Blog
August 21, 2023
Attain Partners Welcomes Experienced Salesforce Digital Engagement Leader Shari Hazlett to Salesforce Innovation Services Practice
Shari Hazlett joined us in August as our new Digital Engagement leader within our Salesforce Innovation Services practice. With over twenty years of experience advising and leading comprehensive marketing campaigns, she has successfully harnessed the power of Salesforce to improve engagement with constituents and help organizations achieve their important missions.
Shari is a powerhouse strategic marketer, and I’m thrilled to welcome her to Team Attain. Her extensive experience working with nonprofits combined with her Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Data Cloud expertise makes her an incredible asset. I cannot wait to see the lasting impact she creates by taking advantage of all that Marketing and Data Cloud have to offer and strategically tailoring solutions for our clients.
alanna Steffens
Managing Director and Salesforce Capability Lead, Attain Partners
Attain Partners is the Salesforce 2022 Consulting Partner of the Year – Education and a Salesforce Summit Partner. Our team of experts is always striving to Invent the Future and Be the Best in everything we do. Please join us in celebrating our newest team member, Shari Hazlett, as she shares her expertise and why she loves working in digital engagement.
Attain Partners (AP): How did you get into digital engagement?
Shari Hazlett (SH): Twenty years ago, I began my career as a public health community organizer (or social marketer) and it was all manual, before social media and digital engagement were the norm. I jumped at every chance I had to adopt digital tools the second they were available to nonprofit organizations. Working digitally was so much easier to communicate, keep track of interactions, measure success, etc. which meant I could spend more time focused on community education.
About 11 years ago, I was the global head of marketing for a product and services company and my first major initiative was to reimplement our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system (Salesforce) and select and integrate an email marketing tool (Marketing Cloud). I loved it and haven’t looked back since.
AP: What did you do before joining Attain Partners?
SH: I began my career as a public health educator and community organizer, eventually specializing in program design and management of civil rights and public health initiatives among at-risk communities for local, community-based organizations and national nonprofit organizations like Tampa AIDS Network, the Human Rights Campaign, and the American Cancer Society.
In 2009, I co-founded a full-service political consultancy that leveraged technology solutions to invigorate local and state political campaigns through digital strategy and engagement. Our campaign teams elected representatives to U.S. Senate, Florida State Legislature, Pinellas and Hillsborough County Commission, and City Councils throughout central Florida. When I relocated to New York City in 2012, I served as the city-wide Digital Director for Reshma Saujani, candidate for NYC Public Advocate and founder of Girls Who Code; following that, I served as the digital strategy consultant for former DNC Vice-Chair Michael Blake in his election (and re-election) to the NY State Assembly, representing the South Bronx.
As a creative producer and digital content strategist, I’ve worked with NBC-Universal; SiriusXM; Comic Relief/Red Nose Day; NYC Big Apps – Civic Technology Competition, among others. My writing and other work have been featured on WNYC and WBUR; The New York Times Live Broadcast of the DNC 2012 (Charlotte) and RNC 2012 (Tampa); The Stranger (Seattle, WA); Courier News – Election 2020 Series; and Creative Loafing, among others.
Most recently, I’ve held marketing leadership roles with nonprofit organizations, media and technology companies, and enterprise professional services companies, specializing in brand strategy and customer experience design, business transformation and innovation, content marketing strategy and production, marketing automation and technology strategy, and design and implementation.
AP: What brought you to Attain Partners?
SH: I am excited to join Attain Partners because of the core values, the opportunity to work with mission-driven organizations, and the chance to collaborate with a team of folks with a similar focus.
AP: Which of our seven core values speaks to you the most?
SH: Obsess Externally. Social impact is a value that I live, personally and professionally.
AP: What do you like most about the work you do?
SH: I love helping organizations think creatively about the experience they want to provide to constituents, donors, and the public—and translating that to strategy and platform solutions.
AP: What are the biggest ways you’ve seen digital engagement efforts impact organizations?
SH: Digital engagement platforms give organizations the ability to focus on their core mission. When end users aren’t spending as much of their day-to-day on manual activities—downloading and importing and exporting and single send emails—they can manage and launch initiatives that positively impact their constituents and the public.
AP: What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
SH: I love a good challenge! Clients are implementing and integrating digital engagement platforms because they’ve been struggling with business problems, or they have a specific engagement strategy and need these tools to bring it all to life. They can see what’s possible, and they want it all right now.
That’s why it’s so important to stay close to and understand clients’ business outcomes and align project timelines and technical strategy with organizational goals—to make sure they experience the impact and see value in the platforms as soon as possible.
AP: What do you read and watch to keep current?
SH: I like to learn about innovation and strategy from forward-thinking leaders in all industries, and I’m always interested in learning from arts and design practitioners and using design-thinking methodologies to develop unique and impactful customer experiences and journeys with digital tools. Some podcasts I listen to: “How I Built This” with Guy Raz, “Design Matters” with Debbie Millman, and “The CMO Show” by Impact Institute.
As for reading, it’s mostly Salesforce Trailhead and ecosystem blogs to stay on top of new features and expand my knowledge in other product areas.
Attain Partners – Salesforce Experts
No matter if your organization is beginning its Salesforce journey or 10+ years into development, Attain Partners is here to help you achieve your goals. Contact our team today to learn how we can help you advance your mission by harnessing the power of Salesforce.
To learn more, check out our Salesforce Innovation services, read case studies about our transformative work, and explore blog posts from our Salesforce experts.
Interested in speaking directly with Shari? Fill out this form to be connected!
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