Marketing Spark (The B2B SaaS Marketing Podcast): Recent Episodes
Mark Evans
30-minute conversations with B2B SaaS marketers and entrepreneurs about the different roles played by marketing to build brands, attract customers, and drive growth.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Andrew Arocha, Drift's chief revenue officer, talks about how less (marketing) will be more amid more difficult economic conditions.
He talks about how companies will focus on revenue growth rather than brand awareness, the future of conferences (smaller and more intimate), best practices for ABM, and how companies should approach customer retention and churn.
As B2B SaaS companies focus on retention rather than acquisition, customer intelligence is becoming more important.
On this episode of Marketing Spark, Mike Diaz talks about the different ways that companies can leverage data and information to keep customers in the fold.
Chatbots are becoming more popular to serve the needs of customers and answer their questions, but the AI is making chatbots smarter and more valuable. On this episode of Marketing Spark, Liverperson's Sonny Patel's talks about the future conversational inteligence and how companies can use it to drive marketing and sales.
Podcasts can be a valuable marketing tool for B2B SaaS companies because they provide opportunities to connect with customers, prospects, and influencers.
Podcasts can also help generate a lot of content by extracting insight about multiple topics, which can be useful for content marketing efforts.
However, it can be challenging for marketers to convince senior executives to invest in a podcast because it can be difficult to measure return on investment (ROI).
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Connversa Podcasting CEO Jeremy Shere, talks to Mark Evans about:
-
How companies should quantify ROI
-
Why podcasts continue to be embrace amid tough economic conditions
-
The biggest reasons why companies shy away from podcasts
-
The reasons why companies jump on the podcast bandwagon; podcasts done by competitors being one of biggest factors.
-
Why consistency is the key to podcast success
-
The role of podcasts within the sales process
The digital marketing landscape is always changing.
There are new channels, tools, and approaches.
But it feels like we’ve entered uncharted territory for digital marketing amid global economic growth.
The rising tide that lifted many, if not all, ships has disappeared. And there’s increasing pressure on digital marketers to perform and do marketing that converts.
I couldn’t think of a better person to offer insight and perspective about digital marketing than Andy Crestodina, who has been operating in the digital world since 2000.
On the podcast, we talk about:
-
How blogs can rank in search
-
How to use GA4
-
The effectiveness of "Get a Demo"
-
Why so much homepage messaging is unclear
-
Whether AI-powered writing tools will make an impact
One of the more interesting business trends is the rise of the fractional executive.
It's the idea that you can someone with skills and experience but not on a full-time basis. It's an intriguing model for companies looking to fill gaps economically.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, I sit down with Malcolm Lewis to explore the fractional CMO (FCMO) model.
We look at the definition of FCMO, what they do, how to hire one, and how to define the rules of engagement.
Malcolm also talk about the value of positioning as a pillar of the B2B marketing foundation.
Learn more about how I help B2B SaaS companies with positioning.
For many years, marketers have leaned hard into data for information and insight about how people interact with different activities.
But the landscape has dramatically changed.
A lot of digital marketing can't be tracked or attributed. People see content but never click, or they learn about products on the Dark Web.
Spark Toro CEO Rand Fishkin says marketers need to return to the days of creativity and ingenuity to attract and engage customers.
He says they need to make leaps of faith when making marketing decisions as opposed to depending on data to lead the way strategically and tactically.
It's an insightful conversation with someone who's been in the digital trenches for a long time.
Definition of annoying: most pitches from podcast booking agencies.
They’re not personalized.
Clearly, no research has been done.
They’re frequently off-topic.
And sometimes they use the wrong name.
Agencies using these types of agencies are getting bad deals.
It’s hard to get a guest on podcast, so you can't use a company that does a poor job.
Having received so many bad podcast guest pitches, I asked Jakub Zajicek from Speak on Podcasts for insight and advice on how and when to use a podcast agency.
Since launcing in 2020, Speak on Podcasts has booked more than 2,000 guests and represents companies like @gong and @paddle.
The key to finding the right partner is simple: research and being clear about your point of view and who’s going to do the talking.
As important, companies need a strategic plan that integrates how podcasts will fit into the marketing and sales mix.
The more that you know your customers, the better.
That's Marketing 101.
As marketing attribution becomes increasingly more challenging, companies will need new tools to identify and engage prospects.
Getting this type of customer intelligence will allow them to make better and faster marketing, advertising, and sales decisions.
On the Marketing Spark podcast, Clearbit CMO Kevin Tate talks about how companies can use technology to identify their ideal customer profiles (ICPs), how to gain insight into what customers and prospects are thinking and the questions being asked, and how to identify Website visitors who don't provide any contact information.
We also took a look at Clearbit's marketing activities - content marketing and free tools.
In theory, podcasts are a great thing for B2B and B2B SaaS companies.
They allow companies to connect with prospects, customers, and influencers and generate a ton of content (blog posts, social media updates, videos).
But podcasts can be a hard sell for marketers. One of the challenges is that the value and ROI of a podcast are more than data-driven.
When a marketer is asked by a CEO about how to measure a podcast's success, the answer is "a podcast can be quantified but many of the benefits aren't visible".
To get insight into the B2B podcast landscape, I connect with Tom Hunt , founder of Fame.
We talked about:
-
Whether companies are still enthiastic about podcasts
-
How to sell a podcast to. CEO or CMO
-
The role and value of an internal podcast for employees
-
Whether CEOs really understand their customers, and how a podcast and creating content is a great way to discover valuable insight.
Sales is a combination of art and science.
The best salespeople combine personality, insight, research and time to engage people and convince them to make purchases.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, SellX's Steve Schmidt talks about:
-
How salespeople should operate given the economic landscape
-
What makes for a great sales person beyond sales
-
How sales and marketing can work together effectively
-
The biggest mistakes made by salespeople on LinkedIn
-
Why Steve has enthusiastically embraced TikTok
-
The link between sales and demand generation.
Consultants get a bad rap.
They're seen as people who like telling other people what to do, but they don't do the actual work.
But consultants can play a key role in helping companies fill gaps and seize opportunities. The right consultant at the right time can deliver huge ROI.
On the Marketing Spark podcast, I talk with Faheem Moosa, who helps consultants drive higher revenue.
Faheem and I look at the consulting landscape amid volatile economic times, the role of content in marketing and sales, and the keys to launching a successful consulting business.
If you're a consulting, thinking about getting into the business, or looking to hire a consultant, Faheem delivers great insight.
Words are powerful. They make as much an impact as video, photos, and audio.
But words and writing are often under-appreciated, particularly by people who aren't writers or marketers.
In this episode of the Marketing Spark podcast, Sam Howard talks about why words matter and best practices for using them to drive Website conversions.
