Christabelle Denis

At Marketing Trends, we are discovering what drives Australia’s top marketers. In this episode, Christabelle tells us about her role at New Relic, its cloud-based platform that helps businesses optimise their software stack, and their latest announcement on pivoting to the consumption model. Read her interview here to learn the full story!

Career & professional background

Christabelle, how did your career in marketing start?

Actually, it started from writing! I enjoyed writing and started doing it on a freelance basis. I got into content marketing for a small B2B agency and ended up learning about all the aspects of marketing. I became an all-rounder, then focused on content marketing - but I realised I wanted to be able to have a stronger impact on the bottom line. That’s how I moved into acquisition and demand generation.

If you hadn’t pursued a career in marketing,  in which other industry do you think you might be?

That’s a tough question - I’m torn between saying psychologist or journalist, just somewhere I’d be able to closely study and influence human behaviour.

Could you tell us about your role as Senior Demand Generation Marketing Manager APAC at New Relic?

At New Relic I’m responsible for top-of-the-funnel lead generation contributions and mid-funnel acceleration across a range of lead generation vehicles including online advertising, e-mails, webinars, and social for the APAC region - which is very diverse!

I also leverage corporate campaigns and content, adapt them to local market needs, and execute and measure lead generation programs to increase brand awareness and - most importantly - the revenue pipeline. Then, I optimise on an ongoing basis to maximise outcomes.

Marketing & Industry Trends

What type of impact has COVID- 19 had on your industry?

Surprisingly it has increased the need for our platform, because with everyone working remotely, we’ve never been more reliant on our applications working!

What is the most exciting trend or innovation happening in your field in terms of growth?

New Relic’s freshly announced pivot to the consumption model is hugely exciting for me (basically, we are now aiming for customer experience rather than revenue).

It means that the onus is on us to provide value for the customer - we will no longer be aiming for a dollar amount, but usage of our product. That’s the real test. It’s interesting to watch the practicalities of how New Relic is shifting to this model.

As a marketer, what do you believe is the biggest challenge facing your industry in the future?

The third party cookies being deprecated from Chrome next year. We’ll have significant blind spots, considering Chrome has 70% of the browser market share at the moment. It will be interesting to see what solutions will crop up to fill that gap.

Tools, recommendations & sources of inspiration

What does a typical day look like for you?

I am a stickler for having a written to-do list that I can cross off. I’ll go through my calendar, my emails, and Slack, and start adding things to this written list. It’s usually a mix of meetings and tasks that I haven’t completed from the day or week before. Of course, action items always come out of those meetings, too!

What brands do you take inspiration from?

Tech companies like Salesforce, Slack, and Canva are inspirational to me. Not just because they’re hugely successful but the culture that they portray seems genuine. They’ve managed to take good care of their staff while also exceeding their revenue goals.

Software and tools recommendations: what is the one software you can’t work without and why?

Slack for messaging, but also a marketing automation tool like Marketo, and a strong CRM like Salesforce. Execution and measurement tools, basically!

What resources you would recommend for anyone working in your field?

• Industry events are a great source of inspiration.
• Short courses on specific topics like Marketing Operations. Of course there is also good old Google to help you upskill on any new innovation in marketing, but I find that paid events or courses have more practical information that you can take away.