These days, there is no standard marketing strategy. Each company has to find its voice and market itself.It is not enough to rely on proven strategies and measurable metrics today. The most successful marketers continue to study new approaches and seek out innovative ways to grow their business.Unmuted is here to help. This agency, a growth marketing agency, is based in Amsterdam and focuses on LinkedIn marketing. Max van den Ingh, who was previously the head of product and growth at MisterGreen (an electric vehicle leasing company), and ShopPop (a chat-based marketing platform), was also responsible for growth marketing.TechCrunch was referred to Van den Ingh by the TechCrunch Experts program. We are currently looking for top-tier growth marketing professionals that we can recommend to other startups. Please fill out this survey if you are aware of one.Van den Ingh talked to us about his modern marketing approach, setting realistic goals and how startups had to change during the pandemic.Editor's Note: This interview was edited to be more concise and clear.Unmuted is a modern growth marketing agency. What is your modern approach to marketing?Our approach to helping our clients is completely different from traditional marketing agencies. Unmuted clients don't come to us just to get their ideas implemented; they come to Unmuted for our process. We have created a growth marketing strategy that generates new ideas for our clients. This process is extremely valuable to them.We either assist the customer's team or they execute themselves and we report back. We believe that this process-based model of service is the best way to grow your business.Our approach to helping our clients is completely different from traditional marketing agencies. We offer a completely different approach to helping our clients than traditional marketing agencies.This is how it works in practice. We learn from fast-growing businesses and then apply those principles to clients' businesses. We focus on innovative companies, regardless of whether they offer SaaS or are innovators in a traditional industry. We have created a process that works for B2B startups as well as scaleups and SMBs. This last group can greatly benefit from our approach.The three-fold role of our team is to come up with marketing strategies and then experiment with proven tactics, based on our in-house experience and knowledge. This allows our clients to get rid of their potentially restrictive tunnel vision.Our growth program usually consists of three stages, which we call Acceleration, Foundation and Transformation. The Foundation stage is where we establish the foundations, based on an in-depth audit of our clients' businesses, and then start with our first experiments. The Acceleration stage scales up the promising early results. In the Transformation stage, clients learn how to grow their businesses. We can also be available as consultants if necessary.MisterGreen's work helped the company grow by 10x. What can clients expect to grow when they work with you? How can you help clients achieve realistic goals?Marketing is no different. Setting goals can be difficult. Why would you set a goal for a certain number of people? You can aim for a higher or lower number. Unmuted performs a series together of exercises when we begin working with a client. This gives us a clear picture about where our client is at the moment and where they might be if we optimize marketing.TechCrunch will help you find the top growth marketers for startups. We will share your recommendations with everyone by completing this short survey.Instead of focusing on fixed numbers like the number of customers that were added in a certain time period, we instead focus on growth levers like month-overmonth growth in certain activation or conversion areas. Our work becomes more efficient when we focus on growth levers.As part of our growth plan, we create a framework that allows for certain beliefs. This belief system is essential for any growth marketing strategy. You will only be able to measure what you can measure if you don't allow for gut feelings and limit your focus on data-driven projects. Growth marketing is more effective if you invest in spaces and channels that you cannot measure.It is amazing to see people talking about your solution via WhatsApp and podcast episodes. This can influence revenue. However, sometimes it is impossible to track these activities.We cannot guarantee growth results. This is not how it works. We always strive to maximize the results of every process. Focus on continuous improvement and optimization is the first step. The results will follow.We helped a B2B SaaS platform increase demo request by 350%. This was not the end goal. We focused our efforts on optimizing every step of the demo request process, from acquiring visitors to optimizing demo pages and more. Each experiment we tried increased the demo request metric. These compounded results begin to appear after six months.ShopPop's head of growth, you were also your boss. What did this experience teach you about how to help clients?I learned a lot from working for a rapidly-growing B2B SaaS business with a self-serve platform. First, it is important to have a clear understanding of sustainable growth. There are many things you can do in order to achieve short-term growth marketing results. This won't always work, as you may be acquiring customers you don't want in the long-term.You can run aggressive advertising campaigns early on to attract new customers in areas that aren't likely to benefit from your product. This kind of superficial growth is not sustainable and will result in churn rather quickly.Unmuted invests a lot of effort and time into getting to know our clients, their ideal customers and their needs. Then, we can start to look at solutions for our clients' problems using their products and services.You are a Nyenrode Business University guest lecturer and also do speaking engagements. What are you hoping people will take away from your talksDuring a speaking engagement, my stories always include times when I used a pragmatic approach to solve problems. Although it may seem simple, growth can take many forms and come in many different ways. Management and people need to realize that growth is a process and requires failures.To learn and iterate, you need to have conversations. It is better to have the wrong kind of conversations than none at all. There is no way to learn if you don't get feedback. While marketers are naturally eager to learn, it is not the same for every businessperson. My approach to learning and growing is a way for me to inspire people.What have you witnessed happen to startups during the pandemic?During the pandemic, many startups were forced to adapt their strategies. Some have managed to adapt, while others remain stuck. It was something I personally experienced when I was working at ShopPop. We were focusing on the music industry at the time the pandemic struck.We had to change our strategy because music industry clients were not buying. We eventually moved into e-commerce which is still booming.What trends are you seeing in growth market as the pandemic persists?I am most interested in the growing role of marketing departments. They have never been more important than they are today. Particularly digital marketers are the ones who come up with innovative ways for companies to grow online. While no one can predict how the COVID-19 pandemic might unfold, everyone is working to adapt and find meaningful ways to reach their customers.We are seeing an increase in demand for virtual summits and webinars online. However, everyone is doing them. How can you create your own unique brand identity? Marketing should be about discovering these new channels and methods, I believe.What has been your experience with the growth of the startup market?New standards have been set as a key indicator of the growth of the startup market. Startups have been known for being fast-moving, but remote work and the advent of highly collaborative tools has increased startup's speed. The entire industry became rocket ships from being speedboats. Talent was easier to find, and internal cultures became more diverse.Startups can always be counted on to adopt new methods of working from the beginning. Startups need to be different in order to survive. A novel approach could make them stand out among the rest.It is not uncommon to feel like you are on the edge. This is also when you are at your creative best. This is how I believe growth marketing was created. People must fight for their rights in competitive markets. Marketing can often be used to differentiate. Markets develop when people are able to set new standards and raise their bar.What are the biggest mistakes startups make?This has been repeated many times, but startups don't learn fast enough and deep enough. Many founders have a brilliant idea of what the future holds. How much field experience do they really have? Is it enough to see the future?Startups usually experience short-term growth. They get some initial traction through their network. Then the next phase begins. This next phase can be difficult, especially if there is an investment involved.It is very difficult for a company to find the right product-market match and apply what it has learned. This phase requires a lot research and experimentation. Startups will quickly deteriorate if the founder team is not up for it and puts their heads in the sand.The other side of the coin: What is it that startups are doing better than ever?I believe that investing in community early is the best thing for a startup. MisterGreen was my company's growth leader. We created a community to support the first 1000 Tesla Model 3 owners in the Netherlands. Everybody wanted to be part of the founding tribe. They could learn from one another, share their insights, and so forth.This group proved to be our most powerful marketing tool. The word-of-mouth campaign was a huge success. All of these people were talking about our community at their workplaces, birthday parties, and other places. This is a great example how you can invest in marketing that you don't know the cost of, but you strongly believe in.
