Win Customers with Binge-Worthy Content

09/17/24 • 50 min

This episode features an interview with Jason Ing, CMO at Gusto, a company that automates and simplifies payroll, benefits, and HR, while providing expert support. Jason was early on the ground at Xbox and Prime Video, playing pivotal roles in revolutionizing online gaming and digital media.

Jason offers a behind-the-scenes look at marketing major shifts in entertainment consumption, like launching Netflix on Xbox and his role in getting Amazon fire sticks into our homes. He also dives into his current marketing strategy at Gusto.

Key Takeaways:

Everyone loves good content, and creative, entertaining content attracts and retains customers.
Commitment and excitement about a long term vision can lead to groundbreaking success, even if others are skeptical initially.
There is value in trying out unexpected or unconventional strategies, such as direct mail for Amazon Prime Video.

Quote:

“As it relates to Netflix, and streaming overall, this was during the years in which people were still getting Netflix by mail. That was what they were known as. But the technology was being built and the amount of Xboxes we had in living rooms in the U.S. households and across the world was at a point where these streaming providers could create a viable business by getting into all those living room spaces. And this was before TVs were all smart-TV-enabled. So, it was really cool to see a vision for the future. And there was a bit of belief that you had to have around knowing that there was a better way. When you're fortunate enough to work for a company that is as successful as Microsoft was, and it's even more successful today, the company was willing to think long term. And I think that was really the first time in my career where I was exposed to this idea that you had to manage things on a day-to-day level and for the short term, but you had to have long-term vision and commitment to it. And I think all of us who were there, we were just very much bought into that idea, that there was just a future that was around the corner.”

Episode Timestamps:

*(29:09) The Trust Tree: Bringing elements from B2C to B2B

*(34:58): The Playbook: Controlling the narrative through brand

*(45:39): The Dust Up: Tension around partnership deals

*(47:42): Quick Hits: Jason’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:

Learn more about

Caspian Studios

Key Takeaways:

Everyone loves good content, and creative, entertaining content attracts and retains customers.
Commitment and excitement about a long term vision can lead to groundbreaking success, even if others are skeptical initially.
There is value in trying out unexpected or unconventional strategies, such as direct mail for Amazon Prime Video.

Quote:

“As it relates to Netflix, and streaming overall, this was during the years in which people were still getting Netflix by mail. That was what they were known as. But the technology was being built and the amount of Xboxes we had in living rooms in the U.S. households and across the world was at a point where these streaming providers could create a viable business by getting into all those living room spaces. And this was before TVs were all smart-TV-enabled. So, it was really cool to see a vision for the future. And there was a bit of belief that you had to have around knowing that there was a better way. When you're fortunate enough to work for a company that is as successful as Microsoft was, and it's even more successful today, the company was willing to think long term. And I think that was really the first time in my career where I was exposed to this idea that you had to manage things on a day-to-day level and for the short term, but you had to have long-term vision and commitment to it. And I think all of us who were there, we were just very much bought into that idea, that there was just a future that was around the corner.”

Episode Timestamps:

*(29:09) The Trust Tree: Bringing elements from B2C to B2B

*(34:58): The Playbook: Controlling the narrative through brand

*(45:39): The Dust Up: Tension around partnership deals

*(47:42): Quick Hits: Jason’s Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Links:

Learn more about

Caspian Studios

Previous Episode

Invest in the Full Marketing Bow Tie

This episode features an interview with Karen Budell, CMO, Totango + Catalyst. Totango and Catalyst recently joined forces to build a leading customer growth platform that helps businesses protect and grow revenue, providing businesses with a united platform that drives recurring revenue success and measurable growth.

In this episode, Karen talks about leading a marketing team through a merge. She talks about the importance of customer success and investing in the full marketing “bowtie” to focus on retaining customers.

Key Takeaways:

Post-merger, marketing teams need to harmonize the brand and messaging, the product, the tech stacks and more. While this is a challenging process, it allows you to take the best from each company and present a unified brand that fosters trust.
Start with outcome-based conversations when talking to prospects to make sure you understand their objectives before you complete the sale. Your customers’ success is your success.
Don’t just invest in the marketing funnel. Invest in the full marketing “bowtie”. Retaining and growing current customers is very important.

Quote:

“We stood up a sales enablement and go-to-market enablement role and function within the marketing org. So reporting up to me, but a dotted line to the CRO’s organization. And part of the reason that I thought that that was a great fit and was so successful was because you really want to make sure that your frontline team understands who your target audience is and what your galvanizing story and narrative is all about. So, being close to the marketing team that was working on that messaging and positioning and the programs and events really helped create a nice bridge and reinforce the partnership that we had with our sales team.”

Episode Timestamps:

*(4:18) The Trust Tree: Outcome-based conversations with customers

*(16:02) The Playbook: Updating the website post-merger

*(33:24) The Dust-Up: CMOs that come from a brand focus

*(39:59) Quick Hits: Karen’s quick hits

Sponsor:

Links:

Next Episode

Anti-Checklist Marketing

This episode features an interview with Dorian Kendal, a former CMO and a multi-time marketing leader. Most recently, Dorian served as CMO at Netlify, a platform for developers to build highly-performant and dynamic websites, e-commerce stores and applications.
In this episode, Dorian discusses his non-traditional path to the CMO role, his experience restructuring teams for an enterprise focus, and the value of partner programs. He shares his thoughts on why you should avoid checklist marketing.

Key Takeaways:

Moving from product-led growth to an enterprise focus requires more targeted, “surgical” campaigns.
Evangelist and influencer programs can drive long-term pipeline growth more effectively than short-term, paid media strategies.
Over-reliance on SEM (Search Engine Marketing) can stifle creativity and drain budgets without delivering proportional returns. Redirecting resources to SEO, community engagement, and innovative campaigns like events can offer better long-term ROI.

Quote:

“I'm very anti-checklist marketing, I call it, where you just have, every campaign you're like, here's the eight things we need to do, and you just check them off. Because it just sucks creativity out of the process. And I think that we oftentimes, instead of finding really unique ways to attract audiences and engage them, we sometimes just fall back on stuff. And search engine marketing, I've always felt it's been like the easiest thing for people to be like, you know, we're gonna do a campaign. Well, of course, what's our SEM budget? So I think sometimes just sucks creativity out of the process.”

Episode Timestamps:

*(03:59) The Trust Tree: Restructuring to target enterprise customers

*(13:23) The Playbook: Investing in search optimization over search engine marketing

*(35:45) Quick Hits: Dorian’s Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Links: