Monique Sherrett is the CEO (Chief Everything Officer) of Boxcar Marketing, a Vancouver-based internet marketing consultancy. Monique also serves as an internet marketing consultant for B’stro, a marketing and design company located in Vancouver and San Francisco.
Monique, you’ve been involved in the internet (and even internet marketing) since 1999, which is before most people even knew what the internet was. What kinds of work were you doing than and how does that compare to what you’re doing now?
It’s true, I remember when Google launched in 1998.
In my university days when my fellow Arts students were taking biology for their science requirement, I decided to take computer science and learned how to code.
My early web experiences impressed upon me the need to build an audience and respond to their needs, to use the tools available to ensure your intended audience finds your work, and to give back through participation beyond your own website. These remain great lessons.
I built my first website in 1998 for Jesse James Press, which was my first entrepreneurial adventure with, my now husband, James Sherrett. Jesse James Press was a small publishing company that we ran with two other English majors.
The second site I managed was Treeline, an online literary magazine. I was the graphic editor and also the wine columnist from 1997 to 1999.
Those early experiences really set the stage for the work I did for Raincoast Books as their internet marketing manager, including launching the first Canadian publisher blog and one of the first publisher podcasts in 2006, then handling community management and outreach for the Harry Potter titles.
My early web experiences impressed upon me the need to build an audience and respond to their needs, to use the tools available to ensure your intended audience finds your work, and to give back through participation beyond your own website. These remain great lessons.
What are the first few things (work/business/personal) that you do each morning?
Morning is my favourite time of day. I often get up early and work out at the gym. As a non-gym person, I like to be only partially awake when engaging in exercise.
Once I’m suitably awake with all those great endorphins from my workout, I grab coffee at one of my favourite shops and am online by 7:30-8:00.
Having a mix of East Coast and West Coast clients, as well as clients and partners in Europe means that I need to be tapped into what’s going on well before 9 am PST.
My first stop is usually Twitter, Google Reader, email then back to Twitter. Somewhere in there, I fit in filming and uploading to YouTube my 1 Minute Marketing tip for the day. My goal for 2012 is to post one per business day.
Next I check the Facebook, Twitter and Google+ pages that Boxcar Marketing manages on behalf of clients.
And between meetings, phone calls, and more email, I work on writing and posting content or engaging on other sites depending on the day of the week.
Since there are so many social media sites and so many different things to do for each client, we use an editorial calendar to keep us on track. As Boxcar Marketing, Crissy Campbell and I set two priority outcomes each week for ourselves, plus we have weekly goals for each client.
Having a mix of East Coast and West Coast clients, as well as clients and partners in Europe means that I need to be tapped into what’s going on well before 9 am PST.
“We plan so we can measure, we measure so we can improve.” Knowing what success looks like for our clients means we can ensure we are staying on track by doing a little check in each morning.
You’re an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University, you run Boxcar Marketing and consult for an SF based design company as well, what does your typical day look like?
There are typical weeks but not typical days. Because Boxcar Marketing’s approach to online marketing is about responding to people and interacting as much as possible, it means that the daily schedule we have in mind can quickly go out the window.
Setting the two priority goals for the week and keeping in mind our client goals means Crissy and I can adjust our schedules as needed. As one of my SFU professors used to say, “we’re aiming for results, not effort.”
On that note, my role as Adjunct Professor at SFU means that I also have to be flexible in where and when I work. In the Fall semester, I teach an undergraduate course in online marketing, PUB355, and I co-teach the marketing course for the Master of Publishing program. In the Spring semester, I supervise the distant education version of the undergraduate course and do some guest speaking in the other publishing courses.
Teaching is something that I really enjoy. I find it incredibly rewarding to see a group of people come into a class with a certain set of knowledge and leave 13 weeks later with even greater knowledge—and often as people I’d want to hire. Continue reading →
Set in the gorgeous 
The day started off a little late and was MC’ed by Paula Gignac, the president of 
Filmmaker Jeff Rosenblum
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