Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth Fueled By Customers

Megan Bowen is COO at Refine Labs. If you don't know her, you're missing out because she's a smart, kind and genuine leader. Prior to Refine Labs, Megan was VP of Customer Success at Platterz, COO at Managed by Q, and held leadership roles at GrubHub and ZocDoc. I’ve had MJ Peters, now at Refine Labs, on the show (Episode 9 - we talked a lot about voice of customer research and insights) and of course Chris Walker (Episode 35 - “over-prioritizing sales is your SaaS startup’s biggest mistake”). Now Megan! Refine Labs is a demand accelerator for B2B SaaS companies. They help companies increase marketing’s contribution to qualified pipeline and revenue while lowering CAC. Here's what we talk about:  Customer onboarding, success, retention is SO important but often we create our marketing plan and we leave that part out, we’re so focused on creating awareness and acquiring new customers. What does strong customer success look like for an early stage startup (HINT: it's NOT customer support); When is the best time to hire a dedicated customer success person or team (HINT: as soon as you have customers); Who should you hire (HINT: Megan shares a framework for building your team); What are the most common pitfalls when it comes to customer onboarding/success; How to ensure customer success + sales + marketing + product is fully aligned, and on what things do they need to align on; What does Customer Success look like at Refine Labs (HINT: we've recently revamped our onboarding); Megan embraces a “human-first” leadership approach - what does this mean and what are top 1-2 leadership lessons to share; What are some goals Megan wants to accomplish (personal, professional) this year. You can reach Megan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganwhitebowen/ Find out more about Refine Labs: www.refinelabs.com This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io 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!

These episodes are pretty popular, which tells me that folks are lovin' the series, 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. I get questions from startups about this a lot (especially as the marketing landscape has changed so much throughout the pandemic) so I know this is on people's minds. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, resources and so much more. Kristina Simonson is Director of Demand Gen at Privy. Prior to that she was at Wordstream managing full-funnel marketing and sales results. I’ve had Privy on before, Episode 55 - Dan Murphy, VP of Marketing at Privy. We talked about TikTok! Listen to that episode too. Privy was founded in 2011, has 94 people, and is based out of Boston. Funding: Series A ($4.3M total). Privy is the leader in e-commerce marketing. Email & SMS for online brands that need the tools & coaching to grow sales. Privy is used by over 600,000 stores in 180 countries today, helping to generate $6B in sales. WOA. Here's what we cover: What does Demand Gen mean at Privy? (HINT: top of funnel + full funnel); Privy's 2022 Marketing Plan - what's your budget split? (HINT: a big focus on plugging gaps, not just bringing in more); What marketing channels are you leaning into; How we're thinking about using TikTok strategically; What content are you leaning into (HINT: working with influencers, building on our podcast); How does the podcast help to impact your funnel; Who's on the marketing team now and how will you plan to build out resources; Anything else that's unique about your plan; Some goals that Kristina wants to accomplish this year, both personal and professional. You can reach Kristina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinasimonson/ Find out more about Privy: https://www.privy.com/ This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io 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!

Hey everyone. So I have not done a solo episode in a WHILE and I thought "hey, it's time." I did a OneGuide Marketing Roundtable a while back and answered these 10 questions from CEOs of tech companies. What's OneGuide? OneGuide is like your on-demand advisory board >> expert calls and written how-to guides for fast-growing B2B companies. Check them out here: https://askoneguide.com/ Here are the questions I answer in this episode: 1. What are best practices to convert leads into customers with minimal direct human interaction (e.g. focusing on digital)? 2. How do you stay current with the latest marketing trends? 3. What is the difference between demand generation and lead generation? 4. What do you need to set a foundation for your demand generation? 5. Interested in learning how to get the biggest bang for the buck? 6. Nowadays creating and posting “expert content” is all the rage. However, most companies that do that seem to outsource composing such content to agencies without the expertise in the area. Does that work? Is it worth it to improve company visibility? 7. As we establish the marketing department with scarce resources, which strategies should we be focusing on? 8. Does inbound marketing have an impact on outbound sales? 9. How to effectively implement online demand generation in a business that is primarily offline? 10. We have a good foundation (SEO, paid search, analytics, CRM, content) - how to scale effectively? Resources mentioned during this episode: - How to Prioritize your Startup Marketing is Episode 15 - My content creation conversation with Devin Bramhall (CEO at Animalz) is Episode 63 - Modern Demand Gen Playbook: https://furmanovmarketing.com/playbooks/modern-demand-gen-for-startups - VoC Research Playbook: https://furmanovmarketing.com/playbooks/use-these-6-steps-to-build-personas-like-a-boss - 1-Page Marketing Plan Playbook: https://furmanovmarketing.com/playbooks/3-steps-to-create-a-winning-marketing-plan This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io 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. Anna's monthly newsletter: subscribe by going here: https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba Thanks for listening!

I got a chance to speak with Jen Root, co-founder and VP of Marketing at Manifest Commerce, and it was a great convo with an early stage startup that's got some exciting stuff in the works plus a "sprint and fix" mentality. It's such an exciting time. They've also been the podcast's sponsor! Manifest Commerce was co-founded in 2021 by a team of four people including George Wojciechowski (ShipBob's co-founder, ShipBob has raised Series E and the company is valued at over $1B). Together, the team at Manifest Commerce has a passion for climate action. Manifest is earth-friendly e-commerce fulfillment and they're leading the logistics movement towards a greener supply chain. Here's what we hit on: Your 2022 marketing plan - how are you organizing your marketing budget, what channels are you leaning into (HINT: Partnerships); What's the difference between a merchant and a sustainability-focused merchant; What are your top marketing challenges right now (HINT: understanding CAC and CLTV plus finding the time to engage with our community on social); How has the pandemic affected your marketing strategy (HINT: we're still focusing on in-person e.g. April/May sustainability summit where merchants can learn from other merchants); What are the last couple of really good marketing ideas you've come up with; What’s a tough question you’ve had to ask yourself recently (HINT: "what if this doesn't work?"); What are some goals you want to accomplish in 2022 (HINT: once we're bigger, one of our big goals is to speak at the United Nations!); I found out that Jen is a singer so I asked her to sing a bit for us at the end. You can reach Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-root-70249051/ Find out more about Manifest Commerce: https://manifestcommerce.io/ This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io 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!

What a cool company! I recently spoke with Mitch Wainer, Co-Founder and CMO at Welcome Homes. Prior to Welcome Homes, Mitch was CMO at Clubhouse (renamed to Shortcut, a Series B SaaS startup), CMO and Co-Founder at DigitalOcean, and he's also a Techstars alum. Welcome Homes was founded in 2020, has 49 people, and is based out of New York. They've raised Seed funding ($5.4M). Order your dream home, online! Build the home you want, where you want for a guaranteed, all-in price. Right now it's available in the NY metro area, with more cities coming soon. Here's what we hit on: Mitch's 2022 Marketing Plan - budget, channels, content and resources; Online AND offline channels; Paid is faster, sure, but here's why you need to invest in organic from Day 1 (HINT: it takes time, the content compounds, and your audience grows); Why it's important to have reps and sets on a daily basis; The content we're leaning into (HINT: create value without asking for anything); The last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas we've come up with (HINT: brand partnerships and the broker/agent channel. One big creative idea is great but it's more important to do reps and sets); Why we're treating home buyers (B2C) as B2B; Mitch's goals for 2022. You can reach Mitch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchwainer/ Find out more about Welcome Homes: https://welcomehomes.com/ This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io 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!

Well, well, well. Another startup from NYC that is growing FAST! I explored a slightly different angle with Wes Yee (Head of Integrated Marketing at Ramp) specifically how to make sure your marketing efforts are truly integrated at a fast growing startup.  Prior to Ramp, Wes was the Senior Director of Growth at Guru (Series C tech startup). Wes has 10+ years experience building and scaling revenue-focused marketing teams at early-stage (Series A -> Series D) B2B tech startups. His teams have grown ARR from less than $5M to $15M+ and less than $10M to $50M+. Ramp was founded in 2019, is already at Series C ($620M total), has a unicorn valuation of $3.9 billion, and 220 people strong. Ramp is a finance automation platform designed to save businesses time and money. “The only corporate card and spend management platform designed to help you spend less.” More than 2,000 businesses are using Ramp already. Check out this UX (web page) for "Why Ramp?" I love this reader experience and how the problem is explained. Here's what Wes and I cover: What marketing trends should startups be aware of or exploring (HINT: how to measure what's hard to measure, also "intrinsic advertising" in gaming); You sell to startups, small business, and enterprise, so how does your marketing need to change for each of these segments; What's been working well for marketing/growth; Creating a culture around radical accountability; What's your key metric (HINT: his job is to translate copywriting into revenue); What are the big challenges right now; How do you integrate your marketing efforts; What's the one question you'd ask 100 of your peers in marketing leadership; What are some goals you want to accomplish this year. You can reach Wes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesyee/ Find out more about Ramp: https://ramp.com/ This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io 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!

