Marketing Strategy Adjustment

10 growth tactics that never work with Elena Verna. Elena was formerly head of growth at Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, and SurveyMonkey, and a growth advisor to Netlify, Superhuman, MongoDB, Sanity, and Similarweb. She's the most knowledgeable person I know on B2B growth, and this is her third visit to the podcast (a record!). Learn: 🔸 10 common growth tactics that never work 🔸 Elena's three favorite growth frameworks 🔸 Ways to increase your career optionality Listen now 👇 • YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQ-aaKZD • Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gU5xRF3k • Apple: https://lnkd.in/gTBinsX2 Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting the podcast: 🏆 Sinch — Build messaging, email, and calling into your product: https://sinch.com/lenny 🏆 Vanta — Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny 🏆 OneSchema — Import CSV data 10x faster: https://oneschema.co/lenny Some key takeaways: 1. A redesign may feel like a fresh start, but if you’re expecting it to solve your growth issues, think again. It’s a long-term play, and you’ll likely see a dip before you see any improvement. Understand that rebrands are a necessary step for the future but won’t immediately improve acquisition. If you go through with it, be prepared to spend months optimizing after launch to get back to where you were—or better. 2. Copying competitors rarely works because: a. You don’t know if what you’re seeing is their actual experience b. Their tactics are specific to their customers and channels c. You miss the context and learning that led to their current solution Instead, use competitor analysis for inspiration and patterns, but do your own research and testing. 3. Instead of focusing too much on SEO, SEM, or paid social channels (where you’re essentially paying for access to someone else’s audience), prioritize building owned and earned channels—like virality, word of mouth, and user-generated content. These are channels that your competitors can’t replicate, and they can provide a more sustainable growth engine in the long run. 4. Don’t get paralyzed by testing everything. If you can’t get statistical significance within a month, use pre/post analysis instead. Trust intuition more, especially when: a. You have low traffic/conversion volumes b. The change is low-risk c. You need to move quickly d. The impact is obvious 5. Stop wasting time on tactics that rarely move the needle, like: a. Button-color optimization b. Single one-off emails c. Adding more auth providers d. Blindly “simplifying” flows without solving specific user problems 6. Evolve your growth model every 18 months: a. Layer new channels on existing ones b. Expect diminishing returns from current tactics c. Spend 20% to 25% of resources exploring new growth loops d. Plan for 6 to 18 months before new channels show meaningful results

I've talked with over 50 teams last year - every one of them got this wrong. Here's how you can avoid their same mistakes: 1️⃣ Target audience = people relevant to your product solution For vertical products, this might seem easy if you're providing 1 solution to 1 type of demographic. But if you've got a horizontal solution, this quickly becomes "we're something for everyone". Pro tip: even horizontal products have target audience focus 2️⃣ Once you have your target audience, it's time to break it down into bite-size segments Segments allow you to organize your target audience into categories Typically these categories are either industry Verticals or Departments [for example, Marketing teams might be a segment for Sprout Social whereas Carta bucket their segments by vertical such as Healthcare and Finance] 3️⃣ Once you have your segment buckets, it's time to break down personas Personas are individuals within your segment Bouncing off the examples above, you'd want to target a Social Media Manager inside a Marketing team for the Sprout Social product 4️⃣ Lastly, it's important to understand how these roles show up in User vs Buyer roles Perhaps the Marketing Director is the official buyer while the Social Media Manager is the champion and user Now, this is where things get fun... use your target audience framework to identify the buying process Social media managers might prefer to try your product and see results first before they go asking their boss for budget Perhaps this means a self-serve product would be beneficial in the buying cycle Has anyone else used a similar framework before? #productmarketing #gtmstrategy #segmentation

Old content marketing: - Find high-volume keywords in your industry - Write articles starting with the lowest DA - Make sure your Yoast light turns green - Post a link to the article on all socials New content marketing: - Understand your audience and their pain points - Find product- and pain point-focused keywords - Take time to learn the searcher's true intent - Write great content with distribution in mind - Embed a content upgrade to capture emails - Turn the article into your next email newsletter - Create videos to promote on TikTok/YouTube/Instagram - Write a Twitter thread and promote the blog at the end - Screenshot the Twitter thread for a LinkedIn carousel - Extract and write 5+ LinkedIn posts from the article - Extract and write 10+ Twitter posts from the article - Repurpose and redistribute every 3+ months Do new content marketing in 2025. 1 long-form → 20+ short-form 1 channel → Multi-channel distribution Publish → Promote and repurpose forever

