Kristian Borghesan is the Chief Marketing Officer at FutureVault
We are pleased to announce this year’s Top Marketing Leaders that are pushing the brands forward. This is a coverage that aims to bring the spotlight on some of the great humans behind the brands. It’s a celebration of relentless dedication and innovative spirit of marketing leaders. These leaders are going above and beyond, driving results, sparking creativity, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the ever-evolving landscape of marketing.
Vanessa Franz
Sandeep Todi
Kat Wong Too Yen
Adam Chuntz
Samantha Lloyd
Mikas Agarwal
Amy Mingopoulos
Daniel Francavilla
Kasey Bayne
Shawn Pang
Cam Davies
Godwin Chan
Mark Simone
Lindsay Walter
Jennifer DeFrenza
Katie Windley
Natalie Calderon
Hiba Amin
Cerys Goodall
Kristian Borghesan
Vanessa Franz
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m the Founder of Privy Reviews, a Rotten Tomatoes for content creators.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Improve your marketing strategy by prioritizing organic methods and content creation, utilizing the art of storytelling. Ensure that your product or service consistently positions the customer as the hero of the narrative. Storytelling has the power to resonate deeply with your target audience, fostering credibility and trust in your brand.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
One significant advantage lies in AI’s capability to identify and analyze user personas effectively. By harnessing AI-driven analytics, marketers can gain deeper insights into their target audience’s demographics, preferences, and behaviors. This allows for more personalized and targeted communication, enabling marketers to speak directly to their audience in a language and tone that resonates with them.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
TikTok’s discovery page (FYP) is unique compared to any other platform. Consistently posting content on this platform increases the likelihood of your content being seen by new customers more than on any other online platform. Additionally, LinkedIn is excellent for B2B businesses, and Sales Navigator is a fantastic tool for finding new potential customers.
Favourite travel destination?
Japan and Hong Kong <3
Sandeep Todi
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Driving global business growth through strategy, partnerships and marketing at Truly Financial, helping startups and businesses scale with global banking and payments
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Assuming you’ve identified your ICP (dont’ even start marketing if you haven’t), validate your messaging and positioning with them (and also your mom!). Do not try to validate price at this point because that tends to bias the conversation. Analyze how critical your product would be to them over a period of time (1st order / unbearable without you VS 3rd order / nice to have), and create your marketing strategy and channels around this degree of need which will inform whether customers buy unassisted or depend on advisors or otherwise. And as always, A/B test everything.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
First, get everyone on your team to use ChatGPT or similar tool (Claude, Perplexity, etc). Use your customer personas, product descriptions, benefit statements, etc. as assets which AI can use to understand your business and create content that is not just relevant but is also consistent – this is a quick win.
For leveraging it even more, as step 2, you can create your own marketing chatbot which you train with the work you continue to do and the outcomes (results, feedback, etc.) you experience, and customer conversations you encounter. By training your own AI engine to know all the stuff that matters to your startup and your marketing team, you can create your own winged superhero to inspire, create, and even save lives!
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Content marketing has so much room for creativity and experimentation. Invest in SEO with a 6-12 month horizon. Analyze competition and see how you can up your content game. Above all, keep your content authentic, and don’t delegate everything to ChatGPT – it pays back for itself while you sleep on the beach but you have to earn it.
Find other companies who sell to your audience and talk to them about content partnerships – it goes a long way when others talk about your product.
Regular newsletters is another long term and durable asset that takes time to build but creates a solid brand presence that serves to build confidence and trust.
Execution of these or any other strategy necessitates focusing on your ideal customer and the influencers who are relevant to your customer. Measure everything so you can do better each time. And, do not shy away from having clear, actionable triggers in your content because, hey, we humans need stimulus all the time.
Favourite travel destination?
India
Kat Wong Too Yen
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I lead brand, PR, communications, acquisition strategy and establish the marketing tech stack as an early, foundational hire for startups
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Understand your north star metrics, pay attention to product changes ahead of launch in case key features are descoped, and get campaign feedback early so you can pivot as necessary.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
Use AI to create and distribute highly personalized, dynamic content based on a user’s behaviour or profile criteria. Measure your results, and leverage AI to semi-automate the analysis and reporting.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Measure and adapt: Once content is published, your job isn’t over yet! Identify what’s working (and what isn’t), keep it fresh and help people find your content by making it visible on multiple platforms. Don’t be afraid to jump on a social media trend if you can organically repurpose it to fit your brand.
Favourite travel destination?
Iceland – it’s otherworldly if you’re looking for a beautiful road trip!
Adam Chuntz
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m a Co-founder and CMO of Blanka – a beauty tech startup. I lead the marketing and creative teams, and have a blast doing it every day!
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Put your customer at the center of all your decision making. But, before you get started, you’ve got to make sure there’s a really good sense of product-market fit to ensure you have the right product and audience to market it to. Marketing is all about experimentation, so don’t stress out too much about the campaigns or projects that don’t pan out exactly as planned. As we’re talking about a new product/service, I would focus on simple, digestible messaging that clearly identifies how your product or service is going to help your customer, solve their problem, and in general give them something they don’t already have. Lastly, have fun with it – marketing is meant to connect with people, so focus on language that anyone can understand and relate to.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
AI is here to stay, so embrace it in a way that helps get ideas started, boosts productivity, and ultimately makes you more efficient. A great example of this is coming up with ad, email or social copy where you can create a specific prompt identifying your customer persona and belief system (reason for wanting to use your product or service), the problem your product solves, and your tone of voice. Include specific deliverables like quantity of headline/subhead line/CTA you would like, and ask the AI to spit it out for you in a CSV you can quickly manipulate in a sheet and layer into hundreds of pieces of creative in minutes using placeholder text. Another great example is using AI to create automations in testing dynamic content within email to help test out what copy lands best with your segments.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Identify topic clusters that you can carve out a niche aligned to your business to generate content around establishing you as the authority on such topics instead of randomly creating content on generic trending subject. Using tools like ahrefs or moz, etc., look for topics that are gaining traction but aren’t over-saturated, paying close attention to SERP (Search Engine Results Page), keyword difficulty and volume. Content marketing is a mix of art and science, whereby it must be great content that’s written well with digestible takeaways clearly identified, plus it should also contain tons of internal linking to establish more authority from the Google algorithm. Lastly, create a cadence to your content posting to establish routine for your existing and potential audience.
Favourite travel destination?
Mexico! It’s such a large country, with incredible diversity in it’s people and landscapes. From surf to mountains (lacking real snow 😉 ), it has everything you could want, not to mention some of the best food on the planet! Vive mexico.
Samantha Lloyd
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Director of Marketing, Clearco
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Learn who your target market is and understand where they live. Bring marketing to them – don’t expect them to seek out your marketing.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
Automation, analytics, and segmentation/understanding your audience
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Get your content in places your target market is already engaged with.
Favourite travel destination?
Curacao!
Mikas Agarwal
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Young blood disrupting the ad specialty industry, with diversification in real estate, charity, and settling new immigrants.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Embrace a customer-centric approach by highlighting how your product or service uniquely meets the consumer’s needs. Boldly differentiate yourself, seeing resistance as a sign of making a distinct impact. Stay responsive and adaptable to feedback and changing market conditions. This strategy ensures your offering resonates deeply and stands out.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
To stay competitive, marketers must prioritize AI integration, understanding that companies leveraging AI are the ones to succeed. Assess and rank third-party service providers based on their AI capabilities to enhance operations. This focus on AI-driven services can significantly improve customer engagement and predictive analytics, while lowering costs. Ultimately, embracing AI positions a company as an industry leader, crucial for long-term success.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Quality over quantity – there is a plethora of content out there.
Favourite travel destination?
I’ve been fortunate to travel to over 50 countries, and New Zealand has resonated with me the most. The stunning landscapes, close-knit communities, and overall high quality of life have amazed me. Personally, I believe, it’s the kind of place that sets the bar for everywhere else.
Amy Mingopoulos
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I am the Marketing Coordinator at Wisedocs, and AI-powered Insurtech. I wear many hats such as social media manager, product & event marketing & coordination, organic and paid outreach and content creation.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Understand the pain points! In every industry and for every customer, there is a pressing need – be it expediting the claims process or finding the perfect pair of shoes. Customers are always looking for a solution to their questions and problems. By empathizing with their perspective, truly grasping their pain points, and asking yourself the same questions they do in their search for answers, you’ll align with their needs and be able to provide the best solutions.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
AI is rising across all industries and it’s time for organizations to fully embrace it! With my role working in an AI-driven Insurtech, I constantly find myself looking to AI tools to bounce ideas off, rephrase certain copy, and give inspiration to bring my work to the next level. AI is not here to replace jobs, but enhance them. I recommend using AI software’s to learn and continue to grow within your field, wherever you can. No technology will replace the creativity, nuances, and expertise that comes from experienced marketers, and those who will succeed I believe will be the ones who are using tools available at their disposal to increase their quality of work.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
I would suggest focusing on creating high-quality and relevant content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience! Offering answers to your audience’s questions right off the bat and positioning yourself as an industry leader will instill authority, confidence, and trust in your organization and services. By using various channels to distribute and promote your content, such as social media, email marketing, blogs, and guest posting with your similar target market channels, organizations will be able to reach a wider audience and have a higher chance at organic ranking. Lastly, ensuring to highlight the human side behind your organization provides valuable and authentic content that audiences love to see, such as Wisedocs’ Brain Power series where we highlight our employees on a monthly basis!
Favourite travel destination?
Florence Italy is by far my favourite travel destination! I had the opportunity to visit for a short time years ago and fell in love with the culture, architecture and artwork, not to mention the food. Anyone looking for a location with a vast history and works of art, I would suggest visiting the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and indulging in some gelato!
Daniel Francavilla
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Brand strategist, marketing advisor, founder and educator focused on social good. Supporting and training organizations, leaders and teams.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Focus on building a brand first, as brand equity can become your biggest asset — it’s critical in the long run and helps build trust and differentiation long after your first product or service is launched. Grow and leverage your personal brand as a founder. Founder-led marketing adds authenticity and is increasingly becoming the gold standard in today’s market.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
There’s not one benchmark or standard on all startups or teams can use AI. AI can be leveraged in marketing to automate repetitive or mundane tasks, provide data-driven insights, automate scheduling and summarize meetings (my 2 personal favourites) as a start. Implement AI tools to analyze customer behaviour, optimize ad campaigns, and predict future trends. AI isn’t about replacing human creativity, it’s a tool to support it and to streamline operations to make smarter, more informed marketing decisions.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Avoid chasing short-term trends and focus on creating valuable, evergreen content that resonates with your audience. Speak their language, address their pain points, and provide solutions that showcase your expertise. Consistency and authenticity are key to building trust and attracting loyal customers. Start by defining (and evaluating and re-defining) your target persona to ensure your content is tailored and relevant to them specifically. And remember to be human.
Favourite travel destination?
Iceland (unique experience), Italy and classic New York City.
Kasey Bayne
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Bringing together the best of both worlds: GROWTH and METRICS.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Really think about what problem you’re solving, and who you’re solving it for. Sure, you have a good idea, or it’s something “everyone can use!” – but that doesn’t help you differentiate yourself in the market, and stand out. Talk to your customers, or potential customers! You can add more potential markets, but when you’re getting started, be very clear on the “why” – not only for you as a business, but also for your potential customers in why you’re the best choice!
