Explore every episode of the podcast The Revenue-Driven CMO
Dive into the complete episode list for The Revenue-Driven CMO. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
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Title
Pub. Date
Duration
Building Winning Teams & Authentic Marketing Leadership with Justin Steinman, CMO of Ensora Health
09 Apr 2025
00:46:49
How can the team and authentic leadership in marketing drive growth and brand transformation?
In this episode of The Revenue-Driven CMO, I have the pleasure of speaking with Justin Steinman, Chief Marketing Officer at Ensora Health, a leader in healthcare marketing and brand development. Justin, with his extensive background in marketing and product development, shares invaluable insights into the power of authenticity in leadership and marketing communications.
We dive into the strategic rebranding of Therapy Brands to Ensora Health, exploring the rationale behind the transformation and the new brand strategy of integrating multiple legacy products. Justin highlights the importance of comprehensive research and a collaborative approach in crafting a new identity that resonates with both customers and internal teams.
Throughout our conversation, Justin emphasizes the importance of empowering great teams and fostering an authentic approach to marketing leadership. His insights provide actionable guidance for CMOs and marketing leaders who are looking to lead their companies through successful brand transformations and elevate their marketing efforts.
Key takeaways include:
The role of authenticity in leadership and marketing communications.
The strategy behind a successful rebrand and integrating multiple legacy products.
How building and empowering strong teams can lead to marketing success.
The importance of collaboration and research in brand development.
If you're a CMO or marketing leader in any industry, this episode is packed with actionable strategies for driving growth, brand evolution, and leadership success. Whether you're leading a rebrand, empowering your team, or looking to refine your marketing playbook, Justin's insights will help you navigate the complexities of modern marketing and lead with authenticity.
Quote of the Show:
"If you can't explain what you're selling to your spouse or partner across the dinner table, then you're probably marketing it wrong." - Justin Steinman
The Revenue-Driven CMO is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through branded podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
How Blending Creativity and Data Elevates Marketing with Maggie Lower, CMO of ABC Fitness
02 Apr 2025
00:40:52
How can creative leadership and data-driven strategies transform marketing for business growth?
In this episode of The Revenue-Driven CMO, I sat down with Maggie Lower, Chief Marketing Officer at ABC Fitness. With a remarkable career spanning leadership roles at global brands like Bank of America, Hootsuite, and Cision, Maggie brings a wealth of experience to the table. She dives deep into the power of blending creativity with data-driven marketing, sharing her journey and insights on elevating brand strategy at ABC Fitness.
Maggie highlights the importance of product marketing, talent acquisition, and embracing AI to innovate fitness offerings. She also discusses how diversity in marketing campaigns can foster emotional connections with customers. From the evolving role of fitness in consumers' lives to the industry challenges that come with rapid change, Maggie offers actionable advice for marketers looking to stay ahead of the curve.
Key Topics Covered:
How blending creativity with data-driven approaches drives marketing success.
The role of AI in modern marketing and its impact on fitness brands.
Making diverse faces visible in campaigns to foster emotional connections.
Navigating the challenges and opportunities in the fitness industry.
Watch this video to discover how these strategies can propel your marketing efforts and foster business growth!
Whether you're a marketer, CMO, or business leader, this episode is packed with practical advice to help you take your marketing strategies to the next level. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more expert insights on revenue-driven marketing and brand success.
Quote of the Show:
"If everybody gives you a thumbs up, you probably haven't pushed yourself enough." -Maggie Lower
Building Teams That Run Through Walls with Jonathan Dale, VP of Marketing at Phenom
16 Jan 2025
01:01:56
How can building high-performing teams transform your marketing strategies for long-term success?
In this episode of The Revenue-Driven CMO, I have the pleasure of speaking with Jonathan Dale (JD), VP of Marketing at Phenom. JD shares his extensive experience in product marketing and management, and we dive into the critical role of building and mentoring high-performing teams.
JD takes us through his career journey, from struggling as a computer science student to becoming a key leader at Fiberlink, IBM, and now Phenom. We explore how he successfully scaled marketing teams and cultivated a high-performance culture by focusing on team dynamics, environmental fit, and leadership strategies that inspire extraordinary results.
We also discuss Phenom's innovative AI-driven HR solutions, and how they're leveraging cutting-edge technology to transform human resources. JD shares actionable strategies for scaling marketing efforts through impactful events, original research, and strategic leadership.
Key takeaways include:
The importance of building and mentoring high-performing teams for business success.
How to foster a strong team culture and ensure the right environmental fit.
Leadership strategies that inspire teams to achieve extraordinary results.
Effective marketing strategies for scaling through events and original research.
If you're a marketing leader or an HR professional looking for insights on team dynamics, leadership, or AI-driven business solutions, this episode is a must-listen. Whether you're scaling teams or optimizing marketing efforts, JD's strategies will provide you with the tools to drive growth and success.
Subscribe to The Revenue-Driven CMO for more expert interviews and actionable insights on leadership, marketing, and business growth.
Quote of the Show:
"I've been very fortunate to understand the value of amazing teams and the ability to build, mentor, coach, and deliver to those teams, like teams that can step up and absolutely run through walls, and then get up, hydrate and run through another wall and keep doing it." - Jonathan Dale
The Revenue-Driven CMO is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through branded podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Differentiation Doesn't Matter, Distinctiveness Does - Bryan Law - The Revenue-Driven CMO - # 094
05 Apr 2023
00:44:11
Every marketer has heard how vital differentiation is to success, but today's guest has a different point of view and the data to back it up. Bryan Law, the Chief Marketing Officer of ZoomInfo, joins this episode to provide his marketing expertise which he has built over two decades of leading marketing teams at companies like Salesforce, Google, Tableau, and Deloitte. Bryan explains why being distinct is more important than being differentiated, why your brand's messaging should be the same across segments, and how to discover the category entry points for your brand.
Takeaways:
For marketers, it's much more important to be distinctive than differentiated. Being distinctive means your company stands out from the noise and is noticed. Differentiation conveys how your company and services differ from a competitor's offering.
B2B buyers are bombarded with messaging and don't have time to compare competitors. Most buyers start with a list of one potential vendor and most buyers don't look beyond that list. To get on that list, your company needs to be distinct.
Data from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows that brands succeed better when they focus on standing out and getting noticed than when they focus on conveying why they are better than competitors.
There are many ways for your company to be distinctive, but the most important aspect is to think about what the company needs to be known for and then deliver that consistently. For example, if your brand uses humor to stand out, your brand needs to deliver on that consistently across every interaction a prospect has with your brand.
Examples of assets your brand should keep consistent include colors, logos, taglines, symbols, sounds, characters, etc. In addition to tone and storytelling, these small, consistent nuances help your messaging feel familiar, yet distinct, to buyers.
Hyper-personalized messaging actually degrades the strength of your brand. The more consistent your messaging is for every segment, the stronger your brand becomes. Hone your targeting by industry and deliver consistent messaging to every type of buyer.
Identify the category entry points for your buyers. These are the thoughts and feelings they have during buying situations. Then, attach your brand to those entry points that are associated with purchasing. For example, a prospect thinks about how to fix X, and in doing so, they simultaneously think of your brand.
The first step to becoming more distinct is learning the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that buyers have when purchasing. Use a survey to ask them, "When you are thinking about this category, what are the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that come to mind?"
Quote of the Show:
"It's really about thinking about what you want to be known for, and then doing it consistently." - Bryan Law
The Revenue-Driven CMO is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Using The Marketer's Compass - Lia Davidson - The Revenue-Driven CMO - Episode # 093
29 Mar 2023
00:40:54
Today's guest is an amazing marketer and leader that has spent over a decade in education marketing and sales. Lia Davidson is the CMO of EAB and the creator of the CONNECTED conference. Lia shares her framework of the Marketer's Compass which can be used to evaluate individual marketers and marketing teams.
Takeaways:
The north and south ends of the marketer's compass are the opposite ends of thinking strategically versus tactically. The east and west axis on the compass represents the left and right brain thinking that marketing requires.
Great marketers are able to easily switch between long-term vision-setting and getting their hands dirty by working in the trenches and getting in the weeds of a project. Marketers need to be able to look at things from both 4 feet and 40,000 feet.
The problems that marketers have to solve demand a mix of both analytical and creative thinking. There is a lot of math involved in certain points and lots of creative thinking in others.
When creating and managing marketing teams, think about how the individuals within the group represent the four directions of the marketer's compass. Because each person won't excel in every aspect, it's vital to add others to balance out the team's strengths.
The Marketer's Compass lens is most valuable for viewing senior marketing talent. Entry-level marketers should be focused on executing the one thing they're responsible for, but over time they will grow in their knowledge.
For many companies, it's becoming harder to secure sales conversations which weakens their pipelines. This makes it more important than ever for sales and marketing to overcome customer indecision.
Marketing leaders need to have empathy for those working in sales and should develop deep relationships with them. This is key to maintaining sales and marketing alignment.
Quote of the Show:
"If you can take some risks and explore the adjacencies of the career that you want to do, you're going be better at whatever it is you're doing" - Lia Davidson
The Revenue-Driven CMO is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Enhancing Your Marketing With Chat GPT - Devang Sachdev - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 092
22 Mar 2023
00:45:01
Today's guest, Devang Sachdev, is the Vice President of Marketing at Snorkel AI. Devang started his career engineering hardware and managing products before transitioning and developing his expertise in strategic marketing planning, new product launches, and identifying emerging opportunities. Devang shares how he uses generative AI models to conduct market research, keep a consistent tone throughout his messaging and content, and create content that wins snippets on Google.
Takeaways:
Generative AI models are extremely effective when used to conduct market research and understand the positioning of competitors in a certain space. Start with basic questions about who are the main companies in a niche and then refine your prompts.
To learn about competitors, you can ask tools like Open AI's Chat GPT4 to go to a competitor's website and break down their lead, differentiation, and positioning. Ask for the competitor's shortcomings to uncover great opportunities.
A great way to keep your messaging consistent and comprehensive enough is to perform the same test as above with your own website. This can show the impression that a new user of your website might get.
By starting with a simple prompt, you can assess the quality of the AI model's output to indicate whether it understands your industry or niche well enough. This builds the amount of trust and confidence that you can have in the answers it gives.
Open AI's new Chat GPT4 brings greater functionality than the existing Chat GPT 3 tool. The new model incorporates different structured data modalities and can handle information with spatial relationships.
Capture the Google snippet by asking a generative AI tool to create FAQs and answers for them based on your product page. This is a great starting point for writing an SEO-optimized article that provides value and has a good chance of ranking well.
If you use Chat GPT as an assistant to handle any proprietary or confidential information, it's a good idea to use it through the API. If you just use the normal version, the AI will be trained on your data and it could show up for other users.
Quote of the Show:
"The more you start putting yourself in the mind of your prospect and start using Chat GPT as a way of inquiry, the better responses you'll start getting, and the more readily available that content will be to use in long form or even short form pages" - Devang Sachdev
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
This special guest has spent over 25 years of international experience championing Fortune 500 brands and articulating their vision through marketing and advertising initiatives. Through her career, she has earned over 100 advertising awards from AdAge, Adweek, Brandweek, Forbes, and The New York Times among many others. Suzanne Darmory is the VP of Integrated Marketing & Creative at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. Suzanne discusses the importance of balancing a thick skin and a warm heart, how to track attribution when running omnichannel marketing, and how marketers are managing the pressure to do more with less.
Takeaways:
To have a long and fruitful career, marketers need to have thick skin along with a warm heart. Treating everyone with the same level of respect regardless of standing is also important, especially as marketers advance in their careers.
For those working on creative content, it's important to resist taking criticism of your work personally. While this can be challenging, remember that decisions on creative ultimately come down to what will produce the best results.
While some companies in "unfun" industries, like taxes, concentrate on brand awareness and spend big on Super Bowl ads, there is a great opportunity for companies to build a more human brand that resonates by using one-to-one communication.
When using an omnichannel marketing approach, each channel will have different measurement standards. For example, TV ads are harder to track than digital ads. However, a well-developed CRM and tech stack can provide crucial attribution data.
Managing multiple marketing mediums is complicated, but it can be much easier by getting the brand right. For larger companies, building an internal team to manage the brand rather than relying on outsourced agencies to deliver the brand.
With marketers being asked to provide more results while using fewer resources there is a push across industries toward increasing efficiency and finding ways to cut costs. For example, using an in-house creative team can be cheaper than using an agency.
Quote of the Show:
"One of the things that I really, truly believe in is always having a thick skin, but a warm heart." - Suzanne Darmory
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Becoming A "Learn-It-All" - Grad Conn - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 090
22 Feb 2023
00:46:47
Today's guest has been mastering their marketing and advertising skillset since they started their career at Proctor & Gamble, and they've kept learning ever since, even while serving as the CMO for Microsoft US. Grad Conn is the CMO of PROS and is a prolific producer of amazing B2B & B2C marketing content. In this episode, Grad shared career advice for new marketers, why knowing the history of marketing and advertising is so valuable, and how to never stop learning.
Takeaways:
The freedom offered by start-ups and smaller firms is appealing to young marketers that are fresh out of school, it's better to start out working at a larger marketing company so you can establish a strong marketing foundation.
Treat everything you do as a learning engagement and never let yourself stop learning. If you don't keep up with the context of each iteration, you won't be able to understand how to interface with whatever great innovation is eventually created.
Advertisers and marketers need to study the history of their own profession so they understand the building blocks of their discipline and what advances have been made by those that came before them.
Part of the beauty of advertising is that no one can copyright an advertising idea, which means that you can apply the same idea to your situation and update it with the correct context. To discover these ideas, start reading old advertising books and don't stop.
With the world moving at a breakneck speed, consumers feel overwhelmed making even trivial choices harder to make. If your brand simplifies the decisions that consumers have to make, they will greatly appreciate it and reward you with their loyalty.
While you can't watch every ad campaign ever created, if you love advertising and marketing, you'll make a point to consume more ads and do so thoughtfully.
With where the economy is heading, businesses won't have the luxury of easily increasing their growth through mergers and acquisitions. They will have to rely more heavily on organic growth and invest more in their sales and marketing operations.
Quote of the Show:
"As soon as you sort of stop investing in learning and being interested in the future, I think the future passes you by" - Grad Conn
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Marketing's Seat At The Table - Esther Flammer - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 089
15 Feb 2023
00:49:15
Today's guest is a longtime marketer that has been recognized as one of 2021's Most Outstanding Women in Business and is flipping marketing's position within organizations on its head. Esther Flammer is the CMO of Wrike. Esther discusses the role of marketing, how to get a seat at the table to make strategic decisions, and why you should highlight your customers.
Takeaways:
Marketing is not just a support function, marketing can and should be a strategic driver for any organization. Marketing should have its finger on the pulse of the market and understand how the organization needs to position itself to capture the market.
For marketers to earn a seat at the table and be able to make a bigger impact, they need to understand the organizational priorities and build relationships of trust to ensure that they can have the appropriate conversations if they disagree with the priorities.
Marketers need to build their point of view based on data and their analysis of that data in order to properly evaluate strategic options. Marketers need to be able to build a business case around why their idea is good for the business.
For product-led companies, the "land and expand" go-to-market model can be extremely successful.
Highlight your customers' success stories. This will endear them to you even more and by putting the spotlight on their organization it will reflect well back on your company.
Because many companies will have their own use cases and best practices, your marketing should reflect a certain level of segmentation and you need to ensure that you're producing the right content to help them get to the next level
Quote of the Show:
"Marketing is not just a support function" - Esther Flammer
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Listen & Learn From Your Customers - Casey Cheshire - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 088
08 Feb 2023
00:49:09
Today's guest is a serial entrepreneur, B2B marketing thought leader, frequent podcaster, and U.S. Marine Corps Veteran. The Ringmaster, Casey Cheshire, is the Founder & Podcast Architect at Ringmaster Conversational Marketing, the author of Marketing Automation Unleashed, and the host of The Hard Corps Marketing Show & Creating The Greatest Show. Casey shares how B2B companies can use podcasts to listen to and learn about their customers, generate an endless source of marketing content, and create stronger relationships.
Takeaways:
Marketers have a tendency to get overly creative with their copy, but unless they represent their ideal buyer, they're appealing to the wrong person. Instead of trying to invent the words that drive action, listen to your customers to find the right words.
A great way to engage and listen to your customers is to invite current, past, and potential customers onto a company podcast and ask them about their successes, their challenges, and what keeps them up at night.
Listen back to the recorded episodes of your podcast to identify the exact terminology that your customers use when describing challenges that your solution can help them overcome. If you put in the effort to listen, the results will show in your revenue.
Regardless of your position within a company, anyone can start a podcast. If you're hesitant about having to talk a lot, as the podcast host, that's not an issue. Hosting an interview podcast means you get to ask the questions and the guest does the talking.
As the host of a B2B podcast, you get to build relationships with customers and prospects that can extend far beyond work and also help you build more robust customer profiles based on the qualitative data you generate on the podcast.
Beyond gaining a better understanding of your customers and their needs, B2B podcasts can generate sales, word of mouth, and rich content for every step of your buyer journey. For example, Casey turned a year of podcasts into his book.
Although 2 million podcasts may sound like a lot, compared to the over 200 million blogs in existence, new podcasts are still in the early adopter stage of their growth cycle.
Quote of the Show:
"It's less about being creative and inventing, it's more about listening, hearing, and then giving it back to people." - Casey Cheshire
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Direct Response Drives Results - Patrick Manser - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 087
01 Feb 2023
00:49:14
Marketers need to tie their efforts to revenue. This episode features an outstanding revenue-driven marketer with almost a decade of experience in the industry. They are a renowned strategic leader and thinker with extensive expertise in lead generation and direct response marketing. Today's guest is Patrick Manser, the VP of Marketing at GoHealth. Patrick discusses how to lead a team of marketers in implementing a direct response funnel, why your team needs to be immersed in direct response, and how to find the leaks in your customer journey.
Takeaways:
Marketers can turbocharge their consumer acquisition engine by creating a direct response marketing engine. It's all about tying your marketing activities to revenue.
Direct response allows you to share the results of a campaign in concise and precise ways that people outside of marketing can understand. This way, you can share what exactly you do with your marketing budget and what revenue point is attached to it.
Because direct response marketing is all-encompassing, to find success using it, your team needs to immerse themselves in every aspect of it. This needs to be top of mind while creating ads and writing copy and it requires careful tracking of the funnel.
It's vital that your team is focused on the same metrics and that they understand how to improve those KPIs from multiple angles. This starts with having a clean funnel to provide good data to base decisions on and help you avoid long-term issues.
To set up direct response, understand and document the funnel. Use sample customers to find leaks in the customer journey. Solve one funnel issue at a time. Dedicate parts of your team to fix the top, middle, and bottom. Start a rapid test and learn process.
It's important to include the entire team in the performance analysis. Every member needs to know where changes need to be made and why they need to make those changes based on the analysis of the team's results.
Although they can be hard to find, marketing teams need someone with an analytical background that can apply that to marketing. These individuals can supercharge the learning process and keep creative employees focused on optimizing the process.
Quote of the Show:
"If you don't have a backlog of creative that you have ready to test, you're probably not doing the job right" - Patrick Manser
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Micro-Testing Your Marketing - David Drotos - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 086
25 Jan 2023
00:43:13
Today's guest is a strategic marketing thought leader and has held roles at Fortune 100 companies as well as start-ups delivering profitable growth. He speaks insurance and digital fluently and has a deep understanding of MarTech.David Drotos is the Vice President & Head of Marketing at Equity Trust. David discusses where to start with your marketing strategy, how to reach conclusions using micro-testing, and why direct mail is such a tantalizing channel for marketers.
Takeaways:
Before deciding on the marketing tactics you're going to use, you need to really understand who your customer is and what your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is. You need to know what you're looking for before setting out to find it.
Once you know your customer, start micro-testing your marketing. This means you need to iterate rapidly by making small changes which allows you to learn and fail fast. Don't let great get in the way of good.
Focus on changing one variable within each iteration of micro-testing, such as ad creative, channel, audience, CTA, colors, etc. The more variables in a test, the harder it gets to find a statistically significant conclusion.
