Adriana Stein
“The U.S. has so much influence. We need to make room for non-American, non-native English perspectives. There are great expertise and ideas out there and we need to respect them and listen more. Diverse voices make your strategy and messaging a lot more authentic.”
Tell me about what you do professionally.
I am the founder and CEO and founder of AS Marketing, an international marketing agency. I am from the U.S. and based in Hamburg, Germany, though we have a presence in many countries. As a full-service agency, we support clients across more than 30 markets and languages. We specialize in marketing localization, so, for example, if an American company wants to enter the German market or vice versa, we help them bridge that gap. This could include SEO, all forms of paid advertising, PR, event management, identifying and executing the appropriate marketing channels, translation, and any other need. Clients rely on us to account for local culture when they enter a new market. With over 30 people on our team and a robust network of native speaker strategists, we can flex up and down based on client needs. We’ve brought on people to support niche markets with everything from the Canary Islands to Japan.
I wear lots of hats, but my primary role is to lead our marketing and sales strategy. I also do a lot of events and activities to share best practices when it comes to international marketing. This includes everything from offering courses through Masterclasses, to participating on panels at conferences and events, to interviews and podcasts, and more. We have lots teed up for 2024 on that front.
I give a lot of credit to my team. They do the nitty gritty and technical work. I appreciate their flexibility, work ethic, and attitudes. They’re always looking to learn and have great ideas. It’s the best team I’ve ever seen and I’m so grateful. I do my part, but they are the ones driving our growth.
Tell me about your path to get where you are today. How did you get into this type of work?
I moved to Hamburg eight years ago for a graduate program. Long story short: it didn’t work out. I was required to pass an extremely difficult German language test and despite spending months taking classes, I didn’t pass the test by a mere three points. What’s worse, I was on a time-limited language visa and to stay in the country, the Foreigners’ Office said that the only option to stay in the country was to become a freelancer and find three clients willing to sign a letter of intent within two weeks.
I’ve been through a lot in life, but this was one of the most difficult, stressful times. Without many options, I asked a German friend for advice and she told me to post on a freelancer site and mention my language skills and writing background. I got clients right away! Most of them were looking to expand into English-speaking markets and wanted help with content and translation. This is how I learned content marketing and SEO. I also realized that I loved marketing, particularly the balance of data and creative. I am a “middle brain” person, so it fits me. I acquired more and more clients and before long, it became overwhelming as what started as a small business was turning into something bigger. That’s when I hired my first employee, who is now our Head of Operations, and we built the agency together.
What is your professional superpower?
I am very empathetic. My undergrad degree is in anthropology and it taught me to always consider why people think in certain ways and what circumstances lead different things to happen. This is useful in building relationships with clients so that they trust our team. It also helps me be a more effective people and business manager. While I own a marketing agency, so much of my work is finance and operations. I learned that and people management from the ground up. I hope my team would say that they like having me as a manager and find me easy to talk to. I have empathy when people make mistakes and am always introspective about what caused them.
How has your superpower contributed to your professional success?
The biggest thing is that it has helped me create genuine, trusting relationships. My relationships with our clients are not superficial. I truly feel like many of them would be my friends in real life. My team and I are friends and share a bond as well.
If I were to ask your clients and employees what it’s like to work with you, what would they say?
We are as transparent and empathetic as possible. As a marketing agency, it’s important to consider that often our point-of-contact with the client is just the messenger and not the primary decision maker. Often they have to get sign-off from the CEO and many are under pressure from investors, too. This “trickle-down” can cause them to feel confused and frustrated, so we always consider their specific situation and how we can make their life easier. The last thing we want to do is to create busy work for them. We strive to make things easier and to deliver results they’re proud of and that they can take credit for. They hired us, so they should be able to do that. We’re also very communicative, erring on over-communicating so clients always know what we’re doing. Delivering for our clients is our top priority, and we won’t take their money to execute something that doesn’t make sense. There’s a benefit to everything we do and we’re as supportive as possible.
What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
Business Insider just published an article about my move to Germany and how I had to pivot unexpectedly. I’m really proud of that. I’m also proud of the public speaking and writing that I do. Every month, I speak at events and contribute to major marketing publications. I love that I can share insights from our work. This thought leadership is why I’ve become a go-to expert in marketing, particularly multilingual, localized marketing.
Describe the business impact you’ve driven for your clients.
We help our clients drive long term growth in new markets. We have lots of case studies about our work to develop holistic marketing strategies that focus on buyer intent across the sales funnel, retargeting, and more. For some clients, our efforts have worked so well that they don’t need us anymore because the engine we’ve created runs by itself. Often our clients have small teams and can’t do everything in-house, so we become an extension of their team. A comprehensive multi-channel marketing program for multiple markets is a huge lift. With us, they are investing in a high-performing marketing department. We save them years. Usually we achieve material growth within six months, whereas they’d still be hiring if they were building a team in-house. Our expertise in marketing localization sets us apart. Most marketing agencies can do localization, most translation agencies can’t do marketing. We bring that all together.
What person do you most admire professionally?
Areej AbuAli, the founder of Women in Tech SEO, is amazing. She has built a community of 7000 women. Initially it focused on technical SEO but now it’s marketing in general. I joined when there were only 300 people and when I think about how much she’d done in the past couple of years -- it’s incredible. It’s one of the most successful communities I’ve ever seen. They have three conferences per year, and I’ve never encountered a group of more helpful or supportive people. She’s even started a Knowledge Hub where all contributors are paid. It’s incredible what she’d done. She’s also an amazing speaker. Her speech at Brighton SEO brought tears to my eyes. Just incredible.
In what ways are diverse perspectives good for business?
When it comes to marketing, this is a no brainer. Not everyone wants to be the U.S. I’ve written about this on LinkedIn. Effective marketing localization requires diverse perspectives, a localized understanding of trends and what’s being talked about. What is relevant in the U.S. is not always relevant in other markets. For example, most industry standards are U.S.-centric. If you try to apply them to Germany or France, it will likely fail as things function differently in those countries. You need people from those regions who understand how things work there to craft strategy. The U.S. gets so much say in the world of marketing. We need to make room for non-American, non-native English perspectives. There are great expertise and ideas out there and we need to respect them and listen more. Diverse voices make your strategy and messaging a lot more authentic.
Contact Adriana
LinkedIn Website Email: info (at) asmarketingagency (dot) com
Email hello@trovecommunity.com or contact us for an introduction.
