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- 🛠️ How Clay's Marketing Machine Fueled 6x Growth in 2024
🛠️ How Clay's Marketing Machine Fueled 6x Growth in 2024
Plus: Is PR the future of B2B marketing?
Hey there!
The AskCMO team spent the week digging up the best B2B marketing tools and trends so you don’t have to.
And the best part? You can catch up on all of it in the next 3 minutes.
In today’s Tools & Trends roundup:
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A recent analysis of 3,500 SaaS companies tracked 339 pricing changes in 2024. And one thing is clear: iteration is key.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
Freemium is shifting, and everyone is addressing it differently. For example, Loom replaced its AI add-on with a dedicated AI tier, making it easier to monetize business users. Meanwhile, Notion has kept its AI add-on option and continues to prioritize a perpetual free plan, which has gained them a massive freemium base.
Warning: aggressive price hikes can backfire. Docker raised Pro and Team plan prices by 80% and 67%, frustrating customers while leaving its Business plan unchanged. A swing and a miss.
The shift from access-based to outcome-based pricing is upon us. Companies are rolling out automation-based usage metrics and outcome-based add-ons to better align pricing with customer value.
Public relations isn’t dead. Actually, it may be about to make a comeback. Our ability to influence key platforms through PR in order to be seen is more critical than ever.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
Two out of three Google searches now stay within Google’s ecosystem, which means external website traffic is getting harder to earn.
AI models rely on “trusted sources” for training. So your PR directly influences how your brand is referenced in ChatGPT, Google Discover, and search results.
PR is now about content placement across influential platforms, like Reddit, Techmeme, YouTube, and industry podcasts. Not just traditional publications.
After all, they’re the team that helps clarify the funnel, optimize planning, and improve AI adoption.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
RevOps helps us find alignment across Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success by defining funnel milestones. So, no more fighting over what counts as an MQL.
Continuous planning is RevOps’ superpower. That keeps your strategies agile. They can adjust forecasts and reallocate budgets in real-time.
They’re ninjas at fixing bottom-of-funnel leaks, which can drive more revenue than just increasing lead volume.
RevOps can integrate AI for better lead scoring, automated CRM updates, and a whole lot more.
Clay’s valuation skyrocketed to $1.25B. That’s 6x growth in 2024 all by revolutionizing go-to-market (GTM) strategies.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
Clay drives growth through ecosystem marketing (think: empowering creators, agencies, and integration partners to generate content and evangelize their product)
Clay’s GTM Engineer role blends sales, product expertise, and consulting to help prospects see immediate value and accelerate the sales cycle.
As B2B marketers, we have a bad habit of rushing to add new channels when demand gen stalls. But don’t sleep on fixing funnel inefficiencies first.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
Most conversion drops happen between campaigns, not within them. If you can fix bad messaging, irrelevant CTAs, and buyer journey friction, you can increase lead quality (and revenue.)
Before adding new demand-gen channels, analyze where and how competitors are investing.
Pilot new channels. Always track CPL and CAC, and make sure you’ve got proper funnel integration before you scale up your investment.
Encouraging employees to create content isn’t as simple as asking them to post. It requires buy-in, support, and a clear strategy.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
We get it. Employees may be hesitant to share content for a whole bunch of reasons (discomfort, lack of confidence, perceived extra workload, etc.). Training and personal branding ed can help them see the light.
Without clear guidelines, EGC can drift off-brand. BUT over-polishing makes it feel inauthentic. Customizable, pre-approved content could make everyone’s lives easier.
That’s it for this week,
Speak soon,
The Ask CMO team
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