“So many people look at content as a cost center, and I want us to be a revenue driver.” In this episode, you'll see how Jennifer Clark's small team produced 300 pieces of content last year, and why rethinking content’s value could transform your marketing strategy.
Jennifer Clark leads Zoom’s lean content team with one goal: to prove that content drives revenue. She’s built a pod model that brings together product marketing, demand gen, and content. Everything runs through a clear intake system in Zoom Docs, with weekly cross-team meetings and live dashboards that track real conversions like demo bookings and sales calls.
Her team created 300 assets last year by sharing work across pods, using AI tools (including Zoom AI Companion) for call summaries, outlines, and reporting, and building a culture of open collaboration. As Jennifer says, “We’re really starting to get on the cusp of showing how [content] yields more than just storytelling … but also generating pipeline, influencing and creating actual revenue.”
Jennifer Clark is the Content Marketing Lead at Zoom, where she's transformed a lean team into a content powerhouse producing 300+ assets annually. With over 20 years in communications and a decade focused on B2B tech, she brings both strategic vision and hands-on expertise to enterprise content operations.
Before Zoom, Jennifer honed her skills at TaxJar as Content Marketing Manager, turning complex tax topics into engaging, SEO-driven resources. She's also worked agency-side and in IT distribution, giving her a 360-degree view of content marketing challenges.
At Zoom, Jennifer has built a content engine that proves small teams can drive big impact. Her pod model unites product marketing, demand gen, and content teams around shared goals. She champions data-driven decisions, tracking real conversions like demo bookings rather than vanity metrics. Most importantly, she's created a collaborative culture where her distributed team thrives despite time zones and competing priorities.
This episode gives you a unique look inside the high-performing enterprise content team at Zoom. Here are the most useful takeaways and quotes:
The fundamental battle every content leader faces: proving ROI to skeptical executives. Most organizations still view content as a support function, but Jennifer's approach directly challenges this by implementing conversion tracking for demo bookings and sales calls. Her data-driven stance gives content leaders ammunition to justify investment and demonstrate that content is a legitimate revenue channel that deserves a seat at the strategic planning table.
Forget the assumption that enterprise content requires massive teams. Jennifer's numbers prove otherwise. She achieves this through her pod model, where team members can flexibly support different initiatives based on priority, not rigid role definitions. The key lesson for other content leaders: invest in systems and cross-training before headcount. A well-orchestrated small team with clear processes can outperform a larger team working in silos.
Content as "glue" might sound like corporate speak, but at Zoom, it reflects real organizational power. Jennifer reports directly to the CMO, which gives her the organizational authority to enforce this vision. For content leaders stuck in organizational silos, the lesson is clear: secure executive sponsorship and frame content as the connective tissue between product, sales, and marketing.
Enterprise content often fails when stakeholders pull in different directions; Jennifer's pod model prevents that chaos before it starts. By forcing alignment at the quarterly planning stage, her team avoids the common trap of becoming a reactive content factory. The pod model also creates shared accountability: when content performs well or poorly, all three functions own the outcome, reducing finger-pointing and fostering genuine collaboration.
Most content teams celebrate vanity metrics, but Jennifer's team tracks what actually pays the bills. By monitoring revenue-adjacent actions rather than engagement metrics, Jennifer can have data-driven conversations with executives about content's ROI. Better yet, it enables rapid optimization. When certain topics or formats drive more demo requests, the team can quickly pivot to produce more of what works, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement.
By automating most of the intake process for new content requests, Jennifer's team saves significant time that would otherwise be spent on administrative work. The system connects directly to their content calendar, making it easy for everyone across the organization to see what content is in progress and exactly where and when their requests will be delivered.
While others debate AI's threat to writers, Jennifer's team has already figured out the sweet spot: AI as a force multiplier, not a replacement. AI handles the mechanical work (transcription, initial outlines) while humans focus on strategy, voice, and the nuanced understanding of what will resonate with their specific audience.
AI-powered search is fundamentally changing content discovery, and Jennifer's team isn't waiting around to see what happens. By creating unique visual assets and downloadable tools that AI can't easily replicate, they're building a defensive moat around their content's value, ensuring Zoom remains the source users visit, not just another input for AI summaries.
This season on the Animalz Podcast, we’re pulling back the corporate curtain to show you how the largest, most complex B2B SaaS teams actually get content out the door. Our mission: demystify these hidden machines and reveal what it really takes to run content at scale.
Hear from content leaders of some of the biggest names in SaaS sharing the systems they've built, the battles they've fought, and the lessons they've learned along the way.
Check out other episodes in the season here
Make It Punchy by Emma Stratton (02:34): Jennifer calls this her team's "go-to" guide for turning product jargon into barbecue-friendly language.
The Little Engine That Could (05:28): Jennifer compares her small team to this classic story about persistence—"I think I can, I think I can."
Zoom Docs (14:17): Zoom's platform for documentation and project management that powers Jennifer's content intake and editorial calendars.
Zoom AI Companion (29:00): Zoom's AI features, including meeting summaries and drafting support that Jennifer's team uses daily.
Follow Jennifer Clark on LinkedIn to follow her insights on content marketing and enterprise operations.
Jennifer Clark [00:00:00]:
So many people look at content as a cost center, and, you know, I want us to be a revenue driver. And that has been something that is always an uphill battle for content people to prove. But I feel like we're really starting to get on the cusp of showing how it yields more than just storytelling, which I'm a big believer in, but also generating pipeline and influencing and creating actual revenue.
Ty Magnin [00:00:24]:
Welcome to the Animals podcast. I'm Ty Magnin.
Tim Metz [00:00:27]:
And I'm Tim Metz.
Ty Magnin [00:00:28]:
And this season on the Animals podcast, we're pull back the corporate curtain to show you how the largest, most complex B2B SaaS teams actually get content out the door. Hear from some of the leaders of the biggest names in SaaS, sharing the systems they built, the battles they fought, and the lessons they've learned along the way. Today we're joined by Jennifer Clark. She is the force behind Zoom's content strategy. Since 2021, Jennifer has shaped Zoom's editorial vision, scaled its content operations, and align teams across the organization to deliver impactful content. Before Zoom, Jennifer led content at TaxJar and at Speckit. In today's episode, Jennifer shares her approach to orchestrating content at scale, how she's created a strong team collaborative environment, and how AI is impacting content in a really positive way today and in the future. I hope you enjoy this episode with Jennifer Clark.
Ty Magnin [00:01:21]:
Jennifer Clark, thanks so much for joining us today on the Animals podcast. First things first. What content are you consuming lately?
Jennifer Clark [00:01:30]:
Well, not to sound cliche because we're doing a podcast, but I listen to a lot of podcasts at the gym, so I have just a few different marketing related ones. I don't even know the titles of all of them, sadly. So I could probably send some of those over to you. But a book that is fun that I've been reading is Punchy, which is how to take product marketing jargon and basically throw it in the trash and, you know, write for people and not for just products. And so it's been fun to kind of see a lot of product jargon that both we're guilty of and other people are guilty of and how to just take that and throw it away. And I think Emma, the author says to speak like you would at a barbecue, you know, so do you go up to people and say, hi, what do you do for a living? I streamline collaboration and, you know, all of these things. Or do you say, no, I worked for a, you know, a platform that helps you get more done and help you be a little bit more productive at the End of your, your day because you don't have to use as many tools. So it's, it's a fun read and it's an easy read, but it's that it's very practical.
Jennifer Clark [00:02:34]:
So that's kind of been my, my reading as of late.
Ty Magnin [00:02:38]:
I dig it. Marketing copy like you're at a barbecue.
Jennifer Clark [00:02:40]:
You know, that's, that's fun for, for punch. Make it punchy. I've got it over here on my desk by Ms. Her a shout out because it's, and it's become our little go to as a team too. We'll say say it like you would at a barbecue, you know, and that's kind of like our barometer of okay, is it punchy? Not so that's been a fun piece lately.
Ty Magnin [00:02:59]:
I dig it. My visual setting is, is at a cafe, sitting across the table from one person in our icp.
Jennifer Clark [00:03:06]:
Okay, I like that.
Ty Magnin [00:03:08]:
Little different. Little different. And Jennifer, for our audience that doesn't yet know you, would you give a brief intro?
Jennifer Clark [00:03:15]:
Yeah. I have been a content marketing and strategist now for at least the last 10 to 15 years and then been in communications roles for over 20 years. So I'm dating myself, but I've spent the last close to 10 years really in IT specific in tech. And that's been such a fun journey. Going from being an IT distribution, you know, working with a lot of different vendors and setting the strategy for lead gen programs, demand gen programs, and then moving from that into some startups and getting a lot of, you know, just hands on scrappy experience with managing blogs and editorial calendars and then moving into now, you know, much bigger household name like Zoom, which has been a great trajectory. And then I've also had some agency experience as well. So I think I seem to have found that I love words, I love writing, I love team building, and I love being in tech.
Ty Magnin [00:04:09]:
That's awesome. And so this season's all about enterprise content marketing, right? So help us understand how enterprise is. Zoom. Maybe you can help us quantify that by revenue or like team size, whatever's comfortable.
Jennifer Clark [00:04:23]:
Well, our team probably would not reflect enterprise in the sense that we are small and scrappy, but the work that we do, the output that we create, you know, is I think last year was something like 300 projects in a year, which I was so proud of at the end of the year. And I was totaling everything up for our, you know, quarterly review and annual review. And it was somewhere around 300 pieces and that included everything from scripts to customer stories. To blogs, to, you know, ebooks and guides and video content and helping with social content. And, you know, when you're thinking about all the different customers that we have and how we're reaching all of them in so many different touch points with so many different assets, how do you do that with just such a small team? So it was very impressive to me that we were able to serve, you know, all the customers that we have with such a small team. But I'm very, very protective and proud of them. And we are all. We work so well together that it's kind of this little, like, luxury, I guess, that I don't want to get rid of because it's kind of a rare find.
Jennifer Clark [00:05:28]:
So I like to think of us as being sometimes like the little engine that could, you know, because we just keep on chugging up the hill and, you know, sometimes we'll feel like there's shinier, bigger teams and bigger budgets that come by, but we're like, we're just going to, you know, keep on going and, you know, say, I think I can, I think I can. Which is what I tell my kids all the time. Like, you know, can do this at the end of the day. Like, we've put out some really great stuff.
Ty Magnin [00:05:51]:
So, yeah, I mean, yeah. 300 pieces, you said?
Jennifer Clark [00:05:54]:
Yeah. I mean, there's five of us.
Ty Magnin [00:05:57]:
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's more than one for every workday, right? That is impressive. According to Google, Zoom is about 7,500 employees. Is that ballpark correct?
Jennifer Clark [00:06:08]:
Yeah, I was going to say around 7,000. So, you know, don't monitor it, but, yeah, that's kind of where I was thinking. And, you know, we definitely work very closely with so many other teams, too. So I can't take all the credit because we have designers and we have our social team and we have content stakeholders in other departments. But from a content marketing engine, we're a very small team of strategists and writers that work very closely with, like I said, several other departments. But, yeah, it was. It was somewhere around 300 pieces at the end of the year.
Ty Magnin [00:06:40]:
And help us understand those other departments at Zoom that you collaborate with. I'm kind of getting in on the org chart, the broader org chart, if you can paint a picture there.
Jennifer Clark [00:06:49]:
Yeah. So our marketing department is, you know, kind of a traditional marketing environment where you think of your integrated marketing, which is your demand gen arm, and we work very closely with them. And then our product marketing arm, we kind of have this triad ad pod model where we will come together and we'll set the strategy quarterly. We'll try to develop, you know, what assets do we need. We'll do an audit. We'll also look at, you know, what was working, what wasn't, what can we refresh, what do we need net new and try to map it to the product marketing goals, the integrated marketing goals. Not always the same goals, but, you know, we're kind of that in between. So we work very closely in that environment.
Jennifer Clark [00:07:26]:
But then we also have, you know, our corporate comms that sometimes they will need to use the blog, which falls under our team to manage. Then we'll have kind of some other entities like our nonprofit sector that occasionally needs our help, or we'll have security or some of these verticals where we're doing other content work that might fall outside of our traditional POD model. You know, that we work very closely with the social media and the brand team. And because, you know, we need them, they need us. And so we have regular recurring meetings with them. And it's. It's kind of like, you know, content. Now I report directly to our cmo.
Jennifer Clark [00:08:01]:
And so content is a priority at Zoom, which is nice. And it is considered, I think, kind of the glue that holds everything together. Because without it, you know, you can't tell your message to anyone if you don't have the right channel and you don't have the right strategy or the right audience that you're trying to reach. So you need content in order to be effective and to sell. Then we also have kind of our internal, you know, we've got liaison to, or a direct path sometimes to sales. I'll work on a newsletter for them and be able to pull content assets that I have in other places for their newsletter just to reach their accounts coming from all directions. But we try to be strategic initially with that POD model. And that's something that's been around for a while.
Jennifer Clark [00:08:42]:
It always evolves. But ideally, we're really trying to bring the goals of the integrated marketing team, demand gen, with the product marketing team as well.
Ty Magnin [00:08:51]:
So in this POD model, you have an integrated marketer. I'm making this up. So correct me. An integrated marketer, like a product marketer, a content marketer, all collaborating is that roughly, like help me understand the shape.
Jennifer Clark [00:09:03]:
And I mean, there would definitely be other people involved. We might bring digital marketing to then help, you know, once we've gotten our campaign kind of strategy set, then we might, you know, we'll have to rely on the digital side to put content syndication into place or to have you Know, digital ads out there and paid social and things like that. But ideally, this kind of triad is of the product marketing and the integrated marketing and the content marketing. It's us thinking, okay, what content can we create first of all. But prior to that, you know, what has been working, what isn't working, what do we have that we can refresh? Like I was saying, part of the funnel, maybe, are we having a gap? Are we lacking? But a lot of that is based on first the product marketing is meeting to, you know, bring a new feature or new release that they have and we want to tell that message, but how do we do that? And then we have integrated marketers who is like, well, we need to get this many leads this quarter, you know, how do we do that? And so sometimes it's a challenge because they might not have the same goals. So we've got to create different assets. But sometimes we're lucky to say, okay, well here's the pieces that we can create that can solve for both. And you know, some of that takes constant iteration and testing and trying and convincing.
