#151: Navigating the Future of AI-Driven Marketing with Melissa Sargeant, CMO of AlphaSense
Episode Number: 151
Speakers: A conversation with Melissa Sargeant, Chief Marketing Officer of AlphaSense, and AWS Enterprise Strategist Miriam McLemore
In this episode, AWS Enterprise Strategist Miriam McLemore joins Melissa Sargeant, the Chief Marketing Officer of AlphaSense, to dive deep into the world of marketing and AI. Melissa shares her journey and the pivotal role she plays in transforming AlphaSense's marketing strategy to meet the demands of the rapidly evolving market intelligence platform. They discuss the challenges of scaling marketing operations, the importance of personalization and trust in AI-driven technology, and the unique culture of constant learning that drives AlphaSense's success.
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Melissa Sargeant Miriam McLemore
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Full transcript here:
Miriam McLemore (AWS): I am so pleased today to be able to welcome to our show, Melissa Sargeant. She's the chief marketing officer for Alpha Science. Melissa, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself?
Melissa Sargeant: Absolutely. And thank you for having me today. I joined AlphaSense about a year and a half ago in the early part of 2022, and this is my fourth CMO role. I've been in marketing technology for more than 30 years now, and I'm very passionate about the discipline and very excited about AlphaSense.
Miriam McLemore: For our viewers or listeners that don't know, can you tell us more about AlphaSense and your mission?
Melissa Sargeant: AlphaSense is a market intelligence platform and it's used by the world's leading companies and financial institutions. We have AI based technology that really helps knowledge professionals make better business decisions by delivering insights from a really extensive array of public and private content so that it can include things like company filings, event transcripts, expert call transcripts, news trade journals, equity research.
We have over 10,000 data sources and access to some of Wall Street's most exclusive analyst firms, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley. And we really help businesses by getting all of this information on the AlphaSense platform. We really help them to uncover market insights that are going to make them more competitive, give them an edge, and do it faster than they've ever done it before.
Miriam McLemore: I love that, especially in the world that we are operating today, where you need data at your fingertips to drive decisions because the market certainly is changing pretty rapidly. And before we dive deeper into AlphaSense, can you tell us a little bit more about your journey over the last year and what you've been focused on?
Melissa Sargeant: Yes, I was brought to AlphaSense to really drive a marketing transformation and the company is a decade old now and as is often typical, you hire engineers, you hire a sales organization, and then a lot of times the marketing organization is the last piece of that puzzle that you really want to accelerate growth.
So I was brought in to drive that transformation. That's what my history is as a CMO and my three previous roles. I'm very much a digital led, science led marketer. And the things that give me goose bumps are change and transformation. So I was brought in to come in and build out a new demand generation engine for the company that would scale for us, for the years to come to increase the awareness around AlphaSense.
We’re known, certainly within our customers and our heritage started in financial services, but now we service pretty much all of the segments between life sciences, energy and industrials, technology, media and telecom to drive that company awareness. So it's really a two pronged strategy in terms of elevating the demand gen capabilities and then elevating our awareness across the board so that we could build something that would scale at the rapid pace of the company's growing
Miriam McLemore: At AWS we work with customers across industries that are working hard to transform their business. And one of the biggest things that that I wind up talking to customers about is agility, the ability to pivot and react effectively to the market. I worked for many years at the Coca-Cola Company, and, you know, we were always, as part of our marketing strategy, trying to get the right message to the right consumer at the right time in the right context. Can you talk a little bit about your framework, your vision for this transformation?
Melissa Sargeant: We have similar challenges in that because we sell to multiple industries, so financial services and there are subsegments within financial services, life sciences, energy and industrial and CPG. All of these different industries have very different value propositions and we also sell into different personas. So in some organizations we're going to be selling and to an analyst, another it might be the competitive intelligence person and another organization, it could be the corporate strategy person. So when you start to think about the marketing programs and content that you're creating, that grid gets very, very complex, very, very quickly.
And the challenge is to balance providing these really highly personalized experience quickly as you said, around agility that highly resonate with the prospect or customer's pain, but do it in a way that's scalable so that as a marketer you don't end up doing what I call random acts of marketing, where you've got thousands and thousands of activities, but you don't break through the noise because they're disjointed. And so how we tie that together is through macro themes. We have these macro themes that map over all of these different personas and that are relevant to them. So that when we launch new campaigns and new programs that we do get higher lift and higher awareness and engagement with those campaigns because they're highly personalized, but they have to at the same time have a consistent message across the board.
Miriam McLemore: I very much appreciate that. Your comment about random acts of marketing. Impact, right, is what we're looking for and really understanding the customer journey, that's certainly something that is core to the AWS and Amazon culture and mindset is to start with the customer value proposition first and let's work backwards from that and drive value for those customers based on that customer need. Sounds like you do something very similar looking at your customer journeys.
