Leadership through experience: How KEO Marketing’s Sheila Kloefkorn gives back to businesses
For Sheila Kloefkorn, it wasn’t enough to be the founder and CEO of business-to-business marketing agency KEO Marketing. She also wanted to give back to businesses whose owners may only dream of being where she is now.
That, in part, is why KEO Marketing launched the Fractional Chief Marketing Officer offer. Kloefkorn knew she was far from the only business owner interested in growing their business, and wanted to offer opportunities for growth to medium-sized businesses interested in going to the next level.
“Marketing continues to change at an exponential rate,” Kloefkorn said. “Each of us [on the KEO Marketing team] is a marketing or sales specialist with years of training in our areas of expertise. We love marketing and we love making a difference in our clients’ lives and in their customers’ lives.”
Under the Fractional CMO offer, Kloefkorn serves as the outsourced head of marketing for several businesses, and the KEO Marketing team augments in-house marketing resources. It might sound simple, but it’s a solution Kloefkorn is proud to provide because of the difference it makes to businesses and their owners.
Overcoming Diverse Challenges
It takes a special kind of client to participate in the Fractional CMO program, Kloefkorn said. She only takes on clients for whom she believes the KEO Marketing team can make a difference.
“We want to support and serve as an extension of a client’s team,” she said. “Digital marketing changes and becomes more complicated every day, and it’s often difficult for an organization’s in-house marketer to be an expert in all aspects of marketing. That’s where we come in to act as an extension of the client’s team.”
Kloefkorn recognizes that it’s not just the digital marketing industry that is ever-changing and often challenging. Business owners now more than ever are also confronting shifting needs for their businesses – needs they are often not equipped to manage or fill.
“We always focus on what really matters to our clients when working with them through the Fractional CMO offer,” Kloefkorn said. “That process is very personal to us.”
Kloefkorn remembers one recent client of hers – a business owner in his 70s whose business partner had just passed away. As a result, he wanted to sell the business, but needed to be sure he’d still be able to provide for his family.
“We had built a powerful lead generation system for the company, and we were asked to put that system into overdrive to increase the value of the business. We did that and they went from a $15 million company to a $35 million company in nine months.”
It’s not only about the money, Kloefkorn added. It’s about the ability to make a difference.
“He was able to take care of his family and his trusted employees,” she said. “That’s the kind of impact we’re interested in making.”
Kloefkorn said she and her team were also able to help a client based abroad in setting up United States-based operations, taking what would normally be an incredibly stressful process and streamlining it as much as possible.
“They needed to get the word out about their 3D printing product very quickly, so we implemented a targeted outbound marketing program for them and drove more than 100 qualified leads in less than two months. They said that was more than they could have ever done without our help.”
Looking Toward the Future
After nearly 30 years of experience in the marketing industry, Kloefkorn is adept at identifying what her clients need and how to best usher them into the next stage of their success. However, she said, she is also constantly looking ahead to see what tools KEO Marketing can develop to serve their marketing work and that of their Fractional CMO program participants.
“The biggest area of expansion for us now and in the next year is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI),” she said. “Nearly every marketing software offers an aspect of AI. Personalization is an extension of that. Every ad, piece of content and interaction is moving toward personalization. To do this at scale requires software and AI.”
Through leveraging AI and continuing to care for clients seeking to grow and expand their businesses, Kloefkorn hopes that her leadership of the Fractional CMO offer will continue to blaze trails for businesses, clients, and customers.
“If companies don’t have the resources they need to staff a full-house marketing department, it’s my honor to take my team and step in and bridge the gap,” said Kloefkorn. “I love the work I do, and it’s a privilege to take my skills and put them to work for good people doing great work.”
About KEO Marketing:
KEO Marketing, an award-winning B2B marketing agency in Phoenix, Arizona, develops marketing strategies and systems that help clients generate more leads and sales. Their Fractional CMO offer enables select companies to leverage senior-level marketing talent and highly trained specialists, with the aim of saving time and reducing stress for business owners and their companies. For more information, please visit https://keomarketing.com.