Field Notes with Jennifer Kordash, Senior Manager for Strategic Field Marketing of Miro

Hi, Jennifer. Tell us a little bit about you and your role at Miro.  

Yes. Hi. My role at Miro is as a Senior Field Marketing Manager. Specifically, I’m focused on the account-based marketing practices that we have at Miro. And to get even more specific, I manage most of the one-to-one ABM that we’re doing here. We have a subset of target accounts that we’re going after; we work with sales on identifying them, and we’re working on how we create a more personalised experience across all stages of the buyer’s journey to get in contact with those people, build relationships, and hopefully expand those accounts at Miro.  

 

Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and how you got into marketing?  

Yeah, absolutely. So, I majored in marketing in college, but I honestly didn’t realise how wide of a function marketing was. You can be on the operations side and be completely into the data piece of it, or you can be all the way on the other side and be the creative type of designing—you’re in Photoshop all day. When I was going through school, I didn’t have a calling that was like, no, I know I’m on one end of the spectrum or the other. I knew I sat somewhere in the middle. I knew I didn’t have this creativity knack where I could be so detail-oriented in Photoshop, making those beautiful designs that our designers do, but I knew I didn’t want to be in Excel all day. So, I was looking for something more in the middle. And when I graduated, I actually got advice from a mentor to start off in sales because sales and marketing just work so closely together. He had told me, ‘if you’re going to be a really good marketer, you need to understand what it’s like to make cold calls, follow up with leads, work something through, close a deal, and do that’. So, I did that. It was technically in a recruiter sense, but I was making cold calls and kind of starting off the beginning part of a sales cycle for my first job out of college.

To this day, I still think that made me a really empathetic marketer from a field marketing perspective because we work so closely with the sellers, and it builds that empathy. But eventually, I moved over to the marketing side and knew that’s where my passion was. I truly was a generalist trying out everything. I was designing landing pages, making chatbots for our website, and doing some of the data pieces. As I was moving through this, the things I kept gravitating towards were: how do I make a bigger impact with the sellers and help them actually close deals? Seeing the fruits of my labour really made me excited. So, that’s what kind of got me into ABM and field marketing—working really closely with those sellers. Then, slowly, I wanted to get more specific because that was more fun. And now that kind of brought me to my one-to-one work here.  

 

What does Miro do?  

Miro used to be thought of as just a whiteboard, and you could put some sticky notes on it. But we’ve really graduated to what we call an innovation workspace. It enables teams to build the next big thing, whatever that is. It’s a canvas that allows teams to asynchronously move more quickly from idea to outcome—really, that’s it at its core—regardless of where they’re located. They can brainstorm, plan, and execute projects in real-time with a focus on fostering that innovation piece.  

 

Can you tell us what your main field marketing focus is at the moment?  

Yeah, absolutely. It’s really around orchestrating that hyper-personalized marketing strategy to promote Miro’s products with our target accounts—those one-to-one accounts I was talking about. I like to think about it in three main buckets: field events as one piece of that, customer-focused content, and personalising the experience for the people we’re trying to engage with. The last piece is that bespoke-type experience, where maybe you’re engaging with that C-suite audience. Like, what is something cool that we can work with them on, whether it be a sporting event or anything like that, to foster those relationships?  

 

How do you define success in field marketing?  

I think this is a bit of a loaded question. However, I think success for field marketers often maps almost directly to success with the AEs that you’re supporting. And what I mean by this is if field marketing is orchestrated correctly, field marketers’ goals are the same as AEs’—which is generating and closing the pipeline that’s created. So, I would definitely see my success as one of my AEs saying, “Hey, it might not have been this one singular tactic, but this environment of channels we’ve activated over the last 6-12 months led me to access this executive, got me this meeting, and allowed me to move this account to the next level.”  Those are the stories that keep me in field marketing, and I’m like, “Yes, we did it.”  

 

What would you say is the biggest challenge field marketers face today?  

Yeah, I think there’s an interesting thing going on where marketers are trying to balance traditional marketing methods with the new digital strategies essential for engaging audiences. Obviously, there’s the piece with AI that’s emerging, and I think AI is an amazing tool for not just field marketers but everyone in the business. But it’s not the answer to everything. We need to figure out how to use AI for things that make our lives easier and allow us to scale faster but not lose the focus of ABM, which is to be human and personal. So, I think AI brings an interesting role into the one-to-one field marketing space, but our biggest challenge right now is finding the push and pull of that.  

 

What’s the most successful event or engagement piece that you’ve hosted, and why?  

It’s funny—I don’t know if it’s a specific tactic that was involved, but it’s more the orchestration between all of the teams involved. The campaigns that I’ve seen as hyper-successful are when marketing, sales, CSMs, and SDRs are all working in harmony and feel accountable for their part of the campaign. So, if I could give one piece of advice for people launching those programs, it’s not to buy more tools or hire more agencies. Instead, ask, “How do we align on the success of this campaign and each team’s metrics?” If sales have a quota, great—our event program is part of this quota, and SDRs are accountable for those registrations. Making sure that, at the top, all our goals align is key. There isn’t a silver bullet right now, and I know that didn’t answer your question exactly, but I think the secret sauce is in getting all the teams on the same page. If you want me to answer something more specific, I’m happy to.  

 

No, that’s fine. That’s great, Jennifer. Thank you. My next question is, how do you measure an event’s ROI?  

That’s also a very loaded question—you’re hitting me with the good ones today; I like it. The ROI of an event heavily depends on its goal. Some events are for brand awareness and positioning the company as a thought leader to make sure attendees know, “Hey, my company has a strong perspective here, and we’re a player in this market.” That kind of ROI is hard to measure. I’d say, what’s the NPS score for the event? How are people reacting to your brand afterwards? It’s largely anecdotal feedback from people in the room while you’re talking to them and gauging their engagement.  

From a field marketing perspective, many events I run have a concrete goal: to either generate a pipeline or progress a deal forward. So, I look at how many of these key contacts are actually engaging, registering and attending this event. I also consider how to get the right people in the room so that it’s not a commercial for Miro or any other company—it’s an organic conversation where people who love the product are having networking moments with other customers and saying, “Hey, here’s how I’m solving this challenge.” I think those conversations are critical to making the next move, like asking for a meeting or closing the next deal.  

 

And now, another heavy question: how do you track the impact of your events on pipeline and lead generation?  

Yeah, we have a pretty strong follow-up strategy where we rank the attendees who go to the events. The biggest piece of advice I learned early in my career is that a meeting isn’t always the next call to action after an event. Many marketers think, “How do we get them to that down-funnel call to action, like a meeting and talking to sales?” But if you look at the buyer’s journey, especially in B2B, people don’t always want to talk to an SDR or a salesperson right away. A better focus might be building content or planning another event, creating a series that lets prospects gradually move down the funnel rather than skipping steps.  

So, yes, we can rank these leads. Some will be sales-ready, absolutely, and sales should follow up the next day because timing is everything. But what about the other 80–75% of people? What’s the experience like for them? So, part of our events package includes a sales follow-up plan and a marketing nurture piece.  

 

What would you say are the most significant challenges you face when hosting events?  

I think everyone’s seeing it right now—the attendance rate. There’s this mixed bag regarding people’s appetite for in-person events, and I don’t blame them. Some people say they don’t want to just be pitched to for a couple of hours. Not everyone’s in the office anymore, so getting them to come out during rush hour for a 5:30 pm event is more challenging. We’ve experimented with creating hybrid experiences, doing a mix of both virtual and in-person events, because predicting attendance can be tough. And it varies a lot by city; some cities are more challenging than others. As a global company, I know Europe is experiencing something very different from what we’re seeing in America, too.  

 

Can you tell me about a particularly innovative or successful field marketing campaign your team has recently executed?  

Yeah, we’re experimenting a lot with the idea of a microsite, almost a landing page experience, for a one-to-one account. This experience is for one specific account, and it’s almost a living, breathing document for them. When we activate other channels like a bespoke event or a “Miro day,” we have all of the information on this landing page tailored just for them. We work with the AEs on account planning, business objectives, and goals, so it’s one place where everything is together. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s a centralised space where the account can see everything is personalised for them, with language that resonates with them. It also has event details they’ll attend, increasing engagement from the account. So we’ve been working on customised content in ABM, one-to-one, and using tools like AI to figure out how to scale and reach more accounts that way.  

