“What we found is that if we talk to the customer…it actually drove the conversion back up…The average answer rate for a ‘branded call’ is almost 30%.” Alex Levin is Co-Founder and CEO of Regal Voice. He leads the GTM teams. Prior to Regal Voice, Alex was a product manager at Personal and Thomson Reuters, and then joined Handy (acquired by ANGI in 2018) as an early employee. At Handy and then ANGI Alex led growth and marketing. Alex grew up in New York and received his BA from Harvard. Questions and topics covered include: The key differences between working on growth marketing vs product marketing The new challenges marketers face as they gain more responsibility in a company What is Regal.io? Defining “phone marketing” and at what stage in the buyer’s journey can it be used How can businesses best utilize phone marketing? Why should brands have conversations with their customers? The differences between phone marketing vs cold calling And more! Happy 3rd birthday to the podcast! It’s crazy to think that I’ve been hosting this podcast for 36 months now… You can connect with Alex on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlevin1/ You can say hello to me on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/ Our Podcast Partner - MarketerHire If you’re looking to hire expert freelance talent this year to scale your business (and impress your boss), check out MarketerHire. MarketerHire vets freelance talent so when you hire an SEO expert, Email Marketer, or even a Fractional CMO—you’re not wasting your money or your time. You can hire your first freelancer and get a $500 credit by visiting: www.kennysoto.com/hire 

“Turns out it’s a lot more difficult to get other people to talk about you, compared to you just pulling up a Google Doc and creating a piece of content…” Farzad Rashidi is the lead innovator at Respona (https://respona.com/), the link-building outreach platform that helps businesses increase their organic traffic from Google. He previously ran the marketing efforts at Visme, where he helped the company gain over 18 million active users and pass 3.5M monthly organic traffic. Questions and topics we covered include: The common  challenges that the 1st marketing hire of a startup has Why is it difficult to build organic traffic? How can SEO marketers justify budget allocation for their work? What is Respona? How Farzad describes link building to someone who doesn’t work in SEO or content marketing Is link building still useful? What's an ideal link building strategy and what does a healthy backlink profile look like? Does domain authority still matter? Does guest posting still work? How to maintain and sustain relationships with publishers? What does the future of link building look like? And more! Say hi to Farzad on Twitter -  https://twitter.com/The_Farzad Say hi to Farzad on LinkedIn -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/farzadrashidi/ Check out Farzad’s GREAT newsletter - https://www.farzadrashidi.com Connect with me on LinkedIn too - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/ Our Podcast Partner - MarketerHire If you’re looking to hire expert freelance talent this year to scale your business (and impress your boss), check out MarketerHire. MarketerHire vets freelance talent so when you hire an SEO expert, Email Marketer, or even a Fractional CMO—you’re not wasting your money or your time. You can hire your first freelancer and get a $500 credit by visiting: www.kennysoto.com/hire 

“Brand positioning is much more than a marketing exercise…it underpins the entire organization.” Mark Evans is the principal with Marketing Spark, which offers fractional CMO and strategic advisory services to B2B SaaS companies. Mark's areas of expertise include brand positioning, messaging, and content-driven growth plans. Mark has a podcast and recently published the second edition of his DIY marketing book, “Marketing Spark.” Questions and topics we covered included: Defining what brand positioning is for B2B SaaS companies Who’s supposed to own brand positioning? How to effectively execute brand positioning Who should own brand governance within a company? How to use internal marketing to aid in brand governance Why addressing switching costs is the biggest challenge SaaS companies face when promoting their products Why the commoditization of content should be a concern for all marketing teams How to create useful buyer personas? And more! Mark’s B2B Positioning Guide (PDF): https://www.kennysoto.com/Mark-Evans-Guide-PODM-Ep-127  Say hi to Mark via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markev/ Say hello to me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/ Our Podcast Partner - MarketerHire If you’re looking to hire expert freelance talent this year to scale your business (and impress your boss), check out MarketerHire. MarketerHire vets freelance talent so when you hire an SEO expert, Email Marketer, or even a Fractional CMO—you’re not wasting your money or your time. You can hire your first freelancer and get a $500 credit by visiting: www.kennysoto.com/hire 

