Building With Buyers: Startup Marketing and Growth Fueled By Customers

Sometimes I like to sprinkle in some raw and unfiltered thoughts.  In this episode I cover: The purpose of content; Before you come up with a content strategy, you need to figure out what your target buyer cares about, their challenges, goals, where they spend their time, etc; What is a content engine and how to think about creating content for the full funnel; Daily/weekly marketing ops activities to feed your content engine; How to think about sales materials as part of your content strategy; How to measure your content efforts; How to measure your podcast efforts. 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!

Rob Singer, the CMO at Remitly, a fintech trailblazer in international money transfers, shares his insights on scaling marketing in a 900+ person startup. He discusses the importance of building a strong team culture and the intricacies of adapting marketing strategies across geographies. Rob emphasizes data's complexity and the challenges of interpreting incomplete stories. Additionally, he reveals his daily spreadsheet ritual to track key metrics, and he highlights the shift from static marketing to a more engaging, customer-centric approach.

Dan Frohnen, CMO at Sendoso, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. Sendoso was founded in 2016, they've raised Series B ($54M total), and have ~370 people. Sendoso provides new ways to engage with customers throughout the buyer journey, including with personalized gifts, branded swag, eGifts, Cameos, virtual experiences & more. This directly impacts pipeline and revenue. Here’s what we covered: How to approach gifting prospects effectively (to help with relationship-building, reminders, and just as a nice surprise); What marketing was up to 1.5 years ago when Dan joined a team of 4 people; Why Brand and Demand is synonymous; What the marketing team looks like today (7 distinct groups); How to think about the marketing team vs. SDRs for pipeline coverage; How Sendoso uses an account-based approach involving SDRs, Marketing, and AEs; The customer journey is not linear, but your messaging and value props must be consistent at all touch points; Education creates urgency with prospects; How different companies like Sendoso and Gong are killin' it with engagement/gifting plays; Sendoso's philosophy around marketing - don't focus on the channel, focus on the engagement; Which marketing channels are working really well for Sendoso; How Sendoso uses pillar content and thought leadership which amplifies their organic SEO; How Sendoso leverages their exec team for PR and thought leadership; Dan's approach with his team, to help them feel comfortable with being uncomfortable; Marketing's approach throughout COVID - educate, educate, educate; Creating brand "micro-moments"; Dan's experience at Skedulo (Series A) and hitting revenue milestones to help bring in $28M (Series B); Failures that have helped shaped how Dan leads as CMO. You can find Dan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danielfrohnen Find out more about Sendoso: www.sendoso.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!

Sometimes I like to sprinkle in some raw and unfiltered thoughts.  In this episode I cover: Startups don't have a lot of people, time or money. So how should you think about prioritizing your marketing efforts? I break it down into three parts; 1. Foundation - clean up your house; 2. Owned Channels - create beautiful spaces within your house; 3. Awareness - let people know you have this clean, amazing house; Quick note about the 1-page marketing plan, not being overly complex so that it's useful for you and team; Quick note about the Bullseye Framework from the book Traction for testing marketing channels. 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!

Paige LaNasa, Head of Marketing at Forager, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. Forager was founded in 2018, they've raised Series A ($10M), and they're 75 people strong. Here’s what we covered: Logistics is the backbone of global e-commerce. Millions of dollars of goods move between the US, Mexico and Canada (cross-border). Despite that, it still happens to be a logistical nightmare to move commerce across these countries; What Paige worked on with Forager's marketing efforts in the early days to stand out; The "Make Good Stuff" philosophy around content creation for your target audience; Low hanging marketing fruit, including email marketing and blogging 2-3 times per month, to drive engagement and traffic to the site; You don't need to spend a lot of money on good marketing - it starts with a compelling story and being consistent; The small and nimble marketing team that Paige oversees; Floating resources and how to leverage for the marketing team; How they're using paid search (Google Ads) successfully with a very niche target audience; Diving in a bit deeper on the (painful) experience of shipping goods from the US to Canada or Mexico (or vice versa); The challenge with finding your niche target audience, and potential ways to solve this (HINT: foster a space for them); How COVID has impacted Forager, and how they're thinking about virtual events; Paige's background in marketing and how that has prepared her to head up marketing and build a team at Forager; Your first marketing hire should be a builder vs. steering big ships; Paige has over 400 books (!) and you'll never guess on what topics; The over-reliance on China as a hub of exports, and how companies will need to be more strategic on where they source their goods. More on this here. You can find Paige on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/paige-lanasa Find out more about Forager: www.foragerscs.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!

Nemanja Zivkovic, CEO at Funky Marketing, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. Mixing it up! This episode is a little different. I usually have venture-backed startup founders and marketing leaders come on as guests. This time I brought on a fellow marketing business owner to share his experience and wisdom. Nemanja started Funky Marketing in Jan. 2020, with a total of 6 employees at the time of the conversation. Funky Marketing is based out of Novi Sad, Serbia. They're helping B2B tech companies generate revenue growth, primarily through inbound and content strategies and scale. We covered a lot of juicy stuff, including: The term “agency” vs. “team” to describe the business; Nemanja’s role as CEO at Funky Marketing; Who they look for in their ideal client (3 buckets); The types of packages that Funky Marketing offers to customers; Nemanja’s past experience in B2C and now focusing on B2B (because there’s so much to shake up); Where most clients get marketing and growth wrong (the big challenges that he’s seeing repeatedly); Why to go after SQLs (not MQLs) and how to succeed by building a content machine; The problem with creating a content machine that’s optimized for SEO, and why using social media to have direct conversations with prospects can be more meaningful; Marketing is not sales, so the timeline is not the same; How to shorten the time to close (HINT: use ads); Creating sales and marketing alignment (up to revenue); Starting a marketing company in Serbia - opportunities and challenges; Creating an event for marketers to do everything besides marketing; Tips from Nemanja - read comics to get better at marketing, get used to putting yourself into uncomfortable situations, and more. You can find Nemanja on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zivkovicnemanja Find out more about Funky Marketing: www.funkymarketing.net 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!

