Forward Launch Your SaaS | B2B Marketing & Growth for Startups: Recent Episodes
Keirra Woodard
Easygoing conversations with B2B SaaS startup marketing executives whose campaigns have resulted in impressive growth. In each episode, our guests share the one biggest piece of wisdom that other B2B SaaS marketing execs should know. The show is hosted by Keirra Woodard, the owner, podcast marketer, and B2B SaaS content marketing consultant of Forward Launch.
In this episode, marketing strategist Corey Morris joins us to unpack why so many companies feel like they’re spinning their wheels with content and campaigns—without seeing real business results. He explains how marketing often gets lost in the weeds of tactics and vanity metrics, and shares how his START Planning Framework brings clarity, accountability, and strategy to marketing efforts. If you’ve ever felt like you’re busy with marketing but not sure if it’s working, this one’s for you.
🧠 What You’ll Learn:
- Why focusing on tactics before strategy leads to wasted time and budget.
- The problem with reporting on vanity metrics and how to tie KPIs to actual business goals.
- An overview of Corey’s START Planning Framework:
- Strategy – Align goals with business outcomes.
- Tactics – Select and evaluate marketing channels based on your funnel.
- Application – Identify and prep the assets you’ll need.
- Review – Build meaningful reporting systems.
- Transformation – Align your team and schedule your plan for consistent execution.
- How to identify and fix resource gaps before they derail your plan.
- Tips for small businesses and solopreneurs on using strategic planning with limited resources.
💡 Memorable Quote:
“Doing tactics in the absence of a strategy is one common issue. Another is reporting on KPIs that aren’t mapped to revenue—and that’s when CEOs say, ‘I’m spending all this money on marketing but don’t see the impact.’”
🔗 Resources Mentioned:
- Corey’s book: The Digital Marketing Success Plan
- Downloadable tools at: thedmsp.com/blueprints
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Why Good Marketing Often Falls Flat
Have you ever launched a marketing campaign that seemed to follow all the right rules—sharp copy, clear calls to action, even a sleek design—only to realize… it didn’t connect? Maybe the message felt off. Maybe no one engaged. You’re not alone.
In this episode of the Mindful B2B Marketing podcast, communication coach Dr. Michael Gerharz joins us to help flip the script. Instead of trying to persuade harder, Michael teaches us how to resonate stronger. Because when your message resonates, you don’t have to push—it pulls people in.
Meet Michael Gerharz
Dr. Michael Gerharz is a communications coach with a background in computer science. With nearly two decades of experience, he now helps leaders and marketers transform their communication into a strategic advantage. He’s the author of The PATH to Strategic Impact, host of the Irresistible Communication podcast, and the creator of the “Leaders Light the Path” manifesto.
But what makes his approach different is this: Michael doesn’t focus on tricks or tactics. He teaches us to speak with clarity, honesty, and purpose—to create messages that shift how people see the world.
How to Build Resonance Step by Step
Michael shared a simple but powerful step-by-step process:
- Talk to Real Customers
Get out of the meeting room and into real conversations. Don’t guess what your audience wants—ask them. Sit down, have a coffee, go for a walk, hop on a Zoom call. It’s in these moments that the real insights emerge.
- Listen With Openness
Most marketers listen for confirmation. Instead, listen for truth. Are people actually agreeing, or just being polite? Are they hesitating? Use their words—not yours—to shape your message.
- Test What Resonates
Michael doesn’t use spreadsheets or analytics to test messaging. He watches for reactions. A resonant message is one that makes people pause. It feels obvious in hindsight. It sticks with you. And when others repeat it back, you know you’ve hit something real.
- Treat Messaging as a Continuous Cycle
Don’t think of communication as a one-and-done event. It’s an ongoing process of testing, refining, and learning. You might never be “finished,” and that’s okay.
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Main Insight:
Earning media placements through consistent, strategic PR efforts builds lasting authority and credibility that can significantly boost your brand and sales.
Guest Bio:
Leonard Scheiner is a PR expert who brings over a decade of experience building memorable brands and online authority for both Fortune 500 companies and boutique firms. He has helped professionals secure high-profile media placements in major outlets such as Forbes, CNN, Bloomberg, and more. As the CEO of Geek Haus, Leonard specializes in positioning subject matter experts so they can build trustworthy and credible personal brands that translate into real business results. His proven PR frameworks have driven dramatic revenue growth—helping clients achieve up to a 300% increase in revenue and tens of millions in new business.
Leonard invites listeners to visit GeekHaus.com to explore how his agency can help secure impactful media placements. He also encourages those ready to become featured experts to join his free live training at PodcastGuestIntensive.com, where he walks you through packaging your expertise and pitching for media success.
Key Takeaways:
- Key Takeaways:
- Start with Local and Niche Media: Before aiming for major publications like Forbes or Bloomberg, begin by establishing credibility with local media, podcasts, and industry-specific interviews.
- Build a Strong Foundation: A professional website, quality headshots, and a concise yet compelling bio are critical components that support successful media outreach.
- Leverage Existing Opportunities: Utilize platforms such as Featured.com to identify and respond to media opportunities already in circulation rather than creating chances from scratch.
- Consistency is Key: Whether it’s a local interview or an emerging podcast opportunity, regularly securing media placements increases credibility over time.
- Timeframe for Results: While initial placements can occur within one to two months (often starting with local placements), establishing national credibility might take six months to a year, with occasional early successes.
- Effective Messaging: Ensure that your commentary carries a distinct point of view. Differentiating yourself from generic “vanilla” opinions is essential to be recognized as a genuine expert.
- Effort Versus Outcome: Typically, a professional needs to spend about one hour per placement, with much of the heavy lifting done by the PR team.
- Integrate Media Success into the Broader Marketing Strategy: After obtaining media placements, amplify these successes across all channels—email signatures, websites, social media, and promotional materials—to drive trust and customer engagement.
- Avoid Pitfalls: Watch for pay-to-play dynamics and avoid overextending yourself into too many unrelated areas. Focus on a defined niche to ensure that your expertise remains clear and credible.
- Training and Preparation: Whether you plan to represent yourself or your CEO, investing in media training and preparation can help secure and maximize media placements.
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Main Insight:
Harnessing authentic customer stories that resonate emotionally can significantly enhance trust and value perception, driving successful B2B marketing strategies.
Guest Bio:
Indy is an executive and creative visionary with over 20 years of experience across diverse industries including tech, fintech, real estate, music, fashion, and cosmetics. She has led teams and consulted for prestigious brands such as LVMH, IKEA, and Sony. Currently, Indy is the founder of WeDo, a fintech application designed to support freelancers, gig workers, and small business owners by offering comprehensive business management tools with minimal fees.
Key Takeaways:
- Engage Directly with Customers
- Action: Personally reach out to your customers, especially those who are highly engaged or have provided feedback.
- Implementation: Initiate interviews with these customers to understand their experiences before and after using your product. This direct engagement helps in uncovering authentic and relatable stories.
- Utilize the Jobs to Be Done Technique
- Action: Apply the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework to guide your conversations with customers.
- Implementation: Start by discussing the customer's current situation and work backward to identify the key pain points and triggers that led them to choose your product. This method helps in uncovering both emotional and practical reasons behind their decision.
- Identify Common Patterns and Themes
- Action: Analyze the insights gathered from multiple customer interviews to find recurring themes and challenges.
- Implementation: Look for similarities in the problems customers faced and how your product provided solutions. These common patterns can form the foundation of your marketing narratives, making them more relatable to a broader audience.
- Involve Multiple Team Members in the Process
- Action: Encourage participation from various departments, including CEOs, product teams, and customer service representatives, in conducting customer interviews.
- Implementation: Different perspectives can provide a more comprehensive understanding of customer experiences. This collaborative approach ensures that the stories captured are well-rounded and cover multiple facets of the customer journey.
- Systematize Customer Interviews
- Action: Implement a structured process for scheduling and conducting regular customer interviews.
- Implementation: Use project management tools like Jira, Asana, or Monday.com to organize and automate the scheduling of interviews. Assign tasks to team members to ensure consistent and ongoing data collection from customers.
- Create Multi-Channel Content from Customer Stories
- Action: Develop customer stories in various formats to maximize reach and engagement across different platforms.
- Implementation: Transform the narratives into written articles, video testimonials, and audio segments for podcasts or radio. Additionally, use snippets of these stories as straplines on your homepage or in social media posts to enhance visibility and impact.
- Test, Monitor, and Refine Your Stories
- Action: Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of your customer stories and adjust them based on performance data.
- Implementation: Track engagement metrics and analyze customer acquisition patterns to determine w
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Main Insight Implement a continuous discovery and improvement process to effectively engage customers post-sale, driving revenue and fostering long-term relationships.
Guest Bio Ken is a dynamic entrepreneur and commercialization leader with a proven track record of founding businesses, creating new markets, and delivering significant shareholder returns. Passionate about addressing unmet needs with practical solutions, Ken specializes in launching products, building scalable business models, and cultivating thriving company cultures. As the founder of Bluestream, he focuses on connecting businesses with their customers after the sale through innovative SaaS platforms.
Key Takeaways
- Adopt a Continuous Discovery Process: Implement a cycle of discovery, choice, execution, and learning to adapt and grow your business.
- Define Clear Objectives: Start with clear goals, whether they’re revenue targets, product launches, or other milestones.
- Ask the Right Questions: Use both open-ended and closed-ended questions to gather comprehensive data from your customers.
- Listen Actively: Prioritize listening over assuming answers to truly understand customer needs and preferences.
- Tailor Communication Styles: Adapt your questions and interactions to match the communication styles of different stakeholders.
- Be Willing to Pivot: Stay flexible and ready to adjust your strategies based on the insights gained from customer feedback.
- Implement and Iterate: Choose a path based on your discoveries, execute it, and continuously refine your approach based on ongoing learning.
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Main Insight Empower B2B marketers to integrate their unique skills and authentic selves into their work without tying their personal identity to their business roles.
Guest Bio Michael Fritzius is the founder of Podcastify, a podcast marketing company dedicated to helping agency owners amplify their voices and reach. Additionally, he co-founded Exactly Zero with his wife, a sustainable skincare brand offering body butters, lotions, and other eco-friendly skincare products. With a rich background in automation and entrepreneurship, Michael leverages his diverse expertise to drive innovative solutions in both the digital and physical product landscapes. For more insights and to connect with Michael Fritzius, visit Podcastify.me and ExactlyZero.com.
Key Takeaways
- Define Yourself Beyond Your Job Title: Avoid identifying solely by your professional role to maintain personal resilience and flexibility.
- Self-Assessment of Skills: Identify what you love, excel at, are indifferent to, and dislike to leverage your strengths effectively.
- Focus on Strengths and Delegate Weaknesses: Concentrate on tasks that align with your strengths and delegate or eliminate those that do not.
- Combine Unique Skills to Solve Problems: Utilize your distinct combination of skills to address unique challenges that others might overlook.
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Main Insight
Instead of targeting a broad audience, concentrate on particular industries and their unique use cases. This enables you to tailor your messaging, content, and solutions to meet specific customer needs. This funnel-focused approach enables B2B marketers to systematically optimize each stage of the customer journey with targeted, industry-specific strategies, resulting in higher conversions and more efficient growth.
Guest BioBas Hennephof is the co-founder of ConvertCalculator, a no-code builder for interactive content such as calculators, quizzes, lead pages, product configurators, and quote forms. He has extensive experience in business, design, marketing, product, and strategy. In the past, he founded an online startup accelerator, coached multiple innovation teams, and led a corporate innovation initiative at the largest bank in the Netherlands.
Practical Steps
- Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP):
- Identify the specific industries and use cases where your product or service provides the most value.
- Develop detailed personas to understand their pain points, needs, and decision-making processes.
- Map Out Your Customer Journey Using Funnel Metrics:
- Outline each stage of your funnel: awareness, acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral.
- For each stage, list the actions customers take and the conversion rates associated with them.
- Create Industry-Specific Messaging and Content:
- Develop landing pages, blogs, and marketing materials tailored to each industry and use case.
- Use language and examples that resonate with your target audience's specific challenges and goals.
- Develop Targeted Templates and Tools:
- Offer templates, calculators, or interactive content that address the unique needs of each segment.
- Ensure these resources help customers quickly realize the value of your product.
- Implement Systematic Measurement and Analysis:
- Set up analytics to track conversion rates at each funnel stage.
- Regularly review data to identify drop-off points and areas for improvement.
- Run Focused Experiments:
- Prioritize one funnel stage at a time and conduct A/B tests to optimize it.
- Implement changes based on data-driven insights and measure their impact over time.
- Enhance Onboarding and Activation Processes:
- Customize onboarding experiences based on customer segmentation.
- Provide relevant support content, tutorials, and guidance to improve activation rates.
- Maintain Team Alignment and Communication:
- Involve all team members in funnel optimization discussions.
- Use collaborative tools to ensure everyone is informed about goals, strategies, and progress.
- Stay Disciplined but Flexible:
- Set clear quarterly goals for each funnel stage and stick to them.
- Be open to adjusting strategies based on performance data and changing market conditions.
- Seek Continuous Feedback and Iterate:
- Collect customer feedback to understand their experience at each funnel stage.
- Use insights to refine your product offerings and marketing strategies continually.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Focus on building scalable infrastructure early to support long-term growth.
- Design servicing systems with flexibility to adapt to customer needs and regulatory changes.
- Leverage analytics and customer data to continuously refine product offerings and user experience.
- Invest in modern technologies to future-proof financial products and services.
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Main Insight:
Focusing your time and budget on the accounts that are most likely to buy, and aligning teams with a unified system, is essential to a successful account-based marketing (ABM) strategy.
Guest Bio:
Leanne Chescoe is a results-driven B2B marketer with 15 years of experience in SaaS, specializing in ABM strategies, lead generation, and channel partnerships. In 2018, she founded the Women in B2B Network, a thriving community of over 400 senior professional women, aimed at empowering members through connections, opportunities, and expertise.
Key Takeaways:
- Adopt an Account-Based Approach: The most urgent strategy for B2B marketers today is focusing on the accounts that have the highest propensity to buy. This requires a clear understanding of target account lists and being able to identify in-market accounts based on intent data.
- Understand the Customer Journey: Approximately 95% of the customer's time in the buyer's journey is spent without direct contact with a salesperson, much of which is anonymous. Gaining insights into what potential customers are researching—whether it’s your products or your competitors’—is critical.
- Utilize Intent Data: Marketers must be proactive in identifying accounts that are showing interest in related products or competitors. Having real-time access to intent signals enables more precise targeting and personalization, which leads to better customer experiences.
- Create a Unified System: It's vital to have a consolidated platform that integrates all your data—account-level, contact-level, and system-level—across marketing and sales. This ensures that both teams are aligned with a shared view of the customer journey, preventing go-to-market fragmentation.
- Align Sales and Marketing: When marketing and sales teams share the same platform and data, they can work more effectively to prioritize accounts, track engagement across the buyer journey, and know the best time for sales to follow up. Sales readiness isn’t just about one download—it’s about consistent, meaningful engagement.
- Measure Engagement: With a unified system, you can measure engagement across the entire buyer journey and adjust your messaging to fit where a prospect is in the funnel. This ensures that both marketing and sales are equipped with the right information to engage prospects effectively.
Leanne emphasizes the importance of making sure the right messaging is being delivered at every stage of the sales cycle and that sales follow-up occurs only when there is substantial engagement. By leveraging these strategies, B2B marketers can improve their ABM results and foster a more seamless sales process.
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MAIN INSIGHT: Prioritize self-care and employee wellness in the marketing workplace to prevent burnout and foster sustainable business growth.
GUEST BIO: Pete Sena is a creative entrepreneur and founder of Digital Surgeons, a brand experience consultancy. For nearly 20 years, he has partnered with founders and business leaders to accelerate growth through marketing innovation, branding, and digital-experience design. A human-centered problem solver, Pete focuses on the behaviors and systems that drive people, products, and experiences. His work has impacted leading brands such as Unilever, Microsoft, and LEGO. He leverages expertise at the intersection of design, technology, and consumer behavior to enact positive change and increase business value. His experiences, such as the development of the Four Green Lights system for aligning values with business growth, are published to his blog, petesena.com
RESULTS:
- Enhanced team morale and employee retention
- Healthier work-life balance for staff
- Reduced stress and prevention of burnout
- Increased productivity and creativity
- Improved client satisfaction
- Positive impact on profitability
- More collaborative and supportive work environment
- Holistic business growth valuing individual contributions
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Implement wellness programs and initiatives within the company
- Encourage practices like prioritizing sleep and meditation among employees
- Foster self-awareness and self-care routines
- Create a supportive environment with generous PTO policies and a remote-first culture
- Align business goals with employee wellness using systems like the four green lights
- Reduce unnecessary meetings and promote asynchronous communication
- Set clear boundaries between work and personal time
- Emphasize effective communication and thorough documentation
- Over-communicate to prevent misunderstandings and foster transparency
- Establish a clear vision that includes employee well-being as a core component
- Encourage open communication and provide a wellness budget for staff initiatives
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Main Insight:
Focusing on truthful claims in marketing enhances credibility, builds stronger customer trust, and leads to more effective campaigns that resonate with B2B audiences, ultimately boosting brand reputation and fostering sustainable client relationships.
Guest Bio:
Mike Maynard is the CEO and owner of the Napier Group, a PR-led, full-service marketing agency specializing in the B2B technology sector. Under his leadership, Napier Group works closely with clients to develop strategic campaigns that drive impactful results and deliver a significant return on investment.
Step-by-step process to ensure that marketing claims are accurate:
- Before Starting a Campaign, Learn About the Products:
In highly technical industries, it's crucial to get product managers and engineers to brief you on the product details. Use these interviews with product experts to create a comprehensive briefing sheet for reference within your organization. This briefing sheet should serve as a "source of truth" for advertising claims and be continuously fact-checked by everyone involved. Creating this briefing helps writers on the marketing team communicate effectively, as they need to understand the information to put it in their own words, and the briefing sheets can also be repurposed as marketing content. - Build the Campaign with Long-Term Considerations:
When creating your campaign, focus on developing a strategy that supports long-term goals and sustainability rather than just immediate results. - Seek Feedback from External Reviewers:
Get input from people outside of the campaign, whether they are other members of the marketing team or from other departments. This external perspective helps refine the nuances of the message, making it more effective and clear to your audience. - Find a Knowledgeable Fact-Checker:
Identify a fact-checker who thoroughly understands the product, possibly an engineer, to ensure the marketing claims are technically accurate and clearly conveyed. This step ensures that all claims are valid and aligned with the product’s capabilities.
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Main Insight:
Ram Prasad, a small business owner, explains how embracing structured marketing strategies, such as leveraging LinkedIn and consistent content creation, led to doubling his company's revenue, and emphasizes the importance of viewing marketing as a long-term investment for small business growth.
Guest Bio:
Ram Prasad is the CEO of Delence, a company specializing in providing fractional CTO (Chief Technology Officer) and CPO (Chief Product Officer) services to businesses. With a strong background in technology, Ram has recently developed a passion for marketing, particularly in the context of small business growth. His expertise lies in bridging the gap between technology and marketing, helping businesses scale effectively by leveraging tailored tech solutions and strategic marketing insights.
Step-by-Step Advice for Moving Away from Referral-Only Business Growth
- Prioritize Business Growth:
- Allocate a marketing budget and consider hiring marketing professionals. View marketing as an investment in your business's future. This helps you avoid inefficiencies and leverages expertise to craft a more effective strategy.
- Identify the Right Social Media Channel:
- The first crucial step is to identify the most effective social media channel where your target audience is most active. This decision should be based on where your potential customers are likely to be found. For example, if your customers are tech startup CEOs, they are more likely to be on LinkedIn or Twitter rather than Instagram or Facebook. Start by focusing on one or two platforms to ensure your efforts are concentrated and effective.
- Consistency in Posting:
- Once you have identified the appropriate channel, the next step is to post consistently. The ideal frequency for most businesses is at least two to three times a week. Consistency is key because posting regularly helps keep your brand top of mind with your audience. Ram emphasizes that the goal isn't to aim for a viral post but to build a presence over time through regular and consistent posting. He recommends setting aside a specific time daily or weekly for content creation and posting to maintain this consistency. Understand that marketing requires patience and consistent effort, much like gardening. Focus on nurturing your strategy and be prepared to commit for several months before expecting significant outcomes.
- Create and Share Original Content:
- It’s important that the content you post is original. Original content reflects your unique perspective and experiences, which is more engaging and valuable to your audience. Ram advises against simply copying content from others or using generic content generated by tools. Instead, use your own experiences, such as summarizing a customer interaction or a recent project (while maintaining confidentiality), to create content. This approach ensures your content is authentic and resonates more deeply with your audience.
- Measure and Adjust:
- After establishing a routine of consistent posting, the next step is to measure the effectiveness of your posts. Pay attention to the feedback you receive, such as likes, comments, and shares, to understand what content is resonating with your audience. However, Ram warns against overthinking this process. Instead, focus on experimenting and adjusting your content based on the feedback and engagement you observe. The key is to keep iterating and improving your strategy rather t
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Main Insight:
Effective B2B marketing hinges on clarity; the clearer the message, the greater its impact.
Guest Bio:
Ben Guttmann is a seasoned marketing entrepreneur, educator, and author known for his expertise in clear communication. He authored "Simply Put: Why Clear Messages Win and How to Design Them." Over a decade, he managed Digital Natives Group, a marketing agency that evolved from small local projects to prestigious collaborations with major entities like the NFL and Comcast.
The Five Principles of Simple Messaging:
- beneficial, or matters to the receiver
- focused, meaning articulating one thing at a time rather than multiple things
- salient, or standing out amidst noise
- empathetic, or speaking the language that the audience understands and meeting them emotionally
- minimal, or excluding everything unnecessary.
Key Takeaways:
Emphasize Clarity in Messaging
- Clear and simple messages are more effective.
- Avoid jargon and complex language.
- Make your value proposition easily understandable.
Know Your Audience
- Understand the needs and pain points of your target audience.
- Tailor your messages to address these needs directly.
- Use language and examples that resonate with your audience.
Consistent Brand Voice
- Maintain a consistent voice across all platforms and materials.
- This helps in building a recognizable and trustworthy brand.
Storytelling
- Use stories to make your messages more engaging and memorable.
- Share success stories and case studies to illustrate your points.
Data-Driven Decisions
- Use analytics to understand what messages are working.
- Continuously test and refine your messaging based on data insights.
Visual Clarity
- Use clear and professional visuals to support your messages.
- Ensure that your design is clean and free from unnecessary clutter.
Simplicity in Design
- Apply minimalist principles to your marketing materials.
- Focus on key messages and avoid overwhelming your audience with too much information.
Focus on Benefits, Not Features
- Highlight how your product or service benefits the customer.
- Explain how it solves their problems or improves their situation.
Educate Your Audience
- Provide valuable content that educates your audience about your industry.
- This positions you as a thought leader and builds trust.
Leverage Multiple Channels
- Use a mix of marketing channels to reach your audience.
- Ensure that your messaging is consistent across all channels.
Customer-Centric Approach
- Always put the customer at the center of your marketing strategy.
- Listen to their feedback and adjust your strategies accordingly.
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MAIN INSIGHT: Leverage data-driven strategies and artificial intelligence to transform and optimize marketing efforts.
GUEST BIO: Rich Edwards is the CEO of Mindspan Systems, a company specializing in transforming community financial institutions through data-driven strategies and innovative technologies. With a career spanning over a decade at IBM, Edwards has significant experience in product strategy, data center automation, and artificial intelligence, including a pivotal role in the launch of the IBM Watson Developer Cloud.
RESULTS:
- Increased personalization in marketing, allowing companies to cater specifically to individual customer preferences and needs.
- Enhanced efficiency and effectiveness in marketing operations, as AI can automate and optimize many routine tasks and processes.
- Improved customer engagement and retention through targeted and relevant marketing communications.
- Greater competitive advantage by utilizing data insights to make informed strategic decisions.
- Cost savings from automation and the ability to produce more with less manual effort.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Leverage First-Party Data: Utilize first-party data to gain a competitive advantage by delivering highly personalized and relevant marketing content. First-party data, being directly collected from customers, is crucial for creating accurate and impactful marketing strategies that resonate with the target audience.
Ethical Data Practices: Adopt transparent data collection methods and manage data prudently to uphold customer trust. Rich Edwards stressed the importance of treating customer data with the same care as money, considering the potential risks and implications of data breaches or misuse.
Data Safeguarding and Compliance: Implement robust systems to protect customer data, ensuring that data management practices comply with the latest regulations. This includes thoughtful interactions with customers about how their data is used and ensuring that data sharing and processing are done only when necessary and with proper customer consent.
Navigating Data Governance Challenges: Be vigilant about the dependencies that can develop from using platforms like Facebook for marketing, which may lead to potential constraints and costs. Marketers should be aware of the terms and conditions of data usage by third-party companies and strive for agreements that protect their interests and those of their customers.
LINKS TO DATA GOVERNANCE RESOURCES:
- Here’s a good, easy-to-read introduction to data governance from HubSpot: HubSpot Data Governance.
- One of the more general industry governance organizations is the Data Management Association (DAMA), offering good resources and certification standards: DAMA.
- Microsoft’s policy on data usage with AI services can be found here: Microsoft Data Privacy.
- An earlier interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella specifically addressing their values on privacy is available on YouTube: Satya Nadella Interview.
- Also, as discussed, Trust Insights provides insights, and here's an example of Chris Penn’s blog:
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MAIN INSIGHT
B2B marketers can send campaigns that ultimately can have a positive impact on their audience by optimizing email marketing practices, such as reducing email frequency, targeting more effectively, and using eco-friendly infrastructure and content strategies.
GUEST BIO
James Gill is the co-founder of EcoSend and GoSquared. EcoSend works with brands to transform email marketing into a more climate-conscious practice, addressing the significant carbon footprint of the over 350 billion emails sent daily. GoSquared, celebrating its 18th anniversary, provides a privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics, helping thousands of businesses grow sustainably every day. James is dedicated to creating environmentally responsible and privacy-centric digital tools.
BENEFITS OF ECO-CONSCIOUS EMAIL MARKETING
Reduced Carbon Footprint:
- By optimizing email campaigns, marketers can significantly lower the environmental impact of their digital activities.
Increased Engagement:
- Sending fewer, more targeted emails can lead to higher engagement rates, as recipients are more likely to find the content relevant and valuable.
Improved Efficiency:
- Streamlining email content and reducing data load can enhance the overall efficiency of email marketing campaigns, leading to better performance.
Enhanced Brand Reputation:
- Demonstrating a commitment to sustainability can improve a brand's reputation and appeal to environmentally conscious consumers and clients.
Cost Savings:
- Optimizing email campaigns can reduce the resources and energy required, potentially leading to cost savings in the long run.
Sustainable Business Growth:
- By adopting eco-friendly and privacy-centric practices, businesses can achieve sustainable growth that aligns with modern ethical standards and consumer expectations.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Optimize Email Content: Streamlining the content of emails to be more concise and relevant can reduce the data load and, consequently, the environmental impact.
- Improve Targeting: Ensuring emails are sent only to those who are genuinely interested and likely to engage can minimize waste and enhance the efficiency of email campaigns.
- Compress Image Sizes: Reducing the size of images in emails can decrease the data required to send and receive emails, thereby lowering the carbon footprint.
- Avoid Putting Text in Images: Keeping text as text rather than embedding it in images can reduce the email's data load, making it more efficient and environmentally friendly.
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
EcoSend works with brands to revolutionize email marketing by making it more climate-conscious. The company addresses the significant carbon footprint of email marketing by promoting sustainable practices and tools.
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Main Insight: Using hyper-personalized outreach creates business opportunities with higher ROI for time spent and fosters better relationships between salespeople and customers.
Guest Bio: Rhonda Dibachi, CEO of Hey Scottie, has a diverse background in technology and manufacturing with experience in nuclear engineering and software development. She has co-founded multiple tech and manufacturing startups, including one that successfully went public. Rhonda is passionate about integrating technology into manufacturing to solve real-world operational challenges.
Key Takeaways:
Identify Successful Customers: Start by examining who your successful customers are, and identify their key attributes such as location, industry, product type, or size to categorize your ideal customer.
Find Adjacent Prospects: Look for prospects that are similar to your successful customers, particularly those that are geographically close so you can easily visit or engage with them.
Engage with Potential Connections: Identify potential points of engagement from their online presence, such as association memberships, and consider attending related events like annual meetings.
Leverage Personal Interests: Use personal interests shown on platforms like LinkedIn, such as hobbies, to create a more personal connection.
Look for innovators in a target company or industry: Identify people who are ambitious and receptive to innovative ideas such as recent job-changers, digital natives, and people who attend industry conferences.
Make Personal Connections: Make efforts to personally connect at conferences or through platforms like LinkedIn, reaching out to conference-goers and suggesting face-to-face meetings before the conference to discuss potential collaborations.
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0:31
Introduction to Building an Online Community
1:58
Inception of Advertise Your Server
2:43
Evolution of Advertise Your Server
5:04
Expanding to B2B Companies
6:36
Benefits for B2B Brands
10:23
Setting Up an Online Community
20:39
Establishing Community Norms
25:08
Pitfalls in Online Community Creation
28:26
Connect with Advertise Your Server
Main Insight
Building an online community is essential for brand promotion and customer engagement. William Cook, CEO of Advertise Your Server, shares his expertise on leveraging platforms like Reddit and Discord to grow vibrant online communities that drive business growth.
Key Takeaways
- Importance of Online Communities: Online communities provide a space for customers to interact, share experiences, and build a sense of loyalty and belonging. They are crucial for promoting brands and fostering customer engagement.
- Choosing the Right Platform: Different platforms serve different community needs. Reddit and Discord are highlighted as excellent platforms for community growth. Reddit offers broad exposure, while Discord provides a more intimate and interactive environment.
- Strategies for Community Growth:
- Engage with Members: Regular interaction and engagement with community members are vital. This includes responding to comments, initiating discussions, and providing valuable content.
- Consistent Value Addition: Continuously offer value to community members through exclusive content, updates, and resources that cater to their interests and needs.
- Leveraging Influencers: Collaborate with influencers who can bring their audience into the community, increasing reach and credibility.
- Monetization and ROI:
- Direct Revenue Generation: Monetize the community through memberships, premium content, and exclusive offers.
- Indirect Benefits: Enhanced brand loyalty, customer feedback, and market insights can significantly impact business growth and development.
- Challenges and Solutions:
- Maintaining Engagement: Keep the community active and engaged through regular events, Q&A sessions, and interactive content.
- Managing Negative Feedback: Address negative feedback constructively and use it to improve products and services.
Guest Bio
William Cook is the CEO of Advertise Your Server, a leading online community growth platform. With extensive experience in community building and digital marketing, William has successfully helped numerous brands grow their online presence and engage with their audience on platforms like Reddit and Discord.
Company Description
Advertise Your Server is the premier platform for growing online communities on Reddit and Discord. They specialize in helping brands create and nurture vibrant online spaces where customers can connect, share, and engage. With a focus on providing consistent value and fostering meaningful interactions, Advertise Your Server is dedicated to driving business growth through community building.
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Main Insight
"The most effective brand strategy focuses on differentiation and solving customer business challenges."
Dave emphasizes that a unique brand identity and an ability to clearly articulate how a product solves specific customer challenges are crucial in marketing. Content should demonstrate solutions, not just features.
Key Takeaways
Step-by-Step Marketing Strategy
- Determine Your Business Cycle Stage:
Understand where the business currently stands. Are you a new startup, a growing SMB, or an established enterprise? Different stages require different marketing strategies. - Focus on the Basics:
Ensure that your website has strong calls-to-action and that free content like blog articles, YouTube videos, and social media posts are available. - Expand to Advanced Marketing:
For mature businesses, consider investing in advertising campaigns, events, and sponsorships. SMBs with resources can leverage trade events and Google Ads campaigns. - Incorporate AI into Content Creation:
Utilize AI for generating outlines, titles, and basic content structures. Refine and build upon these AI-generated drafts for faster, more effective content creation. - Develop a Comprehensive Content Strategy:
- Write a detailed blog post about how your product solves specific business challenges.
- Atomize content into multiple pieces (short videos, audio snippets, infographics).
- Use AI tools to create faceless videos from written content.
- Distribute across multiple social media channels in varied formats.
- Distribution Plan and Calls to Action:
- Share blog articles on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
- Use smaller content pieces and videos for wider reach.
- Align calls to action with each content type (e.g., "Contact us," "Download a whitepaper," "Try our product").
Guest Bio
Dave Erickson
Title: CEO, ScreamingBox
Bio: Dave Erickson has over 30 years of experience in eSports, gaming, software development, marketing, sales, branding, publishing, advertising, and international business. A serial entrepreneur, he has founded and managed businesses across the USA, Europe, and Asia. Prior to ScreamingBox, he played a pivotal role in building the Fatal1ty gaming brand and licensing program, and also founded an internet marketing company in 2002 that catered to high-profile clients like Gunthy-Ranker, Qualcomm, and TigerText.
Company Description
ScreamingBox
Description: ScreamingBox is a digital development company that offers web and mobile app development, along with other technology solutions. Their virtual-first approach helps clients save costs while ensuring high-quality digital solutions. They have built a strong reputation in the industry due to their distinctive branding and word-of-mouth referrals.
Website: screamingbox.net
Rainmaker Web
Description: Rainmaker Web helps startups and SMBs with marketing strategy, content creation, and digital distribution.
Website: rainmakerweb.net
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Guest Bio:
Natalie Hogg is the founder and head marketer of Method Q. She has a background in communications and journalism and initially aspired to join international relations but later shifted to marketing. After a successful career in corporate marketing, she founded Method Q, where she can help businesses grow while giving back to her community.
Company Description:
Method Q is a full-service marketing agency that provides comprehensive marketing solutions for businesses, whether supporting existing in-house teams or acting as a complete outsourced marketing department.