Where you start with your testing will depend on your situation but it should all be done in service of finding statistically significant results as fast as possible because you can then remove components that negatively impact your ROAS (Return On Ad Spend).
For companies that rely heavily on paid search advertising, most of the people coming into their funnel through that campaign already have high intent, and they already familiar with your company or service and the leads are more likely to become accounts.
Middle funnel advertising can include Facebook, Linkedin, and YouTube to an extent. An example of middle funnel advertising would be a CTA that drives traffic to a lead magnet that provides some value and can be accessed by entering a name and email.
Due to the limits of different platforms, it's important to build audiences outside of walled gardens such as Facebook or TikTok. The insights these platforms can provide into building lookalike audiences to advertise to can be restricting for marketers.
Quote of the Show:
"The folks who have less to spend have to be more creative and have to be really more judicious on how they spend their dollars and where they spend them at" - David Drotos
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Using Conversational AI In Your Funnel - Jason Goldsmith - Performance Marketing Insiders - Ep #085
18 Jan 2023
00:47:49
Today's guest is a serial entrepreneur with 3 successful exits, an Angel and Impact Investor, and a digital performance marketing pioneer. They are also the former Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of CARCHEX. Jason Goldsmith is the Chief Consultant & Strategist at Goldsmith Consulting and he has a wealth of marketing knowledge to share. Jason delves into how both B2B and B2C marketers can use conversational AI in their funnels, how to stay ahead of your competitors, and why you should be prioritizing customer experience.
Takeaways:
Marketers need to make sure their companies stay ahead of competitors by effectively communicating how their company is learning and using that insight to provide value to their customers. Marketers also need to be on the look out for unsaturated markets.
Always look for ways to innovate around the problems your face in your industry because ther will be others facing those same problems. For example, when mortgage brokers were relying on direct mail, digital marketing presented a great chance to grow.
Even in well-established verticals there are opportunities waiting to be taken advantage of by disruptors. The key to staying ahead of competitors and providing value to customers is to balance the quality of a deliverable at a quantity that can scale.
Marketers can use conversational AI tools to build a better mousetrap which can enable a smart funnel to engage leads. The most important part of the funnel to improve using conversational AI is the front-end customer experience.
Don't think about using AI just a way to cut costs and trim your workforce. By intelligently deploying conversational AI tools throughout your funnel, you can deliver a better experience, drive better conversion rates, and produce more revenue.
By training your AI tool, you company will be able to deliver consistent experiences to every customer, which is something you just can't realistically do with a human team.
Although conversational AI isn't perfect yet, it's worth starting to use it despite the issues. As early adopters of this technology, you can discover how to optimize its use and get well ahead of your competitors. You never want to have to catch up to your competitors.
Quote of the Show:
"As a marketer, I think you have to think more like the business owner" - Jason Goldsmith
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Community Secrets That Will Change Your Marketing! with Derek E. Weeks, CMO of Katalon
08 Jan 2025
00:56:09
How can community building in B2B marketing drive customer success, product adoption, and long-term growth?
In this episode of The Revenue-Driven CMO, I have the pleasure of speaking with Derek E. Weeks, the CMO of Katalon and a five-time CMO with an impressive track record of successful exits. Together, we dive deep into the growing importance of community building in B2B marketing and how companies can foster genuine, value-driven relationships with their audiences without relying on direct product pitches.
Derek shares his wealth of experience building and nurturing communities at Sonatype and Katalon. We explore the key principles behind creating authentic connections—whether it's through consistent, helpful engagement or offering valuable content that doesn't focus on sales. Derek's insights shed light on how community-driven strategies can lead to more loyal customers, increased product adoption, and long-term business success.
In our conversation, we also discuss the economic advantages of community-based marketing, including how free training and certification programs can boost customer engagement and accelerate product adoption. Derek emphasizes the importance of building trust through genuine interactions and shares actionable strategies that can help you start building stronger, more engaged communities around your brand.
Key takeaways include:
How to build authentic communities that don't rely on direct sales tactics.
The economic advantages of community-driven marketing strategies in B2B environments.
The power of free training and certification programs to increase engagement and adoption rates.
Consistency and genuine helpfulness as core principles for long-term success in community-building.
If you're a B2B marketer or a leader in the SaaS space, you'll find this episode packed with valuable takeaways. Whether you're looking to strengthen customer relationships, drive growth, or create a lasting impact, this discussion will give you the tools and insights to implement a successful community-building strategy.
Quote of the Show:
" There is no wrong time for community." -Derek E. Weeks
Top 5 mistakes B2B marketers need to stop making in 2023 - Drew Neisser - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 084
28 Dec 2022
00:29:23
Today's guest is a beloved and renowned B2B brand marketing thought leader with over 40 years of experience. Drew Neisser is the CEO at Renegade Marketing & CMO Huddles and the author of Renegade Marketing: 12 Steps to Building Unbeatable B2B Brands. According to Drew, the top five mistakes that B2B marketers make are The Peanut Butter Effect, backward targets, rebranding without changing the product or service, spending too much on MarTech, and retreating in a time of crisis.
Takeaways:
Mistake number 1 B2B marketers make is called The Peanut Butter Effect which happens when they try to do too much in their messaging to different target personas. Simplify your brand to under 8 words and then find new ways to tell it.
Mistake number 2 for B2B Marketers is when the targets are backward. Most marketers think Prospects>Customers>Employees. Reverse that order to Employees>Customers>Prospects.
If your employees don't buy your brand story, you're toast, but if they do, they can be your greatest ambassadors. The same holds true for customers; when they actually buy your brand story they can be your best advocates.
Create your brand's purpose-driven story statement in under eight words. Once you have this, come up with six ways to make it real to employees, six ways to make it real for customers, and six ways to make it real for prospects.
Mistake number 3 is when B2B marketers rebrand without changing the product or service offering. Don't put a new coat of paint on an old barn. If you're changing your promise to customers, make sure to improve your product or service.
Mistake number 4 is when marketers spend too much on MarTech. MarTech is only a set of tools, it is not a substitute for marketing. In many companies, there is too much tech, not enough staff, and not enough marketing.
Mistake number 5 is when CMOs retreat during a time of crisis, whether it be a global health catastrophe or economic meltdown. Tough times give marketers a chance to prove that they are essential to the company.
You're marketing should reflect your brand's personality which you should develop through consistent tonality and style in your messaging. B2B doesn't have to mean "Boring to Boring". It's OK to lighten up and have some fun with your marketing.
Quote of the Show:
"Great marketing is not about fluff, it is about service and selling through service." - Drew Neisser
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Don't Be Afraid To Test Channels - Andrew Kling - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 083
07 Dec 2022
00:44:13
Today's guest is an energetic and passionate marketer and leader with decades of experience on the cutting edge of marketing. Andrew Kling is the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Cognition Financial. Andrew explains the keys to optimizing your funnel, why you need an open mind when exploring channels, and how to collect more accurate data to base your decisions.
Takeaways:
While it's easy to get focused on front-end metrics like CPL (Cost Per Lead), it's crucial to look at your entire funnel from a data perspective to test, learn, and optimize so you can reach your long-term goal.
Because of data privacy concerns, there is a shift in marketing from generating leads to building relationships. Those relationships are built on keeping people engaged and nudging them through your funnel.
Don't fall into the trap of testing a channel once and moving on from it. Most channels deserve more exploration, even if they might have higher a CPL.
Marketers need a source of truth that they can constantly refer to. This means having useful, accurate data to look at on a consistent basis to understand what numbers are coming in and what they mean.
Set up UTM parameters in your CRM for each channel and make sure each piece of creative is individually tagged. This makes it easier to measure, understand, and communicate valuable information from the data you receive.
Set aside 10-20% of your marketing budget for testing different channels. If your first attempt doesn't succeed, consider other approaches to find success in that channel, especially if you know your target audience is there.
If you are using mass marketing channels such as TV or radio, look at your indirect data, such as site traffic or lead forms, for signs of the campaign's impact. This can inform your decision on whether or not that channel should remain in your media mix.
Quote of the Show:
"I like to think of it as not necessarily channel exploration, but budget exploration" - Andrew Kling
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
The Top 10 Secrets For Marketing Success - Udi Ledergor - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 082
23 Nov 2022
00:20:50
Today's episode is special because we're highlighting an amazing guest who shared some amazing knowledge on the show way back in 2021. This special guest is a longtime marketing leader and innovator that has been instrumental in his current company reaching its multi-billion dollar valuation. Udi Ledergor is a B2B marketing thought leader, the CMO of Gong, and the author of The 50 Secrets of Trade Show Success. Among Udi's top secrets are why strategy must come before tactics, how to forge great relationships between sales and marketing, and why making your marketing human is so critical.
Takeaways:
Tip #1: Strategy before tactics. Figure out your strategy before you send out your first email or do your first social post because, in marketing, it's very easy to get busy with activities and campaigns that are usually a huge waste of your time.
Tip #2: Don't Produce anything that you wouldn't want to consume. Think if you would want to get that next email, if not start over. Create something that you would be excited to consume.
Tip #3: Don't wait for inbound to come in, start outbound on your first day on the job. Create the script and monitor your SDRs' calls, either manually or with technology. Start building inbound, but don't expect it to bear fruits for close to a year.
Tip #4: Never compromise on the people you hire. Every person you add can either give you ten times more energy or drain ten times more of your energy.
Tip #5: Don't obsess about measurement. Do what seems right for the brand, if it works, you'll see it show up on your dashboard.
Tip #6: Marketers need to create strong relationships with their sales counterparts. Try to meet up at least once a week to collaborate on challenges, what is and isn't working, and new needs.
Tip #7: The first step in establishing your marketing strategy is to determine the end goal. What does success look like? For example, Gong set out to have double the social media mentions of all of its competitors combined.
Tip #8: It's easier to build an award-winning marketing strategy around a product that has an amazing product-market fit than if customers don't use or like the product. When job-hunting, look for companies that already have a great product-market fit.
Tip #9: Make your marketing human. Being an authority in your industry does not mean your marketing needs to be stuffy and boring. Humanize everything from the experience at your events to the tone of voice and imagery on your website and content, etc.
