Studio CMO: Marketing HealthTech: Recent Episodes
Golden Spiral, Positioning & Demand Gen for HealthTech
Studio CMO exists to accelerate the transformation of healthcare. We help HealthTech companies improve patient outcomes by empowering them to communicate their solution in ways that capture attention, motivate change, and speed improvements throughout the healthcare ecosystem. Produced by Golden Spiral, hosted by John Farkas, and co-hosted by Anna Grimes and Mark Whitlock. Listen weekly for interviews with CMOs and executives from HealthTech, vendors who build our tech stacks, and healthcare providers, systems, and payers.
In this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, John Farkas sits down with Christopher McCord, a renowned healthcare technology innovator and Managing Director at Healthcare Growth Partners. McCord delves into the transformative role of data analytics in modern healthcare, highlighting its potential to revolutionize patient outcomes and operational efficiency.
The discussion kicks off with McCord’s insights on how advanced data analytics can drive personalized medicine, improve diagnostic accuracy, and streamline healthcare processes. He shares his experiences with implementing cutting-edge analytics tools and the tangible benefits they have brought to Healthcare Growth Partners' projects.
McCord also explores the challenges of integrating large datasets from diverse sources and the importance of fostering collaboration between technology developers and healthcare providers. His expertise sheds light on the delicate balance between harnessing the power of big data and ensuring patient privacy and data security.
Listeners can expect a deep dive into the current trends in healthcare data analytics, real-world examples of successful implementations, and practical advice for navigating the complexities of this rapidly evolving field. This episode offers invaluable insights for professionals interested in leveraging data to enhance healthcare delivery and achieve better patient outcomes.
Show Notes
[02:29] - Unpacking the Health IT Market Review
[03:50] - The Long Tail of COVID-19 Impact
[07:24] - Epic’s Market Dominance and Its Implications
[10:21] - Navigating the Financial Challenges in Healthcare IT
[15:57] - Profiles of Companies in the Middle Tier
[21:17] - The Surge in Buyout Activity
[25:39] - The Role of AI in Healthcare IT
[27:18] - The Innovation Divide
[31:33] - Beyond Technology: The Epic Example
[38:36] - The Changing Dynamics of Health IT Investments
[46:07] - Regulatory Impacts on Innovation
[53:04] - The Social Responsibility Debate
[56:57] - Recommendations for Health Tech and Investors
In this episode of the Healthcare Market Matrix, John Farkas kicks things off with a conversation with Dr. Neal Patel, a healthcare industry expert from Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Together, they discuss cybersecurity, interoperability, and the implementation of AI in healthcare. Dr. Patel also emphasizes the importance of understanding the capabilities and limitations of AI and the need for careful deployment.
This far-reaching and thought-provoking conversation covers Dr. Patel’s long association with Vanderbilt, where he has been since 1997. During that time he has played a significant role in optimizing patient care through informatics strategies.
Patel speaks fascinatingly about the growing threat of cyber attacks in the healthcare industry and the need for organizations to assess their vulnerabilities. He also discusses the importance of having robust cybersecurity measures in place and the challenges of balancing innovation and security.
This insightful conversation is sure to provide valuable perspectives for anyone interested in information management in healthcare.
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas is joined by Mike Mosquito, an advisory board member at Ratio and a pioneering leader in healthcare innovation and technology development. Mike shares his extensive experience with companies like McKesson and Allscripts and his role in leading innovation centers. He discusses how this background equips him to develop maturity models that enhance patient outcomes through technology. He emphasizes that healthcare technology companies must understand the specific problems they aim to solve, rather than just promoting their technologies’ features.
Mike also delves into the critical importance of technical and cyber infrastructure in successfully implementing new technologies within health systems. He highlights the necessity of robust governance models tailored for healthcare, addressing connectivity issues, especially in rural areas, to ensure effective technology deployment.
Throughout the conversation, John and Mike explore the governance, readiness, and affordability considerations that health systems must take into account when adopting new innovations. They stress the importance of healthcare providers flawlessly executing proof of concepts to become preferred vendors, cautioning against "innovation theater" that can erode trust and resources. John and Mike also discuss the evolving responsibilities and strategic importance of Chief Innovation Officers (CIOs), highlighting the long decision-making processes and integration challenges posed by regulatory compliance and budget constraints.
Show Notes
(1:05) Introducing Mike Mosquito
(6:48) Analyzing Innovative Solutions for Change Implementation
(11:48) How to Approach Conversations about Change
(16:26) Qualities of an Innovation Organization
(22:37) Strategies for Catching a Health Tech CIO’s Attention
(25:43) Meeting Consumer Mandates of Healthcare Technology
(35:31) Exploring the Need to Be Flawless
(38:21) Cautions Surrounding the Idea of Innovation Theaters
(41:52) Addressing the Failure of Delivering Solutions
(50:02) Advice for Venturing into the Innovation Ecosystem
(52:33) Closing Question
Summary
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas sits down with Spencer Honeyman, chief commercial officer of Vi Technologies, a company using artificial intelligence to enhance the health outcomes and financial returns of healthcare organizations. John and Spencer dive into how AI-driven solutions are alleviating workloads and improving efficiency for healthcare professionals by optimizing tasks so they can prioritize patients first and foremost.
Additionally, Spencer explores AI's role in engaging high-risk populations by leveraging third-party data for comprehensive views and utilizing optimization frameworks for rapid testing in marketing, underscoring the necessity for de-identified data in marketing endeavors. This emphasizes the industry’s shift towards value-based care and the strategic use of paid media for member engagement. Furthermore, Spencer explains how the implementation of AI-driven solutions can simplify time-consuming administrative tasks like appointment scheduling, claims processing, and data entry, allowing healthcare professionals the ability to focus more on quality care.
Throughout the episode, Spencer outlines Vi Technologies’ approach to demonstrating value by validating key performance indicators, highlights Vi Technologies’ most recent report, and shares a case study of a regional behavioral health clinic utilizing targeted media to significantly reduce acquisition costs and boost conversion rates.
Show Notes
(1:05) Introducing Spencer Honeyman
(5:00) A Deep Dive into Vi’s Recent Report
(6:31) Exploring AI Opportunities in Healthcare
(10:13) How AI Has Alleviated Administrative Tasks
(13:32) Employing AI to Increase Patient Engagement
(20:39) An AI Success Story
(24:15) The Awareness vs. The Adoption of AI
(32:21) Closing Question
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas is joined by Dr. Jennie Byrne, an advisor for healthcare innovators, like LunaJoy Health and PsychNow, and co-founder of Belong Health. Additionally, Dr. Byrne is an established author, writing two important books, Work Smart, a guide on leveraging brain and behavioral science to enhance productivity, and Moral Injury: Healing the Healers, which is shedding light on the pressing clinician crisis that’s surrounding the American healthcare system.
As a board-certified psychiatrist with an MD and a PhD in neuroscience, Dr. Byrne offers a unique perspective on the biological and psychological aspects of human behavior and health. Throughout the episode, John and Dr. Byrne dive into the pervasive erosion of trust within the healthcare system among patients, practitioners, and administrators. Dr. Byrne highlights the concept of moral injury, a deeper issue that goes beyond burnout, where healthcare providers feel unable to give proper care due to systemic barriers.
Today’s discussion underscores the misalignment between clinicians and administration, outdated technology, and staff shortages, effectively exacerbating trust issues. Dr. Byrne advocates for technology companies to shadow healthcare providers to gain genuine insights into their challenges, promoting a culture of empathy, creative collaboration, and informed technological solutions. She also emphasizes the use of common language to bridge the gap between tech developers and clinicians, suggesting that tech companies build trust through ongoing education, peer-led learning, and active listening.
Show Notes
(1:43) Introducing Dr. Jennie Byrne
(4:57) About Dr. Byrne’s Background and Her Writing Journey
(9:56) Weighing the Fear Factors Associated with New Technology
(17:37) Systemic Factors That Contribute to Moral Injury
(26:36) Factors That Influence Trust
(36:11) BUilding Bridges of Understanding Between Clinicians and Tech
(42:05) Embracing Technology in Healthcare’s Innovative World
(48:49) Closing Thoughts
Links
John Farkas
Ratio
Dr. Jennie Byrne, MD, PhD
Belong Health
Work Smart
Moral Injury: Healing the Healers
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas is joined by Aaron Hillman, an Advisory Board Member at Ratio and the Sr. Director of Global Client and Industry Engagement at Philips. Aaron brings almost two decades of expertise in healthcare IT and client engagement, sharing his insights into the art and science of orchestrating successful event engagements in the healthcare industry.
We explore the crucial elements that make or break event strategies, including the importance of a well-prepared longitudinal plan, securing organizational buy-in, and creating meaningful connections in the market. Additionally, Aaron shares his knowledge on early planning for major events like HIMSS and the necessities of marketing evaluation to understand the true value of these gatherings. We'll also discuss the significance of tailoring product launch strategies, utilizing consistent key performance indicators (KPIs), and fostering purposeful interactions at in-person events post-pandemic.
Join us as we unravel the complexities of event marketing, from building a narrative and driving engagement to communicating effectively within and beyond your organization. Whether you’re a healthcare marketer or a vendor, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you create buzz, measure outcomes, and ultimately, build strategic partnerships that propel your organization forward.
Show Notes
(1:24) Introducing Aaron Hillman
(6:03) Changes in Engagement Post Pandemic
(10:06) Aaron’s Backstory and Journey
(16:47) Prioritizing and Being Intentional with Engagement
(24:21) The Challenge of Aligning Marketing and Sales
(38:31) How to Approach Event Planning
(42:31) Optimizing Shows for Product Launches
(49:04) Closing Thoughts
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas is joined by Trish Rivard, CEO of Eliciting Insights, a healthcare technology market research and strategy company, and Ben Reigle, CEO of Tarpon Health, a community of providers that are building their own internal automation.
Trish is an accomplished ROI-driven leader and consultant specializing in healthcare technology companies, and boasts an impressive fifteen year record of success. Her expertise lies in steering EBIDTA improvement and fostering market share growth within the healthcare and payment industries. Trish is widely trusted for her exceptional consultative skills, which she employs to prioritize IT projects, enforce ROI accountability, and streamline resource allocation to meet ambitious timelines. Drawing upon her extensive experience as a Healthcare Revenue Cycle Executive, Trish excels in helping companies position themselves for growth, and at guiding them through the process of clarifying their vision, validating market receptiveness for their goals, charting a strategic roadmap, and optimizing resources for optimal outcomes in the ever-evolving healthcare marketplace.
Additionally, Ben has dedicated the majority of his career to the healthcare sector, with a significant focus on revenue cycle management over the last decade. Observing that the revenue cycle had remained unchanged for years, he embarked on a mission to challenge the conventional approach by initiating two groundbreaking projects. In November 2017, Ben launched the RCM Leaders Forum, an exclusive event designed to gather leaders in healthcare revenue cycle management for focused discussions without distractions. Furthermore, Ben has fostered a sense of community through his video podcast “My Good Friends,” which features interviews with event participants and professionals from various fields. Throughout the episode, Ben and Trish expand on the recent Change Healthcare cyber data breach, how the implications of the breach will impact the industry, and how the healthcare ecosystem as a whole will need to proceed going forward.
Show Notes
(0:41) Introducing Trish Rivard and Ben Reigle
(5:34) Analyzing the Recent Cyber Breach
(16:18) About Change Healthcare
(24:59) Impacts of the Cyber Breach
(34:41) What Healthcare Marketers Need to Know about Data
(38:43) Revenue Implications of the Cyber Breach
(43:54) Closing Thoughts
Welcome to the debut episode of our exciting new monthly series on the Buyer Matrix, brought to you by goratio.com! In this episode, we unveil our innovative approach to understanding and engaging with key players in the healthcare technology sector through our newly launched Buyer Directory. Join us as we delve into the intricacies of the Buyer Matrix methodology, designed to provide invaluable insights into some of the most sought-after healthcare technology buyers. Whether you're a seasoned industry professional or just starting out, this series promises to offer enlightening discussions and actionable strategies for engaging with the healthcare market. Hosted by John Farkas, alongside Jess Head, we'll explore how the Buyer Matrix℠ empowers companies to navigate the market with precision, empathy, and trust.
Show Notes
(0:42) Introducing the New Monthly Series
(4:54) Defining the Buyer Matrix
(15:07) Effective Marketing Communication for Teams
(23:49) Highlighting the Core Challenges CIOs Face
(26:49) Closing Thoughts
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas is joined by Mark Donnigan, virtual CMO and go-to-market consultant at Growth Stage Marketing, a company that builds sustainable marketing strategies while executing go-to-market plans that yield real business results by being rooted in first principles thinking. Mark has extensive experience working alongside sales, product, operations, and finance to ensure his client’s objectives are always exceeded. As an accomplished storyteller and expert content marketer, Mark believes the modern marketing function is built on the foundation of content publishing with category design, ABM, SEO, conversion rate optimization, email outreach, and paid advertising tactics. Throughout the episode, Mark shares his vast knowledge around the importance of leading with value during go-to-market efforts and analyzes a recent product launch that failed to effectively and easily convey its value proposition to its buyers, ultimately leading to its downfall.
Show Notes
(1:47) Introducing Mark Donnigan and Growth Stage Marketing
(10:12) Understanding Where to Start from the Nature of Go-to-Market
(18:21) Leading with Value in a Constrained Healthcare Climate
(31:19) Analyzing Humane AI’s Recent Launch Failure
(45:15) Asking Hard Questions during Go-to-Market Efforts
(56:34) Closing Thoughts
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas is joined by Christopher McCord, Managing Director at Healthcare Growth Partners (HGP), an investment banking and strategic advisory firm exclusively focused on transformational Health IT. HGP combats breakdowns between stakeholders in the traditional banking model and our healthcare system by aligning with its clients through engagement design, client transparency, and its fundamental desire to do right by those who put their trust in them. Additionally, Healthcare Growth Partners’ passion for healthcare inspires them to generate broad, overarching improvements to the functionality and sustainability of health by delivering customized guidance to select clients looking to execute high value health IT, health information services, and digital health transactions. Throughout the episode, Christopher expands on the culture of investment banking and engages in a discussion on the current healthcare market and what one can expect from it in the future.
Show Notes
(1:17) Introducing Christopher McCord and Healthcare Growth Partners
(18:36) Healthcare Growth Partners’ Approach to Partnerships
(34:44) An Analysis of the Current Market and Its Horizon
(51:55) The Future of Healthcare Sectors
(1:07:36) The Culture and Expectations of Investment Banking
(1:13:31) Closing Thoughts
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas sits down with Mac Davis and Dr. Ramon Jacobs-Shaw from Belong Health where Mac serves as the VP of Digital Product and Data and Dr. Jacobs-Shaw is the Chief Clinical Officer. Belong Health delivers a more compassionate, straightforward insurance experience for Medicare-eligible individuals by partnering with regional health plans to help them launch or grow market-leading Medicare Advantage and Special Needs Plans. Additionally, Belong Health believes high-quality health care should be accessible to all, and local, regional health plans are best positioned to serve their communities as their trusted health insurance partners.Throughout the episode, Mac and Dr. Jacobs-Shaw expands on how Belong Health is doing a phenomenal job at addressing and finding solutions for care gaps in the healthtech industry.
Show Notes
(1:21) Introducing Mac Davis and Dr. Ramon Jacobs-Shaw
(13:01) How the Culture of Healthcare Systems Impact Consumer Transformation
(22:21) Leveraging Technology to Address Care Gaps for Underserved Populations
(36:48) Frustrations and Shortcomings within the HealthTech Sector
(45:46) Closing Thoughts
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas sits down with Mitch Holdwick, Director of Consumer Transformation at Innovaccer, the number one platform for value-based care that unifies patient data across systems and care settings, and empowers healthcare organizations with scalable, modern applications that improve clinical, financial, operational, and experimental outcomes. With over fourteen years of experience with a healthcare marketing focus, Mitch has an honest approach to consumer engagement strategies and has successfully led teams working to drive volume with business and service line priorities. Throughout the episode, John and Mitch discuss how Innovaccer is unifying patient records and patient data and how Innovaccer is marketing in the health systems.
Show Notes
(1:12) Introducing Mitch Holdwick and Innovaccer
(8:30) The Unification of Patient Records and Patient Data
(16:21) Rediscovering the Joy of Medicine
(18:18) How Innovaccer is Marketing in the Health Systems
(23:02) Delineating between Target Markets
(31:33) Measuring Success with Proactive Engagement Strategies
(37:21) Customer Relationships and Engagement Initiatives
(50:15) Innovaccer’s Newer Products and Offerings
(54:06) Closing Thoughts
There is a clear distinction between individuals who seek to promote themselves by advancing technology in healthcare and those that seek to move healthcare forward by advancing meaningful technology. Bill Russell, Founder & Podcast Host of This Week Health is undoubtedly the latter. Formerly the CIO for St. Joseph’s Health, Bill oversaw a $6.5 billion healthcare system with sixteen hospitals, and he has contributed to IT advancements such as agile cloud development in healthcare. On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, Bill joins host John Farkas to discuss the unique challenges CIOs face, adopting healthtech solutions, AI’s impact on healthcare, and much more.
Show Notes
(1:11) Introducing Bill Russell
(3:29) The Unique Challenges of the CIO Role
(7:29) Tips for Pitching to CIOs
(13:53) What Problems Are CIOs Solving Today?
(17:29) Finding New Tech Solutions through Other Health Systems
(21:48) Bill on Failed Implementations
(26:35) Partnering with Health Systems
(28:22) Bill’s Expectations for AI’s Impact on Healthcare
(34:22) The Need for AI Policies in Healthcare
(42:24) AI’s Impact on Other Industries
(45:32) Bill on Why Healthcare Needs to Integrate Quickly
(48:06) Bill’s Favorite Transformative Ideas in Healthcare
(52:14) The Importance of Quality Leadership
(57:44) Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/the-cio-journey-from-information-to-innovation-in-modern-healthcare
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
Links & Resources
This Week Health
Health Lyrics
bill@thisweekhealth.com
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas sits down with Andy Flatt, Senior Vice President and CIO of National HealthCare Corporation, or NHC, which is the oldest and among the largest publicly traded, long-term healthcare companies in the nation. Andy has 40+ of experience in a combination of public and private healthcare organizations, including more than twenty years as a CIO. Throughout the episode, John and Andy discuss the scope of NHC, Andy’s leadership approach working in a high-pressure environment, and the role Andy sees technology playing in the future of NHC.
Show Notes
(1:25) Introducing Andy Flatt and National HealthCare Corporation
(7:32) A Look into Andy’s Position at NHC
(11:45) Critical Concerns in the Eldercare Space
(22:56) Challenges with Implementing New Technology
(26:20) Partnering with Solution Providers
(34:59) What NHC If Looking For with Solution Providers
(44:56) Anticipating NHC’s Future Development
(51:25) Closing Thoughts
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, John Farkas is joined by Aaron Hillman, advisory board member at Ratio, to discuss the intricacies of marketing products and solutions to healthcare enterprises, specifically with a consultative approach. Throughout the episode, John and Aaron emphasize the importance of getting out into the field to gather intelligence in order to effectively meet the market’s unmet needs. And with almost twenty years in the industry, Aaron shares his thoughts on how to assert value propositions through strategic and targeted content.
Show Notes
(0:20) Introducing Aaron Hillman
(2:39) Unifying Growth Efforts with a Consultative Marketing Approach
(8:00) Stewardship as a Consultative Marketer
(13:04) Critical Interactions in the Translation Layer
(25:13)The Importance of Intelligence Gathering
(32:34) Meeting the Needs of the Market
(40:56) Asserting Value Propositions through Content
(52:28) Closing Thoughts
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host Jessica Head is back for another episode in her Applied Learning series. Jessica is joined by Kyle Numann, design and development director at Ratio, for a conversation about how marketers and their teams can build digital platforms designed for growth and scale. Together, Jessica and Kyle cover the importance of making data-driven solutions when introducing a brand, the power of the buyer matrix, and designing for diverse populations.
Show Notes
(1:18) Introducing Kyle Numann
(3:16) Making Data-Driven Solutions When Introducing a Brand Digitally
(6:27) The Buyer Matrix
(9:38) Designing for Diverse Populations
(12:41) Closing Thoughts
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas sits down with Reed Smith, Chief Consumer Officer at Ardent Health, for a conversation about Reed’s role with Ardent and his thoughts on the state of the healthcare marketing industry. Reed has spent twenty years in healthcare marketing, serving in prominent positions for the Texas Hospital associations and working with the world’s largest healthcare brands and providers as a strategist. Throughout the episode, John and Reed discuss Ardent’s approach to AI, the importance of a clear value proposition, and what Reed looks for in providers.
Show Notes
(1:04) Introducing Reed Smith and Ardent Health
(7:08) Reed’s Role at Ardent
(15:17) Ardent’s Main Partnerships
(22:41) Engaging with Different Consumer Segments
(27:42) Ardent’s Approach to AI
(30:49) Reed’s Three-Year Outlook with Ardent
(36:47) The Importance of a Clear Value Proposition
(42:38) Looking for Innovation at Conferences
(45:34) What Reed Looks For on Provider’s Websites
(48:54) Closing Thoughts
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, John Farkas is joined by Taylor Underwood, Content Director at Ratio, to discuss the top three problems the healthcare industry faces today. Having completed the fall healthcare conference season, John considers the industry’s goals and priorities for 2024. How is healthcare addressing the clinician shortage? How can we improve payment processing and payer-provider relations to create less friction? How can we enhance the patient experience?
Show Notes
(1:16) Introducing Taylor Underwood
(2:36) John’s Takeaways from the Fall Conference Season
(8:47) The Healthcare Industry’s Near-Term Priorities
(16:58) Artisight, a Transformative Tool
(20:58) How Technology Is Solving the Clinician Shortage
(25:20) Payer-Provider Relations and Payment Processing
(29:53) Improving Patient Experience
(37:42) The Challenges of Point Solutions
(40:14) Closing Thoughts
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas is joined by Tod Fetherling for an astute conversation about the growing role of data and analytics in healthcare. Tod is Huron's managing director of data and analytics and global products, and he has spent over three decades building a comprehensive understanding of the importance of the smart use of data in healthcare. Throughout the episode, John and Tod discuss healthcare's changing approach to data, the importance of data literacy in healthcare today, and several of the emerging trends in healthcare data analytics.
Show Notes
(1:14) Tod’s Healthcare Journey
(8:16) Healthcare’s Changing Approach to Data
(13:25) Taking Data-Informed Action
(18:33) Educating the Target Market on the Practical Benefits of Data
(23:06) The Importance of Data Literacy and Security
(30:54) Emerging Trends in Data Analytics
(37:27) An Overview of Huron
(39:31) Upcoming Healthcare Trends
(49:02) Closing Thoughts
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas sits down with Haden McWhorter for an insightful conversation about Premise Health and the future of direct healthcare. Haden is the chief information officer at Premise and has spent the better part of a decade driving meaningful change as a leader in the healthcare ecosystem. Throughout the episode, John and Haden discuss the importance of member engagement, Haden’s unique value equation, Epic’s BFF program, and much more.
Show Notes
(1:42) Haden’s Accidental Journey to Healthcare
(11:02) An Overview of Premise Health
(17:22) Haden’s Role with Premise Health
(22:36) Promoting Member Engagement
(27:15) Haden’s Value Equation
(35:34) Using Data to Improve Engagement
(42:16) Epic’s BFF Program and Other Premise Health Partners
(51:42) Haden’s View on AI
(54:55) Closing Questions
Read a transcript of this episode:
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
Our healthcare systems will never experience the transformational changes they need unless we consider the system-level solutions that are capable of leading to widespread change. Luckily, Stephanie Lahr and Artisight are on the frontlines of this industry-wide battle. Stephanie began her career as an internal medicine physician, but she was always fascinated by the intersection of health IT and care delivery. Now, several years later, Stephanie has leveraged her experience as a physician to uniquely excel in multiple administrative roles that are not commonly occupied by physicians. Her unique experience and background lay the groundwork for the fascinating conversation she had with host John Farkas, in which they discussed several best practices for creating systematic change in healthcare.
Show Notes
(1:46) Avoiding Traditional Career Paths and Looking To Solve Problems
(7:28) Joining Artisight and Creating Transformation in Healthcare
(11:06) How Hurricane Ike Led Stephanie to a Career in Medical Informatics
(16:11) Bridging the Gap Between Clinicians and IT
(18:32) Why CMIOs Are Impactful Strategic Leaders
(23:09) Stephanie’s Experience Transitioning from CMIO to CIO
(30:25) The Do’s and Don’t’s of Pitching to a CIO
(39:38) Utilizing Empathetic Authority to Solve Problems
(43:05) Prioritizing Solving over Selling
(45:30) Systematic Issues That CMIOs and CIOs Face
(51:18) Closing Thoughts
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix’s Applied Theory Series, host Jessica Head is joined by Peter Smith, co-founder and President of Ratio, for an insightful conversation about RevOps, customer success, and how those two elements inform the ROI of a company’s marketing strategies. Peter is the master of operational and financial functions at Ratio and has worked with countless clients over the last twelve years, helping to craft KPIs and corresponding budgets to meet marketing goals. Throughout the episode, Jessica and Peter discuss building a team equipped for marketing success, recommendations for marketing executives building a 90-day plan, and Peter’s favorite tools for mapping KPIs.
Show Notes
(1:09) Peter Smith on Cofounding Ratio
(5:09) Peter on the Struggle of Properly Appreciating Marketing Efforts
(12:43) Building a Team Equipped for Marketing Success
(19:43) Peter’s Recommendations for a Marketing Executive’s 90-Day Plan
(27:01) Favorite Tools for Mapping KPIs
(31:06) Resources for Those Evaluating RevOps and Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/applied-theory-series-crafting-revops-funnels-and-building-high-performing-teams
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas sits down with Laura O’Toole, Ratio Advisory Board Member and CEO of SureTest, for an enlightening conversation about her thirty-plus years of experience in healthcare enterprise IT implementation. After spending much of her career strategically designing, developing, and implementing transformational projects as a global consulting professional, Laura transitioned to the provider space with SureTest, where she and her team create intelligent healthcare IT automation solutions that save clients thousands of hours of work. Throughout the episode, John and Laura discuss value-driven solutions, selling to CIOs and becoming enterprise-ready.
Show Notes
(1:49) Introducing Laura O’Toole and Her Healthcare Journey
(5:57) SureTest
(8:58) Laura on Providing Value-Driven Solutions
(14:38) Inspiring Confidence in Your Solution
(24:24) Advice on Selling to CIOs
(30:01) Trends, Solutions, and Technologies That Impress Laura
(35:11) Becoming Enterprise-Ready
(47:33) Ethical Considerations with Generative AI
(53:31) Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode:
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host John Farkas is joined by Trish Rivard for an insightful conversation about the HFMA Health System Purchase Plans 2023 report. Trish is a healthcare technology and revenue cycle expert, and she has a real passion for translating market feedback into actionable strategies and investments. With a decade of experience with the Federal Reserve, as well as stints with R1 and TriZetto Provider Solutions, Trish founded Eliciting Insights, a marketing research group that provides quality market feedback to healthcare companies and investors. Throughout the episode, John and Trish discuss the recent HFMA report, common frustrations with prior authorizations, why Trish created Eliciting Insights, and more.
Show Notes
(1:14) Introducing Trish Rivard
(4:35) The HFMA Health System Purchase Plans 2023 Report
(11:56) Merging and Consolidating Health Systems
(17:38) Common Frustrations with Prior Authorizations
(23:17) Patient Self-Service, Coding Automation, and CDI Solutions
(27:02) How Automation Will Affect the Revenue Cycle
(29:50) The Pros and Cons of Full Outsourcing
(33:43) Why Trish Created Eliciting Insights
(42:03) Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode:
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, host, John Farkas is joined by Justin Mooneyhan, Senior Director of Strategy, Solutions, and Innovation at AMSURG, with over a decade of expertise in healthcare, technology, strategy, process improvement, and project and portfolio management. He has led all efforts related to IT strategy, technology solution design, architecture, and efforts to drive innovation and technology enablement/modernization across enterprise-level organizations.
Tune in as John and Justin delve into the exciting prospects of AMSURG, exploring the challenges associated with integrating cutting-edge technologies within Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs).
Show Notes
(1:28) Introducing Justin Mooneyhan and His Healthcare Background
(12:31) Prioritizing Physician Partners
(16:24) Justin’s Role at AMSURG
(18:55) How Justin Stays Up-to-Date with New Innovations
(21:49) AMSURG’s Innovation Blueprint
(27:30) Difficulties with Deploying New Technologies
(32:44) What Justin Looks for in Healthtech Solution Providers
(38:46) Justin’s Favorite Healthtech Events and Conferences
(40:49) Efficiency Driven Solutions
(44:24) Creating a Consumer-Centric Digital Experience
(47:28) The Importance of a Strong Operating Capability
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/health-tech-horizons-navigating-nursing-challenges-innovations
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
With over 35 years of experience in clinical, academic, and leadership roles across nursing and healthcare, Kelly Aldrich is a tremendous HIT strategist, innovator, and thought leader who has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to leveraging advanced technology to improve nurses' lives and patient outcomes. Kelly joins host John Farkas on this Healthcare Market Matrix episode to discuss her healthcare experience, building solutions for nurses, and the importance of patient-centered care.
Show Notes
(1:20) Introducing Dave Brooks and His Healthcare Journey
(7:31) How Dave and People.Health Improved Healthcare Systems during the Pandemic
(14:06) Pitching Technology Solutions to Government Entities
(21:12) De-Risking Technology Solutions
(25:23) The Importance of Value Equations and Avoiding Over-Complexity
(36:07) A CEO’s Perspective on Selling to a CEO
(47:39) Addressing Workforce Issues
(51:19) Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/health-tech-horizons-navigating-nursing-challenges-innovations
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
Resources & Links
John Farkas
Ratio
Kelly Aldrich DNP
Vanderbilt School of Nursing
In this special Applied Theory Series feature episode, we reveal how our agency leverages design to build credibility among healthcare providers for the tech companies we serve. Cofounder Bennett Farkas shares real-life examples highlighting the impact of effective design in creating a strong pipeline. Together, we explore the world of design in enterprise health tech, uncovering the challenges, triumphs, and brand movements championed by our team for leading tech companies today.
Show Notes
(1:14) Introducing Bennett Farkas and His History with Design
(4:55) Designing for Experience and Activation
(12:23) Building Credibility among the Provider Ecosystem
(15:19) Approaching Brand Guidelines and Overall Brand Direction
(19:43) Bennett’s Favorite Tools for Design Exploration
(23:08) Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/credibility-by-design-applied-theory-series-feature
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
We are excited to share that, as of today, Golden Spiral will now be known as Ratio! Our agency’s mission and passion have always been to help transformative technologies gain the visibility they deserve, and we look forward to continuing in this pursuit.
This new chapter launches with a healthcare advisory board to deliver mentor-backed and data-driven marketing solutions to the technology companies that we serve, and it’s certainly an exciting moment that our team has been looking forward to.
Learn more about the rebrand by visiting our new website, https://goratio.com/!
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/golden-spiral-goes-ratio
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
With the recent surge in the public usage of AI tools such as ChatGPT, the healthcare industry must consider how these tools can impact and improve patient care across the spectrum. As with the implementation of any new technology, there are early success stories and cautionary tales alike, and it can be difficult to predict how your healthcare system can most effectively implement AI and technology solutions to heighten efficiency and effectiveness. Harvey Castro, a ChatGPT healthcare advisor, joins host John Farkas on this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix to discuss the challenges the healthcare industry faces with AI adoption, how ChatGPT applications can change healthcare forever, and the ethical considerations surrounding AI solutions in healthcare.
Show Notes
(1:04) Introducing Harvey Castro
(4:25) Harvey’s Innovative Nature
(10:13) Harvey’s Interest in AI
(17:04) Challenges the Healthcare System Faces with AI Adoption
(22:20) ChatGPT Applications That Can Change Healthcare
(28:27) Harvey’s Advice to Healthtech Companies Developing Healthcare Solutions
(35:34) Ethical Considerations Surrounding AI Solutions in Healthcare
(39:19) Using Technology to Bring the Hospital to the Home
(43:22) Why Healthtech Companies Must Be Able to Pivot
(53:03) Closing Thoughts
Check out Harvey's book ChatGPT and Healthcare: Unlocking the Potential of Patient Empowerment: https://www.chatgpthealthcare.com/
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/unleashing-the-power-of-ai-in-healthcare
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
Summary
While many in the healthcare industry knew a nursing shortage was on the horizon, the pandemic expedited the crisis in a way few saw coming. Now more than ever, it’s imperative that healthcare creates an environment that allows nurses to focus less on administrative tasks and more on what they love to do: caring for patients. Nicole Tremblett is the VP of the Information Technology Group, responsible for nursing, HR technologies, and identity and access at HCA, and she joins host John Farkas on this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix to discuss how she’s addressing this crisis in her role at HCA. Throughout the episode, John and Nicole examine the nursing crisis, HR’s important role in bringing stability, HCA’s approach to implementing technology solutions, and much more.
Show Notes
(1:15) Introducing Nicole Tremblett
(3:36) Healthcare’s Nursing Crisis
(7:35) Recommendations for Selling to Large Healthcare Organizations
(12:14) Healthtech Solutions that Nicole Is Considering
(15:32) HR’s Impact on the Nursing Crisis
(18:56) Identity, Access, and Data
(22:18) How Nicole and HCA Stay Up to Date with Healthcare Solutions
(26:03) HCA’s Approach to Implementing New Technologies
(34:44) Nicole’s Magic Wand Solutions
(38:15) Closing Questions
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/empowering-care-hcas-journey-to-quality-care-through-tech-partnerships
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
Few healthcare executives have as much experience in the industry as Dave Brooks — currently the Chief Strategy Officer with People.Health, Dave became the CEO and VP of Physician Services for Christus Medical Group in 1996 before becoming the EVP and COO for Central DuPage Health in 2002. He has also served as CEO of Providence Health and Services, president of Ascension St. John Hospital and SVP of their East Region, President of St Joseph Mercy Health in Ann Arbor and Livingston, and the Director of Wayne County Health in Detroit, Michigan. On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, Dave joins host, John Farkas to talk about his healthcare career, the path to de-risking technology solutions, and offers valuable insights into population health and its impact on the future of healthcare.
Show Notes
(1:20) Introducing Dave Brooks and His Healthcare Journey
(7:31) How Dave and People.Health Improved Healthcare Systems during the Pandemic
(14:06) Pitching Technology Solutions to Government Entities
(21:12) De-Risking Technology Solutions
(25:23) The Importance of Value Equations and Avoiding Over-Complexity
(36:07) A CEO’s Perspective on Selling to a CEO
(47:39) Addressing Workforce Issues
(51:19) Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/from-crisis-to-progress-population-health-in-the-new-normal
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
There is a clear distinction between individuals who seek to promote themselves by advancing technology in healthcare and those that seek to move healthcare forward by advancing meaningful technology. Bill Russell, Founder & Podcast Host of This Week Health is undoubtedly the latter. Formerly the CIO for St. Joseph’s Health, Bill oversaw a $6.5 billion healthcare system with sixteen hospitals, and he has contributed to IT advancements such as agile cloud development in healthcare. On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, Bill joins host John Farkas to discuss the unique challenges CIOs face, adopting healthtech solutions, AI’s impact on healthcare, and much more.
Show Notes
(1:11) Introducing Bill Russell
(3:29) The Unique Challenges of the CIO Role
(7:29) Tips for Pitching to CIOs
(13:53) What Problems Are CIOs Solving Today?
(17:29) Finding New Tech Solutions through Other Health Systems
(21:48) Bill on Failed Implementations
(26:35) Partnering with Health Systems
(28:22) Bill’s Expectations for AI’s Impact on Healthcare
(34:22) The Need for AI Policies in Healthcare
(42:24) AI’s Impact on Other Industries
(45:32) Bill on Why Healthcare Needs to Integrate Quickly
(48:06) Bill’s Favorite Transformative Ideas in Healthcare
(52:14) The Importance of Quality Leadership
(57:44) Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/the-cio-journey-from-information-to-innovation-in-modern-healthcare
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
Links & Resources
This Week Health
Health Lyrics
bill@thisweekhealth.com
The CMO role is typically the shortest-tenured position in health tech C-suites, but Tom Mitchell is the exception to the rule. As a seasoned healthcare professional, Tom has over thirty years of experience in and around the healthcare universe, as well as a strong background in leading marketing operations for multiple high-growth healthcare and technology firms. On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, Tom and host John Farkas discuss sticking with long-term multi-channel marketing strategies, setting realistic expectations, creating true and lasting relationships with industry associations, and Golden Spiral's marketing series partnership with the Tennessee HIMSS chapter.
Show Notes
(1:18) Introducing Tom Mitchell
(2:30) Tom’s Background in Healthcare
(5:38) Measuring the Success of Marketing Efforts in Healthcare
(9:24) Tom’s Experience Targeting the C-Suite
(17:36) Committing to a Long-Term Multi-Channel Strategy
(22:59) The Importance of Your Value Equation
(29:04) Setting Realistic Expectations for Your Marketing Strategy
(35:24) Tom on Creating True, Lasting Relationships
(39:06) The Convergence of Sales, Marketing, and Product
(45:34) Tom’s Advice to Healthcare Marketing Professionals
(46:36) The Tennessee HIMSS Marketing Seminar
(50:13) Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/mastering-your-value-equation-in-a-loud-and-crowded-market
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
With the current tech adoption rate, CIOs are tasked with the impossible: staying up-to-date and ahead of the curve with new products and systems that help increase value across their business. Eric Thrailkill, former CIO at AMSURG and current investor, knows this struggle first-hand. In this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, Eric joins host John Farkas, CEO of Golden Spiral Marketing, to discuss the challenges healthtech companies encounter when striving to meet the ever-evolving needs of large healthcare systems.
Show Notes
(1:14) Introducing Eric Thrailkill and His Journey to the CIO Role
(7:59) Creating an Environment for Learning and Growth
(13:22) Eric’s Thoughts on Pitching to CIOs
(17:51) Utilizing Vendor Partnerships to Stay Current on Rapid Technology Development
(20:45) Challenges Healthcare Companies Face Today and Their Solutions
(28:22) Optimizing Telehealth Solutions for True Hybrid Care
(32:32) Starting Conversations with Telehealth Academy
(36:09) Understanding the Value of Collaboration and Partnerships across Healthcare
(43:21) Three Areas of Healthcare that Eric Is Excited About
(47:51) Eric’s Favorite Sources for Continued Learning and Problem Solving
(53:42) Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/amsurg-to-investor-pioneering-nashvilles-healthcare-future
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
Our healthcare systems will never experience the transformational changes they need unless we consider the system-level solutions capable of leading to widespread change.
Luckily, Stephanie Lahr and Artisight are on the frontlines of this industry-wide battle. Stephanie began her career as an internal medicine physician, but she was always fascinated by the intersection of health IT and care delivery. Now, several years later, Stephanie has leveraged her experience as a physician to uniquely excel in multiple administrative roles that are not commonly occupied by physicians. Her unique experience and background lay the groundwork for her fascinating conversation with host John Farkas, CEO of Golden Spiral Marketing, in which they discuss several best practices for creating systematic change in healthcare.
Show Notes
(0:58) Avoiding Traditional Career Paths and Looking To Solve Problems
(6:10) Joining Artisight and Creating Transformation in Healthcare
(9:48) How Hurricane Ike Led Stephanie to a Career in Medical Informatics
(14:53) Bridging the Gap Between Clinicians and IT
(17:04) Why CMIOs Are Impactful Strategic Leaders
(21:51) Stephanie’s Experience Transitioning from CMIO to CIO
(29:07) The Do’s and Don’t’s of Pitching to a CIO
(38:21) Utilizing Empathetic Authority to Solve Problems
(41:47) Prioritizing Solving over Selling
(44:12) Systematic Issues That CMIOs and CIOs Face
(50:00) Closing Thoughts
Read a transcript of this episode: https://goratio.com/podcast/bringing-the-joy-back-to-medicine
Subscribe to Ratio's Insights Squared newsletter: https://goratio.com/newsletter
Introducing Healthcare Market Matrix, an all-new podcast series presented by Golden Spiral. Healthcare Market Matrix is a podcast series providing an in-depth exploration of the challenges healthcare organization leaders face that technology has the chance to help them solve. We aim to create a comprehensive, referenceable resource health tech companies can use to develop and bring products to market ready to address their customers' unique needs.
Through our captivating conversations, we aim to weave together a tapestry of diverse voices united in their commitment to enhancing the accessibility and quality of healthcare for all people.
New episodes drop every Tuesday at 12 pm CT. Subscribe on the platform of your choice, and tune in next week for our first full episode!
Are you having a conversation with your market or merely making noise? B2B brands—including HealthTech solutions—must invest in their brands. Expecting your inbound marketing and direct-to-customer approaches to distinguish you among your competitors will result in missed goals. Who speaks on behalf of your brand? Who is attractive to journalists and others observing your marketplace? Do you have a brand evangelist?
Tony Anscombe, Chief Security Evangelist for ESET discusses modern brand communication on this edition of Studio CMO.
About Our Guest Tony Anscombe is the Chief Security Evangelist for ESET. With over 20 years of security industry experience, Anscombe is an established author, blogger and speaker on the current threat landscape, security technologies and products, data protection, privacy and trust, and Internet safety.
His speaking portfolio includes industry conferences RSA, CTIA, MEF, Gartner Risk and Security, and the Child Internet Safety Summit (CIS). He is regularly quoted in security, technology and business media, including BBC, The Guardian, the New York Times, and USA Today, with broadcast appearances on Bloomberg, BBC, CTV, KRON and CBS.
Show Notes
Technology only communicates to a certain level. To reach the depth you need with your end-user, you must engage and educate. —Tony Anscombe, ESET
Sometimes, the very last thing you need to communicate is your product. Do you:
- know your customer well?
- talk about the challenges facing your industry?
- understand the threat landscape?
- connect problems to solutions?
How does the role of brand ambassador or brand evangelist propel you forward? How do you calculate the ROI of a role like this?
Links Discussed on This Episode * Building a Bridge of Transformation for Your Buyer * When What You Know Can Kill Your HealthTech Marketing * The HealthTech CMO's Guide to Building the Ultimate Marketing Team
Product marketing is the opportunity you have to focus your solution, perfect your architecture, and put your ideas forward in such a way that makes sense to your audience and helps you gain traction in the market quicker. If you're going to launch into the marketplace, you need to ensure you have solid product/market fit.
About Our Guest John Farkas founded Golden Spiral to help companies uncover a market-focused story that will transform the way people see their world. As CEO and Storyteller, John works closely with team members and clients to provide strategic vision and creative direction. One of his favorite parts of working at Golden Spiral is uniting people around a challenge and inspiring them to create great work. “I’m a storyteller at heart. The process of developing a narrative, regardless of its form, is magical — and working with creative teams to bring that story to life is a blast. We have a tremendous staff here at Golden Spiral and watching them make things happen is one of my greatest privileges.” Aside from his work at Golden Spiral, John loves spending time with his family and is an avid cyclist, frequently commuting the 38-mile round trip to the office (which obviously entitles him to collect bicycles). He remembers saving for a Macintosh 512 when he was attending The University of Wisconsin, knowing it would change his life forever.
Show Notes Product launch is a lot like a rocket launch. And a lot of times from our a vantage point, we've seen so many companies be like, what happened to Werner von Braun.
The Reasons Companies Struggle with Product Launch * Lack of the Product Marketing function on the team * The vast speed of the marketplace * The challenges of technical founders launching organizations
A Detailed Look at the Product Marketing Function * What product marketers do * The value of product marketing to an organization * Where product marketing should "sit" in an organization * How product marketing interacts with sales * How production marketing interacts with marketing * What keeps companies from installing product marketing
Links Mentioned on This Episode Download our Product Launch Guide and Timeline Product
Marketing versus Company Marketing for HealthTech Businesses
B2B Product Launch Secrets from the Apollo 10 Mission
A HealthTech CMO’s Guide to the Ultimate Marketing Team
More and more HealthTech companies must support both B2B and B2C marketing efforts to meet the needs of their end customers. Companies must sway the minds and habits of medical professionals. Sometimes, the most efficient way to do so is to educate the patients so they, in turn, pique the curiosity of the doctors. At other times, both doctors and patients must be exposed to new research and solutions. Addressing both is the most expeditious way to succeed. To view a transcript of this episode, click here.
About Our Guests Jackie Vinyard joined Kindara, the parent company of Priya, after hearing the CEO speak at an event. Her passion for working with those struggling with infertility lights up the room wherever she is. She has invested her career in fitness and women’s health at companies like Telespine before joining Kindara. She runs the B2C marketing efforts.
Debbie Fimple runs marketing on Priya’s B2B side. She is an in-demand communicator with experience in B2B and B2C marketing in professional services, healthcare, and public sector industries including a stint at the Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy.
Resources Mentioned on this Episode * For webinar resources, check out this article and this podcast episode. * The eBook, How to Not Waste Another Month While Trying to Conceive, grew out of one of their more successful webinars. Check out their gated resource here. * Get Closer to Your HealthTech Buyers by Getting Rid of Technology Bias * Is the Enterprise Healthcare Buyer Set up to Win on Your Website? * The Complete SEO Guide for B2B Tech Marketing
Your marketing team. Where would your company be without them? Where would you? A good marketing team is made up of a diverse group of people with a variety of talents, soft skills, expertise, and an X factor which, for your vision, only you can define. How do you find the right people, assimilate them into your culture, and keep them motivated to perform their best work?
About Our Guest Tarah Neujahr Bryan, MAJMC, joined Health Catalyst in 2013 and has served as Editorial Director and Vice President of Marketing; she is currently the Senior Vice President of Marketing and a member of the Health Catalyst leadership team. She brings a breadth of marketing and communications experience to her current role. Prior to joining Health Catalyst, Tarah served as the Marketing Communications Director and Foundation Executive Director at a community hospital, managed at an advertising agency, was the Editor and Operations Manager at an archaeology firm, and provided triage assistance and patient admissions at a Level-II Trauma Center. She has a Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Nebraska and a Bachelor of Arts from Montana State University-Billings. Tarah volunteers with Intermountain Therapy Animals and has done pro-bono communications work for the American Cancer Society, Wings Cancer Foundation, and many other non-profit organizations.
Show Notes A Quick History of HealthCatalyst's Growth: 2008: Founded Funding Rounds
- Jan 8, 2013, Series B
- Mar 1, 2013, Series B
- Jan 27, 2014, Series C
- Mar 17, 2015, Series D
- Feb 29, 2016, Series E
- Oct 13, 2017, Series E
- Feb 8, 2019, Debt Financing
- Feb 8, 2019, Series F
- Jun 1, 2019, Venture Round
2013: Content Marketing Began 2015: "Practiced being Public" 2019: IPO
We keep education of the industry and ensuring good care at the forefront of our mission. Our mission is to transform healthcare. And for us, that means partnerships. We produce educational pieces with customers and peers. We explore partnerships wherever our technology can actually work with another. —Tarah Neujahr Bryan
Building a Rock Star Marketing Team 1. Kill the silos. Because silos can kill you. Tarah knocked down as many as she could and moved the culture to think of marketing initiatives. as an integrated effort. 2. Build working groups. HealthCatalyst has six teams: 1. Marketing Operations: Tech Stack and Analytics 2. Marketing Response: Inbound 3. Digital Marketing: Website, social, content, and design 4. Field Marketing: Sales enablement 5. Business Unit: Events including their user conference, Healthcare Analytics Summit 6. Communications Team: PR, media relations, investor relations 3. Create layers of communication—weekly stand-ups with team leads and then weekly working group stand-ups as well. 4. Create a framework for transparency and idea-swapping. Tarah uses the process of "Thorn, Bud, Rose" which has been used by everyone from sororities to family dinner tables to unpack what's behind the scenes. This process has given her team new places of connection and members of the team relate better to one another and find ways to support and encourage each other throughout each week. She equates the words as follows: 1. Thorn: One thing that sucks about your week 2. Bud: One thing that you're learning about 3. Rose: One thing you're excited about 5. Deploy the right tech stack 1. Salesforce and Pardot 2. Visible - attribution and following the buyer journey 3. Basecamp - Team communication 4. Smartsheet - 5. Triblio - ABM 6. Data visualization using HealthCatalyst's own tools 6. The three most important aspects Tarah looks for. innew team members are smart, hard-working, and humble.
Internal marketing is almost as important as external marketing. — Tarah Neujahr Bryan
Links Mentioned on This Episode Some of the 260 case studies Tarah referred to:
- Analytics Enables Identification of Opportunities to Improve Value and Accountable Care Organization Performance
- Quality Improvement in Healthcare: An ACO Palliative Care Case Study
- Changing Healthcare Using Data: A Case Study of One Small Health System’s Odyssey To Achieve Material Improvements
Job openings at HealthCatalyst Article by Tarah: COVID-19 Data and Analytics: Survey Reveals Long- and Short-Term Healthcare Industry Impact 20 Reasons Why Virtual Events are Better than Live
For two years prior to the pandemic, marketing executives were bemoaning the effectiveness and the future of trade shows. When the world shut live events down, organizations pivoted to online.
Would in-person events return? If so, would they be even more ineffective as those before the pandemic?
Industries outside of healthcare looked to HIMSS as a major in-person trade show to gauge their own financial and human investment in events for 2021-22.
Innovaccer's success at HIMSS is a blueprint for others.
About Our Guest Dipty Desai, PhD serves as Director of Marketing for strategic partnerships at Innovaccer. Her thrilling career has woven through healthcare and biosciences with a stint at NASA. She holds her undergraduate and masters' degrees from the University of Bombay, studied genetics at Penn State, received her PhD at UCSF, and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at Stanford. While at NASA, she took her research from Stanford and helped adapt technology to study the effects of zero gravity at the cellular level. She brings a lifetime of connections to Innovaccer.
Show Notes Innovaccer mounted a very successful experience at HIMSS21 through:
- encouraging infectious passion about their solution and their company culture
- building team unity
- defining the roles for team members and booth staff
- creating a transferable methodology for engaging passersby and leads in the booth
- using a team to evaluate, grade, and contact leads to set appointments during the show
Their trade show savvy would have been nothing without the fact their HealthTech solution works and has integrity.
Links Mentioned on This Episode Find out more about Innovaccer.
Four Trade Show Lessons from HIMSS 2021
Overcoming the Three Curses of the HealthTech Technical Founder
Every time you pick up your phone, open your computer, turn on your television, wake up your tablet, or start your enabled car, you are drawn into a user experience. How quickly, easily, and intuitively you navigate to your intended result broadly determines your satisfaction. HealthTech platforms, their sites, and their apps are often plagued with a mix of age, older tech holding on, and limits placed by regulations. How can you build an environment that builds fans instead of prompting complaints? What role does marketing play in the development of the platform itself? UX expert and marketing veteran Elisabeth Bohlmann from December Labs explains.
About Our Guest
Elisabeth Bohlmann is Vice-President of Client Strategy at December Labs, a high-touch Design & Development firm for mobile and web products. She drives December Labs’ expansion strategy and accompanies their clients towards scalable and continuous growth. She speaks often at key industry events including CES. She has spent more than ten years in leadership at tech, digital marketing, and international operations. She holds an economics degree from Bonn University in Germany. She’s also an accomplished musician. She’s got real chops. She is a scrum-trained, trilingual, cross-functional marketing executive with a passion for design-thinking and integrating cutting-edge technologies into human-centered and value-driven solutions. She has developed and led projects for iconic brands such as Mattel, NBCUniversal, Food Network, and the NBA.
Tech products have come a long way, but there is still so much more to do. Your app or platform is being directly compared to Instagram, WhatsApp, Spotify, and other apps that are on your buyer's phone. The bar is set really high. Those companies are spending millions—billions—to develop their products. You must be intentional in order to compete. —Elisabeth Bohlmann, December Labs
Links Mentioned on This Episode * The Complete Guide to Creating a Business-Building HealthTech Website * How to Build B2B Buyers’ Trust Through Exceptional CX * Don’t Leave Your Users Behind: Mapping The B2B User Experience * Five B2B Tech Websites Absolutely Killing It at User Experience * Five Drivers of Customer Experience with Mary Drumond of Worthix * How to Create an Epic HealthTech Website Resources Page * Updating Your B2B Tech Website: When, Why, and How * Hear Elisabeth's band here.
Today’s marketers wear many hats—when it comes to webinars, they have to build the slides, run the software, and follow up. Despite the reputation and stereotype of marketers being extroverted and performers, many don’t like being on stage or camera. The purpose of a webinar is to bring your attendees/audience closer to what they need. In this podcast episode, Ashley Levesque from Demio walks us through the power of webinar platforms, building engagement, and how to build a webinar funnel and KPIs for HealthTech applications.
About Our Guest Tony Anscombe is the Chief Security Evangelist for ESET. With over 20 years of security industry experience, Anscombe is an established author, blogger and speaker on the current threat landscape, security technologies and products, data protection, privacy and trust, and Internet safety. His speaking portfolio includes industry conferences RSA, CTIA, MEF, Gartner Risk and Security, and the Child Internet Safety Summit (CIS). He is regularly quoted in security, technology and business media, including BBC, The Guardian, the New York Times, and USA Today, with broadcast appearances on Bloomberg, BBC, CTV, KRON and CBS.
The healthcare industry is very good at preventative medicine for their patients. Paying cybercriminals is not preventative because it's funding and resourcing bad actors for the very next attack. —Tony Anscombe, ESET
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Three Steps to Building a Culture of Security at Your HealthTech Company Don’t leave security to the IT technicians. Build it into your marketing messaging and automation. Healthcare providers—whether attacked or not—are chilled every time they consider a new solution to add to their digital mix. They worry if the new application will become a door that can be breached by bad actors putting millions of dollars and patient trust on the line. Don’t miss that hurdle in the customer journey you and your sales department are creating for potential clients. You can set yourself apart by taking these three steps.
Start with You Michael Jackson famously sang, “I’m starting with the man in the mirror.” You need to start with your own company. How well do you handle sensitive data to prevent loss, a breach, or corporate espionage? Start with you. Make sure your company data is locked away. Give your IT team freedom to look at cybersecurity tools and stay on the cutting edge. Build upgrades into your budget so you can be more nimble. How carefully do you handle your own customer data? With the onset of GDPR and CCPA, many companies wrestled with their customer data plans, their email lists, and more. However, a large number of SaaS companies, especially start-ups and those in the US but outside of California, didn’t upgrade their websites and systems because they didn’t meet the threshold requirements. If you’re going to be an unbreakable link in the chain for your customers, build that strength now. Systems and procedures are not enough to protect your customers’ sensitive data. Every person who works at your company (plus any freelancers) need to keep the value front and center in all that they do. Imagine if you went inside for a banking transaction and could see another customer’s information on the screen or could easily look on the teller side of the counter and see account numbers, names, and balances. You would feel like you were banking at a careless institution. Work with your entire team to raise the standard of protection so they each feel responsible. Call it security collaboration. You may even want to create some internal marketing for the standard so that everyone feels part of something bigger than themselves. (For more, listen at 14:00 and following and 27:00 and following.) When you create your next product, don’t wait till after you’ve developed it to add security features. Start with cybersecurity. Build your product in an environment of security. (Listen at 24:00 and following.)
