The Uncommon Art of Creating B2B Brand Champions and Super Bowl Ads with Joanie Wang, Director of Marketing at Expensify

This episode features an interview with Joanie Wang, Director of Marketing at Expensify

Since joining in 2014, Joanie has helped grow Expensify into the most recognizable expense management platform in the space, spearheading the launch of some of the company’s biggest marketing initiatives. She has been named one of the Top Women Leaders in SaaS and one of the accounting industry’s Top 20 Influencers under 40. 

On this episode, Joanie discusses how Expensify’s relentless focus on end-user experience turns customers into devoted champions of the product, how they work to cultivate a positive brand experience in every consumer interaction, and the process of launching their massively successful Super Bowl ad campaign.

Key Takeaways

• In the enterprise space, focusing on the experience of the end-user of your product–not just the buyer or the administrator–is key to creating true brand champions.
• Successful word of mouth marketing comes from cultivating brand champions and curating a positive experience in every interaction you have with current and potential customers. It’s not just the product you’re selling, but the community, the experience and the environment.
• Marketers need to understand the shift that’s occurring as Millennials and Gen Z become a larger component of the workforce. They’re savvy consumers and they will be the ones to possibly make or break your business in the long term.

Quotes

“We've been very end-user centric in how we build out our product and who our ultimate consumers are. There are a lot of similar apps out there that focus on the person buying the software, not necessarily the person using it. What we realized is that when you focus on the end-user experience…they really become huge champions of your product.”

“At the heart of it, demand gen at Expensify is essentially a partnership between marketing, business development, and sales. We focus our efforts on entering and growing new markets by accelerating our word of mouth business model. It's been the heart and soul of our business since day one, and it's something that's been really effective for us in terms of how we've grown.”

“We focus a lot on creating experiences–whether that's at trade shows, in product, etc–creating experiences that are memorable and everlasting so that people not only believe in your product and love it, but become champions of it.”

“I recognize that brand is sometimes the opposite of demand gen, but I do think that it is a very important factor–at least from a top of funnel perspective–to stir interest and to create that initial awareness about our product…This idea of creating experience…is really setting the foundation for a lot of the demand gen work that we'll do later on. Anytime you come across Expensify, we focus on making sure…that everything that you come across is a positive experience.”

“We picked the Super Bowl because we knew that it was a moment in culture that everyone is paying attention to. In terms of meeting the audience where they are, that was kind of our moment. Everyone's paying attention. In fact, people are always on the lookout for commercials…We wanted a super large audience who is receptive to this kind of brand play, this sort of this messaging, and we wanted to meet them where they are.”

Sponsor

Demand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.