Contact Information:
- Website: themethodq.com
- LinkedIn: Natalie Hogg
Main Insight:
The power of creating volunteer marketing teams lies in aligning business goals with personal passions. By blending work and life purposefully, you can build a community of professionals who share your values, create meaningful impact through nonprofits, and help the next generation succeed.
Key Takeaways:
- Get Out of Your Comfort Zone:
- Expand your network by attending events and engaging with new people.
- Reach out to potential mentors and ask for introductions.
- Define Your Goals:
- Write down your career and life goals to manifest them into reality.
- Create a timeline of where you want to be, even if it's a rough outline.
- Build and Nurture Relationships:
- Foster meaningful relationships within your network and community.
- Leverage your network's skills and interests to make a positive impact.
- Incorporate Volunteering into Your Business:
- Recruit your team to volunteer their skills for a nonprofit organization.
- Start by offering small contributions, like managing social media or redesigning a website.
- Encourage your team to take ownership and contribute their expertise.
- Practice Self-Care:
- Maintain a healthy balance by prioritizing self-care.
- Lead by example, showing your team the importance of taking care of themselves.
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In this episode, Mark Osborne emphasizes scalable relationships in marketing, stressing efficient systems for growth. He offers B2B marketers guidance on KPIs and revenue optimization.
Chapters
0:31
Introduction
4:04
The Power of Systems
14:10
Improving Systems Through Meetings
25:19
Implementing an Effective Referral System
27:50
Impact of Systematizing on Teams
31:43
Steps to Implement Systems Within a Team
36:16
Overcoming Challenges in System Implementation
39:28
Smooth System Implementation Tips
41:24
Promoting the Book and Offer
Long Summary
Mark Osborne, the founder of Modern Revenue Strategies, shares his journey into founding his company and his background in marketing. He discusses the importance of building one-to-one relationships at scale using data and technology. Mark highlights the challenges of keeping up with the ever-growing marketing technology landscape and explains the fundamental approach his company takes to drive scalable and reliable growth in marketing.
Mark emphasizes the significance of systems in setting teams free from friction and uncertainty, enabling collaboration, and providing peace of mind. He delves into the process of creating and implementing effective systems within organizations to attract prospects, accelerate opportunities, and activate clients for renewals, upsells, and referrals. Mark stresses the importance of establishing clear KPIs and benchmarks to measure success in customer acquisition, revenue growth, and referrals.
He outlines practical steps for B2B marketers to systematize their processes, focusing on identifying areas for improvement, documenting critical client flows, and fostering collaboration among team members. Mark shares insights into overcoming challenges in implementing systems, such as resistance to change and concerns about job security. He emphasizes the role of leadership in supporting and adhering to systems to drive organizational success.
Mark introduces a special offer for the audience, providing a free download of his book, "Are Your Leads Killing Your Business?" along with templates, calculators, and training resources to help businesses enhance their revenue systems. He invites viewers to access these resources and offers personalized guidance in diagnosing revenue systems and identifying growth opportunities. Mark concludes by expressing his pleasure in sharing insights and engaging in the conversation.
Brief Summary
Mark Osborne, the founder of Modern Revenue Strategies, discusses the importance of building one-to-one relationships at scale using data and technology in marketing. He emphasizes the significance of systems in setting teams free from friction, enabling collaboration, and providing peace of mind. Mark outlines the process of creating and implementing effective systems to attract prospects, accelerate opportunities, and drive growth in marketing. He highlights the role of clear KPIs and benchmarks in measuring success and offers practical steps for B2B marketers to systematize their processes. Mark introduces a free download of his book and resources to help businesses enhance their revenue systems, concluding with an invitation for viewers to access these resources for personalized guidance.
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Chapters
0:31
Introduction to High Performance Marketing Team
0:56
Importance of Mindfulness in Marketing
1:43
Jeff's Journey into Marketing
3:48
Impactful Campaigns for Business Growth
5:09
Unbreakable Program Implementation
8:25
Development of Unbreakable Training Program
10:24
Creation of Unbreakable One-Day Program
13:14
Embracing Wellness Initiatives
18:11
Marketing Mindfulness within the Organization
21:59
Implementing Mindfulness Programs at HITE
24:46
Leadership Collaboration for Program Success
30:08
Steps to Implement Mindfulness Programs
32:58
Designing Thoughtful Employee Surveys
34:32
Overcoming Objections and Challenges
37:48
Handling Engagement with Mindfulness Programs
38:14
Connection and Collaboration with Jeff Zelaya
Long Summary
Jeff Zelaya discusses his journey in marketing and the importance of mindfulness in a conversation focused on creating a healthy, high-performance marketing team. He emphasizes the impact of mindfulness on marketing professionals, especially during stressful times. Jeff shares personal experiences from his childhood and describes how he developed a passion for marketing at a young age.
As the VP of Demand Generation at Hite Digital, Jeff delves into the initiatives and programs implemented to prioritize mindfulness within his team. He highlights the "Unbreakable" program, which focuses on resilience and mental toughness through training sessions, breathing exercises, and even ice baths. Jeff explains the positive outcomes of these initiatives, such as improved team retention, morale, and happiness.
The conversation touches on the implementation of mindfulness programs, including the importance of budgeting and measuring success through surveys and feedback. Jeff provides insights into potential obstacles when introducing mindfulness programs, such as resistance from team members or leaders. He emphasizes the need for consistency and adaptability in such initiatives.
Jeff also offers practical advice for marketing leaders looking to integrate mindfulness into their teams, suggesting steps like setting clear goals, designing surveys for feedback, and adapting programs based on results. He emphasizes the importance of being open to feedback and customizing initiatives to suit the team's needs. Jeff encourages connection on LinkedIn for further discussions on mindfulness and marketing practices.
Brief Summary
Jeff Zelaya discusses the significance of mindfulness in marketing teams, sharing personal experiences and insights on implementing mindfulness initiatives. Jeff emphasizes the positive impact of mindfulness programs on team retention and morale, highlighting the importance of consistency and adaptability. He offers practical advice for marketing leaders, emphasizing clear goals, feedback surveys, and customization based on results. Jeff encourages further discussions on LinkedIn for those interested in integrating mindfulness into marketing practices.
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In this rebranded premiere of "Mindful B2B Marketing," host Keirra Woodard embarks on a transformative journey for season two, evolving from the previous focus of "Forward Launch Your SaaS" to a pioneering exploration of ethically driven and socially impactful marketing strategies in the B2B realm. Keirra introduces the concept of mindful marketing, a holistic approach that extends the definition of success beyond financial gains to include positive outcomes for customers, employees, and society at large.
This season, Keirra is determined to delve deeper into the essence of marketing with a conscience, inviting seasoned leaders from renowned B2B brands to share their stories of success achieved through commitment to ethical practices and social good. The conversations aim to unveil strategies that not only foster business growth but also promote sustainable development, highlighting environmentally-friendly initiatives, inclusivity, and digital sustainability.
Listeners can expect a variety of insightful episodes that cover critical aspects of mindful B2B marketing, including the importance of truthful marketing claims, strategies to prevent team burnout, the significance of clear messaging, and the building of online communities. The season will also tackle the integration of privacy with marketing strategies, the ethical use of AI, and the pivotal role of honesty in marketing communications.
We all know the importance of engaging our audience and standing out in a crowded marketplace. One often overlooked strategy to achieve this is through the power of storytelling. Keirra recently invited Steve Hoffman, CEO of Founder's Space, to the podcast to discuss how SaaS companies can leverage storytelling to strengthen their marketing strategies. Here's a summary of the valuable insights and takeaways from their conversation.
The Importance of Storytelling in B2B SaaS Marketing
When it comes to marketing a B2B SaaS product, it's easy to get caught up in the technical details and lose sight of the bigger picture. However, according to Steve Hoffman, storytelling is a crucial component of successful marketing campaigns. As humans, we're naturally drawn to stories because they help us make sense of the world around us. By weaving a compelling narrative around your product, you can create an emotional connection with your audience that transcends the limitations of traditional marketing methods.
Developing a Compelling Brand Story
Creating a captivating brand story begins with understanding your target audience's pain points and how your product can address them. Steve emphasizes the importance of developing a narrative that positions your product as the solution to your customers' problems. To craft an engaging brand story, consider the following elements:
- The Problem: Clearly define the problem your audience is facing and create a sense of urgency around it.
- The Solution: Explain how your product offers a unique and effective solution to the problem.
- The Journey: Describe the transformation your customers will experience as they implement your solution.
- The Success: Showcase the positive outcomes and results your customers can expect from using your product.
By incorporating these elements into your marketing materials, you can create a compelling narrative that resonates with your audience and motivates them to take action.
Utilizing Testimonials and Case Studies
One of the most effective ways to demonstrate the value of your product is by showcasing real-world success stories. Steve suggests utilizing testimonials and case studies as powerful tools to build trust and credibility with your audience. By sharing the experiences of your satisfied customers, you can validate your product's claims and provide tangible proof of its effectiveness.
When crafting testimonials and case studies, be sure to include:
- The Customer's Background: Offer context by sharing the customer's industry, company size, and role.
- The Challenge: Detail the specific problems the customer was facing before using your product.
- The Solution: Explain how your product helped the customer overcome their challenges.
- The Results: Highlight the positive outcomes the customer experienced as a result of implementing your product.
In the competitive world of B2B SaaS marketing, it's essential to differentiate your brand and create an emotional connection with your audience. By harnessing the power of storytelling, you can craft a compelling narrative that highlights the value of your product and drives customer engagement. Take inspiration from Steve Hoffman's insights and leverage storytelling, testimonials, and case studies to create an unforgettable marketing campaign that resonates with your audience and propels your business to new heights.
Disclaimer: This post was created using AI which utilized an interview transcript as a source. Keirra reviewed it for accuracy.
In today's fast-paced digital landscape, it's essential for businesses, especially B2B SaaS companies, to adapt and implement innovative marketing strategies. One such strategy that has proven to be extremely effective is video marketing. In this exclusive interview, we had the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Jenkins, a seasoned entrepreneur and digital marketer, who shared her insights on the power of video marketing and how it has helped her company grow exponentially.
Creating and Repurposing Video Content
According to Sarah, one of the most significant advantages of using video marketing is the ability to repurpose content across different platforms. By creating a single video, businesses can generate a wealth of content, such as transcriptions, social media snippets, blog posts, and podcast episodes. This not only saves time and resources but also ensures that the message is consistent and reaches a wider audience.
The key to successful repurposing lies in producing shorter clips, ideally two to three minutes long, offering valuable strategies and insights. These bite-sized pieces can be used to drive traffic back to longer podcast episodes or other in-depth content, allowing potential customers to engage with your brand more deeply.
The Power of Video Marketing: Short vs. Long Content
Sarah has observed that in the realm of video marketing, both short and long-form content can be highly effective. On one hand, shorter clips can quickly capture viewers' attention, providing immediate value and encouraging them to seek out more information. On the other hand, longer podcast episodes or in-depth videos can offer a more comprehensive understanding of the subject, fostering a deeper connection with the audience.
As a result, it's essential to strike a balance between these two formats, using both to target different segments of your audience and cater to their unique preferences and needs.
The Impact of Video Marketing on Business Growth
Throughout her 15 years in the marketing industry, Sarah has found that putting video marketing first has never let her down. By consistently leveraging video content, her company has experienced substantial growth and increased revenue. This can be attributed to the ability of video marketing to reach a wider audience, provide valuable content, and foster a deeper connection with potential customers.
Reach Out to Sarah Jenkins
If you're looking to learn more about Sarah Jenkins or her companies -- WebinarJam and Kartra -- she can be reached via LinkedIn or email. As an entrepreneur passionate about video marketing, she is always eager to connect with others and share her insights.
Conclusion
Video marketing has proven to be a powerful tool for B2B SaaS companies looking to grow and thrive in today's competitive market. By creating and repurposing video content strategically, businesses can maximize their reach and engagement, ultimately driving growth and success. As Sarah Jenkins' experience shows, putting video marketing first can lead to impressive results and long-term benefits for your company.
Disclaimer: The following post was created using AI which used an interview transcript as a source.
In today's fast-paced and competitive business environment, companies are always looking for innovative ways to expand their reach and generate more leads. One such method gaining momentum is partnership marketing. To better understand this powerful tool, we recently had an insightful conversation with Renee Bigelow, a seasoned marketing expert and fractional CMO, who shared her knowledge and experience on the subject.
Renee shared several key benefits of partnership marketing, including:
- Cost-effectiveness: By working together, companies can share marketing expenses, making it a more affordable option for reaching a larger audience.
- Increased reach: Partnering with other businesses allows companies to tap into each other's customer base, thereby increasing their reach and potential leads.
- Improved brand reputation: Association with reputable partners can enhance a company's image and credibility in the market.
- Shared expertise: Companies can learn from each other, share best practices, and improve their marketing strategies.
Creating a Successful Partnership Marketing Strategy
Renee emphasized the importance of understanding each partner's objectives and building a plan that aligns with both companies' goals. She recommended the following steps:
- Identify potential partners: Look for companies that have complementary products or services and share the same target audience.
- Establish clear goals: Define the objectives and desired outcomes for the partnership to ensure both parties are on the same page.
- Develop a joint plan: Collaborate on a marketing plan that includes content, campaigns, events, and other initiatives that will benefit both companies.
- Measure success: Track the performance of the partnership and adjust the strategy as needed to optimize results.
Going Beyond Traditional Tactics
Renee encouraged companies to think beyond traditional partnership marketing tactics, such as co-marketing webinars or joint content downloads, which can become tired and expected. Instead, she suggested integrating partnership marketing into the natural onboarding or prospecting flow of each company. By identifying key leverage points in the customer journey, businesses can create more meaningful and impactful experiences for their customers.
Leveraging Customer Advocacy
Renee also discussed the importance of leveraging existing customers as brand advocates. By identifying satisfied customers, businesses can engage them in testimonials, case studies, and other marketing initiatives. This can be achieved by talking to various departments within the company, such as sales, customer success, and product teams, to identify happy customers and gather feedback.
Conclusion
Partnership marketing presents a wealth of opportunities for businesses to grow and thrive. By collaborating with like-minded companies and leveraging the power of customer advocacy, organizations can significantly improve their marketing efforts and reach new heights. As Renee Bigelow highlighted, the key to success lies in understanding each partner's objectives, developing a joint plan, and constantly evolving the strategy to ensure optimal results.
If you'd like to connect with Renee and learn more about her expertise in partnership marketing, you can find her on LinkedIn. Don't miss out on her upcoming project to publish mental models and concepts that have proven successful in her work with clients. Stay tuned for more insights from industry experts like Renee!
GUEST BIO
Joran Hofman started his career in SaaS sales before moving into customer success. He became the Head of Customer Success at Leadfeeder, managing a team of 25 people. As an affiliate of around 80 SaaS tools, he noticed many issues with the current tools, hence he started his own affiliate management tool for B2B SaaS companies, Reditus.
MAIN INSIGHT
Run experiments and track high-level impact. Leverage others rather than doing everything yourself.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Find early adopters by launching on AppSumo, building in public, sharing content on LinkedIn, and joining Reddit forums and Quora feeds.
- Create an inbound funnel engaging with potential customers.
- Find someone with experience to consult with and collaborate on creating an SEO strategy.
- Keep control of what you outsource, provide a detailed brief, and track the results.
- Don't spend money unless you know what results the project will produce.
MORE FROM Reditus
Reditus provides a convenient solution for managing affiliate programs and earning commissions from promoting SaaS products. Learn more at https://www.getreditus.com/
GUEST BIO
Tara is the Head of Marketing at GetAccept, and previously was the Director of Demand Generation & Customer Marketing, Community Brands
At Community Brands, Tara was part of the management team propelling the business from 10M ARR to 32M ARR and built up their marketing department from 2 to 33 people during that time.
MAIN INSIGHT
The key to success in marketing is to prioritize collaboration and communication with the sales team, value everyone's input, and be transparent.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Work closely with the sales team to align goals and objectives. Collaborate to improve company metrics, KPIs, and funnels.
- Schedule regular meetings and daily checkpoints to communicate and strategize.
- Share concepts, updates, and ideas with the sales team and involve them in the process from the beginning. Be honest and transparent about failures and admit when things don't work.
- Value everyone's voice and encourage cross-collaboration with other departments, especially in project-based work. Include people from different departments in brainstorming sessions to think outside the box and gain diverse perspectives on the customer.
MORE FROM GetAccept
GetAccept's digital sales room empowers revenue teams to increase
win rates by engaging and understanding buyers from opportunity to signed deal. Learn more about GetAccept at https://www.getaccept.com/ Reach out to Tara Pawlak on LinkedIn to connect.
GUEST BIO
Wilson Bright is the co-founder of BlockSurvey, and he has been building Web 3 projects for the last 3 years. BlockSurvey is one of the fastest-growing data collection platforms in the privacy ecosystem today, with over 10,000 registrations from individuals and organizations. Wilson is responsible for the product, growth, and marketing strategy of BlockSurvey.
MAIN INSIGHT
Use SEO to grow. Build micro-tools to bring traffic to your website and bring in customers.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Use SEO to find and build an audience.
