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Conversation
Highlights
In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Alexandra Ferraro, Head of Marketing at Intelligencia AI. After stepping into a role where she had to build a marketing function from scratch, Alex shares her playbook for establishing and executing effective marketing strategies for healthcare technology startups. From focusing on high-impact, niche events to establishing critical relationships with product, sales, and customer success teams, Alex reveals how she’s driven pipeline generation and revenue growth as a one-person marketing team.
Topics Discussed:
- Building a marketing program from scratch in a healthcare tech startup
- Managing marketing as a team of one in the enterprise B2B SaaS space
- Identifying high-ROI marketing channels when resources are limited
- Creating a strategic conference and events approach for pipeline generation
- Transitioning from a reactive to proactive marketing strategy
- Establishing cross-functional relationships that strengthen marketing outcomes
- Knowing when to pivot quickly from underperforming channels
Actionable
Takeaways
Focus on Hyper-Targeted Events Instead of Large Trade Shows:
Skip the massive industry conferences where you're just another small booth in a sea of vendors. Instead, invest in smaller (50-100 person) niche events where your target buyers actually attend. Alex found these intimate settings generated significantly better pipeline and revenue results, allowing for meaningful relationship-building with potential clients.
Establish Cross-Departmental Intelligence Networks:
Marketing success depends on quality inputs. Take time to develop both personal and professional relationships with leaders in sales, product, and customer success to "download" the market intelligence that's often stored only in their heads. These relationships provide the foundation for effective marketing even before you have formal data infrastructure.
Build Foundation First with Owned Media Channels:
When resources are limited, prioritize channels you completely control—your website, social media, email cadence, and sales materials. These owned channels allow you to control messaging, test effectively, and establish a foundation before expanding to less predictable paid and earned media efforts.
Create a Sphere of Marketing Peers:
Combat the isolation of being a marketing team of one by deliberately building relationships with former colleagues, mentors, and participating in communities like Exit 5. This "sphere of peers" provides a sounding board for ideas, helping you make better decisions when there's no internal marketing team for collaboration.
Know When to Pivot from Underperforming Channels:
After eight months of optimizing Google Ads with multiple agencies, Alex recognized it simply wasn't working for her specific market. She pivoted to sponsored content, which provided better attribution to pipeline growth. Accept when a channel isn't working for your specific situation, regardless of its success elsewhere, and be willing to reallocate resources quickly.
Develop Marketing Processes That Scale with the Business:
As a marketing leader in a startup environment, your responsibilities extend beyond traditional marketing. Proactively develop infrastructure like proper GL codes with finance to track marketing spend effectively, creating processes that support both current needs and future growth of the marketing function.
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