Strategy Synthesis

📰 This Week in AI & SaaS 📰

• The New York Times is building an AI team: Despite filing a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft earlier this month, the New York Times is now hiring AI engineers and editors to take AI prototypes to production and help (not replace) journalists with their reporting duties. Read more.
  

• OpenAI is partnering with Common Sense Media to help families protect their kids from AI: Common Sense Media (which reviews tech products and provides families with suitable entertainment and technology recommendations for their kids) will work with OpenAI to create family-friendly GPTs, guidelines, and educational materials to prevent potential harm to children. Read more.
  

• Elon Musk is seeking $6B from global investors to further-develop AI start-up, xAI: Despite denying earlier reports that xAI had raised £500M, document filings show that Musk is talking to investors in the Middle East and East Asia in a bid to raise $6B in funding to ramp up work on xAI (makers of the chatbot, Grok) and challenge OpenAI. Read more.

• Can you imagine giving your coffee order to ADAM, your local robotic barista? Check this out!

🌟Turing’s Top Picks 🌟

FEATURED TOOL 
Xembly:  Xembly is the only AI-powered enterprise platform designed from the ground up to elevate your company's productivity. Xembly delivers a best-in-class AI-powered productivity platform that is intuitive, secure, and easily integrated with existing tools. Xembly’s AI executive assistant automates and consolidates scheduling, note-taking, and task management in one suave solution. Get 8+ hours back each week with Xembly. 60 day free trial

Other Tools to Explore:

OneTake AI: In one click turn raw video footage into ready-to-share presentations with this AI video editor. Try it.  

SheerSEO: Optimize your SEO strategy, including rank tracking, link building, and competitor analysis with this robust SEO software. Try it.  

Read of the Week: 

A short but sweet tweet this week: See how Neil Patel (New York Times bestselling author and a Forbes top 10 marketer) created the 4th most popular marketing podcast and the 23rd most popular business podcast, in just 2 weeks.

Read it. 

💡 Marketing Moments with Mounier 💡

In this week's Marketing Moments with Mounier, we're taking a closer look at the mechanics of a successful outbound demand generation strategy. My recent engagement with a challenge from Pipefy led me down an extensive, 15-hour journey to construct a comprehensive strategy from scratch, a process both intricate and enlightening.

Crafting a strategy from the ground up is a complex endeavor. It's more than just laying out steps; it's about understanding the interplay between various elements and foreseeing potential roadblocks. To make this process more navigable for you, I've decided to share the complete blueprint of the strategy I developed.

Here's a brief overview of the scenario we tackled:

• The end of Q2 is on the horizon.

• Outbound sales channels have begun to eclipse their inbound counterparts, signaling a pivotal shift in our approach.

• The time is ripe for a strategic pivot, channeling our focus and reallocating our budget towards fortifying outbound sales.

• Armed with a budget of $500k for the latter half of the year.

• Your pivotal mission: To architect and implement the ultimate Outbound Demand Generation plan.

Curious about the approach and insights that went into this strategy? I've made all the materials available for you. From in-depth documents to a detailed video walkthrough, everything you need to understand and implement this strategy is at your fingertips.

Feel free to explore the Scenario Response Doc and the Forecast Doc at the provided links. Immerse yourself in the strategy, draw inspiration, and I encourage you to share your own thoughts and experiences. This is not just about learning a strategy; it's about engaging in a community of marketers committed to growth and innovation.

Access the Scenario Response Doc: HERE

Access the Forecast Doc: HERE

🎙️ AI Unboxed Podcast 🤖

Today we sit down with Vinay Patankar, CEO of process.st, to explore how AI is transforming the landscape of business processes. We discuss the practical applications of AI in various industries, from fintech to healthcare, and how process.st is making these advanced technologies accessible to small and medium-sized businesses.

Vinay shares his insights on the ethical considerations and compliance in integrating AI, ensuring it aligns with industry regulations and client needs. Looking to the future, we examine the potential of AI to augment human expertise and transform everyday business workflows. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation on the role of AI in elevating business efficiency and human potential.

👾 TOFU Quick Bytes: StoryChief Teardown 👾

Story Chief’s user onboarding teardown

StoryChief is a one-stop-shop for content creation, publishing, and distribution, designed to help businesses centralize their content creation and distribution services, and increase their reach. It launched in 2017, employs 35 people, and has over 5,000 users.  

Strategy overview: 

Noone likes change, and learning how to use a new tool or platform can be frustrating and overwhelming for many.

StoryChief recognizes this and has created an onboarding strategy that holds their customers' hands the entire way through their onboarding journey, helping them reach their ‘AHA! moment’ (a moment of sudden insight where they understand the value of their new product vs their old one, in a flash!), as fast as possible. 

