Modern Startup Marketing

I had Devin Bramhall, CEO of Animalz, join me for this episode to talk about content marketing - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Devin is CEO of Animalz, a content marketing agency based out of NYC. Customers include enterprise companies, startups, and VC firms.

Before Animalz, Devin was Director of Content at Help Scout (Series B SaaS startup). She's also the former Executive Director of Boston Content, the largest community group and career development resource for content marketers in Boston.

Here's what we hit on:

How has the concept of content marketing changed (or not) over time;

Devin's journey from VP to CEO of the agency;

Companies are trying to lead with their thought leadership, to create new and unique content - but how do you do this successfully?

To create really good content, you need to analyze what's happening in your arena and write deeply about it;

Do you need to hire a writer with domain expertise?

What does "founder brand" mean and how can it work as a strategy;

How should startups structure their content marketing for success;

Hire a marketing leader first, and outsource your marketing execution (if you hire a team that reports to the founder, they'll suck up a lot of time);

About Animalz - who you help and what you help with;

Focus on consistency vs. stunts even though it seems less sexy;

Produce content with a "limited series" mindset vs. the volume play and see how much better your content will be;

How do you stay creative?

You can reach Devin on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall

Find out more about Animalz: www.animalz.co

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

I recently spoke with Nadia Masri, founder and CEO at Perksy (for 6+ years). Prior to that, she was co-founder and CMO at foursixty (a digital marketing platform for e-commerce retailers).

She's Forbes 30 Under 30. She's CNBC's Top 100. She's also a TEDx Speaker. And now, she's building the next gen of consumer insights.

Perksy was founded in 2015, has 24 people, and is based out of NYC. It's a next-gen market intelligence platform that leverages the power of mobile to drive real-time insights from hyper targeted, hyperlocal audiences of Millennials & Gen-Z. With their mobile-first surveys, your company can drive research with younger audiences at unprecedented scale. Customers include Airbnb, Pepsi, and Ogilvy.

Here's what we hit on:

There are other players. How do you successfully differentiate your company + solution in your space;

Your customers NOW believe you're high-quality (because they became your customers), but how do you actually use that knowledge as part of your marketing efforts for new prospects that "won't believe it until they see it";

What are some big and important marketing/content trends you're seeing today (HINT: trends are not as important as knowing who your customer is and where they spend their time);

Tell me more about Perksy's "COVID 19 Pulse" (HINT: internal data that tripled their business during COVID);

What marketing channels are working the best for Perksy right now (HINT: the focus is on organic, and we take a very human approach to marketing, so being on podcasts and speaking on stage is a big part of it, content also plays a big part);

What are some bad recommendations you've heard floating around that relate to startups and marketing?

You can reach Nadia on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nadiagenevievemasri

Find out more about Perksy: www.getperksy.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Andy Raskin is the master of strategic narrative.

Andy helps CEOs align their teams around a strategic narrative — to power success in sales, marketing, fundraising, product and recruiting. Clients include VC-backed companies funded by Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Google Ventures, First Round Capital, and other top investors. He has also led strategic narrative training at Salesforce, Uber, Square, Yelp, VMware, Intel, General Assembly and more.

Here's what we cover:

Why Andy decided to invite his mom to co-create LinkedIn video clips;

What does "strategic narrative" mean exactly, and how is it different from our traditional approach to "positioning";

What questions you should be asking customers to help craft your strategic narrative (HINT: they're not about your product);

What's the difference between "creating a category" and "creating a movement";

Why is your startup’s “origin story” not the same as your “strategic narrative”;

So you want to create your strategic narrative - where do you start? What are the most important steps?

Not every business is there to "help you play a new game". For more established companies that want to re-invent themselves, what do they need to do?

What led Andy to be master of strategic narratives;

What are some strategic narrative pitfalls to avoid?

You can reach Andy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/andyraskin

Find out more about Andy and his work: www.andyraskin.com 

The Bigger Narrative podcast: https://andyraskin.com/podcast

Why Great Pitches Come From Customers (referenced during the episode): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-great-pitches-come-from-customers-andy-raskin

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Alright, folks. People that know me know that I'm a super, duper positive person. But sometimes? It's OK to vent a little!

So, if you want to come join me (and Sergey) vent on some marketing topics, we'd love to have you. Take a little break, grab a cup of coffee.

Sergey works on podcast and video production at Crowdlinker. He's also the host of the Media Camp podcast plus he's building out his Youtube channel (SRE Live).

Here's what we're venting about in this short episode:

People telling you to get on ALL the social media (pshhhhhhhh);

People that are not marketers by trade telling you what to do;

CEOs that don’t get marketing (they typically get sales…so what’s the difference?);

Just because you like it or understand it, doesn’t mean your target buyer does;

Having to work under someone that doesn’t get marketing.

You can find Sergey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergeyrosslive/ 

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

I'm excited to bring Workvivo onto the show because...SO many reasons. They're doing some very cool things with their marketing with a very nimble team (5 people!), plus they've got the right marketing mindset, plus it's perfect timing because of all these trends coming together - the great resignation, the great awakening, remote work, workplace disconnect, etc. Their growth is through the roof.

Gidi Pridor is CMO at Workvivo. He's also on the advisory board for Zowie (customer service seed funded startup). Prior to Workvivo he was VP of Marketing at TravelPerk and Perfecto Mobile. He's also angel investing in various early stage startups like Lance and Storydoc.

Workvivo has raised Series A ($16.6M).

Founded in 2017 and currently with 69 employees, Workvivo brings your people together, wherever they are. It’s your intranet, internal comms tool, employee app, all merged into one familiar social experience at the very heart of your digital workplace. With annual growth of over 200% YoY, 1M+ users across more than 90 countries, and customers ranging from Fortune 500 companies to tech startups, Workvivo is on a mission to elevate everyone’s workplace experience.

Here's what we discuss:

There’s a very real need to connect at work...how is Workvivo perfectly positioned to help with that;

How'd you get users across 90 countries;

Why are stories so important, and especially for SaaS startups (HINT: telling your story is NOT about your tool, but rather about your belief system, how you think about your ecosystem, how that helps to build the space that you want to excel in);

Marketing and content - what's working really well for Workvivo (HINT: we're bullish on thought leadership, we're building our own internal media company);

Some good examples of paid social ads;

The good ole' MadMen days, the art of marketing, and how it's so unfortunate that SaaS companies are missing the human aspect and power of using emotional connection in their marketing;

What are some bad recommendations you're hearing in marketing (HINT: leading with SEO is not a good idea, also don't hire a "growth hacker");

Gidi generously shared a mistake he made while at TravelPerk and what he's learned from it;

Who's on Workvivo's marketing team and how does Gidi lead them (HINT: team meetings are usually just 15 minutes because he hired extreme owners).

You can reach Gidi on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gpridor/

Find out more about Workvivo: www.workvivo.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Ann Handley is THE digital marketing and content expert. It's like meeting a rockstar. But better because she's a rockstar marketer! She's a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Keynote speaker. Writer. She's the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs. 

In addition:

- 428k followers on LinkedIn (woah)

- author of the book Everybody Writes (I have that one)

- the Total Annarchy newsletter goes out every couple weeks with a focus on writing, marketing, and living your best life

AND Ann helped me land one of my first clients back in 2020! Listen in to hear how that happened.

Here's what we cover:

Voice - for companies and startups, how should they think about developing their voice for content creation?

What are the big marketing/content trends you're seeing today that every startup needs to be on top of (HINT: don't skimp on your newsletter);

Tell me more about MarketingProfs;

Marketing and content - what’s working well for you right now? what channels?

Events - the B2B Forum recently took place in October 2021. How are you planning to handle events this year and next (HINT: the biggest mistake is you take your in-person event and you shove into an online construct)

You can reach Ann on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annhandley

Find out more about MarketingProfs: www.marketingprofs.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Hi everyone! We're back with something a little different, fun and fast. Sorry about the sound on my side, it's totally my fault and we've since fixed it for future episodes, but I had a glitch connecting my microphone for a few episodes. Forgive me!!

This is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Jess Goss on how to find your content "tilt" and differentiate from a sea of sameness. Jess joined me from Australia and it was midnight her time, so you KNOW this is gonna be good. Jess is Marketing Director at Tribal Habits (ed-tech). She’s a marketer, designer, and developer. We met on Tuesday’s Demand Gen Live with Chris Walker (so many cool people, you should check it out).

Here's what we hit on:

Different is important, but RELEVANCE is key - you need to fill a need;

Some ideas on how to find your content tilt;

Stop looking at what others are doing, and start with having a deep understanding of your customer so you know exactly what they'd find helpful.

You can find Jess on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jess-goss 

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Marc Brown is the founder of Byta. Before Byta, Marc was the owner of Fore! an independent promotion company. Marc worked with bands like Spoon, Yoko Ono, and Wilco, trying to get them on radio and TV.

