Tag: content marketing

Chatbots: Keep It Human With Your Bots

Posted on by admin

Renegade Thinkers Unite recently moved to renegade.com! As a subscriber, you should have received an email with the subject line ‘Activate your Email Subscription to: Renegade Thinkers Unite’. It may be buried in your inbox, or even the spam folder, but if you click the link in that email, you’ll continue getting notifications when each week’s new episode is published, only now it’ll be to renegade.com.

Keep It Human With Your Bots

Call an Uber, order from Amazon, book a hotel… You can do all of these things instantly—even at 4 AM. People today want commodities quickly and with round the clock access. Believe it or not, your B2B buyers are also people, and they probably want the same. Now, most businesses can’t man their websites 24/7 (unless you’re shelling out for night shift employees or lots of coffee)—this is where the chatbot comes. But there’s an art to the bot—they shouldn’t replace humans, but should help facilitate conversations with customers. Proper use can result in tremendous boost to lead generation, and can radically speed up a company’s growth.

Dave Gerhardt, author of Conversational Marketing and VP of Marketing at Drift, joined RTU for a chat bot chat, and really digs into the value, and ideal usage, of these automated critters. Beyond that, Dave touches on a few broader subjects, including how marketing efforts need to be rooted in empathy and humanity. After all, you’ll always be marketing to people.

Hear why businesses big and small can benefit from chatbots—listen in!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Conversational marketing: why you should nix your lead form

When Drift nixed its own lead form, they did so to teach the market about conversational marketing! Drift needed to practice what it preached. Drift utilizes bots to capture leads. Instead of a form submission, there is a conversation with a potential customer. Dave shares that a form is binary while a chatbot allows a conversation to occur. Today’s technology is so good that from a single email address, your company can get ample information. Because of this, companies should feel free to focus on the conversation.

For the whole article: http://bit.ly/2U8k33i

Timeline

    • [2:40] Get to know Dave, and why he was first attracted to Drift
    • [6:15] Information from his book, Conversational Marketing
    • [11:11] Is there every information on a website worth gating?
    • [14:03] Why chatbots
    • [20:20] Embedding a calendar-like function to a chatbot
    • [25:20] The point of moving from a chatbot to livechat
    • [28:16] Why speed matters!
    • [31:37] The importance of empathy in sales conversations
    • [35:40] Using chatbots for customer service and post sales
  • [39:35] CQL’s and why they will save the world

Connect With Dave Gerhardt:

    • Connect with Dave Gerhardt on LinkedIn

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Buying is Broken — Here’s What We Can Do

Posted on by admin

Renegade Thinkers Unite recently moved to renegade.com! As a subscriber, you should have received an email with the subject line ‘Activate your Email Subscription to: Renegade Thinkers Unite’. It may be buried in your inbox, or even the spam folder, but if you click the link in that email, you’ll continue getting notifications when each week’s new episode is published, only now it’ll be to renegade.com.

Buying is Broken — Here’s What We Can Do

Nothing like a live audience to keep you on your toes! Third-time guest Brent Adamson, Distinguished Vice President, Gartner, joins Drew for a live conversation in front of an elite collection of B2B CMOs to chat about smarketing—and no, that’s not a typo. Brent dives into why sales and marketing—“smarketing”— must work together and fully align to connect with customers.

Beyond that, Brent explains why buying is broken, the pitfalls of working with a large buyer committee, and why companies need to make customers reevaluate themselves rather than products. Don’t miss that and more on this week’s Renegade Thinkers Unite!

You’ll enjoy this episode, so be sure to listen!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Smarketing: sales and marketing collaboration

Marketing has long been coupled with the digital while sales has been dominantly in person. In this mindset, marketing is early on in the process of working with a customer while sales is later. However, Brent suggests that this linear view on sales and marketing does not have to be, and in fact, may not even be the best. He introduces the term – smarketing: the combination of sales and marketing. He suggests a workaround on the functional divide of sales and marketing. When looking at how buying happens, you are looking for information needed by the client, so the solution is to put this information together for clients and deliver them through multiple channels with sales and marketing supporting this.

Why buying is broken, and how to put B2B sales back together!

For B2B sales, there used to be approximately 5.4 people involved in the buying process. Over the past number of years, this number of people involved has jumped up to 9-10. The more people involved, the more difficult buying has become. There are more opinions and prerogatives, so this slows the process of B2B sales down. Brent shares that in studies done, it is not optimal to personalized message for each of these 10 stakeholders. Instead, to market to all of these buying persons, you must find a common denominator. Creating content around this common ground can help buyers reach a decision. Be sure to listen to hear Brent share an example of this!