Tip #10: Carve out 10%-20% of your marketing budget to use on ideas that you have a gut feeling about, but might not have an immediately measurable impact. For example, Gong's Super Bowl ad not only drove business but also influenced job applicants.
Quote of the Show:
"If you're a marketer somewhere out there that is not closely connected with your CRO, or, as I like to say, if you don't know how they take their coffee, you're doing it wrong" - Udi Ledergor
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
The Best ABM Approach - Barry Moroney - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 081
21 Nov 2022
00:49:00
Today's guest has led sales teams for many international brands and is now helping SMEs get Enterprise clients. Barry Moroney is the Founder & CEO at Leadable. Barry shares why so many marketers think they're using ABM but aren't, how to approach ABM based on contract sizes, and what a good ABM campaign looks like.
Takeaways:
Many marketers genuinely believe they are using Account-Based Marketing (ABM) in their outbound marketing, but in reality, very few are.
For example, your company is not really using ABM if you are only splitting up accounts based on territory, splitting up sales reps by vertical, or creating industry-specific collateral.
No two companies are the same, and if you are going to use ABM, you need to tailor your approach to each company and its specific needs. Going one step further, you should identify the key stakeholders within the company and what each of them needs.
ABM is great for companies that have a relatively small Total Addressable Market (TAM), but large contract values. The smaller the TAM, the more important the personalized approach becomes.
For companies with a larger TAM, you can craft messages that appeal to the specific personas within the company. In this larger market, you should also be cognizant of what the brand is talking about and make sure your messaging aligns with it.
Leaders that want to use ABM need to realize that correctly using ABM requires them to shift their focus from the volume of sales outreach to the quality of sales outreach.
Example ABM Campaign Cadence over 12 Months: Primary campaign runs for 6 weeks and is very personalized using videos, handwritten notes, and phone calls. Those that don't convert have a 30-day break, then go into a 6-month drip campaign that uses 1 email per month and features no CTAs. Following this is a re-engagement campaign that is similar to the primary campaign, as it brings back the phone calls and the CTAs. Each month is the start of this cycle for a new group of 50 accounts.
Quote of the Show:
"Most people genuinely believe that they are doing ABM in their outbound, but very few actually are" - Barry Moroney
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Creating Your 1st-Party Data Strategy - Zack Wenthe - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 080
10 Nov 2022
00:52:53
Getting in front of your target audience is crucial but the future of how marketers can target their audiences is changing. Here to get you up-to-date is a top-tier marketing thought leader that loves helping companies drive revenue by developing the proper systems and strategies. Zack Wenthe is the Senior Technical Product Marketing Manager and Product Evangelist at Treasure Data. Zack is also the author of 76.5 Ideas to Kickstart your Marketing. Zack reveals the secrets behind why data platforms don't want you to have your own data, how to collect 1st-party data, and what is possible when you use your own 1st-party data in your ad targeting across platforms.
Takeaways:
Platforms like Facebook and Google don't want companies to create their own 1st-party data strategies, they would rather those companies be dependent upon them for crucial data. This means they can charge more and limit what marketers can do with data.
Building out your 1st-party data strategy follows the same concept as growing and owning your email marketing list. However, the scope of your 1st-party data strategy goes far beyond an email list to include interests, demographics, psychographics, etc.
You can use your 1st-party data to accurately build the same audiences across multiple platforms. Having in-house data allows you to reach the target audience, even when platforms make changes, such as the looming extinction of 3rd-party cookies.
Start small when you begin collecting 1st-party data. You can use surveys to uncover customer interests and preferences. As the amount of data you compile grows, you may need a CDP (Customer Data Platform) or a data warehouse to manage your data.
For example, for one product you may have multiple audiences that have unique needs and buying behaviors. By understanding those audiences and having the right data, you can create more meaningful segments and improve all of your campaigns.
When you use multiple platforms for advertising in tandem, you can use your 1st-party data to create an omnichannel experience for your audience as they go from using one platform to another.
One of the biggest ways to drive the efficiency of your ads is suppression. For example, you can use your 1st-party data to make sure that you aren't paying to show an ad to someone who just made a purchase of that same product.
Quote of the Show:
"Facebook, Google, all the walled gardens, they don't want you to build your own 1st-party data strategy. They don't want you to have your own data" - Zack Wenthe
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
The Automated Future of Digital Ads - Curtis Correll - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 079
03 Nov 2022
00:43:48
Today's guest is a master of data science, marketing & adtech. They are a performance-focused digital marketer that specializes in paid search. Curtis Correll is the Director of the Performance Marketing Innovation Team at HealthCare.com. Curtis shares why Google and Meta are removing features from their ad platforms, why marketers need to feed data back into Google to see great results, and how to stop seams from appearing in your data.
Takeaways:
Ad platforms like Google are trying to automate parts of digital marketers' jobs, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for them. Google has taken away a lot of the granular nuances that used to be the key to digital marketing success.
There are two main groups of thought toward Google's automation, the first trusts the platform's suggestions and the second is wary of any loss of control. Generally, newer marketers are in the first camp while experienced marketers fall into the latter.
Google's updates provide benefits for both groups. Veteran marketers should take advantage of some of the automation that Google is implementing while still finetuning their campaigns for their specific businesses. New marketers get the guardrails.
Ad platforms like Google and Meta are putting an emphasis on companies to go broad with their advertising. To get the most from these platforms, you need to give these platforms more granular guardrails for your ads.
Google and Meta have lots of great tools for marketers but they don't have the context from your specific company that is needed to optimize their performance. Feed that contextual data back into the platforms to avoid increasing any seams in your data.
For example, Healthcare.com sells leads and those leads perform better when salespeople are taking calls during business hours. If a lead loses 60% of its value after 6 PM, a seam appears because Google doesn't know about the cutoff.
A great way for marketers to optimize ROAS is to partner with data scientists and build out a lead-scoring system that can calculate the probability of conversion and can associate that with the click. This helps give Google real-time feedback.
Quote of the Show:
"Google, Facebook, and all of the other ad marketplaces are trying to automate your job away, and that's a good thing" - Curtis Correll
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Gathered together in this special episode are some of the best insights from some of the greatest leaders in the marketing world. These four women share their most valuable marketing knowledge which has helped them in their roles as CMO at four great companies. Kristi Melani, the CMO of Telesign, explores how and why marketers can replace dead benchmarks. Anna Griffin, the CMO of Intercom, shares how sales and marketing are merging and what it means to the future of your company's growth. Stephanie Moritz, the CMO at the American Dental Association, discusses how curiosity can be your competitive advantage. Amy Barzdukas is the CMO of WiTricity and breaks down why your brand is so important to every part of your marketing.
Takeaways:
Marketers need to figure out what they want to measure and then the equation to measure that. This should encompass more than just one aspect for marketing success to be measured on.
With the enormous growth opportunities opened by the rise of the internet, the lines between sales and marketing have begun to blur. Selling happens across the entire customer lifecycle, which means two departments need to work in tandem.
Successful organizations are built on curiosity. Their cultures reward asking why and discovering new ways to do things.
A big part of creating a culture of curiosity comes down to understanding your employees and internal customers along with infusing opportunities to be creative into your meetings.
Your brand is so much more than making the company look pretty. The brand influences product decisions, pricing decisions, your make or buy strategy, marketing mix decisions, and so much more than just the accent colors or the H1 font.
You need to really understand your customer when developing your brand because great brands are polarizing.
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
The Secrets of 4 Performance Marketing Legends - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 077
19 Oct 2022
00:55:18
This is a special episode because we are featuring segments from 4 brilliant, industry-leading performance marketers that were previously on the show! You'll hear incredible insights from Larry Kim, the Founder & VP Marketing at MobileMonkey, Jay Abraham of The Abraham Group, Dennis Yu, the CEO and Co-Founder of BlitzMetrics, and Eric Carlson, Co-Founder and CEO of SweatPants Agency. Get a pen and paper ready, because there are so many great ideas coming from these marketing thought leaders!
Takeaways:
The #1 reason someone will click & buy from you is whether they've heard of you before — brand-aware cohorts are 3-5X more likely to engage with your ads, organic listings & emails.
The algorithms have evolved to quantify traditional brand signals as measured by peoples' propensity to trust, open, click & buy, then reward those signals.
The best way to drive conversions is to never talk about yourself, instead, you should only have your clients and friends talk about you. This is how you build credit and establish authority through a 3rd party.
If you want to sell to a certain customer base, look at who they respect and then interview those people. When the target group sees you and the person they respect together, they will come to respect and follow you as well.
The most underutilized asset for most people is the realization that there are tons of other people, influencers, media, and indirection competitors that have already worked hard and spent a fortune to have a very tight relationship with the same audience you want.
Think of marketing and sales in terms of conventional and unconventional thinking. Conventional thinking lowers your risk and involves looking at what other players in the industry are doing (how their websites are set up, how their ads look, etc.). Unconventional thinking is what actually gives you an alpha.
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
The Future of Cookieless Advertising - Alex Kukich - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 076
13 Oct 2022
00:32:59
The world of digital marketing and hyper-targeted ads is always changing, but today's guest has some insight into what could be around the bend. Alex Kukich is a uniquely experienced sales and marketing leader and the CRO at WITHIN. Alex shared what the landscape of digital advertising could look like in the future, the advertising alternatives to Google, and what a world without cookies would look like for advertisers.
Takeaways:
No one really knows where the future of cookieless digital advertising is going. Even those at Google and other data giants aren't sure of what's next which leads to their constant iterations and delays.
Cookies are used to track the activity of internet users across websites to build out a profile of each user's interests. Companies can then pay to serve targeted ads to specific profiles based on their past search activity.
For example, if someone was searching for Ford pickup trucks, Ford could serve them ads not just for Ford, but Ford pickups, and even Ford dealerships with pickup trucks in that user's area.
Because of legislative changes in Europe and the US, companies like Google need to develop a compliant way for digital advertisers to be able to target while not jeopardizing users' personal data.
In preparing for cookie-less advertising, companies like The Trade Desk are working with partners outside of Google to create a platform that uses the email addresses of different website users to track activity so they can place targeted ads in front of the right users.
One of the issues that the coalition that The Trade Desk put together is whether users will be willing to sign in to all of the sites they visit and how this may impact privacy concerns.
The platform that The Trade Desk and others are building will be open-source technology which gives advertisers and technology companies alike the ability to continue innovating how they target ads for users.
Quote of the Show:
"Nobody really knows where cookieless advertising is going" - Alex Kukich
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
This episode is a little special because we are featuring segments from 4 amazing, industry-leading CMOs that were on the 3-Minute Marketing Podcast! You'll hear amazing insights from Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot's CMO, Udi Ledergor, Gong's CMO, Grant Johnson, Emburse's CMO, and Kevin Alansky, Jedox's CMO. Buckle up for this blast from the past and get ready to learn!
Takeaways:
The advent of Web3 opens so many avenues for the future of marketing. With technology like Ethereum, the offers that marketers will be able to provide prospects for things like completing demos can become incredibly enticing.
Udi Ledergor's 5 Tips for Marketing success are: 1) Strategy before tactics, 2) Don't produce anything you wouldn't want to consume, 3) Don't wait for Inbound to come in, start outbound your first day on the job, 4) Never compromise on the people you hire, 5) Don't obsess about measurement, do what's best for the brand.
While CMOs have a seat at the table, they often lack the influence that they need to do their jobs effectively and help the company grow. CMO should serve as advisors to the CEO and that only happens when they become Chief Growth Orchestrators.
Breaking it down further, Chief means that you should have a considerable amount of influence. Growth relates to your use of multiple channels to drive business. An Orchestrator brings everything together, they run meetings and align strategic objectives.
The first 90 days are so critical to succeeding in your role as a CMO! While the process of getting started can be hard, keep in mind that you are being closely monitored by the CEO, Board, and other executives. Consider this period to be an extended interview.
When you're just starting as a CMO, get close to the business and your team by scheduling regular one-on-ones. This will help you not only learn more about the business, but you'll also build strong relationships with everyone on your team.
Along with building trust with your team, you need to build trust and align objectives with the sales team. Make sure you are providing them with what they need and vice versa.
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
The Best Marketing Secrets of 2024 from Leading Industry Voices
23 Dec 2024
00:45:25
In this episode, leading marketing professionals share their expert insights and proven strategies for achieving success in today's fast-paced and competitive business world. From understanding content market fit to the value of direct communication with customers, our guests cover key elements that drive growth and maximize marketing ROI.
Discover how market orientation, interfunctional coordination, and a clear understanding of customer wants versus needs can elevate your marketing strategy. Learn about the challenges of branding and positioning at established companies, the importance of building the right marketing team, and how to foster predictability in your marketing efforts.
Our experts also explore the significance of creating simple, clear value propositions, the power of generosity in marketing, and building a high-performance marketing team that thrives around the clock. Whether you're a CMO, marketing leader, or looking to boost your marketing strategies, this episode offers actionable insights to help you align your marketing efforts with your company's revenue goals.
Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more actionable tips and insights from top marketing professionals on how to drive revenue with smart marketing strategies!
The Revenue-Driven CMO is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through branded podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Chapters
0:00 - Intro
0:20 - Adam Robinson, Founder & CEO of RB2B
4:55 - Courtney Gould Miller, President of Commercial Markets at Tribute Technology
7:46 - Dawn Mueller, CMO at Vitech Systems Group
12:02 - Emeric Ernoult, Founder & CEO of Agorapulse
16:37 - Greta Wilson, VP of Marketing at Pitney Bowes
22:44 - Haleigh Forbes, VP of Marketing & Online Experience at American Public Education, Inc. (APEI)
27:35 - John Schneider, CMO of Betterworks
32:46 - Karl Van den Bergh, CMO of Gigamon
35:80 - Melissa Wright, CSO & CMO of American Pacific Mortgage
39:32 - Wendy White, CMO of Daxko
Being the Organic Social Algorithm's BFF - Brendan Kane - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 074
28 Sep 2022
00:34:45
Today's guest helps the most prominent brands and celebrities make their content go viral through organic social media. The brands they have worked with include MTV, IKEA, and Vice Magazine. They have also worked with celebrities like Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Adriana Lima on their digital strategy. Brendan Kane is the Managing Partner of Hook Point and the author of OneMillionFollowers and Hook Point: How to Stand out in a 3 Second World. Brendan reveals how you can increase your social traffic, tell better stories through your content, and what social media algorithms actually want from your content.
Takeaways:
There are over 200 billion messages sent daily through social media platforms. The only way your content won't be swept immediately is if you understand how the algorithms work and create great content.
Social media algorithms are designed to increase user retention so users will remain on the platform longer and are served more ads. Algorithms are looking for content that can grab people's attention and hold it for a period of time.
Traditional content that is created with a specific message for a specific audience does not mesh with the social media algorithms of today, which means it will have decreased organic traffic.
The real key to growing organic traffic is to take a generalized approach to content creation that can make anyone interested in the subject matter while using the subtext to play to your core audience
Two great examples of this approach to content creation are Graham Stephan and ClearValue Tax. Both cover "boring" topics that relate to their businesses but do so in the context of exploring larger topics that have some association with their expertise.
Great social media content relies on effective storytelling and all of the nuanced elements that requires, such as pacing, tonality, tension, and editing.
One of the biggest elements of storytelling is building tension. Similar to the game, Jenga Theory is built around the fact that you know the end outcome, but not when or how it will happen. With each block that is removed, there is a build-up and release of tension.
Quote of the Show:
" You have to grab attention and hold attention for as long as possible in order to go viral" - Brendan Kane
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
How To Scale Using Your Baseline - Josh Harris - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode #073
21 Sep 2022
00:42:13
It's too easy to get disconnected from the core processes of a company as it grows, but it's imperative that you stay in contact with that baseline and the people carrying out the processes. Today's guest is a master performance marketer and entrepreneur who had built and sold multiple companies by the age of 33. Josh Harris is the Founder of Agency Growth Secrets and a veritable fountain of knowledge. Josh explains the importance of establishing your baseline, what effective management looks like in scaling companies, and where the future of marketing is headed.
Takeaways:
It's crucial to establish a strong baseline understanding of what your role is in order to become competent enough at something to excel beyond the standard. When you move away from this competency, issues arise from a lack of competency or process change.
When you become disconnected from the processes and operations of the company, the best way to learn about how to fix problems is to go and work directly with the people involved in the processes. This gives you a 360-degree view of the problems.
While it's important for executives to buy their time back, they should also be looking for ways to buy their employees' time back.
The two keys to reconnecting with the baseline are to establish a culture where you are investing in your employees' success and to shadow their work.
If you empower your employees to troubleshoot issues before escalating them to you, you'll find there are very few things coming across your desk.
A few ways to shadow your employees include physically watching them work, watching their shared screen through Zoom, and using screen recording software.
When observing your employees, it's important to emphasize that you're sold on them as a person and that you're just trying to optimize their workflow.
Quote of the Show:
"Yesterday's advantage is today's prerequisite to success" - Josh Harris
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
How To Deliver Your Brand's Message - Alex Kelly - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 072
14 Sep 2022
00:43:38
The world is full of neatly crafted messages, fine-tuned for specific personas but the reason so many marketers have trouble getting their message across is the vast amount of other noise they have to compete with. Today's guest not only knows how to cut through that noise but is also a creative and tactical marketing leader. Alex Kelly is the Director of Digital Marketing at Ceros and an expert in his craft. Alex shares why your message isn't getting the traffic it deserves, how to improve your campaigns overall, and what your events need in order to stand out.
Takeaways:
Your message is not the medium. While crafting your message is very important, marketers should also focus on making sure that message is being seen.
It's crucial to make your message grab your target's attention and part of that comes down to exploring new mediums to deliver your message.
Part of the strategy to create an attention-grabbing campaign is to invest time into the design and visuals. This will make help break through the overcrowded noise that your target market deals with.
Because so many marketers are following the same digital marketing playbook, your strategy itself has to stick out in order to reach the right people.
You need to involve designers early on in the process of crafting your strategy. Designers look at content in a very different way than marketers and to stick out, you need their perspective when planning out your next campaign.
Intertwining your events and digital marketing content can create very immersive and interactive experiences that are great for delivering your message, ensuring your message is understood, and building your brand.
If you are utilizing events heavily in your marketing, think about how you can design an experience at your booth that really sticks out. For example, what are the different ways that you can physically represent your message?
Quote of the Show:
"Your message does not mean a thing if nobody's paying attention" - Alex Kelly
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Black Diamond-Level Marketing - Charles Groome - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 071
07 Sep 2022
00:47:02
Too many B2B companies are missing out on 360-degree search-based affiliate marketing, however, today's guest knows all about how to find success with affiliates. Charles Groome is a marketing and advertising leader and the Vice President of Marketing at Biz2Credit. Charles shares how to start working with affiliate partners, how to double your performance without doubling your costs, and how to uncover new marketing opportunities.
Takeaways:
Affiliate marketing is an extremely profitable channel for marketers because it is completely performance-driven. The new crop of affiliate marketers have built on what came before them and are now able to achieve great results.
One of the reasons many brands don't utilize affiliate marketing is because it is not talked about as often as something like search. However in certain spaces, especially in B2B, it can be very effective.
When set up right, your affiliate marketing can build brand reputation, drive direct traffic, and have the affiliate partners bidding based on performance.
While influencer marketing gets all the buzz, it's almost the same concept as affiliate marketing, just without driving the performance results. This is why in B2B, influencer marketing can be a real waste of time.
When setting up your affiliate program, check your own search accounts for the websites that show up on your keywords. These websites are already paying to be there and are a natural affiliate opportunity because you can get the traffic that they're paying for.
Find the top 3 potential partners and negotiate with them in parallel to determine the market rates and effective CPC. Also, be open to affiliate partners that have organic offerings additionally because these can be very profitable as well.
You need a direct relationship with the affiliate and access to their marketing department so that you can set up the attribution to track your ad spend. Getting an API integration between your CRM and the affiliate's could be the best investment that you make for affiliate marketing.