Melissa Sargeant: We do, and we've mapped out the entire customer lifecycle. And what I mean by that is from the first time somebody engages with our brand, you know, whether they saw an e-book that we published that happened to identify with a specific pain through the time that we're nurturing them, to engage them and educate them about our solution and demonstrate that we understand who they are and how to solve their problems, to the time they become a customer through their onboarding, through their education, all the way through advocacy, so that we're looking at it from a very holistic perspective. And we build specific programs based on where they are in that journey and making sure that we're engaging and nurturing and educating them throughout the way throughout that journey and from the perspective of what matters to them, not what matters to Alpha cents, but the things that they care about and are important to them.
Miriam McLemore: Right, and getting personas right. I heard you, you mentioned that people at different stages of their journey in adopting your platform and different roles within the organization as well. And so having a messaging that that speaks to the right person at the right time. You have a platform, right? And it's a AI driven platform, therefore the technology is changing pretty rapidly to stay current. Can you talk to us a little bit from a product and engineering standpoint in the marketing of the platform itself?
Melissa Sargeant: Yes. So we you know, we've been doing this for a decade. And so we do have deep expertise within our organization around AI. And then, of course, every company is now branding itself as an AI company. I was joking that, you know, that the service that picks up our garbage is now an AI Company. They're going to be able to forecast how much we need. But everybody's kind of jumped on to that. We've been at the forefront of it from the very beginning and that's really the secret sauce on the platform that when you when you go to one place and you have access to over 10,000 research sources, being able to precisely pinpoint that exact thing you need can only be enabled through AI.
So we have things like smart synonyms. We have a new Gen AI capability called smart summaries, where it's actually summarizing all that and then taking it to another level and showing you the actual sources that relate to that specific summary. And that's one of the things that, you know, people are talking about related to generative is the accuracy of the information and the markets that we serve and the customers that we serve, trust is 100%, number one. They are using this information to make very important business decisions. And so having that AI capability and the GenAI capability that actually verifies where that source comes from is really paramount for them.
Miriam McLemore: I completely agree. I very much appreciate that that focus on trust, focus on the customer and that, you know, this is who you guys are, is I not you know, you didn't just relabel your name as it does seem like everybody's has jumped into the hype cycle and it is exciting, right? Absolutely. What the possibilities of generative AI, what we're going to be able to do, especially in a business like the one that you have that is that is information heavy. The possibilities are a bit mind blowing. As you think about that, where are you starting to - I know you're already there, you're already in the game - but this is, you know, kind of another step for mankind into deeper A.I.
Melissa Sargeant: Yes. And I think what's great about this opportunity as an organization and an AI organization, is we don't just have to be experts in AI and the AlphaSense platform. As the marketing leader, I have to my team has to be experts in marketing AI technology and how they're applying it. The people team has to be experts in AI technology and how they can apply it.
The application learns for this. And you know, we've been fortunate in marketing that we've started. We had started using AI before the Gen AI, you know, came to it came to be and everybody got excited about it and things like email marketing for some time, optimization, or we've been looking at propensity targeting for, for seeing who is the greatest likelihood to convert and dynamic content optimization so that we deliver the right offer to the right person at the exact moment that they need it.
But I think the real opportunity, in addition to what's available on the AlphaSense platform for us, is within our company that every single organization figures out how to apply AI in our own work so that become what we become even more efficient, more effective. But they were true authorities on the issue and not just not just related to market intelligence. That gives us an ability to have a lot more conversations externally, build more thought leadership. As really AlphaSense, has AI built into our DNA. It is who we are. It was who we were from day one that we founded the company and it's who we are going forward.
Miriam McLemore: That is a great perspective because I often talk to customers about skill building and how do they really get their organization to be a data driven organization so they can leverage these technologies to go drive against these market value opportunities. And it, you know, it’s within pockets. And so I love hearing about your organization from HR, through finance to marketing to product and engineering teams. We are an AI team that also from just an employee standpoint, it must give the ability to move and see opportunities much more available to you guys. Is that true?
Melissa Sargeant: Absolutely. And in fact, we did a culture exercise when I joined AlphaSense, within the marketing organization, of who we really wanted to be.
And one thing that I'm very passionate about is, is learning because I've been in this for 30 years. So, you know, I started in marketing when we were the arts and crafts department, you know, where we just did the product data sheets and we ordered that carpet at trade shows that was extra thick so your feet didn't hurt so much.
And it used to really bother me that we were marginalized. And then digital hit and mobile hit and the practice and the discipline and craft that is marketing fundamentally changed. And marketers who jumped on that train and educated themselves and updated their skills around digital and understanding that, understanding what mobile meant, understanding how to engage customers along the customer journey electronically before they speak to sales, have had a leg up.
