I have a fantastic guest for Episode 3 of What’s Working Now: Tim Whiting, who is the VP of Marketing at Label Insight. Label Insight is a product attribute data platform for CPG, and they’re doing some really interesting things related to original data reports. So we’re going to dive into their strategy around the reports, the results that they’re seeing, and the advice that Tim has to share with SaaS companies who want to start creating original data reports or improve the strategy around their existing reports.
Key Takeaways
(5:52) Focus on listening to and meeting the needs of existing customers just as much or more than bringing in new ones.
Probably the most important for a SaaS business is the retention and expansion of existing customers. It’s very, very exciting to bring new customers in and get them going. But even more important is listening and meeting the needs of existing customers.
(8:47) A data-driven approach enables you to get people’s attention, build trust with customers, and validate their purchase decision.
As you go through building a relationship with a potential customer, you have to establish some trust to move forward. Having a data-driven approach, with a strong methodology to back up the data, is key to building trust in any relationship. It helps folks inside the business make the business case that problems do exist that they might not be even aware of, or opportunities exist that they might not be even aware of, and feel confident that, if they move forward and evaluate the solution, business value will be derived.
(11:59) Look for the large market problems and use your unique data to better understand the problem and potential solutions.
[Data report] topics really should be driven by large market problems. What are the large market problems that are affecting their ability to grow? Then, if we’re hearing a problem, how can we use our unique data to say something different, something unique, something compelling, to either further define this problem that we’re hearing whispers of from our customers, or start mapping out a solution of how they might be able to take advantage of the opportunity?
(17:28) Creating good content opens up new opportunities and platforms.
Good content takes on a life of its own. Data-driven reports are soundbite-rich. So we promote the good quotes and people then share them. Interestingly, these reports themselves have almost become platforms for how we position the value of our solutions overall. We now have elements of the reports in every customer pitch.
(23:19) Stay top-of-mind by reusing and updating data reports on a regular basis.
Even as a marketer, sometimes it’s easy to get excited about the next new thing. And you forget about the great new content that maybe you’re getting bored of, because you’ve been seeing it for a while. But certainly the market is not getting bored of it. And these types of data-driven reports lend themselves very well to a series or an index where you measure something and you come back a year later or a quarter later, and do similar analysis and see what’s changed.
(27:49) It’s important to serve customers at the micro level as well as the macro level.
At a certain point, there’s an individual that’s getting tasked with, go out and research some solutions, go out and figure out some new ways to drive innovation, go out and gather information. And so really, this content serves a couple different layers: the more strategic level that’s organization-wide across the customers we serve, but also the needs of those individuals that are being tasked with solving the problems.
(32:24) Partner with your sales team to understand who you are speaking to and provide them with valuable information.
It’s always great to bring something of value to the table. . . something really interesting to talk about. With that, it makes sense to have a meeting, because there’s new insight to share. Think of your own life. Do you want a sales pitch? Or do you want somebody to come and say, “Hey, I’ve got something really interesting to share with you”?
(35:04) Don’t wait for perfection, but create content that engages people.
It is a data-driven report, but good enough is usually good enough to get into the market. It’s not an academic dissertation. So resist the temptation to wait for it to be perfect before you get into market. Also, as you write, write for humans. People want to see themselves, people want to be engaged, people want to be entertained.
Transcript
(Laura 0:53) Tim, so good to chat with you!
(Tim 1:37) Yeah, thanks for having me, Laura! Like I said, very excited to participate in the podcast today. I think this is a type of medium that’s really gaining traction, and this is a great topic. So I’m excited to share with you and the audience today.
(Laura 1:54) Awesome. I know people are going to be excited to hear what you have to share. So let’s start with Label Insight’s elevator pitch. Just share a bit about what your company does.
(Tim 2:08) Yeah, put me on the spot a little bit with the elevator pitch! I mean, what’s really interesting is — and I think you see more and more of this being important to people these days — Label Insight truly is purpose-driven. That’s what attracted me to the company, and it really keeps our team energized.