- Understand your audience's pain points to build micro tools that are helpful to your audience. Be prepared to support free users and receive feature requests.
- Conduct competitive analysis and keyword research to optimize your micro tools. Wilson recommends the book 'Product-Led SEO' for tips on how to do this.
- Track the performance of your micro tools. Quality is critical - do not compromise on quality even though these are easy-to-build tools.
- Spend around 30% of your time on producing micro tools.
- Use sub-directories to organize your micro tools outside of your main app.
- Focus on building self-assessments, personality tests, calculators, templates, and assessments to attract audiences. Templatize your micro tools to streamline the development process.
- Building micro tools requires the whole team to be aligned around the strategy, but even without a development team, there are ways to build micro tools (e.g., using templatized tools or hiring freelancers).
MORE FROM BlockSurvey
BlockSurvey is an end-to-end encrypted forms and surveys platform that helps people run sensitive surveys. Follow BlockSurvey on Twitter @Blocksurvey or give the product a try at blocksurvey.io
GUEST BIO
Gregor is the CEO of Parallel Office, an International metaverse startup that combines AI, Blockchain, and VR to create a virtual office that is more immersive, productive, and inclusive. He is a mentor for New Chip and Impact hub, coaching web3 companies on go-to-market, equity fundraising, token sale, value proposition, and growth hacking.
Gregor has mentored over 200,000 people on YouTube and has published several 5-star courses on NFTs on Udemy and Skillshare. He is a multiple-time founder with the most recent exit in the AI and Web3 space. Gregor has worked as a management consultant for over a decade at KPMG and EY on cutting-edge projects involving technologies like AI and Blockchain, and has been involved in the crypto space since 2016, mining, trading, and building.
MAIN INSIGHT
Interview at least 100 potential customers before building your product in order to understand their pain points and create a good value proposition.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Create a hypothesis about who your target persona could be that is based on the problem your product solves.
- Create an Excel sheet and reach out to 30-40 people you want to interview.
- After a few people reply and you do a few interviews, evaluate and update your target persona as you learn more.
- Repeat this process until you've done 100 interviews.
MORE FROM Parallel Office
Parallel Office allows you transform your remote work with virtual reality co-working. Reach out to Gregor Maric on LinkedIn or learn more at paralleloffice.io
GUEST BIO
From a trailer park to Sunset Blvd, Jeremy has founded three six-figure and one seven-figure no-code SaaS companies from nothing. While raising seven figures in venture capital for his latest venture, TaskMagic, an easy-to-use automation software, he has grown its revenue by 60% month-over-month, hitting $1 million. Jeremy is also a contributing author for Entrepreneur Magazine and shares his building journey on YouTube at The Jeremy Redman.
MAIN INSIGHT
Be authentic in your interactions with people. This will encourage people to talk to you and buy from you. It will also make you a better leader.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Talk to customers, gather data points, build content and use cases around them, and figure out similarities between all customers and build ideal customer profile
- Reverse engineer how you found the current customers to create a scalable system for customer acquisition
- Beware of the pitfall of trying to scale too early without enough mature data
- Overcome fear of vulnerability to be able to authentically connect with customers and create lasting relationships
- Find people who mirror your energy and move on from those who don't.
MORE FROM TaskMagic
TaskMagic helps you record yourself doing manual tasks so you can automate them. Learn more at taskmagic.com
Follow Jeremy's content at The Jeremy Redman on YouTube or Twitter.
GUEST BIO
Nachum Kligman has over 25 years of experience in pioneering business ideas, developing patented technology, and working in video commerce and interoperable messaging. He is currently focused on Book like a Boss, an all-inclusive platform with over 60,000 users that supports entrepreneurs in over 100 countries. Kligman resides in Bet Shemesh, Israel with his wife and nine children.
MAIN INSIGHT
Treat your customers the way you would want to be treated if you were a customer of your own software.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Create a culture and decision around the company that the customer always comes first and that everybody should treat customers as if they're the only customer.
- Provide a platform for customers to communicate with the company directly, such as using live chat, email, and a knowledge base.
- Create a group where users can congregate and ask questions. Make it fun for customers by giving out gifts or posting funny videos. Consider giving rewards, such as a meeting with the CEO, to customers who participate in surveys or help others in the community.
OTHER IDEAS
- Create a community for customers to congregate and talk amongst themselves or ask questions about the software, such as a Facebook group.
- Interact directly with customers one-on-one, even as a CEO or founder, and communicate with them directly.
- Consider doing live support sessions where anybody can come on and ask questions.
MORE FROM BOOK LIKE A BOSS
Book Like a Boss automates your scheduling and allows you to sell your services with customizable, branded booking pages that make it easy for your clients to book you. Reach out to Nachum Kligman on LinkedIn, or learn more at https://www.booklikeaboss.com/
GUEST BIO
Etienne Lecompte is the Founder and CEO at PowerHub. He's also an angel investor and the host of the Renewables:Unscripted Podcast. He helped build PowerHub from his spare bedroom into a respected software company in renewables, leading to the acquisition of the company in 2019.
MAIN INSIGHT
Don't ask for forgiveness, ask for permission. Think outside the box when promoting your brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- When planning to attend events, think about where you should go and what should you do there - should you attend, exhibit, sponsor, or "crash"?
- Think about why you want to be there - e.g. to get in front of someone, or to do market research
- Have a twist on how you're going to accomplish that. For example, you might try to ask for "out of the box" ideas as part of your event sponsorship package, or you might show up at the event in a different way to stand out.
MORE FROM PowerHub
PowerHub is asset management software built for the renewable energy industry. Learn more at https://powerhub.com
GUEST BIO
Irina Poddubnaia is the founder of TrackMage, a SAAS company that simplifies the work of eCommerce business owners by automating the order tracking process. Prior to founding TrackMage, Irina ran a fulfillment center in China for 2.5 years without speaking Chinese. She launched TrackMage entirely remotely without external funding and has successfully run it to this day.
MAIN INSIGHT
Focus on the type of customer that energizes you and be clear on what their customer journey is.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Start looking at what content they're consuming and where. Do competitor research. Use this to identify trends other brands are using to get attention.
- Experiment with creating posts with different type of content and see if your audience responds to it. Use your personal social profiles to test content, then create polished versions of the content that resonates.
- Stand out from the crowd. Use a different format than the standard powerpoint. Make your content sound authentic and like it was written by a real human, not a robot.
MORE FROM TRACKMAGE
TrackMage simplifies the work of eCommerce business owners by automating the order tracking process. This allows them to cut down time spent on customer support by 70% and build long-term relationships with the customers on autopilot. Their tracking page has the capability to display all the shipments inside of a wholesale order. Reach out to Irina on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/irina-poddubnaia/ or learn more at https://trackmage.com/
GUEST BIO
Itai Sadan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Duda, the leading web design platform for web professionals, agencies, and SaaS platforms that serve SMBs. With more than $100 million in funding, Duda has over 18,000 customers worldwide and hosts over a million active websites. Itai has been featured in several publications, including Forbes, TechCrunch, and Entrepreneur, and is a regular speaker at industry events. He holds a BSc in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Ben Gurion in Israel.
MAIN INSIGHT
You can always gain a deeper understanding of your ideal customer profile (ICP). Clarifying your ICP helps everyone in your company become more focused.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Understand your data - look at different slices of your customer base, e.g. the company size, revenue size, industry, pain points
- Identify how those different segments perform over time in order to understand which segments are your best customers
- Make sure this slice of the market is big enough to build a business off of
- Look for customer segments that are going to grow with your company over time and continue using your product. E.g. they will be repeat users, or the segment as a whole is growing, or there is a trend in which more of that type of company will purchase from your product category
- Build features and craft your messaging towards what is helpful for your best customer segment.
MORE FROM DUDA
Duda is a great platform for marketers or marketing teams who need a website builder, including for creating landing pages and microsites. Duda also offers a white label format, which has proven to be useful for several SaaS customers who integrate with the platform to offer websites to their customer base. Learn more at https://www.duda.co/ or reach out to Itai at duda.co via email.
GUEST BIO
Sandra Iđoški is the CEO of Collabwriting, a startup whose main purpose is to help content marketers and creators create better content. We do this by simplifying two key things - research and teamwork around it. Sandra previously worked as a CCO at Teodesk, an innovative IT company that aims to resolve business inefficiency within the Telco industry. Their content marketing strategy at the time set them apart and helped them reach new markets. She considers her biggest accomplishment to be helping scale Teodesk from the local Serbian market to the US, UK, and EU markets.
MAIN INSIGHT
Know the industry insights before you start building your product.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Share your in-house values widely in order to stand out and attract your audience
- Find the intersection between topics based on your company's unique value and your company's target audience
- Start tracking everything you do when posting content - e.g. the time, day, hashtags used when posting on LinkedIn. Use automation to extract data about the best practices for your own company.
- Filter your user feedback to ensure that you're prioritizing the most valuable improvements to make to your products. The book "The Mom Test" has good insights on how to figure out which feedback is coming from real, consistent users and which feedback is just coming from people who like to hear themselves talk.
MORE FROM COLLABWRITING
Collabwriting is a web-based tool that allows users to create highlights, leave comments, and organize content around topics on any website, making the research and data collecting process easier. Learn more at https://collabwriting.com/
GUEST BIO
Steve Benson is CEO and founder of Badger Maps, the #1 App in the App Store for outside and field salespeople. Steve is also CEO of Badger Sales University. After receiving his MBA from Stanford, Steve joined Google, where he became Google Enterprise's Top Sales Executive globally in 2009.
MAIN INSIGHT
Focus your time and energy on revenue from the beginning. Sell the product you think you'll sell even before it's done.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The founder should be the first salesperson in the company. Craft the product around the insights learned from customers.
- Hire the first two salespeople before bringing on a Sales VP, and create a customer success team as early as possible.
- Listen to prospects early on - determine what it would really look like to solve this problem for them.
- Study users throughout the weeks and months after they start using the product and make sure they stay engaged. Hop on calls and message them; take notes to figure out exactly how they're using the product
MORE FROM BADGER MAPS
Badger Maps, the #1 Route Planner for Field Sales, has helped sales teams to increase their sales by 20-25%. Learn more at https://www.badgermapping.com/
GUEST BIO
Nick Ezzo is the head of corporate marketing and demand generation at Auditoria, with over 20 years of experience in technology marketing. Prior to joining Auditoria, he provided digital marketing and demand generation leadership at Sage Intacct, Host Analytics, and Equilar. Nick has also held marketing, business development, and consulting roles at companies such as Aspect, Home Box Office (HBO), and Nuance Communications. He holds a bachelor's degree in Communications Systems Management from Ohio University and has a patent for web-based marketing.
MAIN INSIGHT
If you're not measuring data ahead of time, you can't report on it.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Look at the closed-won opportunities you have over the most recent quarters. Determine how long it took to close the deal, what actions you took, and where it came from. Use that to figure out what metrics to capture
- Have the CEO get sales reps to all capture data in the same way and in the same format.
- Think through the way metrics are captured to make it simple to input and informative for reviewers. For example, have a required "Date" field where sales reps input the day they had a sales call.
- Replicate the process of what was successful in closing those customers
- Refine the sales process - figure out what's working, and if something isn't working, remove it and combine it with another step.
MORE FROM AUDITORIA
Auditoria.AI's SmartBots can streamline communication with key stakeholders by automating tasks and capturing documentation. By connecting to systems of record and shared email inboxes, SmartBots can prioritize and assign tasks, reducing friction and task repetition. Learn more at auditoria.ai
GUEST BIO
Pratik Thakker is an Indian-born digital and tech entrepreneur based in Israel. He is known as Israel’s tech ambassador to India and has a strong social media presence with over 180K followers and 200+ million views. Pratik is the Founder and CEO of Webzoly, a company that helps global businesses hire remote talent. Additionally, he is a co-founder and COO at Testlify, a talent assessment platform that uses AI and deep analysis to help companies find the best talent in a precise, automated, and impartial way.
MAIN INSIGHT
Make sure each employee is connected to the mission and culture. Be an employee-driven company.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Set expectations for the role, mention the salary range, and ask pre-qualification questions. This helps candidates understand whether it's worth their time to invest in applying
- Use a pre-screening process
- Communicate with all applicants, whether or not they were hired
MORE FROM WEBZOLY AND TESTLIFY
Learn more about Webzoly or Testlify by visiting webzoly.com (global remote hiring platform) or testlify.com (AI talent assessment platform). Pratik is happy to offer one-on-one demos of both of the platforms. Reach out to him directly via LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/pratik-thakker/
GUEST BIO
Ernesto Gaxha is a co-founder of SplitSpot, an innovative rental platform that has served thousands of residents in several cities in the US. He is a Harvard/MIT grad who started his career as an institutional investor before entering the world of startups.
MAIN INSIGHT
Craft an initial pitch that differentiates your brand within the first 60 seconds of speaking to a prospective customer.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Look at your competitors' messaging. Determine the features of what you're offering and how it's different from existing products in the market.
- Brainstorm ways that your company is different. Put yourself in the shoes of people receiving the message -- what was it that caused them to give you the time of day?
- Create a 60-second pitch or less that explains who you are, what you do, and how your product is different from what's typically out there.
MORE FROM SPLITSPOT
SplitSpot is a platform that helps make the process of renting easier for residents, landlords, and property managers. They aim to provide a solution to some of the challenges presented by the current housing crisis. If anyone has properties that they think could be a good fit or has an interest in discussing the issue, they can reach out to Ernesto by email at his name at splitspot.com.
GUEST BIO
Adam Tank is a seasoned professional with over 10 years of experience in the water industry, specializing in innovation, software, and business development. In his current role as Chief Customer Officer at Transcend, Adam is responsible for the success of the clients and marketing initiatives related to the Transcend Design Generator and automation of preliminary engineering activities. Before joining Transcend, Adam served as the North America Smart Cities Director at Suez and led a robotics spin-out of the General Electric corporation, which focused on cutting-edge potable water pipe rehabilitation techniques. Adam received his undergraduate degree in microbiology from Kansas State University and his M.B.A. from the University of Arizona. In addition to his professional career, Adam is an avid water blogger and podcaster, foster dad, long-form author, and an advocate for volunteer organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.
MAIN INSIGHT
Involve customers and continuously gather feedback throughout the product development process to ensure that you are building the right thing.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Start by having an internal discussion with your company to understand what your ideal future for the company looks like.
- Create a minimum viable content piece or product mock-up to show customers what the future will look like.
- Get feedback from existing and potential customers in real-time to see how they feel about the concept.
- Continuously get feedback as you build the product or service.
- Set up touchpoints or checkpoints with initial interested customers.
- Try to have sales conversations with customers to understand what they are willing to pay.
- Keep getting feedback to ensure that you are building the right thing.
MORE FROM TRANSCEND
Transcend Design Generator (TDG) is an intuitive, online generative design platform that enables capital planners, project developers, and engineering professionals to rapidly generate preliminary engineering designs for critical infrastructure, including the Water & Wastewater treatment and Power Sectors. Learn more at https://transcendinfra.com/
GUEST BIO
Katherine Wells is the CEO and founder of Serenity, a network that allows aging service providers, older adults and their loved ones to care together. She created the company out of her direct experience of silos in senior care. Katherine's own experience of caring for her aging parents, who were not expecting to need care, inspired her to launch Serenity, which gives providers an easier way to communicate and collaborate with family members in a secure, digital way.
WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT
Katherine advises marketing executives and founders to grow or promote their businesses by implementing the product with a small test group of users, getting them set up, having them share it with everyone in their organization, and giving them a quick and easy way to connect with other companies or service providers they are working with. Then, a sales conversation is initiated with those other companies.
Katherine emphasizes the importance of building a viral product when it comes to growing or promoting a business. She suggests focusing on solving one problem in a particular industry or company, measuring the results, and de-risking the experiments. She also encourages entrepreneurs to have big visions, lead in a way that allows others to follow, and to communicate the results of their experiments in order to grow their product.
MORE FROM SERENITY
Serenity helps streamline communication in the senior care industry and provides a digital channel for people to communicate with one another. Reach out to Katherine at serenityengage.com, and to attend their event, Collaboration in Aging, to discuss the issues faced by seniors in the industry.
GUEST BIO
Graham Sawrey is the CEO of Pixel True, a design agency that works with SaaS companies. Graham has a background in managing companies in various industries such as content marketing, affiliate marketing, design, animation, copywriting, and Web3 software. He got into building businesses because of his interest in the online marketplace and the attractive multiples for investing in online businesses. Graham believes that having a cohesive brand across all assets is crucial for most companies, especially SaaS companies, to grow. Pixel True works with a number of SaaS companies at all stages and has grown in the last year from 13 employees to nearly 100 today.
WHAT WE DISCUSSED
Graham discusses the importance of unifying a company's brand identity across all its pages and social media accounts. He mentions that this can help with simplicity and the creation of content faster. However, he mentions that it is difficult to determine specific results because there are many intangibles and variables involved, such as the effort the company puts into promoting its brand, the amount of content produced, and the design elements used. He notes that SaaS companies often have a similar aesthetic and that it can be challenging to stand out in a crowded marketplace. He suggests using brand and visual identity to differentiate from the competition.
