For many years, marketers have leaned hard into data for information and insight about how people interact with different activities. But the landscape has dramatically changed.  A lot of digital marketing can't be tracked or attributed. People see content but never click, or they learn about products on the Dark Web. Spark Toro CEO Rand Fishkin says marketers need to return to the days of creativity and ingenuity to attract and engage customers.  He says they need to make leaps of faith when making marketing decisions as opposed to depending on data to lead the way strategically and ..read more

Definition of annoying: most pitches from podcast booking agencies. They’re not personalized. Clearly, no research has been done. They’re frequently off-topic. And sometimes they use the wrong name. Agencies using these types of agencies are getting bad deals. It’s hard to get a guest on podcast, so you can't use a company that does a poor job. Having received so many bad podcast guest pitches, I asked Jakub Zajicek from Speak on Podcasts for insight and advice on how and when to use a podcast agency. Since launcing in 2020, Speak on Podcasts has booked more than 2,000 guests and represents co ..read more

The more that you know your customers, the better. That's Marketing 101. As marketing attribution becomes increasingly more challenging, companies will need new tools to identify and engage prospects. Getting this type of customer intelligence will allow them to make better and faster marketing, advertising, and sales decisions. On the Marketing Spark podcast, Clearbit CMO Kevin Tate talks about how companies can use technology to identify their ideal customer profiles (ICPs), how to gain insight into what customers and prospects are thinking and the questions being asked, and how to identify ..read more

In theory, podcasts are a great thing for B2B and B2B SaaS companies. They allow companies to connect with prospects, customers, and influencers and generate a ton of content (blog posts, social media updates, videos). But podcasts can be a hard sell for marketers. One of the challenges is that the value and ROI of a podcast are more than data-driven. When a marketer is asked by a CEO about how to measure a podcast's success, the answer is "a podcast can be quantified but many of the benefits aren't visible". To get insight into the B2B podcast landscape, I connect with Tom Hunt , founder of F ..read more

What a difference a year makes for B2B Saas entrepreneurs. In 2021, business was booming, venture capital was flowing, and the focus was customer acquisition and growth. Today, the economic landscape is bumpy, venture capital has evaporated, and customer retention is paramount. In this episode of Marketing Spark, Lately.ai CEO Kate Bradley Chernis talks about her professional challenges and how she's navigating the B2B SaaS waters. She also talks about Lately's struggles to raise venture capital and Lately's bootstrapped approach to marketing ..read more

Typeform is one of the world's best-known and most popular tools for creating online forms and surveys. Armed with $135 million in Series C financing, the Barcelona-based company is aggressively expanding its marketing activities to drive brand awareness and cement its industry leadership. In this episode of Marketing Spark, Typeform CMO Carrie Sanderson talks about: - How Typeform works to ensure that its positioning and messaging stay fresh, relevant, and current - How to deal with the realities of the Dark Web and Dark Social given a lot of activities can't be quantified. - How it conducts ..read more

For all the focus on data, messaging (and positioning) is crucial for companies looking to connect with prospects and customers. If you cannot talk about your product and why it matters clearly, it's like operating with one hand tied behind your back. In this episode of Marketing Spark, Diane Wiredu talks about how to develop messaging, the deliverables (more than a document or guide) and how to quantify the success of messaging engagements. We also talk about the difference between messaging and position ..read more

As B2B SaaS sales become more challenging, demand gen can be an important way for companies to attract, educate, encourage, and nurture prospects. In this episode of Marketing Spark, Chris Roche talks about the benefits of demand gen and how companies can get started or ramp up their efforts. We also talk about how B2B SaaS brands can leverage LinkedIn and experiment with TikTok ..read more

Over the last couple of years, the fractional CMO (FCMO) has been gaining momentum as companies look for marketing leadership without hiring a full-time and expensive resource. As a fractional CMO, I've been seeing more interest and more people embracing the title. In this episode of Marketing Spark, I talk with David Poulos, a fractional CMO, about why there is growing interest, when and why to hire a FCMO, how to establish the rules of engagement, and how long a FCMO should stick around.  ..read more

What's it like to operate a red-hot startup? What's it like to raise $56-million in venture capital in a relatively short period of time? In this episode of Marketing Spark, Walnut.io CEO Yoav Vilner talks about the interactive demo software company's rapid growth and how it raised major venture capital, including a $35 million Series B round in January. Yoav and I also talked about: - How B2B SaaS companies can attract their first 100 customers - When sales teams should be scaled. - When to hire your first full-time marketer and what type of marketer to hire - The new world of networking ..read more