Growth Marketing: How to Generate a Marketing Plan Using AI

Unedited Transcript

Jim Rembach (00:01):
Okay, B2B DM gang. I’m excited to talk about the subject that we’re going to talk about today and get you, give you an opportunity to meet Maryna Burushkina. So Maryna, welcome to the show.
Maryna Burushkina (00:14):
Thank you very much soon. It’s exciting to be here today with you.
Jim Rembach (00:17):
Yeah. And we’ve tried to meet a couple of times and some things have come up, but I definitely wanted to make sure that we had this interview because we’re going to talk about something that quite frankly, when you start looking at, you know, um, small businesses, you know, even individuals, um, you know, they struggle with something that they have to get right today, you know, and that is to putting together, you know, the strategies that are necessary to be successful, do the proper planning on the front, end know how to take the right step. And oftentimes we just get misled. So that’s why I think what you’re going to talk about today is really important. So to get lost with that, and after this, we’ll, we’ll ask a little bit about your background is if you could answer to me or help me answer, what question do B to B digital marketers need to be asking themselves today?
Maryna Burushkina (01:07):
Yeah, that’s a great question. Um, to start with, I think actually there are maybe a few questions, but my favorite one would be, let’s try to understand the customer journey from step one when they first maybe hear or see a brand until they convert. And then when they interact with the brand. Right. And when they’re ready to tell their friends about it. So I just love to talk about the customer journey because I feel like a lot of times when it happens with us, marketers is just, we jump into tactics, right? Let’s let’s do, I don’t know, BBC ads, let’s do the email campaign, let’s optimize this area or that area, but you really forget oftentimes about the actual funnel and where everything fits and making sure that we bring that customer through the journey.
Jim Rembach (01:56):
Yeah. And, and, and to me, it was just kind of peel it back a little bit and get a little bit more specific. You’re really talking about connecting with them in a very emotional and human way instead of it being a tactical functional way. Is that correct?
Maryna Burushkina (02:11):
Yeah. I mean, it can be also connected in a tactical way sometimes like, uh, through the ads or like landing pages, whatever. But, uh, what I really mean is that we need to think about what was the previous interaction they might have had with a brand, or like, what do we want them to take on the next step, in their journey with our company? And especially for B2B, it becomes a little bit more complex than for B to C, right? Because we have multiple stakeholders involved in the play and the sales process might take longer, especially if you’re talking enterprise sales. So for us, it’s even more complex than for B to C. And thinking about the customer journey is really helpful in, in the spectrum just to make sure you also increase your results at the end of the day.
Jim Rembach (02:55):
Yeah. And let’s be quite clear when you start looking at all the statistics associated, how B to B, you know, and how organizations decide that the more people there’s more people in that decision than there ever been before, you know, that that’s one issue. Uh, and now also those people are dispersed. So they’re not all in one place being able to meet. So it’s important. Okay. So before we get into that, if you could tell the B2B DM gang a little bit about you, your background and what you’re doing today, that is going to help us.
Maryna Burushkina (03:28):
Yeah, sure. So my background is in digital marketing, I’ve been doing that for over 15 years and also for over a decade, I had my own agency who was focusing majorly on FinTech marketing, um, beach, uh, also sold actually a few months ago. And, um, from last year I also started my own startup focusing on technology and helping companies automate their marketing planning, uh, to three to save time costs and jump faster into the executional part, our favorite, right. And really cut down the, the part that takes us so much time into really identifying okay, what I should focus on which to get the key results. What’s the research, what’s the competitors to all that kind of part that comes before we actually can do something right.
Jim Rembach (04:12):
Well, and I think an important point in what you just said is to know that what we often have relied upon in order to decide, which is our intuition, our gut must be questioned now, um, because we’re, we’re not doing business the way that we had done it in the past. And arguably when, you know, we see some additional changes that are happening in regards to, you know, maybe Italy doesn’t go into its fourth lockdown, um, you know, and, and those types of things. And it doesn’t matter where we are in the world quite frankly, uh, is that it’s going to be even a different landscape then what is it gonna exactly look like? Um, we really don’t know. So being able to always question our gut and do it in a very effective and efficient manner is going to be the difference between success and failure. Is that correct?
Maryna Burushkina (05:01):
Yeah, for sure. And with actually automated in that part, it’s not only our kind of personal bias in place. Right. But it also makes it marketing and planning more dynamic. Like if you would have made your marketing plan for a year, like in January last year, you could have thrown it down to the trash in March, right. When COVID hit, when you actually use real time data, you can do fresh, updated in real time and then really see, okay, what’s actually relevant today. So then it’s no longer that static presentation or whatever you have there sitting in your SlideShare or Dropbox. Um, but it’s actually this living either document or a dashboard that you have in place, right? Like with us that you can always rely to and go back to refresh with any point of time to see, okay, is my actual strategy still valid or is there something else that I need to consider for the next period of time? So I think those are some of the top things to really think about when it comes to marketing today.
Jim Rembach (05:58):
And earlier when I first started, uh, you know, having this conversation with you, you know, I kind of planted a seed, so to speak in regards to research, you know, that is currently out there in regards to organizations and the development of their, their marketing plans and, you know, content marketing strategies and, and those types of things. And the fact is is that for most organizations, they either don’t have one or they have a very ineffective one. And if you put those two things together, that’s like more than 80% of all organizations, it’s a massive number. So if, if you can, before you go into it, talk about what organizations struggle with and what yet they need to do. So if you think about that from a, um, I’m in a, I have a problem to solve for right, this is what I’m doing, and this is what I need to do. And not even thinking about it from a tech perspective.
Maryna Burushkina (06:57):
Yeah. So, I mean, there are lots of, lots of challenges nowadays, right? Um, I think one of the things that we see happen right now is that organizations like bigger organization, medium size organization tend to spend too much time, um, brainstorming workshops, going back and forth. I mean, it’s great to have those, um, creative moments, but it can not take forever. I mean, some organizations take months over a month and sometimes half a years are just like plan, uh, like a marketing strategy or like a brand strategy you can paint even. Um, and it just shouldn’t take that long, right? That you should be able to identify those opportunities, research the market and go to the next step. Um, and until you go to the next step, usually in, in our normal everyday scenario only then you will be able to test different strategies and see what works and what doesn’t.
Maryna Burushkina (07:54):
Right. Um, so I think those are, um, some of the things, and that brings me to the next challenge, uh, which I think is also very valid is that some people just launch and go with it and really miss the part of experimenting, uh, looking into new opportunities. I think experimentation needs to happen. It’s like an ongoing process, right? Test learn, apply, repeat, right. It’s always happening. It has to be always happening because there’s always a better copy, always a better headline. There might be a better, um, I don’t know, uh, placement, but their layout option for a specific call to action. Um, there might be a different, um, I dunno, content opportunity. So you have to always keep on testing and on this way, you will be able to identify what are those exact opportunities and how we can improve our conversions or whatever else as your, um, actual objective. Right. Um, so I think that’s really important. Um, it’s also something that we always consider also within our tool and gross channels. Have you also do partially like simulation before we actually release the full marketing plan before TOK 75% success rate grade, I’m ready to go. So it actually does the simulation also for a few days, so that, uh, like, uh, escalated protests in terms of, um, instead of waiting a few months and tested all manually, it also does, uh, with us, uh, actually in real time within the tool itself.
Jim Rembach (09:17):
Okay. So that seems very compelling. So, uh, I think, you know, you talk about FinTech. I, you talked about, you know, a couple of different things from a tech perspective. Now, I think, you know, artificial intelligence is kind of for many how, gosh, the gray matter in regards to technology, because we hear this artificial intelligence. And the fact is, is when you are to get under the hood or bonnet, you know, depending on where you’re listening or watching is, you know, you may see that there’s really not a whole lot of AI that’s there it’s maybe some business rules that exist, you know, things are being pulled from certain places, depending on how you’re requesting and selecting and, and it’s, you know, it’s pretty well, it’s just not very dynamic. Um, but yet it’s being pushed and, you know, being delivered and promoted as artificial intelligence. So when you, if you can kind of clarify what we were talking about when, you know, we use artificial intelligence in this type of context, what does it really do?
Maryna Burushkina (10:22):
Yeah. So I think today, actually there is a few tools that are doing pretty good job in terms of applying AI machine learning into marketing. But mostly that piece comes into like activating those campaigns. There are a few that also help you with optimizing the campaigns. Um, and even, I think if you were 14 one, they actually tell you like predictive analytics, right. As a part of it that tells you, Hey, this is the kind of the prediction of how much you could get. If you continue on this path and based on the other historical data that you have. So there are actually a few tools out there in the market that you can use to read, improve, uh, your activation campaigns. There are also a whole bunch of, uh, like different opportunities nowadays in terms of like creating actual content with AI, other media content, or a reason content optimizing some of the campaigns, um, based on the keyword groups and bidding opportunity to like budget the location I have seen as well and this predictive analytics.
Maryna Burushkina (11:19):
So I think my favorite areas, um, within sales, there are a whole bunch of AIC applied as well. You can see actually one of them almost every day when you purchase something, because there’s this, um, the price adjustment, right? There are some tools that, uh, adjust the price in with AI based on so many different metrics. There are tools within CRM as well, that help with lead scoring like automated lead scoring. It’s something that station that can also help like your sales colleagues, whether identifying those leads within gross channel. We use that for simulation purposes. So stimulating those AB tests, and also we use the copywriting to actually generate the reports. So then you don’t need to, let’s say if you’re an agency or if you’re a B to B marketer, then basically you don’t need to ride, uh, what or understand what is exactly the data presented to me mean. Uh, so our tool actually provides that for you. So, so that, yeah, you don’t have to think too much too hard about it basically. Um, so yeah, that’s just a few applications, um, like visual and my favorite ones, but there are endless nowadays I think there is so many very things happening with the guy today and machine learning as well. So, um, I would just say like, if you were interested in the topic, just go Google it and see some other cool stuff happening.
Jim Rembach (12:37):
Well, anyone I think about that though, when you started mentioning some of those things, I started thinking about larger organizations that, and so for us, you know, a lot of the folks that are part of the BB DM gang, I mean, you know, we’re coaches, consultants, you know, small businesses. And when you look at a lot of the marketing departments that are in those types of organizations, there’s, you know, two people and they’re splitting duties, they’re doing all this. And when you started mentioning about some of these activities that I need to do, I’m like, like, Oh my gosh, do I even have the resources to do all that? Right. Um, you know, maybe it’s just me, you know, can I even, you know, do these things as a realistic, um, but then I also start thinking of, well, you know, I’ve got to do better than everyone else, so I kind of need it. So, so it’s kind of a catch 22, as they say, you know, I’m in trouble if I do, and I’m in trouble if I don’t or am I, or is that not true?
Maryna Burushkina (13:27):
Yeah. I mean, some of the, uh, AI tools there, uh, have like start-up and SMB packages. So then you can actually get the, either for free or at the very low kind of level. Some of them are actually designed for start up centers and PS and kind of smaller consultants. For example, the, one of they men mentioned that actually creates, uh, images for you, right. For your ads. So then you don’t need to have the necessarily like a full-time designer. And if you’re running PPC ads, especially with like banners and all that stuff so that you can really optimize on the go. Some of them are really inexpensive and even like, think back, I don’t know. I think it was five years ago or maybe even more. I remember there was this virtual assistant, a release like AI virtual assistant that would help you reply to some of your emails and book your meetings if you connect it to your Google calendar. Like, uh, even that simple example. And I think they also had like $5 a month or something for a virtual assistant, which you would otherwise be like five, $5 an hour instead of per month, right. For a virtual assistant otherwise. So, um, I mean, those are just a few examples.
Jim Rembach (14:30):
Okay. So when I start thinking about, um, you know, the best way for a digital marketer to kind of disrupt stand out and differentiate themselves from everyone else, what are some of the things that come to mind for you?
Maryna Burushkina (14:44):
Yeah, well, I think like, it all starts from understanding what is your niche? Where exactly are you trying position yourself? Um, so I think we’re in a very crowded market nowadays, for sure, but it’s really good to always like focus on your maybe expert area. So where are your strengths? Exactly. Um, so maybe it’s a specific industry, maybe it’s specific location, maybe it’s a size of the company. Uh, it could be some specifics, maybe services or benefits that your customers would get by working with you. Um, so there could be many different things actually. So I think just trying to focus, and then once you have lots of great case studies, uh, was a bridge referrals and, and you see that growth happening, then you can scale further and grow from there.
Jim Rembach (15:30):
Okay. So now you talked about a little bit about your background saying that you are owned an agency. You’ve also lived in several different places around the world, right? If I start thinking about essentially globalization, you know, more, more, and more of us now can sell any product and service, you know, halfway around the world quite easily. And you’re also talking about making sure that you’re connecting with your customer and your ideal client. I mean, how so with your background and experience and all these different cultures and types of customers and ideal customers that you have seen, what are some of the things that, you know, are really common across the all that will allow me to be successful?
Maryna Burushkina (16:11):
Well, I think everyone today can jump on a zoom call for sure. So that is one. Um, but yeah, I think, um, also because of the COVID, I think now it’s easier than ever most probably to, to connect with another side of the world and have the conversation maybe even, um, convert them as a customer much faster as well, because everything is digital nowadays. So, uh, you can just do that maybe by email and jump on a few virtual calls instead of actually have to travel somewhere, to see someone in person and shake their hands. So, um, I think this is really an opportunity and, uh, can be taken, um, as well, I think for everyone that a days. Um, so that’s definitely something to consider, uh, if you haven’t considered yet, but, um, every culture is also very different. So if you’re, I don’t know, in the U S and you want to target Japan so that you can like, maybe check some of the differences. I think like the sales cycle might be longer, uh, things that, um, the communication is miserably, very different, less direct, um, and there are so many different cultural differences of there. Um, so definitely something to consider whenever you did business internationally.
Jim Rembach (17:19):
Well, and if you think about that from though, you’re, you know, you’re, you’re testing, for example, you know, you had talked about that, you know, I need to put together a plan that’s gonna enable me, or allow me to be the most successful, you know, format for my marketing strategy. I mean, if I’m thinking about that from a, um, you know, connection, right. I want to be able to connect and convert. The best that I possibly can is in that particular, um, example or scenario, is there some commonalities that we need to be hitting on? Because I find people all the time will say, well, this, you know, this is going to work because it’s connecting to this type of emotion or whatever. And then they find out that while it does here, doesn’t here. Um, you know, and that’s what I’m, for me, I’m like, if, if we have something that could be accessed from anywhere, do you see some commonalities that are telling us, you know, really this is kind of a good base to start with.
Maryna Burushkina (18:20):
Yeah. Um, I think it’s it, it’s a good idea to start from the basics. Um, but if you have the opportunity then definitely localized, like if you’re going international, definitely localized, like your messaging, um, the visuals, um, even sometimes colors matter, like, uh, if you’re looking at you, you give the Asian examples, like their colors rate of matter a lot. Um, but like copy is different in Europe. For example, security’s playing a very, very important elements. So, um, you definitely do want to mention that on your landing page much more than if you would mention it in the U S for example, I think in the us also, the copies is much more, maybe a straightforward, more kind of creative kind of try and more salesy, maybe even a type of coffee, uh, coffee, and in Europe, it’s, um, it’s a little bit more maybe traditional in a way as well.
Maryna Burushkina (19:12):
It’s still creative. Um, but definitely like security plays an important element people. Um, and it’s a very different direction, um, that you would take. It’s also maybe more, um, a little bit more conservative than here. So every, uh, but also every country within Europe is also different. So you can not really also generalize everyone, uh, in one bucket and also sometimes different, um, countries have their like legal limitations. Um, so sometimes like you can just call someone without having their consent, for example, in Germany. So, um, like lots of different things to consider. So definitely like to very quick research, maybe like three minutes research, just to check in on whether the basics that you need to know if you’re going to, for a specific markets that’s international, if you’re not familiar with it before.
Jim Rembach (20:02):
Okay. So then, uh, for me, when I started looking at, you know, being able to be more effective at this and you and I have kind of talked about this, so we’re, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re taking all these things that we need to do, and there could be, I don’t even wanna get into the whole scale issue, uh, because that could be quite significant, but what are some of the things that we can easily automate and in order for us to be able to remove some of those burdens so that we can have a greater first step and then therefore go down a path of, let’s just say velocity a lot faster.
Maryna Burushkina (20:35):
Yeah. So I would just kind of take a step back and really think about, okay, who is your customer? And from that really to identify what are they trying to achieve, what their goals are, can actually use that, uh, from maybe when you speak to the actual customers and just ask them, well, what’s your objective? What are you trying to achieve? And it’s always good to record it, like making notes, or if you have like a recording recorded and you can also use that, uh, like as opposed to on your landing page, because if a customer said it it’s like another customer has in mind too. Um, and it’s much more powerful than if you would turn it into your own words. Um, so that’s one, um, and then identify, what are the challenges like, what are the pain points? Uh, what are they trying to solve, use that on your landing page too.
Maryna Burushkina (21:24):
Um, and again, if a customer tells you that, um, no to down and, and put that on your landing page again, customer voice is much more powerful than you putting it into your own words, because the way you would describe it might be very different than the way they would describe it. Um, and then things like, um, identifying who and what influences their decision. Um, because that would basically mean, okay, where shall I be present on to make sure that their decision is impacted? I need to convert them into a sale. Um, things like, um, what they like, what they don’t play, also stuff you can put on your landing page basically. And what are their KPIs, again, stuff you can put on your landing page, right? And then to find where, like, what are the important channels for them? And again, you can ask them like, um, what maybe publications do you read?
Maryna Burushkina (22:19):
Or, um, you can do that in as a part of your kind of onboarding call or like discovery call. And, uh, when you jump on a call with a customer potential one, um, and then of course our tool automates that, but those are different packets that even you, without having all the resources, you can do that also manually, if you, if you don’t have the budget or if you’re like a one person company and so on. So I think all of that is very doable, um, even without having access to automation tools like our channel, for example. So really trying to understand, okay, who is my customer? And what’s their day in life. Like, like what’s important for them, what their challenges are. And this will basically guide your strategy further down the road, but this will tell you pretty much, okay. Uh, what content I should be focusing on with channels. I should be focusing on what kind of content ideas I might have actually from my campaigns. So just having that information is I think the foundation of everything else that goes kind of from it. So there isn’t really one tactic that would work for everyone. So, but this funnel do like the foundation of IDMs, Frank, where you’re trying to reach.
Jim Rembach (23:25):
So, okay. So, um, I’m, I’m getting some new insights in regards to, based on my, my, my target, my ideal customer, uh, and, you know, I’m getting all these suggestions to start doing, you know, these particular activities, you know, w whether it’s, you know, creating this type of piece of content or doing some, some other, other things. If I start thinking about that, um, I’m starting to, I’m starting to think about, you know, the amount of work that actually gets, gets created by doing this type of plan. So if you could kind of give us some perspective of what it would look like typically for somebody to go through that process.
Maryna Burushkina (24:05):
Yeah. I think my, you need to go through that protests. Um, again, you can speak to your existing customers. Um, it can be even one customer or some prospects, um, and you can talk to them during the discovery call to identify some of those, uh, some of that information, but also, um, when you think about like, what would be the next step? Like, what was it the first thing that I need to do, um, to bring them down their journey? It really depends also on what stage you’re at. Like, okay, there, you, you got to have a website, like maybe that’s important, right. Or, um, basically then define, um, what’s the things in the trigger stamp of the final, like the very first kind of awareness piece, right. Uh, what’s important there, like most probably them to be able to, to learn more about like me and my brand and my company, my services.
Maryna Burushkina (24:59):
Right. So I think having some kind of presence is really important and then just plotting, okay. Maybe I should have a website. Maybe it should have been money thing profile. Um, maybe I should lose my company on, I dunno, this directory with agencies that are local in my area or something like that. So it really depends on your business, but those are a few ideas that you can kind of think this is the thinking process basically, that you can take forward. And then once you’re done with that, um, you can move into the next step, like consideration, okay. Once a person actually, maybe Google’s, I don’t know, best agencies in Cleveland or something like this, or I don’t know, best, um, local software for a, B and C, whether they going to find, and then being able to be there either of its search engine optimization or search engine marketing, or what whatnot. Right. Um, all those digital marketing tactics, then you can also identify those opportunities. So this is kind of the protests that I would go through.
Jim Rembach (25:57):
Okay. So, and you were, you know, we’re using the agency example, but that would apply to, you know, I’m a small software company I would apply to, you know, I have a small consultancy, you know what I mean? All of that still is Jermaine. It, it was really looking at the whole framework and the process that’s needed in order to be successful. So, um, give me an example of, you know, impact, right. I’m going from, you know, there’ll be S I have a plan, I have a strategy. I have a website, you know, which most people do. I mean, you know, if they’re, if they’ve already been in business, but yet I need to do something even different or better. I, you know, like to give you an example, there was a coach that I met, who’s been in business, has her own business for 30 years, right now, creating content does a podcast.
Jim Rembach (26:50):
And, uh, you know, all talking about the changes in COVID, you know, now everybody, not everybody, I shouldn’t generalize like that. A lot of people, you know, find themselves for whatever reason, you know, now starting their own consulting practice, you know, joining, uh, you know, a consulting practice and being, uh, you know, an overall freelancer. And so you have essentially just from a sheer numbers perspective, a significantly greater amount of people trying to get attention of other businesses in order to, you know, fathers products and services. And so, you know, how can I take, you know, something that has already been established now I’m finding, you know, a whole brand new sea of competition that I’ve never had before, you know, and, and have it, you know, to be, uh, different and more impactful, because I’m not following the patterns that I’ve been following for the past 30 years. So have, can you, can you talk to somebody who’s in that scenario and you know, how they would actually be able to come, you know, to having greater success by, you know, using a solution like yours?
Maryna Burushkina (27:58):
Yeah, definitely. So, um, let’s assume that you don’t have any issue because that’s something I talked earlier, like few minutes ago, right. I would definitely say just going into like a specific area and then scale from there, but let’s assume you’re, you don’t have that for whatever reason. Um, in that case, I would do an deeper competitor analysis and identify what the competitors are doing wrong, what backlinks they lost that were very powerful. Like, what are the contents or opportunities that they’re missing on, uh, what are the social channels maybe they’re not exploring, which are still relevant for your target audience, like doing that competitive analysis in depth and identifying the opportunities and gaps. That is something that I would start from if you don’t have a niche, but I didn’t really have any issue, but assuming you’d done, then I would do like that. And in there until you can automate all that competitive analysis, so you don’t need to sit in a few months. I don’t define those things.
Jim Rembach (29:01):
Yeah. Cause I mean, cause there’s a lot of places that you just don’t even know where to look. Right. And I think to me, I always, and never surprises me, uh, or at least it shouldn’t, you know, how I always find this brand new thing to me, that’s brand new that has been around for a while and is just massive. And I’m like, how do I, how do I just never find this? Because I’m always, you know, doing research and trying to find things online. Um, and I think that, you know, what you need, you know, technology in order to help you sort through all that. There’s just no way you can keep up with it all.
Maryna Burushkina (29:34):
Yeah, definitely. And also like you’re talking about technology, like there are so many tools out there today, like even even taking the one, which I think all of us know, right. Hops spot and they have this big agency network within, uh, within the tool that use their tool themselves. And that also use it for, for the customers as well. So I mean, if you, even if you’re just starting off, like looking at those opportunities, like a lot of companies want to use HubSpot, but they don’t know how, or they don’t have resources. Like you can actually, by knowing how to use hops, what you already have, like a whole bunch of services, if you’re an expert on it, that you can also like resell, um, and, and get extra revenue from. Right. And this is like one tool that everyone knows, I think, but there are so many other ones that you can pretty much work in the same way in the same manner. Um, and this is also how you can kind of grow your needle, consulting, offer your lens at work.
Jim Rembach (30:30):
So, okay. So I think it’s important to tell a little bit more detailed about your background, um, you know, talking about the agency piece and I mean, how does somebody like you get into, you know, being an entrepreneur that creates a software like this?