Graham explains the steps to building a cohesive brand across a B2B SaaS company's website pages and social media. He suggests the following steps:
- Research - this includes going through your competitor's websites and social media to see what you like and don't like. Make detailed notes and try to understand their process. Get insights from others as well.
- Create a database of research - having a database of research is invaluable as it can be used to share with a design team or anyone working on the brand.
- Execution - focus on what needs to be done based on the time and resources available. He suggests focusing on social media as a starting point.
Graham emphasizes that doing the research is the most crucial step and will lay the foundation for the rest of the work. It's also important to put in the work when it comes to creating a cohesive brand across platforms and websites. He cautions against shortcuts that may result in an inconsistent and confusing user experience. Graham also offers advice on striking a balance between research and execution, and suggests reaching out to Pixel True for help with design services.
MORE FROM PIXEL TRUE
Pixel True provides an experienced design team that works with you everyday to create high-quality design assets to help grow your business. Learn more at https://www.pixeltrue.com/
GUEST BIO
Eric McHugh is the Chief Growth Officer and co-founder of ShopX, a Web3 eCommerce platform that utilizes ENFTs to create a new revenue channel for eCommerce brands without diluting their brand value. Eric previously worked at Snap as a bankruptcy consultant and helped found a social commerce platform. He was drawn to the world of cryptocurrency and entrepreneurship, which led him to the ShopX team in 2017. They started a side project, CartRev, a social commerce platform that replaced affiliate links and had over 100 brands using it. The team then transitioned back into ShopX, which is now a blockchain-as-a-service platform for e-commerce brands. Eric is excited to be working in the technology space and is proud of the team's efforts in ShopX.
WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT
ShopX is a technology platform that provides a new way to sell products using NFTs (non-fungible tokens). A famous dog on Instagram, Husky Jackson, used ShopX's NFT technology to launch a reserve pass before releasing his product. The reserve pass allowed him to get funding for his product in real-time and prove that customers were interested in it. ShopX is also partnering with a TV show for a one-time pass for a one-time product, such as a makeup kit. The use of NFTs makes it more secure and easier to prove ownership, and also allows for future royalty options for the brand. The biggest insight from ShopX is that this technology is in demand, despite people not being familiar with crypto and NFTs.
In this conversation, Eric is discussing the importance of being authentic and incorporating personal values into one's personal brand and content. He shares how he incorporates things such as his interests in discipline, spiritual pursuits, and pop culture references into his communication with others. He mentions how he sends playful emails referencing TV shows like Parks and Rec and incorporates the phrase "please and thank you" due to his love for the show. Eric believes in having a team that is on the same page, energetically aligned and with the same values, and this attracts the right people to work together.
Eric discusses his product launch and the strategy for connecting with potential clients and investors. He mentions that the approach depends on the content and that some people prefer to engage with the content at their own pace. Eric also mentions the importance of being authentic but having a thick skin as some people may not like it.
MORE FROM SHOPX
ShopX unlocks the power of Web3 for brand loyalty and growth. Learn more at https://shopx.co/
GUEST BIOFranck Juvin-Acker is an expert in enhancing sensory experiences for brands to create a deeper connection with consumers. With a background in the sports and tech industries, having worked for renowned companies such as Salomon, Nixon, and Adidas, as well as collaborating with Star Wars and Google, Franck has a wealth of experience in creating innovative solutions. Currently, Franck heads the digital health portfolio for Enovis, a leading player in the Medtech industry. Under his leadership, the company's latest launch was awarded the prestigious ACE award, being recognized as one of the most cutting-edge innovations for patient recovery.
INTERVIEW TAKEAWAYS
In our conversation, Franck talks about his background in the sport equipment industry and how it led him into the marketing and business world. He emphasizes the importance of having a human touch and understanding the users in order to create successful products or services. He also touches upon the idea of open-mindedness and immersing oneself in the users' lives. He argues that a common mistake startups make is not doing enough research on the market and talking to people. When it comes to integrating this type of direct communication into a marketing department, Franck suggests making it part of the regular routine and having a collaborative process.
Franck mentions that it is important to focus on the "voice of the customer." He advises that for startups, the process can start by testing the product with relatives or people connected to the company, and for established companies, testing with a select group of ideal customers. He mentions that giving control and shares to brand ambassadors such as surgeons can give validity to the product and help with legitimacy and attracting more users. The importance of distributing samples and getting feedback from actual people is highlighted.
Franck advises marketing executives and founders to focus on the needs of the average person in their marketing campaigns. He highlights that regular people face difficulties in their recovery process as they do not receive the same level of care as professional athletes. He also mentions the frustration that patients feel as they feel alone in their recovery process, due to long wait times and limited time with their surgeon. Franck suggests that a digital app like Motion IQ can help bridge the gap, by bringing the surgeon into the home to support the patient in their recovery. He also mentions the importance of understanding the end-user and the care team in a B2B context.
He also suggests that marketers focus on making the lives of their customers and end users easier. He suggests using observation and market research to inform the design of products and marketing campaigns. This can involve getting feedback from customers and using it to improve the product and marketing strategies. Franck also mentions the importance of paying attention to nonverbal cues and feedback, as people may not always express their thoughts or opinions outright. He suggests using empathy and understanding to connect with customers and to adjust strategies based on their needs and feedback.
MORE FROM ENOVIS
As a leading medical technology company, Enovis is focused on developing clinically differentiated solutions that generate better patient outcomes and transform workflows. Learn more at https://enovis.com/
GUEST BIO
Jonathan Zacks is on a mission to decimate no-show appointments. After running an appointment-based business for a decade, he co-founded GoReminders, which increases business revenue and cuts wasted staff time with automated appointment reminders and online booking. Jonathan runs Growth & Marketing for GoReminders and loves helping small businesses with automation and communication.
MAIN INSIGHT
Do less research and more "doing". Test and iterate quickly to improve marketing campaigns.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Trust your gut. Have confidence.
- Shift your mindset from "doing" to "trying".
- Try the project out, making sure it's within a risk range you're comfortable with.
- Test and measure. Look for noticeable results within relatively short timeframes (e.g. testing whether a new website headline unambiguously led to more conversions within 1-2 weeks rather than waiting for months)
MORE FROM GoReminders
GoReminders is an easy-to-use software for automated reminders, text messages, confirmations, and online scheduling, that saves you time and makes you money. Learn more at https://www.goreminders.com/
GUEST BIO
Michael’s mission to connect health-concerned consumers to nurses in their own communities is based on personal experience he and his wife had when their daughter was born with a congenital heart defect. “Texting with our friend Kim, who happened to be a pediatric nurse practitioner, helped us get through the scary and confusing healthcare system. I want everyone to have access to these same caring and compassionate professionals in our communities”.
Michael previously co-founded two venture-backed companies as Co-founder and Head of Product at the health and fitness-tracking platform RunKeeper and Co-founder and CEO of the AI-powered local restaurant ordering platform Chef Nightly. Michael also served as Head of Product at the venture-backed startup Mobee, a retail app that rewards consumers by providing feedback to local retailers.
MAIN INSIGHT
Don't sell products -- sell solutions. Present your product as a solution to customers' pain points.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Get people from your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) on a call. Make sure you understand your ICP.
- Bring various members of your team to the call, and understand the different motivations of different team members.
- Ask questions about the prospective customer's current solution.
- Make sure everyone on the call, conducting the interview is happy and has their questions answered live.
- Walk through the concerns the user has - why do they think there's a better solution?
MORE FROM NURSE 1-1
Nurse 1-1 allows healthcare providers to offer nurse chat support and receive data-driven insights to improve adherence at any step of the patient journey. Find them at nurse-1-1.com
GUEST BIO
Ben Dooley is the founder of Untabit, a cutting-edge content creation platform that automates the research process for marketers and sales teams. With over a decade of experience in the industry, Ben has a proven track record of success, having sold over $100 million worth of software throughout his career. He is deeply passionate about bridging the gap between sales and marketing, and is committed to helping businesses streamline their content creation process to achieve maximum impact and success.
MAIN INSIGHT
Get deep when getting feedback from users, in order to improve your product and marketing copy.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Have a 30 minute session with prospective users
- Do a 5 minute training session with the user, then have the user run through the product themself, on a recorded Zoom call
- Share these insights with your team to hone customer personas and develop marketing copy that uses your target customers' language
MORE FROM UNTABIT
Untabit is a content creation platform that automates the content research process. Learn more at untabit.com
GUEST BIO
Ram is a serial entrepreneur and expert in technology, marketing and sales with nearly 30 years of experience. He founded Bento to revolutionize the dental insurance system and provide affordable oral care for all Americans. He has also successfully built and sold multiple startups, including Cimaron, CHiL Semiconductor, and Sanovi. Ram has held senior positions at companies such as AMCC, IR, and AT&T Bell Labs. He is regarded as one of Boston's best entrepreneurs and engineers.
MAIN INSIGHT
Partner with associations that your ideal customers are members of in order to leverage the association's access to your ideal customers and the credibility that comes from being an official partner.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Identify which associations have influence over your customers
- Evaluate what the association's current marketing strategies are -- do they promote products and services to their members?
- Approach the highest executive you can find within the association (e.g. the director or board chair) and demo your product
- Manage the relationship - establish what the monthly or quarterly communication strategy will be with their members. (Don't assume the association will do this for you.)
MORE FROM BENTO
Bento can provide dental benefits for your employees that are more affordable for you and more frictionless for them to use. Contact Bento at bento.net
GUEST BIO
Charles Brecque is the founder and CEO of Legislate, a legal tech company that makes it easy for non-lawyers to create and manage lawyer-approved contracts. The company has focused heavily on simplifying legalese and helping businesses create robust contracts without a legal budget. Recently, Legislate crossed 100 paying customers and is growing rapidly thanks to SEO.
MAIN INSIGHT
Share content on your website that serves the full customer intent journey.
KEY TAKEAWAYS / ACTION STEPS
- Do high-level research to discover content that users will need, whether they already realize they need the solution or not
- Educate potential users on why your solution is appropriate
- Create educational content around how to use your solution
- Create spinoff content for how to use your solution in specific use cases
MORE FROM LEGISLATE
Legislate makes it easy for non-lawyers to create and manage lawyer-approved contracts. Learn more at https://www.legislate.tech/
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – How LeadSnap started
03:38 – Trajectory of LeadSnap
07:03 – What LeadSnap is looking for currently
08:43 – Experts to help with growth
11:02 – Finding the mentor that is the right fit
15:41 – Before and after having a mentor
18:18 – Coaches that are worth it
20:24 – Defining deliverables
23:48 – How to find feedback from mentors
25:30 – Successfully implementing a coaching service in your organization
30:08 – What to avoid when finding a mentor for a company
31:50 – Recommendations for SaaS Founders/CEOs
GUEST BACKGROUND
Patric Shannon is the founder and CEO of LeadSnap marketing software. He has a background in running a 7-figure marketing agency, and created LeadSnap to solve problems in the local marketing space. Patric is also a experienced coach, having helped over 1000 individuals master local marketing. His unique approach to business building has allowed him to travel the world and explore the United States in an RV between 2018 and 2021. Before starting his career in marketing, Patric spent 10 years as a professional poker player. With his wealth of experience and insights, Patric is a valuable asset for anyone looking to master local marketing, build a successful business, and turn their passion into profit.
MAIN INSIGHT
Finding people that are better than us can accelerate our company's growth.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Hire experts to be mentors
- We can grow faster by finding people who have done what we want to do now
- What can be measured can be improved
- Pay attention to factors that can affect our numbers and try to test them
- Not all high-priced coaches are good, some lesser-known coaches are worth their value.
PRACTICAL STEPS
- Get the leadership team involved in decision making within the company.
- When considering different programs, it is important to consult with people who have gone through the program and to look for testimonials and case studies.
- Look for programs with important deliverables like having conversations often
MORE FROM LeadSnap
LeadSnap is an all-in-one suite of tools that provides agencies with full customer relationship management (CRM), reputation management, Google My Business Management, workflow automation, Voice over IP (VOIP) phone tracking system, and connections to Google Analytics, tools for Google Ads and more. It’s built to help marketing agencies automate, scale, and save time and money. Learn more at leadsnap.com
TIMESTAMPS
06:33 - Why video is the channel to focus on now
08:30 - How to plan video content
10:40 - Where and how to use your video in your marketing strategy
16:10 - How video content helps InEvent
22:30 - Who should be the face of the video
24:30 - How to optimize your videos
GUEST BACKGROUND
Pedro Góes is the CEO of InEvent, a Y Combinator venture-backed company providing an event, marketing, and sales platform for Forbes 2000 Global companies, including Amazon, Coca-Cola, KPMG, Santander, Unilever, Boeing, Embraer, and Citibank. Early in his career and during college, Pedro started a company with more than 10,000 monthly active paying users.
MAIN INSIGHT
Using video in your marketing strategy helps train customers and build trust.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Video is a great medium to convey emotions, but can be hard to execute well.
- Video is the best channel to focus on currently.
- A script is essential for a good video.
- The video should have a story and be as short as possible.
- Utilize video to train customers on your product.
- The person in the video should be comfortable on camera.
- Video marketing works like an inverted funnel.
PRACTICAL STEPS
- Identify and research who your actual customer is.
- Figure out what they like.
- Plan the video.
- Add humor and engagement to the video.
- Make it as short as possible.
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Focus on one topic per video.
- Don't use fancy edits that distract viewers.
- Make sure background music is at the correct sound level.
- Cut out unnecessary elements.
MORE FROM InEvent
InEvent is a powerful software for in-person professional events and video productions. It can be used to run live meetings, real-life experiences, TV-like broadcasts, or virtual events. Learn more at InEvent.com
TIMESTAMPS
01:27 - People, process, and performance
06:42 - Keeping your team focused
12:00 - Communicating with your team
16:00 - Aligning the business in terms of product, sales, customer, and marketing
21:20 - Team Meetings
23:00 - Steps on focusing and aligning your team
33:04 - Why is it important to be aligned at the leadership level
38:50 - Hiring the right people
GUEST BACKGROUND
Pius Chan has 20 years of SaaS experience in various roles, including CX and Sales, and has worked with Hootsuite, Galvanize, and Procurify before joining Lumen5.
MAIN INSIGHT
Hiring the right people and focusing on the right process will improve your team's performance.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Hiring the wrong people can lead you in the wrong direction.
- Take time to hire the right roles you need.
- Focus on the right channel for your business.
- Performance comes when you have the right people and the right process.
- People buy your product because they understand the value of your product.
- Focusing on the mindset of your team will make sure to keep them aligned on the key channels.
- The target and KPIs represent the expectations for the team members.
- Understanding your colleague’s goals helps you fulfill your business goals.
- People respond to personalized messages and to what is impactful for them.
PRACTICAL STEPS
- Aligning with the leaders first helps a longer-term strategy as a company.
- Build a culture and strategy with your team to accomplish your goal.
- Look for what metrics are impactful for a specific channel and stick to it.
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Hiring the right people is about skills, personal will, and desire to make an impact and grow.
- Manage team member’s time so that they have time for both priority and non-priority tasks.
- Speak in your audience's language.
MORE FROM LUMEN5
Lumen5 is a video maker built to supercharge your content strategy. Easily make videos for content marketing and thought leadership. Learn more at Lumen5.com
Sign up for the newsletter at forwardlaunchyoursaas.com
Hello and welcome to Forward Launch Your SaaS, the show where we interview B2B SaaS founders and marketing executives about their campaigns and the biggest pieces of wisdom they have to share with other founders and marketers.
I'm excited to announce some upcoming changes to the show that I believe will make it even more valuable to our listeners.
First, I want to expand the show to include some larger B2B SaaS companies in addition to startups.
This change will benefit both startups and scaleups, as business leaders will be able to hear a mix of perspectives from newer and more established companies. Episodes specific to startups will be labeled as the "startup insights" series, while other episodes will be applicable to established companies.
Second, I care about the effects that businesses have on society and want to help companies grow while also making a positive impact on humanity and society. Many businesses prioritize profit over societal impacts, but I believe businesses can and should be a force for positive change.
Considering the consequences to society at every stage of a company's growth can position companies for long-term success and outperform competitors that don't consider these issues. It also has other benefits like improving team performance, allowing proactive issue management, and making the company more resilient to problems that competitors will face.
For example, companies that considered potential privacy concerns before investing in Google Ads won't be affected by Google's recent decision to eliminate third-party advertising, while competitors will have to scramble to adapt. Additionally, companies that consider these issues can attract a wider range of customers who are concerned about privacy.
That's why I'm adding in questions about social impact to our regular episodes and starting a new series called "Uplifting SaaS".
In these episodes, I'll be speaking with founders, CEOs, and agency owners who sell to or work with SaaS companies about growing a company in general and about their social mission. We'll primarily be exploring how they achieved or how they helped SaaS companies achieve a positive social impact.
I'll also be publishing new episodes three times a week, with the possibility of even more frequent releases. The traditional format will continue for a few more months, but starting in March or April, you'll see more social impact content and a wider variety of guests.
I hope these changes will make Forward Launch Your SaaS even more valuable to you!
