The Virtual CMO Podcast

Season 8, Episode 5

In episode 120, host Eric Dickmann talks with Stacey Danheiser- Founder and CMO of Shake Marketing Group, a B2B focused marketing strategy group. Stacey has years of experience helping B2B companies to grow their revenue, build connections, and uncover customer value as a fractional CMO. As a community builder, she helps other marketers connect and grow through The Shake Marketing Society, a professional online marketing community. Shake Marketing Group provides B2B marketing strategies that help business leaders drive more revenue and internal credibility through customer insights, a powerful value proposition, and a marketing strategy that the C-suite understands. You can connect with Stacey on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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What is an Online Community?

An online community is a form of ongoing engagement where businesses create and manage an online forum where customers, prospects, and interested professionals can interact and share information. Unlike the more traditional advertising model, a marketing community is centered on long-term relationships and ongoing engagement. Businesses can benefit from these communities through real-time feedback which helps in making more thoughtful and informed decisions about products and services. It provides a forum to communicate with people in a non-intrusive, transparent, and conversational way. Disciple Media enumerates some of the many benefits of having an online community:

• It increases customer retention through continuous client engagement.
• This gives your customers a voice in the direction of your business
• You market your products or services directly to the community.
• The company's strategy is designed to satisfy the client's needs.

Highlights from Our Conversation with Stacey:

“I give this advice to people who are just starting off their marketing career, that be careful of the industry that you pick to start your first job in because people right or wrong will perceive that that's the only expertise you have.”

• [00:04:17] As you look back at your experience with all these different businesses, both on the consumer and the B2B side, where did you think you made the greatest impact?- What's different between working in B2C versus B2B is that they had huge budgets. According to Stacey, they didn't have to fight for every dollar coming out and instead focused on marketing campaigns and improving their overall processes.
• [00:08:59] What is the importance of building out that strategy first before you sort of move on to that execution phase?- Stacey Danheiser has a framework called- The B2B Marketing Blueprint. It's eight steps, and the first step is an audit. This strategy starts with an audit, which later expands beyond marketing. Marketing sometimes is super far removed from the customer in B2B, so she always recommends research there because that's a way for businesses to get more educated and knowledgeable about the customer base.
• [00:17:03] Are you like many other business owners who get those first couple of referrals from existing clients and then build from there?- She started with getting referrals, mostly tapping into her former employers. Stacey's first client was the employer she was currently working with. She has been pretty active on LinkedIn lately, guesting in podcasts, and trying to expand the community by building relationships. Relationship building takes time, and it's something many business owners have to be patient about.
• [00:20:57] How did you pick your niche?- The thing is that they're not a niche, but it's more of like a characteristic. Stacey is a person that thrives on change. She loves jumping from one marketing community to the other because she sees it as a challenge and an opportunity to grow her experience.
• [00:27:35] When you have a new client come to you, what is generally the problem that they're expressing? Why are they coming, looking for services?- Stacey thinks that there are two sides to the equation. Number one, it's all about growth. Many companies that Stacey works with have growth goals and specific revenue targets. They don't necessarily know how to achieve their goals, so she gives them a foundation and framework to follow. The second reason is they want to launch a new product in the market, but they don't necessarily know where to start.
• [00:32:02] SOAR Marketing Society-SOAR Marketing Society is a private B2B marketing community that provides a forum for people to connect. It is a diverse marketing group comprised of marketing executives, consultants, and CMOs who are aimed at helping marketers think and act more strategically.

Marketing Community and Other Resources Mentioned

• Shake Marketing Group- Company Website
• Soar Marketing Society - Enroll Here

Live Stream on YouTube