Sam Kuehnle’s Post

"Sam, what do you use instead of [insert any expensive/overly-complicated martech vendor here]?" Simple: ✅ Tight targeting criteria ✅ A distinct POV ✅ And a number of messages that are refreshed regularly and worded ever so differently that all reinforce our POV ✅ Distribution through platforms directly (email, podcast, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) Fancy + expensive tech doesn't mean your marketing will be successful. Doing the fundamentals well + consistently...well that right there is the not-so-secret "secret" that many are searching for.

You can drive brand awareness without creating demand, but creating demand requires more than driving brand awareness

Friday health thoughts: find a place where you enjoy the work you do, but more importantly, magic happens when you find a place where you get to work with amazing people A handful of months ago I wrote about the "three circles" to job fulfillment: Pay, Purpose, & People The takeaway was - If you cover 0 or 1 circles, there likely is something better out there for you - If you cover 2 circles, be careful not to fall into the "grass is greener on the other side" trap - If you cover 3 circles, consider yourself lucky to have found a role + place where you can thrive Of those 3, the 'People' part is the most underrated one, yet will leave the most lasting impact on your career On paper, it's hard to see what a company's people looks like from the outside, and that's why individuals often make job decisions based on the compensation + role But if I've learned one thing over my career, it's that the people I have (or haven't) been surrounded with are what propels you to even greater heights Call it talent density Call it teams who actually operate like a team Call it a company that knows how to attract great people Call it a company that doesn't tolerate the top-performer-but-toxic-person If the people you surround yourself with in your job: - Set the bar high - Push you to be the best version of yourself - Support an environment of innovation - And are just genuine, good people to be around Amazing things can and will happen - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This past week I had the chance to meet up with one of my Loxo colleagues, Lex, and our video partner, Chandler The agenda didn't include sitting in a stuffy conference room somewhere talking about marketing for hours on end Instead, we embraced a recent campaign we all worked on together that involved finding and contacting the hardest-to-reach people (which ended up using an alien) and we met up at the Kennedy Space Center Yes, we talked marketing But more importantly, we had fun + talked about anything that friends would talk about when getting together Great teams + amazing people are hard to come by If you're on one, you've got a career superpower sitting in your lap - make sure you're taking advantage of it #fridayhealththoughts

You can spend your way to brand awareness, but not demand creation. A simplified breakdown of the two 👇 TL;DR - you can spend your way to brand awareness, but not demand creation Brand Awareness - Messaging: high-level with a focus on answering what you do and/or a memorable tagline - POV/differentiation: NO strong POV/differentiation statement - Audience: total addressable market (broad + large) - Timeline: "always on" - Measuring success: brand recognition + brand recall Demand Creation - Messaging: high-level with a focus on answering what you solve for - POV/differentiation: VERY strong POV/differentiation statement - Audience: ICP (smaller + specific) - Timeline: constrained by success measurements (next point) - Measuring success: pipeline + revenue Real-world example: Monday.com Remember the past few years when it seemed like every time you went to watch a video on YouTube, you first saw an ad for Monday.com? I do 🙋♂️ I can tell you exactly what they do (project management software) ...but I can't tell you how they're different from all of the other competitors in their space (Asana, Trello, Basecamp, etc.) Their ads were very successful in that they got my attention + communicated what they do, but they never convinced me WHY they are the only option I should go with, what they provide that's different from their competitors in making their customers more successful, or added any value to me that positions them as THE experts in this space If I got a survey from YouTube or a third-party firm asking if I had heard of Monday.com, the answer would be a resounding yes BUT if they asked if I considered buying their software in the next 12 months, the answer would be no Why? Because they didn't *create* any demand - They didn't give me a sense of urgency around what I'm missing out on by not using them - I didn't receive any compelling feeling that they are THE project management platform I should use - They didn't educate or provide me with any value with insights that they uniquely know as experts in the space Long story short, they didn't break out of the commodity bucket - they're simply another option Creating demand means: - Communicating a unique POV about your category + why you're the only option - Sharing data + insights around how customers have seen success, along with actionable takeaways others can do to improve even if they don't use your product (aka show they understand the problem, their market, and are invested in their customers' success) - Constraining your measurement timeline to understand if the marketing efforts you make today are driving noticeable increases to your pipeline + revenue numbers after a few quarters (and if it isn't, it's not creating demand + you need to go back to the drawing board) - - - - - - - - - - Justin Norris and I geeked out on demand creation, getting exec buy-in, and more on a recent episode of his podcast RevOps FM + was one of my favorites to date. 100% worth a listen.

