Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Lessons from Airtable’s unconventional growth strategy | Zoelle Egner

Jan 29, 2023

Zoelle Egner, Head of Marketing and Growth at Block Party and former marketing lead at Airtable, shares insights from her remarkable journey in tech startups. She discusses Airtable’s inventive marketing strategies that helped them grow and connect with super-users. Zoelle elaborates on the importance of community engagement during the Vaccinate CA initiative and how unconventional advertising can enhance credibility. Tune in for valuable tips on customer feedback and the power of templates in driving user engagement!

01:13:51

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Episode guests

Zoelle Egner

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Investing in polished marketing materials conveys trust and professionalism, contributing to brand building and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Identifying key personas and champions within the target market facilitates catering to specific needs, driving adoption and growth through word-of-mouth.

Building mental models of ideal customers enables efficient customer success, tailored support, and resources, leading to loyal customer base and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Deep dives

Building Trust and Personalization

In the podcast, the speaker emphasizes the importance of attention to detail and quality in marketing and growth efforts. They suggest investing in polished landing pages, emails, and other marketing materials to create a sense of trust and professionalism. They also recommend personalizing content, such as sample content for a productivity app, to make it more relevant and appealing to potential customers. These small details convey that the company understands and cares about its customers, building brand trust and generating word-of-mouth recommendations.

Automate talking to customers

01:19

The Power of Job Identity and Creating Community for Career Growth

00:51

The Power of Having a Mission and a Vision

00:59

The Power of Branded Swag in Building Champions

00:51

Intro

4min

Transforming Vaccine Access: The Story of Vaccinate CA

4min

Community Unites for Vaccine Access

5min

Mission-Driven Hiring and Startup Strategies

20min

Creative Signaling for Credibility in Business

2min

Understanding Billboard Costs and Targeted Growth Strategies

4min

Marketing Innovation and User Empowerment

19min

The Power of Templates and Customer Engagement

16min

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Zoelle Egner is best known for her time at Airtable (currently valued at $11 billion), where she was the 11th employee and built and led the initial marketing and customer success teams. Currently she’s the Head of Marketing and Growth at Block Party, a company that designs consumer tools for online safety and anti-harassment. In today’s episode, we explore the marketing strategies that helped Airtable punch above its weight and build an established brand. We also dig into how Airtable was able to find its first super-users, how customer success played a key role in getting early traction, and the do’s and don’ts for marketing investments. Zoelle also shares her experience working for VaccinateCA (which ended up playing a massive role in helping get people vaccinated during the pandemic) and several tips for obtaining valuable customer feedback.

Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-airtables-unconventional

Where to find Zoelle Egner:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/zoelle

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoelleegner/

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

Referenced:

• Patrick McKenzie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/patio11

• The Last of Us on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-last-of-us

• Airtable: https://www.airtable.com/