Sam embraces a research-driven copywriting approach involving interviews with employees, customers and a competitive audit.
We talk about:
- Whether copy or design should come first when developing a Website
- Best practices for copy and structure of homepages
- Three killers tips for Website conversions
- How to create better CTAs, demo pages, and About pages.
What a difference a year makes for B2B Saas entrepreneurs.
In 2021, business was booming, venture capital was flowing, and the focus was customer acquisition and growth.
Today, the economic landscape is bumpy, venture capital has evaporated, and customer retention is paramount.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Lately.ai CEO Kate Bradley Chernis talks about her professional challenges and how she's navigating the B2B SaaS waters.
She also talks about Lately's struggles to raise venture capital and Lately's bootstrapped approach to marketing.
Typeform is one of the world's best-known and most popular tools for creating online forms and surveys.
Armed with $135 million in Series C financing, the Barcelona-based company is aggressively expanding its marketing activities to drive brand awareness and cement its industry leadership.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Typeform CMO Karrie Sanderson talks about:
-
How Typeform works to ensure that its positioning and messaging stay fresh, relevant, and current
-
How to deal with the realities of the Dark Web and Dark Social given a lot of activities can't be quantified.
-
How it conducts market research to identify new competitors and challengers.
-
How Typeform plans to better leverage LinkedIn.
-
Her biggest accomplishments over the past year and plans to make more people and businesses aware of Typeform.
For all the focus on data, messaging (and positioning) is crucial for companies looking to connect with prospects and customers.
If you cannot talk about your product and why it matters clearly, it's like operating with one hand tied behind your back.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Diane Wiredu talks about how to develop messaging, the deliverables (more than a document or guide) and how to quantify the success of messaging engagements.
We also talk about the difference between messaging and position
As B2B SaaS sales become more challenging, demand gen can be an important way for companies to attract, educate, encourage, and nurture prospects.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Chris Roche talks about the benefits of demand gen and how companies can get started or ramp up their efforts.
We also talk about how B2B SaaS brands can leverage LinkedIn and experiment with TikTok.
Over the last couple of years, the fractional CMO (FCMO) has been gaining momentum as companies look for marketing leadership without hiring a full-time and expensive resource.
As a fractional CMO, I've been seeing more interest and more people embracing the title.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, I talk with David Poulos, a fractional CMO, about why there is growing interest, when and why to hire a FCMO, how to establish the rules of engagement, and how long a FCMO should stick around.
What's it like to operate a red-hot startup?
What's it like to raise $56-million in venture capital in a relatively short period of time?
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Walnut.io CEO Yoav Vilner talks about the interactive demo software company's rapid growth and how it raised major venture capital, including a $35 million Series B round in January.
Yoav and I also talked about:
-
How B2B SaaS companies can attract their first 100 customers
-
When sales teams should be scaled.
-
When to hire your first full-time marketer and what type of marketer to hire
-
The new world of networking.
When should a B2B SaaS company change its pricing and how often should it happen?
How do free trials and freemium play within the pricing equation?
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Dan Balcauski and I explore the pricing landscape.
We look at who should be responsible for pricing, know when prices have to be increased and know when your pricing is working.
Pricing may not get the attention it deserves so Dan has great insight into its role and how to think about it.
Most emails from salespeople are terrible.
They're impersonal, irrelevant, and ineffective.
They often don't reflect a prospect's interests or needs.
Lavender wants to change that with AI-powered technology that lets salespeopole write better emails.
On this episode of Marketing Spark, Lavender co-founder Will Allred talks about why salespeople struggle with email and how they can be more successful.
We also explore the new sales landscape and the adjustments that salespeople needed to make during COVID when they couldn't meet with prospects of attend conferences.
And we talk about Lavender's use of LinkedIn and TikTok to connect with customers.
PizzaTime's business exploded during the pandemic as companies looked for ways to engage remote employees.
The company, which offers catering to remote teams, reaped the benefits and transformed itself into a high-growth entity.
But as more people start going back to the office, PizzaTime has to re-strategize.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Matthew Carnevale talks about the different marketing growth tools being applied.
This includes doubling down on customers and referrals, leveraging a blog and newsletter, and talking to customers on a regular basis.
TikTok is the world's sixth-largest social media platform with one billion users.
Slowly but surely, B2B brands are establishing a presence, although it's far from bandwagon jumping.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Sales Feed's Will Aitken talks about why now is the time for B2B brands to embrace TikTok and the power of video.
From insight into attracting 39,500 followers Sales Feed's TikTok channel, Will offers advice on how companies can get started and the keys to success.
Many B2B SaaS companies are aggressively leveraging content marketing to attract and engage prospects.
One of the ways to generate content is to hire freelancers and contractors.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Brooklin Nash and I talk about:
-
The pros and cons of in-house content marketers and outsourced.
-
How to hire contractors and freelancers.
-
Gated vs. ungated content, and
-
Long-form content vs. short-term.
We also talk about Brooklin's approach to Twitter and how he's increased his follower count to 7,000 from 600 in the past year.
Marketers will tell you the importance of really knowing their customers but how many marketers actually understand their customers inside out?
Long-time marketer Mike Birt talks about the differnet approaches that marketers can take to gain customer insight.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, we talk about the importance of rewarding and nurturing customers rather than simply focusing on customer acquisition.
And Mike offers some suggestions on how to identify customer intentions and signals.
While marketers are obsessed with all things digital, direct mail marketing is alive and well.
There's huge value in being able to target people by their physical addresses. As important, brands that leverage direct mail marketing are seeing impressive ROI.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Postie CEO Dave Fink talks about why direct mail is viable option for many brands and how it liberates marketers from dealing with tech giants like Facebook and Google.
Dave also talk about his experiences as one of the first investors in Dollar Shave Club and what it was like to work with founder Michael Dubin.
Many companies develop great products.
The problem is few people know about them.
These companies struggle with a lack of money to do marketing. There's too much competition, or they're product-based.
Andrew Grubb is experiencing this first-hand.
As the CEO of ThinkSound, which makes earphones and headphones, Andrew heads up a company that has loyal customers....but not enough of them.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Andrew talks about the challenges of attracting the spotlight and how Think Sounds plans to leverage community and influencers to drive sales.
Many B2B SaaS companies are started by engineers with no marketing expertise.
They build the product but struggle to spread the word so people can discover and use it.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Verb Data's Dave Hurt talks about the steps he and his co-founder took to dip their toes in the marketing waters and some of the experiments they conducted along the way.
It's great insight into how, in many respects, marketing involves taking a deep dive into what your customers want and how they articulate their needs.
In a fast-moving marketing landscape, it's a challenge to break through and attract the spotlight.
