Technologies are only as important and can only be as successful as the strategy and people that you have around to support it. The science of marketing strikes a balance between utilizing the latest marketing technologies and building the right team. In this episode, we talk with Jared Gardner, who has held growth in demand generation roles at other high-growth software companies. He shares how marketing teams can leverage technology to reach their full potential.
Jared is the VP of Growth at Human Interest, a FinTech company that offers an affordable, full-service 401(k) provider focused on small businesses. Before Human Interest, he held growth and demand generation roles at other high-growth software companies including Qualtrics, ServiceTitan, and Sprinklr.
“Being able to find growth loops that are nontraditional, I find is a really good source that a lot of people don’t think about.”
– Jared Gardner
Being able to leverage technology to make experiences better. As someone who cares a lot about marketing technology, Jared is energized by the potential and growth of the MarTech industry and how many options, suites, platforms, and point solutions are available right now. According to Jared, the industry is just scratching the surface with that kind of a full uptake in the utilization of those platforms.
Tactics, channels, messaging, content, etc. change based on the market segment, however, technology stays the same regardless of which segment you’re targeting. What changes across the market segments is the type of tactics that you utilize. Build the channels you need to accomplish what you want to do.
CRM is important, but don’t overextend it. Technology is important, but it’s not the only factor in choosing a CRM. Tactics, channels, and processes need to be considered as well. CRMs are necessary for direct sales and growth motions but can become overused if not kept clean.
CRM is the number one type of software that is necessary for a successful MarTech operation, followed by marketing automation platforms. Thirdly, your web personalization stack, which you use to plug your first-party data collection and third-party data sources into an AV-possessing platform or a personalization platform.
Personalization and testing are key components of a successful web experience, and data must be aligned across all channels to be effective. It’s important to have a hierarchy of data sources that can be used to improve account performance. Every technology has overlap with another, so it’s important to make sure that all team resources are aligned with the software being brought in
It’s easy to overspend on tools and expect them to do too much, which can lead to frustration and lack of success. It’s important to have a strategy in place before bringing in new technology and to have the right people in place to manage it.
There are three main functions in a marketing team: growth, demand generation, and product marketing. Marketing teams need to have a leader who can forecast and manage metrics across different departments. It is also important to trust team members and give them the freedom to solve problems on their own.
Bryan Olshock – Vice President Of Pipeline Generation at ServiceTitan
Rick Galán – VP of Growth Marketing at Divvy (Acquired by Bill.com)
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B2B podcast for, Smarter GTM™