Tech Qualified

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino launches the first ever TechTalk Tuesday edition of the podcast. These episodes are designed to take a deep dive into a specific area and provide listeners with a clear path to implementation. In this episode, Tristan welcomes back Mariya Finkelshteyn, the owner of Orchid Agency, and the two discuss the strategies for virtual events. Virtual events are a new medium given the current state of affairs with the pandemic. As a result, many tech companies are struggling to get virtual events in motion and engage with their own customers. Mariya talks about the four key components to a virtual event strategy.

Episode Highlights:

• Many technology companies are pivoting to digital or virtual events given the situation created by the pandemic
• Before diving into the components of virtual event strategy, Mariya provides some background on her 13 years of work experience in B2B technology
• After working and leading marketing teams internally at several companies, Mariya launched her own marketing agency - Orchid
• Mariya now works with early to late-stage technology companies and helps them build, optimize or scale a repeatable B2B marketing engine
• Mariya introduces the audience to the four key components to a virtual event strategy: 1) Operationalizing events, 2) Identifying a format, 3) Engaging the audience and 4) Measuring the results
• With the uncertainty of B2B buyers, Mariya has seen many B2B tech companies engage their existing install base of customers; aiming to help their customers and enrich these relationships
• When identifying the right technology for a virtual event, one of the first things a company can do is to look at their existing technology - most have solutions already in place and tools like Zoom or other web conferencing technologies can be used
• G2 is an effective way to research different tools for a virtual event
• Webinars are becoming more commonplace now, so it’s important to be creative and go beyond this medium (we’re going to see an inflection point where B2B buyers will get webinar fatigue)
• Beyond webinars, there are a variety of formats available - using podcasts, panel discussions and “virtual talks” to engage audiences
• When looking at engagement, it’s important to bring together your entire ecosystem and ask questions like “what are you learning?” or “how are you dealing with this?”
• Now is the time to offer education to your entire ecosystem of partners, customers and prospects
• Building rapport now allows you to to create trust and set your organization up for success (and conversion) down the road
• Engagement can be created through an ABM approach - even running ads to a virtual event beforehand
• After a virtual event, it’s important to have a follow-up sequence and a plan or

This episode is produced by New North.  New North is a strategic B2B marketing agency specializing in working with tech companies. Going beyond conventional tactics, we craft a personalized marketing strategy, conduct research, lay a solid foundation, execute dynamic campaigns, and continuously refine our approach through analysis. 

With New North, your small, scrappy marketing team transforms into a powerful growth engine, achieving your goals with less pressure and more precision. 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino and Justin Brown chat with Stacey Arenson, the Marketing Director at Chowly. Chowly is a restaurant tech company that integrates third-party online ordering platforms with restaurants’ point of sale (POS) systems. During the episode, Stacey discusses what it’s like handling marketing with restaurants during the pandemic, pinpoints some of the company’s initiatives with content and highlights how she diversified the overall marketing strategy.  

Episode Highlights:

• Initially, Stacey discusses her background in B2B tech and what brought her to Chowly as a Marketing Director
• She discusses the primary value proposition of Chowly which helps restaurants avoid the manual entry of third-party delivery orders
• Restaurants have been one of the hardest hit industries after social distancing measures were put into place 
• At the beginning of the year, one of the main objectives of the company's marketing activities was to ensure that every single person in the restaurant industry knew who they were
• When coming on board, Stacey focused on diversifying the portfolio of their marketing initiatives and trying to get in front of restaurants in every way possible using a variety of channels
• When developing content, the team always starts with the customer... What are they interested in? What are they going to look for? How can we start the conversation?
• The organization’s thought leadership hasn’t been a quick process, it takes time to get in front of people and build awareness
• As a start-up, Stacey looked to hire people that would hit the ground running and have an immediate impact on their marketing projects
• Stacey walked through the customer journey for prospects who engage with Chowly
• Stacey works very closely with the sales team and arms them with the collateral they need to engage with prospects along the journey
• Stacey leverages feedback from the sales team to create a lot of the ideas for content
• Case studies have proven to be a very effective form of content across both marketing and sales 
• Chowly launched a COVID-19 relief package for restaurants who are trying to get on the platform - restaurants had to make the choice to either close or shift to delivery - and this was really helpful to their situation

Key Points:

1. Right now, the organization is focused on what's going to be helpful for the restaurant industry instead of selling products.
2. During the current situation, Stacey and her team are planning marketing activities using two-week increments versus longer timeframes such as quarterly or even annual strategies.
3. It's important to not just talk about what everyone els

This episode is produced by New North.  New North is a strategic B2B marketing agency specializing in working with tech companies. Going beyond conventional tactics, we craft a personalized marketing strategy, conduct research, lay a solid foundation, execute dynamic campaigns, and continuously refine our approach through analysis. 

With New North, your small, scrappy marketing team transforms into a powerful growth engine, achieving your goals with less pressure and more precision. 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino and Justin Brown chat with Monique Mahler, the VP of Marketing at Interviewstream. Interviewstream is an industry leading recruiting software company that helps you reach your top candidates more efficiently. Monique talks about how she accidentally fell into marketing, the challenges when marketing to three different sets of target audiences and what has changed during the pandemic.

Episode Highlights:

• Monique starts the interview by discussing how she became a marketer accidentally after going to grad school (and having an undergraduate degree in Sociology)
• Monique originally got her start in marketing as an Assistant Director of Marketing at a racetrack
• Monique discusses the three primary markets of Interviewstream - Fortune 500 enterprises, Higher Education and K12
• Monique identifies some of the challenges when marketing and creating messaging for three distinct target markets
• During the episode, Monique talks about the company’s approach to helping people in the pandemic which includes the launch of a free access program of the product
• Monique talks about the conversion strategy from the free version of the platform
• Instead of using COVID-19 in messaging, the company shifted a bit to focus more on working from home and the different dynamics involved
• In many cases, people just want to talk to people and conversations are a big part of marketing
• Monique discusses her approach to running an agile marketing team and how this impacts the projects they launch
• The focus of the company’s marketing team most often revolves around a 90-day plan versus big, overarching goals for the year

Key Points:

1. Interviewstream has really refined its marketing and overall solution set for the K12 market in the last 2.5 years.
2. Right now, it’s 100% about helping - especially for audiences that are hit the hardest in this pandemic. It’s a “help people strategy.”
3. The focus of Interviewstream during the pandemic is all about how the company can come out of the current situation as a thought leader - instead of just a focus on conversions.

Resources Mentioned:

• Monique Mahler: LinkedIn 
• Interviewstream: Website
• Motion: Ultimate Thought Leadership Course for B2B Tech Companies

This episode is produced by New North.  New North is a strategic B2B marketing agency specializing in working with tech companies. Going beyond conventional tactics, we craft a personalized marketing strategy, conduct research, lay a solid foundation, execute dynamic campaigns, and continuously refine our approach through analysis. 

With New North, your small, scrappy marketing team transforms into a powerful growth engine, achieving your goals with less pressure and more precision. 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino and Justin Brown chat with Deb Julius, the Senior Director of Marketing at CBI. CBI manages IT risk and ensures a company’s data is secure, compliant, and available. The company helps defend and secure networks and endpoints; tests and monitors areas of operational risk; and protects your data. Throughout the episode, Deb discusses her background in B2B tech marketing, how she transitioned into cybersecurity and how she’s pivoting marketing efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.

Episode Highlights:

• Deb starts the podcast by discussing some of her past work experiences, specifically within the B2B tech marketing space
• Deb outlines the various ideal customer profiles of CBI, which mostly consist of C-suite individuals in mid-market organizations
• Deb mentions how CBI was very focused on content before the pandemic and now content is an even bigger focus within the current situation
• One of the big objectives with the content initiatives at CBI is around getting connected with the prospects as early as possible within the buying cycle
• Within CBI’s marketing automation platform, one of the main focus areas they have developed includes a lead scoring system
• The company’s lead scoring system is a big determining factor as to whether or not sales gets involved with a lead
• As a marketer, Deb is highly involved with the sales team...she’s included on the sales email alias and attends all of the company’s sales meetings
• CBI has a big focus on integrated marketing and ensuring any content that is created can be integrated into several different channels
• Education is a major focus with all of the content the organization produces and often most of the marketing pieces start off as an article and then are built into other assets from there
• Deb ensures that marketing content is not just “one and done” and webinars or other content becomes repurposed and positioned in other ways

Key Points:

1. CBI’s lead scoring system evaluates the engagement of prospects through a variety of difficult digital channels.
2. CBI has had to shift from a lot of the in-person dinners and events...however, marketing has found that prospects still want to network and engage.
3. Right now, you have to be 100% authentic and you can not come across as opportunistic in any marketing messages.

Resources Mentioned:

• Deb Julius: LinkedIn 
• CBI: Website
• Motion: Ultimate Thought Leadership

This episode is produced by New North.  New North is a strategic B2B marketing agency specializing in working with tech companies. Going beyond conventional tactics, we craft a personalized marketing strategy, conduct research, lay a solid foundation, execute dynamic campaigns, and continuously refine our approach through analysis. 