And for me, this is just the next part of that. I think what's different this time is that it's happening at a pace that's, you know, that’s 100X of those other pivotal moments. But what we say to our team is, you know, don't do this for AlphaSense. This is for you. This is your competitive edge if you're, you know, planning a career, a long-time career in marketing, you're going to have lots of these points where you have to jump on and really educate yourself.
So we have this consistent learning mantra within marketing and that we enable anybody who raises their hand and says they want some training in this. We make sure they get it. But I also bring in, you know, guest speakers and we talk about specific books in these areas. We really do ingrain consistent continual learning as paramount to a long-term career in marketing or really any field, but specifically marketing.
Miriam McLemore: Yeah, and so smart to do so, right, because talent that actually understands this environment and can change like we were talking about agility with at the speed that that the technology is going to change but also the opportunities to leverage that technology but with enough knowledge so you don't do anything really stupid, right? Because I mean, when, when moving fast, that's a risk.
And how do you guys balance that? We want to move fast. We've got to move with our customers, deliver against their wants and needs. And actually, you know, certainly at AWS, we also tried to think ahead a little bit of where we think our customers might be going. So we've built out capability and make it available. How do you balance that? Because like we said, security, and particularly for your customer base, is absolutely paramount.
Melissa Sargeant: It's interesting because now, you know, we're 1,400 people, but we do still like to have that, you know, to use an Amazon term, that Day One mentality where you still have that start up heritage where you can turn on a dime. It gets more challenging the bigger that you get. But that's still very much who we are. We have to be a bit more organized about it now in terms of, okay, we set these specific objectives for the quarter, but we decided to pull this thing forward and the roadmap because we see that that's what customers want. We hear the market telling us that's the next big thing and we need to prioritize that.
Then we have to be able to de-prioritize, you know, something else so that we can handle that. So it really is this constant, you know, juggling exercise. And within my organization, we do planning. We set, you know, a budget for the year, but we actually do our marketing program planning on a quarterly basis because we would end up having to change anything we did beyond three months anyway. So it just doesn't make sense. And sometimes even within the quarter, something will important will come up that we have to address and de-prioritize or push it out to the next quarter. So you really it's a it's definitely I wish I could say I had some magic sauce there for that. But you really have to have the agility and you have to staff your team with people who get excited about change, transformation and like that part of it that there's never just I'm making the donuts day at AlphaSense, that every day is different and you're going to learn something new every day.
Miriam McLemore: Yeah. And as you said, our cultures have a lot of similarities because certainly the belief that it's always day one and that need to constantly be leaning in because for anybody listening that doesn't know Day One versus Day Two. We believe at AWS, and it sounds like from Melissa at AlphaSense, that this is Day One for the Internet, for our business and we need to be leaning in. If you get to a day two mentality, it means that, you know, you're willing to just make the donut says, as Melissa just said. Right. And sit back, relax. You're good. You're doing well enough. You have then lost your edge. And so having a philosophy, but importantly, a team, as Melissa just described, that is looking for change and expecting change because our world as much as I think there are some people who like to go back to the good old days, we have sad news. I think the good old days are not coming back, but there's great days ahead. And AlphaSense, it sounds like its a wonderful place to be able to stretch and find, you know, new possibilities and invent the future.
Melissa Sargeant: Definitely. We uh, we don't worry a lot about what happened yesterday. It's what's going to happen tomorrow.
And we always celebrate the good things along the way. But there's always some new thing that's coming down the road that that's really important for our customers and our market. And it's a phenomenal place to come and really become an athlete in your profession because you are going to get to do a variety of different things in different scenarios.
Miriam McLemore: And as you talk about kind of forward looking, is there anything obviously we've already called our generative AI and that's that's a big old category, but are there particular things that are forward looking trends that that you guys are doubling down on?
Melissa Sargeant: So generative is a big part of that and it's taking up a good amount of our focus and time. There's always enhancements with the platform where, you know, we've got 10,000 content sources. We'd love to have 100,000, you know, content sources. So we're always looking for things, particularly within the specific verticals that can enhance the research and the intelligence that you get from the the AlphaSense platform. So there and you know, and always trying to make the experience for customers within the platform.
Speed is so important in all of these industries. We've been talking a lot about agility and speed for them to get to that information faster and easier and really find that needle in a haystack, that point that matters, that's going to give you an edge out in the market or whatever that customer is trying to do to get that to them faster and easier and more accurately than they've ever experienced.
Miriam McLemore: So you touched on some platform automation things and scaling content, I assume. Also always scaling the platform personalization for that customer, for that industry, for that that type of data I assume, is also a big focus for your organization?
