Inbound PR

DECEMBER 27, 2022

This post might be controversial for many. Some might agree. I'm sure many others will not. This post is also very vulnerable and personal. It's my take on the much-debated question if women can have it all - career and kids - reflecting on how 2022 went for me. Two big things happened this year for me professionally: I joined a new company starting a new job and I published my second book (on a completely unexpected topic even for me).

Company 85

Company 85

Inbound PR

OCTOBER 29, 2022

Throughout my career, I've worked in three big tech companies and consulted hundreds of SMBs. No matter the size, most organisations tend to fail in two areas which undermine or slow their performance and growth. The first one is what we'll talk about today and that is execution. Making things happen efficiently and effectively is the number one challenge for the majority of companies but unfortunately, most of them don't even admit they have an execution problem or don't place particular import

Company 84

Company Brand Branding 84

Inbound PR

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

I have a confession to make. For the last few years, I've been very interested in the topic of personal finances. My husband and I have dug so deep into it - reading books and blogs, listening to podcasts, webinars and YouTube videos, and speaking to friends and family. We've done this because we wanted to get better at managing our money and making sound financial decisions for the future to be able to enjoy life even more.

How To 97

How To YouTube Financial Video 97

Inbound PR

JULY 27, 2022

In my previous job at Cisco, I was put in charge of creating and running a PMO (Project Management Office) for the execution of the departmental strategy. I had never done this before but I took the challenge. It was incredibly interesting and rewarding to have to figure out something from scratch. It was also a big responsibility but this is what made it so exciting to work on.

Internal 98

Internal International Strategy 98

Inbound PR

APRIL 11, 2022

I was recently made aware of a book called "Zone to Win" and having just watched a video summarising the key points, I found it fascinating. It's not just about why established companies struggle to embrace disruptive innovation but about how they can do it. Even though I have not yet read the book, I thought it would be helpful to share some of the key points with you as they can be an eye-opener.

Enterprise 86

Enterprise Internal International Video 86

Inbound PR

MARCH 20, 2022

At the beginning of the year, I promised myself to go slower. That promise relates to clothes, shoes and accessories as well - either through 'slow fashion' or simply making a lot more conscious decisions about the things that I buy to wear for myself or my family (if at all). Why am I making this decision? Because 'make, waste, dispose' is the premise of fast fashion and it doesn't fit with my sustainability beliefs and zero-waste efforts.

Fashion 93

Fashion Trends Consumer Marketing 93

Inbound PR

FEBRUARY 21, 2022

70% of all projects in organisations fail. Shocking isn't it? But it's the reality. And most often than not, projects fail because of competing priorities. We move too fast and work on too many things at the same time. Many leaders want everything done now. Program and project get assigned to multiple projects at the same time alongside other stakeholders from the companies.

Leadership 85

Leadership Resources Company 85

Inbound PR

JANUARY 3, 2022

With the New Year having just arrived, I have a confession to make. I'm a total speedoholic and a rushaholic. And I've become an even bigger speedoholic and rushaholic since having a baby and returning to full-time work. Reflecting on 2021, I realise that I have managed to achieve a lot - got back to work from maternity, managed to juggle having my daughter at home until she was 11 months before she started daycare, made new friends in the Netherlands, travelled 3 times during these COVID days (

Travel 97

Travel 97

Inbound PR

NOVEMBER 23, 2021

Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting at the Digital Marketing Transformation e-Conference on the topic of Disrupt or Be Disrupted. It's been a while since I've done some public speaking and even though it was all online due to COVID-19, I loved it. I realised how much I miss it and how energised I feel by the audience and by the opportunity to share what I know.

Video 62

Video Conference Publicity Marketing 62

Inbound PR

AUGUST 18, 2021

It's been busy the last few months. I've been quiet on this blog and I'm not going to lie, finding time to write between an expanded job role and a now 10-month old still at home has been tough. Juggling is challenging, as I'm sure you'll agree. In fact, the whole world would agree that what makes life today truly unprecedented is the pace of change.

Mobile 111

Mobile Writing Blogging Technology 111

Inbound PR

MARCH 22, 2021

Lately, quite a few people from my network reached out to seek my advice on getting a job in tech, given my close to 5 years at HubSpot and now almost 2 at Cisco and the fact that I started my career in a very different area - PR. Tech and IT are hot industries right now especially with the whole Coronavirus situation that's pushing us to 100% work remotely.

How To 62

How To Engineering Marketing Industry 62

Inbound PR

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

Two big concepts in project management are waterfall and agile. Both are methodologies for executing projects with waterfall being the traditional one and agile the newer, more modern one. This is another post in my project management fundamental series and we'll look at the two approaches, their differences, advantages and disadvantages. Let's describe briefly the two concepts first.

Construction 62

Construction Software 62

Inbound PR

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

I returned from maternity leave about two weeks ago and stepped into a new role as a Program Manager in the Chief of Staff office for CX EMEAR at Cisco. It's an exciting move for me and so far it's been super interesting. Lots to do, lots of new people to work with, lots of opportunities to make an impact. Since I started my career, I've held about 10 different positions and switched four industries - I began in PR, moved into Marketing, then Customer Success, then Project and Program Management

Agency 62

Agency Industry Marketing Company 62

Inbound PR

JANUARY 20, 2021

Consider it a buzzword or not, ROI is still important. Executives care about it. They want to know that company investments are worth it. When it comes to building or growing a new department such as Customer Success, especially if you don't have experience in it, ROI is equally important. It's normal to ask if it's worth it and to wonder how to measure the success of the investment.

Measurement 80

Measurement Infographics Examples How To 80

Inbound PR

JANUARY 6, 2021

As the new year begins, not only do I reflect on what's happened for me personally and professionally, but also on how this blog has been performing. I'll have to be honest, 2020 was rather busy for me with a still relatively new job at a new company in a new country, getting pregnant and giving birth, moving to a new city, buying a house and furnishing it.

Blogging 65

Blogging Company 65

Inbound PR

DECEMBER 23, 2020

One more year has flown by. And what a year it has been for all of us with COVID-19 completely changing our personal and professional lives. To me, the crisis has had both positive and negative implications. I've been able to spend so much time with my now husband but we were restricted and couldn't travel and be with family and friends as much as we would normally do.

Crisis 83

Crisis Travel 83

Inbound PR

DECEMBER 9, 2020

This is a guest post by Eric Weisbrot from JW Surety Bonds. Scope creep is a silent killer for projects. Even the most seasoned professionals can easily miss rising costs and scope since they tend to slowly grow over the life of the project. Luckily, there are many simple ways to manage scope creep before it gets out of control. An effective project kick-off meeting is a major way you can tackle sources of scope creep.

How To 66

How To Meeting Writing 66

Inbound PR

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Customer Success is a relatively new field, both from an organisational perspective as in a department and also from a career perspective for individuals. I've been working in Customer Success for quite a few years. Even my early days working in PR agencies and taking care of PR clients should be considered working in Customer Success although I held a different title.

Agency 62

Agency How To 62

Inbound PR

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

This is a guest post by my friend and former colleague Sam Hirbod. This year, INBOUND 2020 - HubSpot's yearly inbound conference - moved to an all-digital immersive format featuring exceptional speakers ranging from Sandy Carter, VP of Amazon Web Services to Chrissy Teigen, Bestselling Author. The move to digital events is not something HubSpot is alone in doing, it’s been an ongoing trend for the past years but 2020 definitely accelerated the process of having industries digitising their effort

Conference 67

Conference Web Trends Industry 67

Inbound PR

OCTOBER 29, 2020

If you start learning to get yourself certified by the Project Management Institute, you'll encounter a very organised approach to the practice. You'll also have to make use of the PMBOK book. One of the first things you'll learn from it is that there are five project management process groups, 10 knowledge areas and 47 processes, each with inputs, outputs, and tools & techniques.

Groups 48

Groups Meeting Tools How To 48

Inbound PR

OCTOBER 14, 2020

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of joining John from Big Ideas Machine for their podcast called Heroes of B2B PR. It's been a while since I've done a podcast or a presentation on Inbound PR mainly because my career has somewhat moved into a different direction. We discuss that during the podcast - my focus now lies on Project and Program Management and Customer Success.

B2B 62

B2B Agency Industry 62

Inbound PR

OCTOBER 1, 2020

This is not going to be one of the typical posts on this blog. I'm not going to cover PR, marketing, customer success or project management. Instead, I'm going to talk about something far more personal - decisions and choices I've made to live a little bit of a greener and less wasteful life. I've always been interested in sustainability but more from the business side of things.

Blogging 115

Blogging Marketing 115

Inbound PR

SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

When you are building a Customer Success practise at your company, there are quite a few things to consider. Few businesses have completely figured it out and are running CSM teams efficiently and super effectively. In fact, only 30% of CS professionals think that their company has provided them with enough resources to do their jobs properly. The most requested resources are better tools at 39% and more training at 31%.

Infographics 71

Infographics Training Resources Tools 71

Inbound PR

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

A good project manager needs to develop both hard skills and soft skills. While hard skills are all about knowledge and execution according to project management standards (e.g. knowing how to create a project charter, how to do agile etc.) and are easier to learn, soft skills need years practising and mastering. Some people are born with a natural ability to be great project managers, others need to cultivate their soft skills more.

Meeting 62

Meeting How To 62

Inbound PR

AUGUST 19, 2020

This is a guest post written by Andriana Moskovska. Over the years, content marketing has proven to be a valuable tool for businesses. It turns out that 88% of marketers use content marketing for their marketing strategies. This figure may sound promising, but did you know that 63% of businesses don’t have a documented content marketing strategy ? We often hear the phrase “content is king,” which is true.

