When to add Marketing Fuel to the Fire with Mercury’s Melissa Turowsky

  • Melissa Turowsky

    CMO
  • Heath Butler

    Venture Partner
Go Slow, Grow Fast podcast

When to add Marketing Fuel to the Fire with Mercury’s Melissa Turowsky

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Today, Heath talks with Mercury CMO Melissa Turowsky on the evolution of marketing and how big changes are forcing venture backed startups to reevaluate how they think about marketing function, customer acquisition, and the talent required to achieve their business goals. In the episode, Melissa retells her journey through startups and marketing from New York to Houston and how she arrived at Mercury. She also explains why you should “go for the gold” when hiring for talent, talks on metrics in marketing strategy, and lays out the difference between ‘vitamin’ and ‘painkiller’ strategies for cutting through advertising noise.  

Timecoded Guide: 
  • [00:00] Start of episode 
  • [02:00] Melissa’s journey to Mercury 
  • [05:50] Thoughts on the big shift in marketing 
  • [09:00] Evolution of sales and marketing 
  • [10:20] Changing talent requirements 
  • [16:25] Sifting through the noise as a founder 
  • [21:20] Managing CAC and tracking everything 

The Recent Evolution of Marketing  

50 years ago, businesses learned about the market when a salesperson walked through the door and showed them the collateral, Heath says. Now, business owners can just go online to do research. In the past 20 years, marketing has involved a lot more sales and Heath asks Melissa for her take on the matter. Content marketing, she says, is critical in educating people on a business. Great first impressions and longform articles online and feedback loops within the business are essential in sustaining an excellent and adaptable marketing strategy.  

“No marketing strategy should ever be set in stone and that’s how you’re able to evolve it.”  

Hiring Golden Talent for Success 

In today’s day and age, hiring for the right talent is crucial in a startup. People must understand the platforms, tooling, and data, among other things, Heath says. The requirements for talent in the marketing sphere have changed over the years. For a startup, with lots of phenomenal talent out there, Melissa says it’s a safe bet and beneficial to go with someone who has more experience. She says that the key is finding someone who has been successful in marketing beforehand, prior to hopping on board. Much of it is a matter of quality versus quantity and for a startup, Melissa says that focusing on quality is the right strategy.  

What you really want to do is hire somebody who’s done it before so that they can do it successfully for you.” 

Sifting through the Noise  

We could see thousands of marketing messages in a day. To say the least, there’s a lot of noise to sift through and founders must understand how to navigate it all. How do you get someone’s attention through countless ads? Melissa explains the issue as a matter of vitamins versus painkillers. Vitamins are nice to have, Melissa says, but fall by the wayside. Painkillers? They solve a problem right away, cutting through the noise—that should be the marketing strategy. Importantly though, Melissa also emphasizes that if you’ve refined your sales process and know your ICP along with your strategy, you will know exactly who you need to reach and how.   

“If you’re a painkiller, it’s much easier to cut through the noise because you’re truly solving a problem for your customer.” 

Hack the CAC 

With CACs raising exponentially, companies must find ways to manage the growth, hence why Heath says, “hack the CAC.” Melissa’s solution? Track everything. As a metrics maven, Melissa brings her expertise to the table; every step of the marketing plan should be tracked, she says. If a campaign doesn’t work out, you can see what needs to be changed and you can change it. Melissa also emphasizes widening one’s perspective to the rest of the company, utilizing feedback loops to find areas for improvement in other departments as well.   

“My advice is, especially for early-stage companies, when you’re in such a small group, is develop a network . . . it makes it a little bit less lonely, and it gives you somebody that you can be like a sounding board, and it also just makes it more fun.”  

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