Michael Eppenbach, a Field Marketing Manager at OneTrust, draws on his unique background in maths and law to share his B2B marketing playbook. He discusses why success is measured by revenue, the dual opportunity of AI and human connection, and the rise of privacy-first marketing.
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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- The Ultimate Measure of Success is Pipeline and Revenue.
While MQLs are a useful KPI, a field marketer’s true success is defined by one thing: did you help close new business and drive new pipeline? - The Future is a Blend of AI Efficiency and Human Connection.
Use AI to automate tedious tasks, then use that freed-up time to create the memorable, in-person experiences that people now crave in a tech-saturated world. - The Future of Engagement is Privacy-First Marketing.
Building trust through transparent and responsible data usage is the key to earning the customer information needed to deliver true personalisation.
Could you please introduce yourself and your role at OneTrust?
I’m Michael Eppenbach, a Field Marketing Manager at OneTrust, where I’ve worked for the last nine months. I’ve been in field marketing for a little over 20 years, and I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area. My role is focused on the West region of the US, and it covers a range of activities from field marketing events to content syndication.
Do you see any differences in how you approach marketing across the cities in the West?
One of the biggest differences we’ve seen is with attendance for in-person events. It tends to be much lower in the West, with higher attendance at the same types of events in other regions. I’ve also heard this from field marketers at other companies. This means we need to be more creative in identifying what works and being open to new tactics.
How did you get into marketing?
I have a non-traditional background. I was a maths major in college and then went to law school. After I finished, I took a temporary two-week role doing data analysis for a legal tech company, Thomson Reuters. That two-week role was extended to two months, which was then extended to a full-time offer to join their regional field marketing team. The rest is history.
I was very fortunate to have a wonderful first boss who mentored me. My analytical background from maths and my understanding of our customer—we were marketing to law firms and attorneys—blended well with the more traditional marketing skills I learned from her and the rest of the amazing team there.
What is your main field marketing focus at the moment?
Right now, it’s about getting people out in person in the West and finding new ways to do that. We’ve been leaning into smaller roundtables, which have been very successful for creating in-depth conversations with our clients. In the first half of the year, our focus was more top-of-funnel, using content syndication and webinars to generate MQLs.
How do you define success in field marketing?
Ultimately, if you’re looking for a measurement of success, I think it comes down to two questions: Did we help close new business? Did we drive new pipeline? If you’re not doing that, the rest of it doesn’t really matter. You can have amazing events or deliver a thousand new MQLs, which are great benchmarks, but at the end of the day, if you’re not helping to drive revenue, you’re not successful as a field marketer.
How do you measure ROI?
In the past, I’ve seen it tied directly to a marketing-attributed sale. At OneTrust, that is part of it, but we also look at the MQL piece. Did the event drive new Marketing Qualified Leads? And more importantly, what was the conversion rate of those MQLs to sales-qualified leads or opportunities? We also look at whether an event influenced the pipeline by touching a customer along their journey or if it actually created a new opportunity and new revenue.
What would you say is the biggest challenge field marketers face today?
There are so many great field marketers out there, and in a way, we’re all kind of copying each other. We see what works and then try to make it better. The biggest challenge is differentiating yourself from the crowd and competing to get people’s attention. Our customers are inundated with new information and invitations every day, so you have to find a way to stand out.
How does your company stay ahead in terms of marketing?
Our team has a culture of innovation–especially in marketing we’re always iterating and experimenting. There is also a real culture of sharing and collaborating, which helps eliminate silos.
A key mantra that our CEO shared earlier this year is “right here, right now.” Most of us have been on teams where you have an idea, and it leads to a series of calls and discussions over several weeks. Here, the mindset is: you have the idea, let’s take action on it now. Let’s do it in the moment. I think people have really embraced that.
What do you believe is the biggest opportunity for field marketers today?
The easy answer is AI, and I see it as a two-pronged opportunity. First, AI is a great tool that can free us up from some of the automated steps to be more creative and focus on the experience.
But second, because we are all so inundated with tech, I believe many of us now want more human connection. This creates a fantastic opportunity for field marketers to create memorable in-person events that get people away from their devices and networking again.
Can you share an example of a memorable event you’ve created?
We did an event where clients had the opportunity to drive exotic cars on a racetrack. The idea actually came from my sales partners, which is a key piece of advice: listen to the people on the street.
What made it memorable was the all-encompassing experience. The driving itself is a fun attraction, but the adrenaline and exhilaration it created opened up amazing conversations afterwards in a way that a standard happy hour or dinner just can’t.
What career advice would you give to anyone starting in the marketing industry?
Try to learn as much as you can. You might have an area of expertise, which is a great starting point, but don’t get caught up in your specific lane. Try to get out of your lane in a collaborative way and learn about other roles, not just in marketing, but across the company. You don’t know where your career is going to go, and you make yourself far more valuable with a broader skill set.
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