Mariya Delano’s Post

I can’t meet my own agency’s standards 😩 This is embarrassing… But coming back to client writing after a 1.5 year break I’ve realized that the quality standards my own team has set are so high I can barely meet them. Maybe for another founder that wouldn’t such an emotional revelation. But you have to understand – I started Kalyna Marketing as a solo content writer. I was the only one writing for clients until I brought on some freelance help a year in, simply because I could no longer meet the demand. But even as I stepped away from writing for clients myself, I still thought of myself as one of the best writers on the team. After all, these standards were based on my work and systems. I write professionally all the time: I post here on LinkedIn, write a newsletter, and even have a byline with literal Search Engine Land. So, I figured if I ever had to step in – it would be a breeze, right? Wrong. Oh, so very wrong. We’ve had to unexpectedly lay off a writer earlier this year, so I ended up having to write 3 pieces for Belkins from scratch, and do heavy editing on 2 more together with Kaashif Hajee. And let me tell you – it’s been ROUGH. Even looking at our outlines and briefs, or referencing examples of our past content for the same client – I’m blown away by how high my team has set the bar for quality. The amount of creativity, research, distilling complex information, formatting, gathering takeaways… it’s unbelievable. I’ve had my ass handed to me. I’m no longer the best writer on my team. I’m also not the best editor on my team, as Tawni Sattler can run circles around me without breaking a sweat. And you know what? I couldn’t be happier. I want my team to keep raising the bar. I want them to surpass my level of skill. That’s why I’m not the writer or editor on projects anymore. My job is to be the best CEO for Kalyna, and that means finding and uplifting the best possible people to do the work that’s no longer my specialty. I hope my team keeps making our standards higher and higher as time goes on 😄

WE ARE STILL PROCESSING FREELANCER APPLICATIONS. I got a few messages today from people who assumed they had been rejected because they haven't heard any updates yet. That is NOT true. We haven't rejected anyone yet and are still processing applications. We will respond to every single applicant who sent their information through our hiring form. I am sending out emails to everyone explaining these details as well, but I've had to batch them across the next 2 days to avoid Gmail penalties. So I hope more of you might see the post 😃

Marketing can get better! Both for you and the industry at large. I see a lot of doomsday rhetoric around marketing, with people from all kinds of companies and functions sharing the same hopeless pessimism. "Our industry is broken," people say. "I'm just trying to get through and maybe one day I'll find something more fun to do." Look, I get it. Not every job has to be a calling. Not every marketer has to love marketing as a field. But you don't have to be miserable - even if marketing might be a passing phase in your career, you DON'T HAVE TO GIVE UP on it. I've been in therapy for years, and have gotten even more intense with it since my borderline personality disorder (BPD) diagnosis in January. So I can't help but notice certain patterns between the issues I work through and professional conversations around me. And well... I think this pessimism around marketing has its roots in a similar place to a lot of my insecurities. Most marketers are making their lives worse because they hold a fixed mindset around work. Let me explain: 1. A "fixed mindset" means that you believe that you, other people, or the world at large are static and unchangeable. You see things as having a fundamental nature. You're either good with data or you're not. Your CEO either gets marketing or doesn't. 2. A "growth mindset" means that you believe things can change. You can learn and improve with time and effort, other people can be convinced, and industry trends can be shifted. You can learn data analytics, or figure out how to communicate better with your CEO. And I think it's time for us to start challenging the prevalence of fixed mindsets in B2B marketing. We can do better, and we can improve both our individual jobs and the field as a whole. We simply need to keep trying. 💁♀️ So, I challenge you: Next time you catch yourself thinking "well, that's just how it is" about your job, marketing trends, or the industry – STOP. Take a second and think "how could I reframe this from a growth mindset?" For example: "SaaS brands don't value content" -> "How can I frame the benefits of content through things SaaS brands already value?" "LinkedIn growth is hard" -> "What other approaches can I try to grow my LinkedIn more sustainably?" View this as a call to arms for optimism. I love marketing, and I think we can all do our part to make this work more enjoyable and satisfying for all of us.

If your marketing doesn't tie back to business goals, it's useless. I'm sorry to be a party pooper, but it's true. Every single activity in an organization needs to connect back to its overall priorities and objectives, like: 1. Getting more customers 2. Improving the value and experience for existing customers 3. Entering a new market 4. Testing a new offering (product or service) 5. Upskilling your workforce and making your team happier and more productive 6. Advancing a larger mission (esp. for non-profits, charities, collectives). And every single activity from every single person on every single day needs to advance your company towards at least one of those basic goals. Marketing isn't some magical parallel universe that's detached from the rest of your organization. Marketing needs to work with and enable product, finance, sales, customer support, IT, legal, R&D, etc, etc, etc. Marketing IS a core business activity and your operations must correspond to that reality. So, how would this type of business goal alignment look in practice for B2B marketers? Here are some examples from my work: 1. Writing this LinkedIn post -> getting new customers (long-term) and advancing our mission to educate other B2B marketers 2. Positioning our services as a dining menu -> making our team more productive by streamlining our sales & onboarding process + improving the experience for our leads and clients. 3. Speaking at conferences -> exposure to new markets (especially enterprise), getting more customers, testing ideas for services with live audience feedback. It's really not that difficult to think this way. All of you reading this are more than smart enough to do it - but we're often not encouraged to even try. We're taught to view marketing in a silo, and then we suffer as our budgets are cut and our work doesn't get respected or recognized. So please, take the time to think through how your marketing plan ties to core business objectives. I promise, your work can only get better 😊