Spruce Up Your Security Process within Marketing Functions When a visitor comes to your site and downloads a white paper or signs up for your email list, what security protocol is in place? Is there two-factor authentication or a verification code sent by email or text? How do those messages look, feel, and sound from a marketing perspective? Don’t accept boilerplate language or templates here. Work on these expressions of security so that your users feel secure when they interact with you. Don’t let your privacy policy be a jumbled mess of legalese that is a mess to read on the screen. Treat it like a long blog article. Use subheadings and simpler language for a better experience whether your visitor is skimming or reading. Help them feel confident in your security. (Listen at 16:00 for more information.) If someone unsubscribes from your list, don’t waste an opportunity to demonstrate how carefully you treat personal data. Sure, you may still want to try and retain their place on your list, but it is more important to let someone leaving know with confidence that they won’t receive any more communication from you and their name isn’t for sale. What other subtle ways could you remind your visitors and email list that their data is secure?
Include Security in Your Front Line Marketing Messaging Trust must be earned. You can’t call yourself a trusted partner. Only your customers can bestow that honor on you. In the same way, you can’t demand to be trusted in the marketing and sales process. You must earn it. However, you won’t earn your prospect’s trust if you don’t talk about security and demonstrate it.
- When you answer objections about your solution, do you include any security information?
- Do you include security as a part of your FAQs?
- Can you spare a few words in your elevator pitch to nod to security?
- How many seconds does security receive in your pitch presentation and deck?
- Do you have any comments and endorsements from existing clients about security?
Keeping data secure is high stakes for healthcare institutions. Be their armor-bearer. Help your customers be even more secure than they are now. Tony Anscombe, Chief Security Evangelist for ESET believes there is a broader call in the healthcare industry. “Healthcare is regulated by HIPAA. This is very generic security terminology used in HIPAA,” Anscombe said. “I think if I was in the HealthTech industry, I would be looking beyond HIPAA compliance. When you have regulations or legislation, it’s merely a stake in the ground. Go beyond. Innovate further. Look at some of the other innovations around security technology that could be used to further—not just comply—but to go way beyond compliance. There’s too much at stake.”
Links Mentioned on This Episode * Dr. Michael McGuire presented his research at RSA 2018 where he found that the total cost of cybercrime worldwide was $1.5 Trillion per year. * In 2020, the World Economic Forum revised that number. They estimated that the global risk was over $6 Trillion. * In 2018, Atlanta, Georgia’s Smart City Servers were hacked and the ransom was $51,000 in bitcoin. * The attack on Kaseya, a SaaS and managed service provider, was attacked with a total ransom of $70 million. * Britain’s National Health Service was attacked but the government didn’t pay the ransom. It cost an estimated $122 million to bring the network back online. * Zero Day Vulnerability in Microsoft. * Golden Spiral’s Privacy Page * ESET’s Privacy Policy * Tony Anscombe’s “We Live Security” video series
Today’s marketers wear many hats—when it comes to webinars, they have to build the slides, run the software, and follow up.
Despite the reputation and stereotype of marketers being extroverted and performers, many don’t like being on stage or camera.
The purpose of a webinar is to bring your attendees/audience closer to what they need.
In this podcast episode, Ashley Levesque from Demio walks us through the power of webinar platforms, building engagement, and how to build a webinar funnel and KPIs for HealthTech applications.
PLAYER
About Our Guest Ashley Levesque is passionate about building teams and strategies that empower employees and transform businesses. With a soft spot for small businesses, she welcomes new opportunities and challenges, even (especially) when the pathway forward isn’t clear. Having run hundreds of webinars in her career—and with a bunch of degrees in Theater and Performing Arts—she’s the expert in how to make webinars not terrible. As the Director of Marketing at Demio, she spends her time making marketers’ lives easier.
Show Notes You're Invited to Breakfast at HIMSS 2021 The size of HIMSS can be overwhelming. Especially after a year at home facing a computer screen.
We want to foster deeper connections and real conversation.
We are hosting two breakfasts for small groups of HealthTech marketing professionals at HIMSS 2021. Details of the breakfast will be sent to those who RSVP. Please fill out the form below to reserve your chair.
* First Name*
- Last Name*
- Last Name*
- Business Email*
- Your Title*
- Which morning do you prefer? (Breakfast will be held from 7:00—8:15 to give you time to attend the keynote.)*
- Wednesday, August 11
- Thursday, August 12
When we’re not building a relationship, we’re not marketing. We’re just not. —Ashley Levesque, Demio
Maximize Your Webinar Platforms The power of webinar platforms has been fundamentally misunderstood.
The webinar platform is meant to:
- Engage your attendees.
- Invite them to participate.
- Invite them to contribute to the experience that you are sharing with them.
As you review platform options—even if you are using one right now—experiment with engagement. How can you make your webinars a conversation instead of a monologue? Where can you cut fluff (or maybe even content) to make room for interacting around audience response?
Building a Better Webinar Who is Your Audience? How well do you know your audience? Within your audience are many smaller audiences. Which audience do you want to target with a single webinar.
Ask yourself: What do they need?
The answer is probably not your product or service.
Ask yourself: What is their desired outcome?
Build your content and engagement tools toward that end.
Who is Your Communicator? There are two options every company must wrestle with.
- Train the subject matter expert to be a great presenter.
This option requires intentional effort and will take some time. You must determine whether it is worth the investment. Which is more valuable: time working on presentation skills or time focused on what he or she does best.
- Train your best communicator to be intimately familiar with the technology.
This is the more often preferred path.
If you decide to use your subject matter expert, consider only bringing him or her “on stage” for a few minutes at the end of the main section of content and the Q&A portion.
What are You Trying to Accomplish? What business goal is this webinar supposed to impact?
Ashley says, “If I don’t consider my business goals, all of the energy will be wasted and none of our goals will be furthered. We won’t be generating more leads, shortening the sales cycle.”
How can your webinar further and impact a single goal?
What Should You Include in Your Presentation? Communicate the purpose for the webinar.
If you were taking a few co-workers for a journey, you wouldn’t just ask them to get in the car and start driving. You would tell them where you are going. Do the same with your webinar.
Set your expectations.
How much time are you asking for? What are you going to ask your attendees to do?
Review the platform.
Describe the different ways you will invite involvement how will you invite involvement? (chat, polls, open mic, etc.) Tell them how you will respond to them during the webinar?
Ashley uses polls to direct the content of a webinar. She will use the poll tool in Demio to find out what the most desired direction is. Then she will shift her presentation to address the one or two that her attendees identify.
An Example of a Webinar Funnel Goal: Acquire new clients over the course of a few webinars
AWARENESS > CONSIDERATION > DECISION
An Awareness Webinar Purpose of webinar: Introduce ourselves to unaware prospects
Webinar goal: Convert webinar attendees into email subscribers
Webinar content: This is your pain, here are some salves for your pain.
The emails received by the attendees who convert will draw them into the next stage of the funnel where you will present another webinar.
A Consideration Webinar Purpose of webinar: How to solve their problem with your solution.
Webinar goal: Attendees to sign up for a one-on-one demo of the product.
Webinar content: Use case for a single application of your product. Here’s what it looked like before your product. Here’s how easy it was to implement. Here’s what happened after. Demonstrate the “from/to.”
Those that don’t sign up for a demo from the consideration webinar continue to get emails for a third webinar.
A Decision Webinar Webinar goal: Attendees to sign up for a one-on-one demo of the product.
Webinar content: Fill this one with stories from happy customers. If you can get a customer to be a part of the webinar with you, do so.
My goal for each individual webinar is to bring my attendees a little closer to where they want to be. —Ashley Levesque
As of June 30, 2021, the ten largest reported healthcare data breaches have compromised the protected health information of 16-million patients. During the first six months of 2020, 3.5-million individuals had been compromised. Now more than ever, security is a top-level concern for every healthcare provider. Every HealthTech solution requires integration into the data system of the provider and requires access to data. How can your target customer—the CIO—keep all that data safe from bad actors? It's a near-impossible task. Do you understand the battles they are fighting right now? Do you know how to communicate how your solution will keep them secure or protect from intrusion? We discuss the marketing implications of security on this edition of Studio CMO.
About Our Guest Joe Scotto has served as Chief Marketing Officer at CyberMDX for over a year. His 30-year marketing career has included stints as a marketing leader at Indegy, BAE Systems, Avaya and Time Warner. While CMO for Indegy, Joe positioned the company as a leader in the OT Security market category, creating breakthrough programs to drive market awareness and thought leadership. Joe has used his broad experience to build and lead marketing teams for a variety of global B2B organizations in the technology, defense, telecom, and publishing industries.
Show Notes You're Invited to Breakfast at HIMSS 2021
The size of HIMSS can be overwhelming. Especially after a year at home facing a computer screen.
We want to foster deeper connections and real conversation.
We are hosting two breakfasts for small groups of HealthTech marketing professionals at HIMSS 2021. Details of the breakfast will be sent to those who RSVP. Please click here to reserve your chair.
The Dos and Don'ts of Presenting Your Security Story Do… be specific. Talk about exactly how your solution integrates with different security protocols
Do… be authentic. Tell the truth about how you address security.
Do… borrow credibility. Your customers’ testimonies about your product will move your prospects.
Do… practice empathy. Knowing and understanding the pressure on the CIOs and the challenges they face should influence how you address them.
Don’t... try to be cute. Humor and sarcasm can backfire in a security conversation.
Don’t... fearmonger. Your prospect is already afraid. Don’t rely on fear to motivate. Encourage and point to the solution.
"I greatly admire CIOs and CISOs. More and more, they're becoming risk managers. They're not just protecting operations, data, and financial reputation, they're actually protecting lives." — Joe Scotto, CMO of CyberMDX
"How Hospital Hacks Happen" Video Series Find more videos here.
Why Studio CMO Exists HealthTech marketers are on a rare pilgrimage. The overall industry is one of the most robust economic forces in our society and HealthTech solutions are leading the way in innovation, patient connection, and much more. We created Studio CMO so that you could:
- learn ways to refine your market positioning
- build better and more successful demand generation programs
- understand your audience more deeply
- see the healthcare ecosystem more clearly
- meet some of the greatest experts in marketing theory and technology
Our Hosts On this special episode, we also want to introduce you to our team. John Farkas John has always worked to bring creative projects together. After working nearly two decades as a creative director for two large organizations, he turned his focus toward leading Golden Spiral. John reflects: “Great stories cut through our defenses and imprint us at our core. Tell someone a great story—at the least it will leave an impression—but it could change the course of their lives.” John enjoys creative writing, exploring the outdoors, building and remodeling houses, spending time with his family, and riding his bicycle. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in Theatre and English. Anna Grimes Anna serves as an account director at Golden Spiral helping shepherd our clients through their demand generation programs. Anna is a public relations expert with stints at some of our nation's most prestigious PR firms: Atkinson and Paine Pomeroy. She grew up with healthcare conversations around the dinner table because her father was one of the architects of Nashville's robust healthcare industry. Anna is a graduate of Kenyon College, tells the greatest stories from her career, enjoys watching the journeys of her adult children, and enjoys being a part of the Nashville community. Mark Whitlock Mark produces Studio CMO and serves as marketing manager for Golden Spiral writing content and helping run the agency's demand generation program. Mark has produced for terrestrial and talk radio and worked as an acquisitions editor in traditional publishing. He is the author or co-author of eight books including one that reached Amazon's overall top 25 in 2003. Mark graduated from the University of Georgia. He is striving to overcome a 2019 injury to run his fifth marathon. He volunteers in a community for men and enjoys a full calendar of events for his children and step-children. Explore our episode library by clicking here.
Does Your Positioning Set You Up for Greater Success? Positioning is the art of articulating your unique value proposition in such a way that you begin a conversation with a potential customer. Both Golden Spiral and Newfangled are experts at helping companies define their market positioning for greater success. On this edition of Studio CMO, Newfangled's CEO, Mark O'Brien, looks at the pitfalls and benefits of good positioning, how companies win, and the single most important factor to marketing after you release your positioning—patience.
Show Notes
Positioning is the foundation, because without it, you're going to waste so much money. — Mark O’Brien
Are You Addressing the Wrong Audience? Are you speaking to your peers? Stop trying to impress your competition. Awards are a waste of time and money. Your peers and competitors don’t grow your business. Your audience does. Are you speaking to your internal audience? Your employees know what you do and what you make. So, changing the language around may sound unique to them but means the same thing. The only audience that matters is the buyer audience.
The Curse of the Technical Founder Golden Spiral sees this curse time and time again. A company is so in love with their technology—their chassis—they can’t talk about anything else. They don’t even talk about the problem that originally inspired the creation of the technology. Often, when a company’s marketing is focused on the technology, the marketing actually talks over the heads of the customer. Companies can be so bound up with the minutiae that they miss the big picture. John Farkas recently published an article about technical founders.
Positioning must be focused on a real problem that real people have. It must start a conversation. —John Farkas
The Three Stages of Marketing Mark O’Brien outlined the three basic stages marketing plans go through. Energy You’re spending the time, energy, and money to create a marketing strategy based on your research. Everyone is excited and can’t wait to see what happens. Marketing Launch Time slows down. It’s worse than watching grass grow. How long will it take? What is the TTR—time to result? During this stage, only those who stay on the plan, remain disciplined to follow the strategy, and continue to believe will win. Success or Death This is the fun stage. If you’ve stayed committed to the strategy, you will see results and can throw more fuel to grow the results. If you gave up during the doldrums, you’ll feel the death and wonder why you started in the first place.
The Power of Focus Mark offered two powerful examples of focus and how they apply to marketing. The Gaja Winery After a long and storied history, Angelo Gaja inherited his family winery. After he studied the finances, the business, and the actual assets—vines and nutrients—in the ground, he ripped out and destroyed more than half of the vineyard. Many thought he was crazy or hatching an insurance scheme. Instead, he maximized the wine. They produce much less, but it is much higher quality, better tasting, and produces more profit for the winery. The Hedgehog Concept Jim Collins in his famed book, Good to Great, outlines a way of thinking, “What do we do better than anyone else?”
Two Approaches to Positioning Positioning is the art of articulating your unique value proposition in such a way that you begin a conversation with a potential customer. Mark O’Brien outlined two successful approaches. Exclusive Positioning “We do X for Y.” When you encounter a company with exclusive positioning, you know within five seconds on any page on their website whether or not you are a fit for their product or service. They exclude all others outside of their focus. Open Positioning This is an 80% approach. When visiting a website, you know what the company does and what sets it apart, but the company is purposefully vague about the niches they serve. If visitors feel like they might fit, they can continue in the stream. Most companies who pursue this approach, change to exclusive after about 18 months.
Books Mentioned On This Episode American Dirt Good to Great
About Our Guest Mark O’Brien is a forward thinker helping clients see a better future for themselves while helping them take risks to pursue their vision. He now serves as CEO of Newfangled, a digital marketing agency that gets leaders out of their own way to develop the programs needed to grow their businesses. He grew up in the ranks at Newfangled first as a developer and then as a sales executive.
Our Theme Our theme is created by some of Nashville's greatest musicians. Bigger Story Music is born out of a longtime friendship, a deep, talented community, and a real love for what they do. Whatever story you’re trying to tell, they have the perfect music to make it better.
Is HealthTech Podcasting Worth The Investment? Should your company start a podcast or not? If so, how much will it cost, how much time it will take, and what can you expect from it?
According to Podcast Industry Insights, there are 2.1 million podcasts, but only 36.5%—or 773,258—have released an episode in the last 90 days. Only about 423,000 have released more than ten episodes. Those numbers may seem daunting, but consider the number of blogs in existence—more than 800 million. Would you ever advise a company not to have a blog?
Peter Birch, Company Director (Asia Pacific) for MetaOptima Technology and the creator of the "Talking HealthTech" podcast and community, joins us to talk about his podcasting journey and how he's advising HealthTech companies to investigate podcasting.
Skip to Transcript
Show Notes Starting a podcast isn't a matter of deciding you want to and hitting record. There's a lot to consider before you even nail down a topic for episode 01. Here's everything you need to ask yourself:
How do you know if you're ready to start a podcast?
If you've got something to share and questions to ask, you're ready to start a podcast. If you're looking to make a lot of money or expect an immediate stream of new leads, you're only going to waste your time and money.
Who is your audience?
At the end of every episode of Studio CMO, we remind you to "understand your buyer's problems, lead with an empathetic understanding, and make your buyer the hero." Our three core tenets assume that you know who your audience is. To carefully define your audience is more defining a persona in the way marketers have been instructed for years. A persona isn't deep enough. Work through our Buyer Matrix process and consider what our producer had to say in this video presentation. (Note: Special offers and weblinks mentioned only pertained to conference attendees.)
What's your vision? What's your message?
Starting a company podcast depends on a clear understanding of your vision and nailing down your messaging. What do you want to communicate to your listeners week after week? Who are your core listeners? Who are the perfect guests your listeners want to hear from? Who's on your podcast team? Next, you need to consider the team who will produce your podcast. Who will host it? Who will edit and produce, book guests, promote new episodes? Will you rely on your internal team or hire an outside organization? What does the time commitment look like?
What are your time and resource commitments?
Plan on spending between 10 and 15 hours per episode. Remember there are expenses associated with the people involved, production, distribution, and promotion. There are many resources online about how to do a podcast as cheaply as possible, however, you will save time and frustration by setting aside a budget and spending strategically—microphone(s) and software first. Mark Whitlock, our producer, wrote an informal memo about these issues to address a few questions from others. You can read his thoughts here.
Where will you host your podcast?
There are many hosting platforms, the web service that distributes your podcast to all of the services including Apple. We highly recommend Libsyn and PodBean.
Podcasts Talked About on This Episode * Freakonomics * 99% Invisible * Sway * David Runciman’s Talking Politics | History of Ideas * Pirate Monk Podcast
Further Reading * The Real Market Value of the Soul of Your Brand * "Talking HealthTech"
“Collaboration starts with conversation” — Peter Birch
About Our Guest Peter Birch serves as the Company Director (Asia Pacific) for MetaOptima Technology in Sydney, Australia. A career-long veteran of the healthcare industry in Australia, Peter’s voice will be instantly recognized by many of you as the host of "Talking HealthTech," a podcast focused on technology companies, specifically in Australia, but listened to around the world. He hasn’t just built a podcast, but a community of technologists, practitioners, developers, and others in the HealthTech space.
Our Theme Our theme is created by some of Nashville's greatest musicians. Bigger Story Music is born out of a longtime friendship, a deep, talented community, and a real love for what we do. Whatever story you’re trying to tell, we have the perfect music to make it better. Really. Check out their production library and explore their custom options at biggerstorymusic.com.
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About Our Guest For the last four years, A. Chris Turner has guided our clients and our agency to organic and paid victories online as our Senior Director, Digital Strategy & Performance Analytics. He is a true SEO helping make websites work for companies for the last 15 years. Chris is a veteran of the United States Air Force and a lifelong entrepreneur who knows the value of a dollar and how to stretch it.
Show Notes Do you need an objective set of eyes on your SEO work? Do you have questions or concerns you’d like to bounce off someone? Click here to schedule your no-obligation meeting with John Farkas and Chris Turner.
Mentioned on This Episode: McKinsey’s B2B Marketing Report
Three Key Elements to Set Reasonable Expectations for SEO SEO is Organic People interact with this information in their own ways. If people don't do searches, there is no SEO. SEO is based on people, human interaction, and human need. SEO is Not Magic; It is a Scientific Activity It may be mysterious, but you can instigate certain activities to change your results. SEO is Common Sensical On a basic level, if it doesn’t make sense, don’t do it.
Questions to Ask About Your SEO Efforts * What is the context of your SEO efforts? What company needs are you trying to meet and how well are you meeting them? * Is your SEO aligned with your company goals? * How do you operate from a digital marketing perspective? How do you use content? * How old is your keyword audit? Do you have a contextual understanding of your keywords? What suggestions for future content does your audit make? * Does everyone involved in marketing and sales have a clear and harmonious understanding of who your customer is?
Is your SEO relevant, timely, and credible? — A. Chris Turner
Three Mistakes Marketing Leaders Make Around SEO 1. Going fast and dirty. 2. Set it and forget it. 3. Not understanding how SEO ROI works.
A Recent Example from Search Engine Journal It is easier for business owners and decision-makers to invest in paid marketing because it offers clear returns on the investment (ROI); for X dollars you received Y visits/calls/forms. Nevertheless, with proper tracking and systems in place, organic optimization can offer clear ROI along with conversion optimization when SEO is done with the intent of matching the right consumers, with the right pages of your website for the right results. For example, a B2B computer repair company in Manhattan has an average sale of $10,000. They close leads at a rate of 30 percent and have a conversation rate of 5 percent. In your ROI model, you project 500 clicks for them a month. To calculate potential revenue, you would multiply 500 (clicks) x 5% (conversion rate) x 30% (close rate) x $10,000 (average sale) = $75,000 per month. To gain a greater understanding of SEO for your company, download A. Chris Turner’s eBook:
Additional Reading about SEO * Golden Spiral’s Insights into Google Algorithm Changes * 12 Reasons Why SEO is Important for Businesses * Google’s Resource for SEO * Google’s Reference for Hiring an SEO
Show Notes The Five Keys to Building Better KPIs for Your HealthTech Company 1. Define your goals 2. Ensure clarity of definitions 3. Build a Culture of Attribution 4. Remember: Data Tells a Story 5. Make Informed Decisions
John discusses content from his article, "When What You Know Can Kill Your HealthTech Marketing."
Peter outlines the entire process in detail in his excellent ebook, "A Step-by-Step Guide to Building KPIs for HealthTech Companies."
Show Notes Nicole Williams outlines several aspects of targeting the healthcare provider.
"We must walk a mile in the patient's shoes." — Nicole Williams
Remote or virtual healthcare has been adopted by less than 20% of Americans. RRD has created "Care Kits" to address the wide gap in digital adoption and the problems of many Americans who don't have a smartphone, high-speed internet access, and a webcam. As a HealthTech solution provider, your solution likely hits one major issue in the life of a patient. How do you address all of the peripheral issues your end-user will face? How do you help your customers meet the needs of their patients? Social determinants of health have become the largest indicator of how well providers can serve their patients, the success of wellness, and to what extent the patient will recover when sick. Those include (in no particular order):
- Economic Stability
- Neighborhood and Built Environment
- Access to Digital Tools
- Race
- Healthcare Access and Quality
- Education Access and Quality
- Social and Community Context
"The ZIP code a person lives in has a greater impact on their health outcome more than anything else." — Nicole Williams
The "60 Minutes" episode which aired April 18, 2021 addressed these factors.
Nicole believes the three most important marketing tools in HealthTech are:
- Addressing the outcomes of your solution. What is the ROI? How did you improve patient outcomes?
- Gaining provider and/or payer testimonials.
- Real-life testimonials from endusers
Nicole and RRD have developing thought leadership materials and built a strong content engine for their work. Content is essential to digital marketing, education, and more.
About Our Guest Laura Yecies is an entrepreneurial leader, strategist, and marketer. She has had a long background in tech including stints on Netscape and Yahoo. She has been consulting with Bone Health Technologies for the last year and was recently named CEO. She was a marketing consultant for Fabric Genomics, helmed SyncThink as CEO, led Catch until they were acquired by Apple, and had tremendous success at SugarSync, a data synchronization company, as their CEO up to their acquisition by J2.
Show Notes Laura Yecies covers a number of unique factors that you may be facing in your HealthTech marketing.
- Targeting your end-user so you can market to your buyer
- How B2C marketing is influencing B2B marketing
- How brand plays itself out in the combination of wearable and software tool
- Why sometimes, the most compelling story to tell is the economic one
https://vimeo.com/485297519 Communities, like these Facebook groups, are important to Bone Health Technologies overall marketing efforts
- Osteopenia and Osteoporosis Support Group
- Better Bones, Better Body: Osteoporosis & Osteopenia
- Living with Osteopenia & Osteoporosis
- Naturally Better Bones Osteoporosis Group
Custom photography can showcase how your solution meets a critical need for your buyer. An example from Bone Health’s website. Laura discussed how content has assisted their efforts on the clinical side and the consumer side.
Samantha Bergin is the chief marketing officer at 98point6, an on-demand digital primary care service founded in 2015 and headquartered in Seattle, Wash. Sam's nearly 25-year career centers around building and growing technology brands. Prior to 98point6, she served as vice president of marketing at Cozi, Inc., which was acquired by Time Inc. and is now owned by Meredith Corporation. Under her leadership, Cozi became one of the top 10-grossing productivity apps in both iTunes and Google Play. Sam also worked in product management at Amazon, Microsoft, and Visio Corporation. She holds a BA in business from the University of Maryland and an MBA in marketing from Wake Forest University. She was a member of a three-person panel presenting their companies’ new products at the 2020 Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit. Sam is originally from Brazil and is a competitive equestrian in the sport of three-day eventing.
Show Notes The pandemic accelerated the need for people to have access to care when they couldn't get it in person. That acceleration of comfort and awareness catapulted our category into a completely different stage. And it's been really a privilege to be able to serve so many in a time of heightened need. —Sam Bergin
How 98point6 Differentiates Itself Against Other Telehealth Solutions * Address the friction in the market—98point6 is not traditional telehealth * Talk about the elephant in the room—less than half of millennials have a relationship with a primary care physician. * Find a way to answer the pressing questions—content can win the day.
Samantha mentioned the COVID resource page they developed as part of their content strategy. Scroll to the bottom to view the PDF collection we discussed.
Breaking Down their Three-City Test of an Upper-Funnel, Demand Generation Campaign 98point6 cooperated with a media buyer to develop a B2B campaign targeting C-level executives in three cities with a high concentration of large employers. The express purpose of the campaign is to get the executives to ask the question, "Are we talking to 98point6 and, if not, why not?" The media assets drive inbound traffic. The campaign includes:
- connected TV
- NPR
- cable advertising on news programs at highly targeted dayparts
- talk radio
Check out one of their connected TV commercials. https://youtu.be/x5LrnZtLSRs
The Episode in 60 Seconds How well do you know your customer? Is your knowledge limited to a single sheet of paper with a fake name and some socioeconomic and psychographic data or have you taken a deeper dive? Joshua Oakes has spent his career helping companies understand their customers at a core level. He calls his approach, "Who First." On this edition of Studio CMO, we will walk through the four steps of Who First:
- Audience Discovery
- Audience Understanding
- Serving Your Audience
- Measurement and Collaboration
About Our Guest Joshua Oakes is the creator of Who First, the framework that helps companies develop and apply an understanding of their customers to serve them more effectively and drive outcomes. After years of consulting for organizations with product marketing or customer acquisition challenges, he decided to help them solve the root problem he kept finding: Companies that don’t understand their customers could never hope to acquire them effectively or serve them well. His background is half technology, half marketing. He’s worked with companies in SaaS, higher ed, healthcare, music licensing, non-profit, social media, entertainment, telecom…lots of industries and every stage from pre-seed to enterprise. He gardens extensively for the fresh produce and for the metaphors. He makes jams and wines (mostly to give away) as well as salsas and hot sauces (which he won’t give away without a serious warning).