Anna McVeigh-Murphy, Marketing Manager at Curacubby, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. Curacubby was founded in 2016, has 20 people, and is based out of Berkeley, CA. They are seed funded and preparing to raise Series A. Curacubby is an integrated business and payments platform for schools of all sizes. School management shouldn’t be a headache. With Curacubby, schools can focus less on administrative tasks and more on the students. Hurray! We covered: How to prove your company’s expertise through podcasting; How podcasting directly impacts followers on social media; Marketing = relationship-building and providing value through education; Being hired as the first marketer at a 20-person startup with a clean slate - what do you start doing; Who else do you bring onto your marketing team; How to use email marketing with a lean team; Being impatient (to 10x your growth) is normal when you’re at a startup; How COVID has impacted Curacubby's audience targeting and their product roadmap; The concept of giving value, building trust, and growing your audience before you ask them to do something; How to think about differentiating your company and offerings in a cluttered market; Feeling stuck in your marketing role and what to do next (including a mindset shift). You can find Anna M. on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/anna-lillian-murphy Find out more about Curacubby: www.curacubby.com For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna F. on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

George Wojciechowski, Co-Founder at ShipBob, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. ShipBob was founded in 2014 and has raised Series D ($130.5M total). Based out of good 'ole Chicago, IL, ShipBob has ~650 people. ShipBob is a tech-enabled 3PL (3rd party logistics) that fulfills e-commerce orders for direct-to-consumer brands. You can outsource your logistics, from warehousing to delivery (and more) so you can focus on other aspects of your business. ShipBob was recently ranked #1 on Crain's Chicago 'Fast List' of the Fastest-Growing Companies in 2020. We covered: What George focuses on now in his role as co-founder of a ~650 person company (versus early-stage); How ShipBob differentiates itself vs. other players; Marketing as an expression of your broader mission and values (going beyond utility and features); How ShipBob incorporates culture and trust throughout the entire customer experience; Structuring of teams (a triangle of Revenue, Ops, and Engineering) including Marketing in more detail; Marketing channels that are working well now, as well as in the early days (hint: lots of low-hanging fruit); COVID impacts on the business - both positive and negative - and how ShipBob has leveraged internal data to provide value to customers; George's intriguing career journey, from equity and derivatives and futures to co-founding ShipBob. You can find George on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/george-wojciechowski-870b814 Find out more about ShipBob: www.shipbob.com Also check out: trends.shipbob.com and carriers.shipbob.com George also talked about: www.pachama.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!

Matt Bendett, Co-Founder and VP of Ops & Strategy at Peerspace, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. Peerspace was founded in 2014 and has raised Series B ($34.8M total). The team was ~85 people at their peak (currently a leaner team due to the impacts of COVID-19). Peerspace is your little black book for finding unique and undiscovered places to meet, create, or celebrate. Whether it’s a photo shoot, birthday bash, pop-up shop, or team brainstorm, Peerspace gives people the keys to our cities’ best spaces. We covered: How to think about marketing through the lens of Simon Sinek's "start with why"; The marketing team's specific roles and responsibilities (at their peak ~85 people); Brand vs. performance marketing - you shouldn't get started on performance-based marketing if you don't have your brand house in order; The marketing channels that are driving the business - SEO, content marketing, paid and community; How Peerspace does content marketing - blogs, resources, whitepaper, user generated content (UGC); Partnering with United - why it made sense to partner and their go-to-market plan specific to the partnership; How Matt is thinking about riding the content creation wave; How company focus (forced from COVID) is more of an opportunity vs. a challenge; Experimentation as part of your overall marketing efforts; Matt's (almost 9 years!) experience at Electronic Arts and the impact on his work at Peerspace; Some introspection and life changes coming out of this crazy year. You can find Matt on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bendett Find out more about Peerspace: www.peerspace.com Find out more about their partnership with United: https://teamtogether.peerspace.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!

MJ Peters, VP of Marketing at Firetrace, joined me on the Modern Startup Marketing podcast. We covered: MJ's talent at challenging industrial companies to think differently about marketing; Marketing's focus shifting from trade-shows and sales enablement to driving strategy, segmentation, positioning and demand gen; A unique team structure that includes product marketers focused on specific customer segments; How to use LinkedIn ads effectively; How to think about and test PR successfully at a startup (HINT: think of it as a content channel); Why it makes sense to continuously talk to customers in non-sales scenarios; Building out your team with "generalists" vs. "specialists"; How to integrate your marketing across channels and teams; How to know when to stop testing a marketing channel (keep it or kill it) (HINT: use small data); Small marketing teams may not want to place their bets on virtual events or webinars. MJ Peters is VP of Marketing at Firetrace, founded in 2001 and acquired by Halma PLC in 2015 for $110M. The team is 75 people strong. Firetrace creates fire suppression systems that keep businesses, people, and equipment safe by automatically detecting & suppressing fires. You can find MJ on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mjpeters1 Find out more about Firetrace: www.firetrace.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!