From B2C to B2B: Advanced Marketing Strategies & Optimization Tactics for SaaS

Yeah, great question. When I was in a B2C setting, a lot of the marketing that I was doing was very, was around very short sales cycles, relatively low risk, low ACV. But as I moved into the B2B setting it’s longer sales cycles. There’s more risk in the buying decision than there was when I was in the B2C space.

So it requires a lot more education. A lot more education and a lot more social proof to make sure that they feel comfortable with that buying decision and that when their job’s on the line, they’re making the right choice.

Yeah, absolutely. I’ll actually the, my entire approach to Tilt was influenced by actually a campaign in another company early on in my career. I was hired on as the first sales and marketer at this particular startup and We had just taken on private equity money and their directive to us was we really need to hammer home Outbound cold calling.

And me being alone, like that was up to me. And so I was just like pounding the phone a hundred calls a day. I might get one meeting and out of those, a hundred meetings, I might get one, one sale, I was like, This is terrible. There’s gotta be a better way to do that. And that’s really what led me to, go in and research the concept of demand generation, content, SEO, pay per click, all of those, and really start to formulate the strategy and the framework that I’ve carried, through the rest of my career.

So it was actually, it was what I learned I didn’t want to do that really shaped and led me to figure out what really works.

Yeah, absolutely. The HR tech market can get very crowded and even, we position ourselves in the leave of absence management space and even that can get relatively crowded. It, but for us, the way that we position ourselves and the way that we approach the market is really through the eyes of, making HR’s job easier and with that being said, tilt is centered around power and lead management for companies that are looking to bridge efficiency and how they approach their job and the employee experience.

And so we do that through a safe, secure and compliant platform. Our proprietary technology is really one of the things that sets us apart because it intelligently manages all leave scenarios. While our people, who are the backbone of what we do, keep employees feeling supported.
Through their most trying moments

Yeah, content is really like the Beginning of all of our marketing strategy.

That’s where we start. We do a lot of keyword research to find out generally what? You People are looking for searching for, but we also do a lot of research through listening to sales calls to find out what our ideal customers are experiencing in terms of problems and challenges. We use that, those two pieces of research and we step back and we say what’s, what is leading people to.

Describe it that way. What are the symptoms of the problem? And that’s how we approach our content. That’s how we develop that. Being very focused on, what people are telling us through data that they’re searching for. And by really paying attention and listening to people on sales calls and other interview forums.

That’s how we’re able to ensure that, this is what they’re generally interested in and this piece of content is gonna be the most helpful and resonate.

Yeah, one of the obviously one of the main ones are like our conversion rate from, from clicking on an ad to getting, our click through rate, but then also our website conversion rate, we pay really close attention to the amount of traffic that’s coming into our site. And then what percentage of that traffic is actually taking action?

And converting through scheduling a demo we look at other things like, what our activity is across our social channels and what actions they’re taking there. And that’s how through the marketing funnel, we’re able to optimize the path that they’re taking to get to us.

From there we’re looking at what that traffic, how that traffic converts into real opportunities for our sales team. And then the output, obviously, is how much of that traffic actually turns into new sales. So we really track our activity all across the customer journey.

We don’t just stop at the point where sales takes over. We track those all the way through the sales journey as well, to make sure that we’re delivering good traffic and that our message is hitting the right way.

Yeah, in terms of conversion rate optimization, we’re paying very close attention to the metrics throughout so that we know exactly where maybe there’s a hang up in that conversion path. We’re using actually HubSpot is the tool that we really use to help track those conversion points.

With a combination of some high intent signal data that we gained from Apollo. io. So we’re using a combination of the two to, help us put together what our conversion path looks like in addition to things like, obviously Google analytics and things like that, to help us gain greater visibility.

Yeah, really creating the cohesive messages is easy for us because we start with the content, right?
Like we, we step back and we say, all right, what is the key message that we’re trying to convey to our audience? And what’s our unique, what’s our unique perspective on the topic? And that is really that’s really vital to our content as we build out what’s educational and what we want to accomplish through the piece.

And so when we start from there we actually run multi channel campaigns quarterly where we reassess what’s working, what’s not. The types of messages that are right to, to take out to market and evaluate what channels are appropriate for that. So we start with content from there. We decide what are the multi channel distribution points that are the most impactful for us.

And we ran one just a couple of quarters ago that really had little focus on just you know exactly what the software does and more about like, how do we help how do we help HR buyers really see or how do we help them like with their buying committees?

Because the buyer from HR isn’t the only person that has impact on the buying process. And so we really focus on how do we guide them through the process to make them look good throughout the process. And as a strategic partner but also how do we help them get what they want, which is the budget approval and operations approval to implement a new system.

And so we did a number of interviews. We did we, with our content, we syndicated that through obviously our social channels through YouTube shorts, utilize video, a combination of video and and texts. To be able to get that message out, utilizing email and others.

And it was a very successful campaign. We had, we received a lot of really good feedback. Just anecdotal feedback of man, this was really helpful. I learned a lot through this process. And of course the results in terms of our conversion into opportunities was really strong as well.

So that approach has led us. That multi channels beginning with content approach has really led us to have one of our best years from in terms of the amount of opportunities created and the amount of revenue that’s generated from that approach. Yeah,

Right? We are, yeah, we’re using HubSpot through the attribution model there. We place less emphasis necessarily just on attribution from like a company performance standpoint, but where it really comes into play is Understanding like we, it plays a very big role in our conversion path optimization.

And so understanding what channels opportunities are getting to us through we can look back and see what are the sticking points that keep people from converting through that particular channel. And so we use the last touch attribution model here at tilt how they get into our sales pipeline.

But we do go back and look at. What was the path that it took to get there and what were the sticking points along the way as well. All

Yeah it’s worked well for us.
And our, in our approach where we’re not leveraging they, attribution models available, but. Or we’re using really a last touch attribution model. It’s worked out really well for us.

Yeah. Understanding the purpose of a channel and what people are using that channel on the consuming side, the consumer side is really important for us. People go to social media to be entertained or to be taught something, learn something. They don’t always go to social media to be pitched a product or be told to buy whatever you got selling.

So understanding that and understanding how to mesh that into your multi channel strategy. is really important. And so we leverage social media as a means of, building a reputation showing that showing the more human side of the business. But then also to educate we use it as a means to educate and to display some of those messages that are helpful and educational to our customer, our Adele customer profile.

From an email standpoint understanding the importance of segmentation and our approach to segmentation and making sure that the right messages are being delivered to the right audience. So that it is very methodical in how we do that. So that they’re not general. They’re as personalized in mass as you can.

But it’s done through proper segmentation. Gotcha. Gotcha. And again, HubSpot is your

tool for that as well,

Yeah.
A combination, leveraging HubSpot and some of the tools, the tools that are available through Apollo. io. Those combined give us some really good data insights to know how to segment and then we also leverage, we also make sure that we’re doing our continual research on the problems that our segments are facing and we segments around a combination of company size, but then also the problems that they encounter.
Okay.

Yeah, absolutely. In terms of SEO we split it out into two, two strategies.
One is like the technical setup of the site, making sure that meta data descriptions and page titles and all of that match up and are created the way that they need to be to support search engine optimization. But then there’s the other piece of the actual content that you produce in the keyword research.

The way that we approach that is we look at the high intent and low intent keywords that are generating website traffic throughout our industry. And then we identify which of those are really relevant to what we do. And then we step back and we say what’s the psychological intent?
What are they really asking? What are they searching for? And what are the pains that they’re experiencing when they’re searching these keywords? And so SEO, search engine optimization, keyword research, really helps to drive a lot of what we do in our content creation and in how we approach pages on our site from a standpoint, less of how do we like it.

Pumping keywords, but more how do we make sure that the content is relevant and helpful creating value for our audience and by starting there we’ve been very successful in our SEO strategies.

Yeah, some common challenges that tend to happen around SEO whether ones that I’ve experienced or one that some that I’m aware others have experiences, the amount of time that it takes for that organic search to really materialize.

But then also, within our space, like you said, it’s a, HR tech is very crowded and so everyone’s aware of what keywords need to be need to be incorporated. And so just a crowded space, which is why, going back to our approach, why that’s been so successful is because we’re really looking before what’s happening before they type in those particular keywords.

But yeah, those are probably the two biggest challenges that are most common that I’ve run up against.

Yeah, we try to stay ahead of our competitors in how we go to market but what I’m particularly excited and curious about really two things the emergence of chat GPT and other generative AI tools.

That people go to, to research and learn that don’t necessarily play in super well with what we’ve been doing and approaching on Google. And so just being aware of that and thinking about how we can play into that and be at the forefront of that changing trend. But then the other is really the emergence and importance of what I would call dark social through Slack groups with their peers, where they’re going out and asking for recommendations things on review sites, email lists, things like that, that we don’t generally have great tracking around but is absolutely a vital part that actually kick starts a lot of the buying process.

For our customer profile. And so looking at strategies about how we can position ourselves and grow our brand in a way that puts us at the top of the conversation in those off offsite forums. And

Yeah. The key advice that I would give to anyone that is earlier in their career in marketing or particularly HR technology is, look at marketing as a strategy, not accumulation of tactics. Google ads and email marketing are all great tactics, but really starting with what it, with what your strategy is, looking at it from the strategic level, and then from there, really understanding who your ideal customer profile is.

Not just the psychographic data that you can get on, who you traditionally play and sell well to. But. Really looking at the problems that they encounter on how your solution helps your ideal customer profile accomplish the jobs that they’re looking to do on. So those two things really looking at marketing from a strategy standpoint.
And really being honed in and familiar with your ICP is just going to make any tactics that you deploy that much more successful.

Yeah, absolutely. Our two big focuses are always build the brand and drive revenue. And those are always like our T two key focus areas, but no, particularly interested in a couple of new initiatives that we’re testing and planning to deploy next year primarily around like influencers.
Where they’ve, had a longstanding influence on B2C marketing by just looking at what that means for the B2B space, particularly in HR tech and how influencers can add value to what we’re doing in the demand generation model.

I’m ready.

I think there’s a world where both exist. And I think if you’re not, if you’re not paying attention to both you’re leaving a lot on the table. Generative AI is here and it can be a great tool for marketers.

But yeah to discount either one, I think you would do yourself a disservice. Very important to keep both in mind.

First? Oh yeah, pick first, definitely go into ChatGPT or something like that. Just quick and easy and yeah that’s my go to.

Oh man, my last Gen AI prompt was probably asking it to create a creative summary based off of a number of inputs that I put into the prompt.

Years Oh in the next five years i’d have to go with formerly known as twitter, but now known as x

Marketing app, a marketing tool that I couldn’t live without 1000 percent is HubSpot. Everything we do is tied to HubSpot.

The most bizarre marketing campaign that I’ve seen work really well. There was I won’t name who it was, but there were two companies, there’s two companies that were competitors. One company paid their, or one company in their conference was holding a ping pong tournament. Their competitor paid two ping pong players professional ping pong players.

To go and enter into this tournament and after they won the tournament They ripped open their shirts and displayed the logo for the competitor. So a lot of attention very very smart very innovative so pretty cool

Oh man, the career that I dreamed of as a kid was, besides professional athlete, which obviously did not happen. I always dreamed of being a fighter pilot.

Yeah, thanks for having me