Jessica Vogol

Running branded sponsor integrations isn't cheap -- how do you know it's resonating with your audience and driving meaningful KPIs like purchase intent? At Rival Technologies and Reach3 Insights, we've been helping both media / streaming brands as well as advertisers figure this out using a new approach called "Watch Party." It works well for several reasons: ✔️ It's in-the-moment, so you get real-time, gut-feel reactions rather than relying on recall ✔️ It's quant and qual (including photos and videos), providing deeper insights than traditional approaches ✔️ It's holistic, involving (in most cases) a pre- and post-test to quantify brand lift, share ability and more Really proud of how our product and approach helps address an important use case for many of our customers. Curious how it works? Our next masterclass webinar with Jenna Shuster and Matt Kleinschmit will walk you through the details. Register here: https://lnkd.in/gFa7rzbW #insights #marketingeffectiveness #advertising

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Yesterday, I ran a GTMsession for GTMfund portfolio company founders and their executive teams with the brand and content marketing legend, Udi Ledergor 🏳‍🌈. (🤔 GTM what now? GTMfund… GTMnow…) Yes, we have more words attached to the acronym GTM, though not widely talked about since they’re internal. GTMsessions are monthly private digital live sessions on various go-to-market topics, led by an executive operator who is an expert in the field. They’re available to GTMfund portfolio companies and their executive teams. Being closed-door and not open to the public, these sessions allow any and all questions to be comfortably asked, the conversation tailored to be hyper-specific to startups and their current concerns, questions, etc. We didn't even get through half of the moderated points that I had prepared because the questions for Udi just kept rolling in (a good thing, that's the point of these sessions). Udi dropped some 🔥 insights that we’ll share more on later, but for now, Stan Rymkiewicz nailed summarizing key takeaways on how Gong thinks about content creation and distribution that I've dropped in the comments. One key pain point discussed in the session was the challenge of keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of content marketing. It often feels like by the time one strategy is implemented, its effectiveness has already diminished. So, what’s next? How do you stay ahead of the curve? Since GTMsessions are private, their recordings aren’t shared openly. However, the feedback was so phenomenal that we knew other revenue leaders could benefit from the conversation. If you’re a revenue leader looking to understand the future of content marketing and stay ahead of the curve: Join me for a GTMnow digital live event with Udi Ledergor 🏳‍🌈 , Jon Miller, and Pete Lorenco. You'll learn from them how to stay two steps ahead and walk away with content tactics and inspiration. 🗓 June 18th at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST 👉 To register: https://lnkd.in/gsdsai23 (pictured here: two passionate hand talkers 👋 )

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Anyone who has shopped for software knows the online pricing page makes a big impact on your early decision to learn more or move on. Great tips here from Mainsail Partners for making SaaS pricing pages effective.

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Your competitor's customers already understand your product value and have the budget, but winning them over requires a coordinated approach from Sales, Marketing, Product and Pricing. Here's a new playbook from Mainsail Partners on when and how to take away customers one strategic conversion at a time.

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I see an industry wide need to include more functions and teams in the GTM motion, this one reflects pretty closely to what I have in mind https://lnkd.in/ek2iCWXb

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Hey all 👋 I could use some help from GTM leaders/saas folks... Who is the best *marketing leader/head of marketing* you've ever worked with? For context, we're looking to bring in a Head of Marketing here at Circle to join our GTM leadership team. We're currently approaching $25M in ARR and growing fast (~100% y-o-y). This marketing leader will help us continue to scale to $100M+ in ARR. I'm biased, of course — but this can truly be a career-defining opportunity for the right person. —You'll get to shape how we tell the story of *3* brand new products that we're bringing to market this year. —The product is fantastic. Our product/engineering teams are the best I've ever worked with. The customers are the best I've ever worked with. You have all the raw materials necessary to do truly great marketing. We're already growing fast. You'll just help us go faster. —There are lots of new channels and untapped opportunities to go after. So there's plenty of room to come in and make an immediate impact. —This role sits on our leadership team. It's a group of the highest potential GTM leaders I've ever worked with. And we're ready to truly invest in product marketing as a function. — There's LOTS of momentum in the business. Our leading indicators like pipeline, win rates, word-of-mouth, NPS, retention, etc. are all really strong and getting better week-over-week. If you know a truly great marketing leader - I'd love to connect with them. I'd be grateful if you could tag them below or shoot me a DM. And if no one comes to mind, I'd be grateful if you could share this post for a bit of reach. Thanks! 🙏 Here's the JD: https://lnkd.in/e5fzB7T6

