In this latest profile piece, we talk with Gabriele Vaitkunaite, an up-and-coming B2B marketer who has been awarded with the title of CMO of The Year 2024 Baltics by the European Real Estate Brand Institute. Currently, Gabriele is the Head of Marketing and Communications for real estate consultancy and property management company Newsec in the Baltics. Before joining Newsec, she held marketing roles at Armitana, BITĖ Lietuva, Coca-Cola HBC and Henkel.
You can meet Gabriele at Big Fish Riga, where she will talk about how to generate leads that sales people love.
Could you give us a bit of your background? What have you done previously? What’s your professional history?
I’ve been working in marketing for about seven or eight years. I’ve worked in various areas of marketing, exploring different facets of the field. I’ve worked in FMCG with consumer goods, including personal care products and alcohol. I’ve also worked in mobile telecommunications. Nearly all of my career has been in B2C, but last year I decided to switch to B2B marketing.
In some ways, the two fields are similar, as ultimately the buyer is still a person, but the decision-making process in B2B is much longer, and the deals are generally more expensive. It’s quite a different experience. In addition to transitioning to B2B, I’ve also taken on public relations and communications, areas I hadn’t previously explored when I was working in B2C.
I’d say by now I’ve worked with almost every aspect of marketing, except affiliate marketing. I’ve done influencers, trades, events, general marketing—essentially everything except affiliate.
Well, that’s a small part of the field anyway. Could you give a brief overview of your current company and your position there?
Newsec is a real estate consultancy and property management company operating in seven countries across Scandinavia and the Baltics. I’m the Chief Marketing Officer for the Baltic region, responsible for marketing and communication.
Additionally, when a client requires, I also consult on marketing strategy.
My role covers several areas: I oversee marketing for our company, building brand awareness and positioning us as experts in real estate. Since we are consultants, we operate across many areas, including brokerage, leasing, and advisory on large investment transactions.
Additionally, when a client requires, I also consult on marketing strategy. I develop strategies for our company and provide consultancy for clients who may need assistance in crafting their marketing strategies.
Could you give an example to illustrate how you do that?
Suppose a developer is planning to build an office complex. In the current market conditions, leasing these spaces is no longer straightforward. There were times when a building would be fully leased before even opening, but now clients are more cautious. They prefer to take their time and may hesitate to commit early if construction hasn’t begun.
In these cases, they need a solid strategy and a plan to attract potential tenants. So, my role often involves helping them build that strategy to attract tenants in this cautious market.
We also see cases where someone has a property for sale—sometimes valued at €5 million or €10 million. These projects have specific target audiences and markets, and it’s about understanding how to reach and appeal to these clients. Each property is like a different brand or business, requiring a unique strategy tailored from scratch, as no single strategy suits all.
What’s the role of sales in your company? Given that you're dealing with complex, high-value transactions, I assume it’s not as simple as a salesperson making door-to-door calls or cold-calling. Could you explain the relationship between sales, marketing, reputation, and communication?
We have a substantial sales team covering different areas of real estate. Sales play a significant role. While good marketing helps identify and target the right audience at the right time, relationships are key.
Our brokers do a lot of cold-calling, which may be surprising, but it has proven effective.
Our brokers do a lot of cold-calling, which may be surprising, but it has proven effective. The approach depends on the property and the project. Sometimes, when a very high-value property is listed, we may already know potential buyers due to the relationships our salespeople have cultivated. Other times, if the property is niche, we know we’ll need to start reaching out to new prospects.
There’s also a proactive side to sales. For example, if we know a client’s lease is expiring soon, the sales team will engage them quickly to propose something new. This proactive approach is essential, as if we don’t act, another agency might.
So, it’s a very specific mechanism where neither sales nor marketing could function alone. Marketing builds trust through communication and market expertise, which we develop partly through the research and analytics team we have in the Baltics. Their insights support our marketing, media communications, social channels, and advertising efforts, giving us a competitive edge.
So, essentially, you’re using your unique data and analytics to create content and support marketing campaigns and sales efforts?
Yes, exactly. Our market is data-driven. Investment decisions depend on data—whether it’s the right time to invest, whether they should wait, and what else is happening in the country. Everything is interconnected, and informed decisions rely on comprehensive information. Our marketing is built around that foundation.
Over the years, as we developed this expertise, our clients began to recognise the value of our data, even using it in their campaigns. They may not have the same data or expertise, so they involve us in their marketing efforts, which ultimately benefits our brand as well. So, a considerable amount of our brand awareness comes through our clients.
Newsec uses their unique data to create content, support marketing campaigns and sales efforts
A major global challenge in sales and marketing alignment is lead quality. Marketing may generate leads, but sales might argue that the leads aren’t suitable. When marketers deliver leads that sales can’t convert, frustration arises on both sides. What’s your view on this issue?
This is a common issue, particularly in B2C. Facebook lead campaigns are a good example, as they allow you to collect leads at a very low cost. However, the leads often lack quality, and only a small percentage may be viable.
Marketers may hesitate to narrow their audience, fearing fewer leads, as lead volume has always been a primary metric for success. But quality over quantity, particularly in real estate!