I've helped 50+ SaaS companies implement a marketing strategy for today's world, and there's 1 thing I've found that indicates if it'll be successful: (and it has nothing to do with the marketing strategy itself) *Expectation setting* The best thing you can do for yourself and this new strategy is to CLEARLY set expectations with leadership. AKA what to expect, when to expect it, and how to validate if we are on/off track. I like to do this in two ways. 1) Timeline The first way is by giving an overview of the timeline for this shift, but still in an easy-to-understand way for non-marketers. Getting started (days 1-30) Experiment (days 31-90) Validate + iterate (days 91-180) Scale + iterate (days 181+) The key here is setting expectations that it's going to take one QUARTER to get experimental results and ANOTHER quarter from there to validate our findings before we're able to get ready to scale. 2) What to watch The second way to successfully set expectations with your leadership team is to tell them EXACTLY what we will be watching to understand if things are working and when we will be watching for those signals. The first thing you’ll notice is that we’re aligning these KPIs with the 4 stages of the timeline we walked through moments ago. The second thing to notice is that we are calling these KPIs (key performance indicators), not goals. Our goal is to increase revenue from marketing. Like the name states, KPIs are indicators that we’re on track to hitting our desired goal. Getting started (days 1-30) Historical performance will continue (remember: we’re getting things in place here, not executing). Experiment (days 31-90) # new users (direct + branded) to website # visits to high-intent pages ICP engagement % on social channels you’re active on # “leads” from paid search + paid social* (if previous strategy was lead gen, this will decrease) Cost per lead* (if previous strategy was lead gen, this will increase) *Note: It is ok and EXPECTED if the above two go that direction - we’re focusing on downfunnel impact Validate + iterate (days 91-180) # high-intent handraisers “How did you hear about us?” responses referencing the new tactics/mediums you’re using BDR/AE feedback on if ICP has heard of your company before (will change from “Who are you and where are you calling from?” to “Ohh yeah, I’ve heard of your company before, I love your content!” # discovery calls completed Conversion % of handraiser > discovery call completed Conversion % of discovery call completed > qualified opportunity Scale + iterate (days 181+) # qualified opportunities $ qualified pipeline Win rate HDYHAU responses referencing word of mouth Sales cycle length $ revenue Advertising customer acquisition costs (CAC) Advertising CAC payback period Pro tip: turn the KPI bullets at each stage into checkboxes so you can show them the exact progress you’re making as you move along the new journey #marketing

Friday health thoughts: Are you stuck? In a funk? Wheels spinning but you aren't getting anywhere? Go change your scenery Step away from your computer and... Go for a walk Head to the gym Take a shower Play with your dog Take your kid to the park Call a parent or grandparent Go for a bike ride Grab a fiction book + read a chapter or two Meditate Then come back to where you left off when you're in a better headspace and watch how much easier things become. #fridayhealththoughts

I love data. I could geek out on data all day long. More specifically, I love to use data to support what we should AND shouldn’t be doing. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do here with your leadership team. Instead of blindly guessing at what we should be doing, following the current “best practice”, or mirroring what our competitors are doing, let’s use our own data to inform what we should do. To blend or not to blend, that is the question If Shakespeare was a marketer in 2024, I fully believe he would’ve asked his leadership team that question. Most companies use a “blended” story for each team (and sometimes even the entire company 😅): Marketing produced X at Y%, generating $Z.ZZ return Sales produced A at B%, generating $C.CC return The problem with this approach is that you’re using an average of a series of averages. This is a BIG no-no. And this plays into exactly what we should be doing - looking at the full story to understand what’s going on. So that means taking the Marketing “bucket” and breaking it down by the core channels, such as lead gen, inbound, events, referrals, etc. I’m going to keep it simple here and focus on the first two, but you can and should do this for as many channels that you currently use or historically used. This is where the fun begins as you’re now able to see how the different channels play out for driving new business. And this is where you’ll likely start to see some questions like the ones in the yellow text boxes of the image come up from your leadership team: *Lightbulb moment initiated* Congratulations, you’ve now shown that not all marketing efforts and channels are equal at driving new business. The strategy and tactics you use will all play out differently not just based on a binary yes/no if you use certain channels, but will vary based on the investment level in each, how well they’re executed, and so on. This example is VERY common. With this data, you are able to show your leadership team exactly how your current marketing strategy + channels are (or aren’t) performing. If you continue to focus on lead gen, you’ll simply see the above lead gen results on a larger (read: inefficient) scale. But if you focused more on inbound, what would that look like with 2x, 3x, or 5x the resources applied? The beauty is they don’t need to be net new resources, but can be reallocated from lead gen, meaning you spend the same amount, but each dollar goes drastically farther in driving qualified pipeline and future revenue.

Fun fact: when a prospect officially enters “the buyer’s journey”, they aren’t starting from scratch. More importantly, not every company gets an equal chance at winning that potential business. But why? Simple: when a company finally recognizes that it’s time to solve for this pain or need to grow in a certain way, they already have a handful of companies in mind that can help them achieve this. A study conducted by Bain and Google in 2022 highlighted the massive insight that 9 out of 10 B2B purchases that are made go with a vendor they already had in mind before officially starting the “traditional” buyer’s journey. Think about it - information is EVERYWHERE and very easily accessible now. Rewind 20, 30, even 40 years ago, and that information could only be acquired through an RFP, at an event, by having the provider “call” on you or, even scarier, faxed to you 😱. AKA, sellers had all the power. Now fast forward back to today and you’re only ever a search query, conversation, podcast, video, etc. away from getting the information you were seeking. And if the seller doesn’t provide that information easily or transparently, the prospect simply finds another alternative (aka one of your competitors) that has that information readily available for them. AKA, buyers now have the power. So now it’s up to you as a marketer to help your leadership team understand this shift in power dynamics and position your company in a way that will help you succeed moving forward. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This is one snippet from a larger newsletter sent out last Saturday via Substack tackling part 2 of 3 on how to get leadership buy-in as a marketer. Link to the article (or to subscribe) can be found on my profile. And yes, it's 100% free.

Friday health thoughts: 5 surprising health benefits of coffee ...because who doesn't want 5 more reasons to justify their caffeine fix 😂 1) You're less likely to develop heart failure Studies have shown that drinking 1-2 cups of coffee per day may help keep heart failure at bay 2) You may decrease your risk of getting Alzheimer's disease or dementia Studies have found that the caffeine in two cups of coffee may help protect you from these conditions. Research noted that for individuals 65 or older and drank 2-3 cups of coffee per day were less likely than their lower coffee intake counterparts to develop these conditions. 3) You're more likely to live longer Coffee drinkers are less likely to die from some of the most common causes of death, such as: heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease 4) It helps increase athletic performance Drinking coffee before exercise, notably caffeinated coffee, helps to increase endurance and decreases perceived exertion levels 5) It helps keep you happy (and at a lower risk of depression) Multiple studies have found direct links between coffee consumption and a lowered risk of developing depression - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - On that note, off to go brew another cup of coffee ☕ #fridayhealththoughts

If I never received another unsolicited, cold-pitch DM from someone I've never met, engaged with, or added value to me in any way, I would be absolutely ok with that