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Worth a listen/read: Airbnb’s Vlad Loktev on embracing chaos, inquiry over advocacy, poking the bear, and “impact, impact, impact” - https://lnkd.in/eFVRuNJJ I am a firm believer in the "humble inquiry" and "listen with the intent to understand, not respond" principles as key for being inclusive and getting your team involved and engaged as a product manager or product leader. It was encouraging to hear Vlad talk about how he also used and lived those principles while working with his team and stakeholders. There was another cool perspective on this approach to communication and understanding (either from a previous podcast episode or a different article): Approach the conversation with the initial belief that the other person / other people are right and let the questions and perspectives and understandings unfold from there. That doesn't mean that in the end you go with what they think or believe necessarily, but it helps you approach the different views with genuine curiosity and openness which in turn helps understand where each person's argument or opinion is coming from. As a bonus to taking this approach, your team also feels listened to and included in what you are all building in the end. Thanks Lenny Rachitsky for the cool guest and episode! #humbleinquiry #leadership #listentounderstand

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Have you ever looked for theory that can answer - how to approach investors - what kind of product to build first - how you’ll defend the company against competitors This new article from CDA partner, Kevin Maney extends Steven Johnson's writing from the book Emergence to #CategoryDesign. All #Startups and #VentureCapital teams should dig in. (link to article in comments)

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If you want to drive impact and influence with your buyers, you want to surround them with the voices they already trust. That’s the simple explanation for the power of nearbound marketing. Including your partners in your GTM motion is a huge unlock for all parties involved. The power of ecosystem at work. At Vena Solutions, we’re focused on growth through this model and the future is bright. Orchestration for greater impact and scale through a combination of partner specialization and account based engagement, will leave you better prepared to withstand whatever comes in the future. Companies and GTM leaders leveraging these ecosystems at scale are driving: 1️⃣ More revenue 2️⃣ More customer delight 3️⃣ Happier sellers 4️⃣ More productive partners 5️⃣ Stronger bonds, both internally and in the market If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it basically is 😉 If you’re interested in getting into the details, the team at Reveal just released an awesome resource. It’s a blueprint that can help you overlay your account-based segmentation and partner marketing strategy across all GTM teams AND the entire customer journey. Talk about a game changer… You can get a copy (for free!) at the link in the comments. #Nearbound #NearboundMarketing #Partnerships Isaac Morehouse Jessica Fewless Shawnie Hamer

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I loved Hannah Clark and Daniel Danker 's recent podcast episode. The best piece of advice was on scaling product organizations. Daniel mentioned that when scaling, he avoids the trap of more of the same and instead figures out what they should be doing as he scales. To paraphrase, what are the 10X ideas that they should incorporate? Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/guYMfMm3

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Maximizing Event ROI with Generative AI 💡 Part 1 - Lead Follow Ups Events like conferences, trade shows, and webinars are crucial for B2B companies to generate leads and build relationships. The real work, however, begins after the event, when companies need to quickly follow up with leads and nurture them into loyal customers. It's also when your teams are the most tired and tapped out! By tailoring follow-up content to nuggets from the event paired with each lead's specific needs, pain points, and interests based on their persona, account, industry, and behavior, companies can demonstrate their commitment to being a trusted partner. Generative AI tools like Tofu can make this level of personalization scalable, timely, and repeatable. How does it work? 1️⃣ Upload your lead lists: Upload or sync your lead lists from the event to your CRM. This can be lists of attendees and non-attendees from webinars, lead scans from an event, signups from a booth, or attendees of a small dinner. Tofu will pull in your list including information on the contact, their account, and any notes/behavioral information that you include. 2️⃣ AI-powered research: Tofu will then do account and contact research for each lead in your list. Tofu crawls their company websites, the internet, and other sources you provide to, analyze their industries, identify pain points, and surface unique insights and value propositions you should use when speaking with each. 3️⃣ Personalized content generation: Using Tofu Insights paired with your CRM data, Tofu creates personalized content for each lead including tailored email sequences, targeted landing pages, personalized ads, and more. 4️⃣ Automated execution: By integrating with your marketing automation platforms, CRM, and CMS, Tofu can automatically execute campaigns through the tools you already use and collect the data on performance to measure the ROI and create a feedback loop so the model gets smarter for the next event. Stay tuned for Part 2 all about repurposing rich content from events! https://lnkd.in/gYBvcZGd #B2BMarketing #EventROI #GenerativeAI #Personalization

