Member Since 2012
ErinBlaskie.com
Ottawa, Canada Area
I’m a fractional CMO and marketing advisor to startups and scaleups. In 2004, I founded one of the first virtual assistance businesses in Canada. My very first client was a startup in Silicon Valley that I worked with until they were acquired by Ancestry.com for $100M. In 2008, I pivoted the company to a marketing agency and provided services to many of the world’s leading brands, including Disney, Microsoft, Post, Ford, and Alliance Films. As social media rose in popularity, I worked with Hollywood actors, best-selling authors, and professional speakers to craft their personal brands and build communities of raving fans. In 2017, I joined L-SPARK, a B2B SaaS accelerator, where I led their marketing and community-building efforts while also advising and mentoring the startups in the program. In 2020, I then joined Fellow, a B2B SaaS platform for meeting productivity and team management, as their first head of marketing hire. In the media, my work has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal, The Globe & Mail, and more. I am also the Chair of the Entrepreneurship Program Advisory Committee at Algonquin College, the Ottawa Chapter Co-Lead for the Slack Platform Community, and a digital marketing instructor at the Telfer School of Business.
Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the best ways to achieve organic growth for your business. Having people advocate for your services can help you attract new customers and increase loyalty among your existing customer base.
The entire marketing world knows how powerful a well-funded social media campaign can be when growing a brand image. It can be challenging for smaller entrepreneurs to determine how much money should go into this part of your marketing, as there are several dozen social media channels that you can invest in. How do you determine how much money to dedicate to one or more of those social media accounts?
Disagreements and conflicts are inevitable in the workplace. As a leader, it’s your job to mediate any issues between workers so your company culture remains positive and productive. However, this is often easier said than done: It takes a truly empathetic and effective leader to listen to each side and help both parties come to a mutually-beneficial solution.
We’ve all been in terrible meetings and have felt the detrimental effects of them.
Plans are crucial to success in any endeavor. It doesn't matter if that project is building a business or writing a book. Without planning, even the most well-intentioned projects can hit a roadblock and stop. Developing a success plan takes time and effort. It also requires a certain level of experience, and newcomers are unfortunately hit with this realization after they start their projects.
Free advertising has leveled up, as there are now more alternatives to paid ads than ever.
For many growing teams, in-person leadership conferences have been the go-to method for training and developing the organization's future leaders. In today's world, though, there's a lot of uncertainty around when these types of conferences might return.
Social media is constantly evolving, as are the ways people use it. What was once primarily used for connecting with old friends and family has morphed into a platform for sharing perspectives and launching campaigns.
Switching a “bad” habit for a good one is not always the best option.
Business advisers have the potential to be instrumental to a company's success. Unfortunately, not all business advisers make a positive impact, and it's up to the entrepreneur to decide which adviser they want to work with.
There's no question as to how vital innovation is to a business. However, the pitfall that most entrepreneurs fall victim to is thinking that all change must come from the top. If a company hires right, its talented employees could offer a vast resource in terms of their innovation to the company.
One of the most common complaints that professionals have in the 21st century is how little time there is in a day. The truth of the matter is that the day hasn't changed, but how we manage our time has. Losing time on frivolous activities is nothing new. However, with the advent of attention-stealing applications, we lose more time than ever before without even realizing it.
As more businesses start to realize the benefits of outsourcing, they slowly start cutting down on the number of things they do in house. In many industries, the reduction in costs is so significant that it allows the business to thrive and grow much faster. However, even though outsourcing is an excellent idea for increasing profitability for a business, not all solutions should be outsourced, even if they could be.
Every business owner hopes to succeed in their venture. Access to the right resources plays a huge role in that success -- but barriers do still exist, especially for female entrepreneurs.
Starting your own business is not a decision to take lightly. While it’s great to be your own boss with the freedom to set your own schedule, this is only part of the equation. It takes a lot more than just a dream to be a successful entrepreneur. Before you take the leap, there are some important questions to ask yourself to understand if you’re truly ready to launch your own business. To help you make your decision, we asked 10 Young Entrepreneur Council members what everyone should ask themselves before committing to entrepreneurship.
A boutique agency that provides fractional CMO services to startups and scaleups around the world. The agency also provides marketing advisement, mentoring, and education.
Marketing & Advertising