Article's Content
Article's Content
Welcome to Volume 175 👋
Happy Thursday!
In this week’s newsletter, we cover:
- 🌊 How Mimecast and Barracuda Are Playing the PPC Game
- 🤖 Google’s Gemini Era — Has ChatGPT Finally Met Its Match?
- 👀 What’s the Latest in B2B SaaS This week?
- 🧠 This Week’s Brain Food
- ➕ The Best Content across the Web
Let’s get into it.
The Prompt Swipe File: Over 100+ ChatGPT Prompts for Marketers and Creators
In the last year, a new friend has joined marketing teams in B2B SaaS: Generative AI. Sure, plenty of brands don’t publicly state that they use it, but our recent survey found that nearly 84% of marketers are using tools like ChatGPT on a daily basis.
It’s the marketers who build up the most experience with AI — who become true power users — that will stand out from the rest of the pack. We’ve got a resource to help you join that upper echelon.
Our AI Marketing Prompt Swipe File is a comprehensive list of over 100 inputs to help you make the most out of powerful tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and CoPilot. These are tried and tested prompts that you can use for:
- Content and campaign planning
- Podcast and video marketing
- Landing and webpage copy
- Email marketing
- Thought leadership
B2B SAAS NEWS
How Mimecast and Barracuda Are Playing the PPC Game
Paid search is a bit of a controversial topic in the B2B SaaS space.
Our industry has much longer sales cycles than the likes of B2C eCommerce. We often have to educate and convince multiple stakeholders of the benefits of the product before they can make a decision. It’s a lengthy conversion process.
Couple that with the impact of CPC inflation, the deprecation of third-party cookies, and the rise of generative AI, and it’s not surprising that there’s hesitation to invest in PPC.
That doesn’t mean it’s not a useful marketing tactic; it just means you must invest in it strategically. As Kenny Rogers says, “Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, and know when to walk away.”
I recently did a deep dive into two very similar companies in the email security space: Mimecast and Barracuda. These two companies have taken divergent approaches to PPC over the past five years and, by all accounts, are still very successful.
Over the past five years, both Mimecast and Barracuda have spent millions of dollars on paid ads to try and shorten the sales cycle for key terms like “spam filtering services” and “cyber awareness training.”
But if you take a look at how the monthly budgets and clicks for PPC are trending, things have taken a turn for the worse in the past two years.
Here’s what it looks like for Mimecast.
And here’s what it looks like for Barracuda.
As you can see, spending is still high, but the number of clicks has dropped off significantly. What’s a SaaS marketer to do?
In this case study, I break down how contributions from paid search have changed over time for these brands and how staying the course and transitioning to other channels make sense, depending on the context. Specifically, we’ll look at:
- How Mimecast’s increasing success in organic traffic allows them to reduce PPC spending.
- How Barracuda’s high-quality landing pages can still help them convert users despite having a higher monthly spend and lower clicks.
B2B SAAS INSIGHTS
The Gemini Era — Has ChatGPT Finally Met Its Match?
Google’s latest unveiling, Gemini, is generating lots of hype in the tech world and posing an important question: Is this the contender that could rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT?
Just one year after their previous AI endeavor, Bard failed to gain traction in the market, Google has completed the redemption arc with a significant contribution to the AI space.
Designed as a multimodal model, Gemini can understand and interact with text, code, audio, images, and video information more effectively than other LLMs.
The top paid tier of Gemini, called Ultra, actually performs better than GPT-4 across tasks like image understanding, mathematical reasoning, and coding — though it did lose to the OpenAI product in terms of commonsense reasoning. While ChatGPT is still the front-runner for generating human-like text, Gemini’s ability to understand and reason across different information types sets a new standard for AI models.
But the most game-changing aspect of Gemini is its potential integration into the Google search engine.
Imagine having a tool on par with ChatGPT’s abilities built directly into something like Chrome This move could unlock significant advantages for Google as it seeks to catch up to and possibly surpass OpenAI in the AI race. By enhancing search capabilities with Gemini’s advanced understanding and reasoning, Google could make it much easier for users to retrieve information. Of course, that will have some interesting effects on the SEO industry as well…
As Google steps into its “Gemini era,” the tech landscape is set for its annual AI-induced seismic shift.
What can us lowly marketers do to prepare ourselves? Unless you feel like going back to school for a degree in machine learning, it’s probably a good time to give Gemini a spin. These products may not yet live up to the marketing hype or expert catastrophizing — at least, not yet — but it’s always a good idea to build up your familiarity.
I’ll be sure to do the same!
Introducing Foundation’s AI Marketing Console
A few years ago, if someone said that mastering a single SaaS tool could save you 500+ work hours every year, make you a better creator, and increase your chances of landing a leadership position, you’d probably laugh them out of the room. Well, no one’s laughing now.
Generative AI is projected to add billions of dollars to the marketing industry in productivity savings alone, and the vast majority of professionals in our industry are incorporating AI this year.
Like all emerging technologies, there’s a huge advantage to moving quickly. Experimentation and research are key to building the skills you need to stay ahead. Unfortunately, these are also time-intensive processes.
That’s why we’re excited to announce the release of the AI Marketing Console.
With the AI Marketing Console, you get an arsenal of 130+ battle-tested ChatGPT prompts to help you create everything from landing pages and email drip campaigns to reports and customer research.
Plus, you’ll get exclusive access to the following:
- A visual AI toolkit with 20+ video walkthroughs.
- Two keynote presentations on the state of AI in marketing.
- An AI content evaluation checklist to level up your outputs.
Get full access to the AI Marketing Console, and start building your AI skills now!
If you want more information on why we’ve created this offering, check out this video from Ross!
👀 What’s the Latest in B2B SaaS This Week? 👀
- ParTech Africa II, Africa People + Planet, and other regional venture funds have weathered the industry downturn.
- 10Web takes aim at Shopify and the rest of the massive eCommerce space with its AI platform.
- Big brands are spending Super Bowl budgets on social media — and it’s not on X.
- B2B brand Papaya Global puts it on the line with a $7 million Super Bowl ad.
- 20VC Founder raises $5 million for new offshoot fund 20PRODUCT.
📩The Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution 📩
If you’ve followed Foundation long enough, you know there’s one thing we always preach:
D.R.E.A.M. — Distribution Rules Everything Around Me
It’s easy to forget about the critical role distribution plays in connecting your target audience to your content — from sales posts on LinkedIn to community hubs like Reddit and Quora. That’s why we’re bringing back this gem from Ross.
In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn how to do the following:
- Master the art of leveraging Owned, Earned, and Paid Channels for maximum reach.
- Discover strategies to stand out in the content overload and effectively connect with your target audience.
- Gain actionable insights on choosing the right distribution channels to boost brand awareness and drive conversions.
Check out Ross’s Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution, and transform your content to engage your audience and grow your business!
🧠 This Week’s Brain Food 🧠
Well, another Super Bowl weekend is in the books.
Teams came together to perform on the biggest stage. We saw those who get paid the big bucks make decisions that millions will scrutinize. After months, even years, of blood, sweat, and tears, we have another world champion.
Oh, and also, the Chiefs beat the 49ers in a game of Football.
I like to think that’s how many of the marketers in the industry think about this weekend as the watch ads for Temu, State Farm, and Workday repeated ad nauseum. After all, the Super Bowl isn’t just a sporting event; it’s the Olympics of advertising — a rare opportunity to capture the attention of hundreds of millions in a single — expensive — Hail Mary. (Special thanks to Taylor Swift for the extra eyeballs this year, apparently we’re moving into moon landing territory 🤯.)
But as the confetti settles and the commercials cease, it’s crucial to remember: Flashy ads or just one play, securing customers is the endgame.
As we dissect the wins and fumbles of this year’s Super Bowl ad blitz over the next few weeks, it’s important to focus on the metrics that matter: Conversion rates, engagement scores, and, ultimately, the ROI. When the final whistle blows, it’s not just about who had the most memorable ad but who managed to turn that moment into momentum.
Okay, that should do it for football analogies for the next year!
Want to sponsor our next issue? Reply to this email, and we’ll share how you can reach more SaaS founders and marketers today.
🏅Twitter/X Thread of the Week
Biggest marketing myths you’ve been told by Ross Simmonds
🎖️ LinkedIn Post of the Week
Unveiling Statsig’s San Francisco billboard blitz campaign by Brock Lumbard
🤳🏽 Nice finds You Should Binge
- Why CMOs and CFOs Should Start Thinking About Marketing Like Investing.
- User be warned — conversations with Google Gemini are saved for years by default.
- What’s in store for Fintech after 10 years of innovation and a 2-year correction?
- AI is changing what it means to be a coder — your profession could be next.
- SaaS on TikTok — How CreatorKit Is Crushing the TikTok Game.
🎧 What We’re Wired into This Week
New York Jazz Lounge by Coffee Relaxing Jazz
This smattering of SaaS stories is brought to you by Ethan Crump!
If you have any feedback, suggestions, or ideas you want to see in this newsletter, feel free to email me at ethan@foundationinc.co. We always look for ways to improve and provide the best B2B SaaS marketing resources.
Have a great weekend, and see you on the other side!