Our purpose is to empower people with information to improve their lives through better product choices. And really, as I think you know from our past work together, that originated with our founder, who had had a family member who had some health issues. And this was about 15 years back, actually in Hong Kong. And you know that he was a nutritionist — the founder was a nutritionist by trade and thought it would be pretty easy to go out and find products on the grocery shelves that could help his father follow a health and wellness regimen related to his health issues. And what he found out was that was really, really hard. And today, it still is really, really hard for consumers and shoppers to go out there and find products that meet their need states, whether those are diets or avoiding certain allergens, or being interested in products that are sustainable. And that’s the problem we solve.
As you stated, we have a product attribute metadata platform that really helps educate the CPG brands in terms of what attributes their products qualify for. Believe it or not, it’s really hard to do, and many of our customers are CPG brands that just don’t understand completely what’s in their products. We help them understand that, and then we help the retailers that sell those products understand. And through that, help the consumers understand what’s in the products they’re buying, so they can make much more informed choices, understand what’s in the products they put in and on their bodies. And then live better lives because of that.
(Laura 4:19) Yeah, and I love that about you guys. And I feel like it’s definitely a trend that will just continue to accelerate as people become more committed to their lifestyle choices and their healthcare needs, especially with food allergies and sensitivities.
(Tim 4:38) Yeah, absolutely. So, talking about data-driven, in my role, I keep an eye on the data, and really, the consumer groups in the U.S. specifically that are shopping based on health and wellness needs. It’s really pretty stunning. We did some recent research with the Food Marketing Institute, some primary research, and determined that over 200 million American consumers follow some type of health and wellness regimen: a diet or other health-related eating program. And you put that in context, that’s more consumers than there are licensed drivers in the U.S. That’s a big number. And similarly, 180 million shoppers are shopping, making shopping choices, based upon some type of allergy avoidance. And those are really, really big numbers. That’s a big market. And as I’ve gotten more into this, and just ask around and talk to friends and family, and even in my own family, this exists, and there’s more awareness. It’s just exploding.
(Laura 5:44) Awesome. Well, tell us as well a little more about your role, there at Label Insight.
(Tim 5:52) Yeah, so my role — I mean, we’re an early-stage company, and so it really is a hands-on marketing role. I think that’s very common in an early stage or startup-type environment. It’s a soup-to-nuts role. Based on past experience, and what I’m driving here, I can define leading a marketing function into a few buckets. One is to drive awareness in the market of our solution. You know, being earlier stage, we’re not the biggest name, we’re not the biggest brand. There’s, especially these days, a lot of noise out there. And so one of the big objectives that I’m after is just building awareness with our key audiences.
The second big objective for marketing is driving new, recurring revenue growth. So ARR growth. Again, very important for any SaaS company. As is common I think with many early-stage companies, great product-market fit is being established, but maybe not an engine for demand generation and building pipeline. And that can be challenging dealing with a customer base like ours, which are top consumer packaged goods brands, top retailers — very, very complex enterprises. So that focus on new ARR is the second focus.
And then the third one, which is probably the most important for a SaaS business, is the retention and expansion of existing customers. So, in my past, there’s been a lot of focus on winning the new logos. That’s very, very exciting, to bring new customers in and get them going. But even more important is listening and meeting the needs of existing customers. And again, in these large, complex enterprises, helping to map out an expansion plan. So, you know, the old “land and expand” cliche really holds true. And that’s my primary focus in the role I have today.
(Laura 7:57) Awesome. Yeah, I feel like customer marketing is something that’s easily overlooked. But super powerful. Okay! So today, we are focusing on one of the core strategies that you guys are using in your marketing and your content marketing. And that is original research. So you’ve created a series of reports that share trends that impact your prospects in big ways, and also simultaneously establish Label Insight as the leader in your space. So I have a lot of questions that I want to ask about this strategy. But let’s start with how you first came to it as something that you wanted to focus on and dedicate resources to.
(Tim 8:47) Yeah, I think it ties back to, you know, as a marketer, you’ve got a whole toolkit of tried-and-true tactics, whether that’s types of content or ways to activate that content. And then you’ve got ways to push the envelope and innovate.
I think what led to it was really a belief that our data was unique and held unique value to a variety of stakeholders in the market. But there’s a missing link of, how do we connect the dots? And so really, as I thought about what drove our decision to do this, we’re trying to do three things in the market. One was just to get people’s attention, like I said. We do believe that our data really helps articulate challenges for customers in the market, but also potential ways to take advantage of opportunities. And so getting people’s attention, this seemed like a good way to do it. Because we were able to identify the challenges and then show how to sort of define and map out solutions to those challenges.
The second big objective that we had, which this type of content really lends itself well to, was establishing trust. So again, you can gain awareness. But as you go through building a relationship with a potential customer, it’s really like any relationship, right? You have to establish some trust to move forward. Having a data-driven approach, with a strong methodology to back up the data, I think that’s key to building trust in any relationship. You think of something like buying a car or whatever. There is an element of trust, and data really helps with that. And so that’s why we thought that this type of content would really help us achieve that objective as well.
And then lastly, it’s this idea of validating the decision. So as we move forward, move through these complex enterprise organizations, where there can be up to 60 people having some type of influence on a purchase decision for a solution like ours, really helping to validate the decision. And you can think about this as return on investment, or articulating potential return on investment. And a data-driven approach that really helps folks inside the business, like internal champions, make the business case that hey, problems do exist that we might not be even aware of, or opportunities exist that we might not be even aware of. It helps them confident that if they move forward and evaluate the solution, business value will be derived.
(Laura 11:41) And the reports really do such a good job with all three of those objectives. Super smart strategy. So how do you identify the themes or the topics for the new reports that you’re developing?
(Tim 11:59) That’s a great question. That’s the hardest part, right? It’s easy to sit down with a blank pad of paper and sharpen your pencil and say, okay, let’s create a report. But it’s really hard. And where we’ve had success — you know, you pointed out we’ve done a couple reports recently that have really resonated with the market — what we figured out is, the topics really should be driven by large market problems. And a lot of this, if we listen, we hear it from our customers. What are the large market problems that are affecting their ability to grow?
And so that really was a starting point. Of course, then there’s an intersection with, hey, if we’re hearing a problem, how can we use our unique data to say something different, something unique, something compelling, to either further define this problem that we’re hearing whispers of from our customers, or start mapping out a solution of how they might be able to take advantage of the opportunity?
So, a couple of the examples from this year. As you know, we did a report called Activating Attributes. And this was all about something we had heard and witnessed from the CPG brands about the missed opportunity out there that they were seeing by not claiming product attributes for which their products qualify. And this is a big problem. This is millions and millions of dollars lost. Like, for example, ketogenic is a big diet trend. I don’t know if you know that? We track consumer search data, and we’re able to discern that it’s the fifth most searched for health and wellness term, across retail channels online. And yet CPG brands, 98% of the products of CPG brands across the board that qualify as keto, were failing to make that claim. So failing to self-identify as keto. And you know, that’s sort of a problem in a physical grocery aisle, where a consumer’s looking around saying, “Hey, I’m following this keto diet.” It becomes exponentially larger of a problem when you’re talking about omnichannel or e-commerce, because there is no aisle where you look down. You sort of put in search terms, and if things don’t show up, things don’t show up. So that was a major, major problem in the market that we’re able to identify.
Similarly, we did the Empty Aisles report, which is a little bit different take on it. And this pointed out that today, and especially today with the explosive growth of grocery commerce during the pandemic, consumers with need states were drastically underserved, and retailers were missing a big, big opportunity, because they were not merchandising their “digital shelves” correctly. It was really, really hard for consumers to find products that met their need state, whether it was a diet or allergy avoidance or some type of lifestyle.
And so what our data was able to identify — and this was an interesting one; it was actually website audits of many of the top retailers in the US — but what we were able to identify was 99% of the products that should show up on websites based upon need state searches, due to the faceted search on his retail websites, 99% of the products weren’t showing up. And when you think of that, again, a really, really big problem. Millions and millions of dollars of missed opportunities for the retailers, because they were not making products available, a full selection of products available, to consumers on their digital shelves.
(Laura 15:40) Yeah. And that’s so smart, focusing on what the customers’ problems are, what their challenges are, and letting that guide you. Because that really does lead you to something that is going to make a huge impact. You know it’s going to resonate with them, because it originated with their needs. And then pointing out those opportunities, which, of course, leads them to your UVP.
(Tim 16:08) Yeah, absolutely. And it’s getting back to that getting people’s attention, like how are you going to get people’s attention? And you just apply this to your personal life, you know, talk about something that’s important to them. And if you look at many of the top retailers, many of the top brands, they’re thinking about this. So CPG brands are very, very worried about so-called challenger brands that are coming out with a next big health and wellness trend and taking credit for things. And you hear about like, oh, we want to be aware of the next White Claw. Like, who would have thought that malt liquor, basically, would become the huge trend it is right now in alcoholic beverages? And so there’s big opportunity there.
Part of it, also, that’s important — you know, you build that awareness, but where we found success — was intersecting this huge market need with the uniqueness of our data that identifies a theme. So we’re not just doing it to be altruistic. We want to tell the story through our unique lens, substantiated with our unique data.
(Laura 17:13) So, I’m curious, how exactly are you using and promoting the reports? Getting them into the hands of your prospects?
(Tim 17:28) Yeah, good question. Interestingly — and being in your business, this is probably something you see all the time — good content a little bit takes on a life of its own, right? So I’d love to take credit for all the success we’ve had, and I’ll take you through a little bit of our promotional mix. But as these types of reports hit at the right time in the right market, in front of the right audiences, they do take a little bit of a life of their own, and people start forwarding these around, etc. But I would say our promotional mix has been pretty typical from an inbound and outbound promotional perspective. Certainly promote these on our website, through blogs, through email marketing, through social. Webinars, interestingly, have been our best performing, in terms of the conversion to discovery meetings, out of all our channels. And for me, that was a little bit surprising, just given the overload of digital events and digital meetings and webinars, and now we have digital holiday parties for business, so everything is digital. But I think, even though there’s a little bit of perception overload, I think it’s a testament to the good content.
I think part of it, you know when I said it took on a life of its own a little bit? These types of reports that are data-driven, they’re soundbite-rich, so people can pull out, and we seek to promote that. So the really good quotes we’ll promote, but also people like to pull those things out. I think that sort of fuels, things like bringing it to life visually through infographics, pulling out quotes.
And now interestingly, these reports, and maybe this is a chicken and the egg thing, but the reports themselves have almost become platforms for how we position the value of our solutions overall. So we now have elements of the reports in every customer pitch we do. So every pitch deck, every story relies heavily on these reports, which like I said, have really become platforms. So, great starting point for new contacts, great starting point for expansion conversations with existing customers.
What we’ve found, relating back to these taking on a life of their own a little bit: this has really been a catalyst for getting introduced to new areas of their business. Again, referring back to what I was talking about the complexity of these large organizations. You might have an in-store team at a large retailer that has never really had discussions with the side of their house that handles paid advertising or retail media programs. The e-commerce team might be physically, although that’s not that important these days, states away from the folks that are running in-store programs. And so what we’ve seen again is this content provides a great introduction to other parts of the business where we’ve not had access or ability to engage before. So it’s provided sort of that mutual value as well.
(Laura 20:43) Awesome, very cool. So I’d like to dive in now to the impact that you’ve seen from the reports. Any kind of results or concrete data that you could share around what you’ve been able to achieve with the reports.
(Tim 21:05) Yeah, that’s always the million-dollar question. Well, you know, one major promotional strategy I forgot to mention is media outreach. These types — and also analysts as well — but specific to the media, these types of data-driven reports are exceptionally well received by the media. And you can imagine why, right? Somebody is working under a deadline, and you’re sort of like, here’s a package of really compelling data to use and craft a narrative around. And one measure of success is we’ve seen dramatic increases in media features, in both industry and Tier 1 media, tied to these reports. So that’s been really, really positive.
Like I said, the industry analysts is an important audience, and they love this stuff as well. It’s sort of like publish or perish in the industry analyst world, similar to academia. So being able to have ready-made insights that they can integrate into their own stories has been really positive, we’ve seen an uptick there. And then seen hundreds of downloads off our website, so engagement is high relative to other content. And like I said, the webinars anchored in these reports have been super high-performing. In terms of building pipeline, starting with, for us, a webinar anchored in these reports has delivered about three times the audience as other types of webinars we do. And that had very high corresponding conversion to one of the key metrics we track, which is that first meeting with our sales team, a discovery meeting.
(Laura 22:47) Nice. Yeah, that is so cool. Especially, like you mentioned with creating the pipeline, because it has value for so many different people, from the media to people just exploring the problem to people who are ready to solve it now. So you can use it in so many different ways. I think that’s one of the things that is the most powerful about these reports. And it drives a lot of attention as a result.
(Tim 23:19) Yeah, absolutely. And I think, we just talked about it here, but I think it’s a good way to portray it. These really are platforms that can be reused through a variety of different tactics and media. One thing we always keep in mind, and it’s sort of similar to what we talked about with, you know, being so excited about the new logo and forgetting about your existing customers. These types of platforms have a shelf life. And even as a marketer, sometimes it’s easy to get excited about the next new thing. And you forget about the great new content that maybe you’re getting bored of, because you’ve been seeing it for a while. But certainly the market is not getting bored of it. And I think, again, these types of data-driven reports lend themselves very well to almost like a series or an index where you measure something and you come back a year later or a quarter later, and do similar analysis and see what’s changed. That opens doors to a whole other conversation if there’s something interesting to talk about there.
(Laura 24:20) Exactly. Because you’re staying top-of-mind, and you’re building your audience then, too, because then people, every year that that comes out or every quarter or however often you update it, they’re out there looking for it. Because they know the value already.
(Tim) Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
(Laura) So, what would you say you attribute your success to? What component of the reports or specific approach is really driving those results, do you think?
(Tim 24:56) Well, I think original research that’s data-driven, anchored in our own unique insights and our own database, really is the foundation for the success. And so I think that is an important piece of it. You know, research studies in general are great. Primary research studies are an option. But what I found is studies like this that are anchored in our own data are much more cost effective, and much easier to align directly with our core value proposition. So I think that’s a big piece of it.
And as we said before, listening to the market, listening to customers, listening to our prospects and tying it back to a big market opportunity, or a big customer problem — by “big” I mean strategic imperative — that really drives success. So, for this one, these reports, we were very, very thoughtful about aligning ourselves with two big market opportunities or issues we heard from customers. One was more and more consumers that are shopping based upon these need states, health and wellness, allergy, etc. And the other one, which got a lot of attention, we just touched on a little bit, I thought, was just the explosive growth in grocery e-commerce. Everyone’s trying to figure it out. And everyone understands, it’s a seismic change in distribution for grocery. And so it was a very, very timely topic that we were able to connect into.
(Laura 26:43) So really, it is identifying that significant need that people are like, oh, we need to solve this. Gets traction very quickly.
(Tim 26:53) Yeah. And again, I always relate this back to my own life. Like, what am I going to pay attention to? I’m going to pay attention to things that are relevant to me, at this stage right now, in terms of something that either I see as an opportunity or a challenge that I’m facing. And, like I said, being able to translate that to content against our target audiences has really paid rich dividends for us.
(Laura 27:19) That’s so interesting. You know, in marketing in general, I think we overcomplicate it a lot of times, because it really does boil down to what’s driving our prospects crazy. What is their biggest need that is keeping them up at night? And if we can just figure that out, the rest sort of takes care of itself, with a bit of strategy and experimentation. But it really does boil down.
(Tim 27:49) I think there are a couple levels of that too, which is interesting. One, there’s the macro level, which is sort of, hey, we as an organization, we as a business, need to solve a challenge or take advantage of an opportunity. And, you know, you see that translated into strategic imperatives coming from a CEO. If you Google major retailers, retailer after retailer — and I just saw something yesterday from a major CPG brand. Every one of them now at the CEO level is talking about e-commerce as a strategic imperative. The retailers, specifically, are putting more and more emphasis on serving the needs of health and wellness, etc., food is medicine. These are strategic imperatives that you’re seeing coming to bear.
So that’s that macro level. But there’s also, what I learned is, you have to also be thoughtful about the micro level. Somewhere in these big organizations, the word’s coming down that, hey, we need to figure this out. And at a certain point, there’s an individual that’s getting tasked with, go out and research some solutions, go out and figure out some new ways to drive innovation, go out and gather information. So we can start formulating our tactical plans that are action-driven. And so we’re really serving the needs of those individuals or those teams that are being tasked, so when you go and look for stuff, hey, we’ve got the data that can help you. And we have the data that you can bring back and look good. And we’ve got the data that can educate you, so you can educate your organization. And so really, this content serves a couple different layers. That more strategic level that’s organization-wide across the customers we serve, but also the needs of those individuals that are being tasked with solving the problems.
(Laura 29:40) Yeah, that’s a great point. You know, getting specific on exactly who you’re meeting the need for and having those people in mind. That’s a great, great point.
So what would your advice be to other SaaS companies that are looking to either start using data-driven reports, original research, in their marketing or kind of improve the start that they’ve already gotten?
(Tim 30:12) Well, you know, we talked a little bit about it already. And it’s hard, I think, to generalize, because there’s so many different SaaS businesses. I think if a SaaS company, or you could call it a DaaS company, or whomever the company is, if they do have a data-driven asset that can be connected to a large market opportunity or customer problem, I mean, that’s the great starting point, right?
I think you sort of have to do some trial and error, and some additional conversations with customers, and internal conversations with folks that can help sort of analyze data to sort of find the tendrils that connect your data to solving certain problems. Because it may not be super intuitive. It took us some time to figure out, look, we’ve got this rich asset. How do we really connect it to solving problems? So there’s that exercise to connect the dots. And then, there again like I said before, think of this not as a tactic, the content as a tactic, but really, as a platform you can tie back to business goals. And for us, and this is probably similar to most if not all SaaS companies, the customer retention and expansion — so make sure your renewal rate is there, and you’re growing existing customers, providing a path for new ARR growth. And then building awareness, if you’re a stage company that needs to build awareness, which I think, in general, most SaaS companies are.
(Laura 31:46) Right. So that’s interesting, thinking about the internal collaboration. I imagine there’s a lot of communication happening between marketing and sales, because sales are the ones that have the closest relationship with the customers. Can you tell us a little bit about how that works?
(Tim) The sales relationship?
(Laura) Yeah, so essentially, how you collaborate with the sales team when trying to identify what those customer needs, interest points, challenges are.
(Tim 32:24) Yeah, I mean, it’s shoulder-to-shoulder with sales throughout the process. So not only early on defining the market need and the customer challenges — so that sort of voice of customer input is really, really critical, not only to content, but to our business in general. So spend a lot of time with sales, just sort of talking through what they’re hearing.
Also very, very important: Who should we be talking to? So certainly at a macro level we understand, hey, okay, big CPG brands, and retailers. But like I said before, these are very complex enterprises. So who are the types of folks that are going to be champions of solving these types of problems? You know, getting back to that idea, who do we help inside the enterprise? So that’s, there’s so much changing right now, in the industries we’re serving, probably tied to the acceleration of e-commerce. I mean, there’s now, retailers are coming out with their own paid media internal platforms, because they see the opportunity to monetize there. They’re creating e-commerce roles that never existed. And so there’s such fluidity right now. Really, really important to work with sales to figure out, Who are we talking to? And how do we frame up our data in a way that’s going to appeal to those audiences? And then a very, very close partnership on activating the data.