“Marketing touches every part of the business. Marketing is…equally as important to sales organizations as ‘sales’ itself.” Justin Mink has spent a career in leadership and founder roles at companies that have grown from 0-1000s of employees, raised millions of dollars in capital, and that have been valued at over $1B. In 2007 he moved to Dallas from the Washington, D.C. area to launch the Franchise Division at digital marketing firm ReachLocal, helping take the company public while pioneering digital marketing best practices for franchise brands. Today, as a Professional Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) Implementer, he helps entrepreneurs and leadership teams solve root problems and lead more effectively through a simple set of proven, practical tools. He lives near White Rock Lake with his wife, Kate, son, Jude, and a very old and well-fed dog named Titan. Questions and topics we covered include: What is the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)? The difference between a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) What you need to know as a marketer to eventually become a CRO What it takes to be an internal leader (an intraprenuer) at a company The definition of a leader that nobody wants to follow and the signs that you’re working for a bad leader How does a degrading company culture change performance over time? What should marketing candidates be doing to impress recruiters and hiring managers? And more! You can connect with Justin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinmink/ You can also connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/ You learn more about Justin’s services here: https://www.eosworldwide.com/justin-mink Our Podcast Partner - MarketerHire If you’re looking to hire expert freelance talent this year to scale your business (and impress your boss), check out MarketerHire. MarketerHire vets freelance talent so when you hire an SEO expert, Email Marketer, or even a Fractional CMO—you’re not wasting your money or your time. You can hire your first freelancer and get a $500 credit by visiting: www.kennysoto.com/hire

“Everything we do just goes back to helping, and if we just do that authentically we know that…the value will come back to us.” Chelsea is a former journalist turned empathy-driven marketer who leads content marketing at Lavender. Her 11+ year career spans diverse industries, from agencies to publishing, branding to SaaS. She draws on her multi-faceted experience and journalistic roots in her content approach and principles, which are hyper-focused on human-centered marketing. She was also the Director of Content Marketing at Chili Piper back in 2022. Questions and topics we covered include: When is the right time to do a career pivot? The competitive advantage journalists have when switching over into a marketing career. Should marketers be worried about AI replacing them? (Here’s where Chelsea explains what Human centered-marketing and AI looks like) The evolution of content marketing teams this year… When to recruit content marketers and Chelsea’s approach to recruiting How B2B organizations can dive into the world of video How the Lavender team uses Lavender How to scale engagement on LinkedIn when growing a personal brand? And more! Our Podcast Partner - MarketerHire If you’re looking to hire expert freelance talent this year to scale your business (and impress your boss), check out MarketerHire. MarketerHire vets freelance talent so when you hire an SEO expert, Email Marketer, or even a Fractional CMO—you’re not wasting your money or your time. You can hire your first freelancer and get a $500 credit by visiting: ⁠www.kennysoto.com/hire⁠  Say hi to Chelsea on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseacastle/ Say hi to Chelsea on Twitter - https://twitter.com/ChelseaCastle Connect with me on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/ Check out Lavender here - https://www.lavender.ai

Here’s a special episode for all of you lovely marketers out there! In this interview, I chat with my mentor Maurice Bretzfield about AI and how marketers can get started using tools like ChatGPT. Maurice is an AI and Marketing Consultant. He helps organizations increase revenue and decrease costs using the power of AI and MarTech.  Maurice has been a digital marketer for nearly three decades and today enjoys working with organizations to integrate MarTech into their marketing strategies and operations. He is the founder of digiquation.io, a Digital Marketing Consultancy and publisher of content about MarTech.  He is also the co-founder of digiquationHIRE, an outsourcing firm dedicated to supporting marketing teams with highly trained and affordable remote employees. Topics we discussed include:  The evolution of AI and ChatGPT technology Crafting effective ChatGPT prompts: how to unlock the power of conversational AI AI, ChatGPT, and image generators: transforming marketing with intelligent creativity What is the role of AI in a marketer's career? Utilizing remote employees to power up your marketing efforts while increasing efficiency and reducing costs And more! You can learn more about Maurice’s services here - digiquation.io Connect with Maurice via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretzfield/ If you enjoyed listening to this episode, don’t forget to check out Maurice’s first appearance on the podcast here - https://www.kennysoto.com/podcast/interview-with-maurice-bretzfield-the-man-who-introduced-me-to-digital-marketing-ep-50/ Resources he mentioned on the podcast: The AI Warehouse - https://www.thewarehouse.ai Feedly - https://feedly.com Search Engine Land - https://searchengineland.com

“The word ‘manager’ can take on a lot of different formats…there’s a lot of different ways to seek out leadership opportunities.”  Trisha Gallagher is a marketing strategist and mentor with nearly 15 years of experience in planning and executing successful marketing programs. Having held various roles in marketing both in-house and agency-side, Trisha brings a unique perspective to her role as VP of Marketing at Marketri, an outsourced marketing and fractional CMO firm. She empowers B2B companies to achieve predictable, profitable growth through data-driven marketing programs and guides her clients from brand strategy development to the execution of high-impact campaigns. In addition to her dedication to her clients, Trisha is passionate about mentoring young marketers and helping them achieve their goals. Questions and topics we covered included: Comparing where’s the best place to start your marketing career—at an agency vs in-house vs a consulting firm Marketing strategy vs marketing plans What is sector-based marketing?  The concept of fractional marketing The age-old battle of finding sales and marketing alignment How to handle feedback (both providing and receiving)? Differences in responsibility as you move up in leadership roles within a marketing department And more! You can connect with Trisha via LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/trishagallagher/ You can find Trisha’s content here -  https://marketri.com/author-trisha-gallagher/ Connect with me on LinkedIn -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto

“66% of websites don’t need to do SEO. There’s no reason that they should bother.” Eli Schwartz is a seasoned SEO expert and consultant with over a decade of experience, helping prominent B2B and B2C companies like WordPress, Shutterstock, and Zendesk drastically enhance their organic visibility. Formerly leading SEO at SurveyMonkey, he boosted organic search to become a major growth driver.  An accomplished speaker and author of the book “Product Led SEO”, Eli’s insights regularly appear in top industry publications and events, and he serves as a judge for prestigious awards like the US Search Awards and UK Search Awards. Questions and topics we covered include: February 24th, 2010—How Google’s Panda update changed Eli’s career Why Eli doesn’t pay attention to Google algorithm updates (the answer is all about UX) Why marketers shouldn’t focus too much on page speed The common misconceptions about SEO How long does SEO take to see results? The basics between editorial vs programmatic SEO The right method for building an SEO forecast Does domain authority still matter? The core skills you need to have before you start your first SEO job And more! Relevant  Links: Find Eli on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartze/ Find Eli on Twitter - https://twitter.com/5le  Check out his Substack newsletter - https://productledseo.substack.com/ His book, Product-Led SEO - https://amzn.to/4109eQo Eli’s new “SEO Growth Strategy and Content Planning” Course - https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/3824-seo-growth-strategy-and-content-planning/elischwartz And you can say hi to me on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/ Our Podcast Partner - MarketerHire If you’re looking to hire expert freelance talent this year to scale your business (and impress your boss), check out MarketerHire. MarketerHire vets freelance talent so when you hire an SEO expert, Email Marketer, or even a Fractional CMO—you’re not wasting your money or your time. You can hire your first freelancer and get a $500 credit by visiting: www.kennysoto.com/hire 

"A good well-rounded CMO is going to be someone who understands the full buyer's journey...the full marketing-sales funnel." As a Fractional CMO and GTM Strategist, Corey brings a 25-year track record of extraordinary success as an entrepreneur, sales leader, and CMO for a $150M+ agency called Scorpion (where he was the 1st marketing hire and grew the team to 30 people before leaving). Today, he helps B2B SaaS and Agencies grow from 7 figures to 8 by doing less, not more. Questions and topics we covered include: How Corey grew Scorpion from $20M ARR to $150M ARR within 6 years The importance of an MBA The benefits that experience in sales brings to a marketer’s career How CMOs are measured by the CEO (top-line growth) The qualities a CMO looks for when they’re recruiting for the marketing team How does misalignment at the executive level trickle down and affect ICs and mid-level managers on the marketing team? How do you go about creating predictable word of mouth for your agency? Why should marketers stop saying “yes” to their clients? When is it appropriate to push back? Retention…why is it such a struggle to grow this metric? The transition from IC to leader to advisor And more! Say hello to Corey on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreyquinn/ Check out his podcast here - https://www.coreyquinn.com/podcasts/the-vertical-go-to-market-podcast And he has a newsletter - https://www.coreyquinn.com/newsletter You can connect with me on LinkedIn too - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto  Our Podcast Partner - MarketerHire If you’re looking to hire expert freelance talent this year to scale your business (and impress your boss), check out MarketerHire. MarketerHire vets freelance talent so when you hire an SEO expert, Email Marketer, or even a Fractional CMO—you’re not wasting your money or your time. You can hire your first freelancer and get a $500 credit by visiting: www.kennysoto.com/hire 

“If you can understand business, it will make you a better marketer.” JC Polonia is the Head of Growth at LOOP, a car insurance company based out of Austin, Texas, that takes biased and discriminatory data out of the industry. He’s also the founder of Digitality, a New York-based performance and production marketing agency. From local small businesses to venture-backed companies, JC developed his chops for growth marketing from the grassroots. Data-driven and results-oriented, his efforts revolve around paid media buying and conversion rate optimization. Questions and topics we covered include: How to pitch marketing services to local businesses using side hustles Why the marketing agency still works as a business model The benefits of working in-house instead of working at an agency How JC defines what a growth team actually does (hint: it’s not just media buying) Why should marketers understand both the company’s brand and the company’s business fundamentals? The importance of knowing what stage your company is in What does it mean to be “resourceful” as a marketer? The challenges of being a people manager? How to approach internal marketing with the CEO and CFO? And more! Say hello to JC via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcpolonia/ And say hi via Instagram (his reels are great) - https://www.instagram.com/jc.polonia/ And connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/ Our Podcast Partner - MarketerHire If you’re looking to hire expert freelance talent this year to scale your business (and impress your boss), check out MarketerHire. MarketerHire vets freelance talent so when you hire an SEO expert, Email Marketer, or even a Fractional CMO—you’re not wasting your money or your time. You can hire your first freelancer and get a $500 credit by visiting: www.kennysoto.com/hire