SaaS Marketing Superstars

Incentivized LinkedIn ads are a great way to generate more highly qualified sales leads for your B2B company. Offering a gift card can be the difference to getting your ideal customer onto a demo call or not. In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars, I discuss the pros and cons of incentivizing prospects to join a sales call and share some of my experiences and best practices. Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-incentivized-gift-card-linkedin-ads/

In this episode of the SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, Krish Ramineni shares how Fireflies.ai grew to be used by over 200K organizations through product led growth. Krish also shares his opinion on what the future of AI might look like. Episode Highlights ● Fireflies features and vision (0:40) ● Who is the typical Fireflies user (1:50) ● How Fireflies successfully utilized product led growth strategy (5:46) ● Why it is extremely expensive to produce AI based tools (11:09) ● How AI has completely transformed the way he works (13:20) ● Predictions on the societal impact of AI in the near future (15:15) ● How he uses criticism from disgruntled customers to improve Fireflies (21:45) ● Favorite books, apps and business leaders (32:47) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-product-led-growth-krish-ramineni-fireflies/ Follow Krish on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishramineni/

In this episode of the SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, Shay Howe discusses his unique career journey to becoming the CMO of ActiveCampaign and what it's like leading a large marketing team at a company with over $100M ARR. Episode Highlights ● How his experience in the world of design and engineering influences his current role as the Chief Marketing Officer at ActiveCampaign (0:43) ● How big is the marketing team at ActiveCampaign (5:46) ● How to manage a large multi-talented marketing team (8:53) ● How ActiveCampaign differentiates itself in the highly commoditized email automation market (11:47) ● The importance of brand building and how ActiveCampaign turns their customers into a marketing engine (15:41) ● Is AI marketing hype or is it a useful tool for business intelligence (19:06) ● The challenges associated with rapid evolution of marketing tools and social media platforms (28:24) ● Favorite books, apps and business leaders (32:47) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-marketing-leadership-shay-howe Follow Shay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayhowe/

In this episode of the SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, Mor Assouline discusses sales techniques to convert more demo calls to closed-won deals. He also shares secrets about his LinkedIn content strategies for getting more customers from LinkedIn. Episode Highlights ● The process Mor used to scale a B2B company in sales from <$100K to $15M ARR (3:17) ● What is a sales playbook (4:23) ● How to ace sales calls effectively without sounding unnatural or focusing entirely on your product (6:25) ● The major mistakes most sales people make and how to avoid them (11:12) ● How to reach out to prospects even if you don't have a new feature or announcement (15:10) ● Creative hacks companies can apply to get people to show up for meetings (20:53) ● How to use account-based management (ABM) strategies to boost sales (29:16) ● The secret sauce for creating Linkedin posts consistently and effective post templates (36:03) ● Favorite books, apps and business leaders (48:26) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-b2b-demo-sales-mor-assouline/ Follow Mor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morassouline/

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, Justin Oberman talks about LinkedIn content creation and how to apply old-school advertising concepts to B2B Marketing. Episode Highlights ● How to apply creative ideas in B2B advertising (2:43) ● How London Times creative idea got lawyers to subscribe to their newspaper (4:44) ● Should B2B companies initially focus on branding the company or branding the individuals in the company (8:04) ● How to make branding and direct response work in tandem (17:05) ● Why Justin believes brand is not hard to measure vs direct response (23:16) ● How Redbull broke into the London market without an ad budget (34:39) ● How to grow your personal brand on Linkedin (36:18) ● The 70-20-10 framework for creating Linkedin content (45:00) ● How Justin gets client from his Linkedin posts without relying on ads or his website (47:25) ● A quick hack to come up with unlimited content ideas and position you as a thought-leader (57:40) ● Favorite books, apps and business leaders (1:00:46) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-b2b-old-school-advertising-justin-oberman Follow Justin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinoberman/

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, Lloyed Lobo talks about how he grew Boast.ai to over $10M ARR using Community-Led growth. Episode Highlights - The differences between USA and Dubai as it relates to child care, safety, community, quality of life and work-life balance (3:17) - Lloyd asks me how I manage with 6 kids (4:48) - Appreciates his wife for her support and keeping the family in sync (7:49) - How his daughter’s comments challenged his workaholic mindset and being present for the birth of his 3rd child (10:12) - Why he was forced to step out of his company (13:20) - What is community-led growth (18:26) - How Boast.ai helps companies (22:14) - Why people associate print media with legitimacy and how he got referral partners from his weekly newspaper column on startups (29:15) - Why your idea will fail without consistency (36:51) - The key strategies SaaS company can adopt to grow their community in today’s market (42:35) - How his cold emails for podcast outreach gets over 70% open rate (48:50) - Creating content for superfans, contributors and lurkers (51:43) - Favorite books, apps and business leaders (55:24) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-lloyed-lobo-community-led-growth

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, Scindia Balasingh explains how to use partnership marketing to grow your B2B SaaS. Episode Highlights - How Scindia got into partnership marketing and her career trajectory (1:11) What is partnership marketing (4:08) Types of partnership marketing (7:18) Why you should tier your partners into strategic, regular and long-term partnerships (13:31) How to find effective partners for your company (16:22) How to build relationships with intending partners without alienating your customers (18:18) Common partnership pitfalls companies must avoid (22:32) Recommended number of clients companies should start their partnership program with (25:32) How to measure the impact of a partnership program (28:46) Favorite books, apps and business leaders (30:52) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-partnership-marketing-scindia-balasingh

In this episode, I'm resharing my recent guest appearance on Dylan Ciaccio's "B2B Strategy" podcast. Episode Highlights: • The big problem with lead gen forms • How to run LinkedIn ads that actually generate revenue (not just ‘leads’ that don’t show up for calls) • How you can use your organic LinkedIn content to maximize ROI from ads

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, Eden Bidani teaches how she uses Conversion Copywriter to help B2B SaaS companies to increase conversions, acquire more customers and grow revenue with clearer messaging. Episode Highlights - Her ideal clients and how she helps them with their messaging (0:44) - How SaaS companies can clarify their messaging when communicating with their customers (3:55) - Getting access to key stakeholders of companies and their customers to get their view of the product (7:29) - How to make sure that companies positioning statement and strategic narrative are used in the right places (10:25) - Shortening sales cycles with video testimonials (14:29) - The two key elements companies must focus on to excel in their messaging and communication (17:17) - How she has unlocked LinkedIn to grow her business (21:07) - Her system for publishing content consistently (23:41) - Favorite books, apps and business leaders (27:55) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-conversion-copywriting-eden-bidani

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, Aaron is talking about his recent decision to close down his marketing agency, Zammo Digital. Episode Highlights: • Why I decided to close Zammo Digital now • How I got burnt out and self-sabotaged my business • How G-d is guiding me to bigger and better opportunities • What I'm looking to do next Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski/podcast-why-i-closed-my-marketing-agency

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, Andrew Harder shares how he combines LinkedIn and Google ads to increase pipeline by 60% for several of Cisco's brands. Episode Highlights: • Andrew describes how he joined Cisco (0:40) • How to combine organic content and paid social ads in your marketing process (1:40) • Effective segmentation of LinkedIn ads (5:17) • The essentials of account-based marketing (ABM) on LinkedIn (8:29) • Why video content is great for remarketing strategy (14.26) 23:21 to 24:50 • Why he avoids the debate between gated and ungated content (19:20) • Insights on Demand generation and Demand capture (25:01) • The key metrics he analyzes in paid ads (29:08) • How to run effective paid search campaigns (31:15) • The differences between being a paid media manager in an agency and a large organization (34:44) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-linkedin-google-ads-andrew-harder

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, I spoke with Joel Klettke. Joel is the Founder of Case Study Buddy, a specialized team that help B2B brands like HubSpot, Loom, and Extensiv scale their customer stories and drive more ROI from each one. Episode Highlights: • Why Joel built an agency focused on Case Studies (0:57) • The unique insights case studies provide to SaaS companies (4:15) • How companies can tell engaging stories in their case studies (7:26) • The differences between case studies and success stories (9:54) • The biggest mistakes companies make in their case studies and how to avoid them (11:51) • Joel shares his thoughts on using case studies as a lead magnet (16:06) • Why companies should avoid gating case studies (18:20) • A creative way B2B SaaS companies can gate and ungate their case studies (20:39) • Favorite books and business leaders (21:40) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-customer-success-stories-joel-klettke

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, I spoke with Nate Corliss. Nathan Corliss runs performance marketing for Census, a B2B SaaS platform that helps companies send data from their cloud storage to over 180 SaaS tools. LinkedIn recently recognized Nathan for driving a 10x increase in sales pipeline from LinkedIn Ads. Episode Highlights: • Nathan shares his journey in the digital marketing industry (1:19) • How he uses LinkedIn to find high value B2B audiences (2:56) • How Nathan utilizes sponsored content ads on LinkedIn (9:05) • How SaaS companies can build a formidable marketing team (13:51) • How Census develops high quality gated content (16:09) • Handling segmentation within ad campaigns (18:56) • How Census campaign got featured as a case study by LinkedIn startup team (22:14) • Using AI tools to transform marketing activities (27:59) • Running ads on Reddit (32:00) • Favorite books and apps (38:05) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-linkedin-ads-nathan-corliss-census

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, I spoke with Matt Wolach. Matt is a B2B SaaS Sales Coach at xSellus where he helps B2B SaaS companies learn and implement the proper framework for closing more deals and scaling their growth. Episode Highlights: • Why Matt is obsessed about B2B SaaS companies growth (0:29) • The 4 pillars to scaling a software company (1:45) • How to improve engagement with leads so that they can schedule and show up for meetings (4:27) • How to build trust into your sales process and unleashing the power of video testimonials (7:32) • How to use stories effectively in your client interactions (9:32) • The Perfect D.E.A.L process and the critical steps you must follow to close more deals (11:39) • Why you must educate your prospective clients (17:54) • Why the Demo session goes beyond showing your product (21:01) • How you can stay honest without losing sales (23:42) • 18 lead generation strategies B2B SaaS companies can adopt and how to choose the best strategy to adopt (28:41) • Favorite books, apps, communities and business leaders (32:17) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-b2b-software-sales-matt-wolach/

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, I spoke with Steffen Hedebrandt. Steffen, is the co-founder and CMO of Dreamdata, a B2B attribution platform that helps connect marketing activities with revenue. Steffan is an expert in measuring a content strategy's impact on revenue pipeline. Episode Highlights: • Steffen shares what he has learnt from working with various B2B companies (0:36) • How he got introduced to the founders of Dreamdata and how they tackle the problem of attribution (2:31) • The importance of properly evaluating B2B attribution insights (5:03) • How Dreamdata helps B2B companies estimate the length of their customer journeys (7:32) • Why B2B companies should not focus on getting prospects to download e-books through lead forms on Linkedin (13:30) • How Dreamdata successfully leveraged Linkedin and Podcasts to grow their audience and revenue (15:38) • Metrics and touchpoints that can be used to determine meaningful customer engagement (22:14) • The biggest attribution problem B2B companies face and how to solve it (27:17) • Why he has stopped grouping customers in funnels (28:26) • Using Linkedin to run account based and role based retargeting ads (31:32) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-b2b-marketing-attribution-steffen-hedebrandt-dreamdata/

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, I spoke with Nick Jordan. Nick is a SaaS Marketer and SEO expert with some unexpected strategies for growing organic website traffic. His LinkedIn profile states that he grew a site from 0 to 1,500,000+ monthly organic visits in just 2 years. Episode Highlights: • How to make SEO work for you without building backlinks (2:21) • Building a successful content writing team using non-native English speakers (6:24) • The secret formula for ranking websites high on Google (8:18) • The ideal number of pages agencies need to produce every month (11:07) • Why link building is not a quick fix for search rankings (12:11) • How to incorporate Tiktok and YouTube Shorts into your ranking strategy (13:36) • How long does it take to start seeing noticeable SEO results from publishing content (17:15) • How to find good writers, why you shouldn’t limit your search to American writers and how his agency Workello helps to solve this problem (19:00) • The tech stack used to power his company ContentDistribution.com (21:57) • The biggest struggle he is currently facing in his business operations (22:33) • The major differences between adopting a Paid Ads strategy and an SEO strategy that agencies need to be aware of (25:46) • Favorite books, apps, communities and business leaders (29:41) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-nick-jordan-b2b-seo

