FreeConferenceCall.com employees are at the heart of our work. And, today, we’re excited to introduce you to one of our newest leaders, Bill Swain, vice president of marketing, who will be spearheading our global marketing efforts. Come along as I ask Bill all the pressing questions :)
Welcome Bill! Could you tell us a little bit about your background? What were you doing before FreeConferenceCall.com?
Previously I worked at Core Digital Media. The two largest brands we were responsible for were LowerMyBills.com and QuickenLoans. For both we ran all the online performance marketing. The main channels we leveraged were Display, Facebook, Paid Search, Native Marketing, Email, and SMS.
What excites you the most about FreeConferenceCall.com?
The opportunity to work with such an incredible brand and best-in-class product at a free price point. Also the up sell and cross sell opportunities through sister products such as Start Meeting and Bullhorn will provide a lot of great opportunities to test, optimize, and to leverage the large consumer database that FreeConferenceCall.com has built.
What’s your take on the current state of marketing technology?
Facebook and Google are absolutely dominant. The data and marketing stacks they have are unrivaled. There are still lots of opportunities to work outside these walled gardens but to scale you’ll need to have some presence on each. Native platforms like Taboola and Outbrain are interesting as are customer relationship management tools such as email and SMS.
In a nutshell, describe your role as VP of Marketing.
The products here are world class. The brand is incredibly well-known and respected. I think our job as a marketing team will be to make sure that as much of the market as possible is aware of these offerings, and to ensure that existing customers are using these great products to their fullest.
Do you remember the first thing you bought online?
I honestly have no idea. Music maybe? (after Napster tapped out).
Who inspires you?
Tons of people. Queue the cliché but I do fully believe that everyone has something to teach you. That said there’s obviously a short list of people who most greatly inspire me. My wife is at the top of the list. Malcolm Gladwell is a modern genius. The Dalai Lama is an unbelievable person. My Dad is the strongest person I’ve ever met. The list really goes on and on.
What’s on your favorite playlist right now?
Creedence is always at the top of the list for me.
Fill in the blank. When I’m not working, you can find me on ____the basketball court_____.
And last but certainly not least, who’s your favorite Game of Thrones character and why?
I just had this discussion with my wife on our recent road trip. This is an insanely difficult question. I think I have to go Arya Stark because she is going to have such an interesting role to play going forward. I feel like she’s the knight on the chess board that hasn’t been fully deployed yet.