Category: Podcast

We spend a lot of time demonstrating who our company is built around. We leave an open chair for them in board meetings. We put notices on the footer of our website, We provide automated feedback mechanisms so we can gauge how they feel, and when we hold in-person events or trade shows where they appear, we make every effort to give them swag and confirm their upcoming purchase plans (hopefully, buying from us). I’m talking about customers, of course, and though we do all these things, there seems to be one thing we dance around; the one simple  activity that could give the most intelligence –  talking to them. 

I’m not saying we don’t talk to customers. But most of that talk is anecdotal. I don’t know about you, but as a marketer, I wouldn’t go to the C-suite and defend a marketing program and budget based on a customer’s anecdotal comment. 

But done in the right way, that’s systematic and that follows qualitative Research principles, talking to customers can take the pulse of our market. We can analyze their experiences, making those findings available,  doing it in a way that would not only stand up to any Executive’s scrutiny, they’d insist on basing more corporate decisions on this information. 

Over his 20 years in marketing. Ryan Gibson has worked with dozens of businesses overseeing programs from the bootstrapped variety, on up to million-dollar budget variety.  

Using skills he got early in his career he worked in TV & Radio and film, doing a stint as reporter for Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC, which got him so used to interviewing, he kept doing it and figures that he’s now conducted over 1800 of them

He now heads up Content Lift, a Marketing Strategy consultancy centred around Customer Research. 

People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

Ryan is prolific on LinkedIn 

Ryan’s How to Run Customer Interviews course

Related show: “Lean B2B” with Etienne Garbugli

Wynter online panel

Respondent software

Let me run a scenario by you: I want you to have something I’m not finished making, and I’m not going to let you buy it, but I will let you pay to use it. and you will continue to pay me over time to use this thing that I continue to work on. And while you use it, I will get to see what you’re doing with my product. And I’ll use that information to figure out how I can sell you new things.

It doesn’t sound like a very good deal for you as a buyer,  does it? But this is exactly how SaaS works, and most of the software in B2B and the world for that matter is now bought & sold this way, marketers don’t skip a beat explaining this aspect of their product. But surprisingly, some things about SaaS products do trip them up. And today we’re going to talk with someone who’s seen almost everything that can go wrong in marketing SaaS.

Mark Evans has worked in & written about the SaaS space for his whole career.  He began as a technology journalist for the Globe & Mail, National Post, and Bloomberg News. Moving on from there, he co-founded what ended up being a wildly unsuccessful startup. Some of the mistakes you’ll hear are ones that he himself has made.

He now helps B2B SaaS companies accelerate growth with rock-solid marketing foundations underpinned by positioning, messaging, brand storytelling, and go-to-market plans. 

Through his consultancy Marketing Spark he works with B2B SaaS companies as a fractional CMO, strategic advisor, brand strategist and coach.

he spends a lot of time focused on positioning, strategy, and systems that drive consistent and successful marketing, 

We spoke to him in his hometown of Toronto, where in off-hours you can find him playing hockey and tennis.

People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

Mark on TikTok

Mark on Twitter

Mark’s Marketing Spark podcast

Mark’s book: “Marketing Spark”

Eric Ries, author of “Lean Startup”

Rand Fishkin