The Revenue-Driven CMO

Welcome to another episode of 3-Minute-Marketing, where we pack as much value-per-minute as possible into each episode. Think of them as 3-minute TED talks for growth marketing.

I'm super excited to have Guillaume Moubeche with us today. Guillaume is the CEO and Co-Founder of Lemlist, which has grown into a $10M ARR SaaS company since its founding in 2017. He's also a speaker, both locally in his market of Paris as well as internationally, and just generally an awesome guy.

My question for Guillaume is, "what are your top 3 growth hacks for scaling a SaaS company to 10M ARR?".

Show notes: -Eat your own dog food. Lemlist actually uses their product to do sales prospecting themselves. It's great when you can be your own customer to help build and grow your tool. -Build your community. Share with and get feedback from them on a daily basis so they can be part of the product and the journey. -When users wanted to be able to message each other manually to boost their deliverability, they automated it directly using the community. -Build personal brands at scale. At first, Guillaume was the only person documenting everything, but as the company grew he became convinced that building a business is all about relationships. To build relationships you need people to trust you and perceive you as someone who can bring value. -Documenting everything you do on your social channels will help you build an audience and help them to know you when you do reach out to them. -Each person in each department at Lemlist is building their personal brand on a specific topic that will interest their audience.

Welcome to another episode of 3-Minute-Marketing, where we talk with some of the foremost experts in growth marketing and distill their best knowledge into 3-minute blocks for your listening pleasure.

Today I’m super excited to have a real marketing hero, Maura Ginty, on the podcast. Maura is the CMO of Mode, which is a leading collaborative data science platform. Among the highlights of her impressive resume, she’s reduced the cost-per-lead at Mode by 96%!

My question for Maura is, “What are 3 ways marketers can be more data-driven?”.

Show notes:

* Go beyond the simple math of the budget envelope all the way through to target (meaning things like ad spend, leads, MQLs, sales). Owning the revenue target should be a given.

* Truly data-driven marketers know how to segment, personalize, and evolve.

* Marketers assume that if they know what vertical someone’s in then they’ve defined segmentation but there’s a lot more to understand about product usage, satisfaction, customer journey, and more.

* Until you understand where your best audience is, you’re not going to be in a place to go out and find more of them.

* Personalization shouldn’t just be the job of your BDRs… all of your marketing should be personalized & speaking your customers’ language.

* Evolution will be driven by both machines & humans: machine-learning & AI will be able to handle the “simple math” of your funnel. Marketers must evolve to focus on thinking through the elements that are less predictable to find unopened opportunities.

* Marketers need to get out of the habit of just “ticketing” their data team about the numbers or accuracy of the data. Instead, it’s critical to query around insights that will help you solve your core marketing problems (e.g. instead of, “Do we have all the boxes ticked for lead scoring”, ask “What are the behaviors of our highest-value customer cohort & how can we replicate those behaviors early in the funnel?)

Welcome to another episode of 3-Minute-Marketing, where we talk with some of the foremost experts in growth marketing and distill their best knowledge into 3-minute blocks for your listening pleasure.

Today I'm super excited to have a real marketing hero, Maura Ginty, on the podcast. Maura is the CMO of Mode, which is a leading collaborative data science platform. Among the highlights of her impressive resume, she's reduced the cost-per-lead at Mode by 96%!

My question for Maura is, "What are 3 ways marketers can be more data-driven?".

Show notes: 1. Go beyond the simple math of the budget envelope all the way through to target (meaning things like ad spend, leads, MQLs, sales). Owning the revenue target should be a given. 2. Truly data-driven marketers know how to segment, personalize, and evolve. 3. Marketers assume that if they know what vertical someone's in then they've defined segmentation but there's a lot more to understand about product usage, satisfaction, customer journey, and more. 4. Until you understand where your best audience is, you're not going to be in a place to go out and find more of them. 5. Personalization shouldn't just be the job of your BDRs... all of your marketing should be personalized & speaking your customers' language. 6. Evolution will be driven by both machines & humans: machine-learning & AI will be able to handle the "simple math" of your funnel. Marketers must evolve to focus on thinking through the elements that are less predictable to find unopened opportunities. 7. Marketers need to get out of the habit of just "ticketing" their data team about the numbers or accuracy of the data. Instead, it's critical to query around insights that will help you solve your core marketing problems (e.g. instead of, "Do we have all the boxes ticked for lead scoring", ask "What are the behaviors of our highest-value customer cohort & how can we replicate those behaviors early in the funnel?)

Welcome to another episode of 3-Minute Marketing, the podcast all about micro, bite-sized, & snackable content from marketing leaders around the world.

