An interview with Szymon Biegas, Product Marketing Manager at LiveChat
We sit down with Szymon Biegas, Product Marketing Manager at LiveChat - creators of the premium live chat software for business.
How did you end up at Livechat and what problem does LiveChat solve for its clients?
LiveChat is a complete customer service platform. It helps to build stronger relationships with customers, solve customer problems in a flash, and increase sales. It stands out with its simple and intuitive design, easy installation and usage. I was hired through a recruitment process. I applied to LiveChat because I wanted to develop my career in the SaaS industry.
As the Product Marketing Manager, what are your main responsibilities at LiveChat?
We have two PMMs in our team, each with a specific focus. One is dedicated to customer acquisition, brand awareness, and optimizing our product websites. The other focuses on customer education, feature releases, and retention. As the first PMM, my role is centred around acquisition-related tasks. I coordinate various areas, including conversion rate optimization, personalization, co-marketing with our technology partners, lead magnets, and exposure on external marketplaces. Together, we collaborate to create a messaging and marketing strategy for LiveChat, leveraging our expertise to drive growth and engagement.
How do you lead your team to organize and improve the marketing-sales process to increase sales and enhance the customer experience?
First of all, we define clear objectives and key results for each project that align with the overall sales and marketing goals. It's important to clearly communicate these objectives to the project team and ensure everyone understands their tasks. Additionally, fostering collaboration between the marketing and sales teams is crucial. Regularly meet with the sales teams to understand their needs and gather feedback on marketing materials and campaigns. This collaboration helps align marketing efforts with sales goals. It's also essential to analyze the entire sales funnel to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement. This includes lead generation, lead qualification, nurturing, and closing deals. We rely on data to pinpoint areas where the customer journey can be enhanced, leading to increased sales conversions. Furthermore, we prioritize improving the customer experience at every touchpoint. Collaborate with customer support and account managers to gather feedback and identify pain points. Utilize this feedback to refine marketing activities and provide insights for product improvements. In addition, we consistently leverage marketing automation tools to streamline and optimize marketing-sales processes. Automating repetitive tasks, such as lead nurturing and follow-ups, frees up time for your team to focus on high-value activities.
At ColdFire, when we look at our clients' Marketing and Advertising strategies, they vary greatly. Some have found a single, scalable client acquisition process while others thrive on a mix of top-of-funnel strategies. How would you summarize the overarching revenue-focused strategy of LiveChat, and what key elements does it encompass?
At LiveChat, our revenue-focused strategy goes beyond just building customer relationships and streamlining the sales process. We recognize the importance of implementing a comprehensive marketing approach to drive revenue growth. To achieve this, we utilize a mix of marketing tactics, including ads, content marketing, lead magnets, webinars, and videos. These tactics help us reach and engage with our target audience across various platforms and channels. However, we don't stop there. We understand the importance of continuously experimenting with new acquisition channels to stay ahead of the curve. By regularly testing and exploring different avenues, we aim to identify top-performing channels and incorporate them into our ongoing marketing activities. For instance, we have successfully launched reverse engineering projects and implemented personalization techniques on our landing pages, which have yielded positive results in attracting and converting prospects. While we explore various marketing tactics, we recognize that our content strategy plays a vital role in driving organic traffic and customer acquisition. Our dedicated team focuses on optimizing our content strategy for specific business-related keywords, which helps increase organic traffic to our website. This comprehensive approach to SEO ensures that we have a stable and sustainable source of inbound traffic. We understand that bringing in quality traffic with a high intent to convert is key to driving revenue growth.
What is an efficient marketing technique that you've implemented at LiveChat or previous companies, which you believe is underutilized by most management teams - and why do you think that is?
One efficient marketing technique that I believe is often underutilized by many management teams is referral programs, which typically involve affiliate marketers, industry experts, and partner programs where external companies implement your solution to their customers. Referral marketing has the potential to generate high-quality leads. Since referrals often come from individuals who already understand the value of your offering, these leads tend to have a higher likelihood of converting into paying customers. Additionally, referred customers often exhibit higher retention rates and lifetime values compared to other customer acquisition channels. So, why do I think referral marketing is underutilized? The perception is that referral programs are challenging to implement or manage. While setting up a referral program does require careful planning, effective tracking mechanisms, and appropriate incentives, the long-term benefits can outweigh the initial effort. It requires a strategic approach to designing the program, selecting the right incentives, and effectively promoting it. Overall, referral marketing is an efficient technique that can drive substantial growth and customer acquisition. LiveChat's example shows that it's worth investing resources into this strategy.
Has your Growth team experimented with some kind of cold outbound strategy (like cold email)? If yes what was the general outcome and if no, why not?
We haven't experimented with a cold outbound strategy in our Growth team as these kinds of activities fall under the responsibility of the Sales Team in our organization.
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