The People of Digital Marketing – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Georgiana is a strategic advisor, author and speaker who's passionate about turning customer value into revenue-generating outcomes. Marketing online since 2000, she began her track record as a marketing executive and product growth advisor in 2010 working with high-growth, B2B SaaS like Unbounce, Sprout Social, Bitly, Appcues, SparkToro, Invoice Simple and more.

Questions and topics we covered in this interview include:

• The origins of Forget The Funnel (and why funnels are bad for business)
• What Customer-Led Growth is and why it comes before all other growth models (like product-led, sales-led, marketing-led, or community-led)
• How do marketers begin to learn from their customers? 
• What’s the best way to collect product feedback?
• What’s the best way to implement that feedback? + How does marketing champion and facilitate this process with other departments?
• You’re a prolific advisor to several big name startups, what does it take to become one?
• Georgiana’s advice on how to become a startup advisor

And more!

Important Links

You can say hello to Georgiana on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgianalaudi/

You can find me on LinkedIn here- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto 

Get her book on Customer-Led Growth™ here - https://www.forgetthefunnel.com/customer-led-growth/book

Check out her podcast with cofounder Claire Suellentrop here - https://pod.link/1713510690

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com 

Kate Guerrero helps early stage startups solve positioning and messaging challenges, and translates strategy to a crystal clear homepage. She's a 2x small business owner, a 2x mom, and the author of an award-winning manuscript.

Questions and topics we covered in this interview include:

• Fletch’s philosophy around product marketing
• How product positioning lays the groundwork for all other forms of marketing collateral a business will need to make and deploy
• How to sell the work of product positioning internally
• How the size of a business’s product portfolio affects positioning exercises and GTM strategy
• The core differences between brand marketing and product marketing
• The actual step-by-step process Fletch takes to update a B2B SaaS company’s homepage and product positioning  
• How to identify what differentiates a product from the rest of the market
• Why it’s okay to actually talk about the competition in your positioning 

And more!

Important Links

Learn more about Fletch PMM’s positioning and product marketing services here - https://www.fletchpmm.com

You can say hello to Kate on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-guerrero-🖋%EF%B8%8F-42b56348/

You can find me on LinkedIn here- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto 

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com 

Over her career, Lindsay McGuire has contributed to the content functions at the largest credit union in Alabama, the most well-known nonprofit brand in the world, and a SaaS company that made five acquisitions within two years. Now as the Associate Director of Content & Campaigns at Goldcast, her days are spent overseeing and creating content around how B2B marketers can use events as one of their top revenue-driving channels.

Her diverse background across various industries makes Lindsay a well-rounded content leader and a strategist who knows how to create a content engine, build relationships across teams, integrate holistic messaging, and think creatively while staying laser-focused on business goals.

Questions and topics we covered include:

• Lindsay’s method to recover from layoffs
• Ways marketers can improve their confidence on camera
• The lessons Lindsay has learned about marketing events and webinars by working at Goldcast?
• What’s the right strategy for promoting and repurposing events?
• What are the keys to strong customer interviews? How can marketers leverage them to improve their brand’s storytelling?

And more!

You can connect with Lindsay on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayladeroute/

And you can find me on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com 

Alex is a former professional soccer player turned growth marketer and now works as a community growth manager at Funnel, a marketing data platform with over 1500 customers including Adidas, Samsung, and Havas. Prior to Funnel, Alex worked agency-side at Brainlabs building cross-channel digital growth strategies for brands such as Digicel & MARS.

Questions and topics covered:

• The story on how he became a Growth Marketer.
• Why did he join Funnel.io?
• What are some of the weekly and monthly challenges Funnel’s marketing team faces?
• What is his approach for testing several different marketing channels?
• What are some go-to mental frameworks that he uses to help him develop and refine his marketing strategies?
• What are some of Alexander’s marketing resources that he can’t live without?
• Alexander’s list of favorite MarTech tools.
• Characteristics he likes to see in job candidates.