TIMESTAMPS
03:00 - Why Kate’s Dad told her that she couldn’t work for other people anymore
08:56 - The Art Of The Start by Guy Kawasaki
11:20 - Her first angel investors
12:50 - Walmart project that helps them to reach 130% ROI
15:30 - The power of voice and copy
18:00 - How Lately can help you get more out of your content
24:00 - The mindset that helps them get 240% in monthly revenue
28:40 - Finding a pure place
31:00 - How opportunity and doors opened just by being herself
35:00 - Be careful who you listen to
GUEST BACKGROUND
Kate Bradley Chernis is the Founder & CEO of Lately – A.I that learns which words will get you the most engagement and turns your video, audio, and text into dozens of social posts containing those words.
As a former rock 'n' roll dj, Kate served 20 million listeners as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. She’s also an award-winning radio producer, engineer and voice talent with 25 years of national broadcast communications, brand-building, sales and marketing expertise. What she learned in radio about the neuroscience of music helps fuel Lately's artificial intelligence.
Prior to founding Lately, Kate also owned a marketing agency that got Walmart a 130% ROI YoY for three years.
MAIN INSIGHT
Trusting your gut and being yourself opens opportunities for the company and builds more trust in your team.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Everything is about emotion
- Create and share the right mindset with your team
- Investors bets on your guts and not on the product
- Being yourself means being more confident and creative
PRACTICAL STEPS
- Create and identify the environment where you can be creative
- Identify the uncomfortable situation and change it
- Be yourself
- Know when to listen and get feedback from other people
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Choose the right feedback and people to listen to
- Trust your gut immediately
- Trust your team that they will accept whatever you say that comes out of your mind
MORE FROM LATELY AI
Lately’s AI learns which words will get you the most engagement and repurposes video, audio, and text into dozens of social posts that contain those words. Learn more at lately.ai
TIMESTAMPS
(04:15) Instantaneous lead alert and lead responses
(09:58) Lead cost and cost of acquisition
(14:38) Have a script of ideas rather than a script of words
(18:48) Knowing more about your customers
(20:54) Creating ads that hook people
(24:50) Competitors’ lead magnet systems
(27:00) Customizing the language depending on the industry
(28:47) Why less is more
(32:00) Implementing the system successfully
GUEST BACKGROUND
Zeze is the Founder & CEO of Beam.city. It is the world's 1st unified advertising automation platform that uses A.I. & algorithms to help businesses automatically plan and optimize their ads on all top advertising channels with fantastic results in days or weeks. Not only is Zeze a trained rocket scientist, he's launched over 11,000 products and applied AI and eCommerce systems.
MAIN INSIGHT
Increase sales revenue by building a system for instant alerts and responses to incoming leads.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Building a system for instantaneously alerting your sales team when a lead shows up makes better sales revenue
- Another instantaneous touchpoint is to have a response through SMS
- Less is more when it comes to messages
PRACTICAL STEPS
Tips for creating ads that will hook people:
- Using emojis is important is social platforms (FB, IG, YT, etc)
- You want people to opt-in
- Media should have a very clear message on its first frame
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Lead responses should be natural and not sound like they came straight from SOPs.
MORE FROM BEAM.CITY
Beam.city DNA is a powerful, yet easy-to-use growth coordination AI-SaaS platform. It helps you automate and coordinate marketing and sales workflows using ads, text, and social media to get incredible results. Shrink your costs and blast past your growth goals without tab-jumping, spreadsheets, or confusion by using predictive audiences, a goal-customized marketing mix, and an always-on proactive AI expert. Learn more at beam.city
TIMESTAMPS
(03:36) The 1-hour Rule
(08:01) The Scale-up modes in startups
(10:00) Implementing the 1-hour rule
(14:55) Having a better perspective with everyone’s ideas
(16:00) What you are excited about versus what the users might want
(20:19) Launch fast and learn quickly
(25:25) Have an action-oriented mindset
(27:00) Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes
GUEST BACKGROUND
Nitesh Banta believes technology is a force to be reckoned with, which drove him to co-found B12, a human-assisted AI that builds your website in 60 seconds. He completely swapped the business and company strategy from self-serve to enterprise and built a marketing team and strategy from the ground up.
MAIN INSIGHT
Using the 1-hour rule that Nitesh implemented at B12 helps you and your team to be more productive
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- For early-stage companies, it is important to focus on the phase of learning and validating their ideas
- The 1-hour rule gives you real-time feedback from your users/customers
- Give everyone on your team the opportunity to share ideas
- Talk and observe the behavior of your users to know what their preferred platform is
- Be clear on the process and try to understand what the output looks like with that process.
- It’s more important to have the mindset (putting yourself in your buyer’s shoes) than the process to follow
PRACTICAL STEPS
- Brainstorm to figure out the intersection between what you are excited about versus what the users might want.
- Think about how you could get started with that idea and test it within an hour (or the quickest possible version of the idea)
- Jump in and do it - see what happens
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Launch fast and iterate quickly based on your user feedback.
- You don’t need a lot of time to get user feedback.
MORE FROM B12
B12 is the all-in-one platform to help your business more easily attract, win, and serve clients online. Learn more at b12.io
TIMESTAMPS
03:57 - Thinking of marketing channels “Stock Portfolio”
07:10 - Validation process
14:53 - Crafting your marketing team
23:51 - Short and long-term bets in marketing
25:39 - The thing that most marketers fail to do
GUEST BACKGROUND
Emil Kristensen is currently the CMO of Drip - a marketing automation platform for eCommerce. Previously he was the founder and CMO of Sleeknote. He also hosts a Danish podcast called Marketing Brief with over 3 million downloads.
MAIN INSIGHT
Interpreting marketing channels as a stock portfolio can give you better decisions and understanding.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- When you invest in multiple channels, you must give them time and resources to show its results
- There’s no hack to growth in marketing
- Selecting marketing channels involves a validation process
- Analyze your competitors and do exactly what they are not doing
- Recreate your competitors’ org structures from LinkedIn when crafting your marketing team
- Short-term bets in choosing a marketing channel is a bet you want to take and see if it is good to invest for your long-term bets/goals
- If you find something that works, try putting a little more effort into it over time, rather than doing new things every single time
PRACTICAL STEPS
Choosing which marketing channel to put in your marketing “portfolio”
- Figure out what skills are already in your marketing team
- Analyze what are the KPIs of your company
- Analyze your competitors’ weaknesses and identify opportunities to beat them
- Use this information to craft your team and decide which marketing channels to invest in
- Set a goal framework for your team (short and long-term goals)
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Don’t copy what your competitors are doing
- Instead of trying new things, do more of the things that have already been validated
MORE FROM DRIP
Drip unleashes the power of direct-to-consumer brands’ customer data to deliver perfectly personalized email marketing strategies that are proven to grow revenue. Learn more at drip.com
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GUEST BACKGROUND
Clay Kramer runs SEORadar; a SaaS company focused on helping marketers and SEO managers to have visibility over their website's changes that impact organic traffic. He has over 10 years of experience as a product manager, where he delivered results and more than doubled engagement and monetization.
MAIN INSIGHT
Understanding your customer and broadcasting it to your team can help you decide your marketing strategy and positioning.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Broadcast the insight you get from your customer to your team
- Cut out the assumptions
- Understanding their language and terminology can help you create marketing content and redesign your copy
PRACTICAL STEPS
- Invite a potential or existing customer to hop on a call
- You can give incentives such as Amazon gift cards
- Let the customer walk you through their day-to-day activity
- Allow the customer to speak out and avoid interrupting them
- Ask them what would happen if your product were gone tomorrow
- Summarize and add your perspective
- Broadcast to your team
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Filter the best conversation you had with the customer before sharing it with your team
- Only take snippets of the conversation you had with the customer and share them with your team
- Don’t be afraid to experiment and redesign your software from the insights you received
MORE FROM SEORADAR
SEORadar allows your team to avoid code changes that lower search rankings. SEORadar monitors webpages and alerts website managers (SEOs, CEOs, Marketers, QA Engineers, Product Managers or Webmasters) to site changes that can have potentially dire consequences for organic traffic. Learn more at seoradar.com
Connect with Clay at linkedin.com/in/claykramer/
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TIMESTAMPS
02:40 - Data makes content more exciting
13:16 - Breaking down data into content and actionable tasks
17:50 - The hardest part of creating content based on data
24:00 - Why the product and marketing team should work together, and what opportunity is being missed
26:30 - Data is not interesting to everyone
29:30 - How Platypus never runs out of data
34:00 - Brainstorming content
GUEST BACKGROUND
Katie Johnson is the Marketing Manager at Platypus, an HR tech startup with a mission to reinvent the future of work by prioritizing company culture. Katie started her career in marketing in 2017 and previously led the marketing activity at the award-winning search and behavioral science agency, Reflect Digital, supporting the company's ambitious growth and revenue targets.
MAIN INSIGHT
Bringing data into your culture can help your team craft better content, which leads to successful marketing campaigns.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Content is king, and data is the castle
- Change and adapt your content strategy, and focus on the key data findings
- Helping people see the actual benefit of your product can help increase the traffic on your website
- Writers love it when you have proven data
- Creating content that is backed up by data is a huge authority builder
- Data can help you get more backlinks which in return helps to boost your SEO
- Too much branding can hurt your content
PRACTICAL STEPS
- Gather data
- Identify the patterns, themes, and correlation
- Blend the data into your content strategy
- Work with your team to figure out the content theme
- Make the content digestible and easy to read
- Review how the content performs
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Work closely with your data scientist
- Make the data interesting for your audience
- Jump into your audience's shoes and see if it’s valuable to them
- Ask your customers what data they want to see
MORE FROM PLATYPUS
Platypus is an HR and recruitment tool that measures cultural drivers of people across the organization to help you qualify decisions on hiring and managing your culture. Learn more at Platypus.io
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TIMESTAMPS
00:57 - The most difficult science and how he got into marketing
08:18 - Evaluate works from a customer perspective
12:24 - Achieving an integrated marketing strategy
18:00 - How to get enough data efficiently
19:58 - How to make sure your teams are working in the same direction
25:38 - Using leading and lagging indicators in goal setting
27:44 - Understanding factors that can affect your metrics
30:12 - Determining controllable and uncontrollable metrics
GUEST BACKGROUND
Nishchal Dua is a remote work evangelist, co-founder of The Remote Work Summit, and the Director of Marketing at Airmeet. With 8+ years of B2B SaaS marketing experience, Nishchal has seen the B2B buyer's journey evolve from a top-down funnel to a roller-coaster ride.
MAIN INSIGHT
Most SaaS companies don’t have an integrated campaign strategy, which puts them in a position to fail and burn money on marketing.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Winning people with your idea is difficult
- Marketing is about building the right relationship with your customers
- Marketing is a way of connecting people and getting them to the right place that will help them
- As your company grows - never forget to always look at the bigger perspective and make sure that every decision aligns with it
- If your revenue is not growing, the problem is not with the efforts, but with the direction you are moving
- Everybody has to be aligned on the same goal for autonomy to work
- Prioritizing your campaign and goal will save you from doing unnecessary tasks
- Evaluate the WHY of the activity and the effort you’ll be doing
- Ask for enough advice to get enough answers
- Think of your reports to executives not from a delivery standpoint, but based on campaign success reporting
PRACTICAL STEPS
- Get feedback from leaders and executives before executing a plan
- Identify the part of the funnel that you want to work on
- Identify the levers you can pull
- Share it with your team and get feedback on how they can impact the funnel
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Always look at the big picture
- Stop thinking that you can do it alone as a marketer
- Get enough data before jumping into a decision
MORE FROM AIRMEET
Airmeet is the fastest-growing platform for hosting a rich variety of virtual events. From Hackathons to ice-breakers, panel discussions to workshops, Airmeet’s intuitive experience delivers on organizers' expectations for a wide range of events and not just conferences. Learn more at airmeet.com
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to the Forward Launch Your SaaS newsletter
TIMESTAMPS
00:57 - The most difficult science and how he got into marketing
08:18 - Evaluate works from a customer perspective
12:24 - Achieving an integrated marketing strategy
18:00 - How to get enough data efficiently
19:58 - How to make sure your teams are working in the same direction
25:38 - Using leading and lagging indicators in goal setting
27:44 - Understanding factors that can affect your metrics
30:12 - Determining controllable and uncontrollable metrics
GUEST BACKGROUND
Nishchal Dua is a remote work evangelist, co-founder of The Remote Work Summit, and the Director of Marketing at Airmeet. With 8+ years of B2B SaaS marketing experience, Nishchal has seen the B2B buyer's journey evolve from a top-down funnel to a roller-coaster ride.
MAIN INSIGHT
Most SaaS companies don’t have an integrated campaign strategy, which puts them in a position to fail and burn money on marketing.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Winning people with your idea is difficult
- Marketing is about building the right relationship with your customers
- Marketing is a way of connecting people and getting them to the right place that will help them
- As your company grows - never forget to always look at the bigger perspective and make sure that every decision aligns with it
- If your revenue is not growing, the problem is not with the efforts, but with the direction you are moving
- Everybody has to be aligned on the same goal for autonomy to work
- Prioritizing your campaign and goal will save you from doing unnecessary tasks
- Evaluate the WHY of the activity and the effort you’ll be doing
- Ask for enough advice to get enough answers
- Think of your reports to executives not from a delivery standpoint, but based on campaign success reporting
PRACTICAL STEPS
- Get feedback from leaders and executives before executing a plan
- Identify the part of the funnel that you want to work on
- Identify the levers you can pull
- Share it with your team and get feedback on how they can impact the funnel
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Always look at the big picture
- Stop thinking that you can do it alone as a marketer
- Get enough data before jumping into a decision
MORE FROM AIRMEET
Airmeet is the fastest-growing platform for hosting a rich variety of virtual events. From Hackathons to ice-breakers, panel discussions to workshops, Airmeet’s intuitive experience delivers on organizers' expectations for a wide range of events and not just conferences. Learn more at airmeet.com
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to the Forward Launch Your SaaS newsletter
TIMESTAMPS02:00 - Insights on growing the company
06:02 - Getting direct feedback from prospective customers
06:52 - Dealing with different marketing design ideas
11:00 - How to make marketing design work
12:14 - Minimum work needed to get you to your customers
16:01 - What companies should be doing before creating different platforms
16:38 - What assets to test and not to test
GUEST BACKGROUNDSharon Biggar is currently the VP of Marketing & Sales at Hotjar, a tool that provides product experience insights to over a million websites worldwide. Sharon recently spearheaded a company rebrand that helped Hotjar’s revenue grow more than 50% last year.
MAIN INSIGHTKeeping your customer at the heart of marketing helps you be more intentional and avoid burning money on testing.
KEY TAKEAWAYS1. The core of marketing today is analytics 2. Marketing has to be data-driven at its core 3. Keep the customer at the heart of marketing 4. Prospective customers can give you great, honest, and straightforward feedback 5. An advert needs to be understood before making it beautiful
PRACTICAL STEPS1. Give up the idea that a beautiful advertisement is going to be the most effective 2. Identify the minimum viable concept that you can deliver to your prospective customer 3. Get feedback from your customers
TIPS FOR SUCCESS1. Develop empathy with your customer 2. Do not assume that you understand your customers 3. If the cost of testing outweighs the cost of producing the asset and getting it live, it’s suggested not to test it, and if the cost of producing the asset is high, then it is to be tested
MORE FROM HOTJARHotjar is an intuitive, visual way to discover, consolidate, and communicate user needs. Hotjar provides product experience insights which shows how your users are experiencing your website and how to improve your website so that users have a great digital experience. Learn more at hotjar.com
TIMESTAMPS03:21 - Knowing what marketing campaign works
12:09 - Setting up your ideal customer profile
14:11 - Steps to implement a marketing campaign
18:49 - Tips to have a successful marketing campaign
20:45 - Collecting everyone’s point-of-view and aligning everyone on one vision
23:51 - How to get the best insights
GUEST BACKGROUNDNadia is passionate about connecting businesses with their ideal customers. She has accelerated growth strategies for many B2B companies in the SaaS, e-commerce, and tech industries. Her sweet spot is when marketing intersects with technology.
She is a leader that has helped build high-performance teams, producing triple-digit growth in engagement, acquisition, and revenue. In 2020, Nadia was added to Marketo's Fearless 50 list as one of the top 50 marketers in the world.
MAIN INSIGHTUnderstanding your customer and creating customer intimacy will lead to the success of your product and marketing campaigns.
KEY TAKEAWAYS1. You really need to understand your customers/users no matter what the stage of your company is 2. Customers decide if your marketing campaign is successful 3. Give your customers options on how to engage with you 4. Involve your whole team in figuring out your ideal customer profile 5. Create focus groups that are within your ideal customer profile 6. Create polls and surveys if you have a tight budget 7. The best insights come from actually talking to people
PRACTICAL STEPS1. Create opportunities to interview your customer 2. Identify the pain points and AHA moments of your customer 3. Identify what they love about your product and what else they need 4. Identify why your customer chose you rather than competitors 5. Create ideal customer profile (ICP) by having a cross-department workshop 6. Make sure that everyone on your team is aligned and understands your actual customer
TIPS FOR SUCCESS1. Get a lot of viewpoints from the executive chain 2. Listen to your customer before creating an ideal customer profile 3. Dedicate time to listening to customer calls 4. Test your homepage 5. Build a collaborative culture within your company 6. Maximize all your platforms in collecting customer feedback
MORE FROM PROPOSIFYProposify’s proposal software helps growing teams remove document bottlenecks and get visibility into the most important stage of your sales cycle: the close.
