Renegade Thinkers Unite: Marketing Tips From Cmos And Expert Marketers

The events of the past year have been nothing short of disruptive. Life as we know it has changed, and while we (as individuals, as marketers, and as brands) are all looking forward to things going “back to normal,” things aren’t going to look quite the same as we remember. But that’s not a bad thing—B2B marketers have proved over and over again that they are agile, resilient, and a true asset in the B2B world.  In this special 230th episode, Drew explores the new normal for B2B marketers. Wielding the wisdom of hundreds of CMO interviews and countless insights gleaned in CMO Huddles, Drew covers how marketers have faced the challenges of 2020 head-on. Tune in to learn what an effective B2B marketing strategy looks like today, and how B2B marketers are changing the world for the better.   For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/ 

Since CMO Ran Avrahamy joined AppsFlyer in 2013, the SaaS mobile marketing company has grown from 12 employees to over 1,000, from a small tech startup to a worldwide brand. So, how exactly did AppsFlyer launch to such heights, and how did it adapt as it grew? Tune in to hear all about AppsFlyer’s zero budget, guerilla marketing in the early days, and how its “Be Everywhere” mantra drove the company’s growth. Ran also discusses how AppsFlyer has been helping all of its customers—whether they’re in the travel industry or the cloud—through post-COVID challenges, as well as why B2B marketing has to (yes, has to) start with employees. For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/ 

Prior to the pandemic, 40% of Sendoso’s program spend went to physical events that brought in a significant number of leads and got prospects to close. Such a reliable source of revenue for the brand suddenly became redundant in March, and as customers scrambled to figure out how to adapt, the pipeline froze in April. Luckily, Sendoso had a strong foundation, with a fully scalable marketing program and a robust marketing team. The sending platform immediately shifted its focus to providing educational content to customers and adapting its marketing strategy to new buying behaviors. In this episode, CMO Dan Frohnen shares how Sendoso rebuilt its pipeline post-pandemic, transforming its product into a must-have via meaningful virtual events, powerful partnerships, and a special, Sendoso-style take on direct mail marketing. Check it out!  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegade.com/podcasts/ 

In-person events have always been gold for B2B brands. Accounting for 10-50% of B2B marketing budgets in 2019, B2B marketers relied on physical events as a massive revenue source, effectively filling the funnel with leads, closing deals, and extending customer contracts. This was not to be so in 2020. We all know the story—as marketers everywhere had to pivot to digital, events and event planning went virtual. Lift and shift was not going to work. Not only did B2B marketing teams face unanticipated technical challenges and a sea of new virtual platforms, they also had to figure out how they could actually engage attendees and nurture leads in a world of Zoom fatigue. This episode comes from a recent livestream, where CMO Mandy Dhaliwal (Dell Boomi), CMO Paige O’Neill (Sitecore), and CEO David Fischette (Go West Creative Group) shared everything about their virtual event experiences in 2020, both the good and the bad. Tune in for common challenges, creative solutions, and predictions for the future of B2B virt

If you have a product that would really help customers adapt to the world of remote work, how do you sell it to them while being mindful of budget cuts, layoffs, and a global downturn? Take a page from HackerRank’s book. The B2B tech company’s remote interview solution was just what their primary personas needed, and CMO Jennifer Stagnaro knew that the product needed to be endorsed with empathy and generosity. In this episode, Jennifer shares how HackerRank transformed the remote interview experience for the better, reaching out with useful, timely content and offering free solutions to customers and prospects in a time of need. These were the seeds that led to the best Q3 in the company’s history. Tune in to hear how they did it, as well as how HackerRank is aiming to diversify the tech space one interview at a time.

Unless they were deemed an essential service, most B2B brands had to pivot their marketing strategy in 2020 to make themselves relevant in a world of digital transformation, lockdowns, and quarantine orders. This was especially challenging for brands that depended on in-person events—from the travel industry to the hotel industry to the restaurant industry, things were going to be tough. In this episode, Drew talks with CMO Dhanusha Sivajee of The Knot Worldwide (TKWW), a B2B2C brand that faced a unique challenge—TKWW’s network of over 300,000 vendors were about to lose their livelihoods as engaged couples updated their “Save the Dates” to “Change the Dates.” TKWW rose up to the challenge, quickly establishing a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) program for its B2B customers and compiling a comprehensive content library of best practices for the trials ahead.  Not only does Dhanusha share how the brand created meaningful content for its customers in a time of need, she also discusses how it established itself

What do a premium content strategy and conversational AI have to do with driving revenue? Perhaps unsurprisingly, quite a lot! Content raises awareness and nurtures leads, and after the human handoff, Sales teams can use AI tools to assist them to close. In this episode, ringDNA CMO William Tyree shares a behind-the-scenes look at the AI-powered sales enablement platform’s remarkable content strategy, starting with the acquisition of Andy Paul’s Sales Enablement podcast. He also discusses why businesses shouldn’t be afraid of conversational AI tools—they aren’t here to replace Sales, they’re here to augment and assist them. Check it out!

