Building a 12 Month Growth Plan as CMO of a Fast-Growing Company with Paul Cowan of Freshbooks #EP174

Marketing should be a disruptive force. Today, data has turned a lot of marketing into a rigid force.  In this episode, we talk about how you can market against the grain.

In this episode of the GrowthTLDR, we talk to Dennis Kelly, the CEO of Postalytics. Postalytics is making direct mail part of the marketing automation playbook. We talk to Dennis about why his previous company Boingnet pivoted to become Postalytics and how he knew it was time to make that change. We asked Dennis about the common mistakes founders make, how he hires executives onto his leadership team, and the hardest part of growing a SaaS company.

In this episode of the GrowthTLDR, we talk about how the unbundling of platforms like Craigslist, Reddit, and LinkedIn presents opportunities for digital communities to serve the needs of their audience better. We go through the famous example of Craigslist and how its unbundling resulted in a series of billion-dollar startups. We give examples of how the same thing is happening to Reddit and LinkedIn. But what does this mean for B2B? We go through how you should think about unbundling and the rise in digital communities' popularity related to your companies' growth. We give examples of when you should consider starting a digital community and its benefits. Happy Growing!

In this episode of the GrowthTLDR, we get into how you do customer acquisition and onboarding for companies with horizontal markets. That means their product serves the needs of many customers. Examples of fast-growing products with horizontal markets are the likes of Loom, Calendly, and Miro. We talk about the challenges of building a great onboarding flow with such a broad set of customers, why all products have some customer persona in mind, and examples of tactics used by product-led companies to fuel acquisition and improve user. activation rate. Happy Growing!

In this episode of the GrowthTLDR, we cover a common question, how do the best companies pick winning markets. We use Strava, the social network for athletes, and ask how they would pick who to build their go-to-market around. We cover how they might access a market's profitability, what market they should build product features for, and how they should think about building a plan for audience growth. Happy Growing!

It's the "One Thing" on the GrowthTLDR where the hosts (Kieran Flanagan, Nicholas Holland, and Scott Tousley) cover an idea or observation they feel is worth sharing with the podcast listeners. Each week we scour all of the information we've consumed for the best lessons and bring them to our audience. They get all of the information without needing to do any of the research. What you'll learn on this weeks episode: - Why all great outputs in media need great inputs. We cover a recent interview from Bob Pittman, the CEO of iHeartMedia, about successfully growing a media empire. We also cover why the next generation of software companies will need that growing empire. - Why you should be intentional about your 1:1 meetings. We cover why it's imperative to leadership to run effective 1:1 meetings and the common mistakes people make. - The rising cost to acquire a customer. In a recent post from Reforge.com, they highlighted the increasing costs for all companies to acquire customers. What does it mean for the future of marketing? Happy Growing!

In this episode of the GrowthTLDR, we talk to Paul Cowan, the CMO of Freshbooks. By listening to this show, you'll learn: - How to think about building a 12 to 18-month plan as a new CMO of a fast-growth company. - Understand how to test brand messaging by focusing on specific cities - What channels to prioritize for growth - With the cost to acquire a customer increasing across all marketing channels, what it means for the future of marketing. Make sure you subscribe to hear future shows. Happy Growing!

In this episode of the GrowthTLDR, we talk to Darin Brown, the CEO, and Co-Founder of Docket, a company looking to revolutionize meetings through a product-led model. Docket is currently at 15,000 users growing through SEO and product-led virality. We talk to Darin about why he started Docket, how they measure user activation, and what's it like growing through the Zoom marketplace.

In this episode of the GrowthTLDR, we discuss five critical skills you need to be a successful marketing and growth leader. We talk about the importance of forecasting, why great leaders prioritize, how great leaders have great teams, how every problem is an opportunity, and ownership.

In this episode of the GrowthTLDR, we run down our top six lessons from 2020. We talk about the evolution of content marketing, recap some great lessons on creating a growth OS for your company, and discuss some of the interviews we had with companies who went from sales-led models to product-led. We'll be back in January 2021; until then, Happy Growing!