Learn more at proposify.com
TIMESTAMPS03:10 - What is a “K Factor”, and why it gives Contractbook exponential growth
08:29 - Why Contractbook charge based on the automation they provide
09:20 - How Contractbook demonstrates value to their users
11:37 - Build trust and expose your user to the power of your platform
13:53 - How Covid helped their market and user to mature
16:30 - Finding different angles to invite more customers
20:02 - Why you should invest in bottom-of-funnel marketing even in the early stages of your business
GUEST BACKGROUNDNiels Martin Brøchner is CEO of multiple startups and currently CEO at Contractbook.com, software that innovates the PDF and makes contract flow less chaotic. He believes you can learn and reuse a lot of unique approaches from other people but still focus on the hand you're dealt instead of what others have done in the past.
MAIN INSIGHTIdentifying and focusing on a solid go-to-market strategy that suits your product helps your company grow exponentially.
KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Charging your customers is all about the value and solution you provide to them 2. Leverage your customers and their networks 3. Expose your users to the power and value of your platform 4. Remember to experiment and change your strategy to make great progress in your company 5. Narrow your focus on the user experience and how they can share your product 6. Hire someone who can understand and convert opportunity to sales 7. Activation should be easy for your user
PRACTICAL STEPS1. Identify who your users are 2. Identify the user journey 3. Find out how you want to invite your users and how your users can invite other users
TIPS FOR SUCCESS1. Find one thing that your competitors can’t do and leverage it
MORE FROM CONTRACTBOOKContractbook helps you streamline every step from contract creation to post-signature handoffs. Learn more at contractbook.com
TIMESTAMPS00:00 - Introduction
00:42 - How the company started
02:05 - Truth discovered is more powerful than truth revealed
04:02 - Earned Insight into being an SEO Expert
09:00 - Concept of Art of War in marketing campaign
13:40 - SEOs are different from writers
16:00 - How SEO can scale up traffic to your website
19:30 - Implementing Organic Content Strategy successfully
28:28 - Conversion rate optimization
GUEST BACKGROUNDAlexander De Ridder is the Co-Founder, CTO, and Creator of the INK Editor, a new AI content performance optimization platform. Ink’s award-winning technology has helped deliver over 1 million more organic visitors per month for Fortune 100 companies and freelance content creators alike.
MORE FROM INKINK was founded in 2017 by leaders in search marketing optimization. They are on a mission to help the world communicate with purpose and craft Natural Language Optimization AI models to understand the meaning of content and uncover the nuances of what makes it perform.
INK helps your content to be found, to engage and to convert – so that you and your business can rise above the noise.
Learn more at inkforall.com
MAIN INSIGHTPaid marketing can be a waste of money if your organic marketing is not yet established.
KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Earned insights are some of the most valuable things you could have in your business 2. Truth discovered is more powerful than truth revealed 3. Paid marketing can be used to A/B test marketing channels 4. Create and write content with a purpose 5. Content that once ranked and became popular may drop off
PRACTICAL STEPS1. Analyze your product and understand what problems need to be solved 2. Ask yourself who is suffering from that problem the most (target market) 3. Ask that group of people, “what are they looking for online to solve their problem’ 4. Collect all the terms related to it and keywords around it 5. Pick one type of audience 6. Hire someone expert to go and help create a content plan 7. Start executing and creating that content
TIPS FOR SUCCESS1. Optimize your content for a good user experience 2. Make good use of tools relevant to SEO/optimization 3. Google values trust, so keep on creating content on the same topic 4. Not all SEOs are good writers, and good writers are not all SEOs
TIMESTAMPS00:52 - Introduction of how he entered the start-up world
02:35 - How Photon Commerce Started
04:05 - Where is Language Monetizable?
10:38 - Difference between marketing and sales
12:09 - How do you find your market?
18:15 - Success in finding the right people/customers
19:37 - How do you know when to adapt your messaging based on the feedback you are getting
GUEST BACKGROUNDMichael Young is the founder & CEO of Photon Commerce. Photon accelerates customer acquisition for fintech leaders using instant payments and invoicing through AI and is supported by a venture firm funded by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. After dropping out of a Stanford PhD, Michael led advanced R&D programs funded by the Department of Defense, created hundreds of jobs, raised $50M across his venture-backed startups, and took them to acquisitions.
MORE FROM PHOTON COMMERCEPhoton Commerce’s financial AI platform empowers fintech leaders to instantly process B2B payments, invoices, statements, and receipts. Photon's intelligent platform understands and harmonizes data, down to even line-item purchase analytics and prediction. Learn more at photoncommerce.com
Reach out to Michael at linkedin.com/in/michaelyoungphoton
MAIN INSIGHTSales and marketing should blend together, especially for an early-stage startup, so you can learn more about your customer and find a product-market-fit fast.
KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Marketing is all about communicating the problem you are solving to the world 2. Marketing is a job of story-telling amazing stories to your team, your investors, your customers, and the world 3. Experiment and try different things to see what will work for your company 4. Content should be optimized for SEO and engagement, and repost 5. Look for a direct marketing strategy 6. Distributing content and getting more traffic is as important as producing content 7. Treat every single market conversation as unique 8. Test your messages 1. Create different landing pages 2. Utilize email marketing 9. Visual thumbnail and title are two of the most important components of your content 10. Engagement is as important as creating content 11. A/B test your content
PRACTICAL STEPS1. Find the biggest problem that is worth solving 2. Identify your WHY for solving this problem 3. Share your why to your team and customer to inspire and motivate them
TIPS FOR SUCCESS1. Understand what tools you should use 2. Test your websites and landing pages 3. Use Hotjar to see heatmaps on your website and the behaviors of your users 4. Encourage your marketing team to be analytical and technical 5. Don’t hesitate to share some of your content directly and add a personal touch to it 6. Timing on presenting the content is also important
TIMESTAMPS00:30 - How creativity and curiosity about human behaviours make Kathryn love marketing
01:10 - Why there is no silver bullet in marketing
04:35 - Kathryn's experience and why you need to be brave in testing data
07:15 - Why everyone is a marketer
10:35 - The power of story for marketers
14:25 - The moment when you can say “job done” as a marketer
20:50 - The groundwork before doing any marketing campaign
25:05 - How to create a customer persona when you’re targeting large businesses
MORE FROM APPFOLLOWAppFollow is on a mission to help teams working on mobile apps to turn insights from reviews into new product experiences that users love. Learn more at appfollow.io
GUEST BACKGROUNDKathryn Lye is the Global Head of Marketing at AppFollow. She has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and scaling B2B tech businesses, and she understands how to help growing startups overcome their unique challenges. Kathryn has helped businesses grow from almost no revenue to multi-millions.
MAIN INSIGHTUsing different sources to augment data helps you to look at a bigger perspective on all your marketing efforts.
KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Don’t assume that your team has the same knowledge as you 2. You need to be creative and brave in testing data 3. Always look at the perspective of all your marketing channels combined 4. An anecdote can be a data point
PRACTICAL STEPS1. Never assume 2. Start asking questions to your team, founders, and potential buyers 3. Understand if there’s a gap in your information 4. Start thinking about how to get that information either by test, experiments, advisors
TIPS FOR SUCCESS1. Doing any marketing campaign without knowing your customer is setting yourself up for failure 2. Talking to buyers is massively underrated for marketers 3. Look outside in and not inside out
TIMESTAMPS03:01 - Why you should focus on one single growth channel
14:59 - How to choose a marketing channel as a bootstrapped startup
17:33 - Journey of a bootstrapped company from 0 to 4000 customers
22:34 - Understanding Google and SEO
33:53 - How to create a product for link building
GUEST BACKGROUNDKalo is the co-founder of Encharge.io - a marketing automation platform. Encharge launched in 2019 and Kalo and his team bootstrapped it to 4,000 customers as of today. All of its growth has been gained through organic search traffic.
MORE FROM ENCHARGEEncharge was created in 2018 as an alternative to clunky unusable marketing automation tools. They believe that automating your SaaS marketing should be more enjoyable.
Learn more at encharge.io
MAIN INSIGHTIf you are a bootstrapped startup, focusing on one marketing channel and testing it for 6 to 12 months is the best path to go rather than spending your small resources on different channels.
KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Find a marketing channel - founder fit 2. If a marketing channel is producing good results then it’s a good indication to focus on that channel 3. Do not underestimate the learning curve in trying to find a marketing channel fit 4. Focus on the bottom part of the funnel if you want to validate if the marketing channel
PRACTICAL STEPSFor finding a marketing channel:
- Find a marketing channel founder fit
- Validate the channel
- Focus on running your marketing for 6 to 12 months
- Find other channels to test your marketing efforts
For growing and building your SEO marketing channel
- Focus on the bottom of the funnel topics and keywords
- Look at the smaller competitors who are doing well
- Write content with SEO-rich keywords and topics
- Start link building
- Hire more content writers
TIPS FOR SUCCESS1. Do your best to create a product on link building 2. Focus on one part of the funnel at first 3. Do everything in a micro-test
MORE FROM MAZEMaze helps you create truly customer-centric products by empowering your entire product team to collect actionable insights anytime, anywhere.Learn more at maze.co
GUEST BACKGROUNDBozena is the VP of Marketing at Maze and previously led Product Marketing at Typeform and TravelPerk. She enjoys the ups and downs of working at a high-growth startup — from building strategy and collaborating cross-functionally to scaling a fully remote team. She's currently based in Barcelona but considers herself a world nomad.
MAIN INSIGHTBuilding an advisory council no matter what level you’re in can help you mitigate your blindspots, be confident in decision-making, and fast-track your learnings.
KEY TAKEAWAYS1. An advisor can help you identify if your strategy is working and if you need to tweak your strategy 2. Advisors will not tell you the exact answer but they will give you another point of view and another lens so you can come up with a conclusion 3. Advisors affect your decision-making, tactics, prioritization, strategy and team growth 4. Find the right advisors that fit your culture
PRACTICAL STEPS1. Identify the challenges you’re facing 2. Go to your networks, such as your investors or other executives to find advisors 3. Qualify the advisor to ensure it’s the right fit 4. Prepare a list of questions and documents before jumping into the meeting 5. Filter all the guidance and advise as you see fit for your company
TIPS FOR SUCCESS1. Do a self-assessment to identify where you lack experience and areas you’re truly confident to make decisions before getting an advisor 2. Seek conversation with people in your field and learn from their approach, experience and previous results
MORE FROM OTTEROtter empowers your team with real-time, accurate notes that are stored in one central, secure, and searchable place so you can be more engaged, collaborative, and productive.
Learn more at otter.ai
Reach out to Chang at linkedin.com/in/ccchangchen/
GUEST BACKGROUNDChang built and led the team at Otter.ai for both B2C and B2B growth & marketing. She scaled the ARR from tens of thousands to double-digit millions and grew the individual user base from 20k to several million in 10 months.
MAIN INSIGHTPrioritize the native growth loops in the product before investing in external marketing channels. That way, your customer will promote your product and increase retention.
KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Optimize your growth loops before doing traditional marketing (paid ads, content marketing, etc.) 2. If you do traditional marketing without enhancing your growth loops, you’ll end up with a leak in your funnel that will make you lose customers 3. Identify the type of users that will likely promote your product to other people 4. The users should be able to build and contribute to more networks and users
PRACTICAL STEPS1. Stay focused on improving your product and optimizing growth loops before going to other marketing tactics such as paid ads, content marketing, etc. 2. Look into the product and see how you can design the growth loops to be embedded into the users' flow while retaining enough friction to encourage them to upgrade their plan to a paid plan 3. Add more growth loops, such as: 1. Not interrupting the user to keep the user’s trust 2. Give them the NEED to share your product 3. Identify the “AHA” moments of your users and make sure that they get and share those benefits 4. After optimizing your growth loops, it's time to accelerate and get more traffic using traditional marketing
TIPS FOR SUCCESS1. Understand user behavior and how you can give enough value without interfering with the existing user behavior while maintaining a proper amount of friction so users upgrade their plan 2. Give before you ask
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to theForward Launch Your SaaS newsletter MORE FROM FONS Fons help small businesses grow by streamlining scheduling and billing, putting your administrative tasks on autopilot. Learn more at fons.com
Connect with Eric at linkedin.com/in/eric-branner-6a113b13
MAIN INSIGHT Building a community is a grind when you’re just starting out, but if you continue to provide value, your customers will be your best salespeople.
GUEST BACKGROUND Eric Branner found himself spending upwards of ten hours a week on administration alone which cut into his earning potential. He knew there had to be a better way - so he built Fons.
Fons simplifies and automates two things that every business owner needs - scheduling and payments. It helps business owners earn over 20+ million dollars and is still quickly growing. On average, professionals who use Fons earn up to 25% more each month because their busy work has been totally eliminated.
KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Happiness can only be found once it’s rooted outside yourself 2. Customers are your best salespeople 3. A marketer should be motivated by a customer’s success using the product 4. Create a product that will solve a problem 5. The goal of building a community is to get people to believe in your product or idea
PRACTICAL STEPS 1. Research your target audience or people 1. Do an interview and ask them what keeps them up at night 2. Choose a platform where you can find your audience 3. Identify the key metrics on that platform 4. Focus on building your community on one platform before moving to another one
TIPS FOR SUCCESS 1. Invest in your success 2. Promote positivity in your community and not competition 3. Focus on one marketing platform or channel before moving to another
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to theForward Launch Your SaaS newsletter MORE FROM ROWS Rows is the first true spreadsheet with built-in integrations and a slick sharing experience. Learn more at Rows.com
Reach out to Henrique at twitter.com/henrm_cruz
GUEST BACKGROUND Henrique is the Head of Growth at Rows, the spreadsheet with superpowers. Henrique loves to read books, and he shares his review at betaglyph.com. Occasionally, he also loves to share about tech, climate, and other things at henriquecruz.substack.com.
MAIN INSIGHT Targeting successful users with high retention rates leads to more sales and growth.
KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Transparency of metrics to every department is critical for improvement 2. Position your product and focus your marketing budget on a segment of customers that has a high retention rate 3. Retention is the foundation of growth 4. The more customers you acquire, the better your product should be
PRACTICAL STEPS 1. Target the successful users or users that have a higher retention rate 2. Understand that users and break it down in terms of demographics and firmographics 3. Identify the activation (AHA) moment and the difference between the user journey of that specific type of user 4. Run a test and validate if it correlates with retention 5. Figure out how the users can reach the activation moment faster
TIPS FOR SUCCESS 1. Create additional qualifying data for the user 2. Focus on improving and making the account activation moment faster - the point of user’s experience where they will be a long-term customer 3. Identify what areas have the most impact on your growth model 4. Assign a team member that is dedicated to looking at the KPIs
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to the Forward Launch Your SaaS newsletter GUEST BIO Lucas James is the founder and CEO of the digital marketing agency Twiz.io. After rapidly scaling his agency beyond 7 figures, he converted it into a SaaS product. He also recently founded AgencyGo, a platform that helps agency owners connect and form partnerships to grow their businesses.
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to the Forward Launch Your SaaS newsletter MORE FROM MARCH HEALTH www.march.health
GUEST BIO Mark Amouzgar is CEO and Founder of March Health. After seeing his wife suffer from a severe level of menstrual pain every month, Mark started March Health with the aim to help women with the process of managing menstrual pain. With an app and a wearable device that emits low wave electrical impulses and a heating pad, March Health aims to reduce the physical pain suffered during menstruation and the emotional and psychological effects that may come with it.
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to the Forward Launch Your SaaS newsletter MORE FROM PROCESS STREET Process Street is a simple, free and powerful way to manage your team’s recurring checklists and procedures. Learn more at process.st
Reach out to Vinay at twitter.com/vinayp10
GUEST BACKGROUND Vinay Patankar is the CEO of Process Street. Manage employee onboarding, workflow automation, checklists, the team’s handbook & more with Process Street’s modern management platform.
MAIN INSIGHT Continuously learn and evolve as your company grows and scales by strategically adding on new marketing channels.
TOPICS WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE * Early days of entrepreneurship and how he founded Process Street * Why does your marketing strategy need to evolve along with your company * When to find the next channel or marketing strategy * Common signs of a declining channel * How to encourage a learning culture in your team * What to do to a deteriorating channel * Common pitfalls in finding a new marketing channel and strategy * How to avoid burning money when it comes to finding a new marketing channel
KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Systems and processes are key pieces of building and scaling a business 2. Processes and systems need to be deployed once a business needs to scale 3. Do not overestimate the scalability of a particular channel or strategy 4. Invest early in testing new marketing channels and strategy 5. All marketing channels will eventually deteriorate 6. Two ways to grow your customer: 1. Unlock new channels to drive more people 2. Improve the customer journey to drive growth
PRACTICAL STEPS 1. Analyze customer journey 2. Find the low-hanging fruit and the most efficient channel 3. Find a new channel to run experiments and only do micro testing 4. Create a good system for analyzing experiments 5. Execute the campaign properly
TIPS FOR SUCCESS 1. Do micro tests to limit risks 2. Encourage proactive learning in your team
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to theForward Launch Your SaaS newsletter MORE FROM KAIKU Kaiku is a smart matchmaking platform for early stage venture funds. They work with 100s of venture funds globally focussing on supporting technology enabled Seed to Series A start-ups raise funding. Learn more at kaiku.co
Reach out to Alex at alex -at- kaiku.co or www.linkedin.com/in/alexbalderstone GUEST BACKGROUND Alex Balderstone is the co-founder and CEO of Kaiku, a platform that provides smart, data-driven matchmaking between venture funds and startups.