Quote of the Show:
"The marketing department, to me, is really the brain of the company. It's about thinking through what is the company trying to say, how are we trying to convey that, and what's the best way for us to actually get that done" - Charles Groome
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Effectively Using Your 1st-Party Data - Elise Berger - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 070
31 Aug 2022
00:40:36
Your company could be using the 1st party data it already has to uncover incredible insights into its customers and what they actually want. Elise Berger is the Head of Performance and Direct Marketing at Earnest and a performance marketing badass that has led marketing efforts for other great companies like GE and Showtime. Elise shares how to make better use of your 1st-party data to drive your marketing, what resources are available to performance marketers regardless of their budget, and what lies at the core of performance marketing.
Takeaways:
Marketers need to use 1st party data for more than just reporting or attribution. By starting with the consumer, you can use that same 1st party data in your segmentation, analysis, and decision-making.
In order to really learn and discover insights from your 1st-party data, you need to invest the time and money into your Customer Data Platform (CDP) infrastructure along with other data such as demographic and psychographic data.
Using Dstillery is the first step on the roadmap towards your company implementing CDP and will provide you with not just who to target but also how to make your campaigns more effective.
Dstillery is a pixel that you can put on any of the pages on your site that will enrich your analytics with qualitative data referring to the users affinity segments, their path to visit, their path to conversion, and demographic data.
Performance marketing is so much more than getting cheap CPM on social media, it's really about driving short terms sales and building a long term brand using data.
As a marketer you need to understand people along with the industry you're in and how it's changing. In doing so, you end up having to take on the role of a psychologist, budget analyst, accountant, researcher, etc.
The importance of research for marketers cannot be understated because the only way to know what's coming next and how to adapt to it is to spend time researching.
Quote of the Show:
"Brands are not using their 1st-party data in any type of meaningful way" - Elise Berger
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
The State of TikTok Ads in 2022 - Ben Lisca - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 069
24 Aug 2022
00:57:03
This week's episode is a little special because it's an excerpt from The Growth Clinic, WebMechanix's weekly community call where they feature marketing leaders and cover the most important topics in marketing. This week's expert is the Paid Social Manager at WebMechanix, Ben Lisca. Ben came from the world of affiliate marketing and has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to using TikTok in your advertising. You'll hear about optimizing your ROAS, how to make great TikTok ads that convert, and what tools to use to inform your ads.
Takeaways:
TikTok has surpassed Facebook and Instagram for the most time on the platform. TikTok also outperforms all other social media platforms in driving engagement and spontaneous actions, such as unplanned purchases.
Compared to other platforms, TikTok provides extremely engaged traffic that's more likely to approach and spend higher amounts of money while also being it's cheaper to get in front of.
Because of the way TikTok's algorithm works, you can hyper-target ads to specific hashtags and niches. Based on those hashtags, you are able to show people the ads they want to see and the products they might need.
The best-performing ads appear similar to the native content on the platform. For example, for a product, it's probably best to show a review of the product.
One of the biggest learning curves is realizing that for TikTok, it's better for your ads to resemble user-generated content than professionally produced content.
You need to constantly upload new ad creative onto TikTok because the algorithm will place recycled ads lower in the feed which produces lower engagement. You can add a new intro to the same video and TikTok will consider it new content.
While TikTok recommends using ads between 21 and 34 seconds in length, you should test different lengths for your ads which can be anywhere from 5 to 60 seconds long.
Quote of the Show:
"The best ads on TikTok don't look like ads" - Ben Lisca
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Protection Money for Your Brand - Matt LeBaron - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 068
17 Aug 2022
00:57:42
You need to protect your brand, which costs money but you're overpaying! Matt LeBaron is the Founder and CEO of Revvim and the CEO of New Day Consulting, LLC. Matt is a database architect turned growth marketer that has been involved in Online Startups since 1997. You'll hear about how to protect your brand better while spending less, how to combat conquest campaigns, and what new martech tools can be doing for your company.
Takeaways:
Companies are spending way too much money on brand search. While you do need to protect your brand from competitors, because of the current technology available, you don't have to spend as much.
There is a large gap between the new marketing tech that is available and the solutions that marketers know are available.
Competitors can and will run conquest campaigns at random times against your brand and you need to have a way to detect and combat them with your own ads.
While your competitors can't use your brand's trademarked assets in Google Ads, they are still able to bid on any keywords they want. When competitors are bidding on your brand, you need to make sure you have ads running to block those.
When you stop bidding on keywords because of a brand sensitivity test, competitors will sneak in and start bidding on them so you need to monitor the ad space.
Even if you had the best engineers and they created a great tool, if you can't productize it so people can simply and easily use it, then the product is done for.
You don't need a formal education to learn, especially now with so much amazing content available on YouTube.
Quote of the Show:
"You've got everything you need to build a career on YouTube" - Matt LeBaron
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by WebMechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
Reframing Sales and Elevating Others - Dennis Yu - Performance Marketing Insiders - Episode # 067
10 Aug 2022
00:49:01
Revamp your traditional sales strategies by evolving to the fast-paced digital world which runs on word of mouth. Dennis Yu is a marketing thought leader, CEO and Co-Founder of BlitzMetrics, and co-author of both The Definitive Guide to TikTok Advertising and Facebook Nation. Dennis shares what sales teams need to do to become more effective in today's market, how to handle inbound and referral leads differently, and what marketing needs to amplify the company online.
Takeaways:
The best way to drive conversions is to never talk about yourself, instead, you should only have your clients and friends talk about you. This is how you build credit and establish authority through a 3rd party.
Your salespeople should not have "Sales" in their title. This will immediately make prospects shut down anything from that person because they don't want to be sold to.
When inbound leads and referrals come in, they need your expert help diagnosing and fixing their problems. They don't need to be told how great you are! You don't need to push the solution on them because it's something they already want.
Don't talk about yourself, instead, elevate others! When you speak well of another person, they will want to reciprocate and speak well of you.
If you want to sell to a certain customer base, look at who they respect and then interview those people. When the target group sees you and the person they respect together, they will come to respect and follow you as well.
To start incepting, you need to shift the mindset of your salespeople so they are perceived as experts who have interesting things to say and a personal brand. You also need marketing to drive inbound leads by putting out thought leadership pieces.
Whenever your company has a good media mention, podcast interview, blog post, or LinkedIn post, the marketing team needs to repurpose it, cross-post it, and boost it. A great way to amplify your reach with these pieces is with a dollar-a-day strategy.
Quote of the Show:
"Digital marketing is nothing more than an amplifier of what people are already saying about you" - Dennis Yu
Performance Marketing Insiders is sponsored by Webmechanix, the performance marketing agency that makes you smarter. Learn more at https://www.webmechanix.com/
Performance Marketing Insiders is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
The 3 marketing principles that helped grow 4,000+ brands with Erik Huberman
03 Aug 2022
00:06:52
Today on 3-Minute Marketing, I'm speaking with Erik Huberman. He's currently Founder & CEO at Hawke Media, a full-service Outsourced CMO that helps businesses realize their potential.
His firm works with some impressive logos, including Red Bull, Verizon, Evite, Planet Blue, Stories by Kelly Osbourne and many more. He recently released his book, "The Hawke Method", which reveals the marketing framework he's used to help over 4,000 brands soar to new heights.
So I asked him to break it down for us —
"What's the secret that's allowed you to help 4,000+ brands be successful with digital marketing?"
Show notes:
Awareness, nurturing and trust must be the "tripod" of your marketing strategy.
Awareness means creating new attention and customers for your product or service. Over time, you lose your existing audience so you need to constantly be refilling this "bucket."
Nurturing is what you do with the awareness you generate. What most marketers miss is that there's a consideration period for any purchase. If you're not nurturing, you're losing customers before they're ready to buy.
Trust is the third pillar, because 75% of consumers won't buy from a brand they don't trust.
If you haven't built a brand yet, third-party validations like testimonials, reviews and PR are critical to building trust with your market.
Over time, trust can come from your brand. Your brand is how you consistently show up in the market, for better or worse. Talking about how you show up or want to be perceived via a book or otherwise can help reinforce the brand image you want to convey.
How successful marketing leaders hire and retain A+ talent with Christian Campagnuolo
This time, Christian shared his thoughts on a big topic for marketing leaders right now: staffing and retention. Specifically, "How do you find and keep great marketers, especially with all that's changed in the last couple of years?"
Show notes:
Competitive salary and benefits is still #1. But it works best when there's a plan and strategy you can justify it against. This gives employees a clear path to progress on in your company.
#2 is flexible work location. Post-COVID, talent is not restricted geographically anymore.
Hire one or two people that are really good, then hire an agency to support them and turn them into badasses.
#3 is stability. Potential hires want to know that the company will be around for a long time. While a "startup environment" seems fun, it's also risky.
To mitigate that risk, let your potential hires peek under the curtain at how your company is actually going to hit its goals. Also let them interview your long-time employees to understand why they've stayed with the company and sell the long-term vision.
#4 is growth. Help your hires understand both how they will grow in their role and how their department will grow around them.
According to a 2019 LinkedIn survey, 94% of respondents said they would stay at a company if it helped them learn and grow.
Set aside a professional development budget for each employee to give them the opportunity to invest in their own growth at YOUR company... instead of somewhere else.
Brand Storytelling Meets Demand Gen: The Strategy to Skyrocket Growth with Andy Weiss, CMO of Ceipal
20 Dec 2024
00:52:48
How can blending brand storytelling with demand generation drive business growth and optimize marketing performance across all stages of the buyer's journey?
In this episode of Revenue Driven CMO, global marketing executive Andy Weiss shares his expertise in driving business growth through strategic brand storytelling and demand generation. He discusses the complexities of marketing attribution and advocates for a holistic approach that combines brand awareness with bottom-funnel metrics to optimize performance across all stages of the buyer's journey.
Andy introduces the concept of "brand gen," blending brand storytelling with demand generation to create a unified strategy that drives results across all marketing channels. The conversation covers the evolution of marketing structures, challenges in measuring ROI for brand efforts, and the importance of continuous learning in today's rapidly changing landscape.
Drawing from his experience at Ceipal, a leading talent and staffing software company, Andy highlights their shift from a direct-response focus to incorporating more brand-driven initiatives, showcasing how integrating storytelling into every marketing activity can fuel long-term business growth.
Tune in for actionable insights on balancing brand-building and performance marketing to drive measurable success and build a strong, impactful brand!
Key Takeaways:
Blend Brand and Demand Generation: Learn how to strike the right balance between brand storytelling and demand generation to drive both awareness and conversions.
Embrace Data-Driven Storytelling: Use internal data to craft engaging, educational content that resonates with your audience and supports your narrative across all marketing channels.
Align Marketing with Business Goals: Ensure your marketing campaigns align with overall business objectives to directly contribute to growth and profitability.
Always Be Learning: Foster a culture of continuous learning within your team to improve marketing strategies and better understand how to support your organization's success.
Break Down Silos: Understand the importance of collaboration between brand marketing and demand generation teams to enhance campaign effectiveness.
Manage the Blend: Focus on the overall impact of your marketing mix instead of just cost per lead to gain a clearer picture of your efforts' effectiveness.
Optimize Engagement Across Touchpoints: Learn how to leverage multiple touchpoints—such as newsletters, podcasts, and social media—to nurture leads and build lasting relationships.
By incorporating these strategies into your marketing approach, you can drive better results, increase conversions, and build a strong brand presence. Don't miss these essential insights for marketers looking to elevate their strategies and achieve sustainable growth!
Quote of the Show:
"One of the biggest challenges, from a marketing standpoint is we tend to put the brand storytelling in this box where it's pretty pictures, big budgets and high production values. No, I think there's an opportunity at every turn." -Andy Weiss
The Revenue-Driven CMO is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through branded podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/
How to use technographics to build your dream customer list
20 Jul 2022
00:03:35
Today on 3-Minute Marketing, we're trying something a little bit different.
In this solo episode, Chris is going to talk you through a 3-Minute Marketing "growth hack" that you can take and apply in your marketing straight away.
The hack for this episode is all about how you can build the perfect list of prospects or accounts using technographics. Chris is going to show you a Chrome extension you can use to find out what technologies your best potential customers are using and what they have in common so that you can build perfect list of dream customers to go after.
If you're a marketer at a business that wants to grow faster, you're going to love this episode... especially if you're a B2B company.
Show notes:
Best practice: whenever you're building a list that's based on technographics, you can't just rely on data sources like ZoomInfo. Always check the websites to confirm they're running the technology you're targeting.
There's a really cool ad blocker Chrome extension called Ghostery that allows you to do this.
Once you install it, disable the ad blocking feature. Then click on the Ghostery icon on your extensions list to see all the technologies any website or webpage you visit is using.
You can use this to build a list of companies you want to target by reverse engineering your dream customers from the technologies they (and only they) use on their website.
Visit the website of one of your best customers (e.g. home services) and use Ghostery to see what tools they're using. Then search for these tools in your data provider (like ZoomInfo or BuiltWith).
WebMechanix identified a technology a client was using called "TVSquared". We then built a list of companies that used this tool and reached out via email. We've landed several dream clients thanks to this tactic alone.
The blank page: How to achieve more by telling a bigger story with Anna Griffin
13 Jul 2022
00:06:34
Anna Griffin (CMO of Intercom) is back for a second round of 3-Minute Marketing!
We're talking about a topic that's very near and dear to my heart, based on Anna's TEDx talk called "The Blank Page." It's all about how changing the stories we tell can make a dramatic impact on the trajectory of our lives, careers and the companies we grow.
I was excited to dig in and understand how it could benefit marketers in particular. So I asked her,
"Can you summarize your TED Talk for me and explain how can it impact brands and marketers?"
Show notes:
For one instant in your life, we're all created 1,000% equal.
As time goes on, you become the product of the stories you're told -- by your parents, community, leaders, etc. This shapes your belief system.
The reason some people achieve more greatness and success in life comes down to the stories shaping their beliefs.
If you don't like the trajectory you're on, the answer is to change your story to a bigger and better one that serves you. This will change your belief system, which will change your actions.
This also applies to brands. Companies that tell a bigger story can achieve greater outcomes.
Marketers have the power to change the story of their company. In doing so, they can transform the trajectory of the businesses they serve forever.
The counterintuitive secrets to effective market research with Leigh Caldwell
06 Jul 2022
00:06:04
Today on 3-Minute Marketing, I have the pleasure of sitting down with Leigh Caldwell, a cognitive and behavioral scientist turned marketer. He's the Founder of Irrational Agency, an award-winning author of "The Psychology of Price" and an avid blogger at his site, knowingandmaking.com. He's also a successful entrepreneur, having built and successfully exited 3 firms in the tech and economics consulting space.
Leigh's behavioral economics background has helped him yield some surprising insights on what does and doesn't work when it comes to understanding your market. My question for Leigh is: "What are the counterintuitive secrets to performing GOOD market research?"
Show notes:
Secret #1: People don't tell you the truth.
Your customers want to tell you all the great things about your product. But you want them to tell you the truth. So you need to ethically "trick" them into being honest with you.
Leigh built a simulated web store for his CPG client. While 60% of their panelists said they would buy their product, only 15% of users actually bought on the website.
They they then tested variables like packaging, pricing, etc. to drive the purchase rate up.
Secret #2: Behind everything people do, there is a hidden story.
Learn why and hear the rest of Leigh's secrets in the bonus footage by visiting WebMechanix.com/three-minute-marketing-episode-62
How ungating your content can drive more leads with Angela Earl
29 Jun 2022
00:07:38
Today on 3-Minute Marketing, I'm speaking with Angela Earl. She's an accomplished marketing executive, currently CMO at RFPIO — the industry leading software for response management. Before joining RFPIO, Angela was the owner of a B2B marketing agency which she successfully exited in 2019. Angela shared an impressive (and maybe controversial) content marketing case study on LinkedIn recently that I've been dying to ask her about. My question for Angela was: "How can ungating your content actually drive MORE leads?"
Show notes:
Content is made to be engaged with, but marketers somehow lost sight of this as we went down the "MQL rabbit hole".
We became more revenue-focused, but forgot we're creating content so people can read and watch what we're making.
Instead, we're adding friction to the experience by asking personal questions. But really, our audience just wants to read what we wrote, engage and respond.
When you start surrounding your content with "wrappers" like forms, chatbots and popups, you make it more difficult for your content to get digested and shared.
Content marketers got on this hamster wheel of "more content" at the expense of "quality content." Ungated content that generates leads requires investment: research, running surveys, and gathering tangible learnings your audience will want to consume.
At the end of the day, it's about building trust. If you add genuine value to your audience, they'll come back to you to learn more.
The one ability that separates okay leaders from great leaders with Dave Kerpen
22 Jun 2022
00:07:08
Today on 3-Minute Marketing, I'm speaking with the one and only Dave Kerpen — bestselling-author, speaker & serial entrepreneur. He's currently Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Apprentice, the platform that connects entrepreneurs and business leaders with smart and motivated college students. Dave and his wife also successfully exited his agency Likeable Media in 2021. Dave joined me to answer the question, "What's the one ability or trait that separates 'okay' leaders from great leaders?"
Show notes:
Great leaders are effective because they know how to delegate.
Leaders struggle to delegate because they either are afraid to give other people the work, or they're wired to micromanage.
To delegate effectively as a leader, follow the SHARE model.
The leader's job is to do 3 things: Set the strategy and vision (S), Hire the right people for the right seats (H), and Assures access to resources and capital to get the job done (A).
When a task comes a leader's way, if it's not "SHA" they Remind themselves to delegate it (R) and empowering the right person to get the job done (E).
The "right person to get the job done" doesn't have to be an employee — it can be a freelancer, contractor, partner, vendor, etc. Thinking through who that person is is the leader's job.
How to maximize the power of your network with Richard Lau
15 Jun 2022
00:06:23
Short description:
On today's 3-Minute Marketing episode, I'm speaking with serial entrepreneur Richard Lau. He's currently Founder & CEO at LOGO.com, the logo design platform that allows you to create a great logo for your brand in minutes.
One of Richard's passions is sharing what he's learned in his journey as an entrepreneur that can help other leaders be more successful in their careers, particularly mistakes made or opportunities missed that others can learn from.
Richard told me a networking story (one of the keys to his success) and I was intrigued to learn more. So I asked him, "If I were your protégé, how would you tell me to maximize the power of my own network?"
Show notes:
Facebook and Instagram are NOT your business network. LinkedIn is your business networking tool. Make sure you're over the 500+ connections threshold.
Be useful. Don't go out there selling and pitching. Instead, make connections between people in your network.
When you do this, you're helping 2 or more people in your network become more successful. The goodwill compounds over time.
Helping is a numbers game. If you help 100 people, 99 may never turn into anything. But one could lead to an opportunity that will change your life.
Why creators are the future of commerce with Alex Morrison of PearPop
08 Jun 2022
00:08:49
Today on 3-Minute Marketing, I'm sitting down with Alex Morrison. He's currently CMO at PearPop, an on-demand creator collaboration platform. Prior to joining PearPop, Alex has had a remarkable career agency-side, serving in leadership positions at firms like Grey Group, R/GA, AgencyNet and J Walter Thompson.
Alex has first-hand experience seeing the impact of great influencer marketing and is stoked about how brands can benefit from partnering with creators at scale. So I asked him, "What is the future of commerce and why are creators the core of that engine?"
Show notes:
Creators who have influence can engage audiences from their unique worldview and perspective. This is particularly enticing for eCommerce and D2C brands, who are trying to reach consumers in an increasingly noisy and competitive environment.
Creators can add credibility and authenticity to a brand while showing real use cases of a company's product.
You can create a "surround sound" effect by having 100's or even 1000's of influencers sharing and mentioning your site or product.
It's hard to work with mid-tier and long-tail creators at scale, so most brands fall back on paying a premium to top tier influencers. But mid-tier influencers actually tend to generate the best CPAs and ROI.
PearPop allows marketers to solve this challenge and attract/activate creators at scale and track exactly which influencers are driving results. You can try it out for yourself at pearpop.com/business.
How to take your company's marketing from "startup" to "grownup" with Christian Campagnuolo
01 Jun 2022
00:06:16
Today on 3-Minute Marketing, I'm chatting with all-around badass CMO, Christian Campagnuolo. He's currently CMO at Revature, the largest employer of entry-level technology talent in the U.S. Prior to Revature, Christian has had a remarkable career in marketing — he found his roots in brand marketing at Disney, then transitioned into agency life and built his own agency. He eventually found his way into the tech world, heading up marketing for renowned tech brands like Blackboard, Logi Analytics, MicroStrategy and most recently EVERFI.