What's the secret - why does our content ACTUALLY get such great results? I shared the answer during SaaSOpen (Next: Sept 5th, NYC) in Austin, and now thanks to Founderpath releasing the video I can share it with all of you. Here's a snippet, and you can find the full video here: https://lnkd.in/eiXhuEzx --- Our content is working because we know that effective B2B thought leadership content requires thinking. Our frameworks are dependent on context. On understanding psychologically: - Why would somebody read this, - What information would they have before? Every single stat, every single fact, every single bit of information, definition, it ALL has to be contextual. Why is this interesting? And why is it interesting from you and YOUR brand in particular? Why not from your competitor? Why is this something that your brand should even be talking about? Content is relationship building at scale. Just like with any relationship, you gotta show up. You gotta deliver on your promises. You gotta say something interesting, memorable, and unique. You shouldn't keep droning on and on and on and keep people hostage. Locked in a room, so they can't leave even when they're not trying to hang out with you anymore. Use your content to make people want to hang out with your brand. To make them want to learn more, to make them want to actually buy from you because your brand is likable. THINK about every piece of content you put out there. Not just some as something to rank, but as something that creates a relationship between you and the people you hope will buy from you one day.

Can your content sound professional and still have personality? Absolutely. B2B decision-makers are people too, and their day gets better when consuming relevant information for their jobs doesn't feel like a painful, mind-numbing slog. Help them ENJOY your marketing content, and you'll be surprised at how much better your business outcomes will become. To see a masterclass of this in the wild, just look at this piece that my team at Kalyna Marketing helped create for Mole Street, a consultancy that implements Hubspot-as-a-Solution: https://lnkd.in/eYFBcVYc Mole Street are, in every sense, experts. They're a HubSpot Elite Solutions Partner, they have an unbelievable track record of results and happy clients, and they know their work inside and out. So... how did we showcase their expertise? With lines like these: - "Here's the thing: 'it's not you, it's me', doesn't ring true when it comes to outdated tech, clunky workflows, and siloed, inaccessible data." - "Humble brag: we hold the highest level of HubSpot accreditations and certifications available." - "If you’re feeling any of these uncertainties over the unknown, we get it." - "Without going too deep, let’s explore our team’s five-phase HubSpot migration process to reduce risk and anxiety." Why do these work? Because the small asides, human touches, moments of vulnerability, and humor – they prove Mole Street don't just know what they're talking about, they know how people will FEEL about those subjects. They've had these conversations so many times before that they can empathize with the reader. What my wonderful team has done (Alyson Hunter and Tawni Sattler) is to let Mole Street's team shine in their full humanity. We wrote the post not just to share facts, but to show how likeable these people are. How great they'd be to work with. How fun they'd be to talk to. Doesn't that make you trust them all the more? Thank you to Brendan Walsh, Michele Herzog, Chris DiPietro, and the rest of Mole Street's team for being such great clients to work with. You're a delight!

Marketing services designed like a Michelin-star dining menu.... Crazy? Perhaps. Did we do it? Obviously. 😎 👉 Check it out: https://lnkd.in/gMqAWQRb 👈 In one sales call after another, I kept hearing prospects ask for service packages that combined marketing strategy, content creation, and PR in one. But our old pricing siloed these functions off from one another, forcing me to toil away making clunky Frankenstein bundles that never truly fit. So, we decided to scrap everything we knew about marketing agency packages and start from scratch. Instead, we took inspiration outside of B2B - from fine dining restaurant menus. Think about it: a great menu educates you, the buyer, on how to craft your order. Every dish is organized into a category, each category implies an order (first course is served before the second, dessert is served at the end), and expectations about portion size, nutrition, and even price. So why couldn't a marketing agency leverage that same format to help buyers navigate the maze of complex service offerings and campaign structure? And now, I and my team at Kalyna Marketing have done just that. Our new service packages are just like great meals: 1. Sampler 2. Lunch 3. Three-course dinner 4. Five-course dinner 5. Chef's selection. When we say "revolutionary B2B marketing", we mean it.

Quick summary of my sales conversations lately.

“The greatest tragedy afflicting B2B content isn't any playbook being outdated. It's the miseducation of marketers themselves.” My friend and genius marketer Ronnie Higgins put together this eloquent, sharp, and very true essay on why us B2B marketers often go in circles: https://lnkd.in/gUfYfb4r If you’ve been upset with the state of our industry lately, thinking about walking away from tech marketing completely, or wondering if you’ve gone insane… read it.

Our freelance applications are officially closed and I am BLOWN AWAY by the caliber of talent who applied to join us 😳 I know this sounds like lip service / typical corporate BS but please trust me. This applicant pool is insanely impressive. We got 360 applications total, out of them 67 strategists, 16 researchers, 277 writers. Our applicants include people who: - Led marketing strategy or content programs at Bloomberg Media, Google, Microsoft, Dropbox, VMware, Samsung, and so many more. - Created content / wrote for all of the above orgs + WSJ, Wired, Business Insider, The Economist, Adweek, Intel, JP Morgan…. I am honored. Truly. That a little company I started out less than 2.5 years ago in my home office in tiny Ithaca could become the kind of powerhouse agency that attracts truly the best of the best in marketing to shoot their shot and ask to join our team. This is a great testament to the team we’ve built, the kind of work we produce, and our public presence and reputation. I see this as a win for every single person who is working with Kalyna Marketing! Stay tuned as we filter through applications, interview, and onboard new team members. I am so excited to announce anyone who will join us from this unbelievably fantastic applicant pool.