Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth Fueled By Customers

***This was my most engaging LinkedIn post across 2 years of posts*** Time for another solo episode! I started creating TikTok videos and posting them to LinkedIn. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast. People asking me: “Anna, does your podcast drive leads?" Me: “No." People: "Then WHY are you doing it??" Most people think about marketing in terms of "will this get me leads" (lead gen) Few think about marketing in terms of "will this be really good content for my target audience" And then there's the trickle down effect. Bc if you have really good content for your target audience then they will be more likely to want to know, like and trust you they'll refer people over to watch/listen to your stuff they'll refer people over to work with you A podcast is just part of it Can be a podcast, events, webinars, unique internal data, etc. Most of it is HOW you'll develop high-quality content that stands out bc you have a unique POV you want to share out that your target audience cares about Most of it is your strategy. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening, and don't forget to leave a review!

I brought back Amy Volas, founder and CEO of Avenue Talent Partners, to talk about how marketing and sales have fundamentally changed (and also what has remained the same). Last time I had Amy on was last summer, Episode 40! So I was so glad to have her back. Love her. Amy helps startups hire sales leaders without the cringe. She has been a sales leader at ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and Yahoo!, she has personally closed $100MM+ in revenue and counting, and she's got 70+ recommendations on LinkedIn. Saweeet. Amy also co-hosts the #1 weekly virtual sales happy hour (Thursday Night Sales), link in the show notes below. Here's what we hit on: Top ways sales has changed due to the pandemic; Top ways marketing has changed due to the pandemic; What hasn't changed? You can find Amy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amyvolas Find out more about Avenue Talent Partners: www.avenuetalentpartners.com Link to join Thursday Night Sales: www.thursdaynightsales.com For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

A request that I've gotten from listeners is to bring on a VC firm to talk through “the view from the VC side” so here we go! I invited Elaine Zelby, Partner at SignalFire, to join me and talk about all things investing in startups, building a strong relationship with port companies, product market fit and what that actually means and how that's changed over time, and more. I’ve helped advise and have also worked with SignalFire’s portfolio companies on their marketing efforts. More about Elaine: on the Board of Directors at SVEN (Silicon Valley Executive Network) worked on the product and marketing side at Zazzle, Capriza (Series C), Slack and Consensys (Series D) host of the (un)sexy podcast - ranked Top 3% globally - an exploration of just how sexy unsexy industries can be! sends a weekly newsletter called “3 Things” - a dive into 3 rabbit holes and you can join her if you want More about SignalFire: founded in 2013 based out of San Francisco invests in startups Seed through Series B Here's what we hit on: What VCs want to see before they invest in an (early stage) startup, what matters (HINT: Team, Market and Product and it's very rare to find companies with tech moats so you should be creating brand and distribution moats); What do you want to see during the relationship (HINT: be an A+ at 1-2 things and B- in everything else and we'll help get you A+ support in those other things); What does product market fit mean today, how do you know, what do you look for (HINT: customers rip it out of your hands faster than you can sell it); Which 1-2 portfolio companies are you personally super excited about and why. You can reach Elaine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainezelby/ Check out SignalFire: https://signalfire.com/ Check out the (un)sexy podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/un-sexy/id1527034265 For more content like this, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

TL;DR If you love mac n' cheese and you haven't tried Goodles yet then you're in for a wild ride. Seriously, just had them this weekend and my tummy is happy and my body is thanking me. I invited Jen Zeszut, co-founder and CEO at Goodles, onto the show and we talked about how their small startup has grown so much, so fast. Prior to Goodles, Jen was CEO at Cerebelly (baby food for healthy brain development). Prior to that she was co-founder and CRO at Beckon (SaaS, raised $44M). Goodles was founded in 2021 (!), based out of Santa Cruz (CA) and has 24 people. Seed funding ($6.4M). Goodles is noodles, gooder. PROTEIN-PACKED, VEGGIE-BOOSTED mac n' cheese. Yum. Here's what we hit on: This is cool because Wonder Woman’s Gal Gadot co-launched with you - why did you decide to bring her on the team? What were the results? How's it going; Why a celebrity is not the brand; How do you organize your marketing budget (HINT: we have "big noodles" or big rocks launching monthly); What marketing channels are you leaning into; Why you started the Make, Be and Do Gooder Community and how's it going; What content are you leaning into; Having a celebrity partner is like having a megaphone; How we measure what marketing content is working (HINT: we’re pretty meticulous measurers and turn things on and off in a staggered way); What paid ads creative seems to be working the best for you (HINT: our ads are weird like the 3D rendering of cheese dripping); Why knowing "what is your soul" (why you do what you do) is so important for startups; What are your top marketing challenges; What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you’ve come up with (HINT: we're a lifestyle brand so we're selling all sorts of fun things like a stuffie and we just had a stuffie drop which was our biggest sales day other than launch day); Some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022 (HINT: it’s not the focus on the outcome. Do great work with great people that you love working with. I’m bringing personal joy to my every day and we are laughing and joking and having a fun time. I feel like I can taste the joy in this food.) You can reach Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenzeszut/ Find out more about Goodles: https://www.goodles.com/ For more content like this, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Time for another solo episode! It's fast but packs a punch. I started creating TikTok videos and posting them to LinkedIn and so far it's going well and I love how it takes less than 5 minutes to record, add a title, and add captions and do it all myself. Talk about scrappy AND engaging. Video works, ya'll. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast. I was asked on a recent discovery call: “Where should we prioritize marketing in the funnel, TOF? Middle? Bottom to help close? With Customers to grow WOM and referrals?” Answer: Yes. The cool thing is your content strategy can hit ALL those levels (even with a very small team) if you’re being thoughtful about it. I like to use a 1-page marketing plan that includes specific marketing plays across the funnel. For example: TOF to Engage: podcast, social media video clips MOF to Nurture: podcast, social media video clips, newsletter, 1:1 sharing on LinkedIn, weekly virtual events BOF to Convert: case studies, testimonials, testimonial videos Customer Success: surprise and delight e.g. super responsive Slack channel, case studies / video testimonials from superfans, give them a platform to share their expertise >> get them on your podcast to discuss wins and challenges And then for each stage, also have objectives (e.g. increased website visitors MoM, 50% OR and 20% CTR for email, 5 new customers per month, etc.) How is your content strategy impacting your objectives? For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening, and don't forget to leave a review!

I had the pleasure of talking to Maya Grossman, Founder of Maya Grossman Consulting, about her experiences as VP of Marketing and how she prioritized her marketing efforts in those critical first 90 days. Maya has 15+ years of marketing experience building brands and driving growth at companies like Microsoft, Google, and most recently Canvas. As the VP of Marketing at Canvas she built the marketing team, grew qualified pipeline 3X Q/Q, doubled ARR Y/Y, and helped secure Series C at $400M valuation. She was also the VP of Marketing at Colu ($40M VC backed startup). Here's what we hit on: What's your process for getting prospects to go from "what is this?" to "I want this!" (HINT: sell the CHANGE, this is the core of product marketing); As VP of Marketing at Canvas, how did you build out the team, build out demand gen, build pipeline and sales, help secure Series C funding...all the things. How you prioritized that role the first 90 days and the results from there (HINT: start by talking to all different people and teams within the company about product, customers, positioning, etc. and see if there's a consistent message at home); How to handle ambitious goals as VP of Marketing (HINT: there will always be ambitious goals, but how to balance that with being realistic and also having quick wins); What would you have done differently while at Canvas; How did you build out your marketing team early stage (HINT: product marketing, content manager, demand gen manager and this took 5-6 months); How did you handle marketing attribution early stage (HINT: you don't have to measure everything, we didn't gate our content, we launched a podcast, community, created demand, created resources); We stopped doing Instagram and Twitter and instead focused on LinkedIn > doing one thing really well versus a bunch of things not well; Now your focus is "how to build a thriving career in marketing" - why did you decide to help people with this; Maya shares her strategy/steps for how to build a thriving career. You can reach Maya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayagrossman/ Check out her website: https://www.mayagrossman.com/ Check out her book: Invaluable For more content like this, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Time for another solo episode! It's fast but packs a punch. I started creating TikTok videos pretty much weekly and posting them to LinkedIn and so far it's going well and I love how it takes less than 5 minutes to record, add a title, and add captions and do it all myself. Talk about scrappy AND engaging. Video works, ya'll. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast. As a mentor at Growth Mentor I talk to a few startups every Friday about their marketing challenges and specific questions they have for me. Recently I was asked "as you work across startups, what marketing channels approach seems to work the best?" Cool thing about working across early stage startups is I get to see their top challenges and also help prioritize top marketing channels (based on talking to customers and finding out where they hang out online, how easy it will be to implement and based on potential impact). My answer is "it depends" but I know that's not helpful so I share more in this quick audio. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening, and don't forget to leave a review!

