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Katherine Grunert
Global Demand Gen & Field Marketing @ Kong
Professional Background
Katherine Grunert boasts a remarkable career in marketing and demand generation, demonstrating a unique ability to leverage strategic insights to drive organizational growth and enhance brand visibility across various sectors. Currently, she serves as the Senior Director of Global Field Marketing & Demand Generation at Kong Inc., a cutting-edge company known for its innovative API and microservices solutions. In this pivotal role, Katherine leads a dynamic team in orchestrating marketing strategies that resonate well with customers, helping to solidify Kong’s leadership in the tech landscape.
Before her current position, Katherine had an impressive trajectory at Kong Inc., where she initially stepped into the role of Director of Global Field Marketing. Her impactful contributions laid the groundwork for exciting marketing initiatives that engaged customers and transformed leads into loyal advocates for the brand. With her comprehensive understanding of market dynamics and customer behaviors, she was instrumental in enhancing Kong's global marketing strategies, thereby driving the company’s revenue growth.
Katherine's previous experiences are equally distinguished. As the Director of Growth & Revenue Marketing at Radius Intelligence, she helped amplify the effects of marketing efforts in a high-paced environment. Her initiatives at Radius allowed her to gain extensive experience in both field and account-based marketing, significantly impacting the company’s market presence.
Moreover, her earlier roles as Director of Field & Account-Based Marketing further honed her marketing acumen, allowing her to develop innovative campaigns that directly addressed customer needs, thereby accelerating sales cycles.
Katherine's career began at OpenDNS, now a part of Cisco, where she held the title of Senior Manager in Global Field Marketing. In this role, she developed comprehensive marketing strategies that effectively communicated complex technology solutions to diverse audiences. Her time at OpenDNS solidified her reputation for excellence in the industry.
Not only does Katherine excel in corporate roles, but she also has a proven commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in the tech sector. As a Co-Founder and Board Member of Women in Revenue, Katherine has actively contributed to the empowerment of women in revenue-generating roles. This organization seeks to close the gender gap in business, and under her guidance, it has blossomed into a significant force for change, providing mentoring and networking opportunities to many aspiring female professionals.
Education and Achievements
Katherine earned her degree in Communication Studies from Sonoma State University, a foundation that provided her with the essential skills in messaging and audience engagement that are crucial in her marketing career. Her educational background serves as a guiding force, allowing her to craft narratives that connect with stakeholders and drive brand loyalty.
Throughout her career, Katherine has been recognized for her leadership and innovative approach to marketing. Her keen insights into customer needs and industry trends have not only positioned her as a forward-thinking leader but have also contributed immensely to the companies she has worked for. Her role in shaping marketing strategies has often led to increased revenue and enhanced customer satisfaction, underscoring her effectiveness in the field.
Notable Achievements
Katherine Grunert is celebrated for numerous achievements that illustrate her dedication and impact in the marketing realm. From her effective leadership at Kong Inc. to her pivotal role in founding Women in Revenue, she has consistently demonstrated her ability to break barriers and lead successful initiatives. Some of her most notable achievements include:
- Successfully leading global marketing campaigns that increased brand engagement and revenue for multiple organizations, showcasing her expertise in demand generation and field marketing.
- Spearheading initiatives at Women in Revenue that have contributed to increasing the representation of women in revenue-focused roles in technology, underlining her commitment to diversity and empowerment in the workforce.
- Developing innovative marketing strategies at Radius Intelligence that significantly improved lead conversion rates, demonstrating her capability to drive real business results.
- Pioneering field marketing efforts at OpenDNS, enhancing customer engagement through targeted campaigns that simplified complex technology solutions.
- Consistently recognized as a thought leader in marketing by participating in various industry panels and forums, sharing her insights on best practices and future trends in demand generation and field marketing.
Katherine's extensive experience in diverse marketing roles, combined with her education and passion for empowering others, makes her a linchpin in the marketing community. As she continues to make strides in her career, she remains a source of inspiration for those looking to navigate the complexities of marketing in today’s digital age.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.