There are 50 honorees listed in TopRank’s 2020 installment of Influential Women in B2B Marketing Who Rocked, and in addition of these amazing leaders, we at Renegade know that there are countless others worth celebrating for their contributions to marketing in the B2B world.     This episode comes from our recent livestream show on the subject, featuring LogRhythm CMO Cindy Zhou, Skillsoft CMO Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek, and Charlene Li, the founder of Altimeter, author of The Disruption Mindset, and one of the women on TopRank’s aforementioned list. Tune in to hear these inspiring leaders and role models share all about what it means to be a woman in the C-Suite, what progress still needs to be made, and how we can all work together to get there.

After nearly 7 years with Salesforce, 2.5 of which she served as CMO, Stephanie Buscemi announced on Twitter that she’s saying goodbye. The 100+ (and counting) responses to her announcement have been overwhelmingly positive—a testament to her inspiring, compassionate leadership and her trailblazing, marketing-led initiatives for the cloud-based software powerhouse. We had the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie a few weeks ago, so this outpouring of admiration is no surprise to us. Her success epitomizes the core values that Salesforce has upheld from its start 21 years ago. In this episode, Stephanie shares just what it means for B2B brands that are committed to a capital-P Purpose, and why we truly believe that CMOs can change the world for the better. Tune in to hear how Salesforce has brought its values to life over the years, how said values informed their customer-first response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and more.

Anthony Kennada knows a thing or two about ANA’s 2020 word of the year: “Pivot.” In just 4 years, Anthony “pivoted” from Business Development Associate (BDA) at Box to CMO of Gainsight—an astounding feat for any marketer—and during his 6 years at the startup, he helped establish a category, growing the brand from $0 to over $100 million in revenue. Now, he’s at Front, a start-up customer communication hub with a high-level story to tell. In this episode, Anthony shares how his experiences at Gainsight have informed his community-building, demand-generating efforts at Front—from how to develop a long-term, growth-focused brand strategy to how to bring employees, customers, and prospects together under one purpose-driven cause. Check it out!

It’s not every year that Christmas falls on the same day as a new Renegade Thinkers Unite episode, so this one is extra special. The show focuses on the story of Keane Veran, a cancer survivor who, while undergoing treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) as an 8-year-old, was asked by Make-A-Wish to wish big. And wish big he did. In 2011, Keane and his family, including his older brother, Shaun, were flown to Washington DC to meet President Obama, in the White House no less. Nearly a decade later, this moving story about making a young boy’s wish come true is truly powerful—it not only motivated Keane to keep on fighting, but it’s the foundation that inspired the Veran brothers to start a wellness brand with a business model based on goodwill.  A portion of every purchase from their company, Ouragami (OURA), goes to making a wish come true. It’s a lesson in generosity that B2B and B2C companies alike can benefit from. Tune in to hear how marketers can play a very vital role in helping both OURA and M

In the premiere episode of Renegade Thinkers Live, Drew was joined by CMOs Rashmi Vittal (Conversica) and John McCrea (Amplify.ai), to discuss all things conversational AI. We take stirring things up quite literally here at Renegade, so in this episode, we sipped in the latest AI marketing insights along with Letherbee’s original label gin (which was amazing, by the way). It was a fun episode, filled with AI conversational marketing use cases, wisdom from Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and a Live audience Q&A. Even Google Chrome makes an appearance! Tune in to hear some incredible use cases, learn why John and Rashmi both say that “bot” is a terrible word, and see just how Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) can transform B2B marketing in a digital-first world.  

What happens when you pair an identity security company and Terry Crews? An impressive, wildly successful influencer marketing success story, that’s what. It was the final piece of the “Let’s boost our brand awareness” puzzle that Ping Identity CMO Kevin Sellers was looking for. They had already identified their new brand identity and got internal support, now it was time to go big. This episode is all about the courageous, artful, thoughtful, and scientific marketing that goes into building brand awareness, all in the service of driving new customer acquisition. As Kevin shares, “You can't win business if you don't even get a chance to bid on the deal.” Tune in for an inspiring story about brand differentiation, with ingenious marketing executions and measurable results.

