Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth Fueled By Customers

Prepare for something different, fun and fast! This is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Sergey Ross on what you need to know and do when you're hired to head up marketing at an early stage startup. I met Sergey on LinkedIn! Sergey is the host of the Media Camp podcast and now he's building out his Youtube channel (SRE. live) Sergey works on podcast and video production at Crowdlinker. He's been makin' podcast video clips for me for months...he's my go-to for video. Here's what we hit on: Do not assume anything; What questions does the head of marketing need to ask; Who else needs to be on the team and why; Building out a marketing foundation is key (yes, I feel like a broken record but I don't care); Create "beautiful rooms" for where you live online (using your marketing foundation info); Then tell people about your "beautiful house"; What goals and metrics are you responsible for? Agree with your boss and make sure you align on timeline; Ask some people in your target audience if the messaging on your website resonates. You can find Sergey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergeyrosslive/  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!

When I started recording the episode with Christopher Lochhead, I immediately felt like I was in the (virtual) room with a legend. Christopher is a retired entrepreneur and 3X Silicon Valley public company CMO. He makes content (podcasts, books, newsletters, links to all those at the end of the show notes) for entrepreneurs and marketers with a different mind. I found out about Christopher from LinkedIn, left a comment on a post, and he invited me to read the Category Pirates newsletter. This is when I began diving more deeply into category design. I'm currently reading his book Play Bigger. Here's what we hit on: Explain category design like you're speaking to a 7-year-old; Most companies compete for existing demand vs. create new demand and this is a trap; Why most marketers waste their time in their career; Companies that are great examples of category design leaders and what are they doing right; What makes a legendary entrepreneur? (HINT: they force choice between past vs. future); Companies that lead with category design are valued at 5x more; Companies that lead with category design get 76% of market share (Source: HBR); What are the most important steps to build category design and create a legendary company; What are some bad recommendations about category design (HINT: people don't like change); Why you need problem/category fit vs. product/market fit; Why this is such an amazing time to be an entrepreneur. You can reach Christopher on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christopherlochhead Find out more about Category Pirates: www.categorypirates.com Also check out these podcasts: Follow Your Different and Lochhead on Marketing And these books: Play Bigger (on category design) and Niche Down (become legendary by being different) 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!

You can and should do voice of the customer research at your startup, ongoing.   Ongoing, because things change pretty quickly in the world, and you want to have a good pulse on what's happening in the world of your target audience.   In this episode I spoke with Nicholas Scalice, host of the top-rated Growth Marketing Toolbox podcast, on the topic.  Nicholas and I talked about the process to use to better understand your target audience including:  What is voice of the customer research; How to collect feedback (I created a resource for you that's linked below); What questions matter; How the process works for B2B and B2C; Tools for conducting better customer interviews; Where companies go wrong. Here's a link to the playbook I wrote for you to use, including the questions google doc: https://furmanovmarketing.com/playbooks/use-these-6-steps-to-build-personas-like-a-boss Here's a link to where you can find more info: https://growthmarketingtoolbox.com/anna-furmanov-customer-research/ 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!

Ramli John is the Managing Director at ProductLed (community for PLG professionals) and host of Growth Marketing Today (top 5% podcast). ProductLed has a Slack community of 6,500+ product-led growth enthusiasts and world-class PLG practitioners. If you're trying to get both a high-level understanding plus dig deeper into PLG, this is the episode for you to listen to. Some more fun facts about Ramli: - he's the author of Product-Led Growth and Product-Led Onboarding - he's got an array of skills including marketing, design, and software development - he's in Canada Here's what we hit on: What is product-led growth (PLG) and how does it fit into the context of marketing/sales? How do each of these teams work together; Why is PLG so important for SaaS companies? What’s been happening in the market? (e.g. selling to the modern buyer);  What are the benefits of PLG; What’s the right price point for PLG; How Ramli got into PLG and marketing and growth (from software development); PLG is not for every SaaS startup. Which startups NEED to embrace PLG if they want to grow; When is the right time to build in PLG into your SaaS startup; What are the top 3 things companies get wrong with PLG? (1. They think PLG is the Product team’s job and 2. They offer FREEMIUM and think they’re product-led, when users don’t even experience the value of the product) How does Ramli help SaaS companies analyze their whole customer's journey and funnel to identify growth opportunities to 2-3X their MRR; You can reach Ramli on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ramlijohn Find out more about ProductLed: https://productled.com/ OpenView Partners was mentioned on the show: www.openviewpartners.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!

Prepare for something different and fun and fast!  This is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Kourtney Simons on perfectionism. I met Kourtney way back in 2006 at Accenture. Kourtney has worked on marketing at MSNBC, Disney, and Netflix. Here's what we hit on: What does perfectionism mean; I asked Kourtney if she's a perfectionist...and also shared myself; Why perfectionism is particularly hard when you're a marketer at a startup; How do you know you're stuck in the "perfectionist" mindset; Why is perfectionism killing your marketing; What's a better approach? You can find Kourtney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kourtney-simons-83456b4/ 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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Amy Volas, founder and CEO of Avenue Talent Partners, joined me on the show. She's such a fun lady. Amy helps startups hire sales leaders without the cringe. Amy has been a sales leader at ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and Yahoo! She has personally closed $100MM+ in revenue (and counting). She's got 70+ recommendations on LinkedIn. Woah. Amy also co-hosts the #1 weekly virtual sales happy hour (Thursday Night Sales). This is a marketing podcast. Why am I bringing on Amy Volas, sales rockstar, on the show? Well, my experience has shown that Marketing + Sales is SUPER intertwined. Marketers need to understand how sales works (and vice versa) in order to accomplish business growth. Personally, after starting my own business, I’ve been straddling both marketing AND sales and it’s becoming almost a blur. Like I’m doing marketing, but I’m also getting customers. So I must be selling otherwise people wouldn’t know to buy. It's a natural progression. What I have realized over time (and as we move more into digital) is that there is no buyer journey anymore. I've been asking founders and marketing leaders the same question and they have a hard time pinpointing exactly what journey their buyers take before they become a customer. There are many different steps, and the point is to be there with the right content to help build the relationship and the trust. Here's what we hit on: What does sales mean to you, what does marketing mean to you; How has sales changed over the last 10 years; How is growth in digital impacting sales; What are the big problems you're seeing that your customers have, and what's your advice; What kind of sales leader (or team) do you need for Seed/Series A (earlier stage) vs. Series C+; You’ve personally closed $100MM+ in revenue...what are top 3 things that you’ve done/learned to make this happen; What’s working well for you right now at Avenue Talent Partners, in terms of sales + marketing strategies; Top tips on growing LinkedIn followers (Amy has 43k+); Top mistakes or failures and how that has impacted how you lead. 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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Prepare for something different and fun (and fast!). Switching it up like I love to do, this is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Kourtney Simons on how to do marketing when you have a shoe-string budget or no budget.  I met Kourtney way back in 2006 at Accenture. Kourtney has worked on marketing at MSNBC, Disney, and Netflix. She has a wonderful personality and is a wonderful person. Here's what we hit on: Starting from a place of "let's get our foundation right, first" vs. marketing channels; Marketing includes both content + channels; For content, figure out your "content tilt"; For channels, list them all and prioritize based on a) easy and b) impact. You can find Kourtney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kourtney-simons-83456b4/ 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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

In this episode I was interviewed by Tristan Pelligrino, host of Recorded Content and co-founder of Motion, about a hidden treasure that’s within every podcast episode – beyond just the audio file. A podcast provides a way to have amazing conversations. And it also provides a way to present raw & unfiltered thoughts through solo episodes. But that’s as far as most podcasters go. B2B podcasters don’t realize there’s often a hidden treasure within every episode – beyond just the audio file. Here's what we hit on: Your unique voice is what makes your marketing "modern"; Talking is an essential part of business strategy, and podcasts are a good way of starting to hear yourself; How and why I decided to start this podcast; Startups start with the marketing activity that they’re supposed to do, like ‘we need to get blog posts up. Look at the competition. They’ve got tons of blog posts up. We need to be on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter. We need to do ads.’ This is a problem and here's what to do instead; Podcasts with guests are different from the ones you do solo; Creativity is important, but there should be a system behind it; Companies spend a lot of time updating their website, but for digital to work, you have to be everywhere where your target audience hangs out. Here's a link to where you can find more info and clips: https://motionagency.io/episode/sharing-your-point-of-view-in-solo-podcast-episodes-with-anna-furmanov/ 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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Christina Mautz, CMO and head of sales at Moz, joined me on the show.  This is an interesting episode because Christina has that unique experience - a CMO that also heads up the sales team. Christina's been a marketing executive at Amazon and Yahoo!, as well as a few Seattle VC-backed SaaS startups where she earned the nickname “Chief Problem Solver.” Moz was founded in 2004, has ~170 people, and is based out of Seattle, WA with offices in Vancouver, BC and Cork, Ireland. They've raised Series C ($29.1M total). Started by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig, Moz is a source of robust, reliable data, with accessible training and easy-to-use software to help SEOs. The folks at Moz believe there's a better way to do marketing. A more valuable way where customers are earned rather than bought. Here's what we hit on: “Customers are earned rather than bought” - what does that mean; Quick pitch on Moz - why you exist, who you’re for (what segments are most popular), problems you solve; SEO is not dead, but it’s changing. You can’t just write blog posts and expect to rank high in search. Ranking on Google is hard, especially for startups. Reaching your target audience through other channels like social media can be faster. What’s Christina's advice? Christina joined 3 years ago - what stage was the company in with their marketing back then, and what was her team working on back then vs. focused on now; What does Christina's (marketing) team look like; I asked Christina to explain how she's both CMO and head of sales - how does that work? (HINT: very well); We talked about MQLs and SALs and what's effective for shortening the sales cycle. You can find Christina on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christinamautz Find out more about Moz: www.moz.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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Meghan Hurley joined me on the show to talk about yummy food and marketing. Meghan Hurley is Head of Marketing at Farmer’s Fridge. She's also a founding member of Chief (the private network of women leaders that are helping and supporting each other). Meghan has held marketing leadership roles at Trunk Club, Peet’s Coffee, McCain Foods, and Whole Foods. Farmer’s Fridge was founded in 2013, has ~150 people, and is based out of Chicago, IL. They've raised Series C ($42M total). Farmer’s Fridge is on a mission to make it simple for everyone to eat well. They've developed a rapidly growing network of 350+ user-friendly smart Fridges stocked with chef-curated, restaurant-quality meals and snacks. Besides the vending machines, they've also recently started offering delivery. PLUS a recent partnership with Rick Bayless. Lots goin' on. Here's what we hit on: Who eats Farmer's Fridge (besides me); Who's on the marketing team; What marketing channels are working well (HINT: leveraging UGC is part of it, also email); Partnering with Dunkin' Donuts; Being scrappy during COVID with photos, iPhone videos, motion, colors, etc.; "People are fickle" so how do you approach looking at your marketing data; The "tomato fridge" ad - this UGC story is fascinating; What are the top challenges (HINT: growing the team that supports the growth of the org); Why it makes sense to invest in a marketing TEAM vs. just one person; What is the Head of Growth in charge of? (HINT: supports email - lifecycle marketing, SMS/Push, and soon Web - SEO) How Meghan's experience at Starbucks, Whole Foods, McCain, Peet's, and Trunk Club has impacted the way she understands ops, brand + growth (HINT: observing consumer behavior is a BIG part of it); Bad marketing recommendations (HINT: the pendulum has swung too far to analytics and paid, so that brand is underdeveloped); Chicagoans love to connect with others and play the "who do you know?" game; Meghan gets a little introspective and talks about some mistakes as a leader. You can find Meghan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-hurley-a4b4532/ Find out more about Farmer's Fridge: www.farmersfridge.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 on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!