Jennifer Clark [00:10:18]:
And then sometimes it flows really nicely together. It just kind of depends on where those different goals are being set at what time. So gotcha.
Ty Magnin [00:10:26]:
And so what are the goals of the content team perhaps, versus, I imagine, integrated marketing, you know, they've got their like pipeline goal, I guess, right? You said you might have different goals sometimes.
Jennifer Clark [00:10:40]:
Well, and I was thinking where the product marketing team might have different goals than the integrated marketing team, you know, so their goal might be that we have a new feature that we need to release and bring to the market and go to market. Whereas the integrated marketing team might have the goal of just lead generation that quarter. And so sometimes for the product marketing team, you know, it's going to be about bringing awareness. And so our content might be measured on traffic and some of those engagement metrics of just did we make a splash? Did we get the awareness out there? Did we go to market? You know, and then the integrated marketing team might have a goal of more of this lead nurturing and demand gen and a much longer, you know, buying cycle because we're having to introduce a product and then create all of the benefits and, you know, introduce to the customer why they need this and tell that story. So that's a longer term goal than just did we make a splash? But even within my own team, you know, we try to have goals of is the content that we're creating actually moving the needle? And that's, you know, sometimes harder to illustrate. But the Data and the measuring and the metrics is what gets me super excited. So we. We look at that sometimes weekly, sometimes daily.
Jennifer Clark [00:11:54]:
We're measuring certain things. Sometimes we're looking at conversions. You know, sometimes we're looking at. Was it just to bring awareness, but we try to go beyond. Okay, yeah, we had this many visits to the blog, or we had this many, you know, downloads of the asset, like, what was actually happening and how is it impacting what those goals were?
Ty Magnin [00:12:12]:
Taking it a step back then, I'm getting a sense of, like, the role of content at Zoom. But how would you articulate that? What is the role?
Jennifer Clark [00:12:23]:
Um, that's a great question. It kind of depends who you ask. A lot of emphasis is placed on storytelling, of, you know, bringing products to market. And how do we tell the story that we have this new feature? Because as I was saying earlier, we have this wonderful problem of a lot of brand equity. Everybody knows Zoom. We are a verb, right. But we also have so many products that people aren't as aware of, and so we have to tell that story in a different way than just telling the Zoom brand story. So for us, content, you know, has a lot of different roles.
Jennifer Clark [00:13:00]:
Sometimes it is to continue to talk about, you know, a product that is out and. But other times it's to introduce just the brand. And then we also try to create assets that will nurture people throughout their journey and tell that story. So again, I go back to kind of, what is the goal we're trying to achieve at the end? And that helps us create. Create the asset. But there is a lot of emphasis on content at Zoom, and for some people, it just means blogs, but for other people, it means, you know, you are the true storyteller. You're the person who's going to get the word out and work closely with amplifying it through other channels and through other means. So for me, I like to think that it's.
Jennifer Clark [00:13:44]:
It's pretty important in that storytelling and helping deliver that brand even further. But it kind of just, I guess, goes back to if we're just trying to introduce something new or if we're trying to really create a bigger piece of that story.
Ty Magnin [00:13:57]:
And so 300 assets in 2024 that your team produced, right?
Jennifer Clark [00:14:02]:
Yep.
Ty Magnin [00:14:02]:
How do you keep that all organized? Or is, like, someone else do that for you? You know, what does that look like in terms of the operations?
Jennifer Clark [00:14:09]:
So we. We were using a tool just like a project management tool, like a lot of people. And then we actually moved to our own product. Zoom Docs. Which has actually given us the same feature set as what we were using before, which has been really neat. And so we have this bigger intake system that begins with an intake form that pretty much populates what becomes, you know, a creative brief type, or content brief, for lack of a better word. But we ask people to identify, you know, what is it that you're trying to achieve, what are your goals? What is your metrics for this piece? A lot of times people might think, oh, I want it to be a blog. But then after we talk to them, they'll find out, well, this could actually be better as a, you know, guide or a different type of asset.
Jennifer Clark [00:14:52]:
But they'll fill out the intake form. And usually we've already talked about this project in our POD model, so hopefully the form is not a surprise when it comes in, but it helps us for our record keeping. And then it pre populates into our editorial calendar, which is great because I can then see all of you know what's coming in on the intake form, but also at a glance, see what's happening on our calendar. And so from there we're able to decide or decipher what types of assets we have on what days and really move it around with ease. But, you know, that consists of having a weekly content team meeting, but also having a weekly meeting with our PR and social and brand team so that they know what projects are coming up because they may have to put out our blogs or our content on the social channels. So we have really close alignment with those teams when they, with our editorial calendar. Within that, we can also tag the, you know, the stakeholder who maybe requested it. We can upload the final product.
Jennifer Clark [00:15:54]:
We can then create a dashboard of how many pieces we did on what topic or what Persona or what product. So it gives us a lot of functionality in one tool to be able to start as the intake, but then also have, you know, the final draft or the final piece uploaded in that same ticket. And then we can share the access to that calendar to anybody. So we can say, you know, if you want to see what's coming on our calendar, great, then you have, then, you know, so that you're not sitting there wondering what the content team's doing. You can see here's our whole strategy at a Bird's Eye View. And then we also have someone on our team who thankfully is a little bit better at some of the behind the scenes than I am. And he was able to go in and create at a glance, you know, what's coming in the next Two weeks, what's coming in the next month, and what was published in the last two weeks. And so I'll create reports from that and share it with our executive staff, just so they can see very clearly and very quickly, you know, okay, here's what they have coming up, and here's what they just did, and we'll have links to it.
Jennifer Clark [00:16:55]:
So it's a pretty robust system for being kind of a scrappy, small team, but I think it gives a lot of visibility and a lot of exposure to our team that, you know, here's everything that we're doing, but it also gives us that flexibility with that form to kind of say, here's all the things we want them to think about before they even come to us. You know, it's quite long, but it's looking at keywords and. And, you know, how do you define success? And sometimes we'll get through the form and then we'll say, you know, this is not meant to be a vlog. This really should be something else, or this should live somewhere else. And so it gives us a little bit of that kind of creative control, I guess, to help set the strategy and not put the cart before the horse. A lot of times people will think about the deliverable or the channel before thinking about what message they're trying to convey or what audience they're trying to reach. But they just know, well, this is part of my checklist. I'm supposed to do this type.
Jennifer Clark [00:17:52]:
And we get to be really strategic and helpful. And at least that's my goal, is for us to say, well, hey, did you know this existed? Or did you know, we've actually already got something like this and we could just refresh it and get more, you know, better traffic that way. It's not perfect, but it's working for us. And so far we're having some success.
Tim Metz [00:18:10]:
I'm also curious, like, how you prioritize the incoming requests, like, because I assume that you can't do everything that comes into the form. Right. So how do you. How do you take it from there if you don't want to do something? Or are there, like, different layers of. Of treatment that pieces get?
Jennifer Clark [00:18:24]:
Yeah, we have a lot of. A lot of competing. Sometimes we'll have a day where I look at it, and that's where I love having that calendar view, because as much as having the list view is great, I'm also, you know, can say, wow, we have so many pieces coming out. And for our blog, for example, it will email all of our subscribers and we have that on an automated system. So if we're putting out, you know, five pieces in one day, I don't want to just over email our subscribers or whatever, but a lot of times it's tied to, you know, what the initiative is that the asset is related to. So if it is a new product launch or a feature release, then we're going to time that with our PR strategy, with our social strategy. And so that's where having those meetings closely with them is important because we've all got to know, you know, what that date is, that go live date. And so that helps setting with the priority.
Jennifer Clark [00:19:17]:
Sometimes it's something that we can easily move, but sometimes we will have competing priorities. And we've had to say no to executives even, you know, like, hey, this is a really heavy news week or a really heavy, you know, week for us to release new features so we can't tell this story on this day. And, you know, that's always hard and challenging because everybody thinks, you know, especially in an enterprise, you've got a lot of people working on, you know, their feature or their product and they're all totally, you know, super important to them. So it's like you can't say, you know, which kid do you love the best? You love them all. So it is challenging sometimes. But that's where I try to always at least offer a solution. If I'm giving someone, you know, telling them no, I at least try to say, but I could have it come out here, or hey, if we wait a couple days, we're actually going to probably reach more people because it's not going to be so noisy. With everything else going out, I really have to usually just kind of take a step back and we try to have those conversations in, you know, in our pods or whatever so that we're not getting to a point where all of a sudden it's stacked and we've got five or six things going out on the same day.
Jennifer Clark [00:20:21]:
But it, you know, there, there can be a dance sometimes for sure.
Ty Magnin [00:20:25]:
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Jennifer Clark [00:21:29]:
I mean I think everyone can always use more headcount. So you know, that's, there's always the argument for that, but we do have sometimes access to some different freelancers if need be. But I think that's one area and one thing I love about a content team and why I came to Zoom to begin with is that we all can pitch in and help. So there might be a time where this POD is going to have several different releases happening and I can then go to another team member and say, hey, you know, I'm going to have to pull you off of this because it's not a priority. Can you come over and help create XYZ asset for this launch? And so we really do all come together and that's kind of what I was alluding to at the beginning, that we're a great tight knit team and even though we're all assigned to different Personas or products if you will, we still can come off of that and come in together and pitch. Like tomorrow I have someone that is pushing a blog live for me because I'm going to be out in the morning and you know, it's a nice feeling to know that I'm not having to juggle going to a doctor's appointment or going to this because I've got to push something live. I've got someone else that can help. So for us it's A, you know, trying to set priorities of what's feasible based on the team size that we have.
Jennifer Clark [00:22:44]:
B, do we have other resources we can tap into from you know, either contractors or just other areas of the company even. But see, how do we help each other out? And, and that requires a little bit more stepping back. You know, you don't just do that the day before and say, oh, can you go create this? That may be that, you know, someone comes into the POD meetings for that whole quarter because we know we're going to have some really big projects that we're launching and they might, we might have two people in that pod. So kind of depends on priorities and what's coming up. But we try not to have a lot of fire drills. Can't always avoid that. But I think that's where good collaboration and good communication helps. And then also because we are distributed, sometimes it's hard, but sometimes that works to our advantage having people in different time zones.
Jennifer Clark [00:23:32]:
We have one of our teammates is over in Germany. And so when you think about Germany to California, you've got several different time zones. And so sometimes that actually works to our advantage if we have something that needs to be pushed at a time to map with PR strategies.
Tim Metz [00:23:48]:
So Jennifer, I would, I would love to know like what are deliberate things you have done or are doing to create that team atmosphere because you've, you've mentioned two times you're, you're really happy with the team. Like I said, it was not a lucky accident. So what kind of, what kind of things do you do? Are there daily rituals or other things to, to create that team environment and build that team?
Jennifer Clark [00:24:07]:
I think I learned from my dad probably some of the best team building strategies. He was a manager at Michelin for 30 years and I went to his retirement party and it was neat when you get to see your parent in a different way. And this one woman had stayed with him for like 20 years and had been on so many of his teens because she loved going working with him as a manager. And so he's given me just a ton of advice over the years. And one thing was, you know, he was saying how being a manager is kind of like being an orchestra conductor. You know, you have a lot of people that play different instruments and some of them play em really well and some of them are not the best. But in order to create a song and it sound like music, you've gotta bring everybody up to the same level. So I've always thought, you know, that's a fun analogy to think about with teens.
Jennifer Clark [00:24:55]:
One of the things I've done is we've tried to implement just some fun. You know, it's kind of cheesy but like Icebreakers at the beginning of our teen meetings that we have and we, they're usually really silly. So we'll try to do that sometimes for the first 15 minutes. And then we have an agenda as well where I allow everyone to go in. We have a reminder that through Zoom workflow automation that sets up and it reminds everybody to go into the agenda and, and put anything they want to talk about. But then underneath it we have a win of the week. So that's my wow moment where people can either share their own win of the week or I'll pick some. Something that I want to, you know, praise the team so that they can hear about.
Jennifer Clark [00:25:35]:
Because we are, you know, all, or not all remote, but mostly remote. So a lot of times you don't get to see those little things. And so I want to make sure they're celebrated. And then we also ask, you know, like, what are you doing this weekend? Or what did you do? And not to where we're asking people to overshare, but if they want to share, it helps build a little bit of that camaraderie. But also just trying to create an environment where we have fun and we're silly and we can share a lot of gifts and we can, you know, have our team chat channel. But then where people can feel like, you know, they have a safe space where they can come to me and complain if they need to or celebrate things that they need to. So it's, it's a little bit of, I think, just recognizing that we're all here for, you know, the same reasons. We all want to do a good job.
Jennifer Clark [00:26:19]:
We want to have some fun and work hard. And I feel like when you reward people for just even the smallest things and recognize them, that can go a long way. So try to keep that in mind. And then I would also say we do a very transparent and authentic. I try to, you know, share everything as I can with the team so that they don't feel like there's this kind of closed door conversations always happening that they're not in the loop about. So whenever I can, you know, be in a place to share things that are going on, I try to make sure they feel like they're included. So. So it creates a good environment, I hope.
Ty Magnin [00:26:55]:
Sounds like it. I like the win of the week thing just because, you know, the alliteration.
Jennifer Clark [00:27:00]:
But yeah, that's why we said it.
Ty Magnin [00:27:03]:
But yeah, yeah, that's cute. Uh, and sometimes it's like those cute things. It's funny, I'm just thinking about animals and like, sometimes you're like, oh, this again. But like, it actually matters, you know, and you just have to stay committed to it.
Jennifer Clark [00:27:15]:
Yeah. And there's sometimes where I forget, you know, to do an icebreaker and, you know, and sometimes they're just absolutely ridiculous. And then sometimes, you know, they're like two truths and a lie. Like things that are kind of. We've all done them, but we did one not too long ago where we had to think about two things. And it was like, you're envisioning a house, and is it in the field or is it in, you know, the forest? And then it was like, well, what does your forest look like? And you had different choices. And then it was like, is the house next to a bunch of flowers? And so we kind of went through this whole thing, and it was. It was a glorified personality test.
Jennifer Clark [00:27:49]:
But we had so much fun because we were, you know, laughing at who was picking that their house was made out of sticks, and who was picking that their house was, you know, this brick mansion that was right next to the forest. And then we all read what it meant about each person and each thing that they picked. And so we all got a good laugh. And then that creates, you know, an environment to have some inside jokes for later on that you're like, oh, yeah, but remember, you're the type of person whose house was, you know, built out of sticks next to our. A flower garden. And, you know, just things like that that at least make it seem more human because we're all just behind a computer monitor every day.
Ty Magnin [00:28:25]:
Speaking of being more human, let's talk about AI.
Jennifer Clark [00:28:29]:
Great segue.
Ty Magnin [00:28:31]:
I don't know where you at in your AI journey. Are you all using any tools for AI content creation or for supporting in your AI. Sorry, supporting in your content operations?
Jennifer Clark [00:28:42]:
Yeah. So, you know, Zoom, we've been using AI as part of just the foundation of our products for a while with, you know, our virtual backgrounds and our kind of avatars. And so that's been part of just the Zoom ecosystem for a while. And then we created our own generative AI solution, our Zoom AI companion, which is built directly into our Zoom workplace and goes across all of our products. So we get to use generative AI every single day. And so we'll get, you know, we'll be on a Zoom call, and then as soon as we're done, we get a meeting summary sent to us, which is my favorite thing, probably, because I don't have to take notes anymore in meetings. And I'm sure I sound like a commercial, but it's. It's just part of my everyday workflow, so I don't even think about it.
Jennifer Clark [00:29:25]:
And, you know, if I'm on any other kind of meeting and I don't get a summary right away, I'm like, what? Where's the summary? You know, and so for us, it's like, okay, what else are we doing? So then now we can take a transcript from a customer story and we can immediately upload it into our Zoom docs and use AI companion and get a new idea for a blog. Or we can take a webinar for example, and then use AI to turn that into a summary to then become an outline for another piece. So we're thinking about it from, you know, how do we get some fast follows, how do we take a research report and, and use our AI tools to then create, you know, a blog, take away from that. But we are all writers so you know, at heart we, we love the writing process and the blank page and the things that AI helps a lot of people overcome. That's part of why we do what we do is we get to actually, you know, create. But for us using AI tools is definitely more about efficiency and productivity and how do we, you know, save time to get some of these outlines, create it quickly or you know, not have to sit and listen to a 45 minute call when we can have the transcript to then just quickly come up with some other ideas. But then we are also using some third party tools too and looking at some of their agentic AI capabilities and taking data sets from say like social metrics, blog metrics, downloadable assets from some of our other bigger assets and loading them up and trying to create a dashboard of what's working and what's not as opposed to manually trying to sit there and go, okay, here's our best performing social posts, here's the blogs that generate the most traffic and here's some assets that were downloaded, you know, now I can put all of that in, in a tool that I'm trialing and get, you know, a quick report, which that for me is huge time saver. And then some other tools we're looking at too.
Jennifer Clark [00:31:22]:
Just how do we repurpose content, how do we get, you know, different ideas? And of course some for like SEO purposes, but we use it in I would say a variety of ways, certainly for idea generation and productivity and just being more efficient with our day to day because we are a pretty small team. So we need, you know, help as much as we can get there.
Ty Magnin [00:31:43]:
Nice. Yeah, I hadn't heard of this tool is that helps you analyze performance of assets, right? Like spot the best performing social posts and whatnot.
Jennifer Clark [00:31:50]:
Yeah, I mean it's, it's definitely some, we could talk about it, you know, as well, but we're, we use a content intelligence platform too that we help, that helps us with some of the metrics with conversions and looking at the user's journey across multiple sessions, not just One session. What's happening? And so we're able to really, I think, dive pretty deep into content performance metrics, which has been my goal from day one, when I started a very basic, ugly spreadsheet of just trying to get some baseline data just so we could say to people, hey, you know, whenever we put out content about this topic, we're not getting the metrics that we need to now being able to say, hey, this piece yielded this many conversions. And we set up our conversions around, you know, book a demo or talk to sales or pricing pages and, you know, so some really tangible outputs that we wanted that, you know, yield real conversions versus just, you know, how long were they on the page or how many people came to it or something like that. So trying to take all of that even a step further to really show the impact of content marketing at Zoom.
Ty Magnin [00:32:56]:
Exciting time for content marketers, I think. So there's so much changing, right?
Jennifer Clark [00:33:01]:
There's a.
Ty Magnin [00:33:02]:
There's AI usage, new tools, new ways of operating. What are some things that you're excited about? Because often we're talking doomsday stuff amongst content marketers. Like, what are actually some things that generally excite you about the future of content?
Jennifer Clark [00:33:17]:
Well, part of what I just touched on, but I feel like being able to find ways to really measure the impact of what we're doing, because so many people look at content as a cost center, and, you know, I want us to be a revenue driver. And that has been something that is always an uphill battle for content people to prove, and it's so challenging. But I feel like we're really starting to get on the cusp of. Of showing how it yields more than just storytelling, which I'm a big believer in, but also generating pipeline and influencing and creating actual revenue. So that excites me, but also I feel like there's so many new ways to tell stories and reach people. You know, social media is changing all the time. I feel like, you know, podcasts have proven their worth as a source for media. You know, we're not necessarily trying to just think of the funnel and how do we get people to go from one step to the next, but, you know, people need touch points all around in so many different ways.
Jennifer Clark [00:34:14]:
So, you know, we're looking at trying to create some more interactive content as well that really pops off the page and tells the story. But then also look at, you know, I think with our brand team, we're looking at different, you know, partnerships, and how do you get the story out there with other people? Telling the story for you. So I do think it's an exciting time. And, you know, I'm a little interested to see how AI impact some of that with, like, search engine. Search engine results, you know, that's really now heavily influenced by AI results. So we've got to get creative there. So that's where I'm kind of trying to take my team right now is think of how do we create content that will surface in these search engines now that AI is kind of generating a lot of the results, so, sure, we will see.
Ty Magnin [00:34:59]:
Yeah, yeah. How are you thinking about that? Like, what are you prescribing to the team and some tactics that you think are good bets.
Jennifer Clark [00:35:06]:
So we've been looking into making sure we're trying to create a lot of custom images, and that's something that's new for us right now, is trying to have imagery that can be what the search engines or what the AI surfaces to, the search engines that people can't get necessarily at other, you know, content that might be a similar topic. Also having kind of a takeaway like a template or a checklist, something that's tangible and is going to hopefully yield a little bit better for the AI search results than just a typical, you know, listicle of a blog. Oh, here's 10 ways to do this. You can get that from several sources. You need something that's actually tangible that people can download or take with them. So we're looking at, you know, things like that where we're trying to just augment the content we have, knowing that we've got to fight a little bit harder now to get past this AI engine.
Tim Metz [00:35:58]:
So, yeah, that's challenging. But I love what you said before that, that, like, you know, it also opens up possibilities for new content, for better ways of measuring the effectiveness and how it can drive revenue. So I think that's a great place to end. On a positive, positive note, with AI, where can people follow you, Jennifer, if they want to learn more, if they want to look along what you're doing?
Jennifer Clark [00:36:20]:
I try to share just on LinkedIn. You know, I have some personal blogs that I write, but I try to share, you know, successes or funny, humorous combinations of marketing. And I think I posted once about losing weight and it was a lot like being in marketing. And, you know, so I try to share some humorous stories there. But it's. I think it's. Jennifer Clark, copywriter, is my LinkedIn handle. So awesome.
Ty Magnin [00:36:42]:
Thanks so much for joining. It's great learning from you guys.
Tim Metz [00:36:45]:
Thanks.
Ty Magnin [00:36:46]:
Jennifer, what were your big takeaways today.
Tim Metz [00:36:48]:
I love the. I love the idea about using AI for intelligence and that it will open up a better way to measure performance of content. I agree. Like, I think it's been hard. I think there's a possibility that it's going to get easier. I love that. That's one thing. What is one thing you have kind.
Ty Magnin [00:37:04]:
Of building off of that one thing that Jennifer mentioned and it was kind of subtle how she's able to bring. I think it's the dashboard of how much content they're producing via the content team to execs. Right. And just like it almost doesn't matter the damn KPIs. But bringing something consistently to your exec team about what the content team is producing is just like a great way for them to give feedback, you know, appreciate the contribution, like, know what you're up to. And so that was one clear takeaway that we haven't actually heard much of from other guests. Off the top of my head that I thought was like a really actionable takeaway and a strong point here and what she's built.
Tim Metz [00:37:46]:
Yeah, definitely. The other thing that also was, was very clear to me is like how she described the whole system that she has for content calendar and intake form and like it seems robust. Like yeah. But also like how essential it is when the skill gets like really big that you need like good systems and good operations and good processes. Otherwise it's just never going to work.
Jennifer Clark [00:38:05]:
Totally.
Ty Magnin [00:38:06]:
I think that wraps another excellent Enterprise Episode three. So thanks all for listening. You know, if you have a moment you want to rate the show, we appreciate a five star review on whatever platform you're on and we're getting close to the end of the season here.
Tim Metz [00:38:27]:
Yeah. See ya.