Melissa Sargeant: Yes. And we have, you know, a lot of the capabilities in enable you to see things that are relevant within your space. You can track specific companies that you want to stay in touch with, specific verticals that you want to stay in touch with, and that over time we want that AlphaSense platform to become more and more personal to you as an individual. And, you know, we sell it as a platform in users. So some companies have hundreds of seats.
Ideally, every single person would have a very unique view on their AlphaSense home page within the platform that was truly unique to them and to their job. And that's another area where we're exploring and expanding.
Miriam McLemore: So to accomplish all that, it sounds like you must partner closely with the CTO at AlphaSense. Can you tell us a little bit about that partnership?
Melissa Sargeant: Yes, we have both a CTO and a chief product officer, and so our CTO is one of our co-founders and our chief product officer runs all of their engineering and product teams. And the CTO is fantastic in that his name is Raj and that he really - I've never seen anybody who reads so much information and knows so much stuff.
Yesterday afternoon, in fact, I got a Slack from him of a it was a Gen AI content marketing platform and he said, “Hey, do you use anything like this?” And I took a look at it and I said, “No, I don't. I don't we don't think we have anything like that in the stack.” And he's like, “All right, I know that person. I'm going to I'm going to connect them to that you can see that.” I mean, he's not just looking out for that AlphaSense core. He's looking at it from AlphaSense as an organization. And then our chief product officer runs all of our engineering teams. We are tied at the hip to them. Product marketing reports into my organization and we have two types of product marketers at AlphaSense. We have core traditional product marketers who are just laser focused on the platform, but because the verticals and the industries are so important to us, we have industry-specific product marketers that we've pulled out of those industries because they really have to understand what the work is happening in the workflow within those specific industries so that we get both views in terms of what the general market is saying from the product marketing team and understanding of the platform. And then the industry team who's really digging in and knows those segments inside and out and can really help us inform our entire strategy and also what we want to build on and the platform. So when we work with the product teams in the CTO office, those we really have a strong point of view there. And we can look at this multifaceted from our really holistic perspective of the customer.
Miriam McLemore: Such a fascinating business. And at this point in time in technology, very fascinating. Are there particular challenges other than Janay as moving past? And everybody's got to figure that out. But is there anything else that's a challenge you're trying to overcome or something that you're just super proud of? We can we can go both.
Melissa Sargeant: So I can I can do both. In terms of things that as a constant challenge, the way I have to look at my job is not AlphaSense, even today, which is much bigger than when I joined at 1,400 employees. -How do we do marketing at AlphaSense when there's 10,000 AlphaSense employees? The things that we are building now, we are at that critical stage where we absolutely have to build for scale and doing that in an environment that's that moves very, very quickly. And you have to do you do have to make decisions rather quickly. And figuring out is this going to get us where we need to be at 10,000 is probably one of my challenges when I'm looking at things holistically within our organization. Okay, that was great, but how do we scale that? Is that scalable? Is it too dependent on on, you know, some quirkiness within the way we execute things? Do we need to take a look at that? I think the thing that I'm most proud of as an organization is when you come in as a new leader and you ask people to focus on transformation and change, it's a delicate balance because you don't want anybody who's been there to feel like they've been doing anything wrong because they haven't. They've been doing what they've been asked to do. And so what we started off with was the why. Here's the why we're going to transform. Here's some best practices from other organizations that have gone through this and really explain to them what it's going to get us and now I look a year and a half later and we've built this phenomenal demand generation engine that's highly scalable and getting better every month.
We've also done a lot on the awareness side, but I think we were very episodic in terms if we had something to announce, we announced it. Now we're looking at it holistically, that it's great when we have these big announcements, new product announcements. My marketers love that stuff, but really creating this constant continual operating rhythm of thought-===leadership and awareness, building out the profiles of our executive team so that we get greater lift and more market awareness.
And I'm just proud of what how the team really leaned into it because change is hard and it doesn't happen overnight. And in marketing it takes this consistent, relentless approach and that over time really delivers value for the company.
Miriam McLemore: I love the point that you pulled out around explaining the why, right? I think some sometimes were moving fast and I think there could be an assumption that people will, obviously, you get why we're doing this and it's so important that I found in the I get to have hundreds of customer conversations getting us to stop and explain the why and entertain questions and have a dialog is so powerful because you want an engaged team, right? And an engaged team can do incredible things if they know why they're doing it.
Melissa Sargeant: Absolutely. Absolutely. And if they know the how, it ladders up to the bigger picture and that their role is what they're doing very specifically adds to the that the expansion of everything else that's happening on the team and that what they're doing is really, really important to the success of the overall plan.
Miriam McLemore: Well, Melissa, it has been just wonderful to have an opportunity to spend some time with you. And we thank you so much for your time and sharing such great insights into your organization and your role as a marketer.
Melissa Sargeant: Thank you so much, Miriam, and thank you to AWS for inviting me. I really appreciate the opportunity.
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