Content Marketing 62

Content Marketing Strategy Marketing Tools 62

Inbound PR

AUGUST 5, 2020

I've always believed that you don't need to work harder or longer to achieve more. You simply need to work smarter. But that doesn't often come naturally or easily, especially if you are inexperienced and junior or still new to a role where you want to prove yourself. Over the years, I've managed to build some habits that allow me to work smarter and fewer hours and simultaneously to achieve more with better results and higher quality.

How To 110

How To 110

Inbound PR

JULY 24, 2020

One of the reasons why I wrote the Inbound PR book was to help PR professionals open their eyes to the need for modern measurement and tangible proof of PR results. Inbound Marketing is terrific at showing the monetary value of marketing efforts so there's a lot that PR could learn. Measurement has always been a problem in PR. For years, PR pros have used fluffy metrics (and some continue doing so).

Measurement 82

Measurement Infographics Examples Marketing 82

Inbound PR

JULY 14, 2020

When you're trying to introduce Customer Success (or Customer Experience ) in your organisation, you're obviously going to need a team. That team doesn't just consist of leadership people who will set up the vision and plan for the Customer Success organisation but you also need those who will take care of your customers, most often called Customer Success Managers (CSMs) - also called Client Success Managers or Customer Success Executives (CSEs).

Agency 74

Agency Leadership 74

Inbound PR

JULY 3, 2020

Today, we continue with our project management fundamentals series.

How To 113

How To 113

Inbound PR

JUNE 18, 2020

Republished book review by Matt Bergman from Amazon. (Thanks, Matt!). Iliyana Stareva has written what I’d call, with a considerable degree of confidence, the most important, actionable and forward-looking PR book of the past ten years. That’s true, I believe, for the following reasons, which I’ll circle back to and discuss in a bit more detail: The author sets a detailed course for the future of PR that aligns with the thinking and capabilities of the relatively few genuinely progressive agenci

Industry 62

Industry Agency Creativity Measurement 62

Inbound PR

JUNE 3, 2020

When I was doing some research on influencer marketing a few months ago, I came across a lot of nice infographics but the one that stood out was actually a gifographic. I hadn't heard the name before but it's pretty cool. It's just an infographic as we know them but with gifs and it makes it much more fun. So today, we'll look at one such gifographic (perhaps you can think about creating some for your business too) that covers some interesting influencer marketing strategies.

Strategy 62

Strategy Marketing Infographics Brand 62

Inbound PR

MAY 21, 2020

A couple of months ago, I covered customer experience and the Cisco racetrack - or lifecycle across the customer journey that's extremely important for companies to be able to drive customer success. Today, I want to show you one more model that's become more and more popular if you work in SaaS or Customer Success. This model is called L.A.E.R. and stands for Land, Adopt, Expand and Renew.

Company 80

Company 80

Inbound PR

MAY 6, 2020

The most important document when you're at the very start of a new project is the project charter. This is what we will look at today as part of my series on project management fundamentals - if you missed previous posts, we've so far covered the differences between projects and operations as well as those between projects, programmes and portfolios , the DARCI model for stakeholder engagement and how to run an effective project kick-off meeting.

How To 62

How To Meeting 62

Inbound PR

APRIL 23, 2020

This is a guest post by Edyta Kowal. The temptation to deliver as many leads as possible can be very strong on the part of marketing teams. But at the same time damaging. After all, it’s all about inspiring the customer to visit the store and make a purchase, and not just browse around and leave empty-handed without even exchanging a single word with the sales assistant.

Strategy 92

Strategy Marketing Brand Branding 92

Inbound PR

APRIL 16, 2020

Over the years, I've often been asked how I learn not just to do a job very quickly but to excel at it very quickly. I don't think I have some kind of a magic solution to this but I've come to realise that there are a few things that can make you not just good, but great at any job fast. Of course, it all comes down to finding something that you actually like.

How To 62

How To Course Industry 62

Inbound PR

APRIL 2, 2020

Do you feel like everything around you is about COVID-19? I turn on the news, it's non-stop COVID-19. I check my Facebook feed, it's all COVID-19. My LinkedIn, same story. My Twitter, likewise. Google, also. COVID-19, COVID-19, COVID-19. But what's worse is that COVID-19 has overtaken my inbox - I've received dozens or more emails from companies, including a bunch of irrelevant and dry press releases on how they're tackling the crisis.

Crisis 63

Crisis LinkedIn Twitter Facebook 63

Inbound PR

MARCH 23, 2020

We've so far covered quite a few topics around project management - the differences between projects and operations as well as those between projects, programmes and portfolios , the DARCI model for stakeholder engagement. A very, very key thing for any project, is its kick-off or the meeting that gets the project team together to get the project started.

Meeting 72

Meeting How To 72