Byta was founded in 2015 and has raised seed funding ($1.4M). Up until 2020, the company was totally bootstrapped, which in hindsight is crazy but that has also informed their marketing strategies which is awesome.

Byta is a (SaaS) platform that's enabling people to send and receive digital audio in a clean, simple and secure way. Byta helps music artists, their teams and collaborators share new mixes, rough demos, streams and downloads quickly and securely. 

We dived right into it and covered:

Content marketing efforts - what’s working well for you right now? What’s the goal? (HINT: you do need creative ways to reach people, but you also need to make sure you know how you did it and create those repeatable systems);

We discuss the microsite (where Byta can be the authority on music), their monthly online events, their weekly interview series, and SEO;

What are the marketing challenges, what are you trying to figure out? (HINT: making decisions that help us stay on the right track);

Remember what the goal is for you. We’re not just trying to have a good month. We’re trying to bring value to our target audience. Build something and give it to people who need it;

What are the last 1-2 really good marketing ideas you/your team has come up with (HINT: a whitepaper around music sharing, nobody has done this, and a PhD music writer is writing it so you know it's gonna be good);

What are some bad recommendations you hear a lot in your field;

If you could ask one question to 100 of your peers, what question would you ask them?

You can reach Marc on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/viznomics

Find out more about Byta: https://byta.com/

Check out the microsite: https://byta.com/howwelisten/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

Dan is VP of Marketing at Privy. 

He’s a startup marketing leader with 8+ years of experience helping SaaS startups grow. Before Privy, Dan led product marketing at Drift, and demand generation at Onshape.

He also created TheProductLaunchMasterclass.com, a course that 200+ people have taken to learn how to turn product launches into their marketing team's secret weapon.

Privy has raised Series A ($4.3M). Privy is the leader in e-commerce marketing. Providing the tools, education, and support that small e-commerce brands need to grow their online stores and build thriving businesses. Used by over 500,000 stores in 180 countries, helping to generate $5B in sales.

Here's what we covered:

Marketing...what’s working well for you at Privy right now? What channels? (HINT: TikTok is part of it, and Dan explains how this came to be organically);

Marketing...what are the challenges (HINT: hiring);

What are the last really good marketing ideas you/your team has come up with (HINT: they launched this thing so quick they didn't even measure the ROI, they were just trying to bring value to their target audience);

You became VP of Marketing by age 30. What was most important to do, to get there;

If you could ask one question to 100 of your peers in marketing leadership, what question would you ask them?

You can reach Dan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/-danieljmurphy/

Find out more about Privy: www.privy.com

Find out more about the product launch course: www.TheProductLaunchMasterclass.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!

*Hey listeners, quick note that the audio on my side for this one is wonky - sorry about that! Technical snag but we figured it out.*

Patrick Campbell is CEO at ProfitWell. Prior to ProfitWell, Patrick led Strategic Initiatives for Boston based Gemvara and was an Economist at Google and the US Intelligence community (very cool).

ProfitWell was founded in 2012, has 83 people, and is based out of Boston, MA.

And get this - it's completely bootstrapped. Wow.

ProfitWell helps recurring revenue (SaaS + subscription + DTC) businesses with their monetization and retention strategies. All of the metrics you need to grow your subscription business.

Here's what we hit on:

What does marketing mean to you? (HINT: Patrick's a math guy and actually changed his mind about this over time);

Big marketing/content trends that startups need to be aware of (HINT: here's where we talk about the difference between inbound marketing and inbound media and why the media strategy is more effective);

What marketing were you doing in the early days to grow the company;

What marketing channels are working well for you right now (HINT: we cover their content strategy, podcasts, videos, books, thought leadership etc.);

How adding video + audio to their pillar blog posts increased audience engagement;

How creating short books allows the ProfitWell team to make sure they have their talking points around the problem their target audience faces, plus helps evangelize the thought leadership inside and outside the team;

How does ProfitWell create so many shows with just 83 people?? (HINT: one of the ways is they shoot 1 season in 1 day);

We talk about events, specifically how can we do 100 dinners a year and not want to die (HINT: the team cracked the code right before COVID on how to do successful events and personalized dinners, and it involves thinking about what are the plays we’re doing to drive traffic to our booth and to our event);

How did Patrick's experience as Economist at the US Department of Defense help in his future roles;

Patrick wrapped a van with the ProfitWell logo and copy, and now he's going to drive it around the country to test if people are willing to meet up and also use this for content creation + awareness building. Super cool!

You can reach Patrick on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/patrickccampbell

Find out more about ProfitWell: www.profitwell.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!