How can marketers use engaging storytelling to hook their audience? Mission CEO Chad Grills sat down with Meredith Ayan, Executive Director of SPCA International, to answer exactly that. SPCA International is a non-profit that reunites military service-members with animals they have befriended while on active duty. Meredith explained best practices for storytelling in email, how to segment storytelling for different audiences, and how SPCA reunited a marine with a donkey he met in Afghanistan. This episode was recorded live at the Salesforce World Tour in New York. 2:20 - How Meredith got started with SPCA. 6:09 - The story of a marine with reconnected with a donkey he met in Afghanistan. 7:40 - How SPCA picks which stories to tell. 11:40 - The strategies SPCA uses to segment their storytelling based on audience. 18:30 - Using images to tell stories. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

Joely Urton is Vice President of Analyst Relations at Box. Previously, she worked in marketing roles for Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and Epiphany. On this episode, Joely, Ian, and Lauren talk all things analyst relations, including how to manage an effective AR program, how to measure its success, and when a company should begin an AR program. 2:35 - What is analyst relations? 7:55 - How doing AR compares to normal marketing. 12:55 - When to start on an AR program. 37:00 - How to measure the success of an AR program. 49:15 - Most exciting marketing trends for the future. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

Jaleh Bisharat is the Founder and CEO of NakedPoppy. In her career as a marketer, Jaleh has served as the CMO of Eventbrite, and a marketing VP for Amazon, Jawbone, and OpenTable. In part 2, Jaleh discusses why she decided to not use a Powerpoint deck when pitching NakedPoppy, the best way to build a great team, and what it takes to be a great CMO. 3:30 - Why NakedPoppy decided not to use a Powerpoint deck when pitching their company to VC funds. 8:45 - How to build a team that complements your strengths. 11:30 - The three questions you need to ask to build an effective culture. 16:00 - The best way to hire great employees. 23:40 - The essential skills for becoming a great CMO. 25:50 - Why you should talk to customers one at a time. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

Jaleh Bisharat is the Founder and CEO of NakedPoppy. In her career as a marketer, Jaleh has served as the CMO of Eventbrite, and a marketing VP for Amazon, Jawbone, and OpenTable. In part one of our interview with Jaleh, she discusses what she learned working with Jeff Bezos, how to be customer-obsessed, and best practices for conducting effective market research. 3:00 - Lessons learned from working with Jeff Bezos. 5:10 - What it means to truly be customer-obsessed. 7:45 - Jaleh discusses the importance of delighting customers. 10:55 - How to fail well. 14:50 - The relative value of ideas vs. execution. 15:48 - Jaleh’s experience at OpenTable and what it took to break out from the competition. 26:30 - The importance of being able to finish your customers’ sentences. 30:15 - Best practices for conducting effective market research. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

Matthew Trifiro is the CMO of Vapor IO. As a multi-time CMO and CEO, Matt has a long track record helping companies achieve exponential growth. On this episode, Matt discusses the "dirty secret" of launch products, the best advice for a new CMO, and why he thinks press releases are useless. 6:30 - The most important skill for any marketer. 21:30 - The biggest myth about creating the iPhone. 25:28 - Figuring out what you are "the best and only" at. 39:00 - How PR and thought leadership change from B2B to B2C. 42:15 - Why press releases are useless. 55:05 - What Matt has learned about effective branding. 57:30 - Creating effective anchor content. 01:10:10 - Matt's best advice for a new CMO. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mentioned Resources: 1. The Atari ST Owners Manual Matt wrote. 2. The Reptilian video game Matt wrote. 3. The Swindled podcast (answer to lightning round Q). 4. Bloomberg entry for Wink Communications, early interactive TV company co-founded by Matt where he created the category of "enhanced broadcasting." 5. The original Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout. 6. The white/pink tuna story at Snopes.com. As suspected, it's apocryphal and has many versions, but it's still a great story. 7. State of the Edge. 8. Open Glossary of Edge Computing. 9. Ogilvy's The Man in the Hathaway Shirt

Christopher Lochhead is the co-author of the Harper Collins’ instant classic Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets and he’s the co-host of the Legends and Losers podcast. He is a serial entrepreneur and has served as the CMO of three public companies. Chris joined Ian to discuss why category design is the most important skill set for a CMO, why competing is bad, and how to get creatives to do legendary work. 4:55 - How category design applies to music, politics, and life. 8:20 - The number one skill set that headhunters look for in a CMO. 11:25 - Why competing is bad. 24:55 - Making category design more than a messaging or branding exercise. 51:10  - How to get creatives to do legendary work for you. 1:06:15 - Why this is the most exciting time to be alive in history. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

Few brands have had as large an impact on the world of marketing and advertising as Apple. For more than forty years, their advertising has set the bar for greatness. In part 2, Lauren and Ian break down Apple ads from 1998 to today. We see how having an enemy makes for great marketing, and how to turn every product into an advertisement. 1:45 - The brightly colored iMacs show the world what thinking different really looks like. 6:15 - How the white headphones turned every iPod into an advertisement. 16:30 - Having an enemy makes for great advertising. 22:50 - Marketing the iPhone with "Hello." 31:10 - You're more powerful than you think. 36:00 - Apple's latest ad, "Share Your Gifts." Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

Few brands have had as large an impact on the world of marketing and advertising as Apple. For more than forty years, their advertising has set the bar for greatness. In the first of a two part series, Lauren and Ian break down Apple ads from 1977 to 1997. The lessons drawn from these ads will help you "think different" and inspire you to be more creative. 4:50 - The thing that separates Apple from other advertisers. 15:00 - An ad called "homemaker" almost makes Lauren choke. 19:15 - How 1984 changed advertising forever. 24:10 - When Apple went too far. 44:45 - How "Think Different" saved Apple. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

In this episode of Marketing Trends, we explore sales and marketing alignment. We brought in Sean Sheppard, a sales expert, to help explain how organizations can better align the two. Sean is the founding partner of GrowthX and Co-Founder of GrowthX Academy. He is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully grown dozens of early-stage companies. In addition to his experience as a multi-time founder, Sean ran the sales and business development track at Tradecraft and co-founded the Professional Sales College. In this interview, Sean breaks down the x’s and o’s of how to get marketing and sales to work together. 2:00 - How to make marketing and sales collaborative rather than competitive. 9:20 - Why marketing should get messaging from sales. 17:00 - Creating product-to-market teams. 23:40 - How to handle product launches. 31:05 - Why SaaS should be service as a software. 37:20 - Evolving compensation plans for marketing and sales teams. 46:50 - How to make sure your star marketers can rise to the top. 55:05 - Best team-building exercises for marketing and sales. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

On this episode, Ian introduces his new co-host, Lauren Vaccarello. Lauren is a digital marketer who has held senior marketing roles with tech companies like Salesforce, AdRoll, and Box. She also co-authored two influential books on marketing: “The Retargeting Playbook” and “Complete B2B Online Marketing.” Ian and Lauren discuss Lauren's background in marketing, why CMOs get fired, and how executives can keep up with the latest trends in marketing. 00:45 - Lauren's marketing background. 4:00 - Stumbling into lead scoring. 7:30 - Blending strategic and tactical marketing. 10:15 - Why great marketing looks easy. 12:50 - Why CMOs get fired, and how to avoid it. 17:00 - How to stay up to date with the latest marketing trends. 25:20 - How to set expectations with your CEO and board. 31:40 - The dumbest things a CMO can get fired for. 36:00 - The umbrella theory of marketing. 37:00 - Why this is the best time to be a marketer. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

In this episode of Marketing Trends, Ian talks with Shannon Duffy, an SVP of Marketing at Salesforce.  Shannon talks about how to build a marketing team from the ground up, how to take complex things and make them simple, and how "Melrose Place" inspired her to get into marketing. 1:25 - Shannon’s background in marketing and how she got started. 4:45 - How "Melrose Place" inspired Shannon to get into marketing. 7:50 - The link between marketing success and customer success. 10:05 - The campaign Shannon is most proud of. 15:00 - How marketers can embrace failure. 17:45 - How to improve the top of the marketing funnel. 19:40 - How to take complex ideas and make them simple. 21:00 - Why anyone can be in marketing, but not everyone is a marketer. 27:30 - How to build a team from the ground up. 31:50 - The best piece of advice for a beginning marketer. 32:40 - Lightning Round. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

In this episode of Marketing Trends, Ian talks with Menaka Shroff, Global Head of Marketing of Devices and Mobility at Google. Menaka has also worked in marketing roles for Box and Yahoo. We cover how she manages to find great companies to work for right before they take off, how to use analytics to drive better marketing, and how to get sales and marketing into better alignment. 1:10 - How Menaka got into marketing. 2:00 - Menaka’s strategy for picking great companies. 2:50 - The difference between corporate and start-up life. 5:10 - How to balance analytical marketers with other roles on a marketing team. 7:45 - Aligning sales and marketing on metrics. 10:10 - The best campaign Menaka has ever been a part of. 13:35 - The process of becoming a thought leader in an industry. 14:50 - How to plan and run a great corporate event. 16:40 - Lightning Round. 18:20 - The future of AI and machine learning. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

On this episode of Marketing Trends, Ian and Chad talk with Mark Viden, VP of Marketing for Dignity Health. Dignity Health is a large healthcare company based in California that does more than $10 billion in revenue and employs more than 60,000 people. Mark shares the early impact of reading David Ogilvy, how he deals with rejection, and sheds light on his 17-year career at Dignity Health.  1:45 - When Mark first got excited about marketing and advertising. 3:20 - Mark’s marketing inspirations. 5:10 - Advice for up-and-coming marketers. 7:00 - Executing on the Hello Humankindness campaign. 17:40 - How to use marketing to improve someone’s life. 19:00 - Lightning Round. 20:45 - Mark’s favorite marketing tool. 22:00 - The most important marketing trends that Mark sees coming. 26:50 - Why you should always start with strategy. Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

On this episode of Marketing Trends, Chad and Ian talk to Sara Varni, the CMO of Twilio. She talks about how CMOs can pitch expensive and risky initiatives, how marketers waste money by failing to make long term plans, and she shares a few tactics that her team uses to be meticulous about finding ways to connect with the customer.  1:30 - How Sara got inspired to get into marketing. 5:30 - How form affects substance when you are creating content. 6:55 - Learning from both bad bosses and good bosses. 8:45 - Prioritizing a day and not being driven by your inbox. 11:00 - How to create a great conference. 14:00 - The marketing campaign Sara is most proud of in her career. 16:40 - Learning to pitch risky or difficult initiatives. 18:40 - Why demand gen is an art and a science. 21:20 - The worst campaign Sara has ever run. 24:15 - Generating word of mouth buzz. 25:40 - Lightning Round. 28:00 - Where marketers blow the most money.  Marketing Trends is brought to you by our friends at Salesforce Pardot, B2B marketing automation on the world’s #1 CRM. Are you ready to take your B2B marketing to new heights? With Pardot, marketers can find and nurture leads, close more deals, and maximize ROI. Learn more by heading to www.pardot.com/podcast. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.