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
AI is a cool tool for sure, but it’s only one tool in your marketing toolbox. Don’t rely on AI for all of your content or communications, but rather think of it as a starting point or helping you get over a wall. It’s great to summarize things you’ve written, to double check that what you intended to say stands out, or to give you ideas based off an area of interest that you may want to dig in to. Think about the problem you’re trying to solve, and if AI can help, rather than just throwing AI at every area of your business without a plan.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Write good stuff! That is at the core of my own content marketing strategy. Yes, SEO and keyword research is important, but the most important thing is really understanding your customers, and the content they’re looking for. Make sure you’re using descriptions and keywords that match up with how they’d describe your product/service, so you’re easy to find! Differentiate between top of funnel (general interest) versus bottom of funnel (conversion focused) content, so that your goals and objective are clear. Understanding your customer journey, and how you use content differently at each stage, will help make content a growth machine in your business!
Favourite travel destination?
Kauai, Hawaii! Nothing like the ocean, blue skies, palm trees, snorkeling, and amazing food! The perfect spot to disconnect (or take advantage of that remote work life!)
Shawn Pang
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Founder@HashMatrix. We help launch and scale the most ambitious AI products, like rabbit r1, plaud, talkie, and more.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
– No matter what products you are building, figure out all the components you need to start a growth flywheel.
– The two most important skills for a growth marketer: tell a good story, and do all the math right.
– Lay out all your potential growth channels and label each’s expected impacts and level of efforts to help you identify the easy wins and the tarpits
– Have a hypothesis-driven growth marketing mindset and always iterate on your channel, messaging, and audience
– Be hands on. Do things that don’t scale first
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
– Be willing to take risks and try new channels/tools/methods, including AI.
– Use AI as your sounding board and someone who you can plan together. AI makes mistakes quite often, but also provides unique perspectives.
– Good marketing decisions rely on insights. Deep Insights rely on comprehensive research and data analytics. AI can make this 10 times easier.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Three tips to find more customers:
1. It is true that in most channels, quality over quantity, but if you want to make the perfect content you will never get there
2. No matter where you create and share your content, keep it in mind that you have two audiences: the reader and the machine. You need to find ways to make both the users and the algorithm want to promote your content and rank you higher
3. Content repurposing is key in improving the ROIs on your content. Good ideas can have multiple formats. If you don’t have the time for this, try AI
Favourite travel destination?
Taiwan
Cam Davies
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m a salesperson turned product marketer. I love rolling-up my sleeves and finding creative ways to connect prospect problems with product value.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
There is nothing more important than knowing your target market. Carve out the time and do the work to understand your prospect’s problems, why they buy, and what’s competing for their budget and attention. Stay curious and continue to test and update your assumptions directly with your market. Armed with this knowledge, you can turn your attention to crafting messaging that resonates and choosing channels and tactics that reach your prospect and compel them to act. It’s important to keep your prospect at the centre at every step. So, test your messaging on them, validate and prioritize the value props, find ways to quickly iterate as you prepare your larger programs.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
Using an AI Chatbot is a great way to collect a lot of specific knowledge quickly, generate ideas, and to expand on your thinking. Keeping in mind that AI Chatbot responses are simply the wisdom of the masses, some quick wins I’ve found with AI are to: i) build buyer and user personas by asking a series of questions; ii) collect research about a market by asking for statistics, summaries of notable publications, or market share numbers with links to their source; iii) collect basic competitive intelligence by asking who competes in your categories and their GTM strategy; iv) get your ideas flowing by generating lists of ideas.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
People need to see your message frequently and in a variety of ways to break-through. Split the content marketing function into creation and distribution, with your distribution efforts consuming most of your effort. For content creation, it’s important to be useful and brief. Answer the questions they Google. Justify the emotional reasons to buy with numbers. Overcome objections. Make their job easier, and do it quickly. To make it easier on yourself, take a big idea like a guide and split it into multiple pieces of content that you can use to engage your target in a variety of ways on the channels they frequent. Now, enter your outsized effort on distribution. Take your central idea and create paths back to education and purchase (aka your site) like a panel webinar on your topic, YouTube videos and reels, emails, LinkedIn Posts, and SEO-optimized blogs. TL;DR – just get it out there and do more of what’s working.