Today, I'm excited to be joined by a man who needs no introduction if you're in direct marketing circles, Jay Abraham of The Abraham Group. Jay is widely recognized as one of the most successful and impactful marketing strategists, business innovators, and entrepreneurs in the entire world. In addition, he's a best-selling author and someone who speaks all over the world to captivated audiences.

My question for Jay is, "What is the most underutilized asset for driving exponential growth?".

Show notes:

1. The most underutilized asset for most people is the realization that there are tons of other people, influencers, media, and indirection competitors that have already worked hard and spent a fortune to have a very tight relationship with the same audience you want.

2. But most people spend all their time and money trying to create an outer periphery with a person who doesn't know them.

3. To bypass it and get business overnight, acquire the buyer through a strategic relationship by generously sharing enough with the other side who could then endorse you, introduce you, or partner with you in ways no one else has thought of.

4. Most people spend either too much or too little in the acquisition of the first transaction.

5. Unless you realize what it is worth to you or what it could be worth, you can't really optimize it.

6. You're either the victim or you're the victor. Frictionless customer service is important.

7. Better denominate your value proposition by creating an impact analysis that shows all the different denominators that produce savings, efficiencies, profit, and more.

8. Then take what that would mean over the probable lifetime of the relationship and denominate it.

9. When structuring an offer and thinking about the hidden fears of the buyer, be the advocate of the audience, not the company you're helping.

10. Start by asking what your tangible and intangible fears and concerns are in terms of decision making.

11. Value rank it in your mind on a priority basis.

12. In business, every commitment you make should be an investment.

13. Look for correlations, implications, and anomalies that either make sense or don't.

Welcome back to 3-Minute Marketing, the world's highest value-per-minute growth marketing podcast where we interview the world's top growth marketing unicorns.

Today, I'm excited to be interviewing the renowned unicorn himself, Larry Kim. For those unfamiliar with Larry, he founded the online advertising SaaS WordStream in 2007 which he bootstrapped & successfully exited for $150M in 2018. Currently, Larry is Founder & VP Marketing at MobileMonkey, an industry-leading chatbot software for Facebook / Instagram, SMS & web chat.

Larry & I decided to "flip the script" & have a longer-form conversation around a topic I'd been dying to ask him about (but his answer might surprise you):

"What are your top growth hacks for 2022 & beyond?"

Show Notes:

• Digital marketing & growth has come full circle — back in the early days, it was all about chasing channels & tactics like AdWords, Facebook Ads, SEO & jumping from one hoop to another. So any company could build a brand online without previously having had a brand.
• But that's changed — growth hacks are nowhere near as leveraged as they used to be & are short-lived. Plus, ad costs have gone up by 3-4 orders of magnitude. And you can't just hack the organic search (SEO) algorithms like you used to.
• So the #1 growth hack for 2022 & beyond? It's back to building your brand.
• The #1 reason someone will click & buy from you is whether they've heard of you before — brand-aware cohorts are 3-5X more likely to engage with your ads, organic listings & emails.
• The algorithms have evolved to quantify traditional brand signals as measured by peoples' propensity to trust, open, click & buy, then reward those signals. To build your brand, leverage creativity to come up with memorable ideas that stick.
• Example: WordStream's AdWords Grader was a "one-in-a-million" hit that helped build the business to a $150M exit. It worked because it tapped into the psychology of the market (FOMO about how your ads are performing vs. peers & competitors.)
• Not all ideas are created equal: test a lot of different "wacky" ideas to find the unicorn outlier. You might need to try 40-60 ideas to find that unicorn.
• To test your ideas, start with an "external" view of your campaign performance. Don't fall in love with your ideas, let the market decide.
• Focus on creating a remarkable offer... "free trial" is not a remarkable offer. This can take your conversion rate from 2-3% to 5-7% or even 10%+ if it's a real standout.
• You can still "hack" the algorithms today by focusing on increasing brand signals.
• Brand hacking tip #1: Get people to search for your brand terms more.
• Brand hacking tip #2: Remarketing is another a highly-leveraged way to drive brand recall.
• Brand hacking tip #3: Those "annoying" popups are actually highly effective at keeping people from bouncing, which drives time-on-site & engagement signals.

Welcome to 3-Minute Marketing, where we talk to leaders in the growth & performance marketing space & hem down their best insights to create the highest value-per-minute marketing podcast on the planet.

My guest Sujan Patel is a serial entrepreneur & brilliant growth marketer. As Co-Founder at Mailshake, he’s helping companies leverage the power of sales engagement & automation technology to fill their pipelines & hit their goals.

My question for Sujan is, “What are some different ways marketers can leverage automated email to crush their KPIs & generate more leads & sales?”

Show Notes:

Time is money when is comes to leads — but if you use marketing automation software, your email looks like it came from a robot, not a human.

Instead of using a one-to-many tool to follow up with hot leads, use a one-to-one tool so it looks like it’s coming from a real person.

If someone joins your webinar or downloads your eBook, don’t just enroll them in a generic sequence from a generic company email (like [email protected]) — you can still automate it, but get them connected to an actual sales rep (e.g. [email protected]).

The results when you take this one-to-one approach? Better open rate & response rate.

Leads are getting more expensive across the board, so optimizing how effectively you work your leads is key to making up the difference.

After your prospect gets a demo of your product, enroll them in a 1-to-1 drip from the sales rep focused on adding more value.

The problem with marketing automation tools is you’re talking at somebody vs. to somebody. Sometimes, encouraging a bit of back & forth can be a very good thing.

Can’t think of what email to send to your prospects? Send them something of value — content you’re already creating, etc. — or ask them a question.

Welcome to 3-Minute Marketing, where we talk to leaders in the growth & performance marketing space & hem down their best insights to create the highest value-per-minute marketing podcast on the planet.

My guest Sujan Patel is a serial entrepreneur & brilliant growth marketer. As Co-Founder at Mailshake, he's helping companies leverage the power of sales engagement & automation technology to fill their pipelines & hit their goals.

My question for Sujan is, "What are some different ways marketers can leverage automated email to crush their KPIs & generate more leads & sales?"

Show Notes

• Time is money when is comes to leads — but if you use marketing automation software, your email looks like it came from a robot, not a human. Instead of using a one-to-many tool to follow up with hot leads, use a one-to-one tool so it looks like it's coming from a real person.
• If someone joins your webinar or downloads your eBook, don't just enroll them in a generic sequence from a generic company email (like [email protected]) — you can still automate it, but get them connected to an actual sales rep (e.g. [email protected]).
• The results when you take this one-to-one approach? Better open rate & response rate.
• Leads are getting more expensive across the board, so optimizing how effectively you work your leads is key to making up the difference.
• After your prospect gets a demo of your product, enroll them in a 1-to-1 drip from the sales rep focused on adding more value.
• The problem with marketing automation tools is you're talking at somebody vs. to somebody. Sometimes, encouraging a bit of back & forth can be a very good thing.
• Can't think of what email to send to your prospects? Send them something of value — content you're already creating, etc. — or ask them a question.

Welcome back to 3-Minute Marketing, where we get the world’s foremost marketing leaders & innovators to tell us their juiciest secrets to marketing success.

Today, I’m chatting with Brendan Kane, Founder & Managing Partner at Hook Point. Brendan’s a fascinating guy & his “Hook Point” methodology has been the secret weapon behind names & brands like MTV, Taylor Swift, Yahoo & Mindvalley.

Brendan’s specialty is helping brands harness the power of organic social to drive virality, build brands & generate revenue at a remarkable scale. Brendan tells me that 99% of marketers do this wrong… but the 1% that understand how the algorithms work are winning BIG with organic content.

My question for Brendan is:

“How can marketers harness the algorithms to get more reach & impact?”

Show Notes:

The purpose of the algorithms is NOT to get you to pay for reach… their one & only goal is to keep people on the platform (so they can serve you more ads.)

There are 2 principles to master to benefit from the algorithms.

Principle #1: Stop the scroll. The first signal to the algorithm is, “will this content the retain attention of users?”

Principle #2: Hold the user’s attention as long as possible, AKA dwell time. (Hint: Key to this is a powerful story that can retain the user’s focus.)

Case Study: A 7 second difference in user retention (28 vs. 21 seconds) resulted in an 18X increase in views on Tik Tok.

Create content for what the platform you’re posting on weights most heavily. Focus on content quality over length.

The traditional “content calendar” model of designing content is flawed because it minimizes the impact of data on creative, is not opportunistic or agile, is completely reactive and is reliant on luck or external factors.

Instead, start with research to identify the topics & formats that will drive results. Then base your creative hypothesis & iterate based on that research.

Build one piece of content at a time, then learn & iterate vs. trying to plan all your content in advance.

Want to get good at a platform? Become an avid user & student of that platform.

If you want to target a niche with your organic content, still make the content accessible for a general audience so you don’t get buried by the algorithms (example: Ryan Serhant)

Welcome back to 3-Minute Marketing, where we get the world's foremost marketing leaders & innovators to tell us their juiciest secrets to marketing success.

Today, I'm chatting with Brendan Kane, Founder & Managing Partner at Hook Point. Brendan's a fascinating guy & his "Hook Point" methodology has been the secret weapon behind names & brands like MTV, Taylor Swift, Yahoo & Mindvalley.

Brendan's specialty is helping brands harness the power of organic social to drive virality, build brands & generate revenue at a remarkable scale. Brendan tells me that 99% of marketers do this wrong... but the 1% that understand how the algorithms work are winning BIG with organic content.

My question for Brendan is:

"How can marketers harness the algorithms to get more reach & impact?"

Show notes:

• The purpose of the algorithms is NOT to get you to pay for reach... their one & only goal is to keep people on the platform (so they can serve you more ads.)
• There are 2 principles to master to benefit from the algorithms.
• Principle #1: Stop the scroll. The first signal to the algorithm is, "will this content the retain attention of users?"
• Principle #2: Hold the user's attention as long as possible, AKA dwell time. (Hint: Key to this is a powerful story that can retain the user's focus.)
• Case Study: A 7 second difference in user retention (28 vs. 21 seconds) resulted in an 18X increase in views on Tik Tok.
• Create content for what the platform you're posting on weights most heavily. Focus on content quality over length.
• The traditional "content calendar" model of designing content is flawed because it minimizes the impact of data on creative, is not opportunistic or agile, is completely reactive and is reliant on luck or external factors.
• Instead, start with research to identify the topics & formats that will drive results. Then base your creative hypothesis & iterate based on that research.
• Build one piece of content at a time, then learn & iterate vs. trying to plan all your content in advance.
• Want to get good at a platform? Become an avid user & student of that platform.
• If you want to target a niche with your organic content, still make the content accessible for a general audience so you don't get buried by the algorithms (example: Ryan Serhant)

Welcome back to 3-Minute Marketing, where we talk with & explore the minds of some of the world’s leading growth marketers & condense their knowledge into snackable micro-segments.

Today, I catch up with Auseh Britt, who’s currently VP of Growth Marketing at Terminus. Prior to Terminus, Auseh’s had a successful career leading growth initiatives at brands like Bloomberg Industry Group, Business.com & Logi Analytics.

My question for Auseh is, “What should marketers do tactically with intent data to successfully drive pipeline? What are the keys you’re seeing success with at Terminus?”

Show Notes:

Intent data is useful to find right-fit accounts that are in an active buying cycle. You can also glean where those accounts are in the buying cycle so you can tailor your messaging to them.

Terminus uses both first-party & third-party data signals to glean insights about account intent.

First-party data = data that your company owns. Examples are website visits & campaign responses (e.g. attended your webinar on a specific topic)

Third-party data = data found across the web, aggregated by other providers. Terminus uses Bombora to find what keywords & topics their accounts are searching. They also use G2 data to find what categories & competitors their key accounts are researching.

Terminus segments its account-based marketing (ABM) into prioritized tiers. For their smaller “strategic segment” of their top-tier global & multinational accounts, they one-to-one bespoke campaigns. For the larger SMB segment, Terminus runs more of a “one-to-many” approach.

If your ABM list is in the 1,000s, you’re probably doing it wrong. Focus your ABM on the best fit accounts in your target addressable market.

Three full time people at Terminus are focused on account-based marketing. One supports the one-to-one “big bet” strategic accounts, the second does more the programmatic “one-to-many” SMB marketing.

The third ABM marketer on Auseh’s team supports customer retention & expansion marketing. This is a huge gap that many companies miss when building their ABM / go-to-market strategy!

The strategic account marketer works closely with the AEs to provide feedback & guidance on how they’re messaging to & marketing to their 20 key accounts.

For the SMB segment, marketing will provide “air cover” & write an outreach sequence that Terminus’s sales teams can utilize, along with the basic building blocks of the positioning & content offer.

Terminus uses HighSpot to house sales enablement assets like decks that BDRs can access.

ABM metrics you should evaluate include account engagement (e.g. companies visited the website in the last 30 days), opportunities generated, Closed Won pipeline & deal velocity/win rate of open opps.

For pipeline acceleration, Terminus hooks up to CRM to automatically switch up ad tactics based on the company’s opportunity stage.

For net new logos, Terminus shoots for 60% engagement rates & a 10% opportunity creation rate.

Another good target account list to add to the mix is a “win back” list of Closed Lost deals.

Terminus uses multi-touch attribution to weigh the different touchpoints in the lead-to-sale journey.