Show Notes The way that you understand your customer is very similar to the way that you understand any other human being that you're in a relationship with: you talk to them, you try to relate to them empathically, and you spend time with them. — Joshua Oakes
The Who First Methodology 1. Audience Discovery - talking to customers * Guided interview—"Learn Who Interview" (at least 10) * Be an active listener * Where did they begin the journey? * What was your vision of the future when your problem was solved? * What were the signposts that told you that you were on the way to success? * What traps did you fall into at work? * How did you experience us as an organization and as an individual? * And many more 2. Audience Understanding - distilling what you learn * Analyze the content of the recorded interviews * What trends do you hear? * What information emerges that is shared, actionable, validated, and measurable 3. Serving Your Audience - application * The Who Plan - a break down of what your customers experience at each stage of the journey * Whoa - a formula for deciding what content to create 4. Measurement and Collaboration - improving your systems, processes, and your teams’ ability to work together * The "Know Who" Measurement — put audience metrics into your weekly and quarterly reporting * Audience-Focused Teams
80% of our decisions are fundamentally emotional and that's even true in healthcare, HealthTech, and B2B. And in fact, the emotional component of decision-making is more important in B2B scenarios because there are more people with emotions involved in that decision-making process. — Joshua Oakes
The Episode in 60 Seconds How do you build a company that always puts the customer first? Sarah Acton, VP of Sales and Marketing for Athos, has done so by building a synergistic organization that shares customer stories, digs into customer needs, and listens to each other. On this episode of Studio CMO, Sarah discusses:
- How to Listen to Your Customer and Each Other
- How to Build Internal Synergy for the Benefit of the Customer
- How to Cultivate a Company's Culture and Values
- Tips for Hiring the Best HealthTech Talent
- What it Takes to be a Good Client for an Agency
About Our Guest Bethany Hale is the Head of Marketing at Cedar, a data-driven patient payment and engagement platform. She brings 15+years of experience across marketing strategy, brand development, content and performance marketing, and customer experience design to this role. Prior to joining Cedar, Bethany spent 7 years at IBM, most recently as a product manager on the healthcare team where she created an AI-enhanced, pre-configured marketing automation platform, in partnership with Adobe, that enables healthcare & life sciences marketers to drive improved healthcare consumer experiences, increased revenue and more effective marketing campaigns. Bethany is a creative storyteller and thought leader who has worked with other notable brands including American Express, Samsung Electronics, Hertz, Pfizer, Microsoft, and Chevron. She has an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.A. in Journalism from Michigan State University.
Cedar closed a round of funding worth $200-million on March 9th.
Cedar was mentioned as one of the fastest-growing HealthTech companies in 2020, second only to Amazon. Find out more in this report from KLAS and this study co-sponsored by Forrester and Cedar. Hear the story at 25:40.
Show Notes "It always confounds me the fact that my daughter, who's six years old, can figure out how to find her favorite show on Netflix, by herself. Yet I, with an MBA and someone who works in healthcare, still can't decipher my own medical bills. That's the real gap in that consumer experience. People expect to understand how to pay a bill. That's what we're trying to accomplish at Cedar." —Bethany Hale
Why to Carefully Consider Brand Brand is important for:
- your company
- talking to potential clients and buyers
- recruiting potential talent
- communicating with the community at large
- establishing yourself as a thought leader
Coming out to the market, you want to know who you are first, what your position is, and why you're different. —Bethany Hale
Bethany Hale wrote this article about the story behind Cedar's rebranding.
Golden Spiral's VP of Design, Luke Farkas, breaks down how to build a Brand's Visual Identity System in this article.
Keys to a HealthTech Company Gaining New Business * Can you prove that you can do the work? * Can you demonstrate your success with a health system like your prospect's? * How do you work with and/or integrate with the key electronic medical record providers? * How do you integrate with other leading healthcare systems? * Do you understand the patient populations you've worked with in the past and of the prospect's?
Good brands are consistent, differentiated, and clear. — Bethany Hale
How Brand Helps HealthTech Companies Recruit Talent You will not be able to meet your financial goals nor touch the number of lives you desire without the right talent.
- Does your brand demonstrate your diversity in all ways?
- Does your brand reflect the patient population of the US?
- Can potential employees understand your vision, values, and mission?
- Do your recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding practices communicate how your company works and how you meet your goals?
Cedar's Recruiting Portal Listen to Studio CMO host John Farkas discuss the importance of brand for recruiting the right talent at 20:43 and following.
Your Prospect's Experience Matters to Your Brand Cedar's mindset is: "You can't miss this!" Curating a VIP event over a virtual platform is challenging because naturally occurring conversations that happen at a live event don't happen—without intention—online.
- Cedar is thoughtful about its online events:
- How do we inspire conversation?
- How do we gain engagement?
- How do we include the right people?
- How do we build communities?
- How do we create a "white glove" experience?
- How do we cut through the clutter?
Ashton Kutcher is an investor in Cedar. Read about a recent "white glove" event he hosted.
Virtual Events Can Be Stronger than Live Events. An article from Golden Spiral
Chelsea Clinton's presentation
Paul Ryan's presentation
Telling Your Brand Story "When you're telling a clear story that sets above the rest, that's going to create a confidence. That's going to create something that people are not accustomed to seeing in the space. Because what they're accustomed to is very confusing, multidimensional messages that are hard to make your way through. And if you can hold something up and say, 'Clearly, here's our value. Here's what we look like. Here's what you can expect when you relate with us. If you can set some of that forward in a way that is clear and comforting, it inspires movement. —John Farkas
Brand building: First, build trust with your stakeholders, then build relationships, then provide value. — Bethany Hale
The Episode in 60 Seconds LinkedIn is one of the best ways for HealthTech marketers to identify and communicate with prospective customers. What are the fundamentals? What are the advanced tactics? In this episode of Studio CMO, we look at:
- Eight Essentials for Every LinkedIn Post to Maximize Your Engagement
- Three Ways HealthTech Brands Can Deepen Relationships on LinkedIn
- InMail
- Groups
- Paid Ads
- Putting it All Together to Drive Leads
- The Overall Value of LinkedIn for a HealthTech Marketer
About Our Guest Chris Turner is Golden Spiral’s Senior Director of Digital Strategy and Performance Analytics and an expert in all things digital. Chris manages and monitors the online strategies for our clients related to paid media, content, social media marketing, and digital optimization.
Chris helps our teams build synergistic digital strategies that touch on everything from relationship building with partners to content creation and syndication — all to help clients make an impact through their business. He leverages his experience of 10+ years of marketing leadership to direct marketing teams to success based on addressable KPIs and data-driven tactics.
Chris has a bachelor’s degree in information technology and a master’s in information systems. He is well educated, heavily experienced, and always seeking more knowledge.
Show Notes Eight Essentials for Every LinkedIn Post to Maximize Your Engagement 1. Remember your audience and keep the subject relevant, valuable, and important to them. 2. Always include an image or video. 3. Keep things short. 4. Lock them in with the first sentence. 5. Always tag people and pages that your audience connects to. 6. Use two or three good hashtags plus a branded hashtag. 7. Stay engaged. Like and/or answer every comment that you receive. 8. Start and engage in conversations because they may lead to deeper opportunities to present your product or service.
Three Ways HealthTech Brands Can Deepen Relationships on Linked In InMail (4:00)
Don’t use it without a strategy. You must know where your prospect is in the buyer’s journey before you engage them in this way.
Groups (4:59)
Don’t be a troll. Participate. Learn deeply about your prospects, their needs, and their journey.
Paid Ads (20:16)
The data provided makes your paid ads very targeted in the context of a professional network
Putting it All Together to Drive Leads (24:51)
The Overall Value for a HealthTech Marketer (38:10)
Previous articles on LinkedIn Why You Should Leverage LinkedIn Publisher for Content Marketing
How to Grow Your Social Media Following in a B2B World
Getting Started: Social Media Strategy for B2B Brands
Social Media Marketing for B2B Tech Companies
Content Strategy Guide for Saas Marketing
Would you like to meet with John… and Chris?
Schedule your no-obligation strategic consultation to discuss LinkedIn or any other portion of your digital marketing strategy. Their objective view of what you’re doing could help drive you forward to realize your market potential.
Book your appointment today.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds How do you build a company that always puts the customer first? Sarah Acton, VP of Sales and Marketing for Athos, has done so by building a synergistic organization that shares customer stories, digs into customer needs, and listens to each other. On this episode of Studio CMO, Sarah discusses:
- How to Listen to Your Customer and Each Other
- How to Build Internal Synergy for the Benefit of the Customer
- How to Cultivate a Company's Culture and Values
- Tips for Hiring the Best HealthTech Talent
- What it Takes to be a Good Client for an Agency
About Our Guest Sarah Acton is the VP of Sales and Marketing at Athos, a wearable technology company focused on ensuring all types of athletes, from professionals to military tactical athletes, are prepared and ready to perform. With roots in consumer products at Coca-Cola, retail at Home Depot, her own business, and consumer tech at Yahoo! and LinkedIn, Sarah learned early the power of storytelling and how using data can transform and personalize a brand experience. Athos is a patented system that enables the world’s first smart clothing to measure how hard your muscles are working using the science of EMG (Electromyography). This is combined with powerful AI and a mobile app gives you insights to truly understand how your body performs. The system has helped athletes at all levels train better and smarter, whatever your goal.
Show Notes
"Our job as sales and marketing professionals is to take what we know about our product and service and find the intersection that resonates with the customer's own problem." — Sarah Acton
How to Listen to Your Customer and Each Other Listening has been a core part of Sarah's life. She can point to many defining, salient moments where something changed as a result of listening. If you want to be a better listener, practice these habits:
- Meet face-to-face (or on the phone or video conference) with customers.
- Be curious. Dig in to ideas you haven't heard before.
- Have the mindset, "There's always something new to learn."
- Record sales calls as often as you can.
- Share a few sales calls with the entire company from time to time (provide a mix of good and bad).
- Seek to understand the day-to-day lives of your customers.
- Identify themes that arise from different sources.
- Become a copious notetaker.
"The more we, as a business, can understand our customers, understand their day-to-day lives, the better we can deliver on our promises to them. And the better we can create solutions that really meet—and surpass—their needs." — Sarah Acton
How to Build Internal Synergy for the Benefit of the Customer
When we work together, everything gets better." —Sarah Acton
In order to get any two (or more) departments to work together, they must spend time together around customer problems. Examples:
- Product Development Invites Marketing and Sales to Product Discovery sessions.
- All parties listen in on live customer service calls.
- Managers can build a shared desire to win and then share the wins together.
- All parties hold frequent check in meetings.
How to Cultivate a Company's Culture and Values Do you know and reflect often on your company's culture and values? For reference: Athos' Mission Golden Spiral Values Sarah shared a powerful story of how Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, leaned on his CTO, Kevin Scott. Find out more about this powerful relationship.
“I would share my problem with Kevin because then Kevin could start thinking about the solution to the problem, too.” — Reid Hoffman
Tips for Hiring the Best HealthTech Talent * Look for people who show a pattern of being intrigued by problems. * Ask how they solved difficult problems. * Discover how they push themselves out of the comfort zone. * Foster interviews that are times for stories and not just facts. * Find indicators that your candidates have a drive to solve the problems of tomorrow.
What it Takes to be a Good Client for an Agency Sarah spent many years working for agencies serving clients and has hired agencies as a marketing executive within companies. She's seen both sides of the relationship. She and John Farkas shared a number of tips. As a company:
- Do find an agency sees the client relationships the way you do.
- Don't lob a problem over the fence to your agency and expect them to solve it.
- Do become a partner with your agency.
- Don't hide and obfuscate information.
- Do "open the kimono" and be vulnerable about the problems you are facing.
- Don't build an adversarial relationship with the idea of squeezing every dime out of the agency.
- Do be open and honest about your real budget and listen carefully to the agency's capacity to supply solutions within that budget.
- Do share the wins with your agency partner.
- Do work together to optimize your resources and those of the agency.
"I always strive to make my agency partners feel just as much a part of our wins as my internal team." — Sarah Acton
The Nature of Change John shared this quote often used at our Foundation Workshops. Can you identify the author? “It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.” Listen at 25:35 to discover who.
Golden Spiral's Foundation Experience Do you feel your company is invisible in your marketplace? The right agency can help you stand out in the middle of your competition and be seen for all the right reasons. Our Foundations Workshop is the perfect methodology to shape your story. Our proven process unpacks, then crystalizes, who you are, what your solution does, why you exist, and who needs to know. The workshop assembles all your stakeholders in the same place at the same time. You will build consensus and gain clarity in amazing ways. (And we’ve had great success with virtual workshops as well.) And it's guaranteed!
Our Foundation Guarantee: If you qualify for and engage in the foundation experience, we guarantee you will be convinced of the value of our approach after the Foundation Workshop. If not, let us know within 48 hours, we’ll stop, and you won’t owe us a thing.
LinkedIn's Tenth Anniversary Celebration Sarah talked about her work on LinkedIn's 10th anniversary. Find the product of their branding work here. She mentioned the power of A Beautiful Constraint, the concept (and the book) of time and budget limitations can sometimes foster the best work. Find out more about the book here.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Many HealthTech companies offer solutions that are bought by a system or provider but ultimately serve the patient. How does the marketing team generate leads, build transformative content, serve both audiences, support sales, and make good decisions?
Amanda Evans, CMO of SentryHealth, discusses:
- strategy
- content creation
- data integration
About Our Guest With nearly 20 years’ experience across client service and marketing, Amanda Evans is a proven leader with a history of producing high-value results. Leveraging a data-driven approach, best practices, and innovative methods, she has invented successful programs focused on improving client adoption and retention as well accelerating leads and revenue growth.
Show Notes
Healthcare doesn't stop at the point of service —Amanda Evans
Find SentryHealth's content here.
Download SentryHealth's 2021 Employee Health & Wellbeing Outlook report from their website.
Amanda Evans referred to a sales strategy called "BANT Questions."
- Budget
- Authority
- Need
- Timeline
Find out more information through this helpful article.
SentryHealth is very focused on giving people information in consumable formats that will be most meaningful to them as they address what they are faced with today and also prevent what they may be faced with in the future. — Amanda Evans
If you're trying to build your content to drive your traffic and build your business, download Golden Spiral's content guide.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Integration is essential in today’s marketing efforts. All aspects of your marketing must come together in a picture that allows you to have great visibility and control over what you’re doing.
Nicholas Holland, VP of the Marketing and CMS Hubs at HubSpot joins us to talk about the five core aspects of marketing that must work in concert together.
- Data
- Reporting
- Automation
- Content
- Messaging
Nicholas also discusses how to manage the breadth, depth, and orchestration of your marketing efforts.
About Our Guest Nicholas Holland is a product maker, entrepreneurial dreamer, and lover of mixed martial arts. He's the General Manager and Vice President of Marketing Hub at HubSpot.
He founded and exited from several SaaS companies in the Nashville area before joining forces with HubSpot to run their marketing labs endeavor.
Show Notes HubSpot has refined their product offerings to create remarkable customer experiences. For more information about HubSpot, examine their offerings.
"We believe innovation will lead to marketing leaders transforming from CMOs to CXOs—Customer Experience Officers." — Nicholas Holland
HubSpot believes the funnel has given way to the flywheel.
The Three Lenses of Marketing Clarity When was the last time you heard of CEOs shoveling money into marketing efforts? Most of the time, marketing executives have to squeeze out every dime possible then stretch those dimes to produce.
Nicholas discusses (12:30 and later) how every marketer must be able to see, understand, and demonstrate marketing's effectiveness through three different lenses:
breadth—what channels your customers spend time and how you're meeting them.
depth—the data you're leveraging to make sure your messages are on point, relevant, and delivered at the right time.
orchestration—how you've filled your marketing department with the right people and the right tools.
"Marketers are the promise-makers for your company." —Nicholas Holland
HubSpot's Five "Primary Colors" of Marketing How do you guide your prospects along a meaningful and coherent buyer journey? HubSpot's platform is built to orchestrate these five aspects for clear marketing. These five aspects of marketing—primary colors—expose themselves in every aspect of marketing.
Data—they layer that powers everything. Data and the way you manage it, store it, and interpret it means the difference between good and bad decisions.
Automation—the ability to do more with less.
Reporting—the feedback loop allowing everyone to be more savvy and to better judge performance.
Content—most pieces of software contain content. Are you doing enough to maximize it?
Messaging—the channels you distribute marketing content (e.g., email, blog, podcast, etc.)
Our complete guide to building and maintaining KPIs for your company is available to you at no cost.
Are your marketing efforts producing the kind of results you need? Companies may put the right tactics in place and desire the best outcomes, but end up flying blind because they haven’t set key performance indicators (KPIs).
You can reach the most aggressive goals if you set KPIs and monitor them weekly (and monthly, quarterly, and annually). KPIs promote higher performance from yourself and your team. And they make project management much more effective. Here’s how to break down the process and write effective KPIs.
Eight Steps to Creating Winning KPIs 1. Identify Your Primary Goal 2. Highlight the Critical Step to Reach the Goal 3. Research the Best Key Indicators 4. Map Indicators to Your Funnel 5. Determine Focus Areas for Future Growth 6. Outline Marketing Plays for Each Focus Area 7. For Each Play, Create the Metric—KPI 8. Set Up a Scorecard to Track All of Your KPIs
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Healthcare has always been tumultuous. However, two contemporary problems and one evergreen challenge are blocking your path to greater impact. On this edition of Studio CMO, we will explore the factors and the opportunity you have to press into the market despite them.
- COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout
- Primary Care Provider Access
- Price Transparency
Want to know more about how to identify the problems your buyers are facing and how to connect you solution to them? Schedule a no-obligation chat today. Gain the clarity you need to press into your year.
Show Notes Two Types of Healthcare Providers Progressive health systems and providers are innovative and are looking for ways to seize the moment and grow. More often, progressive institutions are more financially stable.
Reluctant health systems and providers are more likely than not to be struggling financially and tie their success to existing modalities.
COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout The Biden administration is prioritizing retail clinics over hospital sites for vaccine distribution.
Progressive providers want to seize the moment. They know that people will remember where they received their shots. Progressive providers want to create experiences related to the vaccine distribution and don't appreciate the shift.
Reluctant providers are grateful in the shift to retail.
Questions your provider prospects may be asking?
- “How do I solve the scheduling issue?”
- “What do I do with my reluctant population? How do I change them from reluctant to willing?”
- “How do I better reach communities of color who (a) disproportionately affected by this and (b) hesitant to get the vaccine?”
Primary Care Provider Access Reluctant providers are facing lean times and are relying on higher margin issues this neglecting primary care which is top of funnel.
Progressive providers are looking for solutions and trying to solve these problems:
- “How do I make sure my patients have access to clinicians?”
- "How do I overcome the clinician shortage, especially in rural America?"
- “How do we handle all of the questions and concerns of our patients?”
- “Besides paying for healthcare, one of our biggest struggles is getting our patients TO our office/hospital and getting them HOME. How do we juggle this, too?”
Further Reading: Integrate with a HealthTech Platform & Grow Your Audience: Epic & Lyft
Price Transparency Reluctant providers are expecting to pay the fines and take the hit because they can't gear up for this fast enough and are worried about the financial implications and media relations problems that will come with posting their prices.
Progressive providers are looking at the opportunities to market their doctors and procedures and want simple tools to publish.
Read the official ruling.
Questions to answer:
- “I don’t have the data to provide standardized pricing to my patient population.”
- “How do I know whether or not to post consumer-friendly or machine-readable postings related to price transparency regulation.”
- “Our patients can do [fill in the blank] at the places they shop; why can’t they do it with us?”
- “My reputation will suffer because as soon as my rates are posted, they will be perceived as the most expensive around.”
Each of these questions demonstrates a need for a greater understanding of buyer needs. Do you know how to connect what you do to your buyer's problems? Our proprietary system called The Buyer Matrix can help. Schedule a no-obligation discussion discover how a full Buyer Matrix can help you grow your business.
Book your appointment today.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Aaron Bours and the entire Hyro team faced an uncertain future. They rebranded their conversational AI platform and brand right before COVID hit. How could they make a splash in the market? What was more important to them was the question: how can we help during a worldwide pandemic?
They took the bold step to offer a COVID-19 Virtual Assistant at no cost to any healthcare provider who wanted to install it on their website.
Find out what happened next on this edition of Studio CMO.
Do you want to leverage content to boost your visibility online and assert your leadership in the market? We can help you understand the components involved. Schedule a no-obligation meeting with John Farkas today. Gain the clarity you need to press into your year.
Our Guest Aaron Bours is the Vice President of Marketing for Hyro.AI and joined us from Tel Aviv. Hyro helps companies communicate with their customers faster and at a deeper level.
Hyro was listed as one of the HealthTech Companies to Watch in 2021 by TechReport. We’ll let Aaron tell us more about Hyro in a minute.
Before Hyro, he worked at Google in product development on the Duplex project, also a conversational AI tool.
He has spent time in product marketing role as well as some time at an agency. So, he’s seen marketing for multiple angles.
Show Notes Check out their three COVID solutions on their website, hyro.ai.
Aaron offered these two pieces of advice for trying to break through the noise of HealthTech:
-
Don't sell. Ask for advice.
-
Meet them on their playing field (live/virtual events).
Brand is the sum of all impression. —Aaron Bours
Links discussed during the episode: Montefiore Health System's installation of Hyro's AI tool.
Hyro's case study about Montefiore.
Every marketer needs to own a single number —Aaron Bours
Golden Spiral's free guide to building KPIs
Golden Spiral's free guide to building a content strategy
Hyro's News Coverage included Yahoo, Healthcare IT News, and Digital Journal.
We can help. Schedule your no-obligation discussion to help yourself break free from what's holding you back and discover what it takes to know your customer.
Book your appointment today.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Kat McDavitt of PointClickCare has seen the ugly side of HealthTech marketing. On this edition of Studio CMO, we discuss:
- The reasons some companies do well and why some fail
- What is missing from most marketing plans, especially of start-ups
- The most important factor for marketing success
- The anatomy of a modern PR program
Do you need someone to vent to? Do you need an objective third party who can play "bad cop" about marketing to leaders who just don't get it? Schedule a no-obligation meeting with John Farkas today. Gain the clarity you need to press into your year.
Our Guest Kat McDavitt is Chief of External Affairs for the Acute and Payer Segment at PointClickCare, who recently acquired her previous company, Collective Medical. Kat has been deeply involved in marketing leadership there for more than two years. She has consulted with more than 70 healthcare technology companies on go-to-market, communications, and corporate strategy.
She’s a fireball who has helped position healthcare companies from small angel-funded start-ups to multi-vertical publicly-traded corporations.
Before joining Collective, she started and ran Innsena Communications, a boutique integrated communications agency that served the healthcare technology sector.
She spent more than seven years with Dodge Communications, now known as MERGEAtlanta. She led the agency’s strategic services division working with blockbuster healthtech brands including Change Healthcare, Surescripts, NextGen Healthcare, and Kareo.
Show Notes We anchor much of our discussion to "When is the best time to plant a tree?" That question is asked in many places including the Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Overstory.
Find out more about PointClickCare's acquisition of Collective Medical.
We can help. Schedule your no-obligation discussion to help yourself break free from what's holding you back and discover what it takes to know your customer.
Book your appointment today.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Live events evaporated in 2020 and may or may not make a return in 2020. What percentage of your annual income came from trade shows and conferences?
In this episode, we look at the critical importance of building virtual proximity to your leads since, more than likely, you'll have curtailed or no physical proximity to them this year.
- Watch for these messaging trends
- Your marketing budget must take an agile stance
- The Funnel has transformed and will transform more
- Dedicate a large part of your budget to content
- Personalize your content
- Don't forget SEO
- Consider restructuring your teams for better and faster communication
What to talk through your challenges with an objective source? Schedule a no-obligation chat today. Gain the clarity you need to press into your year.
Show Notes This episode is packed with strategic ideas to pursue. In our show notes, we are linking you to articles, videos, and podcasts that can help you accomplish your goals.
Budget Refine your thought process for budgeting as you take a more agile position in 2021.
A budget is essential, but if you're not tracking your key metrics, you won't know if you're moving the needle.
Article outlining the logical process for building and tracking a KPI scorecard
Podcast focusing on tech marketing KPIs.
The Ever-Changing Funnel In this presentation from Studio CMO host John Farkas, he discusses how the funnel has been transformed. The entire video is must-watching, but the video is cued to a key discussion about the funnel.
Building Content that Moves Your Audience Article: Five Tips for Writing Better Health IT Content
Article: 10 B2B Tech Email Mistakes You're Probably Making
Article: Six Videos Every SaaS Company Needs
Article: Why All Marketing is Digital in B2B Tech
Article: How to Build a Winning B2B Marketing Content Calendar
The following video features a live conversation between Mark Whitlock and three tech marketing writers and explores the tools of the trade, different processes, and SEO reminders.
Search Engine Optimization Structuring Your Marketing Team Podcast: The Role Missing from Your HealthTech Marketing Team
Podcast: Your First Six Months as a CMO
We can help. Schedule your no-obligation discussion to help yourself break free from what's holding you back and discover what it takes to know your customer.
Book your appointment today.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds The new year has brought greater focus and clarity for Golden Spiral, the agency that shapes Studio CMO. Our agency now concentrates solely on market positioning and demand generation for HealthTech companies. We help healthcare technology companies establish and communicate their unique message to the right decision makers.
This shift means Studio CMO will deal exclusively with the challenges and personalities that make HealthTech tick. Watching healthcare's rapid innovation and transformation during the pandemic has highlighted the need for HealthTech companies to remember the fundamentals:
- Understand your buyer's problems
- Lead with an empathetic understanding
- Make your buyer the hero
As the old Southern expression goes, "This looks easy, but does hard."
What to talk through your challenges with an objective source? Schedule a no-obligation chat today. Gain the clarity you need to press into your year.
Welcome Our New Co-Host Anna Grimes joins the Studio CMO family as a new co-host. Anna grew up in a healthcare family hearing stories of breakthrough surgeries and debates about policy and administration around the family's table. She has built upon that early knowledge with an illustrious career in public relations with stints at Atkinson, Paine Pomeroy, and others.
Anna will share her HealthTech insight and humor moving forward enriching every future episode.
Show Notes No other segment of B2B tech is transforming more quickly and more systemically than HealthTech. It is extraordinary. COVID has accelerated the pace of change. What would've taken five years to bring about changes in the past has emerged in only ten months. And it's not slowing down. HealthTech is a dynamic space that is posed for challenges new and established solutions can solve. HealthTech is also an extraordinarily loud space. Marketing leaders must remain alert, nimble, and be prepared to move quickly.
Marketing executives must also remember the fundamentals.
Understand Your Buyer's Problems Myth: Just because we can means that we should.
Just because your technology solution can do something doesn't mean there's a place in the market for it.
What does your buyer need? What makes your buyer's job easier? How can they provide a better level of care?
The Buyer Matrix Doesn't Just Sell Features, It Solves Problems.
Have you mapped your product’s features to your market's problem. Use the step-by-step assignment in this article to create your own Buyer Matrix.
Five Must-Ask Questions to Discover Your B2B Prospect's Pain Points
Your buyers are on a self-service journey, making irrational decisions, and trying to navigate the confusion caused by conflicting information from multiple solution providers. Do you know the right questions to ask? This article outlines five key areas to explore.
