, so bear with me. So if your kid is excellent in soccer, but a C student in math, where are you going to spend your money? On a tutor or more soccer lessons?

The answer is soccer, because that's what's working. And that goes for every marketing campaign we ever run. So that's kind of my mentality. Some projects are going to require a lot of work and will eat at your budget and will never move the needle for a number of reasons. And that's when you reassess and pull back and put your attention and resources into other priorities that work and are successful. But look, sometimes we bite the bullet and

and those hard projects are the priority and we have to do those regardless. But I think that's how we prioritize and allocate our resources when we have to. I also think like having a good team to recognize when to stay and when to walk away is really important. And those qualities are important on the team as well.

Benjamin Ard (08:44)
I love it. So it's interesting. I like that quote and I like how. Yeah, it's changing my opinion about my answer a little bit. So that's, that's fascinating. I like that. Yeah. So when you look at marketing nowadays, every team is held to numbers and there's a lot in marketing that we can and can't measure. And that's a whole different discussion for a whole different day. But when you're looking at the entire customer journey,

Amy (08:52)
Is that okay?

Benjamin Ard (09:09)
and you're not just butts in seats. How do you measure your impact? Like what numbers do you look at? What numbers do you not care about? What do you look at and say, yes, we were successful?

Amy (09:21)
Yeah, the elephant in the room, right? So a lot of factors contribute to assessing our success, right? So metrics like, you know, the buzzwords, retention rates, customer lifetime value, engagement and conversion rates are all key to evaluating the journey's effectiveness through, you know, attribution models or funnels. And I feel like customer marketing plays a critical role as well. But we're also looking to foster loyalty, advocacy and additional revenues through programs like

referrals, upselling, and extremely targeted campaigns for our clients. But we also love to see client renewals come through. They run a campaign with us and it works so well. The client was so pleased. They sign on again. We love that. Renewals have been a huge to our business performance on HMP Collective the past two years. Outside of running metrics, though, it's the team that drives that success.

And as trite as this is going to sound here, like finding exceptional people and empowering them to do what they do best is essential for achieving business success and an enjoyable workplace at the end of the day.

Benjamin Ard (10:22)
I love that. I love that mentality. I think it's a much better approach to how we look at metrics success. I like how you're focusing on the people enabling them to do their best because they will find the best opportunities. I think there's a lot of value there. Well, Amy has promised these episodes go by so quick. They're meant to be these short daily doses. And I know as you're having this conversation in real time, it feels like they just speed by, but Amy.

Amy (10:40)
They do.

Benjamin Ard (10:47)
Thank you for the insights today. If anyone wants to reach out and connect with you, how and where can they find you online?

Amy (10:52)
Thank you, Ben. This has been so fun. Absolutely. They can find me on LinkedIn, Amy Stephen. This has been so enjoyable, and I hope we can connect again. This has been great.

Benjamin Ard (11:01)
Love it. For anyone listening to this podcast, just scroll down to the show notes. We'll link to Amy's information right there so you can click on her name, connect with her online, and that'll be wonderful. Again, Amy, thank you so much for the time today.

Amy (11:13)
Thanks, Ben.

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