184: Marketing a Unicorn with Pendo CMO, Jake Sorofman

12/18/19 • 18 min

During this 184th episode of “Marketing Today,” host Alan Hart interviews Jake Sorofman, the chief marketing officer at Pendo, in front of a live audience. Before Pendo, Sorofman was the vice president and chief of research at Gartner.

In October of 2019, Pendo became a newly minted "unicorn" with a valuation of over $1 billion, and a recent injection of $100 million in venture capital. Sorofman shares more about Pendo and what marketing looks like at scale and exceptionally high growth rates.

The real goal for Pendo was to "build a billion-dollar company, a company that has lasting and enduring value in a community, creates lots of jobs, and delivers value to customers." Pendo is an "integrated set of tools that help digital product teams make better decisions and create better experiences in web and mobile apps." Learn from the incredible growth of Pendo and the experience of Sorofman through that fast growth and an expanding organization.

Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today”:

The Life of the CMO of a "Unicorn company" 02:39
What do you do with $100 million? 03:17
Defining Pendo and its role in the market? 04:21
The three major target markets for Pendo. 05:19
The landscape of marketing at Pendo. 07:02
The importance of "events" in marketing. 07:56
Jake's insight into "performance marketing" and "brand marketing." 09:03
Advice for other fast-growth companies. 10:20
Triple, Triple, Double, Double, Double: the rate of growth for Pendo 10:50
The four keys to making marketing "more valuable." 11:32
The importance of discussions at the "executive table." 13:40
The current "state of talent" in the marketing industry. 14:40
How to be successful as Chief Marketing Officer. 15:55
The key to earning the right to your audience's attention. 16:38
The importance of content marketing in your toolbag. 16:55

Resources Mentioned:

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/marketingtoday

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today”:

The Life of the CMO of a "Unicorn company" 02:39
What do you do with $100 million? 03:17
Defining Pendo and its role in the market? 04:21
The three major target markets for Pendo. 05:19
The landscape of marketing at Pendo. 07:02
The importance of "events" in marketing. 07:56
Jake's insight into "performance marketing" and "brand marketing." 09:03
Advice for other fast-growth companies. 10:20
Triple, Triple, Double, Double, Double: the rate of growth for Pendo 10:50
The four keys to making marketing "more valuable." 11:32
The importance of discussions at the "executive table." 13:40
The current "state of talent" in the marketing industry. 14:40
How to be successful as Chief Marketing Officer. 15:55
The key to earning the right to your audience's attention. 16:38
The importance of content marketing in your toolbag. 16:55

Resources Mentioned:

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/marketingtoday

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

183: Power of Audio with Audible CMO John Harrobin

During this 183rd episode of “Marketing Today,” host Alan Hart interviews John Harrobin, chief marketing officer at Audible. Audible is an Amazon company, founded in the late 1990s out of an oral storytelling tradition. They began as an audiobook medium and have expanded to be a subscription service, including original programming, access to newspapers and magazines, and free short-form content. Harrobin's previous experience includes chief marketing officer at Verizon and working with NBC Universal.

On the show today, Harrobin discusses the audio content market, how his professional background led him to marketing, mentorship, the future of his industry, and the future of marketing in general. He also discusses the importance of diversity in marketing departments and on boards.

Harrobin views marketing as being “right in the center of the action. What I really love is driving growth and launching products. That's where you really get immediate gratification in the form of metrics and customer feedback. Is what you are doing working now? If not, you know how to adjust.” What sets Audible apart? “Our goal, in many cases, is to guide creators, provide them the data, what they should expect with this. Also, help them market, help them reach new audiences, and dimensionalize their own brand... We like to consider ourselves the best partner because we can provide better results through our reach and strength of distribution in marketing. We want to help build their personal brand and work with them on what they want to accomplish with the project, so we want to be fulfilling to the creator, and we want to be easy and fun to work with." His thoughts on the future of marketing are: "The role of marketers is evolving, and I think we just need to recognize it because, I don't know, 20 years from now, we're not going to be wanting to be marketed to in the same way that we are today."

Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today”:

Where did John start his career? (01:30)
John shares how his background as a finance consultant led him to marketing. (01:59)
Did John have any significant mentors along the way? (05:00)
What is the origin story of Audible? (06:20)
Why does John think audio has remained such a popular medium? (08:57)
What does marketing at Audible look like? (12:00)
What does the future of audio look like? (14:18)
What are the advantages for a creator working with Audible? (16:05)
How do Audible's content marketplace and original content work together? (19:56)
Does John have a specific experience he feels defines him as a person? (23:27)
What other brands does John admire? (26:45)
Does John see any big opportunities or threats staring marketers in the face? (29:46)

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/marketingtoday

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

185: Eli Schwartz on SEO and how to get it right

During this 185th episode of “Marketing Today,” host Alan Hart interviews Eli Schwartz, an SEO expert and consultant with over a decade of experience. He has led SEO and growth programs for several leading B2B and B2C Companies. This episode was a part of a series of interviews conducted at the Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC.

Schwartz has worked with clients such as Shutterstock, Blue Nile, Quora, Get Around, Mixpanel, and Zen Desk to help them build and execute global SEO strategies. He led the SEO team at Survey Monkey, building organic search to one of the largest growth drivers at the company.

Schwartz shares how he got into SEO by accident. He talks about how basic SEO strategies aren't keeping up with the changes that Google is making and how "we need to think about Google as another user that can read content." SEO is "a marketing channel," and companies are "wanting to have someone responsible for it, and they are wanting to have someone to grow that channel."

Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today”: