Accountability in Experimentation

02/13/24 • 39 min

This episode features an interview with Riikka Söderlund, CMO at Katana Cloud Inventory, a company that provides SMBs with easy-to-use inventory management software, to get them the real-time data that they need.

In this episode, Riika discusses staying accountable for intentional experimentation, how she invests in talent and why she dislikes the term “marketing strategy”.

Key Takeaways:

Experiments should improve results and should fit within goals. Including experiments in your overall budget, instead of pulling them into a separate, “experimental budget” keeps you accountable.
Talent development is an uncuttable item and marketing leaders should align individual growth aspirations with company goals.
Being right isn’t always enough. Marketing leaders need to be strong internal communicators and influence opinions to get the right results.

Quote:

“ I have a gazillion other marketing KPIs, of course, but at the end of the day, if we're not driving revenue, then it doesn't matter. I am not a fan of measuring leads or MQLs. Honestly, revenue is the only metric that tells you, did you generate pipeline? Did you reach the right audience? Is your value proposition correct? And is your brand resonating with that target audience? It's the only one that combines all the aspects of marketing.”

Episode Timestamps:

*(02:42) The Trust Tree: Why Riikka doesn’t believe in the term “marketing strategy”

*(12:53) The Playbook: The importance of content and intentional experimentation

*(31:54) The Dust Up: Becoming a strong internal influencer

*(33:45) Riikka’s Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
Connect with Riika on LinkedIn
Learn more about Katana
Learn more about Caspian Studios

In this episode, Riika discusses staying accountable for intentional experimentation, how she invests in talent and why she dislikes the term “marketing strategy”.

Key Takeaways:

Experiments should improve results and should fit within goals. Including experiments in your overall budget, instead of pulling them into a separate, “experimental budget” keeps you accountable.
Talent development is an uncuttable item and marketing leaders should align individual growth aspirations with company goals.
Being right isn’t always enough. Marketing leaders need to be strong internal communicators and influence opinions to get the right results.

Quote:

Episode Timestamps:

*(02:42) The Trust Tree: Why Riikka doesn’t believe in the term “marketing strategy”

*(12:53) The Playbook: The importance of content and intentional experimentation

*(31:54) The Dust Up: Becoming a strong internal influencer

*(33:45) Riikka’s Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Links:

Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
Connect with Riika on LinkedIn
Learn more about Katana
Learn more about Caspian Studios

Previous Episode

Be the Easiest Company to Buy From

This episode features an interview with William Tyree, CMO at IntelligenceBank, a platform that helps marketing teams get brand and legal approved content out the door faster.

In this episode, William discusses his focus on being the easiest company to buy from, the importance of empathizing with buyers, and how customer buying behavior has changed over time.

Key Takeaways:

Buyers have a hard job and marketers need to prioritize making their company easy to buy from.
Product marketing needs to be about empathizing with buyers, not just pitching the good things about your product.

Quote:

“My goal is to make IntelligenceBank the easiest company in our space to actually buy from. Buyers have a hard job. It's really hard to lasso all those different people on your buying committee and get them to agree on you as a vendor. So, to be the easiest, we have to assume that buyers are going to conduct at least three quarters of their research before they even talk to a seller.”

Episode Timestamps:
*(05:17) - The Trust Tree: The complex roles for people in charge of brand

*(16:15) - The Playbook: Becoming easy to buy from

Sponsor:

Links:

Next Episode

Using Incentives to Drive Impact

This episode features an interview with Dana Barrett, VP of Marketing at Tremendous, a company that offers a simple way to send rewards and payouts around the world.

In this episode, Dana discusses the ways that incentivizing your ideal customer provides impact across use cases, whether you are looking to build pipeline, drive sales, get participants in studies, etc. She also talks about carefully identifying your target persona and focusing on a small number of priorities.

Key Takeaways:

Incentives are a great way to drive impact, regardless of your use case (generate pipeline, sales, gaining study participants, etc.)
It’s important to find the sweet spot when incentivizing. Don’t offer a discount so high that people take the offer without any interest in the product; make it just low enough that it attracts people who genuinely have an interest.
Define your ideal customer persona and stay focused on a few key items to go after them.

Quote:

“ Incentives, regardless of your use case, are a great way to drive impact. Whether you're trying to grow pipeline. Whether you're trying to drive sales. Whether you want to make sure people participate in your studies, and you can recruit people in global markets that you're trying to figure out how to get people to just respond or participate. And so based on what we do, we're starting to see some best practices or things that can actually position you better to reach your ultimate goal, which is sales, pipeline, et cetera.”

Episode Timestamps:

*(02:52) The Trust Tree: Building awareness of brand and category

*(14:11) The Playbook: Investing in content

*(28:17) The Dust Up: Diffusing tension between product and sales

*(30:07) Dana’s Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Links: