Nextdoor’s CMO Knows Great Marketing Begins w/ Purpose | Connections Ep. 22 | Salesforce

Covid accelerated digital innovation, but now that genie's out of the box. Right? And so I think the good news is we know how to use the tools, but in the end, what we all want and crave is just humanity. And I think brands that know how to deliver that at scale work on a one to one basis. That's what it's all about.

Hey, I'm Sarah Franklin and welcome to Connections where we hear from some of the most innovative leaders in marketing. There aren't many leaders who know more about connecting people than Mariam Vanakaram, head of marketing community and global for Nextdoor where they are reimagining how neighborhoods worldwide share everything from local deals to life saving resources. Let's hear how they do it. You grew up in Iran and you were there during the revolution and you Left in like 79. Tell us about that.

It's true. I actually learned English as a three year old because I went for a year to join my parents in Boston where I went to preschool. And then we moved back to Iran and I went to an American school in Iran, so I continued with my English. And then when the revolution happened, I was in fifth grade and we left to go to Paris, really? Because I don't think my parents knew whether the revolution was going to last or if it was something that was going to pass. So we ended up staying in Paris for a year where we waited to see how things went and then moved to Lafayette, California. So you can imagine Tehran. Paris, California was quite a journey.

So you went to Barnard College?

I did.

What was that like?

So I wanted to go to New York and my mom had aspirations of my being a journalist. And Barnard was a place that really you had a lot of strong role models and the women that were teachers and the president. And so it was a place where I got to find my voice. Right. Partly Barnard and partly New York because there's just such diversity in the city. Obviously I was an extrovert. I connected with people and I always wanted to feel like a local. And the way I felt like a local was I signed up and joined things, which you can imagine with my kids now they're in their early 20s. It gets you the eye roll, like, oh yeah, mom's a joiner, you know. Oh, she was her freshman class president. But one of the things about getting involved is it actually gets you connected to the community. And so for me, that was always something I did. I didn't really think about it. And now there's so much talk about purpose and you take Time to actually think about, well, what is my purpose? And I can now distill it and say, my purpose is around creating connections to create communities that make a difference. But at the time, I just did it right? I just like showed up and joined every club known to mankind. And so it would have worked.

You are the expert. CMO, I think.

Univision, NBCUniversal, Hyatt Gannett, and now Nextdoor.

Oh my gosh, the incredible resume. What brought you to Nextdoor?

Well, at Nextdoor, our purpose is around cultivating a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood to rely on. The small businesses, your neighbors. I think as a kid who moved a lot, right. That purpose spoke to me. I knew that having a community close by where you actually felt a sense of belonging could make a huge difference. But I think that idea of being able to make a difference was something that I learned early on. And I often think about the fact that when you live through revolution, you learn early that you only live once. And I say to my kids, you know, you might as well make a difference because you're only going to live once.

And how does creating connections correlate into marketing?

A lot of marketing is about curiosity and seeing a story and figuring out how to connect things together in order to drive growth for a business. And so you don't know where ideas are going to come from. Sometimes the diversity of the people you interact with gives you new ways to see an equation. So much of marketing is about give an idea and how do you actually make it happen? Right. So can you find the right person? Can you get to the. Yes. A lot of that is connections and relationships. There's so much work that shows that companies that are purpose driven end up outperforming the market. And so it's that notion of tech for good, where you leverage something to enable people to actually get to know each other. That's what it's all about for me.

So how has Nextdoor helped build that.

Community that you talk about?

How have you helped do that?

The heart Nextdoor is about community and connection, right? It gives you instant distribution into your neighborhood so you don't have to go door to door and ring the doorbell like we did in the old days. It actually allows you to join. It's free, obviously. And it then connects you to those who live nearest you. And it gives you a way to plug into the neighborhood that is yours that you call home. That is the ecosystem that you rely on. And so we want to make sure that you have a neighborhood that you can rely on and we actually enable kindness so that everybody can have the neighborhood that they aspire to. When the pandemic happened, what you discovered was that your neighbors were critical not just to your success, but your life. And so we very much pivoted and began living our purpose because we knew that it was meaningful for you to have somebody that you could rely on. Oftentimes people were separated from their families. They needed somebody to run groceries for them or pick up medicine and they weren't able bodied. And so having somebody that you could turn to, I think the number of people who offered help always outnumbers the people who asked for help. It's always harder to be vulnerable. And I think as a marketer, one of the things I find amazing is those stories where somebody does ask for help and then the response that they get. So one of my new favorite stories is Natalie posted for her mother. They wanted somebody to take her and her nine year old mother out to Staten island to visit their father's grave site. Thirty people responded and said, I will take you. No, I don't need gas money, I will just take you. And I say, people think New Yorkers aren't friendly, but 30 strangers offered to take them out. And I said, would it be okay if I told your story? And she said, why do you want to tell the story? And I said, because I want other people to have permission to do what you did, to ask for help and know that others will step up and actually be there for you. I think it's a human need to actually want to help.

How important is that storytelling in your marketing?

I think marketing is all storytelling. There's a reason in the pandemic we've all been glued to our various devices consuming tons of content. I think stories are sort of the narrative that connect us. And so finding those stories and giving them voice I think are critical parts of all of our jobs.

So you've worked at lots of different companies. What is the one lesson that you would love to pass on to new marketers?

Well, I think in the end you have to be a driver of revenue and growth because that is what you're there for. But I also think it really matters to stand for something and have a brand that can have incredible meaning and resilience.

How do marketers learn that resilience?

Well, I think if you stand for something and it's not just words but actions and I think that's what purpose does. Purpose gives you a north star and then you actually take that and pull it through the organization including marketing that allows you to weather all kinds of storms. So you tell the world what you stand for. You actually tell them by doing it, not just using words. And then you focus on growth because in the end it is a business.

How do you find that purpose, that mission?

Well, I mean for me it starts with understanding, understanding the difference you want to make in the world. And then you think about how you pull that through your messaging from a marketing perspective as well. It's not always a one to one messaging because purpose is really about your company strategy. But in the end, people want companies even more so now that are purpose driven and take a stand and are actually willing to live that right. And I think for me, I always start with purpose when I have to do storytelling. It's a through line for your business and it's a through line that you actually have to take the time to tell the story of through deeds, actions as well as words.

How much do you put the customer at the center then everything that you.

Do with marketing, frankly, I would say with any business, you have to start with the customer. You're meeting somebody's need. And so I remember when the pandemic broke out, you know, a lot of marketers were pulling back and thinking about what they were going to do for everybody. It was like, you know what? You have to be focused on meeting the need of your customers. That is literally the only thing that matters. And if you do that over the long run, you will be rewarded. But the thing that we all have to do is just be there for each other, right? And I think for any business, that's where you start. So when I joined nextdoor, one of the first things I did was research to really understand the core customer as well as the prospects. Because you have to start with the customers. And for us, the customer is the entire neighborhood ecosystem, from the neighbors, the small businesses to the public agencies. It doesn't mean that they tell you what to do, but understanding them, that's kind of the first step for me. I always start with research. I want to understand as much as I can and then I go from there. Now I don't think customers can tell you what to do necessarily, but starting from there gives you a sense of understanding and really great marketing starts with that.

How did the pandemic drive digital innovation?

You know, you hear this from all businesses. Right before it was hard for people to do online grocery shopping and then, you know, necessity, sort of the mother invention. And I think with Nextdoor was no different. You actually really needed people nearby you to help you get groceries or connect. And so that just became a reality. I remember in January when people were trying to navigate vaccines, the number of people who were turning to next door to actually get help from their neighbors was at an all time high because while the system was being rolled out, people couldn't figure out how to navigate for appointments and things like that. And so Covid accelerated digital innovation, but now that genie's out of the box, right? And so I think the good news is that now we know how to use the tools, but in the end, what we all want and crave is just humanity. Most importantly for me, I work in the world of tech, but I want to enable humanity and a world that we all want to live in, right? There's so many people who want to help their community and enabling them to do that, that's what makes me excited every day.

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