Again, it’s been my experience, and this goes for both sales that are looking for new customers, but also those serving existing customers. It’s always great to bring something of value to the table, and almost transact in the currency of information where, hey, we’ve got something really, really interesting to talk about. Now it makes sense to have a meeting. Now it makes sense to bring in an extended team to talk about this. Now, it makes sense to maybe bring in some leaders from other parts of the business. Because there’s new insight to share. So the partnership with sales and what we call our success team has been really, really strong in activating this type of data as well.
(Laura 34:30) So the conversation really is then about, here are these insights that you can take and use, rather than a pitch.
(Tim 34:38) Oh, absolutely. And again, you think of your own life. And I always go back to, like, we’re humans dealing with humans. Do you want a pitch? Or do you want somebody to come and say, hey, I’ve got something really interesting to share with you. You know, this is pretty compelling.
(Laura 34:52) Yes. Awesome. So this has been amazing! Is there anything else that you would like to share that I haven’t given you the opportunity to talk about?
(Tim 35:04) That’s a pretty broad question. I guess, in the spirit of people that might have listened and have continued to listen to the end, maybe some additional advice on this, practical advice. One, especially if you’re resource-constrained, which, typically, I’m sure everyone listening would say, I’m resource-constrained. Because you can never do everything you want to do. Really go into these type of content exercises with an MVP mindset, sort of minimal viable product. It is a data-driven report, but good enough is usually good enough to get into the market. I mean, it’s not an academic dissertation. So, even though it’s grounded in data science, again, it’s not an academic paper.
So resist the temptation to wait for it to be perfect before you get into market. Because my personal interaction with folks is, a lot of scanning, a lot of pulling out the high points. And so, again, good enough is good enough. I think also, as you write, write for humans. We’ve talked about that a couple times, but people want to see themselves, people want to be engaged, people want to be entertained. So we take an approach, which is sort of almost a journalistic approach, where we will look for the headlines, we look for the things that grab you.
Along those same lines, pay attention to the visuals. Tell stories with visuals that bring the data to life. And again, it gets back to engaging and entertaining and communicating those key points, that folks might be scanning the content. So that’s really important.
(Laura 36:41) Awesome, yeah, those are fantastic tips. And I think all of those things are, together, some of the things that really bring your reports to life. Because it doesn’t read like a dry dissertation. And there’s so many graphics and, you know, pulling the eye to this really important stat or this takeaway. So thank you for sharing.
(Tim 37:09) I got another one, though. I just thought of another one. I mean, today made me think as we were talking. there probably are opportunities along our customer journey to continue to leverage these content platforms. And through specifically podcasts and video, these are probably some tactics that we should test and measure. So I appreciate the opportunity to experience this personally, because I think maybe it provides us a new way to get our information in front of new audiences.
(Laura 37:38) Yeah, absolutely. I’m, like we were saying offline, a huge fan of podcasts. I think it’s just a great way to connect on a more personal and casual level. A lot of marketing is quite formal, and you know, not as personal. So I think podcasts are a really nice opportunity to just have a conversation and, like you were saying, share those insights that are super valuable. So I really appreciate you sharing your insights today. And I know that the listeners will really benefit.
(Tim 38:13) Yeah, thank you, Laura, again. I very much enjoyed it, and very much enjoyed the opportunity. And, you know, as we’ve talked through this, just reinforced for myself, again, the importance of creating these content platforms that are going to connect back to helping us achieve our goals heading into 2021.
(Laura) Yes! Yes, for 2021! I think we’re all ready for it. So thanks again, Tim.
(Tim) Yeah, thank you.
(Laura 38:41) So many great insights from Tim in that episode! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you’re inspired to either start doing data-driven reports of your own or improve your strategy and try some new things. You can find show notes at ideallymarketing.com/saaspodcast. You’ll find takeaways there and a transcript of the show, and I will see you again in 2021. I’ll be back with a new episode. Until then, happy marketing!
Learn more about Tim here, and check out Label Insight’s reports here.