You can connect with Alexander on:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-ross-billington-0a2a1090/

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVuHcUzOvfuIelublasK1Hw

Resources mentioned:

“How to Build an A/B testing Framework – Our VICE Framework Revealed” - https://mcgaw.io/blog/how-to-build-an-a-b-testing-framework-our-vice-framework-revealed/

The Knowledge Project hosted by Shane Parrish - https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/

The Digital Marketing Podcast by Target Internet - https://www.targetinternet.com/digital-marketing-podcasts/

Aazar Ali Shad is a Growth Marketing Lead at Synthesis.is, an online games-based academy started by Elon Musk and Chrisman Frank. He has a podcast called Growth Marketing Stories where he tells unconventional growth stories. He also has more than 10 years of marketing and sales experience.

Questions we covered:

• Why did he make the transition from sales to marketing?
• What’s been the hardest challenge in regards to growing his personal brand on Twitter?
• For someone who is interested in starting a podcast but, they need help—what’s the best way to start? What are some things they can do early on to help them succeed?
• What worries him and excites him about growth marketing in 2022?
• And more!

Here are some amazing Twitter threads that Aazar has written:

• Aazar’s list of favorite marketing podcasts - https://twitter.com/Aazarshad/status/1476579470404247556
• Aazar’s list of favorite marketing professors - https://twitter.com/Aazarshad/status/1483122979496071171

Foti graduated with a degree in finance in 2007 but, quickly pivoted into digital marketing a year later as the first non-engineer hire at the managed hosting provider, EuroVPS. Fast forward a decade and in 2018 he launched his startup called GrowthMentor which helps founders and marketers connect with vetted mentors.

Questions we covered include:

• Why did he create GrowthMentor?
• How would he describe his job as a founder?
• What are some of his weekly and monthly challenges?
• What resources would he recommend to someone who’s new to growth marketing?
• What new marketing skill is Foti learning right now (PREVIEW: it’s a skill with three letters)?
• When is the right time for a business to hire a growth marketer and do they need to be a full-time employee?
• What interview questions should entry-level growth marketers know how to answer?
• What are his favorite MarTech tools?
• Why does he think people are too obsessed with personal branding?

You can connect with Foti via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fotis-panagio

Demand Curve’s slack channel (I’m in here too by the way) - https://www.demandcurve.com/slack

Neil Patel’s advice on why you need to STOP studying digital marketing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2BIMXX7lbQ

And here’s another great episode about growth marketing that you can check out, the guest is Agata Krzysztofik who recommended me to Foti - https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Agata-Krzysztofik---Want-to-Win-as-a-Growth-Marketer--Have-a-Growth-Mindset---Episode-60-e18lvt4

“You want to make sure your survey questions result in stories.”

Michele Linn is the founder of Mantis Research where she helps content and community managers conduct surveys so they can learn about their audience and publish compelling, original research findings. Prior to Mantis, Michele was head of editorial at Content Marketing Institute, where she led the company's editorial strategy and helped grow its audience to more than 200,000 subscribers.

Questions:

• What are some of the benefits marketers can get from doing original research?
• When is the best time to do original research?
• What’s a simple step-by-step process marketers can use to conduct original research?
• What are some suggestions for marketers who want to conduct original research projects, but who don’t know how to propose these projects to their managers and business leadership?
• What are some common misconceptions about original research that annoy her?
• What are some incentives a marketer can use to get people to respond to surveys?
• What it is like working for Joe Pulizzi?
• What skills did she learn from working at the Content Marketing Institute?
• And more!

You can connect with Michele via:

Her LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelelinn

Her website - https://mantisresearch.com

And here’s the article I mentioned regarding community-building as a marketing strategy (definitely something worth reading more than once) - https://review.firstround.com/a-founders-step-by-step-guide-to-getting-your-first-1000-community-members

If you’re looking for another wonderful interview with an expert content marketer who also talks about original research, check out the episode I did with Andy Crestodina here (it’s episode #43) - https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Andy-Crestodina---Understanding-Digital-Empathy-with-The-MASTER-of-Content-Marketing---Episode-43-e145vsu

“[E-commerce marketing] is so difficult now because anyone can open up a Shopify store, you collaborate with other brands and sell [their products], you can drop-ship, there are just so many stores and everybody is just trying to make it…”

Jimmy Zona is the Director of E-Commerce & Digital Marketing for Turbie Twist. At Turbie Twist, he created and scaled the company's digital presence in order to become the market leader in its category. In this episode of the podcast, we talk about all things e-commerce: ads, SEO, cross-channel marketing, email marketing strategies, and more!

Questions and topics we covered include:

• How did Jimmy get into the hair care industry?
• What lessons did he take from his tv producing experience while transitioning to a full-time marketer?
• Why is scaling an e-commerce business difficult? Is it difficult?
• What's the single best way to re-engage users who abandon an app/website?
• How is Jimmy handling email updates with iOS 15 rolling out? (Hint: he’s focusing on SMS marketing)
• When is it the right time for an e-commerce business to run ads?
• What are the best examples of cross-channel marketing?
• What are the similarities between building an affiliate marketing network and scaling PR hits?
• How does e-commerce and SEO come together? Do e-commerce businesses need an SEO strategy?
• What are the main reasons why he doesn’t use influencer marketing?
• What’s the hardest part about marketing products on Amazon? Should e-commerce marketers focus on DTC-only, Amazon as the main focus, or a mix?

You can connect with Jimmy via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zonajimmy/

And for anyone interested in a deep-dive on Amazon PPC tactics and strategies, check out this episode I did with Dr. Travis Zigler - https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Dr--Travis-Zigler---The-Basics-of-Amazon-PPC---Episode-25-emd36f

“You should be speaking truth and focusing on honesty in marketing…”

Maddy Martin is the VP of Marketing for Smith.ai, which provides 24/7 communication & intake services for businesses, by phone, website chat, text, and Facebook Messenger. She has spent the last decade growing tech startups from New York to California, and has expertise in digital marketing, small business communications, lead conversion, email marketing, SEO & content marketing, social media, co-marketing, and event marketing.

Questions I asked her included:

• Why do email open rates no longer matter (Hint: iOS 15)?
• What’s the best way to use branding guidelines?
• Do leads/prospective customers really read e-books?
• What is the ultimate goal for any B2B company?
• What is a “leaky” lead funnel? How do you “plug it”?
• What role do chatbots play in a business’s SEO strategy?

Connect with Maddy via:

Email - maddy@smith.ai

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelainemartin/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/madelainemartin/ 

And here's a FREE and wonderful eBook from the Smith.ai team, How to Use Virtual Receptionists for Small Business Growth - https://assets-global.website-files.com/5b15d605b7c459fc409872b5/6189368976b9b9c71fb04012_Smith-SMB-white-paper-11052021.pdf

“When you are a business owner—you’re a digital marketer. That’s the bottom-line.”

Deirdre is the creator of The Viralocity Formula, author of The Traffic Formula and founder of Growth Boss, a leading mentorship and Virtual CMO program for e-commerce business owners wanting to scale to multiple- 6 and 7 figures using the power of tribe-building, virality and human connection.

Questions I asked her included:

• What is a virtual CMO? What do they do?
• Why shouldn’t you discount Instagram as an acquisition channel in 2022?
• What is your definition of a tribe? Why are Facebook Groups still the best option for building a tribe?
• How should marketers go about lowering Cost of Acquisition? What tips can you provide?
• What are some proxy metrics that can help improve CAC over time? (She discusses reach/impressions as the key to measuring creative assets and CTR for measuring copy👀)
• When is it the right time to tap into influencer marketing? When is a business ready for this?
• How can a business evaluate influencers?

You can connect with Deirdre here:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/deirdretshien/

The Remarkable Entrepreneur Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/theremarkableentrepreneur