This allows their new users to get the maximum benefit from their platform (with minimal learning curves to climb), encouraging them to stick with their product and talk favorably about it, giving it strong, social proof and motivating others to give it a try. 

Performance Analysis: 

• On average, they get 35,509 site visitors each month 

• They have over 5,000 users, across 65 countries

• They made $2.7M in revenue last year, with a steady 28.46% YoY growth trend  

  

  Source
  

• Since 2017, they’ve raised over $5M in VC funding, over 4 rounds  

How have they achieved this? How does StoryChief deliver its value proposition quickly, retaining existing users and acquiring new ones? 

Critical Teardown:
What does StoryChief do well?

For potential new users…

• They regularly A/B test their headings and have established that including statistics that clearly communicate the value of their platform work really well, which is why they have so many on their homepage: eg. ‘How Marketers Can Save 4 Hours Per Week On Everyday Tasks.’

  

• Their CTAs are enticing, for example,  ‘I want to try it out for FREE’ is way more appealing than simply putting ‘free trial’, and some CTA’s are even optimized: ‘I want to try StoryChief out for FREE’ in a bid to gain organic traffic from that search term.
   

• They include social proof on their homepage in the form of awards from established review sites (like G2 and Capterra), video case studies (with real performance statistics included), and reviews from real customers. 
  

• They have a looped video of the product in action on their homepage too, so potential new users can visualize the product, see how it would work within their day-to-day jobs, and acknowledge just how simple and easy it is to use.
  

• They also target brand keywords based on industry/job function search terms, such as StoryChief for Agencies, StoryChief for Content Teams etc.. and they also follow this process for e-commerce website builders, like Wix and Shopify 

For new users…

• Once they’ve bagged a new user, StoryChief’s signup process is fairly friction-less: 

  • They encourage you to ‘try before you buy’ and take a free trial before you actually commit, which makes them seem trustworthy and transparent. 

  • They state, upfront, that ‘no credit card is required’ when you sign up (always a worthy trust signal, in my eyes) 

  • There are just two screens and four/five fields to complete during the sign-up process, so it’s quick, easy, and painless (you do have the option to take surveys to make your experience more personal, but these are optional, which I like)

  • They include a free content analysis based on your website URL, which is a nice, unexpected little bonus  

• They personalize the platform experience based on preferences stated in a short (optional) survey 

• They have ‘wizard’ tutorials and handy pop-ups that walk users through the various features and capabilities of the platform, which is such an interactive way to learn and understand the benefits.

What doesn’t StoryChief do well?

• I think, if anything, their dashboard is a little overwhelming when you first land. A lot is going on, and it's hard to know what does what, and where to go next. The wizard tutorials and pop-ups do help, but many will skip those in favor of getting into the juicy stuff and exploring the platform on their own. It's also hard to know what to click on to reveal those helpful pop-ups! 

AI integration:  

• They offer users a personal AI assistant that creates notes and collects URLs and articles for blog research or ideation, based on your direction 

• They have a brand AI assistant that checks your content and keeps it authentic and on-brand 

• It probably goes without saying, but they also have an AI editor that creates content and helps with SEO 

Key Takeaways:

• Regularly A/B test headings and try using statistics to provide social proof and communicate the value of your product or service, quickly and clearly.
  

• Include little pulse points over specific features that users can press to reveal information, instructions, or even a short video tutorial. That way, users can explore the platform on their own terms, but are also guided through the process.
  

• Try optimizing your CTA’s for key search phrases, and don’t be afraid to make them long, if it makes them more appealing (for users and search engines).
  

• Include as many trust signals and as much social proof as you can on your store-front pages
  

• If your product is complex, a clear, simple (short) video, played on a loop, will allow semi-interested people to see if it would work for them, instantly
  

• A good onboarding strategy that brings customers to their aha! moment quickly will inspire users to talk positively about your brand and product, a classic case of brand affinity and word-of-mouth marketing. It’s old school, but it works. 

What campaign or content marketing strategy would you like to see torn apart, next? Let me know! 

Andrew’s Final Thoughts

As we close this edition of Turing's TOFU, we've traversed a terrain rich in innovation and strategy, from the evolving narratives of AI in journalism to the safeguarding measures for the younger digital generation. Our conversation with Vinay Patankar not only highlighted the transformative power of AI in streamlining business processes but also reminded us of the delicate balance between technological advancement and ethical responsibility. Each story, each insight in this edition, reinforces the coaction between AI's potential and our human ingenuity. As we step into the future, let's embrace this fusion, ensuring our strategies not only resonate with technological trends but also with the core values and needs of our audience. Until the next edition unfolds, let's keep navigating the confluence of AI, SaaS, and insightful marketing with curiosity and foresight. Keep innovating, keep connecting.

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