SaaS marketing professionals have more resources available to them than ever before. But in the pursuit of more leads at a faster pace, how far is too far? What does responsible marketing look like in this day and age?
In this episode of SaaS Half Full, host Lindsey Groepper talks with Christina Mautz, CMO and interim CRO of Moz, an SEO and local search platform. She shares her takes on responsible marketing, the dangers of volume marketing and personalization in the digital-only world COVID-19 has created.
Responsible marketing makes it personal
Christina was a proponent of personalized marketing early in her career. According to her, ensuring marketing messages reach only those who need to hear them unlocks marketing’s true power. “When it’s done well, it reaches people at a primal level, and you have this power to influence with marketing,” she said. “So, it’s your responsibility to know deeply who your customer is so that you will use that power in a way that only reaches those who benefit the most.”
Given such power, Christina believes responsible marketing relates to understanding which customers only need and could benefit from your product but also those ready to talk to you. That results in a narrower but better-aligned band of prospects where marketers can develop awareness and interest. “It is the responsibility of the marketer to know how to do that without spreading their message so broadly that it invokes annoyance more than anything,” she said.
Christina finds the popular tactics available to today’s marketers enable spamminess if used irresponsibly. Beyond the annoyance factor, it can reduce the quality of leads you’re putting into your pipeline. “As a marketer, it’s your responsibility not just to drive growth but to drive growth responsibly by reaching the right people and to drive growth profitably for your company,” she said. “If you’re filling the top of the funnel with garbage, you’re going to end up in a place where those are very expensive acquisition targets.”
Irresponsible marketing has led to consequences like GDPR and its complex regulations, which Christina believes could’ve been avoided by savvier marketing. “I keep asking myself: wow, as a marketer, if I had gathered with my peers and all of us across the world said we are going to only use marketing for good, and we are only going to reach out to those customers that we know could benefit from our products, could we have kept these regulations from even needing to be created?”
SaaS marketing must leave volume marketing in the past
Christina believes the volume game has driven a lot of irresponsible marketing. Part of making marketing more responsible lies in educating CEOs about personalized marketing being a stronger measure for success. She suggests marketers can help CEOs understand this by analyzing current traffic, customers and their marketing model. Get specific about who your audience is and what they want from you.
“You then could create marketing that goes after just those customers because you know that they need you so much, and they are so ready for you that they’re going to engage deeply,” she said. “They’re going to stay longer and they’re going to have a much higher lifetime value. And that is way more valuable to the CEO than volume.”
The need for responsible marketing — especially in the digital landscape — will expand as the world adapts to the current pandemic. Christina notes that while many companies have shifted to adapt to the digital-only SaaS marketing world, the companies that will succeed afterward are those that innovate and optimize their digital presence. She suggests marketers study how consumers interact with content and practice more organic strategies like matching article headlines to customers’ expectations to achieve their desired results.
For more of Christina’s insights, listen in full to Episode 203 of Saas Half Full.