Episode Summary

In this episode of Sunny Side Up, Katharine Noonan interviews Erik Kostelnik on thriving in the MarTech space. Erik underscores the critical need to build customer-centric brands, carefully balance marketing investments, and prioritise hiring skilled marketers for storytelling and brand development. He highlights the importance of creating a human-first brand strategy that values customer engagement and relationships. He advises marketers to cut through the noise of the marketplace. He underscores the value of hiring skilled marketers who craft compelling stories and develop brands that listen and respond to customer needs.

About the Guest

Erik Kostelnik is a serial entrepreneur, professor, and investor with over 15 years of experience building and scaling technology companies in the B2B space. He is the founder and CEO of Postal, an offline marketing automation platform and marketplace that helps personalise, automate, and scale direct mail, internal and external events, branded company swag, and personalised gifts. 

Connect with Erik Kostelnik

Key Takeaways

- Cultivate a brand that resonates with and delights customers, encourages sharing, and integrates seamlessly with users' systems to foster organic growth and customer loyalty.

- Allocate marketing spending strategically between digital and physical outreach for balanced engagement.

- Focus on increasing conversion rates by innovating within typically underutilised channels.

- Prioritise hiring talented marketers to build a strong brand and tell compelling stories.

- Listen to customers and partners to become adept problem solvers and improve your offerings.

- Integrate customer interactions with brand-building efforts to showcase real value and foster loyalty.

- Aim to transform every product experience into a potential user acquisition channel.

- Focus on problem-solving and adding genuine customer value, which builds brand loyalty.

- In challenging economic times, selectively target a customer base with transparent, addressable needs.

- View human capital as the bedrock of your business and prioritise hiring individuals who align with your brand’s mission and values.

- Develop a human-first brand strategy that prioritises customer relationships and personal engagement.

- Prioritise direct feedback from customers to tailor the technology to their journey.

Quotes

“You’ve got to hire great marketers. We believe in brands, great marketers, and in telling good stories. Part of our development of Postal has always been to be the best storytellers out there and listen to our customers.” – Erik Kostelnik

Recommended Resource

Podcast – Taking Flight: GTM Experiments From Today's Top Leaders

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Paperback by Walter Isaacson

Shout-Outs

Manny Medina – CEO of Outreach

Henry Schuck – CEO & Founder of ZoomInfo

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