Anchor List: Meagen Eisenberg, CMO at TripActions
The Anchor List recognizes extraordinary operators in the startup ecosystem. Learn more at anchorlist.com
In our highlight reel of Anchor List honorees, the first marketing leader we’d like to spotlight is Meagen Eisenberg, chosen for her impressive leadership as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at both MongoDB and TripActions.
“Building a successful marketing function means encompassing a wide variety of knowledge and skills, which requires a healthy community of both learning from and supporting your peers.”- Meagen Eisenberg, CMO at TripActions
For four years, Meagen led marketing at MongoDB, building a go-to-market and growth engine that helped take the company public in 2017 (Nasdaq: MDB). As she puts it, “Taking MongoDB public was a hard climb, but our work still pays off in the company’s continued success. I’m especially proud that many marketers from my team have since moved on to become VPs of Marketing and CMOs in their own right.”
Currently, Meagen leads marketing at TripActions, a business travel platform that provides its customers a modern corporate travel and spend solution. As CMO, she leads an impressive amount of functions for the company, including growth, product marketing, field marketing and events, marketing systems and operations, corporate communications, and branding.
In this big role that requires continual on-the-job learning, Meagen is quick to share her strategies for solving new problems. Highlighting the importance of building a helpful network, she suggests: “Whenever I’m learning in a new area, I follow the same process:
I reach out to my network of CMOs, VPs of Marketing and other leaders to crowdsource insights and ideas.
I reach out to domain experts to learn from their expertise.
I read content online, especially looking to vendors that have published thought-leadership content for their buyers.
I hire talent and domain experts.
I reach out to our partners to see if they have experience.”
From her time at MongoDB and TripActions, Meagen has learned the value of diverse marketing strategies. While she is quick to say “all marketing functions serve a purpose,” she has found some particular activities to be more valuable than others at different parts of the company's lifecycle. For those just starting out in the field, Meagen discusses if you really need a press release. These days, companies can express themselves in more precise ways (such as through blogs, social media, educational materials, and customer voices), decreasing the value of formal news.
On the flipside, Meagen has found social media marketing to be especially valuable, especially in our current environment. As she describes: “More than ever, people are using social channels to engage, voice opinions, and learn. Social media creates real-time town halls all over the world, channels that are especially impactful when we can’t come together in person.”
In reflecting on Meagen’s success as CMO of MongoDB and TripActions, we’re particularly impressed by her ability to encompass a diverse array of actions and functions. In her goal-oriented approach, Meagen continuously tracks a large cadre of metrics, including:
Sourced revenue
Pipeline (SQOs)
Leads (MQLs)
Share of voice (SOV)
Net promoter score (NPS; of both TripActions’ product and service)
Efficiency (ROI on spend, CPI, CPO, CAC),
Number of demos
Social followers and reach
Analyst report placement
Building a company is a complicated undertaking, and Meagen’s success at such a diverse set of actions shows her skill at both learning in real time and at nurturing a thriving network and team.