Breaking Out of a Crowded Market

0:05Feel like this is pretty

0:08quintessential British, right? Nice

0:10cottages, little lazy rivers, little

0:12streams. Now, getting back to the

0:14subject at hand, you might be thinking,

0:15"Well, Max, seems a bit weird. You've

0:20grown a business to where we are today,

0:22growing 24% month-to-month. High churn.

0:25Yes. But luckily growth is kind of

0:26covering that as we figure out the PLG

0:29strategy. Albeit we're turning that off

0:31as you know. And why are you kind of

0:33going away from being this social signal

0:35sales platform to being a social

0:37intelligence platform? Well, two reasons

0:40I think are the most primary reasons

0:42with one caveat. one, the data that

0:45we're collecting across LinkedIn,

0:48Reddit, YouTube, podcasts, Substack now,

0:52um, X is far more valuable than the way

0:55that just sales people would use us. So,

0:57there's a lot more value to be had

0:59there. And they're using us in a way

1:00that is not the way that we envision the

1:03platform being used, albeit very, very,

1:05very well, and they're getting great

1:06results. But there's a shelf life to how

1:08long you can do that strategy for. you

1:10know, if you become incredibly

1:11successful as a business, which we are

1:13miles away from doing it, but if

1:14everyone starts doing it, it loses loses

1:16its potency. Um, sorry, it's a bit

1:18windy. Hope you can hear me still. Bring

1:20you closer. So, that's the first reason

1:23is more or less it's a very crowded

1:25space and everyone's going to start to

1:27do the same thing as a lot of these

1:29tools start to try and mirror each

1:30other, which is what we're already

1:31doing. I'm not saying we invented social

1:33signal at tool, but I really feel like

1:36we pushed the pedestal of it and a lot

1:38of companies have followed suit as well

1:40and pushed the pedestal, which obviously

1:42they're entitled to. Again, I'm not

1:43saying we invented it. I'm just saying

1:44that we really marketed the hell out of

1:45it. And then if we look at the social

1:47intelligence space, it's so ripe for the

1:50taking. It's 80 to 85% of the players

1:53out there have been around a very long

1:55time maybe IPOed legacy based built on a

1:57legacy infrastructure and very much

2:00designed around a volume based mentality

2:02and approach. So by introducing this

2:04level of agents and an orchestration

2:06system into the platform it becomes

2:08something entirely new and entirely

2:10different that this social intelligence

2:13world hasn't ever done before or seen

2:15before when it comes to CMOs and

2:16marketing directors and people like that

2:18having a look at what we do. The other

2:19is all of these social intelligence

2:20tools have tried to go into set into the

2:23sales space have tried to go into the

2:26product space and get just and get

2:28outside of the marketing to make their

2:29deal sizes bigger and all of them have

2:31failed failed to really blend the

2:34technologies together and I feel like

2:36given we actually started in sales which

2:38is more of a challenge and more of a

2:39competitive space and we've seen some

2:41good success out of this it's a really

2:42interesting avenue and I think it's

2:43going to really prove to be quite

2:45beneficial because if we can crack

2:47marketing and crack product then we've

2:48kind of gone across all avenues and all

2:50departments in a way that no other

2:52social intelligence tool has done. So

2:54that's the theory, that's the rationale.

2:56Caveat being is yes, we're going away

2:57from sales, but in the long term, the

3:00use case for sales is still there. We're

3:01just not really marketing it as much

3:03anymore.

3:15Now the real question is does the value

3:18lie in an orchestration system or does

3:20the value lie in the insights that we

3:23will

3:23provide that I don't have the answer

3:26for. Um you have to use the

3:28orchestration to get the insights and

3:30then we'll know where to go from there.

3:32Um, but I think we've got something

3:34really exciting brewing here that no

3:36other social listening platform is doing

3:38and they're all built in a way that

3:40they'll never be able to do it. And

3:42yeah, I think we could be onto something

3:44here with NextGen Social Listening.

3:47Anyway, in other news, I'm down in

3:50Wales, which if you're from the US, I

3:53should say I'm up in Wales cuz I live

3:54down in Cornwall. I live in the very

3:56bottom of the UK, right at the very,

3:58very bottom. And Wales is all the way on

4:00the left hand side. And my wife, well,

4:02she's Welsh. And if you don't know Great

4:04Britain that well, they speak a

4:06different language. They sound

4:07differently. And it's a bit of a

4:08different culture. It's kind of crazy in

4:10the UK that you can drive 5 minutes and

4:12something is entirely different.

4:13Different accents, different everything.

4:14Literally, you can drive 10, 20 minutes

4:17down the road and everything is entirely

4:18different. But this place, it's

4:24stunning. So, why would sales use us?

4:27Well, probably where we've most been

4:29known for, which is sales. And here's

4:31the thing with sales when it comes to

4:33social media, you want to understand

4:35anytime someone is engaging with content

4:37that is relevant to the business problem

4:40that you're trying to solve and using

4:41that relevancy as the time to reach out.

4:43So for example, if I know that Joe Blogs

4:46has engaged with content around martekch

4:49stuff, maybe it's around social

4:50listening uh kind of content, right? How

4:53to use social listening, when to use it,

4:54so on and so on. Maybe that's through

4:56engaging with competitors, engaging with

4:58your own brand or just generally

4:59engaging with thought leaders. And if

5:01they've engaged with it where it's

5:02increasing month out and you know maybe

5:04six, seven times in the last week, then

5:06when they go and visit a website or you

5:08know get a funding round or whatever you

5:10would typically overlay on top when it

5:12comes to signals, it's safe to say that

5:14they're going to be interested in

5:15speaking to you. And that is how a lot

5:16of people are already using us and

5:18getting incredible conversion rates as a

5:20result. So really what you're trying to

5:22understand is it's a level of pre-intent

5:24data by understanding interests, right?

5:26And that's what social media gives you

5:28best. It like released in a series or

5:30like just kind of like let's just keep

5:33going. I mean like how we release them

5:35can can vary but like for us like we

5:37just keep churning it out. You know if

5:39we if we can get a podcast recorded

5:41don't put too much pressure on ourselves

5:43every other week. Um bank up a few and

5:45then we can slowly release them. you

5:47know, ideally every week, but like

5:48minimum twice a month. Um, that'd be

5:51good. Yeah. Nice. Um, and then other

5:54focus points like I want to start

5:56ramping, currently we're doing the

5:57newsletter once a week as well, right,

5:59with Triggery. I want to ramp that up to

6:02twice a week with mine. Then we have the

6:04webinar every other week, uh, as well.

6:07And that's, I think, a good marketing

6:09cadence to be in. The webinar is more

6:11office hours. I think we should kind of

6:12frame it as like office hours

6:15um with me and someone else. Yeah. And

6:17then also I think the podcast if we

6:19don't have someone on a week, we should

6:21just record us what we're doing, stuff

6:24like that, filler episodes, you know,

6:26like it's Yeah, it's weird. You know

6:29what's weird? It's It's weird having

6:31taken our foot off the gas with the

6:32marketing, you know, stuff like the

6:33webinars and stuff and all the stuff

6:35we've been doing. You think that people

6:37aren't seeing it, but they are. That's

6:40why That's that's why I'm keen with the

6:42newsletter because we have such a

6:44massive newsletter base that like we

6:46should be doing top of the funnel

6:48content on on a Monday or a Tuesday and

6:51more bottom of the funnel execution

6:53content on um either a Wednesday or

6:56Thursday just a couple day break after

6:57the first one to and then YouTube and

7:00then YouTube on top of that substack on

7:03top of that as well. We'll do it on

7:05people's use of social data across

7:08sales, marketing, and product teams.

7:10That will be like the sub the subplot.

7:11Use the people that we've already had,

7:13Hugo, on previous podcast is like name

7:16dropping because that will also people

7:18be like, "Oh,

7:21yeah, we we've had we had some good

7:22guests, right?" All right. So, why would

7:24marketing people use us? Well, lots of

7:26reasons really. Uh brand advocacy, brand

7:28monitoring, competitor intelligence. Um,

7:31we're building in tons of agantic

7:34capabilities in there to get sentiment

7:36down to more of a richer level. So

7:37rather than having sentiment over a

7:39particular post, we can understand

7:41sentiment within the context of your

7:43company. You can be the marketing brain

7:46that basically drives information to the

7:48rest of the business. So you could arm

7:50all of these other departments with

7:51information that comes from social

7:53media. Not to mention the fact that you

7:54could create agents to help you create

7:57content based on what everyone else is

7:58saying and what's gaining traction in

8:00the market and the industry and

8:02everything like that as well. So, it's

8:04pretty endless from a marketing

8:05perspective. Really, the limitation is

8:08the imagination. Veg update. Last week,

8:11I showed you how we were growing some

8:14beans and tomatoes. Anyway, as you can

8:17see, the poles in now and everything's

8:19starting to grow. Um, oh, also a little

8:22update. We got a puppy. Uh, we got this

8:23puppy 5 months ago. His name is Moose.

