Marketing To Win

Stop over complicating what it takes to get to know your prospects/customers.

Here are 5 ways I do it:

It's not hard.

Just takes focus🙂

#marketing

You will probably only read one, maybe two posts on Linkedin today that actually bring you value.

You'll likely "react" to 5-10 posts.

This true?

Why is this? Why "react" to posts that the end of the day don't provide that much value?

The most valuable posts don't always get reactions. I'm seeing this gap in a lot of people's personal brands (my own included).

There are a few marketers that are ELITE writers. They can put together copy that all but forces you to hit that like button.

But the content gets stale.

Overtime, it doesn't do much for me.

And yet I still come back, because the nuggets of wisdom from people that ARE giving me value are worth it.

For the record, I don't think I'm quite in that full value space, but I'm trying to get there.

#marketing

I know that a lot of people say small companies shouldn't worry about building brand.

That you need to just get the lead motion going.

Sure but.... like... how else are you getting leads?

The only possible explanation I can imagine is ads.

Sure if you have tens of thousands of dollars give to you by a VC firm to throw at advertising, I guess you can do that.

But some small companies don't have that kind of money.

So how else you gonna do it?

SEO? Well that takes a bit of time, and not all your content can be high intent search terms...

And when your new site content is created, how are you gonna distribute it?

How else will you build trust, that encourages people to look at you, know your product, and then come to you when you're ready?

So unless you're talking about advertising, the "lead motion" IS building brand.

Please, tell me why I'm wrong.

#marketing

You don't need any kind of complex attribution software to give you enough information.

I've built all of CloudApp's attribution without it.

Here's what I did.

I made sure there was a "Lead Source" field and a "Lead Source Original" field on contact records. Original is updated when the contact is created, "lead source" is updated with every new key marketing engagement.

Opportunities are created off the contact records (think Salesforce CRM), and when that happens both the values in the lead source fields are mapped to equivalent fields on the opportunity.

Our sales cycle is pretty fast, so Lead Source becomes last touch and Original becomes first touch.

In order to make reports work, when an opportunity is created I have automation to make sure that the contact record is automatically added as  a role to the opportunity.

This is necessary because the activities from those contacts can now be tied to opportunities.

And now I can split the funnel.

I build reports on opportunities with contact roles that have the marketing activities that define our MQLs (high intent form submissions and chat).

I can then get total MQL activities generated, number of opportunities generated after those activities, and opportunities won after those activities.

And I now have split the funnel with probabilities and values for each of my forms.

I know how much they're worth, and the probability I have that a new submission will lead to revenue.

We're small and growing so we don't want to get bogged down with complexity.

With this information you've got more than enough to really start executing.

Would you agree?

#marketing

When I think about metrics that matter to marketing (in a PLG company), here is what comes to mind.

Net new pipeline (marketing sourced):

As a marketer, I want to make sure that whatever I'm sending to the sales team is leading to pipeline. This is obvious. Yet the focus on this number rather than leads or MQLs is critical. Keeps me focused on the right stuff.

Net new self serve revenue:

This number is extremely important to me. This fuels a lot of the B2B motion, and so working closely with the product team to improve of how much self serve revenue we drive (Signup -> Purchase) is something I'm always thinking about

MQLs:

Look, MQLs get a bad rap. And they should honestly, because they are too often manipulated to show big numbers. MQLs should have a strict definition.... Buyers with admitted high intent (meaning they filled out a form or chat or call that says they are ready to talk to sales) that match your ICP. This is the precursor to pipeline.

You have a different metric you focus on?

#marketing

One of the hardest things about content marketing is, well, actually creating the content.

We all like to think about strategy, ideas.

But when the rubber meets the road and we actually have to create it... many of us fall short. (Or is it just me? 😅)

It requires a lot of writing.

Sometimes about topics that aren't particularly your favorite.

It requires a lot of design.

It requires a lot of editing. Like, a ton.

It requires a lot of process, and dedication, and discipline, and consistency.

And so while it's fun to create ideas, think of content types and strategies, dream up amazing possibilities of virality in certain channels...

You still gotta create it.

#marketing

I've been an email marketer for a decent amount of time now (6+ years)

And I take most email metrics lightly.

Here's how I think open rates, click rates, and other email metrics should be analyzed.

Open rates: Taken very very lightly... At face value, the difference between an 18% open rate and a 30% open rate don't mean much to me. There are lots of determining factors like size of the list, outcome desired, type of content in the email, etc...

The open rate anyways is pretty inaccurate, likely under stated.  As inbox providers block more of that information from return to email senders, it will be less reliable.

So you should be looking at trends, comparisons to make your evaluation. If an automated email has a 22% open rate, that's not a red flag. But if it used to generate a 30% open rate and now it's at a 22% open rate... that's a red flag.

Click rates: This I also take lightly... because what you probably want to look at more closely are visits to the page you are sending people to. You'll learn some very interesting things like if your site is slow and people are dropping off before they get there, if the content you have on the page was worth the extra time (time on page), etc.

Spam Rates: Whatever is in your email tool is also understated. Gmail does not provide a user specific feedback loop for spam, so in order to see spam rates with gmail included, you need to set up Post-master tools

Bounce Rate: I again would look at trends here. You can use it as a measure of whether or not your incoming contacts are high quality or not (first email).

Any unique ways you approach looking at email metrics?

#marketing

I'm thinking about building a digital product. (I've actually already kinda got it built)

Not a course, or guide, but a template to basic attribution reporting, without much of a tech stack.

It gives you first touch, last touch, and split out funnel conversion metrics.

The sheets would all be pre built, with instructions on how to build the reports to fill them in.

All you'd have to do is load in your own data, make sure the pre-built formulas reference the right sheets, and BOOM, you've got it all.

Would anyone be interested in this?

#marketing

The Marketing Lifecycle:

What did I miss?

#marketing

Someone asked me last week whether email was a good channel for their business.

Part of me wanted to say yes.

Part of me wanted to say no. And that triggered a thought:

People will likely consume content in whatever channel delivers them the most value.

Certainly, people have preferences to certain channels, but over the course of the last 15 years we've all adopted new channels of delivery.

So I'm not convinced that if something good is in a channel I don't consume now, that I wouldn't in the future.

For example, there are very few email newsletters I read with consistently

It's not because I hate email.

But it's just that I haven't found someone that delivers content that really impacts my work in that medium.

I've found much more of that on Linkedin. If someone was able to put the same quality together, and deliver it through email, I might very well adjust my content consumption.

You agree with this?

Are people willing to adjust which channels they consume content on?

#marketing