2023: Massive shift in B2B Marketing. 2024: Time to revamp your Playbook: - Stronger focus on content for brand authority - Shift from cold outreach to social selling - Wiser budgets spent on paid ads - More targeted outbound This 'revamp' is based on market realities: → B2B Buyers educate themselves with content & communities → Habits to trigger conversation on socials went from B2C to B2B → Paid ads work only if the creative and copy is extremely good → Email opens and replies collapsed since AI, but ABM still works So early and growth stage startups should consider this new 'playbook'. Let's breakdown its composition: 1. Content System as the Backbone of Your Strategy You need to redefine content as the pillar of your marketing strategy. Because content is WHAT your audience sees and HOW they perceive you: - High quality content that give them solutions? You are valuable. - Poor quality content that regurgitate basics? You are a distant noise. Build a content system on 3 layers (cf my post from yesterday) and publish high volume. Probably 20x times more than what you are doing now. 2. Social Selling in Social Media and Communities People buy from people. It's time for you to shift to this paradigm with a core emphasis on social selling. You can do social selling with 3 tactics: - Social Media: engagement and DMs where your audience spend time - Your communities: create a place where members gather around you - Your employees' network: put in place a system to maximize this In 2024, best B2B Brands will be active on socials, build a community, and leverage personal brands. 3. Paid Ads For Better, Faster Content Distribution You want more of your target audience to see your best content. Promote content around the problem you solve and your solution. Then, you can run 'book a demo' campaigns. - Create demand: guides, videos, influencer ads, case studies - Capture demand: book a demo, brand search ads, promotions, launches 4. Account Based Outbound In 2024, you need to put intent at the center of outbound. And the best way to do this is to transition from an industry-based to an account-based method. If tactics 1/2/3 are done properly, buyers will be all around you: - Leaders consuming your content - Accounts with buying signals (e.g. visit pricing page 3 times) - Potential buyers in your community - List of engagers on social media *** There are multiple possible B2B marketing playbooks. This is one based on my past projects, experimentation, and research. Feel free to add your inputs.

For 13 years, I’ve been on the frontline of the B2B data wars. Here are the 5 strategies startups can use to defeat larger incumbents in their battle for market share: BACKGROUND: When I was VP at ZoomInfo they outflanked D&B by going after SMB. When I was President/COO at Apollo I saw them build a self-serve PLG engine to take that very same SMB segment from ZoomInfo. In the coming years, some B2B data startup will do to Apollo what they did to ZoomInfo, and ZoomInfo did to D&B. That is the nature of the beast. Here are the 5 ways I've seen new companies defeat incumbents: 1. Capture Attention Better Than Your Competition -  Only companies with the ability to cut through the noise succeed -  No matter what you do, there are likely over 20 teams doing the same -  Lower the search cost for the buyer. Nurture a community, develop a memorable brand, think about market virality early on, invest in an Inbound flywheel 2. Just Be Different - There’s always room to innovate - Innovation can be in GTM or packaging (doesn't have to be product) Example (Packaging): ZoomInfo differentiated from D&B by selling a self serve tool for $5K/year; when most data vendors were selling data dumps for $100K+/year. Apollo differentiated from ZoomInfo by selling a self serve tool for $99/user/mo to SMB; when others were selling $25K/year plans to enterprise. Example (GTM): ZoomInfo innovated in GTM with efficient inside sales teams as opposed to D&B’s field sales staff. Apollo innovated with PLG for the data business as opposed to ZoomInfo’s inside sales team 3. Refuse To Copy Your Dominant Competitor - Most entrepreneurs have so much respect for the dominant competitors that all they can think of is playing catch up and aim for feature parity - By the time you copy a feature, the dominant player will build 5 more and the gap widens - Instead, craft your own path. Identify an audience that your competitor is ignoring and roadmap that will make you look distinct 4. Relentless Focus On Optimizing The Low End Of The Market - Most disruption comes from the low end of the market - Zoominfo went after the SMB, which D&B was willing to forego without a fight - As the ZoomInfo business grew, they moved upstream and Apollo went after the low end of the market that ZoomInfo did not care as much about anymore - It’s only natural that Apollo will find going upstream more attractive as the business scales, paving way for a NewCo to acquire the SMB market once again 5. Be the best at something and don't try to be good at everything - Every team can be exceptionally good at something - Identify what your superpowers are - Is it Product, Sales, Marketing, CS? - Double down on your strengths, ignore your weaknesses - Do more of what you are good at to create a competitive edge TLDR: 1. Learn how to capture attention 2. Be different 3. Don't copy your competitor 4. Focus on low end of the market 5. Be the best at something P.S. Have questions? AMA in the comments. 👇

