Maryna Burushkina, Founder & CEO of GrowthChannel talks about how they’ve grown their programmatic advertising SaaS content past $1MN in ARR using content marketing. We talk about their top-of-funnel content strategy, middle-of-funnel lead magnets, lead nurturing process & sales cycle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgwB7kjeStM
so we have many different lid magnets.
Maryna Burushkina:So for us, li Magnet is anything where we capture, uh, contact information.
Maryna Burushkina:So we have, uh, webinars, we have training materials, we have reports,
Maryna Burushkina:eBooks, white paper templates, all that.
Maryna Burushkina:Stuff.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, where in order to get the free stuff, you know, leave us your email
Maryna Burushkina:information and we'll be in touch.
Maryna Burushkina:But overall, like, um, yeah, that's actually, that strategy
Maryna Burushkina:has worked really well.
Upendra Varma:Hello everyone.
Upendra Varma:Welcome to the B2B SaaS podcast.
Upendra Varma:I'm your host today we have Marina Burish with us.
Upendra Varma:Hey Marina, welcome to the show.
Maryna Burushkina:Hi, Pendra.
Maryna Burushkina:Thanks for having me.
Maryna Burushkina:Hi guys.
Upendra Varma:Hey Marina.
Upendra Varma:So let's talk about what your company does and why customers pay your money.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, great question.
Maryna Burushkina:So I'm the founder of Gross Channel.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, at Gross Channel, we combine data intelligence and marketing
Maryna Burushkina:activation channels to make your marketing decisions much more
Maryna Burushkina:smarter and more efficient, right?
Maryna Burushkina:Everyone spends lots of money on marketing, lots of budgets, and the main
Maryna Burushkina:question is like, how do I make results?
Maryna Burushkina:Right?
Maryna Burushkina:So this is exactly what we focus.
Upendra Varma:All right, so talk a bit more, right?
Upendra Varma:So I mean there are lots of tons of things in marketing, right?
Upendra Varma:So when, where exactly do you sit in a company's workflow?
Upendra Varma:Maybe you could just walk us through one of your example customers, right?
Upendra Varma:So, so that we can understand more.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, definitely.
Maryna Burushkina:So let, let's assume like one of our, um, customers are
Maryna Burushkina:actually startups and, um, SMBs.
Maryna Burushkina:So usually you're like f trying to figure out who shall I sell to and
Maryna Burushkina:what channels shall I reach them?
Maryna Burushkina:What's the best content?
Maryna Burushkina:And then, you know, what's the best channels and how do I actually
Maryna Burushkina:manage my campaigns properly?
Maryna Burushkina:So with Cross Channel, essentially speaking, you create
Maryna Burushkina:a quick business profiles.
Maryna Burushkina:You set your objective.
Maryna Burushkina:Your business industry budget.
Maryna Burushkina:A few other details around like who is your competitors, et cetera.
Maryna Burushkina:Our tool will generate personas for you, your I C P, uh, figure out the best
Maryna Burushkina:channels to reach them, uh, generate content for you, and then you can also.
Maryna Burushkina:Push your advertisements across multiple premium sites and apps, um, even like
Maryna Burushkina:TV for relevant, depending also on the budget, of course, um, for those specific
Maryna Burushkina:personas who are relevant for you on your budget with your messaging, and
Maryna Burushkina:then you have one platform to manage all of that and also optimize the results.
Upendra Varma:Okay.
Upendra Varma:That's very, very interesting, to be honest, right?
Upendra Varma:So what you're essentially saying is that if I'm a startup, I'm just starting out.
Upendra Varma:I've got a number of channels that I want to experiment and
Upendra Varma:figure out what's optimal for me.
Upendra Varma:I sort of know my icp, so I wanna do cold email outreach, I wanna write
Upendra Varma:some content, I wanna publish some video content, maybe I wanna run some
Upendra Varma:YouTube ads, some Facebook ads, right?
Upendra Varma:I wanna do a lots of stuff.
Upendra Varma:So is your , it's gonna fig help me figure out sort of, you
Upendra Varma:know, what's the best for me?
Upendra Varma:Is that what you're gonna do?
Upendra Varma:And if yes, how exactly are you gonna do It's, it's such a tough problem.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, so on our platform within the planning, uh,
Maryna Burushkina:module, so essentially speaking, we have like two, two products, right?
Maryna Burushkina:We have one for planning and help you figure out your strategy, and another
Maryna Burushkina:one for activation, which keeps on growing because marketing channels
Maryna Burushkina:are kind of unlimited in these days.
Maryna Burushkina:So on the, uh, planning side, yeah, uh, our platform will help you figure out
Maryna Burushkina:the best channels, the best content, you know, and, and maybe even learn
Maryna Burushkina:a little bit more about your acp.
Maryna Burushkina:So even if you know, like the demographics.
Maryna Burushkina:You know, our platform will can also tell you about their pain points,
Maryna Burushkina:what their goals are, what they like, what they don't like, what their
Maryna Burushkina:decision criteria, that other stuff.
Maryna Burushkina:That's still important for you to figure out your marketing campaign for them.
Maryna Burushkina:And on the activation side, we focus right now on programmatic advertising channels.
Maryna Burushkina:So think of it like.
Maryna Burushkina:Google display on steroids.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, so we connect with about 150 ad exchanges.
Maryna Burushkina:And there we don't just have Google display ads.
Maryna Burushkina:We have Microsoft, we have Yahoo, we have Zer, AppNexus, we have Native Ads, Vista
Maryna Burushkina:and Out Brain, you have access to tv.
Maryna Burushkina:Audio even did like digital out of home, all of that with no
Maryna Burushkina:minimum ad spend requirements.
Maryna Burushkina:Mm-hmm.
Maryna Burushkina:So you don't need to sign any long-term contracts, do this
Maryna Burushkina:boring media buying work.
Maryna Burushkina:Their platform is just like as simple as Facebook ads.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, essentially speaking.
Upendra Varma:Okay.
Upendra Varma:Uh, so I, I, I sort of wanna close this conversation, but
Upendra Varma:it's sounds very interesting.
Upendra Varma:So are you also gonna help me do stuff like cold email outreach,
Upendra Varma:all of those outbound, or do you do that on your platform as well?
Upendra Varma:Or do I have to buy those tools?
Maryna Burushkina:You can generate, like, let's say for example, the
Maryna Burushkina:content for it, if you wanna do cold calling, um, still like, You know, uh,
Maryna Burushkina:and without us suggesting you, Hey, this is even the right channel for you.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, but yeah, for example, if you already know, hey, I wanna do call
Maryna Burushkina:calling and I need content for my script, for example, what I should
Maryna Burushkina:be telling, uh, to the person during call, calling conversation, you can
Maryna Burushkina:definitely generate that on a flower
Upendra Varma:platform.
Upendra Varma:So it's, it's essentially a content creation engine as well as, uh,
Upendra Varma:you know, ads sort of platform combine, something like that.
Upendra Varma:Yes.
Maryna Burushkina:But I would say more like audiences.
Maryna Burushkina:You know, figuring out strategy and channels, tactics, all that stuff, uh,
Maryna Burushkina:your content is of course a part of that.
Maryna Burushkina:And then you have the programmatic
Upendra Varma:advertising.
Upendra Varma:Got it.
Upendra Varma:Alright.
Upendra Varma:So yeah, let's, let's move on to your customer base.
Upendra Varma:And I'll come back, you know, after a while to sort of understand how
Upendra Varma:you're positioning this, right?
Upendra Varma:Because you're doing a lot of things right.
Upendra Varma:So I really wanna understand that.
Upendra Varma:But just help me explain how many paying customers do you have on your platform as.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, so if you have about 2,200 business users right
Maryna Burushkina:now, and then we also have about 300 agencies on the platform as well.
Maryna Burushkina:We work a lot with agencies, consultants, and freelancers in
Maryna Burushkina:addition to businesses directly.
Maryna Burushkina:And right now we are also in the midst of preparing, uh, or like extending, I
Maryna Burushkina:would say even our marketplace where we connect both parties and, you know, help
Maryna Burushkina:them find each other when they're looking.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, let's say if I'm a business owner or a startup founder
Maryna Burushkina:and I need someone to maybe.
Maryna Burushkina:Fix my GA four or fix my pixels or set up my Google tag manager or anything
Maryna Burushkina:like that, in fact, so that they can find then the freelancer, a consultant
Maryna Burushkina:or an agency, you know, based on their budget, location, or whatever other
Maryna Burushkina:parameters are important for them, um, you know, within our ecosystem.
Upendra Varma:And one question, is it a strict sa purely a SaaS
Upendra Varma:platform that you're selling to these businesses and agencies?
Upendra Varma:Or is there something more than just that?
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, so we have like a three tier business model.
Maryna Burushkina:So one is definitely like a SA subscription where you can, you
Maryna Burushkina:know, generate your marketing plans on the other side.
Maryna Burushkina:Then we also have the advertising engine.
Maryna Burushkina:So we, we do have the, you know, ad spans and all that stuff, and then you
Maryna Burushkina:have add-ons, um, and that's usually for data credits, I would call it.
Maryna Burushkina:So for example, Let's say you wanna build a custom audience based on people who went
Maryna Burushkina:to specific event or specific locations, let's say 12 months in the past.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah.
Maryna Burushkina:We are able to generate those custom audiences, you know, have more insights
Maryna Burushkina:around those exact people, and also launch ads across any channel, even
Maryna Burushkina:Facebook ads on to those specific people.
Maryna Burushkina:So that's an add-on for us, like customers.
Upendra Varma:Alright, but, but it's still a recurring plan
Upendra Varma:that you're typically selling to all of these customers.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, most, most the times, yes.
Maryna Burushkina:But, uh, you know, there are other options as well that they can, um, grade too.
Maryna Burushkina:All right.
Upendra Varma:So, so are you comfortable revealing like where you
Upendra Varma:are as a company in terms of revenue?
Upendra Varma:Just, yeah.
Upendra Varma:So
Maryna Burushkina:approximately, um, we're a sit stage company.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, right now we, I mean we already raised our first round, so we did
Maryna Burushkina:our preseasons in the last few years that we've been running.
Maryna Burushkina:So we raised 300 k.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, right now we are raising also our next round.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, and we're really looking forwards to really scale, uh, from there as well.
Maryna Burushkina:So we are looking also to hiring more people.
Maryna Burushkina:Right now we are 12 people.
Upendra Varma:And then what's your approximate revenue?
Upendra Varma:Did you mention that I
Maryna Burushkina:missed?
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, I mean, like, um, we have about 1 million right now, now, and
Maryna Burushkina:we are, and trying to hit 3 million, um, after the seed round as well.
Upendra Varma:Got it.
Upendra Varma:That's, that's wonderful.
Upendra Varma:Right.
Upendra Varma:So now, no, I sort of wanna go back to your, your own marketing strategy,
Upendra Varma:not your product se per se, right?
Upendra Varma:So, so what's your top of funnel outlook?
Upendra Varma:Like, so where exactly are you getting all of these leads from?
Upendra Varma:So talk about your last year's new leads, right?
Upendra Varma:So I just wanna understand what channels they've discovered you on, right?
Upendra Varma:So, and just talk about that process purely from a top of funnel per.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, definitely.
Maryna Burushkina:So, um, on our side, a lot of our leads coming from, uh, content
Maryna Burushkina:marketing, seo, um, and communities.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, so that's, I would say a lot of our top of the funnel.
Maryna Burushkina:Mid-funnel, we have, uh, lots of, um, I would call it lead magnets.
Maryna Burushkina:We have published lots of reports.
Maryna Burushkina:We offer lots of templates.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, You know, free, uh, guides and all that stuff.
Maryna Burushkina:So that's more of our mid-funnel.
Maryna Burushkina:We do have also, um, nurturing process where we have email workflows, um, you
Maryna Burushkina:know, to nurture and qualify the leads.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, make sure, you know, eventually they schedule a demo, at least most of them.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, we schedule some newsletters.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, so that's, I would say the most, uh, successful channels that we have.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, of course as well, we, we do lots of events and partnerships.
Maryna Burushkina:That's another big, big component for us, especially when it comes
Maryna Burushkina:to agencies and consultants and freelancers I c p acquisition.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, but we also are present on other channels that I think is more of
Maryna Burushkina:a, kind of a long-term strategy.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, for example, like different aggregators, directories, social media.
Maryna Burushkina:I would say it's more of our always on activities.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, but, uh, not necessarily the ones that we
Upendra Varma:All right.
Upendra Varma:So let, let's, let's, let's go to the top right.
Upendra Varma:Your top of funnel.
Upendra Varma:You mentioned SEO and you know, a couple of communities, right?
Upendra Varma:So which one of them, if you were to pick, is driving most of these leads?
Upendra Varma:Can you just put a number to that?
Upendra Varma:Yeah.
Upendra Varma:So content.
Upendra Varma:It's content.
Upendra Varma:Right?
Upendra Varma:So, and uh, I know you also run a Slack community.
Upendra Varma:I'm a part of that.
Upendra Varma:Right.
Upendra Varma:And I know regularly what you do.
Upendra Varma:I think that's how I'm also beingd, right?
Upendra Varma:So, so I So how much of your top funnel comes from your Slack community?
Upendra Varma:Can you just put a number to that?
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, so I didn't specify Slack as a part of our
Maryna Burushkina:kind of core acquisition channels.
Maryna Burushkina:I would say Slack is more of our retention channel than an acquisition channel.
Maryna Burushkina:Mm-hmm.
Maryna Burushkina:We like to invite our users on a Slack channel.
Maryna Burushkina:Mm-hmm.
Maryna Burushkina:As well as we also have a few like private channels with our.
Maryna Burushkina:Let's say project related customers or managed service customers where
Maryna Burushkina:we communicate daily and stuff like
Upendra Varma:that.
Upendra Varma:So it's, it's, okay.
Upendra Varma:So it's, it's primarily being, being an, like a retention strategy for you.
Upendra Varma:It, it doesn't really drive new, new leads a lot.
Upendra Varma:Is that it?
Maryna Burushkina:Yes, that's, that's more correct.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, we do have also a participate a little bit in a few other
Maryna Burushkina:Slack channels, however, where we occasionally drive, um, you know,
Maryna Burushkina:some, some traffic to our website.
Maryna Burushkina:Right.
Maryna Burushkina:So,
Upendra Varma:I'm, I'm you Yeah.
Upendra Varma:I'm specifically asking you this question because a lot of SaaS
Upendra Varma:founders said when they just start out, they wanna try a bunch of things.
Upendra Varma:And one thing that definitely comes to their mind is maybe starting a channel
Upendra Varma:for themself, and they're just looking at it from a top of funnel perspective.
Upendra Varma:Right.
Upendra Varma:Can you just give us some advice?
Upendra Varma:Right.
Upendra Varma:How worthy is it if you're just looking.
Upendra Varma:From a top perspective.
Upendra Varma:Talk about your Slack channel from that perspective.
Upendra Varma:I would
Upendra Varma:say
Maryna Burushkina:top of the funnel, um, if you have zero people to invite,
Maryna Burushkina:there isn't gonna be much, but you can
Upendra Varma:always find people, right.
Upendra Varma:New Slack channel, you can always find people, for example, I mean,
Upendra Varma:you invited me, but I'm not, I'm, I'm not a part, I'm not your customer.