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I'm headed to HubSpot's Inbound conference next week, and I can't wait to be back in Boston (and back at Fenway for a Sox game, too! #gosoxgo) If you'll be at HubSpot, I'd love to grab a coffee or happy hour - drop me a note! And also be sure to add this session to your agenda: the Full Funnel Influence of Customer Education on Business. Thinkific's Christie Horsman and Sarah Dawley from Hootsuite will be coming together to deliver a fireside chat that will dive deep into successful strategies for professionals in customer education and customer success - and I can promise you that the session will be as entertaining as it is educational! Adding in one of my favorite pictures from last year - Nick Kolpakov in his HubSpot Inbound glory. #HubSpot #Inbound #customereducation

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When you're not in the board room, you're always wondering, "What's going on in there?". I have now worked with seven companies where I'd regularly present to a board, a mixture of PE and VC-led, and it's almost always centered around a few key topics. If you're meeting your numbers: - what's your future forecast  - how are you going to continue to grow - how will you grow faster and more efficient  - update on money in the bank and spend If you're not meeting your numbers (along with the things I mentioned above): - what is your plan to turn things around and meet your numbers (this includes new logo, back-to-base sales, and churn reduction) - what resources can they offer to help - do you have the right players in the right seat This is an oversimplification because many nuances are at play, but this is generally it. While board meetings can be stressful, almost every board I've worked with wants to be helpful. Of course, their interest is, first and foremost, that the business is healthy and growing, so there's always that undertone, but overall, they want to help. After all, they are guardians of the investments they make on behalf of others and have to report back on their performance. Think of them like they are CSMs for their investors (the folks that give them money). They need to get a great return on the investment they made on their behalf.

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There's gold in these hills: 👉 Investments in retention can double as acquisition vehicles 👉 Customers do all of the selling to the prospects who join the events 👉 You can do no wrong by doing right by your customers Timeless lessons, Drew Neisser.

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To scale from $1M to $10M ARR, you need to turn your ad hoc GTM efforts into a well-oiled machine. This means creating repeatable processes across your entire GTM - from lead gen to sales to customer success. The good news for technical founders is that they're experts at solving complex engineering challenges with precision, efficiency, and structure. At this stage of startup growth, they need to apply that same systems-oriented mindset to GTM - which, for B2B startups, can be approached more as a science than an art. More in the May edition of B2BaCEO: https://lnkd.in/emsvFN9q

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Reducing churn isn't just a nice-to-have for large companies; it's a necessity if you want to survive in the subscription economy. Subscription businesses often focus heavily on acquiring new customers, but when churn rates outpace new sign-ups, it’s a wake-up call. This isn’t just about customer experience—it's a fundamental issue with how your business addresses pricing, service, and product complexity. Here are five powerful steps to tackle churn: 1. Dive deep into your customer buying patterns to tailor offerings that resonate with different segments. 2. Don’t let seasonality automatically lead to churn—consider offering annual subscriptions or creating budget-friendly options. 3. Gather feedback relentlessly to pinpoint product issues—are you falling behind competitors? 4. Personalize interactions and communication instead of relying solely on automation. Consumers crave real connections. 5. Set up a robust revenue recovery process to deal with failed payments efficiently. Embrace these tactics and watch as your churn rates decline. By becoming proactive rather than reactive, you're not just saving customers but building a loyal community. How have you tackled churn in your company? Share your insights. https://lnkd.in/etnqkTVq

