Episode Summary
You could say that data has informed most of Derrick’s professional decisions — starting with his first job as an SEO specialist.
Derrick moved his way up the marketing ranks before eventually joining ConvertKit, an email marketing platform that makes email easier and more robust for professional creators.
As ConvertKit’s Marketing Director, he helps online creators grow their businesses to earn a living online.
During Derrick’s first year at ConvertKit, the leadership team noticed a dismal lack of growth. Taking a look at the data, they decided to drastically change their core product.
“We decided to innovate by leading with a core product change to achieve a better product market fit,” says Derrick. This didn’t come without challenges. He notes, “Our current customer base wasn’t super excited about it. Part of that was because of our market positioning.”
In this episode, Derrick discusses how ConvertKit revamped both its product and business model, and how this shift affected its marketing strategy. Besides product changes, he’s seen the brand’s marketing evolve considerably in just two and a half years.
For instance, when Derrick first joined, ConvertKit relied heavily on affiliate marketing. It has since expanded its marketing avenues to include organic search, podcasting and video storytelling. Now, Derrick’s team is focused on product marketing; to complement ConvertKit’s strong brand advertising, they hope to better convey how its product brings value to users.
Guest Profile
- Name: Derrick Hicks
- What he does: As Marketing Director at ConvertKit, a SaaS company that creates marketing software for online creators, Derrick focuses on engaging users through innovative and data-driven marketing strategies.
- Company: ConvertKit
- Noteworthy: “When you see something and it resonates with you, ask yourself why, and try to dig into that and spend more time thinking about what you think would work rather than looking for the answer with a Google search.”
Key Insights
- To define and measure what makes a new account successful, Derrick’s team is working hard with ConvertKit’s engineering team to ensure they collect the necessary data for more informed decision making. Doing so is helping “shift gears a little bit from that foundation building to really try to answer deep, meaningful questions.”
- Abandon the “standard operating procedure” when it comes to creating new content. “I think too often we tend to rely on best practices and what is said is the best way to do it. We don't rely on our intuition enough as marketers. When you see something and it resonates with you, ask yourself why, and try to dig into that and spend more time thinking about what you think would work rather than looking for the answer with a Google search,” Derrick says.
- Sometimes it's difficult as a marketer to consistently produce material. One piece of advice Derrick gives is to have a crucial conversation with leadership. “I think you're going to have a hard time if you don't have that buy-in around the vision and be willing to adjust your own approach. That's part of having those crucial conversations — you might be wrong and maybe there is a different approach.”
Episode Highlights
- How existing customers may respond to product changes
- Personalize messaging even if customers have the same end goal
- Reevaluate your success metrics
- Great content gets straight to the point
- Great content gets straight to the point