Turing's Tofu #32

📰 This Week in AI & SaaS 📰

• SingleInterface, the multi-location SaaS startup designed to get more businesses online, gets $30M in its first funding round. Read more. 

• Stripe, the multinational, financial solutions powerhouse acquires competitor and startup Lemon Squeezy, a merchant that ‘calculates and pays global sales tax for digital products’. Read more. 

• Decentralized social media platform Bluesky, a platform that grants customers the ability to choose their own algorithm, welcomes Techdirt founder Mike Masnick to its board. Read more.

🌟Turing’s Top Picks 🌟

FEATURED TOOLS 

• Marmof: Marmof is an AI-powered content generation platform that facilitates the production of high-quality, plagiarism-free content, such as blog posts, adverts, and emails. Try it. 

• ContentPie: ContentPie is an AI-driven SEO tool, designed to help drive organic traffic to your website and boost search engine rankings. It’ll help you generate content that aligns with your company’s tone of voice. Try it. 

• KlartAI: KlartAI is an AI assistant designed to boost team productivity, efficiency and collaboration, that streamlines repetitive tasks and integrates business tools such as Gmail and Slack. Try it. 

• FounderPal: FounderPal is an AI-powered marketing strategy creator aimed at solopreneurs with busy schedules. Try it.

Read of the Week: 

25 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Online Store Without Ads

Learn how to drive traffic to your website using tried and tested methods, without the cost of ads, from co-founder of Crazy Egg and Hello Bar: SEO digital marketing expert Neil Patel. Read the full article here. 

💡 Marketing Moments with Mounier 💡

Marketing’s Biggest Crisis: A Crisis of Faith

This week I want to breakdown a recent episode of Marketing Against the Grain by Kipp Bodnar, Hubspot’s CMO and Kieran Flanagan, Zapier’s CMO.

Let’s talk about something critical, something that's bigger than AI, bigger than fragmented advertising channels, and bigger than the privacy regulations hanging over us all. The biggest crisis in marketing today? It’s not about any of those things—it’s about a crisis of faith.

Not faith in the religious sense, but faith in ourselves, in our tools, and in our ability to achieve meaningful results. This isn’t just a small hiccup—it’s a mindset problem, and it’s one we need to tackle head-on.

The Peril of Predictability

We’ve all been there—paralyzed by the need for predictability. We want to know the exact outcome of our actions before we even take them. But here’s the truth: Confidence doesn’t come first. Faith does.

Why?

• Faith fuels action: It’s the belief that your efforts will pay off, even if you can’t see the results immediately.

• Faith embraces risk: It’s trusting that taking risks will lead to bigger, better outcomes.

• Faith over certainty: It’s not about knowing exactly what’s going to happen; it’s about believing in your ability to create something great.

The Comfort of Playing It Safe

Let’s be honest—most of us prefer the comfort of hitting 90% of our goals predictably rather than aiming for 102% and facing uncertainty. It feels safer, but it’s a mindset that’s holding us back.

Why does playing it safe feel appealing?

• Predictability feels secure: There’s comfort in knowing the outcome, even if it means settling for mediocrity.

• Avoidance of failure: By avoiding risk, we think we’re avoiding failure, but in reality, we’re avoiding growth.

But here’s the catch—playing it safe is a sure way to stay average. To truly make an impact, we need to embrace the unknown, to take actions without all the answers, because that’s where the magic happens.

The CEO Conundrum

Now, I can hear some of you thinking, “But my CEO won’t let me take risks!” It’s true—CEOs often demand short-term gains tied directly to the bottom line. But here’s the kicker: Even within those constraints, it’s possible to innovate.

How?

• Play offense, not defense: Don’t just react to the market—shape it. Bring bold ideas to your CEO with a plan for how to execute them.

• Manage expectations: Show that you’re not just working within the market’s confines, but actively influencing it with strategic, well-thought-out risks.

The Myth of Budget Constraints

How often do we use budget constraints as a reason to play it safe? But let’s be clear—it’s not the budget that limits us; it’s how we think about using it.

How can we overcome budget limitations?

• Creative allocation: Think about how to stretch your resources, focusing on actions that drive meaningful change.

• Reallocate for impact: Find ways to maximize your budget by investing in areas with the potential for outsized rewards.

Let’s stop using budgets as an excuse and start viewing them as a challenge to spark creativity.

The Power of Anecdotes

In the data-driven world of marketing, it’s easy to overlook the power of a good story. But here’s a little secret: CEOs are often more swayed by compelling anecdotes than by the perfect chart.