He is also the Venture Director at the Birmingham Enterprise Community (BEC) and the Founder of Warwick Congress.
MAIN INSIGHT Grow your business by building and maintaining a network of referral partnerships by understanding the community and what incentives could work for them.
KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Build a solution to a problem that already exists as opposed to a problem that doesn’t exist 2. Always create an opportunity to be present in your community or network 1. Stay relevant to your network to the point that they’ll mention you if there are questions or news about your industry or niche 3. Go to events and speaking opportunities and create content to grow your network 4. Follow the right people on social media and interact or engage with them to build a solid presence 5. Two pitfalls of networking 1. Quality of Network - making sure that you’re targeting the right people 2. Maintaining and keeping a strong presence on your network through attending events, conferences, etc.
PRACTICAL STEPS 1. Get your message out there, whether on LinkedIn, at events, or at conferences 2. Leverage other platforms such as lunchclub.ai – an ai networking platform to get clients or referrals 3. Create a segmentation of your partners and clients and create unique incentives and referral programs for each segment 4. Maintain your relationship and presence with your network 1. Give them updates about your product, service, team, position, etc., to stay relevant. 2. Connect with people and create content 3. Get them on your list
TIPS FOR SUCCESS 1. Don’t be afraid to get your message out there 2. Spend an hour each day on LinkedIn or Twitter to be relevant to your network 1. Create content 2. Share highlights and news on your industry 3. Understand the community and what incentives would work for them
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to theForward Launch Your SaaS newsletter MORE FROM CALQULATE Calqulate connects startups, investors, banks and lenders with financial data to speed up fundraising processes and lending decisions.
Learn more at calqulate.io
Reach out to Cameron at linkedin.com/in/cameronomurchu
GUEST BACKGROUND Cameron is the Head of Growth at Calqulate, a financial analytics software startup. He has worked mainly in the finance vertical and his degree in science has given him a unique perspective on the business world, especially since A/B testing has become all the rage.
MAIN INSIGHT New customers or new users do not mean growth all the time for the company. Growth also comes by stopping the acquisition of unprofitable customers.
KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Growth can be an increase in the price of your service or product 2. The marketing and finance department meet at customer acquisition cost 3. The marketing department burns money to make more money 4. The ratio of customer acquisition cost (CAC) to customer lifetime value (LTV) is typically around 1:3 (For every dollar spent on CAC you get three dollars in return) 5. Growth only comes when you can measure it
PRACTICAL STEPS 1. Reduce rather than add - take a look at the things that you can take away before looking to grow your customers 2. Identify if you want to grow or scale 1. Growth - You’re going to put more money but you’ll get the same results 2. Scale - Scaling is being efficient. You’re going to put in the same money but you’ll get better results. 3. Start A/B testing the strategies 4. Once you gather enough data, analyze which one is working by looking at the CAC to LTV ratio
TIPS FOR SUCCESS 1. See if you can increase your product or service price 2. Focus on sustainable growth 3. As a marketer, it’s a great thing to be aware of the financial factors of the company so you can see if your efforts are bringing revenue to the company
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to the Forward Launch Your SaaS newsletter MORE FROM ZESTY Zesty is the first cloud management platform that leverages AI-driven automation to increase efficiency and reduce AWS spend by over 50%. The platform automatically adjusts computing and storage resources to match real-time application needs, with no human input. Learn more at zesty.co
Reach out to Ido at linkedin.com/in/ido-assaf
GUEST BACKGROUND Ido Assaf is the Marketing Director at Zesty, an autonomous cloud management solution that helps businesses maximize efficiency, reduce costs, and free up engineering resources.
His philosophy is centered more on the buyer rather than on "classic” marketing tactics. His use of an ingenuitive branding campaign brought in thousands of leads for Zesty.
MAIN INSIGHT Innovating best marketing practices and using creative and unique methods to stand out from others is the best way to win in the long run.
KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Marketing approaches should rely on data 2. A company needs to have subject matter experts 3. Marketing and branding should be balanced 4. The best way to win in the long run is to reinvent yourself 5. Different is better than better 6. Too much creativity can make you drift away 7. The marketing strategy should come to a point where you can trust your customer to buy your product
PRACTICAL STEPS 1. Assume you know nothing 2. Identify the subject matter experts in your company 3. Understand your buyer by doing research and doing interviews 4. Run a test and validate
TIPS FOR SUCCESS 1. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes 2. Understand that people buy from people 3. Rely a bit on your gut instinct but always validate with data
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to the Forward Launch Your SaaS newsletter MORE FROM VERVOE Vervoe helps you predicts job performance using skills assessments that showcase the talent of every candidate before hiring them. Learn more at vervoe.comReach out to Regan at https://www.linkedin.com/in/regan-mcgregor-au
GUEST BACKGROUND Regan McGregor is an experienced B2B and SaaS marketer who leads the marketing team at Vervoe, a company that helps businesses hire top performers through AI-powered skills testing.
He also worked with several Australian SaaS startups, including Head of Growth at Digivizer and Head of Marketing at AgriWebb.
He’s passionate about finding growth channels and leveraging those to create scalable growth strategies. One of those channels is search, both organic and paid search.
MAIN INSIGHT Focus on people’s intent with regards to your business’ mission to get more traffic and maximize your SEO marketing efforts
KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Focus on pre-existing demand of content from your customers 2. Identify high-level questions that your ideal customer has and use that as your main topic to create multiple SEO-rich pieces of content 3. Being an expert on one topic for your content is a good SEO strategy to help you get more brand recognition
PRACTICAL STEPS 1. Identify your business mission by finding the problems that you’re solving 2. Niche down to one or two topics that you want to rank high on Google 3. Brainstorm ideas for content 1. Talk to your customers, sales, and marketing team 2. Do keyword research and cluster them into groups of different topics 3. Look at competitors and indirect competitors and figure out what content you can do better than them 4. Create premium content or content offers that can convert people and turn them into leads 5. Run an ad campaign for your sales and solution pages 6. Invite your sales team to do outbound to promote your premium content 7. Develop features or tools within the product that help to improve each pain point
TIPS FOR SUCCESS 1. Focus on one strategy that works and where the actual lead is coming from 2. Deep dive into your chosen topic 3. Paid ads are best used for potential customers that are searching for specific problems that your content can solve or keywords that are being searched at the bottom of the funnel
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to theForward Launch Your SaaS newsletter GUEST BACKGROUND Ben Sperry leads the marketing department at Place - makers of an agile finance platform built on Salesforce. In his first six months with Place, Ben grew inbound demand by over 400%. Ben has also held various sales and marketing positions at Gartner and is a Teach For America alum.
MAIN INSIGHT When starting at a new company, minimize the assumptions you make based on your experiences at previous organizations.
KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. The great thing about performance marketing is that you have all the metrics necessary to assess everything with enough data clinically 2. Depending on volume - a typical campaign can be assessed after 45 days upon launch 3. Speak the language of your target audience by collaborating with your colleagues or interviewing current clients
PRACTICAL STEPS 1. Approach any marketing role at an early-stage company with humility 2. Familiarize yourself with the company’s objective in the short, medium and long term 3. Minimize the assumption and acknowledge the known and unknown 4. Identify the strategy you’re going to use to achieve the objective and execute it with confidence 5. Assess your strategy/campaign clinically once you have enough data 6. Tweak your strategy to achieve the metrics that you set
TIPS FOR SUCCESS 1. Stay flexible on your marketing tactics and strategy 2. Having a hypothesis is excellent but always minimize the assumption of what’s going to work and what’s not 3. Collaborate with your colleague that spends a lot of time interacting with your clients
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to theForward Launch Your SaaS newsletter MORE FROM BEHAVIOR SALES Behavior Sales uses behavioral intelligence to gain a competitive advantage to shorten sales cycles and close deals faster. Learn more at behaviorsales.com
GUEST BACKGROUND Benjamin Bressington is the CEO of BehaviorSales.com, a Behavioral Intelligence company. He is a Speaker and Author of multiple books, including his latest book “People Ignorant: Unlocking Success, Confidence & Influence.”
Benjamin has a Law & Criminology degree from Australia. He spent 10 years helping Fortune 1000 companies apply gamification principles to their sales and communication process. Ben now helps people improve their sales conversations, specifically by closing deals faster and discovering the hidden opportunities in daily communication.
MAIN INSIGHT Tailoring marketing efforts to the personality types of potential customers improves engagement and conversions
KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Create segments on your list based on personality types to improve your engagement 2. Focus and attention is a currency 3. You only need 1000 loyal followers that will buy from you 4. Four personality types that you must know: 1. Liberty (eagle) - decisive, ROI focus, get things done, dress well 2. Vegas (peacock) - wants to be the center of attention, gets bored quickly, loves shortcuts 3. Thinker (owl) - knowledge-driven, loves to approach things systematically 4. Pigeon (steady) is slow and steady but always driven by their packs or friends
PRACTICAL STEPS For outreach and sales:
- Search and gather contacts of people that can be a potential client or customer
- Segment them by personality types and identify which personality type you can resonate with
- Exclude the personality type that you don’t want to work with
- Create a different message for each segment
For marketers and content creators:
- Identify the personality types that you want to work with
- Create content for each personality type
- Get them on your list so you can segment your market
- Craft a different sales approach for each personality types
TIPS FOR SUCCESS 1. Deep dive into each personality type and get to know what makes them buy your service or product 2. Tailor your content and pitch to the different personality types 3. During a call, it’s best to also use their words/adjectives to them to build more rapport and connection
Want summaries, show notes, and more? Subscribe to the Forward Launch Your SaaS newsletter More from Eduflow * If you’d like to build a course, try Eduflow (eduflow.com) - the free plan allows up to 15 course participants and is a good way to test whether a course would work for your brand * Reach out to David: david -at- eduflow.com
Guest background David is the co-founder and CEO of Eduflow, a modern learning management system for active and social learning. Before that he started Peergrade, a service for providing peer-evaluations and peer-feedback.
He did his Ph.D. at The Technical University of Denmark with a focus on machine learning, data science, and educational technology. He previously worked as a software developer and as an external consultant for doing predictive modeling on large data-sets.
Main insight “Lengthen the marketing funnel” by providing a valuable product or educational course for people who are not ready to buy your main product.
Key takeaways 1. Big enterprise deals don’t happen right away - there’s a long sales cycle and companies buy when they need the product 2. Therefore, how do you get companies to hear about your brand and remember your brand when they are ready to buy? 3. Answer: Create a longer marketing funnel 1. For example: Eduflow gets people to sign up for their educational course (obtaining their email) 2. People like the course, get value out of it, and share it with their peers 3. When there’s a need in their company, they remember Eduflow and enter the sales cycle
Practical steps 1. Create an easy-to-use intermediary product that your ideal customers can immediately buy or use for free 1. This can be a simpler / smaller version of an existing product that’s attached to your real product 2. Introduce the users of this intermediary product to your main product
Tip for success 1. Make your smaller product something that educates people on the value of your brand. 1. For example - Eduflow builds and runs courses on their own online course platform, which shows potential customers how easy the platform is to use 2. Make the product something that outperforms similar products on the market 3. Make sure you smaller product is built for the right audience so you have high quality people to sell the main offering to 4. You can build more than one small product - perhaps one for each different audience segment
More from Casted Find them at Casted.us
They’ve released an industry survey of content marketers on the state of content marketing - helpful for understanding how other marketers are currently using content can be helpful for planning out your own content
Check out Amplify - view interviews with leading B2B brands (Drift, Salesforce, HubSpot, and more) on how they are harnessing the power of audio and video to connect with audiences in a whole new way
Ready to create content? If this episode inspired you to start repurposing content, Forward Launch can help. We help B2B SaaS startups create interview-based podcasts that can be repurposed across various marketing channels. Get in touch.
Guest background Holly Pels is the Vice President of Marketing at Casted – the first content marketing platform for B2B podcasting, making podcasting more engaging, efficient, and effective for brands. Holly is a strategic and tactical marketer who loves podcasts and content creation.
Key takeaways 1. Have conversations with experts and record them in video and audio format 1. Starting with video allows for easiest repurposing across channels 2. Publish to YouTube because YouTube can be used as a search engine 2. Syndicate to podcast platforms (e.g. Apple, Spotify, Stitcher) and Youtube channels 3. Turn the transcript into a blog post 4. Create audiograms and videograms to be used on social media 5. Use themes that came up during the interview and plug them into the content calendar 6. Review previous episodes for similar themes - create a thematic blog post or thematic narrative episode 1. Example: Holly’s team realized they had already interviewed several experts from Hubspot on the podcast, and they pulled those stories together to a larger narrative episode in advance of a content collaboration they did with Hubspot 7. Make “look books” out of the content - i.e. a downloadable piece of content where people can access the written versions of podcast episodes
Tips for success * Trust the process - not everything needs to be new * Don’t be hard on yourself - it doesn’t have to be perfect. Just start! * It doesn’t have to be for everyone, it just has to be for your audience
LINKS:
- Bonjoro's video funnel playbook - Over 30 proven video funnels to convert more customers and turn them into superfans of your business
- Bonjoro's new product for collecting, managing, and publishing customer testimonials
GUEST BACKGROUND:
Oli is the CMO at Bonjoro. He has worked in SaaS for the last 12 years, first in customer success and sales roles, including at media startup, Gorkana, who sold for £25m during his time there. Then as founder of his own cold-pressed juice venture based from London's Silicon Roundabout.
He joined Bonjoro in 2016, and launched it from zero revenue into one of Australia’s fastest growing startups, with over 50,000 customers using the tool today. Oli currently runs his marketing team based on a product-development framework called "sprints", and thinks that data analytics tools like Amplitude underpin most great marketing decisions. But his guiding ethos is that true growth only ever comes from more human contact, and credits 99% of Bonjoro's rapid growth to this belief.
Want summaries, transcripts, show notes, and more? Subscribe to the Forward Launch Your SaaS newsletter
Welcome to the first episode of Forward Launch Your SaaS!
This will be a short episode in which I explain the format of the show, what you can expect from weekly episodes, and why I started the podcast.
The show features easy-going conversations with B2B SaaS startup marketing executives whose campaigns have resulted in impressive growth. In each episode, our guests share the one biggest piece of wisdom that other B2B SaaS marketing executives should know.
I'm the host - Keirra Woodard, the owner, podcast marketer, and B2B SaaS content marketing consultant of Forward Launch .
A few of the guests we have in our episode lineup include:
- Sharon Biggar, VP of Marketing at Hotjar. She recently spearheaded a company rebrand that helped Hotjar’s revenue to grow more than 50% last year.
- Nadia Milani, VP of Marketing at Proposify. Nadia has helped build high-performance teams, producing triple-digit growth in engagement, acquisition, and revenue. In 2020, Nadia was added to Marketo’s Fearless 50 list, being recognized as one of the top 50 marketers in the world.
- Oli Bridge, CMO at Bonjoro. After joining in 2016, he launched the company from zero revenue into one of Australia’s fastest growing startups, with over 50,000 current users.
Why I started the podcast * A few years ago, I worked for a SaaS startup as a content writer… we never knew whether the content we published would actually resonate with people and produce leads and traffic for us. It felt like the content we were working hard to create was disappearing down a “content marketing black hole.” + I started freelancing and developed a system to help companies avoid the "black hole". + Now through my podcast marketing agency Forward Launch, I help B2B SaaS startups create and publish content that resonates with their ideal audience 100% of the time, differentiates their brand from the competition, and systematically moves leads down the buyer's journey. * I started the podcast to understand what unique insights other SaaS marketers have learned that helped their companies be successful.
Episode format: Every episode will be available in both audio and video formats that will be published to podcasting platforms and to my website.
At the start of the interview, I’ll ask the guests about their background. Then, we will move on to the main question for the episode: What is the one biggest piece of wisdom that other B2B SaaS startup marketing execs should know?
At the end of each episode, I’ll ask the guest for step-by-step practical advice that other marketers could use to implement the main idea.
Typical episode lengths will be approximately 30-45 minutes. Episodes will be released weekly on Mondays.
I'll keep the show going for approximately 30 episodes, and then re-evaluate the length and show format.
What to do next: * Subscribe to the email newsletterto be notified when new episodes are published and receive other bonuses like episode summaries, checklists, links to resources guests have shared, and more! * Subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player and leave a rating and review * Share the show with your colleagues and friends * Apply to be a guest on the show or suggest a guest