Christian has so many gems, we could have fit five episodes into our conversation! But we got some particularly good nuggets when I asked him, "What's the playbook for how a new CMO can take their company's marketing from startup to grown up?
Show notes:
Start off by observing what's wrong, not working or absent in the current marketing programs.
Do you have individuals that fulfill the core functions of a world class marketing team? Identify those talent gaps and build up the perceived value of those roles in your organization.
Get your marketing team delivering "delight" for your customers and internal stakeholders quickly. Do this by clarifying your team's priorities, e.g.: "Here are the 5 things you need to accomplish in your first 90 days."
Break your CEO's stated goal down to specific tactical initiatives and timelines to help your marketing team understand the journey they're embarking on.
Listen to your sales team's calls at different stages in the sales process — ask, "How long does it take for prospects to understand what our company does?" Then create and provide materials for your sales team to arm them to surgically shorten that learning curve for prospects.
Why "the benchmark is dead" (and what marketers should use instead) with Kristi Melani
25 May 2022
00:05:53
Today on 3-Minute Marketing, I'm chatting with Kristi Melani. She's currently CMO at Telesign, an industry-leading Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) that's relied on by the world's most trusted brands. Prior to Telesign, Kristi headed up growth marketing efforts for technology brands like Anaplan, Poly & Plantronics.
Kristi has a contrarian perspective on evaluating marketing performance that piqued my curiosity. So I asked Kristi to tell us, "Why is the benchmark dead in marketing... and what should marketers use instead?"
Show notes:
Then pandemic shook up the tradition of reporting YoY benchmarks dramatically, because everything changed (including the traditional channels marketing and sales teams relied on).
Marketing is often measured on SQLs, but not all SQLs are measured the same. For example, some SQLs may have a higher deal value or close at a higher rate.
Come up with what and how you want to be measured. Then come up with the equation, such as, "I want to be measured on MQLs, SQLs, average deal size, Closed Won opportunities and net retention." Together, these tell a more holistic story of marketing's contribution than one KPI.
The fact is that some results in marketing are hard to measure. So by evaluating marketing off of a blend of important metrics, you can deliver a more realistic view of marketing's impact.
How to use your website to build trust with Bob Armour
18 May 2022
00:07:19
Today on 3-Minute Marketing, I have the great pleasure of chatting with Bob Armour. He's currently CMO at M1 Finance, a leading all-in-one money management platform that helps self-directed investors achieve long-term financial wellness. Prior to M1, Bob has had an extensive career in the financial services space, heading up marketing efforts for notable financial brands like Jellyvision & Guaranteed Rate. Bob came to share his wisdom on one of the biggest challenges facing any CMO or marketing leader: building trust and credibility with your market. Specifically, I wanted to learn from Bob, "How can you use your website to build trust?"
Show notes:
Can you demonstrate "heft"? Is what you say you can do actually being accomplished by lots of other customers like them?
Use data to back up your narrative: how many clients do you have? Assets under management? Reference real numbers.
Satisfy the left side of someone's brain ("Is this right? Can they do what they say they can do?") and the right side of someone's brain ("Do they help people like me?")
Testimonials and success stories help your potential customers walk in your current customers' shoes.
Surprise and delight your customers — without any fanfare, send your long-term clients little gifts like swag. While you could offer money, sending little gifts to say "thank you" drives more social sharing and customer excitement.
Get in the trenches as a marketing leader — look for conversations about your brand online and engage in them. The story this tells to consumers is, "This is a company that cares, I might want to check them out!"
Ray Dalio's "Principles" (For Modern Marketing Teams) with Ari Osur, Former CMO of iCIMS
11 Dec 2024
00:56:07
Want to discover proven marketing strategies to boost revenue, drive successful campaigns, and stay ahead of the competition?
In this episode of Revenue Driven CMO, we sit down with marketing expert Ari Osur, former CMO of iCIMS. He is a seasoned leader with a proven track record at top companies like eBay, NBA, Epsilon, Forrester, and ADP. Ari tackles the current challenges facing marketers, including rising marketing costs, and how leveraging intent data and job mover data can fuel more targeted, high-impact campaigns. He emphasizes the value of taking calculated risks and remaining agile in a rapidly changing marketing environment.
This episode is packed with actionable insights for any marketing professional looking to level up their strategy and drive revenue growth. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from one of the industry's best!
They dive deep into essential marketing principles that drive success, including:
9:13 Know the business, be a true partner. INVERSE: Don't be self-servicing, or live in a silo. In marketing, it's critical to understand the broader context in which your company operates. This means gaining a deep understanding of the business goals, challenges, and how marketing fits into the overall strategy. A true marketing partner is proactive in aligning efforts with sales, product, finance, and other departments to ensure everyone is working toward the same objectives.
13:50 If you have to fly blind, stay out of the air. INVERSE: Don't launch campaigns without proper tracking, know that spend must be justified, invent a metric if you have to. Launching campaigns without tracking is risky because it's impossible to measure success or understand what's working. Every marketing spend should be justified with measurable outcomes. It's better to hold off until you have a proper strategy, metrics, and tracking in place to measure success.
19:13 Celebrate failures. INVERSE: Don't sugarcoat performance and avoid taking healthy risks. Failure is inevitable in marketing, but it can be one of the most valuable learning experiences. When things don't work as planned, it's important to acknowledge the failure, understand what went wrong, and use the experience to improve future efforts. Celebrate the lessons learned and encourage a culture of experimentation and risk-taking.
21:58 Don't be a squirrel. INVERSE: Embrace the spirit of sharing. Sharing ideas, insights, and challenges with your team and across departments is essential. Embrace collaboration and be open to feedback. By working together and staying aligned, marketers can deliver more impactful campaigns that are well-supported across the business, rather than constantly jumping between unrelated ideas or initiatives.
32:22 Go outside, in. INVERSE: Don't fall in love with yourself. Adopting an "outside-in" approach means understanding your customers, competitors, and market before you create a marketing strategy. It's about empathizing with customer needs and behaviors, using external data, and considering the broader landscape to guide your decisions.
38:09 Always play offense. INVERSE: Don't get complacent. Playing offense in marketing means staying proactive, always seeking new opportunities, and pushing forward. It's about constantly innovating, testing, and refining strategies to stay ahead of competitors, rather than reacting to circumstances or waiting for things to happen.
Quote of the Show:
"If you're kind of shoving your failures underneath the rug, then you're just going to be a lot less innovative." - Ari Osur
The secret to creating effective partnerships with Marc Ginsberg
11 May 2022
00:08:51
Today on 3-Minute Marketing, I'm pleased to be speaking with Marc Ginsberg. He's currently CEO at CallRail, a marketing and call recording platform we use here at WebMechanix that helps 175K+ businesses market smarter, drive more quality leads, and turn them into customers. Prior to CallRail, Marc headed up growth marketing efforts for notable financial brands, including American Express and Cardlytics. One of Marc's biggest secrets to success throughout his career has been his ability to build powerful partnerships. I invite Marc to dig deeper into how he's done this by asking, "How can you create more effective partnerships?"
Show notes:
When you can find a great partnership that unlocks value for your joint customers, it's an amazingly powerful growth lever.
Ask, "What type of capability or offering can make our product or service better for our customers?" Start by understanding the needs of your customers and build partnerships accordingly.
If you're striking out on partnership deals, it's probably because you're not speaking the language of your partner's market. Understand their challenges and you'll be able to identify the opportunity.
Partnerships help put you in the mindset of customers so you can better serve their needs.
"Marketing" partnerships end up dying because you're not driving incremental value for the customer on both sides. Choose partners that have the same goal and mission that you have for your customers.
4 "powerhouse" secrets of a tech marketing leader with Narine Galstian
04 May 2022
00:07:28
My guest today on 3-Minute Marketing is Narine Galstian, CMO at SADA Systems. Before SADA, Narine headed up growth marketing efforts for technology brands like Instant.ly and Nero AG. Narine is veteran tech marketing leader with an impressive track record, so I wanted to understand how she knocks it out of the park so consistently. My question for her is, "What are the top 3-5 powerhouse secrets for marketing success?".
Show notes:
Being first is more important than being perfect. Don't spend months trying to perfect your campaigns — test, launch, iterate and gather feedback.
Approach marketing with a mindset of serving, not selling. Customers won't forget it and will become customers for life.
What others say about your brand becomes your brand. Make sure you're treating your customers/partners right and amplifying what they're saying about you as a result.
Develop a marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals. Don't live in the marketing silo — think and report out with the whole business impact in mind.
The top growth secrets of leading fintech brands with Brian Chevalier-Jordan
26 Apr 2022
00:05:38
Welcome to another episode of 3-Minute Marketing, where we interview the world's top growth marketing leaders and distill their knowledge into 3-minute TED talks for your binge-listening pleasure.
Today's guest is Brian Chevalier-Jordan, VP of Marketing at Bond, a super hot fintech brand that enables organizations from any industry to embed next-gen financial products into their existing customer experience.
Brian is a self-described "fintech nerd". So my question for him is, "What are the top growth secrets of leading fintech brands?".
Show notes:
At LendingClub, their superpower is direct mail, which sounds bizarre because it's so old school. But it's really powerful and has allowed them to become the largest personal lender in America.
They've loaned out $1 billion dollars every month because of direct mail.
You probably get a dozen pieces of email a day in your personal email inbox, but only one letter in your physical mailbox. When you get an offer for a loan of up to $40k in your mailbox it really stands out.
One of SoFi's big secret weapons is TV. Right now, everyone is all about buying online video and OTT media because it's so targeted. But SoFi buys a huge amount of linear TV and it's extremely cheap.
SoFi also has a "super app" that they can use to cross-sell customers. When someone applies for a bank account or a loan they give SoFi their social security number. SoFi then does a soft pull of that customer's credit to find out more about them.
One of the things they strive for is a "magic moment" inside of the app where they can see someone's "financial self" and let that customer know they know something about them and can offer them a helpful service for it (e.g., "I noticed you have some credit cards, did you know you can refinance them with a personal loan?).