Drew Detzler loves using data to tell a story. He’s a sucker for the numbers and he does his best to follow their lead externally with customers or internally with important decision- making with the rest of the DemandJump team. Drew is a big advocate of letting the data tell the story because it always produces the best results.

As Director of Marketing at DemandJump, Drew is keenly aware of the power of storytelling in today’s marketplace. It’s not enough, however, to keep churning out stories with no real purpose or basis in data. This is a lesson Drew first learned when he got his start in marketing analytics at Angie’s List, which was a job he loved. He really enjoyed the process of using data to arrive at concrete, correct answers to problems. Without the data, they aren’t answers so much as guesses and hunches, which too often lead to the wrong answers.

Drew, who earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from Indiana University, also taught himself SQL database management early on in his career so that he could access and analyze the raw data he wanted without having to rely on anyone else. It’s that kind of initiative that helps him on a daily basis working at a fast-growing tech scale-up company.

What has been your career path so far?
I spent nearly 6 years at Angie’s List getting my feet wet in marketing and analytics. I spent a year and a half at Supplykick doing the same and now I find myself at DemandJump heading up a small but mighty team of marketers.

When you think of a day in your life, what are the main work activities you do or responsibilities you have?
Making sure we are publishing valuable content that drives organic growth, ensuring valuable leads are making their way to the sales team (via all marketing channels), and making sure the team has everything they need to execute and grow.

Help us picture your work environment.
Large standing desk with nothing but a second monitor and a mouse. No office, no door, no barriers.

Which personality traits, interests, and abilities are important or common for a person to succeed in and enjoy this occupation?
To succeed in marketing today a person must think analytically. They must always ask “why”. With this analytical mindset, they will dig and dig and eventually get to the root of the issue and that will produce results.

Which tools/technologies or technical skills are particularly important for a person in your job?
Technical skills can be taught. I need people who are willing to learn, think analytically, and work smarter.

Which soft skills are particularly important for a person in this occupation?
To be a successful marketer you must be able to work interdepartmentally. Marketing is only successful if it eventually leads to revenue. In almost every case, for it to lead to revenue multiple teams will be involved (sales, product, engineering, etc.) Along the same lines, you need to be able to read a room and know when your input is needed, and more importantly, when it is not.

Which resources would you recommend to those who want to advance their skills in marketing?
There are tons of marketing newsletters and email subscriptions out there – eMarketer has a subscription newsletter for anything you could think of. Any and all are valuable, but don’t lose yourself in only following marketing specific resources. In marketing, it is just as important to stay aware of what is going on in other verticals (sales, data/engineering, finance, etc.)  as it is to stay up to date on Google algorithm updates, for example.

What encouragement or advice would you offer to others considering this occupation or wanting to stand out amongst others?
Be someone people want to work with and get sh*t done. If you accomplish both of those, you will be successful.