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, I spoke with Eric Melchor. Eric Melchor is the Personalization Geek at OptiMonk, a Website Personalization tool used by over 30,000 websites. Episode Highlights: • How OptiMonk transitioned from a pop-up tool to a comprehensive website optimization platform (0:27) • Using Customer Value Optimization (CVO) to help customers through every stage of their journey (1:16) • Why businesses should avoid embracing marketing gimmicks such as creating a false sense of urgency (2:33) • A case study of how Woodhouse Clothing delights their international customers with OptiMonk (5:05) • How OptiMonk uses reminder notifications are used to assist idle users and help them to fill their forms completely (7:12) • How businesses can personalize their customers experience in real time and serve them the content they are interested in (10:50) • The major mistakes B2B companies must avoid when describing their services (12:13) • Favorite books, apps, communities and business leaders (14:38) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-optimonk-customer-value-optimization-eric-melchor/

In this episode of SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, I spoke with Erick Vargas. Erick is the President of Followup CRM, a SaaS CRM built for construction professionals. Episode Highlights: • Erick breaks down his journey with Followup CRM and how he rose into a leadership role (0:17) • How Followup CRM grew to over 2000 customers despite running a lean operation (2:22) • The biggest growth lever for Followup CRM and the power of a partner ecosystem (3:24) • Using webinars, stories and case studies to spur business growth (5:09) • How they are encouraging a greater adoption of software in the construction industry and inspiring the younger generation (8:02) • The next frontier of growth in the company (9:36) • Favorite books, apps, communities and business leaders (13:56) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-followupcrm-erick-vargas

In this episode of the SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, I spoke with Shalom Stark. Shalom is a serial entrepreneur and currently the founder and CEO of Invoice Ninja, a SaaS platform helping over 200,000 small businesses to invoice clients, track payments & expenses, and time billable tasks. Episode Highlights: • The biggest challenge they are currently facing (24:14) • Shalom discusses why he left his travel agency and how he launched Invoice Ninja (0:32) • How Invoice Ninja embraced the Open-Source community and used their free plan to build product awareness. (5:15) • How Invoice Ninja integrated with 45 payment gateways and an open-source language library with 36 languages at launch (8:47) • The countries with the largest number of users (13:26) • How Invoice Ninja used aggressive pricing and a value packed free plan to disrupt the invoicing industry (15:58) • How an intuitively designed product and an engaged community helps to reduce the subscription cost for users (17:11) • Why Invoice Ninja adopted Flutter framework for v5 of the platform? (21:36) • The biggest challenge they are currently facing (24:14) • Favorite book and business leader (27:15) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-invoiceninja-growth-hacking-shalom-stark/

In this episode of the SaaS Marketing Superstars podcast, I spoke with Nachum Kligman. Nachum is a serial entrepreneur and currently the founder and CEO of Book Like A Boss, an all-in-one platform helping entrepreneurs and companies to create optimized landing pages that convert your visitors into scheduled meetings and customers. Episode Highlights: ● Nachum talks about the major pain point he experienced that led to creating Book Like A Boss (0:25) ● Why he chose to initially bootstrap Book Like A Boss instead of going after VC funding (2:50) ● Key strategies he adopted to grow Book Like A Boss to over 60,000 users in five years (4:20) ● How he leveraged Appsumo to grow his userbase and maximize revenue despite offering lifetime access (6:27) ● Why Book Like A Boss is launching a new partner program to supercharge product growth (9.11) ● Why he is serious about inbound sales strategy for the company service plans Book Like A Box is offering (13:08) ● New growth opportunities they are presently exploring at Book Like A Box (14.00) ● The biggest struggle he has experienced while running the company (16.48) ● Favorite books, apps and business leaders to follow (18:05) Check out the show notes and get links to all the resources mentioned in this episode here: https://aaronzakowski.com/podcast-appsumo-product-led-growth-nachum-kligman/