Would CMO Kevin Ruane recommend renaming a brand during a pandemic? No, he wouldn’t; but they had to do precisely that when Syncsort acquired the data and software division of Pitney Bowes in December 2019. The company had 6 months to change the Pitney Bowes name—6 months that just so happened to coincide with all of the disruptions of 2020. In this episode, Kevin shares how Syncsort became Precisely, a global leader in data integrity committed to its “Trust Your Data” message. Tune in for tried-and-true best practices for B2B brands undergoing a name change, like when to get employees involved (hint: early and often) and how to successfully transition old brand equity over to a new, purpose-packed brand.

2020 has not been easy for anyone. In this episode, Drew reflects on the personal and professional challenges faced by marketing leaders, and how they’ve overcome adversity to build better, more empathetic B2B organizations that are dedicated to making the world a better place. As the great Ben Franklin once said, “Out of adversity comes opportunity.” From how #WFH has changed the way we work to what CMOs plan on doing differently in 2021, this special Thanksgiving episode is filled with silver linings and insights from a wide range of inspiring B2B CMOs.

This September, Litmus released the results of its latest state of email survey: 77% of marketers say email is one of their most effective channels, and 78% suggest that it’s been vital to their overall success. This should come as no surprise, especially given that Litmus surveys have also found email has a staggeringly high return on investment: $42 ROI for every $1 spent. The survey came out with the launch of Litmus’ first-ever Litmus Live Everywhere, a free, virtual event to replace their in-person one (which typically costs ~$1500, by the way), as well as a new product and certification program. Needless to say, Litmus has been busy. In this episode, CMO Melissa Sargeant joins Drew to discuss all things email marketing, like how Litmus markets to marketers, common mistakes, and why batch and blast is dead. This episode is jam-packed with insights from the CMO of one of the leading email marketing tools of today. Don’t miss it!

Any B2B or B2C organization is only as good as its team, so it may be surprising to hear that the hiring process hasn’t really changed for the last decade. In fact, 9 out of 10 CMOs say they aren’t doing anything different when it comes to building their marketing squads. It’s high time for that to change; it’s time to bring all of the tools available in MarTech over to the people side of the house. In this episode, Aptology CMO Caroline Tien-Spalding joins us to talk all things employee hiring. Tune in to hear why understanding behavior at work is essential, how Caroline built a CRO advisory board to help drive content, and how hiring right can boost revenue across the board. 

Shifting an entire B2B organization from a traditional to a cloud-based selling motion is no walk in the park. Throw in a global pandemic and a sweeping digital transformation, and you’ve got yourself a real marketing challenge. CMO James Whitemore and his team at NetApp were up to the task, ripping up their marketing playbook and transforming business from the inside out. James tells all in this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, sharing how the company has shifted to a real-time marketing approach that enables sales teams to close quickly, as well as how it revamped its messaging with humor and grit to engage and entertain a new audience of potential users. With NetApp’s 180% plus YoY growth in cloud services, 5-day sales cycles, and messaging campaigns that have significantly increased click-through-rates, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

As a multi-disciplined, multi-functional channel, social deserves a seat at every B2B brand’s strategic table. A robust social strategy does more than just drive brand awareness, it also can also generate leads, attract talent, and build a strong employee culture with far-reaching effects. Don’t take just our word for it though—this week’s guest is Jamie Gilpin, the CMO of Sprout Social, a leading social media management platform, and she’s here to discuss all things social. From why the C-Suite needs to be on social to why you need more than just a “Twintern” to manage your social channels, this episode is chock full of insights about common B2B social media mistakes and specific B2B social media success. Jamie not only shares how social plays an important role in Sprout Social’s marketing mix, she also addresses how social listening has informed successful marketing motions and driven revenue. Check it out!

Like many B2B companies, K2 Software has really zeroed in on what makes its low-code process automation platform mission-critical for its customers. Unlike many B2B companies, K2 had already started shifting its strategy and messaging in 2019, months before the far-reaching effects of COVID were on anybody’s radar. In the scramble to prove that its product or service is essential during a downturn, K2 was ahead of the game. In this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, K2 CMO Carlos Carvajal shares how the company’s recent brand transformation and various internal and customer partnerships have helped them navigate the challenges of 2020 and transform automation for the better. Be sure to tune in to hear about the success of K2’s virtual event, the launch of a new sub-brand, how K2 celebrates customer success, and more.