The problem often arises when campaigns aren’t properly targeted toward a genuine client base. It’s critical to identify the potential client and their buying power before beginning campaigns. In B2B markets, particularly with high-value products or services, knowing the potential client’s budget is essential; it makes little sense to gather leads if they are unable to afford the product.
Marketers may hesitate to narrow their audience, fearing fewer leads, as lead volume has always been a primary metric for success. But quality over quantity, particularly in real estate! For us, it’s more valuable to generate a few quality leads that convert into significant deals than to have hundreds of unqualified leads.
Your presentation will focus on using data to connect marketing, sales, and customer engagement. Could you describe a typical customer journey—perhaps tracing the steps that led a new client to sign a major deal, starting from their initial engagement with your marketing or PR?
Most customer journeys begin with brand or product awareness, but the path can vary based on the product’s price and type. For high-value B2B products, the journey is often complex and lengthy.
One example that stands out involved our auction department, which handles unique real estate properties. We ran Facebook ads to raise awareness for a specific property and reached a person with the exact budget at the right moment. The investment was significant, and the entire campaign cost us just €100 in ad spend. While this type of result might not happen every time, it’s a great example of how data-driven, targeted advertising can connect with the right buyer at the right moment.
This feels like finding a needle in a haystack, no? It’s just down to luck. For instance, with the next case, you might spend thousands on Facebook ads and still not find a buyer.
Of course. That’s where B2B marketing becomes challenging—there isn’t a single tried-and-true strategy that applies universally. Each time, you have to rethink and ask yourself, “Who is the potential buyer?” On one hand, it’s costly; on the other, different properties meet different needs. So, each time you need to assess who might benefit from owning a particular property, and then, based on that, create a client or customer profile. From there, you try to reach them—sometimes through advertising, sometimes via LinkedIn or events—depending on the product you’re selling.
So, are you saying that you can’t really create a winning approach and simply repeat it? Do you need to start from scratch each time?
There are, of course, some things you start doing by default because they consistently help generate leads or raise awareness. But there’s no guarantee that following those same five steps will lead to success each time.
You have to be mindful of market conditions, competitors, and other factors, and evaluate each case. You have to ask yourself what might go wrong, what might go right, and then adjust accordingly.
This difficulty also correlates with the size of the deal. In B2B, if you’re dealing with less expensive products, you might encounter shorter procurement or decision-making cycles, and the same strategy might work in those cases. However, with larger deals, this isn’t usually the case.
You mentioned that your background is primarily in B2C and now you're focused on B2B. Comparing the two from a professional standpoint, what do you most appreciate about B2B marketing?
I think the most interesting aspect is that there’s no single strategy that works for everything, which keeps the job engaging. It constantly presents new challenges, and you’re always looking for new solutions. There’s no routine—time doesn’t just pass with the same recurring events. In B2C, you know to expect Black Friday, Christmas campaigns, and so forth. You change visuals, add products, maybe adjust the budget, but the overall approach remains relatively stable.
B2B is quite different; you have to innovate constantly. For example, we may send our experts to conferences, but they can’t present the same information repeatedly. We have to find fresh ways to showcase the company to both existing and new audiences.
For a marketer, one of the main challenges is adjusting to the slower feedback loop in B2B. In B2C, you start a campaign and often see results quickly—especially in retail, where I previously worked. We had our own stores, so if we began advertising on Monday, by Wednesday we could see if it was working.
In B2B, it takes much longer. The process starts with finding the client, and then there’s a long contract-signing phase. You don’t always see the impact of your efforts as quickly as you’d like, and it’s difficult to measure results as well. In B2B marketing, you have to come up with ways to demonstrate that what you’re doing is effective, even though you may work for months without any sales outcomes.
How do you keep learning and gathering new ideas or knowledge? Could you recommend any resources—a book, podcast, website, or event—for others? Or a good tool?
Personally, I’m a lifelong learner. I hold two master’s degrees and have completed various marketing courses. I also keep myself up-to-date with industry certifications, such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads, though I don’t use them myself. I just like to understand all aspects of marketing.
But the most valuable knowledge I gain comes through networking with others in the field. Whenever there’s a question or an area where I need another perspective, nothing beats a conversation with someone else working in the same domain. Courses and books are useful, and I read a great deal, but knowledge sharing through direct conversation is invaluable. Conferences are helpful too, but once you start engaging in discussions, you uncover so much more.
My favourite tool at the moment is ChatGPT. If you ask the right questions, it can be a great resource. When it first came out, I played around with it for fun, and it helped with certain tasks. But at some point, I started using it more for discussions—almost like a sounding board for ideas. I find that it can offer different perspectives all in one place, and it’s incredibly efficient.
And I just remembered another specific recommendation. There’s a podcast I really enjoy called The Diary of a CEO. It’s not just about marketing; it covers a broad range of topics. It’s hosted by Steven Bartlett, the founder of a London-based marketing agency. He began with nothing and eventually built a successful agency, now investing in various businesses. He recently published a book by the same name. Although it’s largely about what it takes to build a company, he includes a lot of marketing insights from the perspective of developing a business. It’s an excellent read.
You can meet Gabriele at Big Fish Riga, where she will talk about how to generate leads that sales people love.