Why should we use stories?

• Humanize your data: Use stories to bring your data to life, showing the real-world impact of your efforts.

• Influence with narrative: Anecdotes often resonate more deeply than numbers alone, influencing decisions in a way data sometimes can’t.

Takeaway: Faith Over Fear

So, where does this leave us? It’s simple—stop waiting for certainty. Stop playing it safe. Start believing in your ability to do great work, even if you can’t see the entire path ahead.

Here’s what to remember:

• Faith drives success: The marketers who succeed are those who believe in themselves, in their ideas, and in their ability to make things happen.

• Take risks: Don’t be afraid to push boundaries and challenge the status quo.

• Embrace possibility: It’s time to stop settling for predictability and start embracing the potential for greatness.

Final Thoughts

Let’s keep this conversation going. Reflect on your own marketing strategies—are you playing it safe, or are you pushing yourself to think bigger, take risks, and have faith in the process? Remember, the biggest crisis in marketing isn’t about tools or budgets—it’s about mindset. Let’s shift ours together.

Until next time, keep the faith and keep pushing forward.

👉 Watch the full episode below 

👾 TOFU Quick Bytes: YolBe Teardown 👾

YolBe teardown

Founded in 2013, YolBe is a digital platform which aims to bring job-seekers, opportunities, employers and resources together, with a focus on upskilling and career development.

Strategy overview: 

YolBe serves in the B2B, B2C and SaaS spaces, using a multifaceted marketing approach, including YouTube shorts, collaborations with influencers and SEO optimization.

Performance Analysis:

• YolBe’s annual revenue is $4M.

• Their customer-base is not publicly disclosed.

• They’ve raised a total of $760K.

• They currently have 2 employees.

How have they achieved this? 

Critical Teardown:

What does YolBe do well?

Use of video-shorts: YolBe includes a series of video-short tutorials in the Blog section of their website (and on YouTube), that demonstrates different elements of their service, such as the Aspire Adviser AI-assistant that shows job-seekers how to create professional profiles.

Engagement with community: YolBe host live Q&A sessions on YouTube, respond to comments and employ the Community Tab in between uploading videos, which can help to build an interactive community, and a loyal customer-base. 

Adverts: In order to increase their reach and visibility, YolBe posts adverts on YouTube that are tailored to specific demographics, behaviors and interests, to reach their target audience.

What doesn’t YolBe do well? 

Foggy concept and unclear target audience: The concept isn’t entirely clear. YolBe appears to target 3 stakeholders: companies who want to hire people, people who want to get hired, and companies to facilitate the hiring process, and appears to be community-led, but the lack of clarity is problematic as it’s not easy for leads to fully grasp how it operates.

Absence of case studies: There’s a lack of social proof on the website, and coupled with the unclear concept, this could lead to people distrusting the service. To build trust, credibility and expand their customer-base, YolBe could include detailed case studies with reputable people, demonstrating how their service has helped companies and job seekers.

No cost transparency: Potential customers don’t know how much the service costs. There is literally no pricing page and I assume pricing doesn’t show up until you are really far down the signup path.

Lack of varied content: Although they incorporate a series of video shorts, this is the only form of content on their blog, which some users could find repetitive, or find that it doesn’t meet their needs. Additionally, due to the lack of written content, there is not enough material for the SERPs to scrape and rank. The organic traffic to the site is only 3 unique visits per month. Highly recommend at least publishing the transcripts of the videos below each short so that can be indexed.

AI integration

Personalized guide: YolBe uses AI integration in their Advisor Aspire guide, a personalized guide that gives employers insights into the latest job seeker trends and helps them create profiles and job searches.

AI assistant: YolBe uses AI in their assistant Career Pal, which is integrated in their search bar, helping job seekers find personal job recommendations, networking opportunities and resources that are tailored to the individual’s skills, location and interests.

Key takeaways: 

• Be crystal clear with your business concept, target market and ensuring your audience knows exactly what you are offering.

• Use case studies with reputable sources showing how your product or service has helped your clients, to build trust, credibility and increase your customer-base.

• Host live Q&A sessions to connect with your audience and answer their queries in real-time to build loyalty and increase customer satisfaction.

• Use a variety of different content-forms to add depth to your content-marketing, to appeal to different audiences and increase accessibility.

• Be transparent about the cost of your product or service.

• Use AI to gather insights that’ll inform your marketing strategy.
  

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

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