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I wrote two term sheets this week into startups backed by amazing founding teams, and in both cases I recommended a pivot to the team’s initial GTM strategy.   Sometimes being well networked, or building in a white hot problem space can be a gift and a curse when it catches the attention of enterprise customers.   On paper, it is the exact type of validation a funding team is seeking as they work through an initial version of their product, but more often than not it has the potential to derail a startup’s potential for success.   The startups in question were both experiencing this exact dynamic.  In one case, the team had caught the eye of one of the largest robotics companies in the world and begun conversations around a potential partnership.   The second company is backed by a 20 year industry veteran with a deep rolodex of enterprise customers within his ICP.  Some of the largest retailers in the world were engaging in conversations around piloting his product.  As I explained to both of these founders, this was amazing validation, but should also not be the focal point of their initial GTM.   The reality is, in order to successfully deploy within either of these customers, they were looking at a long and arduous path, filled with security reviews and product feature sets that realistically an early stage pre-seed company with 2 founders could not deliver upon.   My advice to them, continue those conversations, with the realization that they could take 1 year+ before realistic deployments, but focus the lion’s share of their GTM energies toward customers with lower deployment hurdles, in this case Series A/B backed robotics companies and $50M-$250M retailers.    To be clear, the  genuine interest from these enterprises is a massively positive indicator on the problem/solution set they are building for, and it is part of the reason we are bullish on the market opportunity of each startup.  I’ve just seen so many startups fail to deploy an initial product and ultimately never raise a seed round because they get stuck in a seemingly never ending enterprise sales cycle.

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RevOps leaders, this is the playbook you’ve been waiting for. In a world flooded with content that often lacks substance, the RevOps Docs for Startups by LeanScale are a breath of fresh air. This guide isn’t just another rundown of the basics—it’s an in-depth, yet easily approachable, guide to the rapidly evolving RevOps landscape, crafted from real insights gathered across 50+ hyper-growth companies. Huge shoutout to my longtime buddy Joe Zaghloul and the team at LeanScale for putting in the thought and care to make something truly impactful. The format alone—structured like API docs, complete with a changelog—makes it incredibly usable and memorable. #RevOps leaders and #GTM teams will find it packed with playbooks that feel almost built-in to the process. If you’re scaling a B2B SaaS, you’ll want to bookmark this one. It’s hands-on, actionable, and unlike anything else out there. https://lnkd.in/ekrUJAW5

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I'm bootstrapping a B2B media company called Exit Five (if you haven't heard). Here are some updates from last week as we build: • NEW BRAND: Finalized new designs for the website, rolled out our rebrand inside of the community, and prepared to hit publish on the public rebrand this week - you'll see a new logo, colors, and overall branding from Exit Five. Eli and his team at No Boring Design did an amazing job helping us level up the Exit Five branding; I can't wait to show you later in the week. • EVENT: Closed sponsors for our first event in September - we've had inbound from some of the best B2B SaaS brands and it's been fun to decide who to work with. We're 2 weeks away from launching the event, telling you the name, dates, speakers, and letting you buy tickets if you want to join us in Vermont this fall • TRIALS: Trials are back; after a slow(er) month in April, we had a our best week for trials in months. There's a 7 day free trial to join the Exit Five community; it's a private space for B2B marketers to get feedback, ask questions, and get recommendations from peers. We just crossed 3,500 members. We had 3,500 members a year ago, but had bunch of churn moving off of Facebook. This was a big bet I had; I knew it would be painful and there would be churn and some complaints, but 1 year later we are in a *much* better position. • MAU: We have 38% MAU in our community, which would make us one of the highest engaged communities on Circle based on their benchmark data for communities of our size (3,500 members). The average MAU for communities with 1000 - 5000 members is 28%. • PODCAST: We had a record number of podcast downloads for April too. We'll cross 140 episodes this week. The podcast is hard to control, but there's an incredible long tail once you get going... • JASON LEMKIN: I sat down with Jason Lemkin to record an episode of the Exit Five podcast. I've been a long time SaaStr fan (since it started as a blog and newsletter) but this is the first time we met and Jason over delivered. He recorded an incredible 1 hour interview for the podcast covering what a great VP Marketing in SaaS does, lessons from building SaaStr, and I got him to dive into his personal content creation process. But here's what's even cooler: after the podcast, he stuck around and gave me 30 minutes to just chat through what we're doing with Exit Five off the record and helped me a bunch with the vision, strategy, and validating a lot of our ideas. It was pretty damn cool. Thanks for reading this week's Exit Five update. We're bootstrapping this B2B media business and writing in public about what we're doing helps grow (and it's fun to do). Also we're hiring soon...

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