Dive into the world of B2B marketing with the founder of Maven Collective Marketing. This episode is packed with insider knowledge, from carving a niche in Microsoft Partners' marketing to the value of being a B Corp. Discover actionable strategies and relatable agency anecdotes that will inspire any entrepreneur or marketer!

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast.

Insights on B2B SaaS marketing
Benefits of B Corp certification
Improving website conversion
Trail running and mental toughness
Keys to onboarding new employees

Resources:

Connect with Erica Hakonson:

Connect with our hosts:

Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

60:00 - Erica: What I love about this and what I love about the B Corp community is that you are now a for-profit organization that is not just for profit, it's actually for the benefit of your community. And so when we talked about process a little earlier, Alex, you know, one of the things that helped me establish process even further was going through this assessment. ‘Cause it was things we were doing, but maybe not things we were documenting and it was community building that we were doing, but maybe I didn't have it in our staff handbook as something as a policy of ours or a mandate of ours. So we have pro bono volunteer hours that are built into our employees work and some of that we do together as a group. Some of that they find their own passion projects and work on. We try to find organizations that we align with value wise to give our time and energy and skillset. And so I know that it feels like when you're a small business, there's just so many things cooking, how could I possibly get to those pieces? But those pieces sometimes are what fuels us to get to that next step in our entrepreneurial journey. And for me for sure, having that as a part of our mission, having that as a part of our work and mandate and dedicating ourselves to an organization that keeps you honest about that, is a really huge opportunity that I'm excited about this year. Like I said, we're in assessment, we've scored enough to be in assessment and hopefully as we go through the process, we'll then become certified and get to join that amazing community of entrepreneurs and larger organizations that have the same vision and mission of for profit companies not being for profit.
Alex:Identifying around that purpose is huge. So I think that's, yeah, that's amazing.
58:10 - I love the validation that you have on your site. I mean, you have partner client, you know, part partner logos, you have awards, you have scores and numbers and then you have testimonials, you have case studies. The only other thing is I would say that you could leverage on your case study in the, how we did it, I can't get to that right now, but there is, once you show, because you're asking for them to give their email address to get the case study, one of the potential that could be the main CTA on that, but a secondary CTA could be something like, you know, once you show these are the results before they get into the nitty gritty, it could be like, do you want this, you know, want the same results for your company and then whatever that free offer is for that first call. Yeah. 'cause if they identify with the case study and they envision themselves in that case study, then they're gonna potentially want the same results for them. So having that additional CTA for them to potentially, not just download it but to schedule a call with you.
46:04 - But if we're staying on the front side of things, I'd say you have a really clear message and helping your ideal audience solve the problem. So I mean, initially just upfront on this, above the fold, like building a website sales machine, who wouldn't want that? I'm an agency. I want that. I, I can have a website that does my sales. Excellent. And you have good calls to action or grow your website, see pricing, grow your website sales. So I would, and even that like little footnote around a free conversion strategy, like a very, very tempting and then you build trust right away by, by getting your brand banner in there to say like, look of all these people that we've helped, these people could look exactly like you and we could help you in some of the same ways. If you scroll down a little bit, I really liked the way you also did clear problem solving for the client. So you gave them a path and those paths are solving their problem. You know, you're either managing an existing website, you're starting a new website, or you're managing client websites. So I feel like all of those were really clear and, and helped me feel comfortable if I came with a problem, you addressed a problem that I would have based on again, who your target audience is.
31:34 - I think it seems like in each case you've stepped up to whatever the challenge was. Maybe that's just, that's seems to be just your personality. But I talk with some people all the time that wanna get into entrepreneurship or want to do something and they're waiting for whatever that right thing is or a situation changes and they're like almost crippled by like, there's so many decisions, I don't know which one to take. And I have this, this thought that it's, you just look at the skills that you've acquired can kind of like the talents that you have at hand and then what's the next possible best move, which it seems like you naturally do throughout. And then the clients coming to you stepped up to the challenge.
26:45 - So we need to approach it in quite a few different ways. And then we get them doing work quite quickly so that they can put what they're learning to use and then they can get feedback quite quickly as well. So they're, you know, everyone gets scared of the red pen. I mean that's a very old terminology, but like the best way to learn is through getting that editorial feedback or through getting that, you know, strategic feedback and then taking that into the next application. And you can just instantly see growth when you start to apply things that way where you're either surrounding them with tools and knowledge and then they're getting the feedback and then the next time they do something very similar. It's like, it's at a whole new level.

Cutting-Edge Strategies for B2B Marketing with a Microsoft Maven