AI-Powered Solutions for Businesses | Megan Clark from OmniQ

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Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Megan from OmniQ. How are you doing today, Megan?

Megan Clark: How are you?

Ernesto: Ah, great. We were mentioning, right? It’s almost in the afternoon, ready to head out into the holiday. Let’s kick it off with you giving us a little bit of insight of what OmniQ is all about in your own words.

Megan Clark: Sure. So OmniQ—we’re a tech company. We’re a business solution provider, systems integrator. We focus on utilizing machine to machine communication to create a proactive approach for your business.

So we’re both a hardware and software manufacturer, and we also work with third parties—our business partners—to bring you the best solution for your business.

Ernesto: Okay. Awesome. Great to hear that. And so that way our listeners can get a good understanding of your company—what problems do you solve for your clients?

Megan Clark: A lot of the problems are based on the industry that we’re working within, because our products are pretty vast.

In the parking industry, one of the problems we solve is people being able to come and go without having to punch in a ticket. We use automated processes with AI to help. Basically, it makes people want to park at your lot over someone else’s lot, if that makes sense.

In the warehouse industry, it reduces errors because we’re taking out of the process people having to punch things in. You’re just scanning stuff or the cameras are just seeing things.

So it solves a lot of problems that are created by human error.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Great to hear that. And who would you say are your primary clients? Is there a segment or vertical that you guys like to go after?

Megan Clark: There’s quite a few. Parking, municipalities, police, warehouse, manufacturing, transportation, logistics, hospitals, and quick service restaurants.

Ernesto: You did mention quite a bit, but that’s pretty good. Awesome to hear that. And what would you say is a top client acquisition channel for you guys? How do you get those folks in the door with OmniQ?

Megan Clark: I would say email is a really good one in the warehouse, transportation, and logistics space. But in the parking industry and some of the other harder-to-get-into industries, trade shows are key.

We really need somebody to shake hands and explain what we do and try to figure out a good solution. So meeting people at a trade show is a really good way to do that.

Ernesto: Definitely would agree—those are always going to be popular, never going to end.

And I am here on your website, OmniQ.com—really gorgeous website you guys have there. What role does a website play for your client acquisition?

Megan Clark: It provides more information after they’ve met with our sales reps or seen our collateral online. They go to our website and get a better picture of what we can actually do.

And it’s usually that in-between step before they take the plunge to schedule a demo or email us back. They want to look at the website and see what’s going on. So it’s that in-between step.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Now, what are some tools or methods you’d recommend our listeners for lead generation?

Megan Clark: Email is fantastic, but I definitely recommend not doing cold emails—getting those emails and leads from your trade shows.

If you’re in other industries where it’s easier to do cold email, then as long as you’re doing something that doesn’t look really spammy, I’d say that’s been effective for us.

Also social media—even though it doesn’t usually convert directly to a lead, it helps people see who you are and what you’re about. So having a good presence online is important.

Ernesto: Definitely agree with you.

All right—let’s switch gears a little bit and talk about you as a leader, Megan. You’re the marketing manager there for OmniQ—what are some key tasks you focus on in your day to day work?

Megan Clark: Key tasks—whatever campaign I’m running, I’m usually focused on that early in the morning, and then social media collateral.

But other than that, I’m always trying to find new opportunities. I’m on the phone with all of our business partners. I’m trying to figure out what we can do next, what we can do together, what kind of co-branding efforts we can do.

So every day I’d say I have four to five phone calls like that—trying to figure out what’s next and how we can take that next step.

Ernesto: Yeah, definitely. That’s important.

Let’s jump into our rapid fire question round. You ready for that, Megan?

Megan Clark: Sure.

Ernesto: Awesome. First off—what is the last book that you read?

Megan Clark: The last book that I read… I don’t even remember. My first degree in college was English, so that really turned me off of reading. I since learned better.

But I think the last thing that I read was probably a white paper by Gartner about the upcoming trends in 2024.

Ernesto: Definitely got to jump on those, right? We’re almost into the holiday, so 2024 is around the corner.

What is one single thing that your company’s focused on at the moment the most?

Megan Clark: It’s the end of the year—we’re getting stuff shipped out. But we’re always interested in growth. That’s been a constant topic for us.

We’re trying to build our presence in the U.S. Right now we’re in 63 airports, and we’re trying to get into basically all of them in the U.S. And we’re getting into different countries in our airports.

We just did three in Central America, we have some in Europe, and we’re trying to build that footprint.

Ernesto: Definitely. That’s important.

If there were no boundaries in technology, what would be that one thing you’d want to have fixed for your role as a marketer today?

Megan Clark: With the way generative AI is going, I really just want it to be my full-on assistant—to know what I need.

Ernesto: If it could read or predict what you’re about to ask, that would be really helpful.

Megan Clark: If it could fully launch my marketing campaigns without me having to do anything, then monitor them and report back—that would be great.

Ernesto: Give me the results—yeah, that’s all I need.

Megan Clark: Yeah, just do everything.

Ernesto: So you might answer this one similarly, but if there’s one repetitive task that you could automate, what would that be?

Megan Clark: There are a lot of automations right now for repetitive tasks. But if ChatGPT was fully there—able to come up with something really great, exciting, on brand, on point every single day, post it for me, and report back—that would be great.

Ernesto: Okay. Awesome. Great to hear that. Now—what is one piece of advice you would give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer today?

Megan Clark: Remind myself that I don’t know anything. Every industry is different and every single day things change.

Approaching a topic, project, or new industry thinking you know what you’re doing is a mistake. It’s always a good idea to research and refresh your memory.

Every day I spend time listening to a webinar or podcast—something like that—because once you think you know what you’re doing, you don’t know what you’re doing because things have changed.

So you have to keep refreshing yourself constantly.

Ernesto: Definitely. That’s important. Megan, thanks a lot for being on the show with us today. I do want to give you the last word. If someone forgets everything about the interview today, what is that one thing they should remember about your company?

Megan Clark: About OmniQ—any problem that you have, there’s a way to solve it. Let’s get on the phone and figure out how.

Ernesto: Definitely. Great advice there.

Guys, you can always check them out at OmniQ.com—Artificial Intelligence Solutions. Megan, thank you so much for being on with us today. To our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in and looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents. Thanks a lot, Megan.

Megan Clark: Thank you.