Kacy Maxwell is taking a different and effective approach with a concept called sketchnotes that combines notetaking, doodling, and drawing.
It's a user-friendly and quick way to communicate ideas at a time when multi-tasking people scan rather than read.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Kacy and I talked about:
-
Why he embraced sketchnotes
-
How B2B companies can embrace brand storytelling
-
The marketing outlook for 2022
-
Gated content
-
His annual solitude trips.
Some companies aim to stand out from the crowd. They want to differentiate themselves from companies that walk, talk, and sound the same.
Some companies want to go a step further. They want to compete in a new category.
They embrace a concept called category design in which they define and lead a new market.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Josh Lowman offers insight into the definition of category design and how one of his clients embraced the concept.
xtensio is a classic story of how a service-based company turned a problem into a product.
The company was working with startups and needed better ways to support buyer personas and other marketing activities
It launched a few templates that resonated and then realized that there was more than enough demand to pivot the business.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, xtensio CEO Alper Cakir talks about the journey and how it has leveraged content marketing to drive brand awareness and inbound traffic.
It is interesting that xtensio doesn't have a marketing department. Instead, it relies on Cakir and in-house employees to create most of the content.
It's the wild west when it comes to building a personal brand.
There's no lack of advice, guidance, content, and coaches to establish a personal brand within a competitive landscape.
Michelle Griffin has some great insight into creating a strategic plan for personal branding.
We talk about why personal branding is important for entrepreneurs and CEOs, and how to get started on platforms like LinkedIn.
Many B2B marketers are throttled by the need to generate MQLs.
Their campaigns and activities are measured by how many email addresses are collected and fed to an army of business development and sales reps.
Nelson Gilliat believes there's a better way.
The "Buyer-centric revenue" model allows marketers to do good and creative marketing that drives brand awareness and generates customer interest in your products.
At the same time, the buyer-centric revenue model eliminates a lot of the prospecting done by B2B SaaS companies.
It's cold outreach and cold-calling that bother prospects rather than engage and educate.
Nelson is the author of "Death of the SDR: Birth of Buyer Centric Revenue"
Building a content marketing strategy is a lot like building a house, says Visme's Farzad Rashidi .
You need a good foundation and infrastructure and a nice facade.
You need to have a clear understanding of the best keywords that will attract readers to content and determine the most relevant channels to publish content.
But creation should only account for 20% of your time.
80% should be devoted to promotion and distribution, as well as updating and refreshing existing content.
That's the formula for content marketing success.
Hiring a marketing consultant is often a leap of faith.
You’re hoping their expertise and experience fills gaps and make things happen.
But a lot of consulting engagements don’t work as well as expected.
-
There’s misalignment on expectations.
-
A lack of engagement and collaboration (no partnership)
-
Not enough clarity about what success looks like.
-
A lack of commitment to actually do marketing (more talk than walk)
When I lost a client recently, some of these issues reared their ugly heads.
To get some more perspective, I talked to Kevin Whelan, who helps marketing consultants improve their businesses.
A key theme was how companies need to hire consultant and, as important, how and when consultants should take on clients.
Consulting is a two-way street.
Both parties need to agree to work together. It’s there’s a good fit, that’s a great start.
In simple terms, account-based marketing (ABM) is about targeting the prospects that really matter.
It's about a laser-focused approach to marketing and sales.
Behind the scenes, however, a lot needs to happen. It includes ensuring that marketing and sales work together to attract, engage, and nurture prospects.
On this episode of Marketing Spark, Andrei Zinkevich also points out that ABM also involves determining the customers that you don't want as much as the customers you do want.
Andrei goes into depth about how his company, Full Funnel, helps B2B SaaS companies leverage ABM to drive leads and revenue growth.
For many B2B SaaS companies, conversations are the ultimate success metric.
When customers directly engage with you, relationships are established and, as important, the sales journey is jump-started.
On this episode of Marketing Spark, Mark Kilens, Drfit's VP of Content & Community, talks about how conversation marketing gained momentum last year at a time when conferences disappeared.
Drift pioneered conversation marketing with the introduction of an AI-powered chatbot that attempts to engage, understand and recommend solutions.
Mark and I also talk about Drift's approach to content marketing, the importance of content distribution, and some of the metrics used to assess content marketing success.
Over the past 19 months, a growing number of people have embraced LinkedIn as a platform to make connections, drive conversations, and share content.
Among the most successful is Joel Lalgee , a professional recruiter, who has more than 73,000 followers.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Joel looks at how LinkedIn has evolved and how his approach to LinkedIn has changed.
It's great insight from someone who has clearly seen huge ROI from LinkedIn.
Joel also talks about the "Great Resign" movement that has dominated the work landscape, as well as the challenges and opportunities of working from home.
When did building a personal brand become so important?
Does everyone need a personal brand?
DP Knudten has some great insight into why a personal brand is a key part of how to operate professionally and personally.
He looks at the keys to success and the mistakes made by people along the way.
As well, DP talks about his Non-Fiction Brand approach to personal branding.
Many marketers believe that when they hit "publish" on a piece of content, the job is done.
But the reality is it's just beginning.
Ross Simmonds says one of the keys to content marketing success is distribution. Without it, he says all you're doing is building a content library.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Ross talks about:
-
Why so many companies and marketers struggle with content distribution
-
How to kick-start a content distribution plan
-
How to repurpose content on multiple platforms
-
Why it's important to focus on quality, not quantity
-
How to create content that's valuable and SEO-friendly.
To gate or not to gate, that is the question.
Should prospects cough up an email address to access content?
It’s a question that I’ve asked many marketers in recent months.
And most of them believe that gated content is disappearing.
In theory, gated content is a great way to attract MQLs and justifying/quantifying marketing investments.
In practice, however, getting email addresses is increasingly challenging.
On the Marketing Spark podcast, Jonathan Bland suggests that marketers need to look at content differently.
Rather than it being about email farming, the focus should be brand awareness and funnel development.
“It’s about getting maximum reach,” Jonathan says.
The decision to un-gate can be a difficult pill to swallow but the digital marketing landscape has changed.
There’s so much good content that a company simply can’t afford to create a barrier or friction.
When marketing fails to perform, a frenzy of fixes happens.
It’s about tactical optimization and doing things differently.
But often marketers are addressing symptoms, not root problems.
Sometimes, bad marketing is caused by a rotten foundation.
Marketing execution stumbles when it’s not underpinned properly.
Michelle Tresemer describes this problem as “compounding defects”, a term that she borrowed from the construction industry.
Compounding defects happen when there is no strategic vision or purpose.
This leads to marketing that isn’t focused, structured, or aligned.
Michelle says that “by the time you to tactics, there are no guardrails or no direction. Everyone is just doing what they think is best and it doesn't work”.
In the physical world, compounding defects is what happens when a skyscraper’s foundations are slightly off.
As the building is constructed the foundational flaws are magnified and exacerbated.
In the marketing world, compounding defects can involve a lack of leads or sales, or content that a CMO finds difficult to approve because it’s somehow off the mark.
In many organizations, marketing and sales operate in silos.
Sales complains that marketing delivers crappy leads while marketing claims sales can't close deals.
In an ideal world, sales and marketing operate as a cohesive team that collaborates to effectively attract and engage prospects.
On the Marketing Spark podcast, April Palmer provides insight into how startups and entrepreneurs can create powerful marketing and sales teams.
As well, she talks about the mistakes that many companies make when hiring a sales leader, and how to build a sales organization in the right way.
For companies looking for sales help, April has advice on how to hire a third-party sales organization.
In the software world, agile has been around for many years.
It's how software is developed more efficiently and iteratively.
But agile is also being embraced by organizations looking to make their marketing more successful.
Michael Seaton says agile fundamentally changes how marketer think and work.
It's about making marketing more structured, focused and effective.
It's about giving marketing teams the psychological safety to test and learn without getting sent to the penalty box if they make mistakes.
As more B2B brands embrace content marketing as the way to engage, educate, and connect with prospects and customers, it's becoming increasingly difficult to break through and stand out.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Brad Smith, CEO with Wordable, offers in-depth insight into:
- How companies should approach content marketing
- The importance of focusing on keywords that can be ranked for in the short term.
- How to build a content marketing team and how to assess its performance
- How to never run out of content ideas
- How to effectively distribution content once it's been published.
One of the most interesting parts of the B2B marketing landscape is watching marketers do their own marketing.
I see a lot of it on LinkedIn – my social media platform of choice.
There are marketers who create text posts, videos, carousels, and, of course, polls.
But, believe it or not, there is life beyond LinkedIn for B2B marketers.
And one of the more intriguing places is TikTok. Yeah, TikTok.
It’s no longer just a social media platform for goofy videos but a place where B2B marketers can successfully leverage.
A marketer who appears to have cracked TikTok is Stephen Pope, who runs SGP Labs in L.A.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Stephen talks about why he embraced TikTok and his tactical approach to making videos that attract prospects.
Being an early adopter is not easy.
There is a risk to embrace a platform or product that isn't popular or perhaps not ready for prime time.
In 2017, Michael David Chapman walked away from his job.
With no backup plan, he started to post on LinkedIn - sometimes three or four times a day - about his personal and professional challenges.
This is way before LinkedIn emerged as a vibrant content platform.
As an early adopter, Michael capitalized on a huge opportunity by doing what other people weren't doing.
His posts generated huge audiences and Michael has attracted 276,000 followers.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, we talk about Michael's LinkedIn journey and how he sees the platform evolving.
We also do a rapid-fire session on all things LinkedIn.
Can you feel the marketing pendulum swinging back to the basics?
For years, the focus has been data, KPIs, and quantifying anything under the sun.
But marketing success happens in different and sometimes mysterious ways.
Some of it is measured while other marketing isn’t directly attributable.
Many marketers have embraced data because there are so many tools to access analytics and insights, scale, and automate processes.
When technology makes it easy to reach a global audience, it’s easy to not spend as much time on fundamentals or first principles.
But it appears like marketers are starting to focus more on fundamentals. In my business, I’m seeing more interest in positioning and messaging.
Zineb Layachi said technology makes marketers forget about the reality they are trying to connect with people.
While tools allow marketers to amplify their efforts, she says the marketing pillars are important.
“How can you connect with target audiences and do marketing? What makes an impact?
People are at the center of that. I keep talking about the fundamentals when you get the fundamentals right, you scale on solid foundations.”
How do you scale a marketing team at a hyper-growth company?
It’s definitely a nice problem to have. Who wouldn’t want to ride a rocket?
Managing growth is a major challenge for Ruth Zive, who has led marketing at Ada for nearly three years.
Earlier this year, the Toronto-based company raised $130 million.
Ruth, who has headed up marketing at Ada for nearly three years, says momentum and capital have allowed her to take a different approach to marketing,
“We have the wind in our sails and we are well-capitalized. So, now we can take a breath and be a lot more thoughtful and strategic about the future,” Ruth said on my podcast.
“In the past, we would make decisions from month to month. Now, we very deliberately planning for one or two years out.”
Sadly, most marketers don’t really know their customers.
They have buyer personas and ideal customer profiles.
But these tools barely scratch the surface.
The only way to know your customers is to talk to them.
Yet many marketers don’t do it because:
-
They claim to have no time
-
They have bigger priorities
-
They’re afraid doing hard work
-
They don’t get why it matters
That’s not good enough.
Ryan Gibson not only believes in the value of talking to customers, but he pivoted his consulting business to focus on “customer investigations”.
It is insightful and often surprising, he says, what customers and prospects will tell you if you ask them questions.
The “unsubscribe” notification is painful.
Someone wants to end a relationship.
They want you out of their lives.
It’s not them, it’s you…and your newsletter.
But is the unsubscribe really that bad?
Should marketers, in fact, celebrate unsubscribes?
When you step back, someone disconnecting from a newsletter means they’re not your target audience.
The effort invested to create a newsletter isn’t resonating with them.
So, it’s perfectly fine for both sides to move on.
On the Marketing Side podcast, Jules Dan said it’s more important to focus on the people who want your email marketing.
“I sometimes encourage people to unsubscribe.”
Click on “Ask for a Demo’.
It’s the CTA on every B2B SaaS website.
But what happens after the click?
How do companies educate, and delight prospects?
In many ways, the demo is almost taken for granted within the marketing process.
Marketers are focused on messaging, value propositions and content to attract and engage.
The demo belongs to sales.
But that’s the wrong approach.
The demo should be a coordinated effort between sales and marketing.
A demo is a golden opportunity to encourage, inspire and showcase your product in the right way.
If marketing isn’t involved in this crucial process, that’s a mistake.
The biggest marketing challenge for many companies simply getting started.
There are so many options that it’s almost paralysis by analysis.
In many cases, companies do too much.
They believe that more channels or campaigns equal more success.
It’s better to focus on doing a small number of things really well.
Pick a channel and run hard with it.
A key part of Jordan Behan ’s approach to getting started with marketing is: One Big Thing.
Pick a marketing tactic like an eBook, Webinar, video, or course to stand out.
I like the idea of One Big Thing because it establishes realistic expectations, structure, and focus.
In an ideal world, B2B SaaS marketing and sales teams move forward in lock-step.
In reality, they often operate in silos.
The result? Sales complain that marketing gives them crappy leads. Marketing counters that sales can’t close deals.
How do you address this conundrum? The answer may be field marketing.
While it may not be the best-known marketing term, field marketers quarterback sales and marketing activities.
In this episode, Nick Bennett offers insight into field marketing; what it is, how it works, and why it is so effective.
Chris Walker’s on fire.
He’s a high-profile B2B marketing thought leader.
His LinkedIn posts generate huge engagement.
His agency, Refine Labs, is red-hot.
But here’s the interesting thing:
Not that long ago, Chris wasn’t the belle of the B2B ball.
Many of his ideas about B2B marketing were dismissed.
Hard to believe, right?
On the Marketing Spark podcast, Chris said:
“For the first five to seven years of my career, everyone thought my marketing ideas were not smart, and they didn’t want me to do the things that I was doing like podcasts.
They were heavily scrutinized at all the companies that I worked for.”
Chris’ frustration and appetite to do the marketing he wanted led to the creation of Refine Labs.
Hiring a marketing leader is not just about someone's skills and experience but creating a partnership between the CEO and the head of marketing.
Avoma CEO Aditya Kothadiya provides first-hand insight into the process that he recently took to hire a director of marketing.
Aditya says one of the keys to success is hiring the right person based on a company's growth stage.
Once a marketing leader comes on board, Aditya said it is important to align around expectations and goals so the rules of engagement are established.
As much as many people have seen significant ROI from LinkedIn (connections, conversations, and leads), I'm beginning to see some people explore other social media platforms.
It could be that LinkedIn is getting busier and/or that people see potential to make connections on places like Twitter, Tik Tok, and Instagram.
To get an insider's view of the landscape, I talked with Marcus Schaller, who recently shifted some of his social media time to Twitter.
Most interesting is how Marcus is taking some of the key lessons from LinkedIn and applying them to Twitter.
"LinkedIn is way too slow, too reactive and not pro-active enough ."
That's a blunt assessment from Charlie Whyman, a LinkedIn trainer and "marketing momentum builder".
In this episode, Charlie and I explore some of the ways that LinkedIn evolved in 2020 and what she expects will happen in 2021. This includes:
-
Analytics for personal accounts; probably not going to happen.
-
More use of Stories as conferences and events come back to life.
-
Improve content discovery tools through the use of tags.
-
Better corporate pages
Charlie also offers insight into automation tools (they're evil) and how marketers are ruining LinkedIn by using these tools to drive leads and Website traffic.
Marketers love the thrill of the chase. We pursue prospects with reckless abandon. MQLs are B2B digital hunting trophies.
But when marketers catch prospects, the game’s over. They quickly forget about these newly-minted customers….because prospects are sexier.
It shouldn’t be this way.
Prospects shouldn’t be engaged separately by sales, marketing, and customer success. The three groups should be working together to attract, capture, and serve customers.
John McTigue argues that silos create friction, which drives customer unhappiness and churn.
He believes a unified approach is a win for B2B companies and customers.
Marketing is hard.
It's even more challenging when you're the lone marketer.
You need to strategize, coordinate, tactically execute, and organize.
In other words, you have to be a multi-task player.
On the Marketing Spark podcast, Nancy Kwan talks about life as a solo marketer.
One of her biggest pieces of advice: "Don't become a yes person. Be comfortable saying no."
Nancy says that solo marketers need to be strategic and ask tough questions before committing to anything.
Personal branding is red-hot.
Seemingly, everyone you turn, someone is offering personal branding advice and consulting.
Is the focus/obsession with personal branding due to the gig economy, the ubiquity of social marketing, or the reality that people will work for multiple employers so a personal brand is important, if not necessary?
On this episode of Marketing Spark, Rich Cardona and I dive into personal branding, why it matters, and how to build a personal brand.
We also discuss the importance of content marketing and why, like many people, his time on Clubhouse has gone way down.
Most business books are dull.
I read the first 25 pages before a book loses its appeal. The writing is dense, the topic doesn't warrant a book, or I quickly get the point.
Laura Valvasori has developed a new and interesting way for people to get more value from business books.
She recently launched the Business Book Collective, a virtual community that combines a Mastermind group and a book club.
Each month, you read a book and share your thoughts and take-aways with like-minded people.
It's a brilliant concept because you're held accountable to finish the book and you benefit from the collective wisdom of the community.
Laura literally stumbled upon the idea a few months ago. But unlike many ideas that come and go, she embraced it and launched in January.
Jay Desai has always wanted to be an entrepreneur.
At 11-years-old, he had a newsletter business. In middle school, he was reselling sticks of gum bought at Costco.
While working for Trend, a B2B startup last year, Jay came upon a problem: how to collect content from around the Web for future reference.
One thing led to another and Jay created Swpely, which he describes as Pinterest for B2B. It's a free service that makes it easy to collect digital content, social media, updates, videos, and photos.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Jay talks about the transition from full-time employee to entrepreneur, and how he plans to grow Swpely into a full-featured content aggregation platform.
Networking still matters.
I'm not talking about social networks but establishing connections with people professionally and personally.
A lot of things in life happen due to relationships. It's how we develop trust, empathy, and connections.
Marc Angelos is a long-time Wall St. salesman who intimately understands the power of value of networking.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Marc takes a deep dive into the keys to success networking and how to make it happen in a digital world.
It goes without saying the marketing landscape has dramatically changed over the past year.
The disappearance of conferences (a go-to channel for B2B companies) has been a game-changer, forcing marketers to embrace virtual events, high-quality content, newsletters, and social media.
Who better to provide perspective on marketing today and where it’s heading (as well as how business is transforming) than Mitch Joel, an entrepreneur, investor, author, and trusted advisor.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Mitch and I discuss:
-
The domination of the advertising landscape by Google and Facebook
-
The growing importance of storytelling
-
How and when in-person conferences will return
-
The future of LinkedIn and Clubhouse.
The subscription economy is expected to grow from $15-billion this year to $475 billion by 2025. That's 68% year-over-year growth.
Adam Levinter operates in the eye of the hurricane as a subscription economy consultant, podcaster, and author.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Adam and I explore why the subscription economy is growing so fast, the sectors seeing the most momentum, and how companies can embrace a subscription business.
We also take a look at how the subscription economy will impact marketing, which will focus on customer acquisition and, as important, customer nurturing.
I have been working with B2B SaaS companies since 2008. I can honestly say that few of them have struck as truly innovative. Many of them were cool but they didn't blow me away.
Lately is an exception to the rule. When I learned what it can do, it resonated as a game-changer.
The company turns content (blog posts, eBooks, video) into social media posts. It takes the painful, time-consuming work out of creating updates for multiple social media networks.
Imagine the ROI from being able to create social media content at scale effortlessly.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, I spoke with Lately co-founder and CEO Kate Chernis about her journey from popular DJ to marketing to SaaS entrepreneur.
