Q&A with Executive Director of Content & Client Development, Lorie Loe.

For the month of April we had the pleasure of sitting down with our Executive Director of Content & Client Development, Lorie Loe, to learn more about her, what she does at the agency, and all the latest content trends B2B marketers should expect in the near future.

Tell us about a typical day in the life of a brand storyteller & content strategist.

A typical day for me is about having conversations with clients and potential clients about how every marketing campaign, regardless of the type, needs to be anchored in an audience-centric story.

I’ve worked with high-tech accounts for more than 20 years now, and it is still the number one problem marketers and content managers struggle with; aligning marketing objectives and goals with a go-to-market story that will engage the target.

I end up sharing lots of audience research results and content plans to help them understand why the story anchors the marketing strategy, and how they can begin to execute programs in a similar way.

What is one thing prospective and existing clients should know about Elevation that they don’t already?

That there are so many really smart B2B marketing strategists on the team!!! My colleagues at Elevation are some of the most brilliant people I’ve worked with, very research and data focused but also very inventive and creative. Also just some of the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and collaborating with.

What content marketing trend is most interesting to you right now?

I have a new meme I’m working on, which I’m calling the Science of Storytelling. It’s a result of the great strides content marketers have made in the areas of tracking and measuring the performance of content across channels and tactics.

It’s now possible to understand who opened or viewed content, did they download, did they follow the buyer’s journey you established for them, etc.

What I don’t see as much of is the analysis and validation of the story all that content is built around. That’s the next area that we need to fine tune as content marketers; how to identify, test, and execute the right story. If the story doesn’t engage, it doesn’t matter how well you can measure.

Have you always been in this industry? If not, what brought you where you are today?

Honestly my first career was as an actor, producer and director! I started my first business, a production company, and then moved over to the marketing side when I realized the work was steadier.

I quickly zeroed in on marketing communications and copywriting, eventually starting a marcom consultancy in 1999. That became a content marketing agency focused on high-tech accounts, where we did some of the first work around content strategy and understanding the buyer’s journey. That agency merged with Elevation in 2017, and now I’m heading the content practice here.

Where do you think the future of content marketing is headed in the next year?

Two things: laggards that have not yet engaged in content marketing are going to get on board and we’ll all be thinking about our story, buyer’s journey, tactics and measurement. And audience-centric storytelling is going to become a topic of interest. This is something early adopters understand already, but we’re going to see more mainstream effort to understand and engage around the audiences problems and pain points, not products.

What does telling a good story mean to you?

Not to be too repetitive, but a good marketing story is about the audience. It is about what is different in your perspective that you want the audience to know. And it’s about where you’re going with them, not about the products you want them to buy. To sum up, it’s about them, not about you.

Apart from your work at Elevation, what are some side projects or hobbies you have outside of the office?

I live in the California wine country, so I love learning about wine, how it’s cultivated and made, and obviously tasting it!

But the most exciting thing I’m doing right now is I’m teaching a class in entrepreneurship at Santa Rosa Junior College in the fall. SRJC is considered one of the top 5 community colleges in the U.S., and I’m thrilled to be part of a faculty that cares so much about empowering students from the community. It’s been a goal of mine to mentor people who want to start their own business but need someone to tell them their smart enough to do it. Really fulfilling!

Want to learn more about our team? Check out our other employee spotlights here.