Marketing Spark (The B2B SaaS Marketing Podcast)

B2B and SaaS companies are scrambling to find ways to connect with prospects and customers at a time when in-person conferences aren't happening. Some companies are attempting to replicate the in-person experience but many of these efforts are, at best, mediocre. Clio, which offers software to law firms, however, appears to have discovered the recipe for success. Its recent virtual conference attracted 4,500 paid (yes, paid!) attendees from 46 countries. In this Marketing Spark episode, Clio's Alex Shipillo offers a behind-the-scenes look into: - why and how the event was so successful - why it charged people to attend, and - what one sponsor did to make an impact. 

Entrepreneurship is sexy and compelling. You call your own shots. You're the master/mistress of your own domain. It's an ideal way to make a living. Well, that's the perception. The reality is that entrepreneurship is stressful. It's a 24/7 activity that takes blood, sweat, and tears. In this episode of Marketing Spark, Luc Bohunicky and I explore the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, and what entrepreneurs must do to develop products and attract an audience.

In the B2B landscape, data dominates and, arguably, makes marketers less creative and interesting. Decisions are heavily (overly?) influenced by KPIs and metrics. The numbers don’t lie, right? But here’s something exciting (at least to me): B2B companies are starting to rediscover the value of brand and branding. In a noisy, ultra-competitive landscape, it is critical to stand out from the crowd. A brand has to be differentiated, compelling, memorable, and interesting. Otherwise, you’re just another company battling for attention, even if your product is amazing. Karen O’Mahoney says many B2B companies are starting to focus on the fundamentals and what really makes them different. They’re focusing on how they want customers, prospects, and employees to see the brand and what it offers. Karen, CEO of Brandlucent, says developing a brand strategy is not a one-and-done exercise. It’s about making sure that a brand evolves and changes as a company grows, pursues new opportunities and markets. Your brand should be your “North Star” that propels your company forward and allows you to boldly and distinctly stand out from the crowd.

2020 has been a big year for LinkedIn. The social media platform now has more than 720 million users globally. It has transformed into a platform dominated by content and connections rather than a place where HR professionals troll for talent and people look for new opportunities. In short order, many people have decided to embrace LinkedIn as the social platform to drive their personal profiles and careers. From doubling-down on the platform over the past seven months, I've seen first-hand the power of LinkedIn to drive my fractional CMO business. I've made new connections with people around the world and had dozens of conversations, including Camille Trent, a brand and digital marketing specialist with Texas Citizens Bank. I reached out to Camille because she has established an engaged following since jumping hard into LinkedIn in August. I want to learn first-hand about how someone leverages LinkedIn effectively.

In an ultra-competitive marketplace, brand differentiation can be the difference between attracting customers and going out of business. In this episode of Marketing Spark, Peep Laja talks about why brand differentiation matters and why companies are afraid to stand apart from the crowd. He also looks at the growing attraction of outsourcing marketing, something Peep describes as "vendor management". 

Sadly, most virtual events are terrible. For whatever reason, virtual events have been unable to replicate in-person conferences, which likely won't happen for another six to 12 months, conservatively speaking. But Narrative Science has cracked the nut. Its most recent virtual event attracted 3,000 (yes, 3,000 registrations). In this Marketing Spark episode, Cassidy Shield, Narrative Science's VP, Marketing, talks about how the company has approached virtual events and made them a core part of its marketing activities.  

In an age of video and photos, words don't get the respect they deserve. Words aren't sexy or glitzy.  But they do matter. Words provide the information, the context, and the guidance for customers to take action. In this episode, I talk with Eden Bidani, a conversion copywriter for SaaS, tech, and direct to consumer brands. One of the things that struck me is Eden's suggestion that the best copy takes time to create and a lot of the time is not writing, but research. 

Every company (well, most companies) wants to tell stories that engage, entertain, educate, and encourage. It's what drives and differentiates their marketing and sales. But developing and delivering stories that make an impact is a challenge. In this episode of Marketing Spark, Jordan Bower and I take an in-depth look at how companies can approach storytelling and why storytelling has everything to do with the customers and the experiences that a product or brand delivers.

You hear a lot of talk about category creation and category design. The terms are often intermingled. In this episode of Marketing Spark, John Rougeux goes into depth about what category design involves and the features it delivers to companies looking to differentiate what they do to drive marketing and sales. Rougeux, VP, Marketing Strategy at BombBomb, provides first-hand insight into how to implement a category design process and, as important, how to get key stakeholders on board. BombBomb is video email platform for medium and large enterprise companies.

Google's algorithm changes on a regular basis, which keeps marketers on their toes and SEO experts happily employed. On this episode of the Marketing Spark podcast, Huckabuy's Geoff Atkinson talks about the impact that Google's next major update, Page Experience, will have on content marketing and SEO.  On the podcast, Geoff and I talked about how B2B companies need to look beyond keyword optimization to drive SEO. They need to focus on technical elements such as dynamic rendering, page speed, and structured data. We also talked about why many companies are wasting time and money on content marketing.