Favourite travel destination?
Anywhere warm, sandy, and with no clocks.
Godwin Chan
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Startup Operator, Angel Investor, Content Creator
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Product marketing is when a company markets a new product or service to target customers to drive demand and adoption. To begin, you must intimately understand your customers’ pain points and needs and how your new product or service will address them. Only then can you properly launch your new product or service with the appropriate positioning and messaging required to increase usage and, eventually, revenue. Product marketing can be achieved in several ways, notably through in-app banners and notifications. Establishing clear lines of communication between customers and the company is crucial for gathering feedback on products and services and ensuring that customers feel valued and heard.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
There are tons of AI tools out there that can help marketers grow and scale the impact of their work. These tools can help create written posts, images, videos, animations, presentations, websites, and other marketing materials more quickly and efficiently. No longer is it necessary to have huge marketing departments and overinflated budgets, as organizations can now achieve similar results with fewer people. For example, I’m the only dedicated marketing person at MedMe, and while it’s still a lot of work at a growing startup, leveraging AI makes my job easier. As with all other tools, AI should be used as a starting point for marketing activities and not merely published verbatim, as humans still prefer user-generated content and AI-generated content can be detected (I wrote this all myself).
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
First of all, you have to know where your customers spend time. Is it on search engines looking at websites and blogs, reading and subscribing to email newsletters, liking and commenting on social media posts, etc.? Second, pick only a few growth channels to experiment with and focus on at any given time. For B2C startups, creating more short-form videos on TikTok and Instagram might attract more customers; for B2B companies, writing more content for an email newsletter and LinkedIn might do the trick. Be mindful that content marketing is mainly helpful for getting prospective customers to the top of your sales funnel, and a comprehensive sales strategy is needed to convert them into paying customers.
Favourite travel destination?
NYC
Mark Simone
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I build funnels and custom user journeys to help brands win.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Understand the three-brand approach. Product, Lifestyle, and Vision. When you master the communication of your product or service from those three lenses, you can tap into the fundamental motivations of your buyers. Product – focuses on features, descriptions, and benefits that set you apart. Lifestyle – focuses on your target market’s ideals, everyday interests, and values that align with the lifestyle they want to lead. Vision – is the most grandiose version of your story. How you will “change the world”.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
AI can be employed by marketers at all stages of the customer journey. Enhanced reach and more effective engagement with potential customers in the awareness stage. Personalized product recommendations and dynamic content adjustment during the considerations phase. Predictive analytics for understanding purchase intent and optimizing conversion paths in the conversion stage. Customer sentiment analysis and personalized loyalty programs to increase the retention stage.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Focus on creating high-quality, valuable content that addresses your audience’s needs and interests. Utilize data and customer feedback to tailor your content strategy, ensuring relevance and engagement. Diversify your content across various formats (blogs, videos, social media) to reach a broader audience. Consistently analyze and adjust your strategy based on performance metrics and evolving market trends. Finally, foster a strong brand voice and storytelling approach to build a loyal community and enhance brand recall.
Favourite travel destination?
Cannes, France during the International Festival of Creativity every year.
Lindsay Walter
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I lead marketing at a SaaS startup, building a scalable department as an end-to-end marketer, I build brand awareness, demand gen, content, & marketing ops.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
When marketing a new product or service, it is important to involve the right people from the very beginning. Startups often move quickly and can become siloed, so it is important to have a holistic approach that includes everyone from marketing to product development, sales, and customer experience. This approach can help prevent potential setbacks and provide complete visibility of the buyer’s journey and customer experience. Once you have the right team in place, you can develop a product marketing rollout strategy that aligns with your ideal customer profile.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
AI can be a valuable addition to a marketer’s toolbox, particularly in small organizations. Just as marketing automation can streamline certain tasks, AI can expedite those that would have previously taken hours. It can aid in overcoming “blank page” syndrome by generating content ideas and outlines. Additionally, it can quickly distill large amounts of information. AI is a useful tool for ensuring that brand representation is accurate, particularly since marketers may not always be subject matter experts in their product or service.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Be a valuable resource and build trust with your customers. Customers are savvy and can tell when they are being sold a product. In the B2B space, it can be challenging to get that demo booked unless the customer is ready to buy. Therefore, focus on finding ways to create value for your customers, so that when they are ready to purchase, they think of your company first and refer you to their colleagues as an authority in the industry. It also makes you likeable, shareable, and SEO friendly.
Favourite travel destination?
Japan- I have been twice and would go back anytime.
Jennifer DeFrenza
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I am the VP of Marketing for an Online Insurance Brokerage called Surex. I manage all of our website content and branding, SEO strategy and company online reputation. I along with the Surex marketing team work with our ad agency with our paid marketing campaigns.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Don’t try to be everywhere and target everyone at once, start small and work your way up.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
This is such a hot topic right now, and I feel every industry is different. There is good and bad with tools like AI, you really need to figure out how to best serve your company and or customers and make sure you are using it to serve value not just because it’s there.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Exchange of value! Don’t just create content because you think you have to. There is so much content out there, make sure you’re spending your time on things that are easy to digest and add value to the consumer. Once you do this the customers will come.
Favourite travel destination?
Anywhere with a beach!
Katie Windley
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m the Content Manager at Waterloo EDC. On the marketing team, we focus on attracting international business investment to Waterloo Region. Personally, I develop content for our blog, campaigns and collateral to drive awareness and build connections for our business development team.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Don’t just sell the product or service – educate your audience about why they need it. Be a helpful resource throughout the research and evaluation process by giving them information, data and tools that help them become experts about what they’re buying. Then, when it comes time to purchase, they’ll be sure to consider you. We’re implementing this strategy at Waterloo EDC. We’re still showcasing all the reasons Waterloo is a great place to do business, but we’ve also added a suite of content that helps companies identify when they’re ready to expand and how the process works.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
AI helps our team work much more efficiently, from brainstorming to execution. Testing ideas, summarizing information, and checking grammar all happen faster with the help of tools like ChatGPT. We use them as a resource, not a replacement – for writers, for example – which enables us to publish more content and reduce the mental load that can slow down content development. We’re also exploring AI tools that enable us to perform tasks traditionally requiring specific skills or training, so we can broaden our capabilities across the team.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Tell your brand story through the voice of your customers, partners and employees. Giving these groups an opportunity to speak about your company on your behalf not only enriches your content but also extends your reach and credibility through their networks. At Waterloo EDC, we often collaborate on content with our clients and community partners which helps us tell a powerful “Why Waterloo?” story from many angles.
Favourite travel destination?
San Pedro in Belize. It’s a short trip to a tourist-friendly, tropical destination. Plus, golf carts are the main mode of transportation!
Natalie Calderon
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m the mastermind behind making brands shine, turning heads, and priming the path to growth.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Start by getting to know your audience inside out. Then, craft a killer message that resonates with them, deliver it at the right places and the right times, and don’t forget to track and adapt based on results.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
AI can be a huge asset when it comes to streamlining processes and finding efficiencies, especially for smaller marketing teams that typically lack resources. Personally, I love using AI as a sparring partner when I need an extra spark of creativity and don’t have another human to bounce ideas around with. The output will only ever be as good as the input though; real life experiences, human insights and big-picture thinking will always be a necessary starting point.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Knowing your audience is obviously important, but it’s just as important to know yourself. Find your unique brand voice and own it to create meaningful connections with relevant content that only you can be the authority on. And don’t make people work for it. Content should be easily accessible, digestible and engaging.
