Do you dread going to work? Does it impact your productivity? How can companies improve their culture? It’s not about putting ping pong tables, napping pods, and laundry services in the workplace. 

Today’s guest is Wayne Mullins, founder of Ugly Mug Marketing. Wayne has consulted on some of the world’s biggest brands. He has gone from being a culture skeptic to a firm believer in the power of creating self-accountable cultures to help companies achieve their full potential and productivity. Wayne provides a rational and practical way to think about company culture.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Old School Approach: Results-focused marketing that goes back to the basics
• Components of Self-accountable Culture: 
• • Activity and accomplishment are two different things
  • Accountability flows from within, not from the top down
  • Each individual’s ability to quickly and easily assess their goals
• Quantity vs. Quality: Improving company culture, improves company’s marketing campaign results for clients
• Aptitude and Attitude: How marketing managers can accurately assess potential hires for culture fit 
• Culture Matters: How is it working for you? Are you constantly having to micromanage and fix mistakes?
• Consistency Creates Miracles: Culture is misunderstood as end thing to pursue instead of byproduct of components put in place
• Lead by Example: Foundation conversation around trust versus suspicion
• If unintentional about building a high-performance, self-accountable culture, then you’re intentional about building a low-performance, non-accountable culture 
• Three steps to get started: Self-evaluation, scoreboard, and rhythms of accountability 

Links: 

• Ugly Mug Marketing
• Work Rules!
• RightFit Profile
• CoSchedule

How much do you know about your customers, especially the very best ones? Companies that conduct ongoing customer research grow two to three times faster than those that don’t. How many? About 70% of companies are not doing 10 or more interviews with customers every month. 

Today’s guest is Katelyn Bourgoin of Customer Camp. As a customer research expert and advocate, she explains how to gather customer data and extract useful insights from customer interviews to apply and achieve results. 

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

• Marketer by Trade, Founder by Choice: Identify and understand your customers to make marketing and product decisions
• What matters most for marketers? Target customer/audience, not chasing multiple customer segments at the same time
• What’s holding companies back? Not focusing on right customers, or understanding how to talk about what they do to position product for purchase 
• Customer-Centric Opportunity: If 70% of companies aren't conducting customer research, it gives you a chance to stand out from competitors
• Common Challenges: Some marketers don’t believe in customer research or don’t want to bother their customers to accelerate and achieve growth
• Which customers to contact to start a conversation? Recent buyers recall the journey
• Research shows 95% of decisions occur unconsciously when making a purchase 
• Questions: Avoid scripts or asking the same questions about buying journey
• Value Proposition: What’s #1 reason customers decided to buy a product? 
• How to analyze gathered customer data to gain insights? Summarize key pain points, outcomes, channels, influencers, and other products
• Common Mistakes: Avoid asking customers too many questions from too many departments; document and process what you learn before you forget it
• Customer Ranking Calculator: What makes an average vs. awesome customer? 

Links:

• Katelyn Bourgoin
• Customer Camp
• Customer Ranking Calculator
• ProfitWell
• CoSchedule

Mentors can make a major difference in people’s careers. Always willing and able to answer questions, even after you leave a job or company. They are generous with their time to provide expert advice, insight, and guidance. 

Today’s guest is Ben Sailer’s former supervisor and mentor, Dean Froslie, EVP of marketing at Western State Bank in North Dakota. Dean uses the term, Content Super Connector, as a way to bridge the gap between two worlds—content strategy and content marketing.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Turning Point: Writing for digital channels should be more than cranking out copy 
• Converging Channels: Content is center of digital, social, and other teams 
• Evolution: Interpretations and arguments against content strategy meaning
• Content Considerations: Workflow, governance, and people are overlooked
• Web: Make it a better place via UX writing, content models, SEO, accessibility 
• Quantity over Quality: Content marketers fail to consider sustainable practices
• Digital Disappointments: Emphasis on more channels, posts, and engagement 
• Audience-focused Mindset: Produce less content and more results 
• True Differentiator: Define and understand what brand stands for and represents  

Links: 

• Dean Froslie
• Western State Bank
• Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson
• Karen McGrane
• This is Marketing by Seth Godin
• Content Inc by Joe Pulizzi
• Gerry McGovern
• Content Strategy Toolkit by Meghan Casey
• Everybody Writes by Ann Handley
• Letting Go of the Words by Janice Redish
• CoSchedule

Excuses, excuses. Too many tools? Too complicated? Too stressful? It takes time and help to learn how to use new software effectively, especially if you don’t use it regularly. How can marketers successfully onboard new clients and convince them to switch to new software tools and platforms? 

Today’s guest is Andrea Moxham, co-founder and co-owner of Horseshoe & Co. The HubSpot consultancy and partner program member helps businesses understand how to use the comprehensive marketing automation tool to create a cohesive inbound marketing strategy. 

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

• Common Challenges: Clients struggle to seamlessly transition to HubSpot and how to use its workflow feature 
• Getting Started: Audit, segment, strategize, scale, and streamline sales and marketing processes
• Resistance or Skepticism? HubSpot ranks highly and doesn’t need buy-in from most decision makers 
• Horseshoe & Co.’s Onboarding Process: 
• • Focus solely on HubSpot
  • Focus on customer service, sales, marketing, and other initiatives 
  • Wish List: What do customers want to get out of HubSpot?
• Key to Success: Establish effective communication and expectations early on

Links: 

• Horseshoe & Co.
• HubSpot
• Salesforce
• Teamwork
• CoSchedule