This was a fun interview I had with Kap Chatfield, Host of the B2B Podcasting podcast. In this episode, Kap and I talk about: Marketing needs a mindset shift to evolve in today’s digital age; How to find your ICP (ideal customer profile) and what questions to ask; Most common marketing problems that I hear from startup founders; Biggest issues startups have with their marketing; Why you should start your own thought leadership podcast; Why storytelling is so important for startups; How video clips from your podcast help you reach your target audience; How your business will grow from the influence of your podcast. Here's a link back to the original episode with the full transcript: https://blog.rveal.media/why-you-need-to-treat-your-startup-like-a-media-powerhouse-with-anna-furmanov This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io 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. Anna's monthly newsletter: subscribe by going here: https://share.hsforms.com/1cP1V40x7RGes5gHk1XNgNw47lba Thanks for listening!

Yaaaaas! Looks like folks are lovin' the series, 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.  I get questions from startups about this a lot (especially as the marketing landscape has changed so much throughout the pandemic) so I know this is on people's minds. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, and resources and so much more. Dan Frohnen is CMO at UpKeep. Prior to that, he was CMO at Sendoso. Welcome back to the show, Dan! UpKeep was founded in 2014, has 176 people, and is based out of LA. Funding: Series B ($48.8M total). UpKeep is the #1 software for maintenance and facility management teams, a platform developed for technicians and maintenance workers that provides them with a computerized maintenance management system. Customers include McDonalds, Pepsi, Shell, and Marriott. Here's what we cover: Dan recently joined UpKeep and the first 7-8 months have been spent on laying down the (marketing) foundation, learning what’s working versus not, plus figuring out what’s going on in the world; 2022 marketing plan - budget, channels, and resources; Roughly 80% of the budget is direct to pipeline and revenue (paid ads, events, SEO, content) and the other 20% is for stuff like content production, agency support, analysts and brand; Dan is helping to support more of a demand gen motion (versus inbound lead gen); Who’s on the marketing team now, and how are you planning to build out resources for 2022; Why the designer is UpKeep's secret weapon; UpKeep is a leader in a bunch of product categories with slightly different buyers and value props. How Dan is thinking about category creation moving forward (HINT: you need to think about it as a business strategy and not just something that marketing is doing);  What's the "market narrative framework" and how it ties into ongoing thought leadership that the team rallies around; Some goals that Dan wants to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022 (HINT: being happy personally will make everything in your life amazing). You can reach Dan on LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/danielfrohnen/ Find out more about UpKeep:  www.upkeep.com/ This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io 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!

Hi to my amazing listeners! This episode kicks of the beginning of what I'll call the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022. I get questions from startups about this a lot (especially as the marketing landscape has changed so much throughout the pandemic) so I know this is on people's minds. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, and resources and so much more. Cassidy Shield is VP Marketing at Narrative Science. Prior to that, he was VP Marketing at Gogo, VP Marketing at NetCracker and spent 13 years at Alcatel Lucent, purchased by Nokia. He also went to Kellogg (woop woop!). Narrative Science was founded in 2010, has 85 people, and is based out of Chicago. Funding: Series D ($43.4M total) and they just got acquired!! Narrative Science allows you to humanize analytics with data storytelling (not dashboards). Here's what we cover: 2022 marketing plan - budget, channels, and resources; How are you splitting your budget organic vs. paid; What channels are you leaning into and why (NOTE: 90% of revenue is marketing sourced); They launched their first event (Data Storytelling Summit) and realized "hey, we're good at this"; Who's on the marketing team now and how you're planning to build out; Planning can't start until you know the goals of the business (HINT: we do this every 3-6 months on a rolling basis); Cassidy shared some other unique/helpful things related to marketing planning e.g. galvanize around your "big rock" items; Some goals (personal/professional) for Cassidy going into 2022. You can reach Cassidy on LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/cassidyshield Find out more about Narrative Science: www.narrativescience.com This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io 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!

This was a free-flowing interview with Harry Duran, Host of the Podcast Junkies podcast. He did not send me questions in advance! :) In this episode, Harry and I talk about: My background in business and marketing; How I think about marketing and the psychology behind the field; Why I decided to start my podcast; My passion for helping startups build powerful brands and businesses; How I have grown as a podcast host since launching in November 2020; Why I would NEVER sell to the guests that come on my show; What do people misunderstand about me (I think?). Here's a link back to the original episode: https://podcastjunkies.com/280 You can subscribe to Podcast Junkies here: https://podcastjunkies.com/subscribe This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io 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. Anna's monthly newsletter: subscribe by going here. Thanks for listening!