Favourite travel destination?
There are way too many places to name. All of my favourite vacations have combined unique cultural experiences, great food, and a healthy dose of nature.
Hiba Amin
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
I’m a fractional marketer, working with early and series A SaaS businesses with a focus on content and acquisition marketing.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
Closest to the customer wins in any industry. Let customers lead your marketing and go-to-market strategy. And if you’re a horizontal product, try spending 80-90% of your time and effort focused on your core ICP first, build the playbook, and then expand to other customer types.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
Responsibly. Find repeatable processes that are easy to automate but keep humans on the areas that will benefit from leaning on lived experiences, empathy, and generally connecting with customers.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Talk to your customers. They’re the best way to uncover what’s *actually* working and resonating so you can lean in on those campaigns or channels more. They’ll also (in many cases unintentionally) give you the guidance on what to stop doing too.
Favourite travel destination?
Jordan. Wonderful humans, mouthwatering food.
Cerys Goodall
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
As the COO at Vetster, I lead operations, marketing and growth, customer experience, a strategic programs for the business. I also provide consulting to tech startups through my consultancy The Goods providing founders with programming to launch and grow their companies.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
While product and growth teams need a test & learn approach embedded in their process for success and Marketing will continuously evolve, don’t forget to create and meet moments. Moments for your customer, the industry you’re disrupting, and to bring your brand forward.
Sometimes it’s ok to put your gut in front of data. Sometimes data will only show you small incremental improvements. It won’t always show you how to take a big swing. As Marketers, this is where our magic occurs – in how we build stories, product positioning, and narratives. Know your data, and place bets on your go-to-market.
Marketing needs to be lock-step with product in its creation, not at the tail end of the process. Don’t assume that product research will include an understanding of your customer’s behaviors, marketing strategy, brand positioning, and your values.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
Improving productivity is stablestakes. If your team isn’t already optimizing their processes, improving performance, or generating new ideas based on your data you’re not just wasting resources, you’re leaving money on the table.
More important is the ethical application of AI. Marketers have a responsibility to help inform their organization of how AI can uphold, and conflict with your company’s values. At Vetster, ensuring we apply AI in a way that improves health outcomes rather than automates health advice, is deeply important to us to ensure that medical professionals can deliver safe, effective, personalized care for our pets.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Leverage paid platforms to test responses to evergreen content as part of your creation process. Leverage short-term channels to inform long-term strategies so that you can build confidence throughout the process.
Favourite travel destination?
Wales
Kristian Borghesan
Describe what you do in less than 140 characters.
Chief Marketing Officer at FutureVault — responsible for leading all go-to-market efforts, building and driving demand, and creating revenue reinforcers for the company.
What is your advice for marketing a new product or service?
First and foremost, I’m big on making sure any new strategy or tactic in place drives back to the overall vision and top-level goals.
Next, have a clear and defined focus to create a clear path to market through internal and external champions and stakeholders.
Test, trial, experiment – growth as an indication of impact.
How can marketers leverage AI at their organization?
There are several applications that support the modern marketers workload and that certainly drive optimal output.
In my seat and with my experience on the content side, AI can help “speed things up” with respect to overall written content production and structuring of KW driven and/or thought leadership articles, which can save several hours at a time. It’s never the be all end all but it can certainly help whether starting at a blank slate or when you’re 70-80% there.
The other one is sales enablement materials like creating personas, fact sheets, competitive analysis, and so forth.
Best advice when it comes to content marketing to find more customers?
Understand where your customers spend their time — point your distribution efforts there. And focus on distribution, it’s the real king.
Don’t over obsess on creating top of the funnel content, even it out and if anything, focus on bottom of the funnel content first (if your product supports it).
Favourite travel destination?
Santa Barbara 🙂 But in actuality, anywhere that is warm with an ocean breeze.
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