An interview with Constantinos Vitoratos, Marketing Team Lead at PROTOIO INC
We sit down with Constantinos Vitoratos, Marketing Team Lead at PROTOIO INC. PROTOIO INC is a productivity software company. Its products aim at accelerating the product development lifecycle, by improving efficiency in product teams.
How did you end up at PROTOIO and what problem does PROTOIO solve for its clients?
I was looking to relocate, when I got in touch with Protoio Inc., the company behind Overflow, via a LinkedIn ad. It was a match made in heaven! Overflow is a specialized diagramming tool. It allows UX, UI, and product designers to put together interactive user flow diagrams, flowcharts, and stunning design presentations in no time - all without having to mess around with their original design files! Overflow allows users to switch between three presentation formats (canvas, prototype, and story mode), making presenting design work more effective and less stressful.
As the Marketing Team Lead, what are your main responsibilities at PROTOIO?
I function as a bridge between all the different roles in the team, making sure there's synergy in the way we communicate and collaborate. Of course, a big part of my job is discussing strategy and running ideation and brainstorming meetings. We produce a lot of creative content, therefore I always try to make sure the team is actively involved from early on, while keeping a balance between aesthetic preferences and business needs.
To get a bit more technical, what are some of the acquisition channels that have worked well for PROTOIO and why do you think that is?
As Overflow addresses a quite niche market, we've seen the most success come from collaborations with popular publications and social media influencers in the design space. I believe the reason is that people prefer to trust their peers when it comes to work-related processes, rather than a company or brand.
At ColdFire, when we look at our clients' Marketing strategies, they vary greatly. Some have found a single, scalable client acquisition process while others thrive on a mix of top-of-funnel strategies. If you had to summarise the high-level LeadGenMarketing strategy of PROTOIO, what would it be?
Many designers use non-specialized tools to put together diagrams and design presentations. That means that, by default, our job starts at educating potential users on the benefits of switching to a more specialized tool. As a result, we most often resort to a mix of strategies, trying to move users with differing levels of knowledge down the funnel.
What is a Marketing technique that you've used at PROTOIO or at previous companies which you believe is underutilized at most Marketing teams - and why?
I think that strong customer support is a very good indirect marketing strategy. Not only it makes it more likely to maintain existing clients but it might also impress someone who has a simple question and convince them to convert. I believe that Marketing and User Support should maintain close contact and work on ways to support each other.
Has your Marketing team experimented with some kind of cold outbound strategy (like cold email)? If yes what was the general outcome and if no, why not?
As a Marketing team we haven't really experimented much with this, with the exception of some tests we did with LinkedIn message ads. One of the biggest difficulties is to find the person responsible for approving and purchasing software in each company - they may often not be related to design at all!
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