Lead with an Empathetic Understanding How many times do you hit a brick wall or a strong "go away" when moving toward your buyer? As Anna Grimes discussed on this episode:
The brick wall is there for a reason. Many budgets are in free fall. They exist in a regulatory environment like no other. Healthcare is burdened by regulations and compelled to be in alignment with them. It's not a perfect market. Think about this: if you have a heart attack you can't say, "I don't think I'll get this treated." It's a different ecosystem.
In this article, John ponders, "Are these tech companies thinking about me as a real person when they’re sending these messages? Or are they just trying to make as much noise as possible — without necessarily thinking about the human audience for which it is intended? Has tech forgotten the value of empathy?"
Empathy is necessary for creating content that will resonate with your audience. Otherwise, you’ll create distance between you and them, and this distance can have significant negative effects, preventing leads from generating and deals from closing.
Remember: if you've sold into one healthcare system, you've sold into... one healthcare system.
Three Encouragements for Leading with Empathy * Don't start with you, your solution, or your technology. Start with your buyer. * Listen. Listen. Listen. * Your buyer is drowning in data.
Make Your Buyer the Hero
If you tell me your product has no competition, I have to wonder if you have a real product and if you have a genuine understanding of your market.
HealthTech has a real bias problem. Everyone thinks they’ve got the best product on the market, and they’re shouting it from the rooftops. But, is that what buyers really want to hear about? We don’t think so. Eliminate your technology bias. This article explains how.
Building a customer-centric marketing strategy that focuses on how you can be the Alfred to your buyer’s Batman is key to winning their trust and their business. This article discusses four principles.
Account-Based Marketing can power your ability to make your buyer the hero.
How to Ask Great Questions * Don't assume understanding * Keep asking questions until you understand the shape of the problem * Don't make jumps in logic or jump to conclusions; discover
An agency can help you get out of yourself and see your buyer. Too many tech companies, by no fault of their own, become in-focused and egocentric. An agency can pull you out of that narrative and help you understand your customer and foster empathy within your team. Strip away your assumptions with the help of an agency.
We can help. Schedule your no-obligation discussion to help yourself break free from what's holding you back and discover what it takes to know your customer.
Book your appointment today.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds How do you lead marketing for an organization and keep all of the trains running on schedule? Over the course of an illustrious career, Definitive Healthcare CMO Justin Steinman has developed one role, the Campaign Planning Manager, that oversees his seven categories of marketing.
Our Guest Justin Steinman hails from GE Healthcare Digital and Aetna (a CVS company), where he respectively served as Chief Marketing Officer and VP and Head of Product and Solutions for nine years. As CMO of Definitive Healthcare, he is responsible for the strategy, development, and execution of all aspects of marketing for the company including product marketing, demand generation, corporate marketing, public relations, and corporate communications. Steinman possesses 25 years of deep expertise in healthcare and enterprise software where he led global, multi-level teams. He holds an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management in Technology Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
Show Notes Definitive Healthcare has aligned their sales, marketing, and customer service teams according to their verticals.
Campaign Planning Manager For Definitive Healthcare, the most critical role is the Campaign Planning Manager. According to Justin, “A good campaign planning manager is worth his or her weight in gold because that’s the person who is the connective tissue across the company. And this role owns absolutely everything and absolutely nothing at the same time. We give our campaign planning managers responsibility for seven categories of marketing.”
The campaign planning manager is the captain of the spiritual team. He or she sits in the center of the organization and watches and encourages the relationship among sales, marketing, and product.
There can’t be a marketing event without content coming from marketing, information coming from product, and sales must be aware.
The campaign product manager sees the holes, such as: There is an advertising campaign happening, but it doesn’t have a custom landing page or the best followup emails.
Justin Steinman’s Seven Categories of Marketing 1. Market Research 2. Content 3. Awareness 4. Demand Generation 5. Enablement 6. Partners 7. Customer Marketing
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The Episode in 60 Seconds What does working with CEOs have in common with driving category creation? You must have a compelling vision.
Mark Organ, the creator of Eloqua and other companies, joins John Farkas for a discussion about:
- The challenges of founding companies
- Why some leaders don't want to define a category
- The most important factor in marketing: your customer telling others
- And more
Our Guest Mark Organ is the CEO of Categorynauts. He helps companies create and dominate new categories. He also coaches CEOs to achieve their goals in business and life. He founded Influitive and is the author of the book, The Messenger is the Message: How to Mobilize Customers and Unleash the Power of Advocate Marketing. Leaders throughout North America and Asia know Mark as a go-to-market consultant for SaaS companies who, most famously, founded and led Eloqua, the undisputed leading Enterprise marketing automation and CRM powerhouse now operated by Oracle.
Show Notes You can reach Mark Organ at his LinkedIn profile or by emailing him directly.
When you have the opportunity to lead the conversation, then you have the opportunity to lead the conversation. That demonstrates you have the competence, command and courage to lead. — John Farkas
Mark Organ believes that leaders who can create categories aspire:
- To be a great leaders
- To build an amazing new markets
- To build incredible wealth for other people
They are much more excited about their category vision than they are about amassing personal wealth.
The most powerful component of category creation is the underserved hero. The underserved hero is a customer who plays an important role. That role will be different for each category, but don't miss identifying your underserved heroes and rewarding them.
Golden Spiral has a number of free resources about differentiation and category design:
The Real Market Value of the Soul of Your B2B Brand
Positioning Worksheet
4 Important Steps to Crafting a Powerful B2B Point of View
Seven Steps to Create a Strategic B2B Competitive Analysis
Free Download from Anthony Kennada
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Despite thousands of incoming digital signals each day, each of us is still a physical creature. We long for personal mail, place trinkets on our desks, long for presents on our birthdays, and keep ticket stubs and other physical memories.
How do we effectively integrate the physical with the digital?
- Tactile Marketing Automation (TMA) is a growing category and includes its own software
- TMA fulfills the marketing fundamentals
- A well-timed physical presentation gives you a moment of undivided attention
Our Guest Nick Runyon is the CMO of PFL, a company that has grown from on-demand printing to a mature marketing automation company specializing in Tactile Marketing Automation which inserts direct mail, swag, and other physical objects into the nurture process. He is also a current member of Revenue Collective and founder of Media Tractor, a marketing agency. He has been a podcast host, and a senior executive for global non-profits [here and here] which have reached over a billion individuals worldwide.
Show Notes
Whenever you involve multiple channels in your buyer journey, you get up to an 8 - 10% response rate. When you coordinate direct mail with multiple channels, we see response rates spike over 20%. — Nick Runyon
In episode 11, we heard how Kenna Security used direct mail for their greatest trade show appointment conversion ever:
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Is B2B marketing one (or two) generations behind where the B2B buyer truly is? Jason Miller, a brand and content marketing veteran of Marketo, LinkedIn, and more, brings a shot of adrenalin for you and your next meeting.
Creativity in Marketing means:
- Everyone from CMO to specialists must have a willingness to take risks
- The team must possess a deep understanding of the brand -- that’s voice, assets, point of view, and more
- The team must feel a sense of trust from leadership--especially those who are creating content
- Each member must take personal ownership for promoting the brand in quote risky unquote ways. Don’t have the attitude of “we’re just a vanilla product and vanilla company”
- Try mini-experiments and tout the successes along the way
- Bring your energy and passion to the table
- Don’t forget to inject a healthy dose of inspiration through the entire process
Our Guest Jason Miller launched his career in artist development for Sony Music before entering the wild and wooly world of B2B marketing. He brought his rock and roll sensibilities to Marketo, LinkedIn, and Microsoft before becoming Head of Brand at ActiveCampaign. He is an award-winning content producer and a sought-after public speaker.
Show Notes Check out Mark's big risk, "The Screamer" at Frontier Ranch.
Learn more about John's biggest risk by reading The History of Golden Spiral.
If you scroll through your linked in feed, how long does it take to find something that breaks through the monotony? — Jason Miller
We talked at length about this imaginary machine that exists at every B2B company, The Sanitizer. Do you have one where you work?
Sometimes, marketing is about a core belief that what you have is worth getting excited about and having the willingness to get excited about it. —John Farkas
Examples of Creative Campaigns KnowBe4's series of webisodes called, "The Inside Man."
https://www.youtube.com/embed/3BRlXGnnjmk
Dokken and Symantic
https://www.youtube.com/embed/FMXeE1EXJPM
Great Stories of Marketing (LinkedIn)
The inspiration for Marketo's B2B playbook:
Foo Fighters' Backstage Rider
We discussed Jason's former podcast:
Sophisticated Marketers Podcast at LinkedIn
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The Episode in 60 Seconds It's one thing to think you know your customer. It's another thing to create a marketing message that grows and changes as your customer does.
In this edition of Studio CMO, we talk about:
- The privacy challenges of data gathering
- Has email marketing run its course?
- What is an MQL in our data-rich world?
- Programatic solutions for marketing messages
- How your understanding of the buyer's journey changes the data you gather and then is changed by what you gather
Our Guest Bill Odell is the CMO of Aerospike who strives to build next-generation data systems for their customers. Bill has spent over 25 years in the trenches launching new products, building businesses, and leading high performance marketing organizations. He is passionate about helping educate customers on how to apply new technology solutions that help drive transformative business outcomes. Bill has held executive positions at Cisco, Dell Software and SonicWall as well as multiple category-creating growth stage B2B technology companies.
Show Notes In 2012, researchers at Harvard said, "Data is the new oil."
Bill Odell believes that realtime data is truly the new oil.
Email marketing might be running its course because LinkedIn and social media are becoming more of the way that we engage with people. But how do you do it contextually and appropriately? — Bill Odell
Privacy matters surrounding data gathering for companies with an online presence have become more complicated in the last two years. Find out how and when your company needs to comply with GDPR and CCPA with these articles:
GDPR for B2B Tech: Sales and Marketing Tips You Need to Know
Does CCPA Apply to B2B? What You Need to Know
CCPA Penalties Target SaaS & Digital Marketing
There is a standard Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) methodology. If they do X plus Y plus Z, they're scored and we make a phone call, send them an email, or perhaps an InMail on LinkedIn. But what if you could also look at their activity off your site? That gives you a better signal. You can truly determine if the lead is worth your time. Because the truth of the matter is the number of MQLs—that should be your best leads that actually convert is still relatively low. So how do we get it to go higher? Use different kinds of data signals to try to figure out when's the right time to contact. That's a fundamental sea change in marketing. — Bill Odell
Tools Discussed Bombora
Demandbase
Marketo
Salesforce
The Trade Desk
Appnexus
Wouldn't you rather put your ad in front of the right person at the right time and the right place. But underneath that is an engine that has to be able to deal with massive amounts of data. So as marketeers, as we think about choosing ad platforms, you've got to really understand that not all ad platforms are the same and you want to go with the ones that actually know how and can deal with massive amounts of data and can prove that they can target and deliver your ad at the right time at the right price to get the right yield. — Bill Odell
What defines us, isn't our name and our title and our company, right? What defines us is a whole bunch of information, right? It's where we spend our time. What do we enjoy? What do we purchase? Where do we purchase things from? You know, the companies that are figuring this out, spend a tremendous amount of time, building a very comprehensive profile store. How well you can build the profile store on a bunch of attributes that go beyond name, title, and company. But how do you keep that contextual? Because we move around, we change, we age, we get married and we have kids. And so in order to do any kind of AI- or ML-driven application, it comes down to the data models and those data models are as good as the amount of data you can feed them and how fast you can refresh the models. — Bill Odell
Data +
profile store +
frequency of changes +
AI
= best decision at the moment it matters
Information About the Buyer's Journey Don’t Leave Your Users Behind: Mapping The B2B User Experience
How To Optimize Your Messaging & Content for the B2B Buyer Journey
Embracing The Digital Revolution: The New B2B Buyer Journey
Understanding Your Customer The Buyer Matrix: Mapping Your B2B Tech Product Features to Market Problems
The Buyer Matrix Doesn't Just Sell Features, It Solves Problems.
Bring Your B2B Buyer Persona to Life: 8 Clues Learned from Studying Fiction
How to Realize a Breakthrough in Content using "The Power of One"
Case Studies from Aerospike
What Are You Looking For? 2020 has been a year of transformation. Our way of living and working, how we lead our teams—and for many of us, how we grow our businesses—has fundamentally changed.
Did you feel the great pause in March? There were a few minutes or days where many of us held our breath, paused our marketing efforts, and waited. We listened, watched, and worked to understand how the new landscape was going to take shape.
Technology exists for transformational moments like 2020. Businesses of all kinds around the world were forced to increase efficiency, improve engagement, and keep funnel activity moving. We saw a massive surge in demand for automation, in all sorts of forms, to help handle the changes in customer behavior everywhere from banking transactions to healthcare provider engagement. We took a quantum leap forward in our ability to engage remotely.
The nature of technology is moving from an old way of doing things to a new, more efficient—and more automated—way of doing things. This is a time to harness that energy and provide a compelling vision of the horizon for your team and for your customers. It’s time to take some risks, lean into the opportunities, and let some creative wind fill your sails as we move into the new year.
Looking forward,
John
P.S. Marketing leadership can be a lonely place. 2020 has certainly been a lonely year for many I know. Do you need an objective party to bounce ideas off of? Do you need someone outside your organization to help you get unstuck? We would love to get to know you. And we’d love, at no obligation, to have a conversation with you to explore, brainstorm, and/or bounce some ideas around. If you’d like to have a conversation, please accept my invitation. I look forward to talking with you soon.
The Episode in 60 Seconds 2020 has been the year that will not end. 2020 has also been a schoolmaster pushing business leaders to new lessons, risk, and creative solutions. In this episode, Golden Spiral CEO and Chief Storyteller, John Farkas, reflects on six major lessons 2020 has taught B2B Tech companies. He explores:
- The Nature of Technology
- The Weight of Marketing
- Creativity and Risk
- Virtual Events
- Customer Experience
- Tracking and Reporting
- Critical Alignment
“When pressure is applied, businesses will look for ways to do things better.” — John Farkas
Our Guest John Farkas has always worked to bring creative projects together. After working nearly two decades as a creative director for two large organizations, he turned his focus toward leading Golden Spiral, a B2B tech marketing consultancy and agency that harnesses the forces of media, technology, and community to create compelling brand narratives that empower clients to soar in the post-digital, experience-centric world.
John reflects: “Great stories cut through our defenses and imprint us at our core. Tell someone a great story — at the least it will leave an impression — but it could change the course of their lives.”
John, a 1988 University of Wisconsin graduate, enjoys creative writing, exploring the outdoors, building and remodeling houses, and riding his bicycle.
Seven Lessons Learned in 2020 1. The Nature of Technology Exists for Moments like 2020 The transformative solution that produces greater efficiency, when things get pressurized, people want the solution more.
-
We Feel the Weight of Marketing in Moments like 2020 We can’t do what we used to do. Marketing is absorbing the weight of all of the old stuff
-
Creativity and Risk are Necessary in Moments like 2020 Listen to our episode with Andrew Hoerner
-
Virtual Events Fueled Marketing in 2020 Virtual events have required extraordinary creativity and hard work from those who’ve pulled them off.
Don’t just create not just a better webinar, but a virtual event where you’re engaging on a number of different fronts, bringing a number of different point of views together to really create a contagious and interesting experience for people who want to engage with you and your solution.
SAP events link
Issues to Consider When Creating a Virtual Event Speakers - how do they present on camera for a virtual audience?
Topics - how do they fit in with a more segment-able, micro-casting opportunity?
Production - what do you want the event to look like on screen?
Connective tissue - what ties the experience together—digital hosts? [Ursula goes into great detail about finding hosts to tie the event together at 16:30]
Platform - what software can manage the registrations, video streaming, recording storage, visitor interaction, VIP connectivity, and social engagement?
Interactivity - how will you facilitate connection—breakout rooms, chatbots, information exchange?
Budget - if transitioning from live to virtual, reallocate the funds along the lines needed to produce a great event.
- Customer Experience Took Center Stage in 2020 In our virtual world, we want to experience the brands we care about. How do we help people who are new to our brand to understand it and experience it? How do we take prospective and existing customers deeper into your world? How do we treat existing customers, move them to talk about us and engage the market on our behalf? Through our Customer Experience (CX) efforts.
Mary Drumond link
- Tracking and Reporting KPIs Became More Essential in 2020 Chris Turner quote
Do you have a clear picture of what all of your marketing activities are yielding? What framework are you using to report to the board or your C-Suite?
Mark Donnigan link
Six KPIs Every CMO Should Report to the C-Suite 1. Net New Revenue from Marketing-Generated Sources 2. Percentage of Contribution from Marketing to Overall Revenue 3. Qualified Pipeline Generated Leads (MQLs) 4. Length of the Sales Cycle vs. Win Rate 5. Sales-Qualified Leads 6. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
- We Can’t Move from 2020 without Alignment Among all Departments It is critical for sales, marketing, product development, customer success, and other departments to all be aligned and moving forward together. It is possible.
Nicholas Holland link
Show Notes
You don't long suffer things that are underperforming and you don't long deprive things that are performing of their due investment. — Jack Mardack
The Model Thinker, by Scott Page, was a mind-bending book for Jack Mardack.
For more on first principles, consider this article or this video.
The Episode in 60 Seconds One of the contributing factors to CMOs having the shortest tenure in the C-Suite is a lack of understanding of their role at the revenue table. A CMO must take up the mantle of responsibility to track activity and results, grow the company despite the changing attitudes of the buyer, and make meaning for the CEO and CRO.
On this edition, Mark Donnigan, B2B marketing leader turned consultant, unpacks six key performance indicators that every CMO should track and report on in the revenue conversation. He is joined by Golden Spiral's SEO and analytics expert, A. Chris Turner.
The KPIs are:
- Net New Revenue from Marketing-Generated Sources
- Percentage of Contribution from Marketing to Overall Revenue
- Qualified Pipeline Generated Leads (MQLs)
- Length of the Sales Cycle vs. Win Rate
- Sales-Qualified Leads
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Our Guests Mark Donnigan is a marketing leader, business builder, value creator, and market maker. Formerly the VP of Marketing at Beamr, Mark focuses on high-impact programs that drive revenue, activate the market, and deliver real business results.
He has 20 years of experience contributing to the success of startup, emerging, and growth-stage product and technology companies that have been backed by some of the largest VC firms in the valley. His secret weapon is his strong sales acumen, making him a powerful ally and collaborator to the head of sales.
Mark also co-hosts a podcast called The Video Insiders, speaking on topics like video compression, codecs, encoding, transcoding, workflows, technology trends and business models.
Mark Donnigan has prepared a free presentation for those who are curious about his viewpoint on category creation and building a marketing system. Click to download.
Chris Turner is Golden Spiral’s Senior Director of Digital Strategy and Performance Analytics and an expert in all things digital. Chris manages and monitors the online strategies for our clients related to paid media, content, social media marketing, and digital optimization.
Chris helps our teams build synergistic digital strategies that touch on everything from relationship building with partners to content creation and syndication — all to help clients make an impact through their business. He leverages his experience of 10+ years of marketing leadership to direct marketing teams to success based on addressable KPIs and data-driven tactics.
Chris has a bachelor’s degree in information technology and a master’s in information systems. He is well educated, heavily experienced, and always seeking more knowledge.
Show Notes
Today's CMO must be intentional. - John Farkas
A successful CMO:
- proactively seeks alignment with the CEO
- has a command of the ecosystem
- intimately knows the customer, the market, and the competition
- has a world-class understanding of marketing strategy, tactics, and tools
Executive Level Marketing KPIs 1. Net New Revenue from Marketing-Generated Sources (12:27) The total dollar figure for a period of time (e.g., monthly) of new gross sales from marketing channels only. 2. Percentage of Contribution from Marketing to Overall Revenue (13:53) All marketing income (new and renewal) represented as a percentage against all revenue from all sources. 3. Qualified Pipeline-Generated Leads (MQLs) (15:06) A MQL is not just a lead. It must meet the criteria of a future customer. * Do you have deep information on the role of the lead? Is this lead at the decision or purchase table? * Is the lead's company in your niche? * Does the lead's company fit the profile of your target customer? * Is the lead's company the right financial size for a good deal? * (Some companies have other criteria for leads.)
- Length of the Sales Cycle vs. Win Rate (20:43) How long does a lead spend in your funnel? Count the days from first touch to signed contract for completed deals.
What percentage of Qualified Pipeline-Generated Leads convert.
By looking at both numbers at the same time—and in light of the other KPIs—you'll be able to see the impact of a lengthening sales cycle or a high win rate versus decreasing income.
- Sales-Qualified Leads (26:46) An MQL shows promise. An SQL is certified by your sales team that it meets all of your criteria and has a probability of converting. Some companies divide SQLs into qualified and accepted leads.
For more information on titles and definitions, check out this excellent article from Golden Spiral's President and COO, Peter Smith.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) (31:17) Mark Donnigan goes into detail about how to calculate CAC for SaaS companies that have long sales cycles. Listen to this section for a greater understanding of the number of marketing expenses you must pack into the acquisition cost.
The Episode in 60 Seconds What happens when your industry is turned on its head? In Symphony's case, they moved from quarterly plans to weekly ones and infused their mission and values into everything they do.
On this episode of Studio CMO, we discuss with Andrew Hoerner:
- The role culture plays in marketing and branding
- The not-so-easy pivot from in-person events to digital
- When marketing and product development overlap
- How to create refined and laser focused content
- How to attract the biggest clients in your industry
Our Guest Andrew Hoerner is the Executive Vice President for Global Marketing for Symphony, considered one of the top 50 fintech firms by Forbes. Their solution allows banks and financial markets to send messages, share files, automate trade flows, and meet in real time.
Andrew has been leading marketing teams or overall marketing functions throughout his career including companies like Blue Martini, PayOne, Securify, McAfee, and Soltra. He also spent five years leading marketing for the largest cybersecurity trade organization, FS-ISAC.
Show Notes Symphony hosts more than 530,000 users on their collaborative platform and has seen 300+% growth during COVID.
Fast Fail is a part of their iterative culture.
Culture
If you share a sense of mission as a team, that drives a lot of behavior that you can't even always document or articulate. — Andrew Hoerner
These times are just almost sheer chaos in some ways, right? It's really easy just to go to the lowest common denominator, get the basic job done, do business as usual, and make creativity the first thing to go. I've tried to give my team the mental headspace to be creative because creativity is critical to marketing. — Andrew Hoerner
Check out Symphony's end-to-end, secure, encrypted meetings platform for the financial sector.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/vD1t9x-K2XY
Live Events
We put all the best practices from a live event into a digital event. Plus we sought out an event producer. — Andrew Hoerner
- Build in layers of redundancy
- Build an engine to run the necessary digital production
- Be aware of how your guest's schedules and calendar maintenance have changed
- It's still about telling an amazing story
- Keep it human (leave time for guests to "take the elevator")
We also talk about digital events in this episode of Studio CMO:
Why are fax machines still in use?
Symphony is hosting a series of hackathons in 2020.
Andrew discusses how he is exploring the OODA Loop methodology throughout his teams. Check out this helpful guide.
The Episode in 60 Seconds Understand your buyer's problems.
You hear us say these words at the end of every episode. Knowing your audience is one of the core tenants of Golden Spiral. How well do you understand who they are, what their heartbeat is, and have insight into the things that are in front of them?
Surveys are a tremendous way to get in your buyer's mind.
On this episode of Studio CMO, we discuss with Leela Srinivasan:
- What Survey Monkey's own research is showing us about work during the pandemic
- How surveys can be HIPAA compliant
- Using surveys to determine your NPS score
- How to invite senior-level executives to participate in surveys
- How to build better surveys
Our Guest Leela Srinivasan is the first-ever CMO of SurveyMonkey who led marketing through their IPO.
Prior, she was the CMO at Lever and also in charge of marketing for OpenTable. She spent longer than four years at LinkedIn leading marketing for their talent solutions division.
She also serves currently as an advisor to Bravado and a board member for UpWork.
Show Notes
50% of employees at agile companies say that they feel extremely or very prepared for economic downturn, and only 10% of those at companies not deemed agile, feel like their companies are well-prepared. — Leela Srinivasan
How TripActions and SurveyMonkey worked together before and during the pandemic.
How Rhode Island Department of Health used surveys to help their citizens survive during the pandemic.
Information about SurveyMonkey's HIPAA compliance.
SurveyMonkey's Expert Solutions help Enterprise companies pressure test their new ideas and creative campaigns.
Golden Spiral's take on NPS Scores and other surveys.
SurveyMonkey's look at NPS Scores.
More information about SurveyMonkey's GetFeedback CX tool.
Listen to a great interview about Customer Experience (CX):
Inviting Senior Level Executives to Participate in Surveys 1. They are more likely to respond to questions if the answers to those questions would help them benchmark their own work. Offer the results to the survey for participants. 2. Offer an opportunity to send a donation to a charity in lieu of gift cards or other incentives.
Close to 50% of surveys are taken on mobile devices. This puts quite the onus on you as a survey creator to make sure that your survey is succinct. —Leela Srinivasan
Build Better Surveys 1. Make sure your survey is mobile-optimized. Preview how your surveys will look on mobile, tablet, desktop, and different browsers. 2. Consider surveys an extension of your content marketing. Think of surveys as a conversation. 3. Frame your questions in an engaging way so your participants will dive right in. 4. Ask questions with empathy so that they know you know their world.
Download the SurveyMonkey Survival Guide here:
The Episode in 60 Seconds Who is your brand's most powerful voice? Outside influencers have more sway than official spokespeople. SAP's Ursula Ringham and Rachel Miller join us today to discuss.
- What influencer marketing is
- How influencer marketing is changing the landscape
- How to properly vet potential influencers
- Two case studies of successful implementation of influencer marketing
- The future of Influencer Marketing
Our Guests Ursula Ringham leads the Global Influencer Marketing team in collaborating with the entire SAP product portfolio in creating innovative content with trusted external voices to build brand awareness and create sales. Before her tenure at SAP, she had stints at Yoh, Adobe, and Apple where she was the partnership manager for Worldwide Developer Relations.
She has a reputation as a storyteller, author, creator, influencer marketer, digital innovator, social media maven, champion of girls education, and an outdoor sports freak.
Rachel Miller is a social media and content marketing strategist. She's listed as one of the top 50 MarTech influencer marketing and B2B marketing experts worldwide. Her background before SAP includes Thulium, TopRank Marketing, and PureMatter. During the pandemic, she is taking her fitness seriously and has earned the nickname "baby hulk" and is a craft beer aficionado.
Show Notes
77% of all revenue transactions worldwide run through systems powered by SAP. - Ursula Ringham
What is Influencer Marketing? Influencer Marketing noun
- partnering experts and trusted authorities together with your brand to help guide customers forward into their buying decision.
- creating innovative content with trusted external voices to build brand awareness and create sales
- trusted voices that influence the decisions of others
- people-to-people marketing
Hear a discussion about definitions at 4:15
How Can a Brand Deploy Influencer Marketing?
Starting an Influencer Marketing program with your own people. Bring in those who have understand people, existing success, a strong social following, understand your business, and get that it is people-to-people networking and marketing. —Ursula Ringham
Improving Live Events by Taking Them Virtual
How to Properly Vet Influencers 1. Follow on social media 2. Read their writings 3. Watch their videos 4. Listen to their interviews, podcast and otherwise 5. Discover whom they have promoted in the past, even if your competitors 6. Identify those you trust who are already connected with them 7. Identify their strengths (for example, is someone strong on camera and social, but not a long-form writer. Or, this person asks amazing questions and draws out others.) 8. Know them so well you can name their dog and favorite craft beer 9. Discuss your findings with your team and get their input 10. Talk to them on a video conference if not in person, and get "a feel" for the person
How Do You Measure Influencer Success? * Identify the true goal. What are you trying to accomplish? * Closely monitor the effectiveness of your collaborations * How often is the influencer sharing on social media? * What level of engagement—likes, comments, shares? * What type of audience are the attracting through video or podcasts? * Are they exciting to watch?
There is no true set of criteria because technology is changing so rapidly.
Listen to a success story at 16:00
You have to understand the intent of wanting to work with a particular influencer. It has to be mutually beneficial. — Ursula Ringham
Nobody wants to hear from a brand spokesperson. — Rachel Miller
Hear another success story at 21:11
Check out SAP Industries LinkedIn Live Series
As we live in an age where reviews, references, and third-party validation become increasingly important, having a disciplined, principled, and intentional effort within our companies to connect our value propositions to the market through people that are able to talk about us better than we can talk about ourselves is incredibly important — John Farkas
The Episode in 60 Seconds What is Account-Based Marketing and is it best for your company? If you deploy an ABM strategy, how does it affect the relationships between marketing and sales? What metrics do you need in place to make it effective?
Jennifer Pockell Dimas from Gigster discusses:
- Where digital transformation resides best in your company
- What Account-Based Marketing is
- The Power of ABM
- How the pandemic has proven the power of distributed and remote teams
Our Guest Veteran marketing leader, Jennifer Pockell Dimas, has led marketing teams at Polycom, Demandbase, and Plex. She was CMO at Egnyte, and now serves in the leadership role at Gigster. She's also an advisor at Sendoso, a member of Revenue Collective, and she co-founded Women in Revenue.
Gigster Gigster has always helped their customers transform their offerings to their own customers. They have curated a global talent network made up of developers, project managers, technical architects, dev ops, machine learning experts, and more to help establish distributed teams to help your company build your solutions. (Jen goes in depth about Gigster at 4:20 and how they've developed a new platform to help you manage your internal and contracted talent.)
Find out more.
Women in Revenue To empower current and future women leaders in technology sales and marketing roles with education, support, and networking opportunities. (Jen discusses how it has grown to over 3,000 members at at 2:30 in the podcast.)
Find out more.
Show Notes Digital transformation happens best when there is joint ownership throughout the organization. Hear more at
Remote teams are happening. If you don't change the way you are behaving when you are a remote, distributed team, you will have less success. -- Jennifer Pockell Dimas
What is Account-Based Marketing?
A company should focus its resources and attention on the accounts and people most likely to become customers. So it's a way of creating focus and also of increasing impact. — Jennifer Pockell Dimas
The Episode in 60 Seconds Why do your prospects become customers? Why do your customers stay with you? Why do your customers leave?
The science and art of Customer Experience (CX) can answer these questions and help you grow your business in the face of your competition and a tumultuous market.
In this episode, we explore:
- Why Worthix was started
- How customers’ expectations change
- Why CX is important to ROI
- The five drivers of CX and how they apply in different industries
- The KPIs you need to measure CX
- The difference between frequency and impact of customer feedback
Our Guest Mary Drumond is the Chief Marketing Officer at Worthix. She is the past CEO of Advance Languages, where she rose up from the marketing and sales functions to senior leadership. She serves on the board of advisors at the University of Georgia Masters in Marketing Research Program and co-chairs the Atlanta, Georgia chapter of Latinas in Tech
Voices of CX Podcast Mary interviews top marketers, industry experts, thought leaders, and best-selling authors on how their markets overlap with Customer Experience. She investigates tech innovations in data sciences, market research and surveys, behavioral analytics and design, and more to help companies improve their customer’s experiences.
Worthix helps companies understand their worth and keep their value propositions updated by deploying AI-assisted surveys that tap into customers’ decision-making process, capture the voice of customer, and harness raw, unbiased insight that delivers a clear portrait of what value means to customers.
Find out more about Wothix here.
Show Notes The self-service sale has revolutionized B2B business. We discuss it in depth in this article and this video.
2020 has demonstrated how quickly customer expectations can change. Think for example of the number of issues that have stolen our attention this year: pandemic, social justice, the election, and more.
When you look at big data, when you look at the technology that’s out there tracking consumer behavior, all of it is like looking through the rear view mirror, because what you get is transactional data on past behavior, but with behavior changing so quickly because the world is changing, everybody has like a blank page, a clean slate. - Mary Drumond
Understanding your competition is one of the most important foundations for building your customer experience activities. Golden Spiral’s Competitive Analysis Worksheet remains one of our most popular downloads because it gives B2B tech companies such clarity. Download it today
Your customers’ experiences must be linked to your profit and they have to be used as a growth strategy. And if that’s not how you’re doing CX, then you’re not doing it right. If you are not able to prove to your executive board, to your C suite, to your leadership, that the work that you’re doing with the customers is actually resulting in more money for your organization. You’re going to be canceled. - Mary Drumond
The Five Drivers of Customer Experience Depending on your business, your product, and your market, these will have different levels of importance.
- Cost
- Price
- Relationship
- Brand Identification
- Social Proof
Check out information about Worthix’s relationship with Praxair .
Mary and the Worthix team recently discussed McDonald’s CX differences per market in this article .
Want to know more about NPS scores? Check out Golden Spiral’s article about the survey technique.
What does it take for a company to be able to cater to so many different people with so many different needs on a global scale? It takes really good listening skills and large-scale empathy. - Mary Drumond
Read more about empathy from Golden Spiral.
Satisfaction is not enough. It’s subjective. You can be super happy and still leave for a series of reasons. - Mary Drumond
The Episode in 60 Seconds It's a widely known fact in our realm that the CMO is one of the shortest tenured slots in the c-suite. And it's often due to a lack of alignment.
This week on Studio CMO, we speak with Marketing & Business Growth Consultant Mark Donnigan about how marketing can (and why it should) work cross-functionally between sales and product, or in other words, the "translation layer."
This episode delves into:
- Why sales and marketing alignment is critical to the success of CMOs
- Becoming a master of your ecosystem
- How we can move marketing into its rightful position in the c-suite
- Every marketing leader's role outside the office
- The unique value CMOS can bring to the table
Our Guest Mark Donnigan is a marketing leader, business builder, value creator, and market maker. Formerly the VP of Marketing at Beamr, Mark focuses on high-impact programs that drive revenue, activate the market, and deliver real business results.
He has 20 years of experience contributing to the success of startup, emerging, and growth-stage product and technology companies that have been backed by some of the largest VC firms in the valley. His secret weapon is his strong sales acumen, making him a powerful ally and collaborator to the head of sales.
Mark also co-hosts a podcast called The Video Insiders, speaking on topics like video compression, codecs, encoding, transcoding, workflows, technology trends and business models.
Mark Donnigan has prepared a free presentation for those who are curious about his viewpoint on category creation and building a marketing system. Click to download.
Show Notes We talked in depth about the "Translation Layer" in Episode 002 of Studio CMO, featuring Cofense SVP of Marketing Kevin Fliess.
The Demuxed Conference was born from meetups for engineers to discuss video technology.
The Critical Alignment Between Marketing and Revenue Leadership Back when Mark was a sales leader, he quickly uncovered the need to become a student of the market.
This realization allowed Mark to become more strategic in his roles and facilitated opportunities to work closely CEOs and CROs.
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Taking a Strategic Seat at the Table The marketing role inside technology organizations recently transitioned from creative arts to data science, becoming a revenue driver and more strategic function.
"I make it my business to be a master of the ecosystem." - Mark Donnigan
When you invest in understanding the ecosystem, you learn the big players and systemic risks so that when the time comes, you are in a much better position to influence the customer or market.
Moving Marketing Into Its Rightful Position in the C-Suite Marketing is an essential part of the revenue picture, planning, and development of any company. Unfortunately, not everyone views it as such.
Mark never went to school for marketing, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a student.
"I'm not saddled with the legacy understanding and framework of what the marketing function is and how it's executed." - Mark Donnigan
How can CMOs ensure they're producing value in an organization? Mark's advice:
- CMOs should step away from the traditional playbook and focus on producing actionable ideas that can move the business forward with a clear revenue target.
- Get to know your ecosystem. This may mean spending nights and weekends reading and studying.
- You need to be able to answer these questions, always: What are the trends in our industry? How are we talking to the market? Are we talking to the market in a way that's consistent with where the it's heading?
Every Marketing Leader's Role Outside the Office
"If you're going to be filling the CMO chair, you've got to be out in the field." - Mark Donnigan
If you look at Mark's LinkedIn activity, you wouldn't necessarily guess he's a marketer. Why? Because LinkedIn is a channel he frequently uses to explore the ecosystem, master the industry, and make connections.
"As a marketing leader, if you're not aggressively working to maintain objectivity, you're vulnerable to be becoming irrelevant." - John Farkas
One of the most important things you can bring to your organization is a clear sense of what's happening in your industry. Be the force that's keeping that perspective.
{{cta('27f4cde5-0384-4b2b-9ef5-2179f541a9d7','justifyleft')}} The Unique Value of a CMO The CEO is regularly speaking with their peers and fellow industry leaders, and the CROs is constantly in the field speaking to buyers. What unique value can CMOs bring to the table?
CMOs should be focusing on and emphasizing the buyer's journey -- how the buyer isarriving at their buying decision and what steps they're going through to get there.
Mark makes a point to find out what events people are attending, get feedback from those events, and talk to others about emerging trends and value points.
New Episode Coming Soon... Throughout our conversation with Mark, we came across several great focus points around reporting marketing activities.
In fact, he'll be back to talk about the critical translation aspect of helping people understand the effectiveness of and what the potential is for marketing. Subscribe now to hear it first.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Events have been and are being canceled and postponed worldwide due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. From South by Southwest to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to HubSpot's Inbound, events of all types and for all industries are affected.
SAP's annual user conference, SAPPHIRE NOW, hosts more than 40,000 customers, prospects, partners, and influencers in Orlando. The original conference was scheduled for May and nearly completely planned when the US lockdown occurred.
Within six weeks, SAP had reframed the event and created a snackable, interactive online experience. The results were remarkable.
Two leaders behind the scenes of the major shift, Ursula Ringham and Rachel Miller, were tasked with the challenge of finding the connective tissue for the experience without losing the opportunities for business.
Our Guests Ursula Ringham leads the Global Influencer Marketing team in collaborating with the entire SAP product portfolio in creating innovative content with trusted external voices to build brand awareness and create sales. Before her tenure at SAP, she had stints at Yoh, Adobe, and Apple where she was the partnership manager for Worldwide Developer Relations.
She has a reputation as a storyteller, author, creator, influencer marketer, digital innovator, social media maven, champion of girls education, and an outdoor sports freak.
Rachel Miller is a social media and content marketing strategist. She's listed as one of the top 50 MarTech influencer marketing and B2B marketing experts worldwide. Her background before SAP includes Thulium, TopRank Marketing, and PureMatter. During the pandemic, she is taking her fitness seriously and has earned the nickname "baby hulk" and is a craft beer aficionado.
Show Notes User conferences have become a staple in SaaS showcasing the latest software developments and uniting users with platform providers, their partners, and other interested parties. These events also become huge public relations gains. [Find lists of user conferences: IT/Tech, software, engineering]
SAP hosts their annual user conference, SAPPHIRE NOW, for all aspects of their business. Major sales occur at the event. SAP's reselling partners come together to learn new ways to promote SAP and to feel energized about their partnership.
SAP is the backbone of America's supply chain and helps businesses run at their best.
77% of all revenue transactions worldwide run through systems powered by SAP. - Ursula Ringham
Shifting an event for in-person to virtual first requires a shift in mindset. As Ursula talks about at 11:00, "It wasn't a huge change but we had to pivot with how we tell the story."
For a virtual event, keep in mind who your audience is and how they will consume the content. As Rachel puts it at 14:00, "No one is going to sit through a 40-minute, talking head keynote to kick off your event. Think about how your content can be "snackable," easily-digestible, with great takeaways."
Ursula and Rachel talked about the excellent video work provided by their two hired producers. You can reach them here:
- Sam Juno
- Jon Lieberman
Issues to consider when creating a virtual event Speakers - how do they present on camera for a virtual audience? Topics - how do they fit in with a more segmentable, micro-casting opportunity? Production - what do you want the event to look like on screen? Connective tissue - what ties the experience together—digital hosts? [Ursula goes into great detail about finding hosts to tie the event together at 16:30] Platform - what software can manage the registrations, video streaming, recording storage, visitor interaction, VIP connectivity, and social engagement? Interactivity - how will you facilitate connection—breakout rooms, chatbots, information exchange? Budget - if transitioning from live to virtual, reallocate the funds along the lines needed to produce a great event. Was the Virtual Event of Lesser or Greater Value?
We were able to make a lot more noise. - Ursula Ringham
SAPPHIRE grew from 40,000 to over 100,000 attending. The travel barrier was eliminated. Those curious could sample SAP and the event without great risk.
SAP grew from a primarily US-based audience to a truly global audience in a matter of weeks.
We have this virtual global audience now. If we want to make a big announcement, we'll do it virtually because we can reach so many more people. - Ursula Ringham
There's going to be a lot more pressure on making in-person events more compelling. - Rachel Miller
Deploying Influencers to Augment a Virtual Event Ursula goes step-by-step through how they used influencers at 22:00 minutes.
Mark Schaefer's article on SAPPHIRE NOW Reimagined.
Here are some excerpts from the virtual experience. You can follow the links to pay for access to the video library.
- Building better core processes
- Tackling short-term challenges while planning for long-term success
- Closing experience gaps
SAPPHIRE NOW is known for giving the entire audience a once-in-a-lifetime concert experience. Past artists include Coldplay and Lady Gaga, and this year, Sting joined the virtual crowd straight from his home studio. Here are brief excerpts from all three past concerts.
Coldplay Lady Gaga Sting
The Episode in 60 Seconds Neal Conlon came to marketing wisdom through a tough route: Marine training. After his military service, he went to work behind the scenes in the financial industry and began to see cracks, systems, and opportunities. Within a matter of years, he was leading the marketing effort in B2B tech industry.
This circuitous route to leadership gives him a crystal clear clarity.
He also sees building strategy from a different vantage point.
We delve into both concepts on this episode of Studio CMO.
Our Guest Neal Conlon has had a long history leading marketing and sales for a number of SaaS organizations, including being the CMO at ACME Growth. He headed up marketing and business development for Flamingo and Plurilock, and among a number of other leadership roles, he was most recently the head of sales and marketing for AppGuard.
Show Notes
You can’t just be a solution provider. You must be a solution relationship. - John Farkas
Do you hear conflict when different leaders talk about your product or your company? Are you attracting too many unqualified leads? Is there great debate over what to do next? Golden Spiral's Foundation Experience will help you understand your DNA in a new way, give you a 3D picture of your real customer—the one who will sign a contract, show you your competitive landscape, and point you to how to differentiate yourself in a crowded marketplace. Find out more and schedule a strategic consultation to find out if the Foundation Experience is right for your company.
Neal's take on the "sell me a pen" exercise is very different from this famous one (warning: adult language). Listen at 9:00 minutes.
B2B tech companies — especially in cybersecurity — are losing their sense of brand. Many don't even know what it is anymore. Neal explains at 12:00.
The Episode in 60 Seconds Before the pandemic swept the world, there were rumblings. There were rumblings about an economic downturn. Plus our culture was already beginning to debate many topics. There were tremors showing up on the business Geiger counter.
In this episode, we listen back to a prescient interview with Dr. Jeff Cornwall, a professor from Belmont University and a B2B tech (medtech) executive, recorded at the end of 2019. We discuss and comment on:
- The economy and the implications of the volatility of the market
- How CMOs should lead knowing that there will always be a future crisis just over the horizon
- How companies should view the changing generations. Millennials have buying power and Gen Z is graduating college.
- How the soul of a brand should (and should not) address cultural change
- Marketing lessons learned during the pandemic
Our Guest Dr. Jeff Cornwall is the inaugural recipient of the Jack C. Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship and Professor of Entrepreneurship at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. He served as the Director of the Center of Entrepreneurship at Belmont from 2003-2013.
Dr. Cornwall has spent more than forty years as a serial entrepreneur and teacher of entrepreneurs. In the 1970s he started several small businesses and was involved in various family ventures. In the late 1980s, following several years in academics, Dr. Cornwall co-founded Atlantic Behavioral Health Systems in Raleigh, N.C. and spent nearly a decade leading the company as President/CEO. After growing to more than 300 employees, he and his partners sold most of their healthcare holdings. After the sale, Dr. Cornwall decided it was time to return to the classroom to share his experience and knowledge with aspiring entrepreneurs. Dr. Cornwall remains active as an entrepreneur with the digital content venture he co-founded in 2014, Entrepreneurial Mind, LLC.
Show Notes How to Handle a Coming Economic Downturn * be prudent * hold on to more cash * be careful making big purchases
Marketing is all about creating market presence, maintaining momentum, and awareness. There’s never a better time in the context of any kind of correction to make an offensive, proactive, strong move. - John Farkas
How Do You Handle PR Crisis? PR Crisis Communications 101 for B2B Companies Combine B2B PR & SEO to Build Trust, Awareness, and Domain Authority What COVID-19 Reveals About B2B Crisis Communications The Peloton Controversy The Cultural Upheaval We Face Affects the Soul of Your Brand The Real Market Value of the Soul of Your B2B Brand
The Episode in 60 Seconds Change. Nothing is so constant as change.
Technology is often the force that brings about change.
When technology changes the way we accomplish simple or complex tasks, there’s a gap in understanding. People have a hard time getting from/to—from where they are to the new reality.
Marketing leaders create the translation layer for users by designing new categories.
On this edition of Studio CMO, we dive into:
- What is category design?
- What Zoom did to be different
- Category design, at its core, is not marketing
- Would you like to be a Pepper?
- Inside a "lightning strike"
Our Guests Kevin Maney is a bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He is co-author of the book Play Bigger, and has been an A-list writer and thinker about technology for 25 years at multiple outlets including being a contributing editor at Conde Nast Portfolio, and as a columnist, editor and reporter at USA Today.
Kevin’s most recent book is UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance, which proposes a new category of healthcare. It is co-authored with Hemant Taneja of General Catalyst and Stephen Klasko, CEO of Jefferson Health. Kevin and Hemant also co-authored the 2018 book Unscaled: How AI and a New Generation of Upstarts Are Creating the Economy of the Future.
He also writes music for and plays in a New York band, Total Blam Blam. (Stay around for the end of the episode for a track from the band.)
Mike Damphousse brings a hard-nosed, pragmatic aspect to category design, baked in from two decades as a company founder, CEO, CMO and sales executive. He understands how companies work and how to take a category plan from concept to implementation.
Mike was most recently founder and CEO/CMO of Green Leads, which introduced the pipeline generation category. He was previously CMO of Asteria, a data integration software company which went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Show Notes
When technology comes into a world and it changes the way things are done, what happens is there's a gap that occurs and understanding, and that gap is really difficult for people to cross. That's where the world of category comes in. - John Farkas
A great example of category creation occurred when Steve Jobs first introduced the iPad.
Category design is identifying a problem and delivering a solution that addresses the problem in a new way. Sometimes, category design occurs when a solution solves a problem users didn't even know they had.
People think in terms of categories. That's the way we sort out a world full of lots of, lots of choices. - Kevin Maney
Category design has a way of creating proprietary eponyms. Think Kleenex, Clorox, Phillips Head Screwdriver, Band Aid, and Jacuzzi... and now Zoom.
Find out more about Eddie Yoon and Superconsumers.
In a world of "Coke and Pepsi," be Dr. Pepper.
Read the history of "Be a Pepper" on the official site of the Dr. Pepper Museum.
The Episode in 60 Seconds Everybody knows that Brad Feld "wrote the book" on start-ups. But what does he have to say to growth-stage companies or mature companies?
A lot.
Brad takes us into the stories of companies he helped start that have grown and learned tough lessons along the way.
The core of the interview explores:
- The call to always experiment and innovate. What tasks to keep doing so that you can keep learning.
- How to build communities with other businesses. You can't scale your company alone.
Our Guest Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. A writer and speaker on venture capital investing and entrepreneurship, Brad has written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series, and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from MIT. An art collector and long-distance runner, he has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 U.S. states. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Show Notes John urges Brad to reflect on his career and contributions with this question, "If you were to sum up what others should know about you in a paragraph, what do you want others to know about you?" (2:04 and following)
Your company is an endless series of small experiments. - Brad Feld
We explore other questions including:
- How does a CMO of an established or growth-stage company learn from a successful startup in 2020?
What has hindsight taught you about coaching and leading other companies? What was one thing you concept you got wrong in the first edition Venture Deals? * What did you learn from your work with Uber? * How does a company change when stagnant? How do you keep growing, or more importantly, scale (or scale again)? * How would you advice a marketing leader to play an active role in growth?
Regularly learn from the things that fail. - Brad Feld
I think the best marketing leaders spend much more time with customers around the selling process and the product process than they do internally with their teams. - Brad Feld
Brad's Latest Book: The Startup Community Way Many cities fail to nurture startup communities because governments, large corporations and universities are not effectively collaborating with entrepreneurs or with each other.
A critical disconnect remains between the entrepreneurial mindset and those of many other organizations who wish to engage with and support entrepreneurship. There are structural reasons for this, but these obstacles can be overcome with appropriate focus, specific behaviors, and sustained practice.
An explanatory guide for startup communities, The Startup Community Way is rooted in the theory of complex systems. The book establishes the systemic properties of entrepreneurial ecosystems and reveals why their complex nature leads people to make predictable mistakes. As complex systems, value creation occurs in startup communities primarily through the interaction of the parts - the people, organizations, resources, and conditions involved - not the parts themselves. This continual process of bottom-up interactions unfolds autonomously, producing value in novel and unexpected ways. Through these complex, emergent processes, the whole becomes greater and substantially different than what the parts alone could produce.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds B2B companies often communicate about their product or applications of their product and then check the box of asserting “Thought leadership.” They’re missing it.
Chances are: you know the issues and challenges facing the industry you serve. And I am not just talking about the ones that your product solves directly, But the ones facing the broader domain.
Have you cultivated a point of view that shows the depth of your “get it” and have something to say about how those issues should be addressed?
Tony Anscombe joins us today to help us frame a better picture of thought leadership.
Our Guest Tony Anscombe is the Global Security Evangelist for ESET. With over 20 years of security industry experience, Anscombe is an established author, blogger and speaker on the current threat landscape, security technologies and products, data protection, privacy and trust, and Internet safety. His speaking portfolio includes industry conferences RSA, CTIA, MEF, Gartner Risk and Security, and the Child Internet Safety Summit (CIS). He is regularly quoted in security, technology and business media, including BBC, The Guardian, the New York Times, and USA Today, with broadcast appearances on Bloomberg, BBC, CTV, KRON and CBS.
Show Notes Tony frequently writes for welivesecurity.com ESET's blog. This blog inlcudes frequently updated articles filled with deep research into security matters.
Tony creates a weekly video for ESET for a series called "Week in Security" on YouTube and ESET's site.
ESET is a "hidden champion" in the security space, a concept inspired by the book Hidden Champions which goes behind the scenes to uncover many companies and products that power the world's greatest brands.
mentions ESET
American Express' Putting People First program
Tony illustrated some of his points talking about the challenges of deepfake that are on the horizon.
The 2020 Election
The most recent UK election
Deepfake audio
Thought leadership isn’t for everyone. If you want to be a thought leader, you need to:
- be ready to open your ears and listen before you begin creating content
- be patient and diligent because becoming a thought leader in your space doesn’t happen overnight — even if there isn’t steep competition.
- invest time, strategy, and patience
Read more in Golden Spiral's article on the matter.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Ken Rutsky, President and Principal Consultant at KJR Associates, Inc., joined us on Studio CMO to talk about the power of balancing both the analytic and data-driven side of marketing with great storytelling.
An accomplished speaker, mentor, and author, Ken has spent 20+ years in B2B marketing roles and believes it's just as important to fit in as it is to stand out.
This interview delves into:
- Why Great Technology Isn't Enough
- The Power of Storytelling in Marketing
- Driving Your Buyer's Epiphany
- Your Most Worthwhile Audience
- An Expert Marketing Consultant's Advice to CMOs
- What has Changed in B2B Marketing
Our Guest Ken Rutsky, President and Principal Consultant at KJR Associates, Inc., helps B2B growth company executives in Sales, Marketing, and the C-Suite breakthrough and grow leadership in new and existing markets.
Ken launched the Intel Inside broadcast co-op program in 1991 and the Internet’s first affiliate marketing program, Netscape Now, while at Netscape from 1995-99. Since then, he's been CMO at several start-ups and ran Network Security Marketing at McAfee. He now leads his own consulting practice, whose clients have generated over $10B of shareholder value through IPOs and acquisitions.
Ken is also the author of Launching to Leading: How B2B Market Leaders Breakthrough, Lead, and Transform their Markets and host of The Marketing InSecurity Podcast.
Show Notes STEEP Analysis: Society, Technology, Environment, Economics, and Politics. What are all the things going on in your buyer's world across those dimensions?
One of Ken Rutsky's favorite short stories: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Communicate Without Technology Bias Technological founders often live and breathe the products they're bringing to the market. It's great if you love to talk about your product, but you must provide context to the potential buyer.
"I don't care about cool. I care about value." - Ken Rutsky
If you have value in your product, then chances are you want to exchange two things:
-
Time and Attention
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Money
Why makes time and attention more difficult to achieve than money? Getting the attention isn't going to happen because you only talk about your technology. Great technology isn't enough to stand out. Providing value is critical.
The Power of the Story Providing Return on Investment (ROI) is now table stakes. The ROI won't get you into the deal. What will is your Return on Strategy (ROS). Technology is about transformation. Think: "What problems aren't I solving?"
You must first address your buyer's pain points. Only then can you introduce your technology.
The story you provide your buyer should consist of four chapters:
- Chapter One: Today's reality.
- Chapter Two: Identifying the pain gap.
- Chapter Three: Introducing a new approach, new mindset, and new technology.
- Chapter Four: The transformation.
If you want to test the strength of your story, try removing Chapters Two and Three. Focus on the From-To. Is it still meaningful, or is it now generic.
Chapter Three: Leading Your Buyer to the Epiphany Moment
"The epiphany must belong to the customer. We cannot steal that epiphany. We can't force it. The buyer must be the hero." - Mark Whitlock
Driving the customer's epiphany is twofold:
- Identify the mindset, and frame your approach.
- Push the innovation into a what, as opposed to a why. What makes your approach different, and how will your technology solve their unique problems?
Choose Your Conversations Wisely Who is making the buying decision? That's the person you want to tell your story to.
You may be thinking "But, the technical buyer doesn't care about the business transformation." Actually...
"When the technical buyer falls in love with your tech, they have to consult the person who cares about the business transformation. They better know that story, or else they'll never make the sale for you." - Ken Rutsky
Ken Rutsky's Biggest Piece of Advice For CMOs Successful marketing starts and ends with narrative and story. If you do that well, you already have 80% of the work done.
"Don't tell your story, tell your customer's story. Create context for your value." - Ken Rutsky
If the person you've been engaging with can't repeat your story within the organization, you're not telling it right. Your story must be memorable.
B2B Marketing: What Has Changed? The story has gotten lost on a lot of marketers. The idea of growth hacking has exploded, the idea that you can test your way to success. Well, your test is only as good as your hypothesis, and you can't test your way to a hypothesis. You have to think your way to it. That's where your story comes in.
CMOs are disappearing. The role is being split between a revenue focus and a corporate focus, and all of a sudden, no one is thinking holistically.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds There are important messages hidden in your data. The problem facing CMOs is no longer finding data, it’s interpreting all of the data coming at you. Sean Byrnes saw that first hand when he built Flurry, the largest advertising and analytics company during the meteoric rise of mobile a decade ago. Now, he helps marketers and customer success teams discover the questions they should be asking about their customers so they can be more efficient, grow their companies, and most importantly, serve their customers better.
In Episode 15 of Studio CMO, Sean discusses:
- His journey to the right question to ask which led to Outlier
- The differences and similarities between AI 20 years ago and AI today
- The ever-changing customer journey
- The power and essential nature of marketing
- Not being enamored with your own tech
- Changes companies have made due to discoveries in their data
Our Guest Sean Byrnes founded and now serves as CEO of Outlier.AI, a five-year-old company that is reinventing business intelligence. Outlier was named a 2018 Cool Vendor in Analytics by Gartner and was the 2017 Strata Audience Choice Award Winner at Strata. Prior to Outlier, he was the founder of Flurry, the leader in advertising and analytics services for mobile applications. Flurry was acquired by Yahoo back in 2014.
In his free time, he advises some early stage technology companies and invests in many others. He is passionate about building great products, beautiful interfaces, and new technologies.
Show Notes Get Outlier.AI’s Data-Driven Daily, a single nugget of wisdom about measuring and interpreting data delivered to your email inbox. You can also mine their archive at the same link.
If your initial marketing premise is not good, if you don’t really understand your buyer, all the growth hacks in the world won’t get you anywhere. - Sean Byrnes
There are some problems with A/B testing. A/B testing is a way to examine our preconceptions or our hunches, but they don’t go deep enough. If all you’re doing is looking for, say, a customer’s preference of color, you’re going to miss the most important thing: the customer’s intent.
At the end of the day, all business is marketing. Because if you can’t reach your customer, then what are you selling? - Sean Byrnes
Do you fully understand your buyer’s problems? It’s foundational to any successful marketing movement. Golden Spiral has developed a proprietary methodology called The Buyer MatrixTM.
Content marketing has become so successful. It’s a guided tour through your product. - Sean Byrnes
I’m a firm believer that the best marketing strategies come from really unexpected observations. You don’t just run the same things everybody else does. - Sean Byrnes
You really prove you have a customer when they renew your product. - Sean Byrnes
The Episode in 60 Seconds Do you have a marketing philosophy? Does it stand up to the test of scrutiny with your investors, your C-Suite, and your team?
On episode 14 of Studio CMO, Janet Matsuda, CMO of Sysdig, takes us through her philosophy and breaks down how it works.
- Running the playbook as a CMO in the first months
- Building trust with the CEO and other members of the C-Suite
- Working with analysts for the sake of your customers
- Encouraging your team to produce better work
Our Guest Janet Matsuda, CMO of Sysdig, is a leader in the Secure DevOps field helping cloud app developers embed security, compliance, and performance into the app development process so they can make their apps more reliable and help them stand up to attacks. Sysdig supports developers and helps them ship apps faster, too.
Janet has worked as a senior marketing executive in the SaaS industry for more than 10 years. A graduate of the University of Iowa with an MBA from Harvard, this is her second time serving as CMO. She has led marketing for Egnyte, Blue Coat Systems, Nimble Storage, and Palo Alto Networks. She has faced down the category creation monster before and now again at Sysdig. And we’ll hear more about that during the interview. She attributes much of her success to her ability to motivate and lead high performance teams. Her passion is their passion.
Show Notes For an investor meeting, Janet and her company produced a video that helped investors and others truly see what Sysdig does and how they do it. Listen at 15:00 and following to hear the story.
Sysdig’s blog is constantly updated and filled with the type of problem-identifying and problem-solving content every SaaS company needs to boost their search rankings and, bottom line, truly help their customers. Listen at 22:30 and following to learn more
If you want to build a SEO powerhouse blog, download Golden Spiral’s free Content Strategy Guide and check out our blog. We have many articles about making YOUR blog better.
Next week, on July 1st, the penalties and enforcement for the California Consumer Privacy Act go into effect. A recent survey points out that only 14% of companies with California companies are in compliance with CCPA. Only 29% have a plan in place. Make sure your website and your contact collection and processing systems are in compliance. The California Attorney General has indicated that SaaS companies will be some of his first targets for investigation because of the amount of consumer data they collect and process. Our free CCPA checklist is easy to follow and can help your web team make any changes you need before July 1.
Nicholas Holland breaks things. Then he builds them better than before. His role at HubSpot puts him in the cockpit with SMB and Enterprise CMOs who are trying to fly their marketing jets to new heights. He's heard their struggles and tries to give them tools for powering their futures
This interview powers through topics including:
- Why your existing customers are the biggest catalysts for future business
- Why integration between sales and marketing really breaks down
- How to amp up marketing automation and personalization
- How to sit at the revenue table in confidence
- The next two years of marketing
Our Guest Nicholas Holland is a product maker, entrepreneurial dreamer, and lover of mixed martial arts. He's the General Manager and Vice President of Marketing Hub at HubSpot.
He founded and exited from several SaaS companies in the Nashville area before joining forces with HubSpot to run their marketing labs endeavor.
Listen starting at 3:00 to discover more of Nicholas' career journey and lessons learned.
Show Notes When Nicholas was a SaaS leader, he considered HubSpot for his CRM and marketing automation platform, but ended up going with someone else. Find out at about 4:30 why he made that decision.
HubSpot set themselves apart and continued to iterate and innovate through imprinting their culture throughout. Explore this slide deck to learn more.
Nicholas recommends Drive by Daniel Pink as a guide to help identify and define autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Every single system that you stitched together has a small coefficient of drag on how fast you can go. - Nicholas Holland
The Flywheel HubSpot departed from the idea of a funnel and adopted a flywheel. Why? What brought it about? Listen at 17:00 to join in the debate.
Nicholas illustrates the flywheel by considering your net promoter score.
Integration between sales and marketing breaks down, as does the true power of marketing data, at this point: when you aren't willing to invest in connecting all your systems together, you'll never truly understand what your customer is thinking and feeling.
The Ultimate Reason You Need a Marketing Automation Platform
Can I sit at the revenue table with the sales leader? And can I show the points I've put on the board? That's it. You want to crack open a CMOs brain, ask them to sit down and have a frank discussion about how much revenue they should get credit for versus the sales org, versus the service org. - Nicholas Holland
At about 23 minutes, Nicholas talks about how to truly integrate your systems to get better vision into your customer. He also talks about better, more highly refined governance and ABM.
The Next Twenty-Four Months Customer communication will be a challenge.
You're just not your audience anymore. - Nicholas Holland
The emergence of the CDP, a customer data portal.
Leveraging personalization.
Building a Team for the Next Two Years 1. You will need someone to oversee the entire journey.
Be sure to listen to the story at 38 minutes about when Nicholas made a new hire in this area. She had an outrageous request.
- An OPS person whether Marketing Ops, Revenue Ops, or Data Ops
[Caroline Japic at Kenna Security knows the power of the marketing ops role. That's why she hired Jeremy Middleton. Listen to how they work together in episode 11.]
Frank Barry, founding team member and COO/CMO of Tithe.ly, joined us live on Studio CMO to talk about the impact of COVID-19 on faith-based institutions and how Tithe.ly’s technology has found a way to help.
Frank began his career as a youth pastor before entering the tech world through a position at Conterra (now known as ), where he was hired to start a faith-based consulting service.
This interview delves into:
- Tithe.ly’s new demand cycle
- The power of checking-in
- Tithe.ly's marketing & communications before and after COVID-19
- The pitfalls of rapid growth
- How Tithe.ly is preventing growing pains
Our Guest Frank Barry is a founding team member and COO/CMO of Tithe.ly, a Nashville-based platform with tools built to help churches and ministries increase giving and engagement. Frank is a marketing and technology professional with nearly 10 years of service in the software industry and is currently focused on driving business results in the form of lead generation, pipeline growth, and bookings through B2B demand generation marketing.
Frank’s background has helped him develop a unique understanding of bringing products to market, sales enablement, improving product adoption, and building customer success, to name a few.
Frank frequently speaks at events, including SXSW, SiriusDecisions Summit, Content Marketing World, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association (DMFA), and Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).
Show Notes In Episode 010 of Studio CMO, we talk about how your company can set realistic goals for the remainder of 2020. Check it out.
THE PANDEMIC’S EFFECT ON TITHE.LY’S DEMAND CYCLE Tithe.ly experienced a massive increase of churches creating new accounts. They progressed from 20-40 new accounts per day to 900 new accounts per day.
“COVID-19 forced every church on the planet to go digital.” - Frank Barry
As the pandemic progressed, churches had to figure out how to continue services and collecting giving and donations. Many churches were fast-forwarded into the decision to go digital.
THE POWER OF CHECKING-IN Following the pandemic, Frank started a daily live show to talk to church leaders and pastors through the season. He speaks not from the perspective of a church technology company, but as a fellow church leader.
In those live interviews, Frank was able to hear the perspectives and challenges of churches of all sizes, everywhere.
Personal connection has always been important to Tithe.ly. Since the very beginning, Frank and Tithe.ly’s CEO would onboard each new client by phone.
“To this day, everyone that signs up gets a phone call.” - Frank Barry
TITHE.LY’S MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS BEFORE AND AFTER COVID-19
“We had a great business. And then you put an elephant on top of it, and it exposes the weak points. We were able to see those really clearly and go, okay, let's shift.” - Frank Barry
Tithe.ly’s focus has remained on two efforts despite the pandemic:
1. Content:
Tithe.ly spent five years producing content and now publishes 2-3times a week on its blog in addition to a weekly podcast. Tithe.ly also provides their customers with resources to help them communicate effectively, such as printed material forbulletins, email copy for newsletters, and social media content to advertise with.
2. Personalized communications: Tithe.ly doesn’t have any outbound sales. Itssales team takes more of an educational approach — they want to answer questions and connect with customers. Before the pandemic and when Tithe.ly was receiving 20-40 new sign-ups per day, they called each new user to personally onboard them. When the pandemic hit and Tithe.ly was receiving 600-900 new sign-ups per day, Tithe.ly expanded its team, streamlined its processes, and kept its promise to call each new user.
IS YOUR COMPANY GROWING TOO FAST?
“If you grow too fast, you build up the infrastructure to support that growth. And if it goes away really fast, all of a sudden you're left with all this infrastructure, people, tools, debt, and no business.” - Frank Barry
Tithe.ly’s advice? Manage your business with intention.
Tithe.ly’s team is frequently looking at its data and paying attention to emerging trends in the market to help inform marketing and sales efforts post-COVID.
Learn how to fortify your marketing infrastructure on the Golden Spiral blog.
HOW TITHE.LY IS preventing GROWING PAINS The massive growth Tithe.ly has been experiencing during the pandemic forced them to rethink how they serve customers of different sizes and how those customers move through their systems and internal teams.
Tithe.ly’s customer could now be a church of under 20 people or a church of over a thousand people. Onboarding must be adjusted per customer to remain a streamlined process.
“It all comes down to: how do we deal with customers of all sizes? How do we get each customer live fast, make that experience great for them, and leverage software to simplify the process for our teams?” - Frank Barry
The Episode in 60 Seconds What can a brand new CMO do to grow a company in the first six months? Caroline Japic, CMO of Kenna Security, faced this challenge head-on with energy and drive.
This interview covers:
- How Kenna reduced the size of their MarTech stack and cut their annual cost in half
- How to build a team that works and works together
- The marketing efforts that have changed and those that have stayed steady
- Five pieces of advice to new CMOs
Our Guests Caroline Japic brings 12 years of senior marketing executive experience to Kenna Security as CMO. Kenna is a vulnerability management scanner that searches for threats to your organization, infrastructure, applications then delivers it in a cloud platform by user reducing friction between security and IT. She has also served as CMO at Pramata and Tidemark and was a senior marketing executive for HP, Bunchball, Taleo, and Polycom.
Caroline has been commended throughout her career for building winning teams and moving marketing programs ahead quickly.
Jeremy Middleton is Caroline's trusted right hand. Their paths have crossed before at Pramata and HP. Jeremy understands how to uncover, use, and analyze data to support and tweak marketing efforts. He's a proven manager and marketing tactician.
Show Notes What does it take to transform and grow a marketing program?
Team Building Caroline came in and analyzed the team, found the holes (and filled them), and realigned the team to be more efficient.
Listen at 5:00 minutes to discover the biggest changes she made and 7:00 for the qualities she looks for in marketing experts.
Message Building
What are we telling the world about Kenna? Does it make sense? Is it concise? - Caroline Japic
Overhauling the Marketing Stack Jeremy cut the MarTech tools from twenty down to seven and cut their budget in half. Find out what tools they are using at 13:00.
We have a simpler set of tools which means less raw data which results in less noise. We can more easily make sense out of the information we have. - Jeremy Middleton
What is Old is New Again Kenna Security developed a physical direct mail package and have received a 10% meeting schedule rate. Listen throughout the episode to find out how and why it works plus a measuring stick of how effective it really is.
Understanding Your Customer More Deeply than Ever Caroline is passionate about knowing and learning more about Kenna's customers. Find out how she builds her empathetic understanding at 20:00.
The Fundamental Underpinnings We explore what Caroline and Jeremy see as the basic building blocks for their marketing program. (23:00)
- Technology doesn't solve problems
- Do you really know who you're targeting?
- How accurate is your data?
- Can you stop what isn't helping?
Maintaining High Standards While Motivating the Team Caroline has built a loyal and high-performing team. She breaks down some of her thought process of management at 30:00.
What has changed in marketing Metrics are much more sophisticated and tell a greater story.
CMOs must feel like and act like they own the entire funnel from lead to close... and beyond.
Sometimes, it is "arts and crafts marketing." We say, "This would be fun. Let's do this thing." Afterward, we ask, "Well, did it work?" We don't know. We ask, "Did everyone like it?" - Caroline Japic
Advice for New CMOs * You need a big win fast * Build your dashboard first * Talk to your sales leader every single day * Put a framework in place. You need a written plan. * Market the marketing * Build relationships and maintain alignment
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Angus Nelson, Golden Spiral’s Director of Development, and Mark Whitlock, Golden Spiral’s Marketing Manager, are co-hosts of the Studio CMO podcast. This past week, Angus and Mark dug into email marketing analytics following a plummet in open rates.
In this episode of Studio CMO, Angus and Mark report on their findings and reveal additional marketing observations they uncovered in their research.
The episode delves into:
- Major changes in email marketing
- COVID-19’s effect on consumer behavior
- Incentivization in this new environment
- How to approach digital ad spend and goal-setting
- Why you should be “redeeming your commute”
Our Hosts Mark Whitlock spends his days telling others about Golden Spiral, a full-service B2B technology marketing agency helping clients realize their marketing potential. He is Golden Spiral’s Marketing Manager and has used words to craft stories and influence others from his days in radio, through his time recruiting partners for non-profits, as a senior acquisitions editor for a major publisher, and as a best-selling author. Mark quotes way too many movies, always has something playing through his AirPods, and enjoys laughing with his wife and children.
Angus Nelson, Director of Development at Golden Spiral, is a forward-thinking marketing professional with proven success in brand strategy, innovation, and identifying emerging trends. From Fortune 500 brands to battle-tested startups, he helps leadership teams gain solid ground—solving problems, guiding strategy, and navigating challenges. He’s the host of the "Up In Your Business" podcast and has spoken for brands like Walmart, Whole Foods, BMW, Coca-Cola, and Adobe. Last but not least, Angus is a huge fan of travel, family, a great bourbon or cigar, and the Green Bay Packers.
Show Notes Learn how to fortify your marketing infrastructure on the Golden Spiral blog.
Daniel Glickman, CMO of Wave.video, thinks of B2B as B2U (Business to User), meaning we should always remember that we are marketing to real people. Daniel is also an expert in creating high-quality video funnels. Learn more in Episode 009 of Studio CMO.
ARE WE THE PROBLEM? Hubspot reported a 67% increase in the volume of emails being sent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Golden Spiral’s marketing team decided not to increase or decrease our cadence of emails, but instead to sharpen our existing efforts by focusing on two factors:
- Repetition: A repeated message matters. The more times someone sees a message, the more likely they’ll remember it.
- Fundamentals: Practicing the fundamentals is critical. One of those fundamentals is email subject lines.
CoSchedule, the social media scheduling tool, offers a free headline analyzer. Check it out here.
The verbs in your emails matter, especially in your subject lines. We compiled 756 verbs that will help you avoid cliches and create better CTAs.
COVID-19 IS A POWERFUL TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATOR Consumer behavior is changing. Here's how companies are responding:
- Incentives: if you pay in advance, you’ll receive a discount.
- Expanding bandwidth: providing more access or features at cheaper levels
- Innovation: finding new ways to meet customer needs.
COMPANIES ARE INCENTIVIZING HUMAN BEHAVIOR What does incentivization look like in this new environment? How can companies engage customers in a way that really matters to them?
Many companies are providing bonuses if consumers behave a certain way. For example, some insurance companies are installing programs into vehicles that monitor whether or not the driver remains within the speed limit, makes complete stops, etc. If the driver meets expectations, he or she receives savings or bonuses.
Coming out of the pandemic, B2B leaders may need to consider what kind of reward structure they could provide their customers.
IT’S ALL HUMAN TO HUMAN Do B2B and B2C still exist?
The people that are engaging in the sales process with your products or services are other humans with challenges and mandates and goals. It’s incumbent upon your company or product to position itself in a way that directly speaks to their pain points.
“Let's be honest. You want that deeper human touch. You want to be more human in what you're doing despite the technology around you.” - Mark Whitlock
HOW TO NAVIGATE DIGITAL ADS DURING COVID-19 Spending is down 50% across all channels, clicks are down, and cost per click is down correspondingly. Companies don’t know what to make of it, so digital budgets have been significantly cut.
Is that being driven from a budgetary standpoint? Is it being driven because they feel like they’re tone deaf?
Mark and Angus revealed their greatest piece of advice during the pandemic: Fortify your marketing infrastructure.
Right now, it’s a week-by-week proposition. You should be setting goals for the next 2 weeks at most. Then, watch the trends and respond rationally. Once we come out of this, it’s important not to set a goal for the rest of 2020. Set a goal for one month, maybe two. Then, once again, watch and respond rationally.
“Everything is changing rapidly, almost daily. Your paid spend needs to represent that.” - Mark Whitlock
WHAT DOES WORKING REMOTE LOOK LIKE FOR YOUR COMPANY? As more and more companies offer a remote work option, will more management and leadership teams begin to recruit talent from anywhere in the world?
As mentioned by Rishad Tobaccowala in Studio CMO Episode 003, find out what Automattic does with their distributed workforce to strengthen on- and offline bonds.
REDEEM YOUR COMMUTE If you had a daily commute before the pandemic, what could you do at home to redeem that time before work starts up again?
“Keep the M.A.I.N. thing the main thing.” - Angus Nelson
Mindset. Allow yourself to see more objectively and creatively in how you approach your customer, your product, and your teams. Improve your leadership, communication, and delegation to help your team have ownership and influence over the future of your company.
Attitude. Come from a place of generosity, a place of abundance where all things are possible.
Inputs. Find the people that are speaking to your soul and inspiring you. You and your company need intellect, data, and heart in this season to truly connect with your customer.
Nurture. We have to make time for ourselves and the things that are important in our families in order to remain effective.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds Daniel Glickman, CMO of Wave.video, joins us on this episode of Studio CMO to discuss the importance of video in B2B marketing, including what videos you need in your arsenal and the most effective approaches.
Daniel is an innovative and internationally experienced CMO with a passion for building data-driven marketing systems that empower creative marketing teams to thrive and perform.
This interview delves into:
- The most effective type of marketer
- Wave.video’s role in the revolution of video marketing
- Why video is a critical tactic for B2B marketers to employ in their stack
- How to maintain control over your video marketing efforts
- Wave.video’s approach to video marketing
Our Guest Daniel Glickman is the CMO of Wave.video, an online tool to easily create videos at scale for your social media, emails, website, and blog throughout every step of the customer journey.
Daniel has successfully built acquisition teams and marketing departments, managed multi-million dollar marketing budgets, and delivered speeches to national audiences at CMWorld, B2B Marketing Forum, and MarTech.
Daniel has authored two books, Personalize This and Disrupt That, is the host of the B2U podcast, and founded, developed, and continues to run popular CMO Confessions meetups in Boston and Tel Aviv.
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Show Notes Videos in universal search results have a 41% higher click-through rate than their plain text counterparts.
Daniel is the host of the B2U Podcast. Subscribe here.
Browse more resources on video marketing:
Six Videos Every SaaS Company Needs
How to Use Video in Your B2B Lead Nurturing Strategy
WE NEED MORE MARKETERS WHO CAN DO BOTH There are often two types of marketers: analytical marketers and people-centered marketers. When in reality, we need more who can be both.
“You have to be able to do things at scale, to very analytically drive audiences and conversion pixels and really get things down by data. But, never forget we're dealing with people. We want to touch them emotionally.” - Daniel Glickman
People should not only buy from you because you have great product, but also because they know you and trust you.
THE ORIGIN AND TRANSFORMATION OF WAVE.VIDEO Wave.video began as a very simple app that filled a huge demand: videos with high-quality backgrounds and text overlays.
In a year’s worth of research and development, Daniel’s team noticed a very interesting phenomenon. Companies that were really successful on social media, driving traffic, and creating buzz all had one thing in common: video marketing.
“The competitive advantage that we have to keep all the time is not by developing something really great. It's by constantly being ahead of everyone else at developing something great.” - Daniel Glickman
THE REVOLUTION OF VIDEO MARKETING With 82% of all consumer internet traffic predicted to be online videos by 2022, we can confidently say that video marketing is the future.
However, it’s not about creating random videos. Daniel and his team discovered that companies successful with video all follow a methodology that mimics how content marketing affects the funnel.
Marketers are creating sequences of videos that are designed to lead people to action.
“In the early days of video marketing, people were just making videos without really thinking about strategy. And that's the missing piece.” - Daniel Glickman
WHY IS VIDEO A CRITICAL TACTIC FOR B2B MARKETERS TO EMPLOY IN THEIR STACK?
“Content marketing is not dead. We still need SEO. We still need text-based content. Video does not replace; it is just a way of tapping into new audiences.” - Daniel Glickman
Videos in universal search results have a higher reach than their plain text counterparts. If you’re considering a traditional content marketing perspective, adding a video layer on top of it or adding a video component can boost your SEO dramatically.
Make sure to have these types of videos in your B2B arsenal:
- Live videos: Try live-streaming at an event or in-office. It doesn’t have to be perfect. If live video seems highly produced, it’s seen as inauthentic.
- Promotional videos: These videos could be teasers for your marketing efforts, products, and services or even personalized for a client. Try playing around with text overlays and stock footage.
HOW TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OVER YOUR B2B COMPANY’S VIDEO MARKETING EFFORTS It’s not about one specific video leading to another specific video. It’s about a series of videos around a specific topic leading to another series of videos around a different topic.
In your first video series, you could build awareness. In your second video series, you could build trust. In your third video series, you could pitch your solution.
The key to maintaining control over how and when users consume your videos is to let engagement die down before beginning the next phase.
HOW TO CONQUER THE B2B BONANZA Producing videos on a regular cadence can get expensive. The challenge here, the B2B Bonanza, is figuring out how to utilize content you already have.
Thankfully, there's one thing that all B2B marketers have in their arsenal: webinars. Here’s what you can do with them:
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Organize all your webinars. Decide what’s still relevant and for whom.
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Take what you’ve already produced and put it behind some sort of gate. Tell your audience it’s only available if they take a certain action.
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Create short clips of highlights in your webinars. You can create entire video funnels from a single webinar, and so many of us have a library full of them.
WAVE.VIDEO’S APPROACH TO VIDEO MARKETING Before creating a blog post or email, Daniel’s team first decides what kind of video they want to deliver and the most effective way to do so.
Almost every week, Wave.video’s Facebook group posts a webinar featuring a guest influencer. Daniel’s team then creates a campaign based on that single video.
Here’s how it works:
- Daniel’s team creates a blog post that’s written around the video rather than the other way around. The video gets embedded into the blog post to redirect traffic, increasing SEO value.
- The guest influencer is asked to promote the post to help produce backlinks.
- Pieces of the original recording are turned into short videos and posted to social channels.
The Episode in 60 Seconds On this episode of Studio CMO, we sat down with Armen Najarian and Michael Cichon at RSA Conference 2020 — just a few weeks before everything shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Armen is CMO and Chief Identity Officer at Agari, where Michael is the VP of Marketing. The pair has known each other for more than a decade and shared stories from their Silicon Valley careers and lessons for gaining market traction and differentiation in the B2B tech space.
The interview delves into:
- How it all started with Armen and Michae
- The value of team chemistry
- Why marketers need to take a stan
- How to achieve internal alignment
- Why telling the same story matters
Our Guests
Armen Najarian is the CMO and Chief Identity Officer, and Michael Cichon is the VP of Digital at Agari. Agari’s mission is to protect digital communications to ensure humanity prevails over evil. Using predictive AI informed by global intelligence from around 2 trillion emails annually, the company protects enterprises against phishing, business email compromise (BEC) scams, and other advanced email threats.
Armen is a 15-year Silicon Valley veteran with deep experience scaling pre- and post-IPO cloud and security companies to successful shareholder outcomes. Before joining Agari, he was the CMO of ThreatMetrix, where he established the company as the category leader in the emerging digital identity space, culminating in acquisition by RELX Group/LexisNexis in February 2018. He also directed the go-to-market strategy for IBM’s SaaS portfolio and prior to that, spent five years with DemandTec, supporting its successful IPO and subsequent acquisition by IBM.
As VP of Marketing, Michael leads brand strategy and expression, content marketing, and the digital buyer’s journey across paid, earned, and own channels for Agari. Previously, he was VP of Digital and Content Marketing at ThreatMetrix and Digital Strategy Director at VMWare.
Show Notes
Register for Agari’s Trust Your Inbox webinar series, May 7 at 11:00 a.m. CT.
Attend Trust 2020: The Next-Generation Email Security Conference, a virtual event experience, May 5 - June 6.
Getting the Band Back Together
Armen and Michael go way back. Their relationship started in 2007 when Armen attempted to hire Michael for a product marketing role at DemandTec but couldn’t quite land him. Fast forward eight years and Armen brought Michael on at ThreatMetrix, where they worked together for almost three years before selling the company to IBM.
When Armen made the move to Agari in 2018, it only made sense for him to get the band back together — he hired Michael right away. Their origin story supports Armen’s #1 rule in B2B tech: always be recruiting.
Team Chemistry Is Everything As evidenced by his persistence in recruiting and holding on to top talent, Armen points to team chemistry as essential for achieving marketing success.
“Having a team that can believe in each other and that inspires each other is table stakes to be able to scale a business.” - Armen Najarian
First, he said it’s important to define the roles you need, at least generally speaking. Then, you need to find people who can wear multiple hats, but still know how to swim in their own lanes, add value, and collaborate effectively.
Michael shared that you want hardworking leaders who can solve problems. Everyone needs to be a marketer, even if they specialize in a certain segment.
Marketers Take a Stand
To be a marketer, you have to be willing to stand for something that might not be clear, something that might have unconnected dots.
Agari is a mission-driven business and Armen makes a point to declare the company’s mission when interviewing candidates. It’s important to find people who will buy into the cause and promote the mission. This is the company’s true North Star and guides all storytelling. But, the way marketers make these stories come alive is an evolving thing.
“Does the world really need another white paper? Does the world really need another blog? And, and the answer is yes. Because there’s not a shortage of content. The shortage is great ideas, inspiring ideas, interesting ideas, solid thought processes.” - Michael Cichon
When the Sales Team Is Your Customer
After you’ve got your team and mission in place, next you need to achieve alignment. At Agari, this means getting the marketing team on the same page as their customers — the sales team. The company uses an OKR framework, which focuses on objectives and key results, to achieve this alignment.
“A rule of thumb is generally no more than four objectives and no more than three key results per objective at a corporate level and at a departmental level for the quarter or year…The OKR process is an exercise in minimizing your goals and then having very measurable results.” - Armen Najarian
Remember, You’re All Telling the Same Story
Michael added that it’s not just about aligning with sales. You also need alignment with your customer success team. He talks with them about how they describe Agari, in addition to getting buy-in from the sales team. Marketers also need to be in sales.
“It's one story and there's no one person that can cook it up all by themselves behind their desk.” - Michael Cichon
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The Episode in 60 Seconds 8w7, iD at peace, DC under stress, ENTJ. If you know one or more of those codes, you’re going to have a lot of fun in this conversation. If you don’t, stay tuned. We dig a little deeper.
Drew D’Agostino, founder and CEO of Crystal, joins us to discuss common assumptions and biases that disrupt the true art of communication.
This interview delves into:
- How Crystal was born
- What communication really means
- How Crystal can improve your company’s messaging
- How your company can leverage personality differences during the COVID-19 crisis
- The hidden meaning behind Crystal' “Personality AI” categorization
Our Guest
This week’s guest is Drew D’Agostino. He’s the Founder and CEO of Crystal Knows, an online application that uses AI to predict personality so users can communicate effectively, resolve conflict, manage stress, influence others, and make better decisions in their professional lives.
Previously, Drew was CTO of Attend.com, an event management software company. He is a thought leader in Personality AI and has been featured in Inc., Fortune, CNN, Fast Company, MIT Technology Review, Wired, and The Guardian.
Drew has been recognized by Forbes as 30 Under 30 in enterprise technology and is the co-author of Predicting Personality, published by Wiley in 2019.
Show Notes
Learn more about how psychological studies can help you shape your buyer personas.
HOW WAS CRYSTAL BORN AND WHERE IS IT HEADING? After Drew and Crystal COO Greg Skloot left their previous company, they became fascinated by the idea of using DiSC assessments in a predictive manner.
Drew dove into NLP and machine learning in order to create a prototype that could analyze a LinkedIn profile and produce a personality assessment.
The company sold its first subscription and officially launched in early 2015. Since then, it’s been off to the races.
“It was an emotional response to software that I’d never seen before.” - Drew D’Agostino
Drew and his team are now trying to build a foundation off of where Crystal Knows truly fits in the market.
THE TRUE ART OF COMMUNICATION When it comes to communication, there should be no blanket ideas. There should be no assumptions based on our personal preferences.
When sending an email, how do you know whether to use short, to-the-point sentences versus elaborate, colorful language?
Communicating and connecting with people in the context of marketing is more than just gut feelings. It’s a science.
“Most people think communication is saying what you want to say in the way you want to say it. The true art of communication is altogether opposite. It's saying what you want to say in a way the other person can understand.” - Angus Nelson
HOW CAN CRYSTAL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE?
Over the years, Crystal has oscillated between markets because it’s generally a powerful, flexible personality tool.
Crystal can be utilized by marketing professionals in micro- or macro-approaches. For example:
- Identifying the communication styles that will be most effective in sales emails and pitches
- Identifying common personality traits of their customer-base to develop effective messaging.
“Data can be your secret weapon.” - Drew D’Agostino
There’s a danger in making assumptions about people, in making assumptions about personality types.
“Making assumptions about people results in biases, which results in awkwardness, which results in miscommunication and just overall inauthenticity.” - Drew D’Agostino
IS YOUR COMPANY LEVERAGING PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS?
“When you’re remote, personality differences seem to blow up.” - Drew D’Agostino
In written communication, what people really mean versus what is interpreted from the message can be dramatically different. It creates real problems.
Just like companies attempting to better understand their employees or customers during this crisis, Drew and his team are trying to understand how this remote shift is affecting how people are actually using Crystal Knows.
We've compiled four steps to fortify your infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn how your company can emerge from this crisis stronger than ever.
THE HIDDEN MEANING BEHIND CRYSTAL ' “PERSONALITY AI” CATEGORIZATION
Although Crystal Knows is categorized under a blanket term (AI), Drew views Crystal Knows as technology that is enhancing human communications and relationships where technology may have previously stripped the humanity away.
“Technology is here to stay, but how do you re-inject emotional intelligence into where it has been taken?” - Drew D’Agostino
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The Episode in 60 Seconds
Elana Anderson, CMO of Veracode, sat down with us at RSA 2020 to discuss the essentials of effective marketing leadership.
Elana has had an unexpected journey leading up to her current role. She began her career as a consultant at Accenture and led many marketing and product teams before accepting a position at Veracode. According to her Twitter profile, she is the “marketer marketing marketing to marketers.”
This interview delves into:
- How Elana's unique perspective strengthens her marketing leadership
- How Veracode has grown since its last acquisition
- The value of revisiting marketing fundamentals
- What enables Veracode to be a great partner
- The marketing advice all CEOs and CMOs need to hear
Our Guest
Elana Anderson’s marketing background spans nearly three decades as a marketing executive, industry analyst, and consultant working with Fortune 500 B2C and B2B enterprises. Previously, Elana led global marketing for the SaaS e-commerce leader Demandware and was Vice President of Strategy and Products at marketing tech provider Unica.
“Elana’s success building global brands in established and emerging markets is testament to her deep technology expertise and marketing prowess,” said Veracode CEO Sam King.
At Veracode, Elana implements go-to-market strategies, creates programs to drive customer growth and advocacy, and amplifies Veracode’s global presence to reach new audiences and expand its geographic footprint.
Show Notes
Check out Veracode’s newly released case studies:
Veracode Enables Cox Automotive to Integrate Security into the SDLC and Increase Speed to Market
Automation Anywhere Leverages Veracode to Secure their Leading RPA Solutions
Advantasure's Secure SW is a Competitive Advantage
YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE A TRADITIONAL HISTORY IN MARKETING TO BECOME A GREAT CMO…
…just a unique perspective.
Elana’s first marketing role was Head of Marketing at Demandware. Before she was the marketer, her buyer was the marketer. She essentially marketed to marketers.
Elana’s background has allowed her to work with many, many companies on many different aspects of marketing.
“I was building a business. I wasn't a marketer. I was advising marketers, I was building our consulting practice and our consulting offerings. I was building our portfolio of services to marketing organizations.” - Elana Anderson
ELANA’S TENURE AT VERACODE
Elana’s team has been focusing on strengthening Veracode’s voice in the market.
Before the impact of COVID-19, Veracode was at RSA launching a new brand platform and visuals that inspire boldness and confidence to create software that changes the world.
Read more about Veracode’s impressive booth display at RSA 2020.
Elana has made structural changes to her team that bring out the strength of each core pillar of marketing.
Achieving growth in your organization means plotting a vision for the future, getting people to recognize it, and fostering excitement within your team.
MARKETING FUNDAMENTALS WILL ALWAYS REMAIN THE SAME
Fundamentally, it’s about understanding what makes your customer tick and engaging them in conversation.
Who is the customer? What do they want? What do they need? What do they feel? How are they moved? What’s their pain?
“The idea of conversational marketing or customer engagement isn’t new. We’ve been talking about it for years.” - Elana Anderson
VERACODE SECURITY LABS
Veracode’s Security Labs enables developers to work in an interactive coding environment to find and fix appsec vulnerabilities.
In launching the tool, Veracode’s mission is to empower developers to change the world while providing them with the skills needed to prevent attacks.
VERACODE IS ALWAYS LISTENING
Since Veracode can see how developers are integrating and interacting with the platform, they are able to use that data to provide valuable feedback and guidance.
Veracode’s Customer Advisory Board enables customers to provide feedback on the product and engage directly with product managers.
“Our business model behind what we do enables us to be a better partner.” - Elana Anderson
THE MARKETING ADVICE ALL CEOS NEED TO HEAR
Your CMO needs some independence in order to do their job effectively.
Avoid silo marketing. Allow your CMO to focus on moving the business. A great CEO-CMO relationship resembles a strategic partnership.
Many CMOs get stuck on the tactical implementation, the micro-view of marketing. You must consider the business as a whole and what it means to move the company forward.
It’s about understanding the market, understanding the customer, and understanding what you’re trying to achieve as a business.
“I’ve always been a student of marketing. I don’t bring a recipe book to the job.” - Elana Anderson
HOW MARKETING LEADERS SHOULD FORM RELATIONSHIPS WITH ANALYST GROUPS
Building rapport and trust with your analyst is essential. The relationship should never be transactional.
It’s about getting to know each other. It’s about understanding tendencies and being able to engage and use that resource to help you further your business.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds
Golden Spiral’s own Chris Turner, Senior Director of Digital Strategy and Performance Analytics, joins us via Zoom to discuss how companies, specifically marketing leaders, can transition, think, plan, and strategize during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chris eats, sleeps, and breathes digital strategy and has a tremendous backdrop that has facilitated his deep expertise in the field.
This interview delves into:
- The three categories B2B tech companies are falling into amidst the crisis
- Why this isn’t the time for bold actions
- How and when to advance your B2B tech company
- Why it’s critical to fortify your digital marketing infrastructure
- How to avoid data paralysis during the COVID-19 pandemic
Our Guest
Chris Turner is Golden Spiral’s Senior Director of Digital Strategy and Performance Analytics and an expert in all things digital. Chris manages and monitors the online strategies for our clients related to paid media, content, social media marketing, and digital optimization.
Chris helps our teams build synergistic digital strategies that touch on everything from relationship building with partners to content creation and syndication — all to help clients make an impact through their business. He leverages his experience of 10+ years of marketing leadership to direct marketing teams to success based on addressable KPIs and data-driven tactics.
Chris has a bachelor’s degree in information technology and a master’s in information systems. He is well educated, heavily experienced, and always seeking more knowledge.
Show Notes
Before diving into data analytics, learn how to create and maintain a SaaS marketing and sales scorecard.
We created a comprehensive guide to fortifying your marketing infrastructure. Check it out.
The marketing and sales funnel is rapidly evolving.
To learn more about optimization from Chris, check out his Compete SEO Guide for B2B Tech Marketing.
How Does Your B2B Tech Company React During a Time of Crisis? Given the current coronavirus pandemic, B2B companies are generally falling into these three categories:
- The company’s solution meets a need that has been accelerated by the crisis (i.e. healthcare, healthtech, health IT)
- The company’s solution remains essential regardless of the crisis
- The company’s solution transforms a workflow — increasing efficiency and offering significant savings — but isn’t seen as essential amidst the crisis
Most B2B tech companies are falling into the third category. If your solution isn’t essential to overcoming the crisis, it will be difficult for your company to start conversations. It’s not a great time for your company to act boldly.
If your funnel has evaporated overnight, your salespeople can’t get anyone to return calls, your open rates have dropped through the floor, and you’re grasping at straws trying to figure out how to engage in the market…
“It’s not time to advance right now, but it is time to fortify.” - John Farkas
Don’t Give Up Now: Here’s How Your B2B Tech Company Can Advance Just because the environment around you changes, it doesn’t mean you can’t still keep moving forward. The journey will just look a little different.
It’s important for B2B companies to expand focus into innovation and transformation, so when the time comes, they’ll be ready to enter the conversation.
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” - Benjamin Franklin
Your key asset is your people. Ask them what your company should do to make an impact in the future.
Why You Must Fortify Your Digital Marketing Infrastructure If you put your soldiers in place now, when the time comes, you’ll be more than ready to win the battle.
Fortifying the essentials means understanding and optimizing the assets that you currently have while also planning for the assets you need to have.
There are three prerequisites before you are able to fortify your digital marketing infrastructure:
- Have a clear view of your goals and make sure they’re in line with the rest of your organization. What do you want to see happen by the end of the next quarter?
- Have a solid understanding of your buyer's needs. Then, articulate your solutions in the context of those needs.
- Have a clear view of your competition. What are they declaring right now in the market, and how can you present your product or service in a way that’s clearly differentiated?
1. Evaluate Your Toolbox You must understand what you have that solves the problems your buyers are really trying to figure out.
Evaluate not only your content and digital assets, but also the assets in human capital that can help you move forward.
Determine what elements of your marketing strategy align with the awareness, consideration, and decision phases of the buyer’s journey to know exactly what you need to address.
To appeal to buyers in the consideration and decision phases of the buyer’s journey, it’s essential to dissect your buyer and develop a deep understanding of their motivations.
“It's looking at demographics, it's looking at engagement with your content, it's looking at the ways that buyers want to be engaged.” - Chris Turner
2. Fill Your Toolbox Once you’ve identified the gaps in your digital strategy, it’s all about taking your insight and understanding of the marketplace and saying “what’s the easiest route to the end goal?”
In the consideration phase, potential buyers are comparing and contrasting different solutions. Are you answering those questions? If you’re not, your competitors may be.
“It’s not about what the environment's doing, it's what your buyers doing and how you can address that buyer in a meaningful way.” - Chris Turner
3. Optimize Your Assets The rubber meets the road when you combine the great assets that you've now crafted or developed, but you also need to make sure they’re visible in the right ways and at the right places. Not all content needs to be everywhere.
There are three keys to optimization:
- Understanding the feedback you receive. SEO, and any marketing efforts, should be executed based on the data of the people you’re targeting. Sometimes those changes will be drastic, sometimes they’ll be minimal.
- Connecting the dots between existing pieces of material that help to foster the whole journey. There’s an actual physical path that people will take through your website.
- Leading people towards the final goal, otherwise known as conversion optimization.
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How to Effectively Leverage Data During the COVID-19 Pandemic What gives data value is your interpretation of it. Look at your company’s data, truly understand what you’re seeing, and create a narrative. That’s what real insight is.
These are tools Chris, and most SEOs, use to interpret data in meaningful ways:
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Moz
- SEMrush
Are you creating material that actually matters?
“Content for content’s sake, webinars for webinars’ sake, videos, infographics, anything digital for digital’s sake has little value. You have to have a purpose behind it all.” - Chris Turner
What is Data Paralysis and Why Does it Matter? Marketing leaders often dive into data and end up over-analyzing, resulting in a sense of coma. They put their own biases inside of the data set. It may then be difficult to identify driving factors.
You must break apart all that you are as a business, and parse it into solution sets, content, material, and resources that inform and equip your audience. Your website doesn’t rank, your pages do.
“Your people aren’t looking for you. They’re looking for a solution.” - Chris Turner
The most important thing to remember is:
“The key to success in the correlation is not causation. It's common sense.” - Chris Turner
The Episode in 60 Seconds
Kyle Lacy, CMO of Lessonly, joins us via Zoom from Indianapolis, Ind. to talk marketing/sales alignment, customer experience, leadership during COVID-19, and golden llamas.
Kyle brings over 12 years of experience in marketing strategy and digital operations and is obsessed with how technology influences and changes human behavior. Additionally, Kyle has written three books: Twitter Marketing for Dummies, Branding Yourself, and Social CRM for Dummies.
This interview delves into:
- The importance of storytelling in marketing and branding
- A unified approach to sales and marketing
- Differentiating your company in some way outside of your product’s features
- The power of customer experience
- Lessonly’s approach to COVID-19 challenges
- The mentality of a successful CMO
Our Guest
Kyle Lacy leads marketing for Lessonly, a training and enablement software company based in Indianapolis, Ind. Kyle's team touches everything you can imagine when it comes to marketing, including demand generation, content marketing, branding, design, messaging, go-to-market development, and thought leadership. He drives growth at Lessonly using the knowledge he has gained while working at a venture capital firm, the largest software company in the world, and the fastest-growing email marketing company.
Kyle has authored three books that have been published in five languages and seven countries. The books include Twitter Marketing for Dummies, Branding Yourself, and Social CRM for Dummies.
Kyle has spent the last seven years traveling the world speaking at marketing and technology industry events and has been recognized as as one of Indiana’s Forty-under-40 by the Indianapolis Business Journal, Anderson University's Young Alumni of the Year, and TechPoint's Young Professional of the Year.
Show Notes
Check out Lessonly CEO Max Yoder’s book Do Better Work. Lessonly sends this book to prospects throughout the entire sales cycle.
Your best stories come from your customers. They are your best salespeople.
Companies either approach the sales funnel with the power of customer experience or a feature push. Where do you stand?
A Unified Approach to Sales and Marketing
The traditional sales funnel has radically transformed over the last five years. We’ve seen this self-service sales framework begin to develop in marketing where people are doing a lot of research independent from any sales conversations.
Kyle Lacy’s marketing team transitioned from being only top of funnel to being full funnel, touching 100% of everything happening at the company.
“The team felt renewed. They were more positive. They felt challenged in a good way. And then because of that, because they had the feeling that they were accomplishing something, we started to see success.” - Kyle Lacy
As its sales and marketing teams grew, Lessonly then focused on organization and process development to adjust alignment.
The True Value of Brand Experience in B2B Tech If you don’t differentiate in some other way outside of features, you’ll just be another demo. Try telling a story that’s a little bit different, a bit more human.
A few things Lessonly has done to humanize the sales cycle:
- Sent prospects Donors Choose gift cards to give to a classroom in need in their city, so kids can do better work, too
- Developed a 13-page coloring book to help working parents entertain their kids during quarantine
- Sent employees, prospects, and customers golden llamas (spray painted by Kyle, himself!) modeled after Lessonly’s mascot, Ollie Llama.
Lessonly receives most of its customer feedback from a weekly personal and leadership development newsletter sent by Lessonly CEO Max Yoder.
Kyle on sending prospects Golden Llamas…
“We don’t talk about Lessonly at all as a product, but it’s a first touch for us. It works extremely well because it’s different, and it has nothing to do with our product.” - Kyle Lacy
#SprayPaintingLlamas Here’s an unboxing of Lessonly’s Golden Llama by Sendoso.
Lessonly has also launched a word search, a board game called Llama Land for their software users, and a Lego Llama.
(And if you haven't seen Ludacris freestyle the children's book, Llama Llama Red Pajama, check it out.)
Kyle Lacy's Mentality as A Successful CMO
What’s the essential mentality for a Chief Marketing Officer to be successful? Timeframes.
“Marketing directors think in quarters. Chief Marketing Officers should think in years when it comes to strategy development.” - Kyle Lacy
Make your customer the hero. To achieve that, avoid a constant focus on feature development and growth.
Instead of focusing on the top of the funnel, CMOs and marketing leaders should focus on two things:
- Owning a revenue number (and a seat at board meetings)
- Influencing 100% of company decisions that are related to money
Lessonly's Approach to Leadership During the COVID-19 Crisis
When attempting to make decisions on an unknown, you must over-communicate with your team and over-index on empathy.
What Kyle’s team has been doing to maintain company culture during quarantine:
- Daily stand-ups
- Spontaneous happy hours
- 24-hour zoom room
- Online games
- Individual check-ins
Great Articles on Sales-Marketing Alignment
The Missing Piece of Sales-Marketing Alignment
8 Strategies for Internal Communications Alignment
How to Master Sales and Marketing Alignment
How to Align Sales and Marketing with Revenue Goals
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The Episode in 60 Seconds
Rishad Tobaccowala has invested a lifetime understanding human connection and leading a team to influence and persuade others through Publicis Groupe, one of the largest advertising and communications companies in the world.
In his new book, Restoring the Soul of Business, he outlines how companies can learn to live in the balance between spreadsheets and stories.
He has also spent time considering the implications of a worldwide pandemic on business and leadership.
This interview delves into:
- understanding your audience in a new light
- the five characteristics of a successful human leader
- the six words to remove from your communication
- how to maximize your distributed workforce
Our Guest
Rishad Tobaccowala is the Senior Advisor to Publicis Groupe, an advertising and communications firm with 80,000 employees worldwide. Over his 37-year career, Tobaccowala has worked across almost every area of marketing including brand advertising, media, database, direct and interactive marketing. As a pioneer in digital marketing, Tobaccowala was named by BusinessWeek as one of the top business leaders for his pioneering innovation and TIME magazine dubbed him one of five Marketing Innovators. He is in the Ad Age Interactive Hall of Fame and has received a lifetime achievement silver medal award from the Chicago Ad Federation.
Rishad is also is chairman of The Tobaccowala Foundation, which helps over 10,000 people gain better access to health and education in India.
He regularly presents keynotes at industry conferences and speaks at global organizations such as Kellogg’s, IBM, Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
He is the author of Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in an Age of Data.
Show Notes
Companies can be boiled down to two major components: a math component or data-driven component and the story side of business.
John Farkas on the soul of business
Technology is extremely important as an enabler, but not as a discussion point even if you are selling technology. - Rishad Tobaccowala
56% of people who work in business in America are not engaged at work. They just show up.
The Six Factors of Retaining Employees
- Money
- Fame
- Power for the senior executives, autonomy for growing employees
- Growth
- Purpose and Values
- Connections
What is the best word to use for your prospective customers? Customer? Consumer? Prospects? Targets? Audience? Gods?
Think about this: technology has enabled us to have god-like powers.
Your number one salesforce is not happy customers, it's your employees. Happy employees. Happy company.
The Six Words You Can't Say in Your Presentations * Personalization * Datalake * Database * Disruption * Platform * Optimization
#gibberishings Your Customers Need You to S.A.V.E. Them
Show me a solution
Make it accessible
Give me value
Give me a great experience
How to Lead a Distributed Workforce You have to be a leader of your team and a leader of yourself.
The Five Criteria of Successful Human Leaders
- Capability
- Integrity
- Empathy (read more about empathy on Golden Spiral's blog)
- Inspiration
- Vulnerability
Meetings are not conversations. They are gatherings around a modern fireplace—the spreadsheet on a screen. A true meeting is when we look into each other's eyes and talk. Genuinely talk. - Rishad Tobaccowala
What Automattic does with their distributed workforce. [listen at 22:00]
The stronger the offline bond, the more online relationships can work. - Rishad Tobaccowala
Three Things to Consider for Your B2B Tech Company in a Time of Chaos * What is your product/pricing mix? * What are you messaging? How should you change it? * During times like this, your audience will see the true caliber of your company. What is it?
Understanding the Turd on the Table
We are in the midst of corporate, national, and personal crap. [listen more at 29:19]
How do you put Humpty Dumpty back together again? [listen at 32:45]
Golden Spiral articles on trust
Golden Spiral articles on empathy
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The Episode in 60 Seconds
Chief Marketing Officers have the shortest tenure in the C-Suite. In tech businesses, that tenure is even shorter.
How marketing executives handle the first few months sets the tone for the rest of their tenures.
Kevin Fliess, VP of Marketing for Cofense, just wrapped up his first 12 months in the role. In this episode of Studio CMO, we explore the decisions, strategies, and tactics he implemented and the lessons he's learned along the way, including how to:
- fully implement a rebranding movement, even if your company has tried before
- press a new mission into every nook, cranny, and heart of your team
- bring sales and marketing synergy to your organization, not just alignment
Kevin also talks about "The Translation Layer" that marketing creates between the product team and the executive team.
Our Guest
Kevin Fliess is Senior Vice President of Marketing of marketing for Cofense, an anti-phishing platform company for global enterprise companies. Cofense provides end-to-end phishing protection to stop attacks in minutes, not days. He is responsible for facilitating Cofense’s global growth by overseeing the planning, development, and execution of Cofense’s marketing strategy across all channels.
Kevin has been a marketing leader for more than two decades in SaaS, internet-based companies, and the event planning industry. Past companies include ATPCO, Cvent, Room 77 (acquired by Expedia), SAP, and HP.
Kevin is a named inventor on six technology patents and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics at Washington and Lee University.
Show Notes
CMO Tenure Data
Who are the three bald, dancing dads? Check it out.
This episode was recorded at the 2020 RSA Conference.
Cybersecurity is an exciting industry. The problem set is always changing.
Cybersecurity is mission-driven. You're actually helping organizations and people deal with problems and pressing issues.
Check out Cofense's rebranding: then and now.
Psishing affects everyone and all companies, including these landmark examples:
Target breach
Equifax breach
John Podesta's campaign affected by phishing
Creating a purpose-driven culture is beyond just a mission statement, it's about creating something that is integral to the company.
A Scaleable Marketing Organization
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You've got to have great people in every role. Give them the organizational North Star and let them run.
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Build strong relationships with your sales team. Be aligned on what success looks like.
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Strategy should follow your goals, however you measure success
Everything we do has a sales executive sponsor and a marketing executive sponsor. We are clear about what the outcomes we're going to work on together.
- Establish a clear roadmap and then have constant dialogue about where we are. (Google's OKR method) Constant communication is key.
The pace of change in enterprise software companies and in technology is so rapid that it requires regular check-in and communication between teams in order to stay on track.
The Translation Layer
Companies don't have an unlimited number of arrows in their quivers. Marketing straddles the gap between sales and product. Marketing keeps those arrows pointed to the right opportunities that make the most sense and yield the highest outcome.
Take the gobbledygook and turn it into something your customers care about.
Take important, technically-sophisticated features and functions and translate them into use cases that make sense to customers.
Understand what sales is hearing and what pain points actually exist
Tailor the message
What are customers asking for, that they will need in 12 - 18 months, that are not on the product road map?
A Special Message from John Farkas
We wanted to share this important message with you. You can lead your company from chaos to growth.
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The Episode in 60 Seconds
Our world seems enamored with AI. Should our marketing be?
We discuss:
- Brand is the human bridge your prospects and customers cross to get to you
- Category creation is, at its core, a human process
- Anthony Kennada's thoughts on human marketing
Plus, we tell stories about what happened at The Dead Rabbit, at a private dinner with a start-up founder, and on a plane back from Manhattan.
Our Guest
Anthony Kennada is Chief Marketing Officer at Front. His team is taking on email. He said, "Email is the workplace communication standard that has not seen much innovation since Wilson Phillips was on top of the global music charts."
Prior to joining Front, Anthony was the founding CMO at Gainsight where he created the Customer Success category.
He is the author of Category Creation published by Wiley.
He has previously worked at Box, LiveOffice, Symantec, and serves as an investor, advisor, and board member to enterprise software startups around the globe.
He calls himself a "B2C marketer trapped in a B2B body."
Anthony is married and the father of a sweet daughter.
Show Notes
Category Creation is not for the faint of heart. It's also inherently human.
John Farkas: "Anytime something new happens, you have to mark the moment. You have to say, 'Think about this differently.'"
Allen Gannett, The Creative Curve: "You always have to mix the novel with the known."
Listen to the entire interview with Anthony Kennada.
Download a free excerpt from Anthony's book, Category Creation.
John Farkas: "Brand is the human bridge."
John Farkas articles on Category Creation:
Category Creation: The Power of Understanding Your Buyer's Problems
Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Category Creator?
John Farkas: "Don't miss the handshake."
Read more about empathy here and here.
Mark Whitlock: "I learned about The Power of One through my radio experience."
In this 30-minute interview, CMO of Front, Anthony Kennada discusses with Golden Spiral:
- What is Category Creation?
- Is creating a new category a good idea for every company?
- Are Gartner and Forrester still relevant?
- The signals that you should pursue category creation
- Lessons learned from being a CMO
Download a free excerpt from his book
Amazon link to book