8:25He is one of the two golden retrievers

8:28that I have in this house. Uh, the other

8:29one is called Bear. So, we've got Bear

8:31and Moose as the Golden Retrievers and

8:33the mascots for everything. And this is

8:34a little bit of a working project that

8:36we have going on there. It's a pool that

8:38I got for 50 quid off Facebook

8:39Marketplace. A nice little uh like

8:41wooden fence around it so it looks a

8:43little bit posh. Um, that will be for

8:45the kids as they learn to swim.

8:48Now the other thing

8:52is product right and with product it's

8:58really interesting cuz you could tap

9:00into essentially everyone talking about

9:03your industry your competitors your

9:05brand and you can basically run research

9:08on anyone who has mentioned anything

9:11that's relevant and then use agents to

9:14understand what are the common themes

9:15how many instances are people mentioning

9:17similar things for example feature

9:19requests or whatever it is then pull

9:20that data out. Now I've seen other

9:22companies reference similar signals but

9:25the challenge is right is it's not just

9:27understanding what people are saying

9:29it's understanding how often they're

9:31saying it and contextualizing that

9:32across thousands and thousands of posts

9:35and that's the really interesting thing

9:36about what we can do. Just because for

9:38example someone's mentions a feature

9:40request once with cursor doesn't make it

9:42a signal. But if out of 2,000 posts, 60%

9:47of these posts are referencing a a

9:49certain UX or a UI issue or wanting

9:52something, then it starts to become a

9:54signal. So really what you've got to

9:56look at with product data and marketing

9:58and sales data is not a line by line

10:02item, right, which is what a lot of

10:03these spreadsheet based tools are doing.

10:05It's more understanding what is the

10:07context over all of the data in relation

10:09to our business. And that is where the

10:11insights lie. Not in a rowbyrow

10:18spreadsheet. What is it? It's Thursday

10:21morning again. Was Thursday morning last

10:22time I did some filming. Um and going to

10:25go to the beach again. I'm going to get

10:27uh about once a week I tend to get like

10:29a swim in in the sea or in the sea pool

10:32if it's open. Um the rest of the week in

10:34the mornings I'm usually working out um

10:36or going for a run and kind of trying to

10:38train towards doing a bit of a a

10:40triathlon and eventually morph that into

10:44a bit of iron man training. But I need

10:46to wait for the kids to get a bit older

10:47because the amount of training that you

10:48need to do for that is quite intense and

10:50I think I just struggle to find the time

10:52with work and everything else. Get

11:00[Music]

11:06[Music]

11:13down. All

11:18[Music]

11:24right, just had a good swim. I didn't

11:27really swim much because the puppy keeps

11:30wanting to go out quite deep with me and

11:33it's just not safe. Let's answer the

11:35question. Why is social data so

11:37important? Love it or hate it, social

11:39media is the only place where people are

11:42truly themselves because they feel safe

11:44sat behind the keyboard in front of

11:45their laptop. Which basically means

11:48they're going to interact with anything

11:49that resonates with them or not. They're

11:52going to post anything that they feel

11:56and no one is forcing them to do

11:58anything which is quite unique. Whereas

12:00when you look at other channels, email,

12:02things like that, it it it's more kind

12:04of a forced uh not forced, but it's more

12:07of a a reaction. It's more of a, you

12:10know, it's a a protocol that you're

12:11replying to someone, things like that.

12:12Long and short of it is, social media is

12:14the only place where you can truly

12:15understand someone's interests and what

12:18they are passionate about or not

12:20passionate about given everything that

12:22they're doing or not doing essentially.

12:24Which then basically means with that in

12:26mind, we can really start to understand

12:28what people like when it comes to

12:30products, what people don't like, what

12:31people are saying about brands, what

12:33people are saying about other companies,

12:34and when they're showing levels of

12:36intent that could suggest the time is uh

12:39good to reach out to a prospect from a

12:41sales perspective.

12:43[Music]