Marketing Spark (The B2B SaaS Marketing Podcast)

To gate or not to gate, that is the question. Should prospects cough up an email address to access content? It’s a question that I’ve asked many marketers in recent months. And most of them believe that gated content is disappearing. In theory, gated content is a great way to attract MQLs and justifying/quantifying marketing investments. In practice, however, getting email addresses is increasingly challenging. On the Marketing Spark podcast, Jonathan Bland suggests that marketers need to look at content differently. Rather than it being about email farming, the focus should be brand awareness and funnel development. “It’s about getting maximum reach,” Jonathan says. The decision to un-gate can be a difficult pill to swallow but the digital marketing landscape has changed. There’s so much good content that a company simply can’t afford to create a barrier or friction.

When marketing fails to perform, a frenzy of fixes happens. It’s about tactical optimization and doing things differently. But often marketers are addressing symptoms, not root problems. Sometimes, bad marketing is caused by a rotten foundation. Marketing execution stumbles when it’s not underpinned properly. Michelle Tresemer describes this problem as “compounding defects”, a term that she borrowed from the construction industry. Compounding defects happen when there is no strategic vision or purpose. This leads to marketing that isn’t focused, structured, or aligned. Michelle says that “by the time you to tactics, there are no guardrails or no direction. Everyone is just doing what they think is best and it doesn't work”.  In the physical world, compounding defects is what happens when a skyscraper’s foundations are slightly off.  As the building is constructed the foundational flaws are magnified and exacerbated. In the marketing world, compounding defects can involve a lack of leads or sales, or content that a CMO finds difficult to approve because it’s somehow off the mark.

In many organizations, marketing and sales operate in silos. Sales complains that marketing delivers crappy leads while marketing claims sales can't close deals. In an ideal world, sales and marketing operate as a cohesive team that collaborates to effectively attract and engage prospects. On the Marketing Spark podcast, April Palmer provides insight into how startups and entrepreneurs can create powerful marketing and sales teams. As well, she talks about the mistakes that many companies make when hiring a sales leader, and how to build a sales organization in the right way. For companies looking for sales help, April has advice on how to hire a third-party sales organization.

In the software world, agile has been around for many years. It's how software is developed more efficiently and iteratively. But agile is also being embraced by organizations looking to make their marketing more successful. Michael Seaton says agile fundamentally changes how marketer think and work.  It's about making marketing more structured, focused and effective. It's about giving marketing teams the psychological safety to test and learn without getting sent to the penalty box if they make mistakes.

As more B2B brands embrace content marketing as the way to engage, educate, and connect with prospects and customers, it's becoming increasingly difficult to break through and stand out. In this episode of Marketing Spark, Brad Smith, CEO with Wordable, offers in-depth insight into: How companies should approach content marketing The importance of focusing on keywords that can be ranked for in the short term. How to build a content marketing team and how to assess its performance How to never run out of content ideas How to effectively distribution content once it's been published.

One of the most interesting parts of the B2B marketing landscape is watching marketers do their own marketing. I see a lot of it on LinkedIn – my social media platform of choice. There are marketers who create text posts, videos, carousels, and, of course, polls. But, believe it or not, there is life beyond LinkedIn for B2B marketers. And one of the more intriguing places is TikTok. Yeah, TikTok. It’s no longer just a social media platform for goofy videos but a place where B2B marketers can successfully leverage. A marketer who appears to have cracked TikTok is Stephen Pope, who runs SGP Labs in L.A. In this episode of Marketing Spark, Stephen talks about why he embraced TikTok and his tactical approach to making videos that attract prospects.

Being an early adopter is not easy. There is a risk to embrace a platform or product that isn't popular or perhaps not ready for prime time. In 2017, Michael David Chapman walked away from his job.  With no backup plan, he started to post on LinkedIn - sometimes three or four times a day - about his personal and professional challenges. This is way before LinkedIn emerged as a vibrant content platform. As an early adopter, Michael capitalized on a huge opportunity by doing what other people weren't doing. His posts generated huge audiences and Michael has attracted 276,000 followers. In this episode of Marketing Spark, we talk about Michael's LinkedIn journey and how he sees the platform evolving.  We also do a rapid-fire session on all things LinkedIn.

Can you feel the marketing pendulum swinging back to the basics? For years, the focus has been data, KPIs, and quantifying anything under the sun. But marketing success happens in different and sometimes mysterious ways.  Some of it is measured while other marketing isn’t directly attributable.  Many marketers have embraced data because there are so many tools to access analytics and insights, scale, and automate processes. When technology makes it easy to reach a global audience, it’s easy to not spend as much time on fundamentals or first principles. But it appears like marketers are starting to focus more on fundamentals. In my business, I’m seeing more interest in positioning and messaging. Zineb Layachi said technology makes marketers forget about the reality they are trying to connect with people. While tools allow marketers to amplify their efforts, she says the marketing pillars are important. “How can you connect with target audiences and do marketing? What makes an impact?  People are at the center of that. I keep talking about the fundamentals when you get the fundamentals right, you scale on solid foundations.” 

How do you scale a marketing team at a hyper-growth company? It’s definitely a nice problem to have. Who wouldn’t want to ride a rocket? Managing growth is a major challenge for Ruth Zive, who has led marketing at Ada for nearly three years. Earlier this year, the Toronto-based company raised $130 million. Ruth, who has headed up marketing at Ada for nearly three years, says momentum and capital have allowed her to take a different approach to marketing,  “We have the wind in our sails and we are well-capitalized. So, now we can take a breath and be a lot more thoughtful and strategic about the future,” Ruth said on my podcast. “In the past, we would make decisions from month to month. Now, we very deliberately planning for one or two years out.”  

Sadly, most marketers don’t really know their customers. They have buyer personas and ideal customer profiles. But these tools barely scratch the surface. The only way to know your customers is to talk to them. Yet many marketers don’t do it because: - They claim to have no time - They have bigger priorities - They’re afraid doing hard work - They don’t get why it matters That’s not good enough. Ryan Gibson not only believes in the value of talking to customers, but he pivoted his consulting business to focus on “customer investigations”. It is insightful and often surprising, he says, what customers and prospects will tell you if you ask them questions.