With New North, your small, scrappy marketing team transforms into a powerful growth engine, achieving your goals with less pressure and more precision. 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino and Justin Brown chat with Nicole Lindenbaum, the Vice President of Marketing at Teampay. Teampay empowers employees with software that requests, approves, and tracks company spending in real-time. Nicole chats about her initiatives when coming on board, discusses some of the major processes she built out and highlights the creation of an online community for controllers.

Episode Highlights:

• Nicole starts the conversation by breaking down her past experience as a fundraiser with a theater in New York City
• Nicole talks about how she really fell into a marketing role in B2B technology
• Nicole discusses how Teampay was founded about 3 years ago and the organization helps solve the challenges that corporate financial teams face when their employees look to make purchasing decisions
• With Teampay,  the organization's ideal customer profile includes controllers within a company
• Nicole breaks down some of the processes she put into place for nurturing leads after they download a piece of content
• With content, Teampay typically focused on material that was highly editorial and now the organization is focused a little more on thought leadership
• Nicole talks about the coronavirus situation and how from a marketing perspective, many decisions are being made from a day-to-day standpoint
• Nicole breaks down one of the major initiatives within the company which includes an online community called Controller Collective              
• The overall experience of Controller Collective includes a separate microsite and a highly engaging Slack community
• Nicole breaks down the benefits of creating an online community for their ideal customer profile
• One of the major advantages of a dedicated online community is the connections that can be created from a peer-to-peer perspective

Key Points:

1. Creating an online community dedicated to your ideal customer profile has many benefits and keeps your organization in touch with prospective customers.
2. The launch of the online community, Controller Collective, sparked over 200 sign ups of people in just a couple of days.
3. When creating the online Slack community, one of the things that was important to its early success was the creation of an Advisory Board where conversations were already brewing before the official launch.

Resources Mentioned:

• Nicole Lindenbaum: LinkedIn 
• Teampay: Website

This episode is produced by New North.  New North is a strategic B2B marketing agency specializing in working with tech companies. Going beyond conventional tactics, we craft a personalized marketing strategy, conduct research, lay a solid foundation, execute dynamic campaigns, and continuously refine our approach through analysis. 

With New North, your small, scrappy marketing team transforms into a powerful growth engine, achieving your goals with less pressure and more precision. 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino and Justin Brown chat with the Head of Marketing at Theorem, Andrew Upah. Andrew breaks down his background and discusses how Theorem’s main mission is to upend the traditional world of consulting. Andrew talks about marketing and selling consulting services to the Fortune 100 and how it’s important to add value throughout the entire customer journey. With sales cycles of six, nine months...or even years sometimes...Andrew provides some insight into what Theorem is doing to keep prospects engaged.

Episode Highlights:

• Andrew discusses his professional work experience what brought him to Theorem (hint: opportunity strikes at any time...even when sailing around the world)
• Theorem builds innovative products for startups and even some of the biggest organizations in the world
• Theorem uses a slightly different model for building digital products - the organization calls their teams of highly experienced practitioners - “squads”
• Theorem has a very high price point, so sales cycles can be very long at times - sometimes 6-9 months, or even years
• Theorem is a 100% remote work environment, but the organization still maintains a focus on one-to-one conversations with prospects and customers
• Theorem often invites customers to co-present at events and other functions to help build rapport in the process
• One of the biggest competitors of Theorem is internal teams - teams at their prospective organizations who are driving development projects
• In the world of social distancing, events are no longer an option - so Theorem has looked to stand up other virtual initiatives to fill the gap                 
• Content generation stems from a lot of feedback and experiences with customers
• If Theorem could pursue a “test” marketing project, the organization would strive for more work in public relations                

Key Points:

1. Being in the room is ideal, but no one is doing that right now. So, instead of delaying those conversations, Theorem has shifted to video conferencing.
2. With a range of capabilities, Theorem needs to establish itself as an authority in a number of different areas. So, it has to be done over time with thought leadership content.
3. Theorem likes to break down their services into sprints versus long, complex projects that need to be “pitched”.

Resources Mentioned:

• Andrew Upah: LinkedIn
• Theorem: Website
• Motion:

This episode is produced by New North.  New North is a strategic B2B marketing agency specializing in working with tech companies. Going beyond conventional tactics, we craft a personalized marketing strategy, conduct research, lay a solid foundation, execute dynamic campaigns, and continuously refine our approach through analysis. 

With New North, your small, scrappy marketing team transforms into a powerful growth engine, achieving your goals with less pressure and more precision. 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino and Justin Brown chat with two marketing leaders from JazzHR. The conversation features the CMO, Allie Kelly, and the Content & Communication Manager, Kelly Peters, of JazzHR. The conversation provides a glimpse into their backgrounds, uncovers how the organization leverages content within their overall marketing strategy and dives a little deeper into what JazzHR has done to respond to the uncertainties prospects face right now.

Episode Highlights:

• Allie Kelly and Kelly Peters each discuss their professional work experience and what has brought them to JazzHR
• JazzHR helps organizations streamline their hiring process, especially smaller organizations that don’t have the internal infrastructure in place to manage the entire process
• Allie discusses the transition JazzHR has made from a complete “on-premise” team to a fully remote team
• The two professionals discuss how JazzHR has become a way for organizations to leverage remote hiring practices
• Allie breaks down the unique offer JazzHR developed to help health care organizations with their hiring process during the coronavirus pandemic
• With applicant tracking software, there are a number of solutions available to companies and the market is crowded
• JazzHR has a big commitment to helping out their channel partners
• JazzHR is essentially a 100% inbound organization, using content and other marketing initiatives to drive demand for their software 
• Even though JazzHR has a price point that seems transactional, the sales process operates very much like an enterprise sale because it touches everyone within the organization
• JazzHR has an extremely low churn rate and content plays an important role in this process
• The organization leverages feedback from customers to generate ideas and content topics
• JazzHR uses a lot of data to build helpful reports and other educational content for prospects and customers
• Engaging with peers and colleagues remains one of the biggest sources of inspiration & information for their existing roles                                    

Key Points:

1. JazzHR created a completely free offer for organizations in the midst of this pandemic situation and built an entire campaign around it to get more traction and simply help their community
2. JazzHR’s marketing team brainstormed ideas on how to respond to the social distancing situation and settled in on a solution that just aimed to be helpful
3. JazzHR commits to taking a thought leadership approach to attract prospects at the top of the funnel

Resources Mentioned:

This episode is produced by New North.  New North is a strategic B2B marketing agency specializing in working with tech companies. Going beyond conventional tactics, we craft a personalized marketing strategy, conduct research, lay a solid foundation, execute dynamic campaigns, and continuously refine our approach through analysis. 

With New North, your small, scrappy marketing team transforms into a powerful growth engine, achieving your goals with less pressure and more precision. 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino and Justin Brown chat with Jennifer Karpus-Romain, the Director of Marketing Services and Industry Outreach at FayeBSG. Jennifer walks us through how she got her start as a writer and then transitioned into a B2B marketing role. Jennifer also discusses how she’s positioning the organization during this tough time of social distancing and what she’s focused on for the rest of the year. 

Episode Highlights:

• Jennifer talks about her foundation as a writer and how that has helped her find new ways to tell company stories
• FayeBSG recently merged with another company, so the organization has been involved with a transition on the marketing side.
• Jennifer spearheads the content initiatives at FayeBSG where they focus on a lot of industry research to inform their customer base.
• Depending on the size of the organization, FayeBSG can have several different ideal customer profiles. In a lot of cases, their services are sparked by the need to evaluate and rollout a new technology stack.
• Jennifer discusses the key messages FayeBSG is sharing with prospects and customers during the social distancing period that is in place. 
• Jennifer pointed out that everyone has slightly different working hours now and it’s important to create content that can be consumed at any time (webinars, podcasts, etc.).
• Jennifer is focused on creating content that isn’t too “pushy” right now and is focused on helping sales professionals navigate conversations with prospects.
• Jennifer’s team has operated in a remote environment for awhile, so many of her day-to-day activities haven’t changed with social distancing rolling out.                                             

Key Points:

1. In times of crisis and uncertainty, we wanted our messaging just to be like…”we’re here for you.”
2. Right now, it’s important to create virtual experiences, podcasts and webinars...because everyone’s hours are different.
3. In this type of situation, there is growth that can come out of this period. Everyone can take a step back and test out new technologies that might be more effective moving forward.

Resources Mentioned:

• Jennifer Karpus-Romain: LinkedIn
• Jennifer Karpus-Romain: Twitter @Jenniferkarpus
• FayeBSG: Website
• Motion: Ultimate Thought Leadership Course for B2B Tech Companies

This episode is produced by New North.  New North is a strategic B2B marketing agency specializing in working with tech companies. Going beyond conventional tactics, we craft a personalized marketing strategy, conduct research, lay a solid foundation, execute dynamic campaigns, and continuously refine our approach through analysis. 

With New North, your small, scrappy marketing team transforms into a powerful growth engine, achieving your goals with less pressure and more precision. 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino and Justin Brown chat with Rachel Metzler, the Marketing Director at Alight Analytics. Since most marketers and small agencies don’t have an in-house data scientist, Rachel’s company helps fill this gap. Rachel talks about her background, some adjustments the company has made in the midst of social distancing and discusses how analytics can really help improve your campaigns.

Episode Highlights:

• Rachel talks about her experience in cybersecurity marketing and how this is her third role in marketing B2B technology.
• Alight Analytics is a small, startup style company and she works with a small marketing team.
• Rachel’s company works with two different ideal customer profiles: 1) Small agencies and 2) SMBs.
• Recently, Alight Analytics had to take its core team of 50 people and transition fully to a remote team for social distancing purposes.
• A big thing right now is just trying to be empathetic with customers’ situation when prospecting or even communicating with customers.
• Webinars are a big initiative at Alight Analytics and the organization has a passionate CEO who can spearhead these types of presentations.
• Content marketing and content syndication is a relatively new territory, but the organization plans to use this avenue more effectively.
• When co-marketing and getting leads from co-marketing campaigns, the organization has implemented a system where SDRs follow-up with one-to-one communications and this has improved results significantly.
• LinkedIn has been a really successful online advertising platform as of late. 
• Rachel discusses some projects she would execute if given a $20k budget to just “test” things out.                                              

Key Points:

1. With social distancing in place, the organization has really shied away from large email blasts, focusing instead on one-to-one communication.
2. Digital channels are huge right now. Alight Analytics had already made a large investment in webinars before social distancing was implemented.
3. Marketing qualified leads - that metric for us, is not where we measure success.

Resources Mentioned:

• Rachel Metzler: LinkedIn
• Alight Analytics: Website
• Motion: Ultimate Thought Leadership Course for B2B Tech Companies

This episode is produced by New North.  New North is a strategic B2B marketing agency specializing in working with tech companies. Going beyond conventional tactics, we craft a personalized marketing strategy, conduct research, lay a solid foundation, execute dynamic campaigns, and continuously refine our approach through analysis. 

With New North, your small, scrappy marketing team transforms into a powerful growth engine, achieving your goals with less pressure and more precision. 

During this episode of Tech Qualified, Tristan Pelligrino and Justin Brown talk with Joe Staples, the Chief Marketing Officer at Motivosity. Joe talks about some of the adjustments the company has made to their messaging during social distancing, discusses strategies around paid search and engaging prospects using high quality content.

Episode Highlights:

• Joe Staples shares information on his background and his journey of being a head of marketing or CMO for about twenty years.
• Joe leads marketing efforts for an employee recognition software platform that allows team members to give and recognize accomplishments of their peers.
• Joe discusses Motivosity’s ideal customer profile, largely consisting of HR departments.
• During the social distancing period, Joe has pivoted Motivosity’s messaging a bit to coincide with a lot of the remote work situations faced by prospects and clients.
• One of the big components of the customer journey is determining how much education needs to be provided up front - many prospects are unaware that a solution like Motivosity exists for their situation.
• About 80% of the sales is done virtually as prospects go through demos and get to experience the platform before making a purchase.
• Motivosity has done a few trade shows, but are fortunate enough to not have trade shows as a major driver for demand.
• It’s important for us to figure out how to get multiple hooks into a deal and get to the right people that will make the call and make the ultimate decision.
• We use as many mediums as possible, videos are great. Whitepapers, articles and webinars are all a great tool for us.
• Motivosity elected to hire internal resources to prepare video content versus leveraging outside freelancers. 
• When building a team, Joe focused on graphic design as one of the very first full-time resources.
• Joe Staples discusses some projects he would execute if given a $20k budget to just “test” things out.                                              

Key Points:

1. Digital demand is the name of the game for us. 
2. For us, since we’re an employee engagement platform, it’s more important than ever.
3. We look at the topic and then determine the best medium to share that topic. If the topic is zany or whacky, we use video. Otherwise, if it’s more about the nuts and bolts, we’ll use an ebook or article.

Resources Mentioned:

• Joe Staples: LinkedIn
• Motivosity:

This episode is produced by New North.  New North is a strategic B2B marketing agency specializing in working with tech companies. Going beyond conventional tactics, we craft a personalized marketing strategy, conduct research, lay a solid foundation, execute dynamic campaigns, and continuously refine our approach through analysis. 

With New North, your small, scrappy marketing team transforms into a powerful growth engine, achieving your goals with less pressure and more precision.