Happy Memorial Day if you're in the US!  WOWZA these episodes are popular...so let's keep this going! Sprinkling in another episode for the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back top startup founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, resources and so much more. Kyle Lacy is SVP of Marketing at Seismic (Series G). Prior, Kyle was CMO at Lessonly (Series C) for almost 5 years where he 20X’d revenue growth (70% sourced by marketing). I've had Kyle on before - check out Episode 31 where we talk about “the power of irrational ideas and golden llamas” among other things. Seismic was founded in 2010, has ~1,175 people, is based out of San Diego, CA, and Series G funded. Seismic is the #1 global sales enablement solution. Lessonly got acquired by Seismic in 2021. Lessonly is focused on training and coaching sales teams and Seismic does way more. Here's what we hit on: 2022 Marketing Plan, budget splits (HINT: the board really cares about the one metric LTV/CAC so as long as that stayed in the lane we can do whatever with our budget); Marketing channels you're leaning into this year (HINT: organic should be primary, and should always be primary); Marketing content you're leaning into this year; How you're planning to build out resources; What's your secret sauce to managing such a big (marketing) ship?? (HINT: hire people that understand how to move quickly but also have empathy/EQ because it's easier to have those difficult conversations; You need to build the marketing plan that's right for YOUR team, resources, etc; Goals that Kyle wants to accomplish in 2022. You can find Kyle on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kylelacy Find out more about Seismic: https://seismic.com/ For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit my website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

I invited Kathleen Booth, SVP Marketing at Tradeswell, to the show and we had a blast talking about how to do marketing the way it SHOULD be done - with a customer/audience-first approach focused on community, great content, and building a brand that people love, whether they buy from you or not.  Prior to Tradeswell, Kathleen served as CMO at clean.io (Series A). She's also the host of The Inbound Success Podcast and Board-level advisor to several tech startups. Tradeswell was founded in 2019, is based out of Baltimore (MD), and has 38 people. They've raised Series A ($18.8M). Tradeswell is the real-time operating system for e-commerce. Like "mission control" for growing e-commerce businesses. Tradeswell is creating a new category called “real-time operating system”. Here's what we hit on: How buyers used to buy and how buyers are buying today (HINT: they go to peers, communities, Slack, LinkedIn, etc.) and how "meh" marketing still follows the old approach; To truly succeed you need to win the hearts and minds of the buyer and the people they’re talking to; How we organize our budget (HINT: it's not the usual 10% of revenue is spent on marketing); What marketing channels are working well (HINT: podcasts, community, niche newsletter ads); What marketing content are you leaning into this year (HINT: your content should shine a spotlight on your audience PLUS we have data that nobody else has access to); How are you building out resources this year; What are your top marketing challenges (HINT: saying no can be hard AND we're creating a category and that's a challenge for sure but there are things we are looking for in the short-term); How we're aligning really well with sales (HINT: don't pit marketing against sales, it's about the channel and not the team); What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you’ve come up with (HINT: niche Substack newsletter sponsorship, check out the link below to learn more); Some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022. You can reach Kathleen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleenslatterybooth/ Find out more about Tradeswell: https://www.tradeswell.com/ Check out Swapstack for niche newsletter advertising: https://swapstack.co/ For more content like this, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com and you can also subscribe to Anna's monthly newsletter by going here: https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba Thanks for listening!

Time for another solo episode! This one's fast but packs a punch. I started creating TikTok videos weekly and posting them to LinkedIn and so far it's going well and I love how it takes just 4 minutes to record, add a title, and add captions and do it all myself. Talk about scrappy AND engaging. Video works, ya'll. So I'm stripping out the audio and adding it to the podcast. In this quick episode, I cover my conversation with someone I know at a super cool VC firm that helps his portfolio of companies with marketing and growth. He said something and at first I was offended, and then I realized there's some nuance that needs to be unpacked and I do it right here. For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen. You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com and you can also subscribe to Anna's monthly newsletter by going here: https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba Thanks for listening!