We explored the personal struggles that Kate endured in the music industry, why she backed away from raising money because she believed the VCs weren't treating her in the same way as male entrepreneurs, and how to operate a business remotely.
In some respects, newsletters are the Rodney Dangerfield of the digital marketing world; they get no respect.
They’re widely used by B2B companies to engage and convert customers but they’re not seen as sexy.
To get some insight into the world of newsletters, I saw down with Ashley Guttuso, Director of Marketing at Simple Focus Software and the author of the Opt-in Weekly newsletter.
We talked about:
-
Best practices and mistakes to avoid
-
HubSpot's acquisition of The Hustle
-
How and when to use curated content within newsletters.
LinkedIn is a mysterious creature.
The algorithm is a well-kept secret and there are rules that should be followed to stay onside and attract engagement on the platform.
In other words, it's not as simple as writing a post and clicking "publish".
Moritz Lang is a Swedish digital marketer who has emerged as a LinkedIn "guru".
On LinkedIn, he posts frequently on best practices and how to do the right things to create engaging content but also establish a strong presence.
For anyone looking to raise their LinkedIn game, this podcast is a must-listen.
In marketing, nothing is guaranteed. Sometimes, it’s about taking risks and leaps of faith.
In a data-driven world, data doesn’t deliver all the answers. Marketing is an unpredictable and often surprising creature.
Last year, a lot of B2B wanted to de-risk marketing. They pulled back on spending, chopped staff, and counted every dollar.
But that approach only works for so long. At some point, you need to get back in the game and take risks to succeed.
On the Marketing Spark podcast, Mano Guiragossian talks about how he has navigated the risk journey with clients.
For people who spend a lot of time focused on a particular topic or area of interest, the idea of writing a book is appealing.
It's a great way to demonstrate thought leadership, attract a bigger audience, and get speaking gigs.
But Juliet Clark says writing a business book isn't for everyone, particularly if you don't have a large audience.
Clark, who helps authors self-publish their books, says writing a book isn't for everyone. It takes a lot of work, not only to write a book but, as important, promote it.
From personal experience, writing a book is a labor of love. The ROI is being able to differentiate yourself in a crowded marketplace.
It used to be that marketing and sales meant jumping on airplanes to meet prospects and clients.
Many people didn't think twice about flying hundreds of miles to a meeting and returning the same day.
At one time, Andrew Deutsch was a hard-core road warrior.
He flew as much as 300,000 miles a year. Andrew visited a lot of places but eventually decided it was an unsustainable lifestyle.
Today, Andrew does most of its selling and from home via Zoom or virtual conferences.
On the Marketing Spark podcast, Andrew and I talk about the new age of sales and marketing, and how new in-person business activities could emerge post-COVID.
How’s Clubhouse going to make money?
Given the platform’s growth, it’s a fascinating question.
Of course, Clubhouse has time given it just raised more VC.
But, at some point, Clubhouse will embrace monetization.
Mallory Lee says the possibilities are endless.
She believes the options include:
-
Advertising
-
Sponsored rooms
-
Private rooms for companies looking to connect employees via audio rather than video
Personally, I think podcasting a huge opportunity for Clubhouse.
Every company wants its marketing to drive leads, sales, and ROI.
But marketing can be an up and down situation. Sometimes, marketing works. Sometimes, it doesn't.
On this episode of the podcast, Yaag Ganesh talks about why revenue marketing is an approach that ROI and predictability.
It's about focusing on marketing that works and then developing structures and workflows to "shampoo, rinse, and repeat."
Yaag and I also talked about:
-
The rise of Clubhouse and why he's been spending a lot of time on the audio-only platform
-
Building a personal brand as an international marketer.
How much content do you consume?
Most of us probably overdose on reading, watching, and listening to content.
There’s so much great content available that it’s hard to resist.
I would argue that most of us need to be more structured, disciplined, and focused.
Nemanja Zivkovic has an interesting approach.
He’s on a “content diet”.
Nemanja consumes content selectively and judiciously and relies on a few go-to resources but tries to stay above the fray.
It allows him to be strategic about content consumption as opposed to gorging out at the content buffet.
Marketers love chasing, engaging, and nurturing prospects.
Marketers love MQLs and revelling in sexy metrics how about well they are performing.
But once a prospect turns into a customer, marketers move on to the next shiny prospect.
A customer becomes the responsibility of customer success or customer service.
Linda Komisak, CEO of Upturn Consultants, believes this is the wrong approach.
Not marketing to customers, she says, means you're:
-
not making enough of an effort to keep them happy and loyal
-
not educating to get more value from your product
-
not creating opportunities to expand their business with you.
In this Marketing Spark podcast, Linda talks about how marketing to customers matters and why "trusted advisors" play a key role in making sure customers are served properly.
LinkedIn's 2020 was stunning; more than 60 million+ additional users and its emergence as a truly social platform featuring content, connections, and conversations.
Like a lot of people, Liam Darmody jumped hard into LinkedIn last year. You only have to look at the 530+ posts that he published to understand his enthusiasm.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Liam and I talk about how and why LinkedIn changed last year, how he approaches the platform from a content and connection perspective, and how LinkedIn will develop in 2021.
It's a high-level, strategic conversation about a platform that many people discovered or rediscovered and, in the process, saw amazing ROI.
If you're on LinkedIn, check out Liam's recently launched LinkedInthusiasts! page.
At a time when conferences are not happening and salespeople can't meet with prospects, marketing has become a key revenue engine.
A growing number of B2B and SaaS leaders are realizing that marketing can effectively attract, engage, and nurture prospects.
Marketing is no longer supporting sales but driving sales.
And, in the process, marketing is getting more respects and budget.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Shiv Narayanan gets into the different roles that marketing is playing.
We explore the growing importance of content marketing and how CMOs and CFOs need to establish close working relationships.
As B2B and SaaS companies scramble to leverage virtual events, many people are looking to become better and more engaging virtual speakers.
These are people who thrive at in-person events but now they have to present digitally. There's no stage and no audience sitting in front of them.
Now, that's a huge challenge.
Andrew Churchill has seen his consulting business explode as more people look to become better, more dynamic virtual speakers.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Andrew talks about the tricks and techniques that speakers need to deploy to keep people focused, interested, and interacting.
One good piece of advice is to stand up when presenting virtually rather than sitting down. It's simple but, when you think about it, makes a lot of sense.
It's one thing to do marketing; it's another thing to build a cohesive, collaborative, and productive marketing team.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Mitch Fanning provides insight into what it takes to build a team that drives marketing success.
One of the things that Mitch likes in a marketing hire is "grit", which is the ability to get the job done even when things are challenging.
Mitch also talks about how to create a partnership with a CEO to ensure that marketing gets the support it needs, as well as his marketing HR priorities.
B2B and SaaS companies are scrambling to find ways to connect with prospects and customers at a time when in-person conferences aren't happening.
Some companies are attempting to replicate the in-person experience but many of these efforts are, at best, mediocre.
Clio, which offers software to law firms, however, appears to have discovered the recipe for success.
Its recent virtual conference attracted 4,500 paid (yes, paid!) attendees from 46 countries.
In this Marketing Spark episode, Clio's Alex Shipillo offers a behind-the-scenes look into:
-
why and how the event was so successful
-
why it charged people to attend, and
-
what one sponsor did to make an impact.
Entrepreneurship is sexy and compelling.
You call your own shots. You're the master/mistress of your own domain.
It's an ideal way to make a living.
Well, that's the perception.
The reality is that entrepreneurship is stressful. It's a 24/7 activity that takes blood, sweat, and tears.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Luc Bohunicky and I explore the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, and what entrepreneurs must do to develop products and attract an audience.
In the B2B landscape, data dominates and, arguably, makes marketers less creative and interesting.
Decisions are heavily (overly?) influenced by KPIs and metrics. The numbers don’t lie, right?
But here’s something exciting (at least to me): B2B companies are starting to rediscover the value of brand and branding.
In a noisy, ultra-competitive landscape, it is critical to stand out from the crowd.
A brand has to be differentiated, compelling, memorable, and interesting.
Otherwise, you’re just another company battling for attention, even if your product is amazing.
Karen O’Mahoney says many B2B companies are starting to focus on the fundamentals and what really makes them different.
They’re focusing on how they want customers, prospects, and employees to see the brand and what it offers.
Karen, CEO of Brandlucent, says developing a brand strategy is not a one-and-done exercise. It’s about making sure that a brand evolves and changes as a company grows, pursues new opportunities and markets.
Your brand should be your “North Star” that propels your company forward and allows you to boldly and distinctly stand out from the crowd.
2020 has been a big year for LinkedIn. The social media platform now has more than 720 million users globally.
It has transformed into a platform dominated by content and connections rather than a place where HR professionals troll for talent and people look for new opportunities.
In short order, many people have decided to embrace LinkedIn as the social platform to drive their personal profiles and careers.
From doubling-down on the platform over the past seven months, I've seen first-hand the power of LinkedIn to drive my fractional CMO business.
I've made new connections with people around the world and had dozens of conversations, including Camille Trent, a brand and digital marketing specialist with Texas Citizens Bank.
I reached out to Camille because she has established an engaged following since jumping hard into LinkedIn in August. I want to learn first-hand about how someone leverages LinkedIn effectively.
In an ultra-competitive marketplace, brand differentiation can be the difference between attracting customers and going out of business.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Peep Laja talks about why brand differentiation matters and why companies are afraid to stand apart from the crowd.
He also looks at the growing attraction of outsourcing marketing, something Peep describes as "vendor management".
Sadly, most virtual events are terrible.
For whatever reason, virtual events have been unable to replicate in-person conferences, which likely won't happen for another six to 12 months, conservatively speaking.
But Narrative Science has cracked the nut. Its most recent virtual event attracted 3,000 (yes, 3,000 registrations).
In this Marketing Spark episode, Cassidy Shield, Narrative Science's VP, Marketing, talks about how the company has approached virtual events and made them a core part of its marketing activities.
In an age of video and photos, words don't get the respect they deserve.
Words aren't sexy or glitzy.
But they do matter. Words provide the information, the context, and the guidance for customers to take action.
In this episode, I talk with Eden Bidani, a conversion copywriter for SaaS, tech, and direct to consumer brands.
One of the things that struck me is Eden's suggestion that the best copy takes time to create and a lot of the time is not writing, but research.
Every company (well, most companies) wants to tell stories that engage, entertain, educate, and encourage.
It's what drives and differentiates their marketing and sales.
But developing and delivering stories that make an impact is a challenge.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Jordan Bower and I take an in-depth look at how companies can approach storytelling and why storytelling has everything to do with the customers and the experiences that a product or brand delivers.
You hear a lot of talk about category creation and category design. The terms are often intermingled.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, John Rougeux goes into depth about what category design involves and the features it delivers to companies looking to differentiate what they do to drive marketing and sales.
Rougeux, VP, Marketing Strategy at BombBomb, provides first-hand insight into how to implement a category design process and, as important, how to get key stakeholders on board.
BombBomb is video email platform for medium and large enterprise companies.
Google's algorithm changes on a regular basis, which keeps marketers on their toes and SEO experts happily employed.
On this episode of the Marketing Spark podcast, Huckabuy's Geoff Atkinson talks about the impact that Google's next major update, Page Experience, will have on content marketing and SEO.
On the podcast, Geoff and I talked about how B2B companies need to look beyond keyword optimization to drive SEO. They need to focus on technical elements such as dynamic rendering, page speed, and structured data. We also talked about why many companies are wasting time and money on content marketing.
While marketers mostly focus their efforts on attracting prospects, it's also crucial to connect with customers (aka the people paying for your product!).
In this episode, Amrita Gurney, VP, Marketing & Community with CrowdRiff, talks about the company has heavily focused on engaging and nurturing its customers over the past six months.
Amrita has great insight on best practices to develop a vibrant and active community, as well as thoughts on whether to use a platform.
As more B2B companies embrace content marketing, here's the question: what's more important: quality or quantity content.
In other words: is less more or is more more?
Dan Sanchez firmly falls into the quantity content camp. He believes that marketing success is driven by brands willing to create lots of content as way to perfect production.
Dan also talked about the importance of brand positioning as a pillar for marketing success, and how podcasts are one of the best ways to connect with prospects.
Creating valuable,and interesting content is a huge challenge for B2B companies.
There is so much competition that standing out is really difficult.
Lindsay Tjepkema, CEO with Casted, says that podcasts are the way that B2B companies can create content that resonates.
Podcasts offer companies the ability to connect with experts (customers, employees, analysts, media, investors) to have conversations that deliver amazing insight and information.
These conversations can, of course, be turned into podcasts. But, as important, they offer great content for blog posts, eBooks, social media, and sales collateral.
Casted is a SaaS service that allows companies to manage, activate, and measure podcasts from end-to-end while engaging their audience,s increasing sales alignment, and quantifying podcast value with metrics that matter.
Why do so many companies take their customers for granted?
They invest so much time and money to acquire new customers but not nearly enough to keep them happy and loyal?
In this episode of the Marketing Spark podcast, Jack Fussell talks about why knowing your customers and communicating with them is so important.
"We should be customer-centric all the time. We should have in-depth insight into what our customers want, what their fears are, their aspirations, and their goals."
Jack, the managing partner with Campfire Social and a fractional CMO, also talks about the importance of branding at a time when many companies sound and look the same, as well as the rise of fractional C-suite executives.
Marketing can be painful for small businesses; spending money is a hard pill to swallow.
As a result, they adopt a DIY approach that often goes badly.
Tara Hunt experienced the small business marketing challenge while running a digital marketing agency.
Work easily done as a freelancer no longer made economic sense.
But rather than walking away from marketing-hungry entrepreneurs, Tara did something different.
She and her team at Truly created a program called Phlywheel, a marketing platform that combines DIY lessons, templates, coaching, and community.
It allows entrepreneurs to do marketing without spending a lot of money.
LinkedIn has emerged as a powerful platform for personal branding and establishing new connections.
Powered by a steady stream of value-added content and relentless engagement with a growing network, Jason Vana has become one of the highest-profile marketers on LinkedIn.
In this conversation, Jason talks about how he approaches LinkedIn and why he sees it as an effective platform to drive leads and make money.
In the wake of COVID-19, it was easy for B2B companies to shrink marketing budgets and get rid of marketers. After all, marketing is a luxury, not a necessity, right? (well, not really).
But as the economies recover in many countries, companies are beginning to spend more on marketing.
The question is whether companies will rebuild marketing teams or look for ways to outsource marketing by using agencies, contractors, and freelancers.
Jamie Stenhouse, an Australian digital marketer, says outsourcing is an increasingly popular way to drive tactical execution.
Jamie outsources a lot of his agency's work and sells a program to many companies on how they outsource their marketing.
What are the keys to building a successful marketing team?
Do you hire the best talent or put together a cohesive team that features people with different talents?
"Of course, all-stars," says Mitch Solway, a fractional CMO for startups, who I interviewed for the Marketing Spark podcast. "But all-star doesn't necessarily mean the top talent."
Mitch says one of the keys to success is hiring people focused on the right goals and, as important, people who can fit into the corporate culture.
Virtual events have received mixed reviews as a replacement for in-person conferences.
For some companies, virtual events have provided opportunities to connect. But many people have complained about the lack of interactivity and engagement.
For commonsku, which sells software to promotional product companies, in-person events have been a key part of its marketing and sales efforts.
As important, events have propelled Commonsku's community.
With in-person conferences off the table, commonsku has successfully leveraged virtual events to stay connected to customers and nurture prospects.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Mark Graham, commonsku's co-founder and chief brand officer, talks about why and how virtual events have worked so well.
What can brands do to position themselves to emerge from COVID as strong and dynamic players?
While many brands are struggling to keep their heads above water, the strongest brands are already thinking about what needs to be done outflank rivals with marketing that engages consumers in new and different ways.
On the Marketing Spark podcast, Ron Tite provides insight into how brands can build marketing momentum to pull away from the competition.
If you're a B2B company that thinks it is too late to launch a podcast, think again.
Sweet Fish Media's James Carbary says there are huge opportunities for B2B companies to leverage podcasts to drive marketing, sales, and relationships with prospects and customers.
“There are one million podcasts live now. There are 30 million YouTube channels and a ubiquitous number of blogs.
But no company is saying ‘no, we don’t want to do video or we don’t want to do written content’. So, there's so much opportunity left in podcasting”.
Sweet Media Media produces podcasts for B2B and SaaS companies and offers a growing library of business podcasts.
Every B2B company wants to capitalize on the power of SEO.
But there are fundamental mistakes at these companies make that undermine their marketing activities.
Dev Basu, chief experience officer with Powered by Search, said SEO delivers when companies create research-driven content that meets the needs of target audiences.
Too many brands leverage email marketing to drive sales. That's it.
But Coherent Path CEO James Glover contends that retailers should use email marketing to build stronger relationships and help consumers discover new opportunities, and, yes, drive sales.
He calls this approach "engagement farming". It's based on the idea that customers should look forward to getting email because it engages and deliver values. If they also buy something, that's great.
For more about James and this episode of Marketing Spark, check out the show notes.
Print is the Rodney Dangerfield of marketing; it gets no respect.
These days, it's all digital all the time. But print hasn't disappeared. It's still important and a key part of the marketing mix.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Joanne Gore, an experienced B2B marketer, talks about how print and digital can form a beautiful marriage to drive marketing success.
To learn more about Joanne and why print still matters, visit the show notes.
Alexis Clarfield-Henry talks about what it's like to be the first marketer at a startup.
After a career in advertising, Alexis joined Unata, which built an e-commerce platform for the grocery business.
Clarfield-Henry says one of the keys to success when hiring your first marketer is a willingness to think about of the box rather than someone who has done it before.
“In terms of who they need to look for, that person needs to be flexible, able to roll with punches, willing to learn new things, willing to test and learn, and pivot."
For more details about Alexis and the podcast, check out the show notes.
Social media a perilous territory, which explains why many senior business leaders happily avoid it.
But Jay Palter, a social media strategic and personal brand expert, contends senior leaders can successfully leverage social media by delivering insight and value while avoiding the pitfalls.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Jay offers pragmatic advice on how senior leaders should use social networks like LinkedIn and how success can be defined.
For more details about Jay and the podcast, check out the show notes.
It is increasingly challenging for B2B companies to connect with prospects.
A lot of their "shotgun" tactics (e.g. email marketing, content marketing, social media) aren't working.
It explains why they are turning to account-based marketing (ABM) to focus on a defined group of prospects.
In this edition of Marketing Spark, Nadia Milani talks about how her ABM campaigns have succeeded and, as important, what to avoid.
For more about Nadia and the podcast, check out the show notes.
Marketing leaders have long struggled with the seemingly conflicting demands of building brand and driving revenue.
In this episode of Marketing Spark, Steve Watt, V.P, Marketing with Grapevine6, talks about the importance of branding, messaging, and positioning as important foundational elements that underpin marketing and sales success.
A highlight of the conversation was how content such as eBooks, case studies, and Webinars should be un-gated (no email addresses required) to drive distribution as widely as possible.
For more about Steve and this Marketing Spark episode, check out the show notes.
Welcome to the first episode of Marketing Spark, a podcast that delivers insight, tools, and tips about marketing....in less than 15 minutes.
Why only 15 minutes?
I'm a big advocate for micro-marketing: marketing that quickly delivers insight and information. It's micro-podcasts, 30-second videos, and 200-word LinkedIn posts.
Marketing Spark will feature marketers and entrepreneurs in the trenches, who will talk about their successes and failures.
Here's where you can more on the back story of starting this podcast.
If you have questions, ideas for guests, or looking for help with B2B marketing, let's connect. Contact me or send a message via LinkedIn.