We need to kill content marketing... in order to save it. I've long talked about how bad B2B content is. It's why I co-founded storyarb. People want proof, so I've broken down what EXACTLY makes it bad today & what content marketing reincarnated must look like. B2B content today: 1) It’s selfish. - It optimizes for a lead's revenue potential vs. solving their biggest career questions & challenges. 2) It lacks originality.  - SEO content. Lead magnet. Webinar. Booth at trade show. Repeat. No content channel is inherently bad. And being unoriginal is okay, sometimes. But if status quo gets in the way of delivering the best experience for your audience, then it’s time to switch things up. 3) It doesn’t pop.  - Great content pops. It stands for something. It has a clear voice that feels resonant to its audience. It has diversity in flow & aesthetic to keep the audience engaged. 4) It’s a one-trick pony.  - Same formats - No creative risk-taking 5) It sells its soul to attribution.  - The greatest enemy to tomorrow’s customer acquisition is religious obsession with it today. Data is a valuable tool. But like any tool, it has a time and a place. Top-of-funnel content is essential to build trust with your ICP & help them along the customer journey, but if you’re a slave to attribution, you’ll never invest in this type of content. B2B content in the future: 1) Content is the product. Every B2B company should approach their content like a media company. Most fail because they half-ass steps a-d, so they can quickly get to step e. a. Have extreme clarity of your ICP b. Deeply understand their needs and problems c. Create content that solves those problems in a way that earns their undivided attention d. Build loyalty through your ability to solve those problems  e. Earn the right to sell them your non-content product at the right time for them. 2) Informed by data, not beholden to data. - If you are attached to attribution, you’ll only create content that serves folks at the end of the customer journey today at the expense of building trust with those who may be there tomorrow.  3) Stands for something (strong POV, clear character). - Everyone says “people follow people.” Want to know why that’s true? Because people have personalities. And personalities are what make the people you follow unique from everyone else. Businesses & brands are no different. The most beloved brands have great personalities that are the result of a strong point of view, a memorable voice, and unique knowledge that helps you. 4) Willing to be different.  - Historically, playing it safe never got anyone fired. But times are changing. There’s more competition than ever before. There’s more content than ever before. Consumers have the leverage to expect more/better & playing it safe just isn’t going to cut it anymore. 

This isn’t a post about whether dopamine culture is good or bad. (I have plenty to say on that…) However, it is about marketing because, fundamentally, marketing is about meeting your audience where they are. And, today's audience is in their dopamine-culture era. For too long, B2B companies have relied on the same old content marketing playbook: churn out whitepapers (often gated behind forms!) and blog posts, rinse and repeat. But in the world of dopamine culture, plus the rise of AI, that alone is not enough. To win at content marketing today, B2B brands need to step up their game in several key ways: ↳ Develop a Strong, Authentic POV. In a sea of generic content, having a unique, authentic perspective is more critical than ever. What does your brand stand for? What insights and opinions can you bring that no one else is? Your POV is your secret weapon. ↳ Cultivate a Consistent Brand Voice. Is your content instantly recognizable as coming from your brand? Do you have a cohesive voice, personality, and style that shines in everything you publish? If not, it's time for a refresh. A distinct brand identity fosters trust and memorability. ↳ Get Creative With Formats. Blogs and whitepapers are great, but don't stop there. Diversify with engaging formats like video, interactive tools, data visualizations, podcasts, and more. Give your audience exciting ways to learn. ↳ Optimize for Recommendation Engines. It's no longer just about ranking in search (though that's still important). You must also optimize for recommendation engines on social media, audio/video platforms, and more. How "shareable" and algorithms-friendly is your content? ↳ Leverage AI-Powered Tools. Use AI strategically to streamline your content operations, personalize content experiences, extract deeper audience insights, and experiment with new AI-generated formats. Be proactive. When I started Zen Media almost 16 years ago, content marketing was 90% content and 10% marketing. Today, it's the reverse. Before we create an article for a client, we develop their POV, have a brand voice document at the ready, and have a distribution plan in place because we know the truth: for every one person who reads the article, ten other people will read the summary on social platforms. Image Credit: Ted Gioia, The Honest Broker,

