Q&A with Senior Copywriter, Martin Saldamando.
For the month of June, we sat down with our content writer, Martin Saldamando, to learn more about him and his role at the agency.
1. What do you do in your role at Elevation?
I work as a member of our content team creating the elements that make up the messaging and content strategies for our clients. My role is primarily to focus on writing white papers, e-books, video scripts, customer case studies, infographics, social media posts and thought leadership articles among other content.
2. Tell us about a typical day in the life of Martin
I don’t have a set routine at present as I’m in transition having just returned to the US from living abroad for many years, so I spend a lot of time on video chat with my wife and kids who are still living in Dubai. Besides work, I make it a point to keep fit so I play racquetball regularly. In the evenings, I don’t watch much TV, but I do listen to a lot of music, especially independent and alternative, rock, jazz, hip hop, rap (my tastes are all over the place). I’m lucky to have family and a few friends in Arizona, so weekends I spend time with them or I drive up north to Flagstaff and Sedona. I’m trying to do more outdoor activities like mountain biking and climbing while I’m up there, but so far have only managed to read lots of books and drink good wine.
3. How did you get started as a writer?
I guess it started when I was seven and I won the young author’s day competition at my grade school for a story about a puppy dog that resonated with other kids. Like most things in life, when you find success at an early age and keep working at it, it just gets stronger.
4. What is your favorite part about writing for industries in the B2B field?
I’m a technology ‘evangelist’ — just fascinated with new technology, and it is a big part of what attracted me to the B2B marketing field. Helping companies adopt new technologies and explore new business models is one of the connecting themes throughout my career. I’ve started several small businesses with technologies that were cutting edge at the time. Examples include personalized printing in retail and 3D laser scanning for reverse engineering. Our world is changing very fast with the convergence of machine learning, big data, cloud computing and business. It is a great time to tell compelling stories about technology in business which is a big part of my work at Elevation Marketing.
5. What do you think is the most important quality you need to have for success in your role?
There are two that come to mind. One is the ability to read quickly and extract the main points about complex ideas and repurpose those in different formats. And the other is to appreciate and have an urge to tell compelling stories. After all, it is your job to lead people somewhere with words, so it better be interesting and it better take them someplace worthwhile. Even before you start writing you have to already imagine the destination, and then set out to persuade the reader to go there. If they like where you’ve taken them, they’ll remember it.
6. What first attracted you to becoming part of the team at Elevation?
Hands down — the people. This is a uniquely great place to work because of the people who work here. The hiring team was kind enough to allow me to interview for the position by video conference from Dubai and once I met and started talking with everyone, the specialness about Elevation came through, and I knew I could work with them, contribute to success and really grow.
7. If you could pick one superpower, what would it be and why?
I would choose the ability to speak every language. Language is the key to understanding different realities. If you can speak a language, you have a key to understanding different peoples’ perspectives and you can step in and out of cultures while still preserving your own personal identity. Kind of like how Clark Kent wears a suit to become Superman, but he’s still ordinary Clark inside.
Want to learn more about our team? Check out our other employee spotlights here.