Commercial insight tools

Brent further explains 3 commercial insight tools that can be used to help motivate buyers:

  1. Connector: A connector is a set of information or tools to identify who needs to be involved
  2. Advisor: An advisor is a buying guide or a set of steps to be followed
  3. Diagnostic: A diagnostic is a framework that is created for a segment of customers that allows them to diagnose their performance to help identify where they are on a continuum of performance (where they are and where they want to be!)

Timeline

  • [2:13] What is new with Brent Adamson
  • [3:34] Prepping for a recession as a CFO or CMO
  • [8:16] Smarketing! Sales and marketing working together
  • [12:04] Buying is broken – why and how to help as a marketer
  • [22:55] A good example of commercial insight
  • [28:00] Audience questions: Connie O’Brien and Denise Broady
  • [40:56] Commercial insight tools: connector, advisor, and diagnostic

Connect With Brent Adamson:

  • Brent Adamson’s Bio on Gartner’s Conference Website
  • Connect with Brent Adamson on LinkedIn
  • Follow Brent Adamson on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Be the Big Fish in Many Small Ponds

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Renegade Thinkers Unite recently moved to renegade.com! As a subscriber, you should have received an email with the subject line ‘Activate your Email Subscription to: Renegade Thinkers Unite’. It may be buried in your inbox, or even the spam folder, but if you click the link in that email, you’ll continue getting notifications when each week’s new episode is published, only now it’ll be to renegade.com.

Be the Big Fish in Many Small Ponds

You’ve heard it said, “be the big fish in a small pond.” But have you ever considered being the big fish in many small ponds? Sage Intacct, a provider of cloud financial management, is doing just that. To pull this off, Sage Intacct first defines different “micro-verticals” by breaking down larger marketplaces, like manufacturing, into more granular categories, like toys, planes, and cars. Following that, they become experts in the field, and begin producing valuable, category-specific sales materials and insights.

Vice President and Head of Marketing, Ian Howells, chats with Drew on this episode about how his employees get to know these different markets—or ponds if you will—and the rigorous process of becoming the biggest fish in each.

Be sure to join in!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

1% penetration to a desired goal – how to get started in micro-targeting

Ian shares the process of penetrating a new market. Sage Intacct works hard to reach out to multiple companies to conduct interviews and research. It is Sage’s job to understand this customer and understand what is going on. What are the pains of the customer? Are there similarities between this company and others Sage Intacct work with? Ian’s interviewers must gain understanding and draw correlations between companies in the same micro-target. This interview process gives understanding into a micro-vertical. The more companies you interview, the more you know about this subset of the market: associations, key influences, key applications… All of this information affects positioning and messaging for that micro-vertical.

How to know you have achieved success in a micro-vertical

Many times companies believe they have achieved success in a micro-vertical too soon. Ian explains that you have achieved success in a current micro-vertical, and should add another when you have at least 20 clients with the same pattern and pains, and you can predict what the client will say. This shows you understand the current micro-vertical, and you are in a position to begin learning about a new one.

The importance of website content and collecting data

Sage Intacct’s website overtly lists its competition. It compares what it offers to various companies.  Ian explains that you must over communicate what your company does and why it is the best. By comparing Sage Intacct’s products to others, clients can quickly see why Sage is different and the best for them.

On several demo videos, Sage Intacct stops the video to collect viewer information. This is important for several different reasons. Collecting information allows Sage to know what industry this person is from. When the video resumes, the viewer gets personalized content. If you’re from a nonprofit, you get specific messaging. By pausing the demo, Sage is also able to collect data from potential clients and know how interested the viewer really is.

Timeline

  • [2:04] What Sage Intacct does
  • [4:30] Ian’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
  • [13:16] How Ian got started in microtargeting
  • [16:40] The process from 1% market penetration to your goal
  • [19:45] How to get interviews, who conducts them, and where they’re shared
  • [25:49] When to add another micro-vertical
  • [29:00] Telling customers stories
  • [30:17] Over communication on website content
  • [34:51] When to move on from a micro-target

Connect With Ian Howells:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Spotting Terrorist Plots and Rental Car Scratches: How This Startup Stays Flexible

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Renegade Thinkers Unite recently moved to renegade.com! As a subscriber, you should have received an email with the subject line ‘Activate your Email Subscription to: Renegade Thinkers Unite’. It may be buried in your inbox, or even the spam folder, but if you click the link in that email, you’ll continue getting notifications when each week’s new episode is published, only now it’ll be to renegade.com.

Spotting Terrorist Plots and Rental Car Scratches: How This Startup Stays Flexible

UVeye is putting together technology that has an immense range of uses, is wildly innovative, and is—putting it plain and simple—cool! The company produces under vehicle inspection systems, that use deep learning—a sort of AI-derived machine intuition—to say “hey, something about this car doesn’t seem right” and flag it for inspection. This can help stop dangerous contraband or weapons from being smuggled into secure areas, but the use cases don’t stop there.

