Jacqueline Schklar is an experienced marketing director with a proven track record in B2B and tech. Her dedication to results in product marketing, leading customer acquisition, and growing nurture programs deliver consistent, increased ROI for her clients—including Microsoft and DocuSign.

How Jacqueline Schklar Builds B2B Buzzword-Less Strategies

Cutting through marketing buzzword noise and delivering big results to companies has earned Jacqueline a reputation as a skilled and dynamic B2B marketer in the cloud and SaaS space.

We had a chance to tap into Jacqueline’s thoughts on winning B2B marketing strategies, the convergence of media and marketing, and more in this interview:

How did you get your start in marketing?

I was the kid with the camera growing up which led to working as a newspaper photojournalist in my teens. It was a great education to see firsthand how all our different personalities and responsibilities come together to shape communities. Next, I moved into commercial photography and video, and television at a CBS affiliate and PBS.

There was a digital revolution happening and I wanted to be part of it, so I started building skills in web design and interactive media production. As I progressed at media project management I wanted to be more above the line with strategy and core messaging, which meant marketing. I had a lot of rejection at first because of my strong background focused on media, but then social media happened, and I dove in head first by creating a popular aggregate site for women in comedy, and grew my SEO and promotion chops.

The year Google AdWords was released my manager asked me to study it for three days and then execute some campaigns. I was hooked on programmatic marketing. Soon after, interactive/display ads were a thing, and I was producing pre-roll campaigns for Turner Broadcasting.

With the rise of online video, social, and content marketing what was seen as a hindrance to a marketing career, having a strong background in media and storytelling, became an asset. From there opportunities in marketing opened and I eventually settled into a B2B focus, primarily in cloud and SaaS. It did not hurt that my brother, Brett, is in tech marketing, and I thought if he can do it, I can. Sibling rivalry is real!

How does Content Marketing fit into your overall marketing strategy?

Content and search are my two pillars of choice for attracting target entities to remarket to and nurture into acquisition.

How has content marketing evolved over the past few years?

• People expect you to cater messaging and content more closely to being 1:1 to them instead of generalized.
• Just as digital became synonymous with marketing a decade ago, video is becoming synonymous as well.
• Although it will always be foremost about knowing the customers and how to help them, AI is bringing new opportunities for content creation, data analysis, and automation that we are just beginning to explore.

What led you to earn NetLine Cadet Certification, and how have NetLine tools impacted your approach to lead generation?

It was my excitement about using the self-serve NetLine platform lead gen tool to test targeting strategies across your 15K+ library of publishers, and the training to get me up to speed to jump in. I was surprised to learn the advanced level of lead filtering available, and with scoring to boot! This training is super easy and informative. I highly recommend it.

NetLine’s Audience Explorer is an incredible free tool for research before setting up targeting in your campaigns. Explorer reports are helpful for sharing with clients to get them on board for approving campaign spend.

To keep up to date on the current state of content marketing I have found no better report than NetLine’s State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report for Marketers. I added data and insights from the 2023 report to a recent conference Master Class presentation on B2B marketing, it was the most informative research I could get my hands on to share with my audience. This report is a must-read for all B2B digital marketers.

Describe the normal path a lead follows once it has been captured via one of your gated assets.

Common scenarios are to attend an event, to be added to a nurture stream, remarketing, or a combination of these. I prefer no direct sales contacts until a customer inquiry or request has been made in most cases. However, the closer you get to C-suite level targets, the more likely you are to need sales outreach earlier on.

Of all the marketing approaches available, which one has staying power in your strategy?

For awareness, branding and promo boosting, short-form video ads or display. For consideration and community, in-person and online events. For inbound, a mix of promoted content and search ads >> remarketing >> customer inquiry and/or nurture stream.

In your marketing career, what has been your greatest marketing success? Why?

Some highlights are bringing DocuSign API search ads I inherited from 1.77% CTR to almost 8% CTR with that campaign being responsible for 30% of API adoption for testing. I was most known for producing a popular 12 campaign demo and discussion video series initiative there that was a bragging point for the department. Over the last two years I project managed the multi-channel Developer Editorial Calendar for Microsoft Azure Global, which was no joke.

Which productivity tech app(s) do you rely on the most?

I build out GTM strategies for startups in Trello because new users can easily and clearly follow projects in there. Asana is my tool of choice for working with internal teams and keeping everyone on point. Complex enterprise programs with multiple stakeholders, contributors, and marketing operations workflows can be managed effectively in Jira. I’m just happy to use anything available other than Excel and Outlook to manage projects. My mantra is “Excel is not a project management tool.”

Who are your greatest marketing influences?

Seth Godin, Neil Patel, my friend Toby Bloomberg. Jamie Turner, who has evolved from marketing more toward the leadership space, but I still find his content helpful. The SEMrush team puts out fantastic learning content, too.

When are you at your best?

When I get to contribute to building cool tech wearing the hat of marketer. Bringing out the best of everyone’s contributions by engaging with everyone as part of the campaign team, more than simply using each as resources that I hand a to-do list. This is what leads to building marketing A-teams.

Coffee or tea?

Yes. All the coffees and all the teas. Two cups of coffee and one tea is my daily caffeine routine. I’m into adding mushroom-infused blends lately which hopefully won’t turn me into a Clicker from The Last of Us.

Any last words of wisdom to share with your marketing peers?

• The secret sauce is learning customer needs and how they communicate them, with continual listening and optimization of content, campaigns and landing or product pages in that direction.
• Capture, capture, capture. And retarget, remarket and nurture. Always strategize to have multiple touchpoints with anyone you have invested in engaging with.
• Keep in line with company branding every step of the way, or viewers won’t remember it was you who placed that cool video ad or shared that helpful eBook.
• The “marketing” in “content marketing” is adding spend for reach. Otherwise, you are simply producing media for current followers.

Additional words of wisdom from Jacqueline will drop January 2024 in her book Buzzword Free B2B (working title). Follow or connect with her on LinkedIn for book announcements, to inquire about speaking on the topic of B2B at your event, or marketing consulting services for your company.