 

What are your biggest marketing challenges at the moment?  

The biggest challenge in marketing right now is that we’re using the same channel mix we’ve been using for over 20 years. We have emails, ads, and events, but there hasn’t been a new way to engage with leads. I think some people are nervous about testing new methods, but paid search doesn’t have the same ROI it used to. Predicting event ROI is challenging, too. We don’t know exactly how many people will attend, so what’s the alternative? What I’m seeing is a shift—we’re moving away from targeting people like they’re businesses. We’re not just talking to a company; we’re talking to individuals, people with lives outside of work. I love working here, but I have a life outside the company, and I don’t always understand half the buzzwords, nor do I want to see them when engaging with content on social. So, figuring out what channel mix is correct and relevant is a challenge, and so is learning to engage people as human beings in the age of AI. This has become especially evident in the past year.  

 

How does Miro stay ahead of its competitors in terms of marketing?  

I think a big part of Miro’s success in marketing is the community we’ve built. This community has led to a product-led growth strategy. What I’m constantly impressed by is our user groups. We’ve established so many programs—Miro Heroes, the creator community, a consultant community, etc. It organises both virtual and in-person experiences to foster engagement, fueling our product-led growth strategy and driving expansion and retention. This creates a strong foundation for the rest of our marketing strategy since we have this rich and robust community behind us.  

 

What do you believe is the biggest opportunity for field marketers today that might not have been available in the past?  

I think it’s still personalisation. We’ve seen flavours of it, but it hasn’t really been done well. We might be personalized at a corporation level, but we’re not talking to corporations; we’re talking to people. The ability to align messaging and offerings to where the prospect is in the buyer’s journey is something that will keep improving. We need more effective engagement with audience segments to measure campaign success better. I don’t think it’s tracked well at the person level, but that’s where we need to be.  

 

What career advice would you give to anyone starting in field marketing or the marketing industry?  

Oh, easy. Since marketing is so broad, I would say let yourself try a few different facets of marketing. Explore the brand side, the ops side, and the creative side of design, and see what each role looks like day-to-day. What are you doing? You might think you know what you want to do, but it could be very different in practice. Gaining experience in different areas will also make you a better marketer. I think in field marketing, you sit between creativity and analytics. You get to brainstorm new ideas, pitch them, and then measure their ROI. So, try multiple things and see what fits best.  

 

What’s a piece of traditional leadership advice that you believe doesn’t apply to modern field marketers?  

“Stick to what works” or “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” doesn’t apply to modern field marketers. The field is fast-paced and ever-changing, and it’s essential to innovate and adapt to stay relevant. I see field marketers as the ones pushing the envelope. They’re the ones creating the playbook for what “good” looks like. They’re bringing those “crazy” ideas to the team and willing to test them in a small pocket, then scale if it works. So, I’d say push the envelope and bring campaigns to the next level.  

 

What do you believe is the biggest opportunity for field marketers today that might not have been available in the past?  

I think it’s the ability to be hyper-personalised. Leveraging that opportunity, especially using AI to scale it. There are a lot of tools with potential, but we need to figure out how to use them right to engage at a personal level.  

 

What does the future of marketing look like?  

There’s a lot of pressure to use AI to support marketers and make it the future of marketing. But I don’t want it to be the only focus. There’s a delicate balance between personalisation and scale in effective campaigns. If we put too many generic fixes in place, we lose the magic of one-to-one ABM or even one-to-few ABM. The future lies in balancing machine learning, predicting customer behaviour, and creating immersive, interactive experiences to engage customers.  

 

And my last question to you, Jennifer, is, how would you describe the role of a field marketer in one word, and why?  

Connector. Easy. Field marketing plays a crucial role in connecting the brand with local markets, ensuring the company’s message resonates with diverse audiences, and fostering strong relationships with customers and partners. On the other hand, field marketers also connect sales and marketing. I like to say field marketers are the voice of marketing when they’re in the room with sales and the voice of sales when they’re in the room with marketers. So, they have a connector role in multiple facets here.