Though in an ideal world these scanners wouldn’t be needed, Ohad Hever and David Oren understand the importance of having this sort of capability. As COO and CSO, they’ve had to figure out how to market this product in a fairly private industry, while leveraging a bunch of partners, and all on a meager budget. Learn how they do it on this episode of RTU:

Don’t miss out on Ohad and David’s experience. Tune in!

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What You’ll Learn

Raising awareness of a challenge your company can solve

Imagine this: it is 2019. Acts of terrorism are on the rise worldwide. Protection is a need, but how? Drew reminds everyone of the B2B marketing technique called the “FUD factor.” Creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt is a way to raise awareness of a challenge your company can solve. UVeye does just that by reminding its audiences of this issue of safety. UVeye also positions itself as the company to solve this problem. Through demonstrations and videos, UVeye shares how it can detect abnormalities under cars, such as a car bomb or even an oil leak. This technology can be sold to government agencies or individuals. No longer do you need to rely on a security guard crawling beneath a car to see if it is safe to drive, this surveillance of a car’s undercarriage is efficient and able to detect abnormalities as small as a USB. It can also protect the average person by detecting when car maintenance is needed.

How to foster brand engagement

As a brand, UVeye has several audiences. They must foster brand engagement with each. For governments, UVeye provides security. When approaching governments with its product, UVeye looks for a local partner. These partners are already in communication with government and are known companies in distribution or sales.

Currently, UVeye is focussed on breaking into the market of car manufacturers. Its technology can help provide data and preventative maintenance on cars. To create brand engagement, the company is focused on implementing a brand that provides a competitive advantage. What can UVeye offer to the manufacturers to make their lives easier? David and Ohad explain that their goal is creating a brand around “certified by UVeye.” Meaning “certified by UVeye” provides protection of having a vehicle inspected completely from the inside out. They want this term to be a stamp of approval, known by the average Joe.

 

Marketing on a limited budget

David and Ohad explain that as a startup technology company, the majority of their funding went to creating the product. 14 million was spent on developing the inspection system and distributing it to other countries. There was little money left for marketing. However, UVeye has found that its team can attend conferences even without having an exhibit. These conferences have been a lower budget marketing tool that can create lead generations and partnerships. UVeye has been a part of large security conferences, which are very niche and cost-effective. UVeye has also attended CES. CES has been so effective in the past – even with a tiny display – that David and Ohad used their small marketing budget to have a larger exhibit and demonstration. Prior to the conference, they generated a lot of buzz around the fact that UVeye would be at CES and what they would be sharing. This created engagement prior to the event.

Timeline

  • [2:03] UVeye’s beginnings and how the product works
  • [5:22] The process of development and going to market
  • [7:52] Brand engagement: targeting governments
  • [10:22] Running a successful pilot
  • [14:55] Where UVeye chose to spend its money as a new company
  • [20:47] Target audiences: who will buy the technology first?
  • [24:45] Lessons for those wishing to start or run a company

Connect With Ohad Hever and David Oren:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

 

 

 

Using Your Personal Brand to Help Build Your Company’s Brand

Posted on by Drew Neisser

What do we talk about when we talk about a CMO’s to-do list? Usually, items are along the lines of “integrate sales and marketing” or “ensure proper metrics are being examined.” And, yes, those are usually, among other things, crucial to making sure your marketing machine is firing on all cylinders. However, if you add things like “Dress as Korean mega star Psy and open for Bon Jovi” and “Set up online video series centered on food and marketing” to your list, it might start to look a little more like Dux Raymond Sy’s.

On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew talks with Dux, CMO of AvePoint, to better understand symbiosis between personal brands and company brands, how social selling and employee advocacy can be crucial, and much more.

You won’t want to miss this. Dux’s interview will keep you on the edge of your seat— listen here.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Building complementary content helps AvePoint reach a broader market

One thing AvePoint does to produce marketing leads is position their company as an industry advisor. As a company, AvePoint builds software based on Microsoft. To become an industry advisor and get leads, Dux shares that AvePoint produces content based around the Microsoft programs his company works with – they do not produce content that competes with Microsoft but instead complements it. All content produced is very use case driven and specific, and it helps AvePoint become a trusted advisor to the public. This also organically boosts SEO by putting content online tied to AvePoint, so AvePoint’s content shows up when Googling “SharePoint” or “Office 365.” Dux mentions that this content is also being published in every language his company services. They are not only reaching an American market but worldwide.

How Dux’s personal brand helps grow AvePoint’s brand

Dux has a great personal brand. He has opened for Bon Jovi, singing in Vegas at a Microsoft conference. He can also be found in many marketing videos online. Prior to working as the CMO, Dux was a Chief Technology Officer. He is not just a paid actor, but a real-life person who knows what he is talking about. He understands code and the technical side of the products. Dux currently is featured in multiple AvePoint video series that explain product features and uses. By appearing in these videos, he has humanized the content. However, he says that it must be substantial first, not just full of great video edits and snappy sound bites.

Getting your employees on board with marketing

Dux creates videos for AvePoint to explain products, offer tips, and much more. These videos are shared through social media and regular newsletters to clients. However, AvePoint also has an internal social selling program. It allows employees to join in and help build their own brand as professionals at AvePoint. Dux’s company encourages employees to post AvePoint content on LinkedIn and awards employees whose Social Selling Index on LinkedIn score is the highest. AvePoint has seen that the conversions from employees’ posts are much higher than that of paid ads, and employees do not mind posting these videos because they don’t appear to just be selling a product.

Timeline

  • [4:24] Dux’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
  • [9:53] The key indicator that shows Dux is on the right track
  • [12:00] What to do to get marketing leads
  • [15:33] How Dux got into marketing
  • [18:54] Becoming a trusted industry advisor in a Microsoft ecosystem
  • [22:18] Partnering with Microsoft
  • [26:09] What helps AvePoint cut through the noise of the market
  • [29:22] How Dux’s personal brand helps grow AvePoint’s brand
  • [36:10] Two do’s and one don’t for new CMO’s

Connect With Dux Raymond Sy:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

The Key to Achieving Sales and Marketing Alignment in B2B

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As the marketer of a software service product, Meagen Eisenberg isn’t just a CMO. She is also a salesperson, which is why her alignment with MongoDB’s sales team proves critical to the company’s rapid success. Through her influential roles at multiple B2C and B2B tech companies, Meagen can attest to the fact that any company, no matter its audience, can create a pattern of collaboration and success in creating a unified buying path.

From insights about demand generation, to Martech, to work-life balance, Meagen’s marketing insights apply to CMOs everywhere, whether you’re B2B, B2C, or even B2D. When reflecting on her career, Meagen shares that the alignment of sales and marketing teams has transformed companies that she has worked for, including MongoDB.

On this episode, you’ll hear Meagen’s top 5 ways to increase your company’s internal collaboration, as well as discover the engaging marketing strategies MongoDB uses to attract developers. She also explains why the marketing and sales funnel strategy isn’t dead, and how it can be used in innovative new ways. For more on B2B demand generation, check out our 6 tips in our special report, here. 

Learn why collaboration is the future of marketing by listening here.

                  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Meagen’s top 5 ways to increase your company’s sales and marketing alignment

Just like countless other companies, MongoDB has struggled with sales and marketing alignment, as well as collaboration between teams. As a tech company that offers a database as a service, Meagen has learned to overcome the challenges of managing teams made up of employees with varied skill sets. Developers, salespeople, marketers, and more all want MongoDB to succeed, but approach it in different ways.

From her years in both engineering and marketing, Meagen has learned how to create the ultimate environment of collaboration. Check out all the details behind her top 5 strategies for alignment on this episode.

  1. Understand your sales funnel and how it converts leads into customers
  2. Intentionally build all of your systems together
  3. Focus on authentic communication
  4. Identify the stopgaps in your sales system
  5. Invest in your tech stack (but don’t add more tools until you’re ready)

MongoDB uses creative and engaging strategies to hook their audience

After Meagen and her team built a solid team, together they were able to develop creative marketing strategies. They hook interested followers through live events, energetic brand advocates, and a speedy website that always delivers to their followers. They fill their robust website platform with content that educates and inspires. This content is found in many forms, such as white papers, blogs, thought leadership pieces, product demonstrations, and compelling customer stories.

Marketing and sales are about putting the right information in front of the right people at the right time

Alignment between your marketing and sales departments doesn’t happen overnight. Meagen and Drew discuss how a business that sells directly to consumers as well as to other businesses can approach their content marketing strategies. For example, when a B2B prospect visits your website, they most likely need to be connected to an account manager and salesperson that can address their specific needs and questions. A B2C prospect, however, is much more likely to explore your website and fill out an inquiry form all on their own – without ever speaking to a salesperson. The key in content marketing and sales is to make it obvious to your followers who you are and what you do, that way you can address their questions before they even think of them.

Timeline

  • [0:30] MongoDB is a massive resource for CMOs
  • [2:04] Meagen’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
  • [12:16] Alignment between sales and marketing is critical – use these strategies to succeed
  • [16:03] Connecting with developers is key
  • [19:16] The sales funnel is not dead in today’s marketing world
  • [21:35] What’s the difference between MongoDB and a datalink system?
  • [23:11] MongoDB hooks their audience through a variety of creative marketing tactics
  • [30:32] Balancing B2B and B2C audiences for your business
  • [39:24] Meagen’s problem-solving thoughts for the challenges facing marketing

Connect With Meagen:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew