What was your journey until taking on this role in the company?
I graduated in the States, at Berkeley University in California, where I studied Social Sciences and Economics and subsequently obtained a Master's degree in Marketing. I worked for a year as a television journalist in Mediaset and then I moved to Coca-cola Italia. Here I started in the Communication department, then Marketing and finally as Sales support. This experience led me to mature significantly from a working point of view. I realized what Marketing was, and still is, in my opinion: it is the art of "eliminating" sellers. Obviously it is an extreme concept, often difficult to reach, which requires a broader context. Let me explain better, I believe that the main objective of every company should be to make its products or services as attractive as possible. And this is precisely what Energia Europa has done: starting from a unique and patented device, it has created a reality on which large brands such as Siemens and Autogrill rely. I joined this company in 2017 and now I am Chief Marketing Officer: I manage offline and online communication, events and external partnerships, such as the one with the University of Florence.
What do you think about social media in the B2B market segment?
Given that the use of social media is now essential, I believe that these platforms must be used in a thoughtful and careful manner. For the moment I have seen a bombardment of content because it all arrived together on social media but I believe that, as time passes, we will reward the quality rather than the quantity of content. In the Energia Europa niche market, communication is complex, very technical and vertical, therefore our channels must also reflect this aspect.
Which social network do you use with the most involvement and which one the least?
Energia Europa's main social network is certainly LinkedIn where we publish content that we believe to be valid and of high quality. It is a reflection of the corporate values that we wish to communicate externally. We are particularly keen to give a voice to our partners by creating videos that we upload in full on YouTube and in short on LinkedIn. We focus a lot on the brand reputation and credibility we have acquired among our customers. The furthest platform is TikTok because it has a target audience very distant from ours.
The data shows that having a low number of followers damages the brand image, what do you think?
I think it depends a lot on the reference market. Energia Europa's target is naturally less broad than that of other brands because it is, in fact, a technical niche. Also for this reason we have developed different strategies to expand our fan base. We organize frequent lab days and webinars for our technicians: these are initiatives that form and create an irreplaceable interpersonal relationship.
How important are online reviews, are they important?
In general I believe that in B2B the classic reviews are not yet as important as in B2C. For Energia Europa, for example, the video references that our partners leave us are crucial. This is a different way of expressing your opinion which works better in B2B than the Google panel. This is because these are competent people who express an opinion relating to technical aspects.
Have you thought about enlisting the help of professionals from the social world given the importance achieved by digital platforms and their management complexity?
Yes, Energia Europa relies on two external entities. One supports us in offline communication while on the social side we have internalized the management. As regards the site, we collaborate with the other agency that follows us. In the future, we would like to collaborate from a strategic point of view to create important and well-studied projects. I am convinced that an exchange between internal and external can bring benefits in terms of quality and growth.
What are the future corporate communication projects?
We want to create a sort of road show with our partners. Small events and meetings by invitation, like those we organize on site, during which training and information will be provided. We will certainly create content linked to the installation we will do at Abb's headquarters: this is the launch of a new solution that improves the performance of our device, super sustainable and considered a flagship globally. We will give space to Energia Europa's partners, especially the academic ones and perhaps some prominent figures.