It's official. Social media and video networks have overtaken traditional TV channels and websites as the main source of news in the US (Source: BBC). So what does this mean for all of us in the social impact sector? Social media is no longer just a comms tool - it's the frontline for how people understand human rights, climate, healthcare, and so much more. People might be scrolling for entertainment, but they are getting their worldview in the process. Three things I've observed (and some actions): 👉 Greater right-wing presence on X: In the UK, the number of right-wing audiences on X has almost doubled. They've tripled in the US following Musk's takeover. More charities are reporting increasing toxicity in their comments, with some deciding to leave X altogether to join platforms more aligned with their ethical responsibilities. So: If you're still using X, rethink your content pillars. Be intentional about why you're there, who you're trying to reach, and how you manage harm. 👉Social media is your newsroom Social media is no longer a nice-to-have, or an add-on. It's shaping real-time public opinion. When news breaks, wider audiences aren't hunting down your press release. They're going to your Instagram feed. So: Build or strengthen existing systems that allow you to be reactive. Keeping your finger on the pulse will enable you to understand what audiences biggest concerns are, and respond where appropriate. 👉 Misinformation is more sophisticated We're in a time where we're battling deliberate disinformation campaigns designed to mislead, divide, and undermine trust. False claims about your charities work can spread faster than the truth. Your messaging can be distorted within minutes. Audiences may struggle to separate fact from fiction if your voice isn't present in the mix. So: Invest in digital literacy. Not just for your team, but for your audiences too. Transparency is so key in this sector that if we educate followers on how to spot misinformation, we're also building trust for our brand. Also, have a misinformation response plan that involves everyone. Social colleagues, how do you feel about this shift? How are you adapting your digital strategy to meet this moment?

Every client asks me the same question in month one: "Why aren't we posting more?" Here's the answer that got one of them a 10x follower jump in 6 months by posting less. When a client approached me, the brief was "we need more content." Everyone before me had agreed. I didn't. We cut their posting frequency by more than half. What we added instead: research before every post, a competitor position to react to, and a single clear objective per week instead of five vague ones. Six months later: 10x growth in followers, and more importantly, they moved up the visibility ranking against direct competitors, not just against their own past numbers. 👉Here's the uncomfortable truth most brands don't want to hear: more content is not a strategy. It's a coping mechanism for not having one. Strategy isn't the exciting part of marketing. It's the part that makes the exciting part actually work.💡 If your team is doing "a lot of content" but you can't say why each piece exists then comment "AUDIT" and I'll tell you what I'd look at first. #socialmediastrategy #B2Bmarketing #Dubai #marketing

Most brands spend lacs pushing products on social media. We spent ₹0 on and focused on this type of content to grow 10X faster. Here's the shift that changed everything: Most brands fail at social media because they focus too much on selling. Their feeds are: - endless product catalogs - discount announcements - and sales pitches. That's why audience growth stays stagnant and selfish content becomes the norm. To flip the script, you have to stop selling continuously and start gaining people's trust. When we created a strategy with 80% focus on audience-centric content and 20% promotion, everything changed. - Engagement tripled - DMs flooded with queries - and sales grew organically The blueprint that works for brands is as follows: - Answer audience's questions, break myths, misconceptions, and more - Create how-to content that makes your audience trust your knowledge - Share behind-the-scenes that makes others feel like a community - Turn product features into relatable content for everyone Simply put, we must shift the focus from the product to the people and make them the hero of your brand. As a result, you can have a growing community of engaged individuals who trust you and your products. Your social media isn't your shopping catalog. Make it your classroom, your stage, your way to make a difference. 💭 Are you making selfish content or selfless? #socialmedia #brands #strategy