Episode 95

095 Maryna Burushkina - Customer Journeys and Data-Driven Growth

Our featured guest on this week's SaaS Fuel™ Founder Episode podcast is the dynamic Maryna Burushkina, the founder and CEO of GrowthChannel - helps marketers plan, launch, and optimize digital campaigns across 150+ channels including Display, Digital Out of Home, Mobile, Connected TV, Audio, Video, and streaming services from a single dashboard. Having accumulated 15 years of experience in the industry, Maryna has honed her marketing expertise through working with global giants and running her own media holding company. 

The inspiration behind GrowthChannel stems from Maryna's drive to simplify and streamline the complexities of the marketing process. By combining this vision with an innovative AI approach, GrowthChannel shines a spotlight on data-driven growth strategies and intelligent customer acquisition tactics. Maryna's passion for technology and its potential to revolutionize marketing makes her a true game-changer in the industry.

Key Takeaways

[00:00:00] - Introduction

[00:01:29] - Slack's Strategy

[00:04:52] - Evolving Strategies

[00:07:07] - Introduction to GrowthChannel

[00:12:28] - Understanding Customers

[00:13:47] - Data Sources

[00:15:29] - The Power of Contextual Data

[00:17:32] - Using Their Own Product to Target Businesses

[00:18:56] - Maryna's Background and Skill Set

[00:22:24] - Lessons Learned from Previous Startups

[00:28:26] - Targeting Agencies and Consultants

[00:31:07] - Understanding User Feedback

[00:31:48] - Building and Scaling with User Feedback

[00:32:40] - Mistakes in Marketing

[00:36:13] - Avoiding Random Acts of Marketing

[00:39:12] - Key Components of a Marketing Plan

[00:46:15] - Creating a Customer Decision Journey

[00:48:13] - Learning More About Growth Channel

[00:49:11] - Growth Channel as a Game Changer

[00:49:39] - What's Coming Up Next

[00:50:37] - Conclusion and Call to Action

Tweetable Quotes

"So what was Slack's strategy? I mean, it wasn't just to sell a product but to create a need and then satisfy it perfectly." - 00:01:41 Jeff Mains

"And instead of inundating them with information, it's offering them something of substantial value." - 00:03:35 Jeff Mains

"So we are an AI marketing engine that helps you identify what's working for competitors, who to target, on what channels, with what content and then efficiently target and reach your audience." - 00:07:31 Maryna Burushkina

"But if you make sure that everything or most of the things that you do is actually scalable and thousands of people can use your workflows, your methodologies of doing things in the right way and make it scalable, then you're impacting so many businesses at the same time." - 00:21:54 Maryna Burushkina

"I would recommend first, you know, collect the data, try to figure out the strategy, some basics in place, and then shoot with the advertising campaigns." - 00:34:08 Maryna Burushkina

"Verify your product market fit in a way and then really scale from there." - 00:41:21 Maryna Burushkina

“So like, give them something valuable. Maybe it's a webinar, maybe it's a podcast, maybe it's something else that I'm going to really appreciate that's somewhat related to what you're actually doing with your tech platform." - 00:46:11 Maryna Burushkina

SaaS Leadership Lessons

  1. Delegation: Emphasizes the importance of delegating tasks as the team grows. They acknowledge that trying to do everything themselves can be overwhelming and hinder the scalability of the business. Delegating tasks allows leaders to focus on higher-level responsibilities and enables the team to work more efficiently.
  2. Adaptability: A background in marketing and experience in various aspects of the business, including design and UX. This highlights the importance of being adaptable and willing to learn and take on different roles within a startup. Being open to new experiences and continuously learning can contribute to a leader's success.
  3. Customer-Centric Approach: Emphasizes the importance of understanding customers and their preferences. The need to gather data about customers and compare it with competitors' customer profiles to determine the desired target audience. This highlights the importance of putting the customer at the center of decision-making and tailoring strategies to meet their needs.
  4. Planning and Strategy: Emphasizes the importance of strategic planning and developing an engaging, personalized experience for customers. The need to have a clear marketing strategy before launching ad campaigns and the importance of conducting research and understanding competitors. This highlights the value of careful planning and strategic thinking in driving business growth.

Guest Resources

Maryna Burushkina (LinkedIn): linkedin.com/in/mburushkina

Growthchannel.com (Website): https://www.growthchannel.com/

Maryna Burushkina (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MarynaSIFE

Resources Mentioned

Slack: https://slack.com/

DoubleVerify: https://doubleverify.com/

PR39: https://www.pr39industries.com/

Hotjar: https://www.hotjar.com/

Heatmap: https://heatmap.com/

Intuit: https://www.intuit.com/

Xero: https://www.xero.com/nz/

YC: https://www.ycombinator.com/

Mediavine: https://www.mediavine.com/

ZoomInfo: https://www.zoominfo.com/

Allianz: https://www.allianzcare.com/

Philips: https://www.philips.com/global

CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/

Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/

Yahoo Finance: https://finance.yahoo.com/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/

Times Square: https://www.timessquarenyc.org/

Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/

Episode Sponsor

If you feel like the best-kept secret from your ideal clients, check out today’s sponsor CLG.  the ultimate resource for SaaS founders and C-suite executives to continue to develop themselves, scale their companies, and never walk alone. Unlock untapped revenue by leveraging our time-tested SaaS growth principles, toolkits, playbooks, and frameworks designed to help you scale ARR from 7 to 8 and 9 figures. Collaborate with an elite network of SaaS visionaries, celebrate wins, and overcome defeats together. Confidently take that one step, that creates your giant leap of profitable growth, premium valuation, and freedom. Learn more at https://championleadership.com/

Small Fish, Big Pond – https://smallfishbigpond.com/ Use the promo code ‘SaaSFuel’

Champion Leadership Group – https://championleadership.com/

SaaS Fuel Resources

Website - https://championleadership.com/

Jeff Mains on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkmains/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/jeffkmains

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thesaasguy/

Instagram - https://instagram.com/jeffkmains

About the Podcast

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SaaS Fuel

About your host

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Jeff Mains