Upendra Varma:Right.
Upendra Varma:So you can always invite like-minded people or people in that space.
Upendra Varma:Right, exactly.
Upendra Varma:Yeah.
Upendra Varma:But, but will it really work as a auto funnel channel?
Upendra Varma:I mean, will it help you generate leads?
Upendra Varma:Has it been working for
Upendra Varma:you?
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, so for us, generating leads is like
Maryna Burushkina:having contact information.
Maryna Burushkina:So usually it's more like a nurturing channel and retention channel for
Maryna Burushkina:us on, on our own Slack channel.
Maryna Burushkina:However, we are also present on other Slack channels where you, which you
Maryna Burushkina:can use as an acquisition strategy.
Maryna Burushkina:So in other channels, participate in conversations, answer thread questions,
Maryna Burushkina:you know, like show, uh, yourself as a.
Maryna Burushkina:Leader in a space, um, and potentially offer a solution to existing problems
Maryna Burushkina:with whatever you are selling.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, we're trying to sell, in fact, uh, with your product or service.
Maryna Burushkina:So would you, that would
Upendra Varma:work, would you advise a new SaaS founder to, let's say maybe
Upendra Varma:just go and start the Slack community?
Upendra Varma:Would you really advise them or maybe not.
Upendra Varma:What's your, what's your one, one word answer.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, from beginning, I wouldn't start your
Maryna Burushkina:own Slack community, but I would definitely join existing communities.
Maryna Burushkina:Mm-hmm.
Maryna Burushkina:And re because some communities have like tens of thousands of members.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Maryna Burushkina:So use those, um, because if you're gonna start your own, it's
Maryna Burushkina:gonna be just like maybe a few hundred members in the beginning.
Maryna Burushkina:All
Upendra Varma:right.
Upendra Varma:And talk about your content marketing strategy.
Upendra Varma:You mentioned like most of your new leads are just coming from
Upendra Varma:the content you write, right?
Upendra Varma:So let's talk about how many people in your team are actually sort of writing
Upendra Varma:how many articles on a, on a monthly basis, and what's that strategy for
Upendra Varma:you and what, what's been your strategy right from the beginning, right?
Upendra Varma:So what have you been focusing on in terms of keyword strategy?
Upendra Varma:Just talk about that because looks like that's the one that's
Upendra Varma:really been working for you.
Upendra Varma:Yeah, so that's working
Maryna Burushkina:really well.
Maryna Burushkina:And these days you don't need to write the whole thing yourself, as you know.
Maryna Burushkina:So you can just go and check G p t and ask it for, for an article.
Maryna Burushkina:Of course, you still need to proof it, maybe add some graphics,
Maryna Burushkina:pictures, all that stuff.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, so there are a few strategies that work very well for us.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, we go through an extensive process.
Maryna Burushkina:Step number one, figure out the best keyword usually.
Maryna Burushkina:Highest volume, lowest competition.
Maryna Burushkina:You can check that on Google, um, or other SEO tools, whichever one doesn't matter.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, then the second one is usually okay, generate some, you know,
Maryna Burushkina:static contact that's always green.
Maryna Burushkina:It's something that's not very time sensitive.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, so that's the second step.
Maryna Burushkina:And usually like using, you know, auto generating AI tools, um, you know, you
Maryna Burushkina:can use chat G P T, which is most probably the best one out there these days.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, some of you may be already subscribed to like tools like Jasper or
Maryna Burushkina:anything like this, which is fine too.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, then.
Maryna Burushkina:The next step is usually figure out where are the experts in a space,
Maryna Burushkina:uh, that we may wanna include to give a quote inside the blog article.
Maryna Burushkina:This strategy works perfect every single time, so definitely listen on.
Maryna Burushkina:So, so, so
Upendra Varma:can you talk about this part a bit?
Upendra Varma:I mean, as you're talking about battling, building.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, so you can definitely, um, use that
Maryna Burushkina:for backlink building as well.
Maryna Burushkina:But right now we're talking more about actually getting good piece of content
Maryna Burushkina:that's long form and that you don't need to spend too much time building.
Maryna Burushkina:Mm-hmm.
Maryna Burushkina:At the same time, you know, bringing lots of.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, traffic to website.
Maryna Burushkina:So usually we would, um, ask like three to 10 people to contribute with quotes
Maryna Burushkina:on the topic that we're writing about.
Maryna Burushkina:And once the blog is published, we'll ask them to share with their community.
Maryna Burushkina:And usually we also look for people who have some decent follower base.
Upendra Varma:Are these guest post in, so are you inviting guest ex
Upendra Varma:who are experts in, in the field areas that you're looking at?
Upendra Varma:And are you asking them to write the content and then
Upendra Varma:go ahead and spread the word?
Upendra Varma:Is that what you're.
Upendra Varma:Uh,
Maryna Burushkina:not the whole post.
Maryna Burushkina:Mm-hmm.
Maryna Burushkina:Just a small paragraph for a quote.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, maybe with some graphics that we are gonna then blend into that one
Maryna Burushkina:single block post, and then all of those 10 experts with their communities,
Maryna Burushkina:their companies, plus ourselves sharing that one piece of content.
Maryna Burushkina:It gives like 10 x, you know, exposure to this one piece of content and
Upendra Varma:drives.
Upendra Varma:What, what's the incentive for those people to sort of
Upendra Varma:contribute to your articles?
Upendra Varma:Yeah, so they
Maryna Burushkina:do get a back link to themselves, of course.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, and then just like we talk about credibility, visibility, we
Maryna Burushkina:are also gonna share, and of course other contributors will share.
Maryna Burushkina:So it's kind of a win-win situation
Upendra Varma:for everyone.
Upendra Varma:Got it.
Upendra Varma:Uh, makes sense.
Upendra Varma:Alright, so look, let's, let's go go a bit downwards, right?
Upendra Varma:So talk about what happens after one, once somebody discuss your product, right?
Upendra Varma:So how do you convert them to a paying customer?
Upendra Varma:What happens?
Upendra Varma:Is it a no-touch model?
Upendra Varma:Do you have somebody bugging them to sort of convert, you know, con con
Upendra Varma:to convert them to a paying model?
Upendra Varma:What happens after that?
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, we usually back them only after they have had
Maryna Burushkina:the demo, until they have had a demo.
Maryna Burushkina:We don't back them at all.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, so we do have a workflow email sequence in HubSpot, for example.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, and we have a few different variations based on the task
Upendra Varma:content.
Upendra Varma:You put content, you put all of these leads to a free, like word trial, right?
Upendra Varma:So essentially you want them to start a trial or something, and then you start
Upendra Varma:doing all of this email nurturing.
Upendra Varma:Um, not
Maryna Burushkina:necessarily.
Maryna Burushkina:So first we collect their contact information, for example, via
Maryna Burushkina:the different lead magnets, which I mentioned earlier.
Maryna Burushkina:Let's say they downloaded our programmatic benchmarks report, right?
Maryna Burushkina:We have their email and we have their first name.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, this one is actually our, our top lead magnet of the month.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, got the most leads from.
Maryna Burushkina:So in this case, um, you're, you're, you know, if you have lead nurturing
Maryna Burushkina:sequence about five steps as a follow up, um, you know, with relevant
Maryna Burushkina:content and also asking for a demo call if you're interested to discuss
Maryna Burushkina:solutions for programmatic advertising.
Maryna Burushkina:So something that is relevant to the content that you have actually downloaded.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, not all kind of, you know, sales talk, but also providing value in
Maryna Burushkina:addition to what you have already got.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, and then, um, yeah, that's usually five, five step sequence.
Maryna Burushkina:We also hire including people who, um, you know, downloaded anything,
Maryna Burushkina:uh, or maybe watched the webinar or anything like this in our newsletter.
Maryna Burushkina:And that's also biweekly newsletter.
Maryna Burushkina:I must say engagement on the newsletter is of course, much, uh, lower than
Maryna Burushkina:the nurturing emails, but still it oftentimes drives some nice demo.
Upendra Varma:So you, I, I've heard you talk a lot about these lead magnets.
Upendra Varma:So where exactly do they fit in your funnel?
Upendra Varma:Right?
Upendra Varma:Is it after somebody re read through your blog post?
Upendra Varma:Maybe do you divert them to a lead magnet and then you start
Upendra Varma:collecting contact information?
Upendra Varma:Is that how it works?
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, so we have many different lid magnets.
Maryna Burushkina:So for us, li Magnet is anything where we capture, uh, contact information.
Maryna Burushkina:So we have, uh, webinars, we have training materials, we have reports,
Maryna Burushkina:eBooks, white paper templates, all that.
Maryna Burushkina:Stuff.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, where in order to get the free stuff, you know, leave us your email
Maryna Burushkina:information and we'll be in touch.
Maryna Burushkina:But overall, like, um, yeah, that's actually, that strategy
Maryna Burushkina:has worked really well.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, we also try to optimize those pages as well for keywords and make sure
Maryna Burushkina:we update it occasionally as well.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, it's usually also, you know, we have more content than just, you
Maryna Burushkina:know, sign up here kind of thing.
Maryna Burushkina:There is more content so that it actually ranks on Google as well.
Maryna Burushkina:So those pages drive direct organic traffic.
Maryna Burushkina:Plus we have, you know, we have Exit 10 popups.
Maryna Burushkina:We have related content links.
Maryna Burushkina:Uh, we have a part of navigation and, you know, our newsletters and
Maryna Burushkina:social and other channels as well.
Maryna Burushkina:Promotion where we get people towards those lead magnet landing.
Upendra Varma:All So, so Marina, one question here, right?
Upendra Varma:So, so you mentioned you had around 2200 business users.
Upendra Varma:Are these 2200 businesses or are these, you know, seeds
Upendra Varma:across a bunch of businesses?
Upendra Varma:Those
Maryna Burushkina:are seeds, but we do have a lot of the
Maryna Burushkina:small businesses and startups.
Maryna Burushkina:So I would say we have more than a thousand businesses on the platform.
Upendra Varma:All right.
Upendra Varma:So, so I just wanna understand, like, uh, in the past 12 months, right, how
Upendra Varma:many new businesses did you, did you man actually manage to convert to a customer?
Upendra Varma:What's that number?
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah.
Maryna Burushkina:So, um, I mean like in general we have around already like 1000, uh, businesses
Maryna Burushkina:directly on the platform, but we also have about 384, I think it was, uh,
Maryna Burushkina:earlier, like this week at least.
Maryna Burushkina:Mm-hmm.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, 384, um, agencies.
Maryna Burushkina:So, um, those are also interesting accounts.
Maryna Burushkina:For
Upendra Varma:us.
Upendra Varma:All right, so my question is, so, so whatever funnel that you've just set
Upendra Varma:up, right, so it's, it's a bunch of, you know, collecting them, collecting
Upendra Varma:data from lead magnets, and then you've got a bunch of nurturing sequences.
Upendra Varma:And so like, how exactly are you managed to convert such a lot of customers?
Upendra Varma:Right.
Upendra Varma:With just like 12, 13 people in the team I was giving, not even half of
Upendra Varma:them are actually doing demos and All right, so how, how, how, how,
Upendra Varma:how are you sort of managing all.
Upendra Varma:Right.
Upendra Varma:So is it primarily no touch model?
Upendra Varma:Are you primarily targeting big, bigger ones with your SDRs or your reps and
Upendra Varma:you're just leaving the rest to, you know, that no touch motion, like talk
Upendra Varma:about what's happening internally there.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, our sales panel is, um, still a lot through
Maryna Burushkina:demo, so sometimes we do have users signing up directly, but, uh, a lot
Maryna Burushkina:of the times it's really kind of showcasing the platform before you're
Maryna Burushkina:actually ready to go in full speed.
Maryna Burushkina:And that's because like I mentioned in the beginning, it's
Maryna Burushkina:kind of a lot of things, right?
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah.
Maryna Burushkina:It's not as straightforward.
Maryna Burushkina:There isn't exactly like same tool out there that you would use Yeah.
Maryna Burushkina:To compare even like, um, to have something, uh, side by side.
Maryna Burushkina:We usually do have demos with people before they're ready to kind of dive in.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, and usually we also have a few steps.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, it's usually on average about three, uh, three calls and three
Upendra Varma:Dutch points.
Upendra Varma:How many demos did you do?
Upendra Varma:Let's say last month?
Maryna Burushkina:We do have about 10 demos a week.
Maryna Burushkina:So, uh, it's And how many
Upendra Varma:people in your team doing those demos?
Upendra Varma:We have three people doing demos, something like hundred,
Upendra Varma:hundred and 20 demos a month.
Upendra Varma:And how, how many of them do you actually manage to.
Maryna Burushkina:So, I mean, like every month we have customers coming
Maryna Burushkina:up, so, um, but it's not that we have one month sales cycle, so usually the
Maryna Burushkina:sales cycle is a bit longer as well.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, so we have about like two, three months, sometimes sales cycle,
Maryna Burushkina:but of course occasionally it's, you know, people just sign up.
Maryna Burushkina:Sometimes people just sign up even without talking to us.
Maryna Burushkina:That happens as well.
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah.
Maryna Burushkina:And it's usually happens on a planning module versus advertising module.
Maryna Burushkina:Mm-hmm.
Maryna Burushkina:Or.
Maryna Burushkina:Um, so it really depends per product.
Maryna Burushkina:And as I said, like we have two different products, so it really
Maryna Burushkina:kinda changes, uh, based on that.
Maryna Burushkina:But it's about, um, I think last month we checked about 12% conversion
Maryna Burushkina:from demo call to the actual sale.
Upendra Varma:It looks like you've got a very powerful sales team, right?
Upendra Varma:I mean doing like 10, 12 demos a week and then also trying to nurture them
Upendra Varma:through those two month sales cycle.
Upendra Varma:I mean, it's a lot of work, right?
Upendra Varma:A lot
Maryna Burushkina:of it is automated, so that's the
Upendra Varma:best part.
Upendra Varma:That's fair.
Upendra Varma:All right.
Upendra Varma:So yeah, let's, let's, let's conclude this, right?
Upendra Varma:So what's the vision here?
Upendra Varma:Like, where do you see your company like growing in the next five years?
Upendra Varma:Like, what do you plan to do with this company?
Maryna Burushkina:Yeah, so we definitely wanna continue our, our journey here.
Maryna Burushkina:Right now, we focus a lot on, you know, the planning and the activation component
Maryna Burushkina:on the product side, on the activations, all the programmatic channels.
Maryna Burushkina:But we are working on adding social search and all the other, you know, more common,
Maryna Burushkina:uh, advertising channels, but also.
Maryna Burushkina:You know, other channels to help you activate upon your marketing plan.
Maryna Burushkina:So that's in terms of product, um, in terms of like general customers
Maryna Burushkina:and, and the market itself.
Maryna Burushkina:Right now a lot of our customer base is in the US and we definitely wanna
Maryna Burushkina:expand internationally, um, and more and, you know, go, go global in this space.
Maryna Burushkina:We do have customers outside of the US but I would say that's
Maryna Burushkina:just a portion of our users.
Upendra Varma:Right.
Upendra Varma:Uh, alright Marina, thanks for taking the time to talk to me.
Upendra Varma:Hope you scheduled channel to much greater.