Maryna Burushkina (30:48):
Yeah. I mean, we have done a, so my intention was a full service agency. So we would start from planning those campaigns before we go into the execution. And then after the execution of the campaign, of course, ongoing optimization reporting and all that. So, um, everyone wants to go into the executional part and activate them that campaign because that’s the creative fees like, um, that actually the work starts. Right. Um, but the planning usually will take a while, like also going back and forth right through the, the client, uh, happy, not happy. Why are we having this KPI benchmark and why this competitor, or I dunno so many other questions. Um, so by automating the process and identifying, um, with AI, those opportunities that already kind of back up itself, this is why, so this actually also brings the processes down much quicker and also gives more opportunities for agencies to kind of, and freelancers and consultants and whatnot, digital marketers to move on to the next step in their journey. Um, something that we also working on in our pipeline, uh, is also making it easier to kind of, um, optimize the campaigns within our tool. Uh, we already started implementing some of the things but more to come, um, because I think that’s also, uh, the area that definitely needs more work. Um, I think the activation part is pretty straightforward. We face with all the tools out there, but like the planning, the optimization part is definitely a great opportunity there too, to think about it
Jim Rembach (32:18):
Well, and it makes sense because, um, when you try, when you try to do some planning and where your options are almost endless, at least from a, from a human computation and evaluation perspective, it is absolutely limitless, right? There’s the talk, I mean, I think this is where technology, especially AI can be just huge benefit. Uh, if we can set aside our own bias, we talked about that and say, look, how machine can do this better than I can, because it’s really just analyzing information. Right. And it’s doing it in a way by which I’m not in the way, because I’ve seen just kind of like you were just explaining, um, you did it quite graciously. I’m not, uh, uh, where you have this constant analysis and constant back and forth and constant refuting of, well, why that comparative versus this comparative, why this, why that?
Jim Rembach (33:16):
And, and oftentimes, and I talked to a guy earlier today who was saying how he was working for somebody who was as well. He put it in the sky was brilliant. I mean, he was mental level IQ. He goes, but we never went anywhere. He goes, every time we got ready to take an action and essentially launch, he would, he would say he found an even better way. He goes in and find it finally came to where people just started leaving left and right, because they lost competence that they were actually gonna do something because they were constantly in the planning stage. So I have to ask the question if I start thinking just about that segment of, you know, the entire execution process and what I mean by execution is that, you know, we plan, we take an action. We iterate, we improve is, you know, how much improvements have you seen in that particular area just in itself?
Maryna Burushkina (34:12):
Yeah. It depends where the companies are. So some of the earlier stage companies, they can like double their revenue, but the ones who are already like enterprise level companies, they just see maybe a few percent, but just a little significant improvement. Right. Um, so it really depends, um, like where you’re at, what’s your budget, what industry you’re at. I mean, so many different variables. Um, I think you have a line around thief, 50 different variables for that. So, um,
Jim Rembach (34:46):
So I would dare say, I would dare to say that, um, uh, w when you start, when you start looking at, you know, business impact, you know, it’s quite significant, and you’re talking about transformation. You’re, you’re accelerating the rate of transformation for a lot of organizations. So let’s think about it this, on the other side, as far as, you know, what I was able to accomplish, we know there’s a saying that goes, oftentimes we get very frustrated on what we attempt to, or are able to accomplish in a single day. And then oftentimes we’re amazed by what we can accomplish over a year. Right. So if you think about that, you know, that, that issue that we often contend with, it’s like, what did you get done today? I don’t know. It seemed like I was just not getting anything accomplished. Right. Um, so how, how much more, an accomplishment perspective can I expect when I, when I, when I start condensing and automating and doing all that, and you can just, you might find your own example, but I, for me, what comes to my mind is like, you know, a campaign perspective, you know, like before I was really only being able to realistically execute on, you know, three campaigns, you know, over a year, um, or one a quarter, you know, what, what does it look like afterwards?
Maryna Burushkina (36:06):
Yeah. So in terms of execution kind of depends on your resources and how fast you can move, but in terms of planning, like if your planning process is a month, you can definitely get it down to just one week. Um, actually you can get it down to one week, even if you had plan for a few months or six months, whatever that is. Um, but let’s say if you have two people working on, on the planning part and it takes you maybe a month or two that’s, that’s already like $20,000, right. We are looking at the separately, so you can save that and add it to your campaign activation budget, basically.
Jim Rembach (36:45):
And that’s pretty significant. Okay. So if I was to say, you know, I’m, I’m talking about budget, you know, and I have my budget allocated a certain way, you know, where, where should I potentially be removing some budget and applying it to,
Maryna Burushkina (37:00):
Yeah, again, that’s kind of, kind of depends on your performance. I would definitely look at the performance per channel, um, and for a specific campaign. So it really kind of depends on the specifics there, but maybe we can, we can take an example. Um, so let’s say, um, maybe, do you have like an example in mind, but let’s look at them to details because like this out of the open space, it’s very hard to say. I mean, I would just look at what’s my key objective. Like, what’s my number one KPI for this campaign and then look, okay. Which channels are performing well in which campaigns are performing well to achieve that KPI, the ones that have the highest percentage with more budget, they’re the ones with the lowest ones they got. So that’s how I would do that. Very simple. And it sounds simple, but of course, in to identify those things across multi-channel campaigns can take some time. Right. Um, but, um, yeah, that’s basically the formula. Let’s put it this way, generally speaking, but if you have like a specific example, we can talk about that too.
Jim Rembach (38:03):
I don’t, I mean, for me, it’s just trying to, I think this is there, there is such an opportunity for education and learning in regards to, you know, being more effective in how we go about our overall planning process. Because a lot of times like you just, you know, you go and coming back for a supple circle. A lot of times we just jump in and start doing things. And I’m trying for, even for me personally, I’m trying to be more intentional on doing the necessary planning and focusing in on the quality component and not so much the quantity component. And that’s not easy. It’s not easy. So if I start looking at, um, you know, what really should have a B2B digital marketer be focusing in, on, you know, going forward, uh, kind of bringing this back and, you know, summarizing everything that we’ve talked about. W what is that one area who really should be focusing on?
Maryna Burushkina (39:00):
Yeah, well, I would kind of reiterate my answer to the first question yet. You asked there about the customer journey. Right. Um, but the thing is that, um, even before the customer journey, you definitely need to understand your market and the person you’re trying to target. Right. So you need to have some in the background, because if you don’t have that, you wouldn’t be able to deploy out your customer journey. Right. So what, what does the funnel look like? Because the funnel is very different, I would say, per each of your customer segments for, um, and it’s also very different, um, for, for different maybe niche markets. And if you want to kind of consider different sets of the petitions, because usually we have this competitive map, right. It’s, it’s like an access, um, to identify, okay, if I’m right here, who is playing right next to me, right.
Maryna Burushkina (39:49):
Who are those closest competitors? So we definitely want to look at them like what they’re doing, what’s happening. What’s working for them, what doesn’t work for them? What are those opportunities for me? So that’s going to help you a lot. And then identifying who are those customers, potential customers for me, and in B2B space, we have like, decision-making and Curtis, we have buyers. We have like, sometimes like legal it even involved. Right? So like kind of purchasing people, we have got, uh, the actual users. Um, so, and they have very different decision-making protests. They all have very different, those customer journeys, I call them. So, um, they all are going to have different, different stages, and they all look for different content while the decision maker may be looking for like, okay, what’s my ROI on this. If I, if I, if I do this, the user will little bit like, Oh, how much time can I save in a day? Or like, how much more can it do? Or, you know, those kinds of things. And it is going to ask, well, what’s the security element, right? Or how be integrated with our other systems, uh, whatever you’re trying to do here. So everyone is looking for different content at different channels. The conversation’s going to be very different with every stakeholder that there. So it’s very important to understand those dynamics first, before you actually upload your final, you cannot have one final for everyone.
Jim Rembach (41:11):
I think that’s great. Um, I mean, that’s a great point and that’s the complexity that we need to make simple. So Mariana, that I’ve had a good time chatting with you. They can you please share with the B2B DN gang, how they can get in touch with you? Okay.
Maryna Burushkina (41:24):
Yeah, definitely. Um, so you can follow me on LinkedIn or [inaudible], um, you can also check out growth channel that IO from our information. And, um, I will also make sure that we have a direct link right there in the description for you as well.
Jim Rembach (41:38):
Mariana, Brooke, Shane, tell him, help me again, bro.
Maryna Burushkina (41:45):
Yeah, that’s great. Mariana,
Jim Rembach (41:47):
Bruce Ghana. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom, and we wish you the very best.
Maryna Burushkina (41:51):
Thank you.