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Why "Friend Factories" will rule the world

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Welcome to today’s issue of Conversion Alchemy Journal. If you received this from a friend and enjoy it, subscribe here.​

You're pumping resources into your B2B SaaS marketing efforts. But are you really connecting with your audience?

Or are potential customers slipping through your fingers, taking your hard-earned revenue with them?

In my conversations with SaaS leaders on The Message-Market Fit Podcast, I’m hearing a new vision for the future slowly poking out: the rise of the "friend factory."

As Foti Panagiotakopoulos, who came up with the term, puts it: "The best salespeople will tell you if you want to sell something, help first, right? Offer value, make them trust you, build up that credibility."

Here's why traditional marketing approaches are falling flat:

• Robotic interactions: You're churning out content, but it lacks personality. Your audience craves genuine connections, not another faceless corporation.
• AI overreliance: Sure, AI can crunch numbers and automate tasks. But it can't replicate human creativity, empathy, or strategic thinking.
• Customer disconnect: You're so focused on features and metrics that you've lost sight of your customers' real needs, anxieties, and motivations.

Sound familiar?

Here's the good news: you can transform your company into a "friend factory" and see the light out of the tunnel. Here's how:

1. Embrace AI as an partner, not a replacement:

Use AI to handle day-to-day tasks, freeing up your team to focus on building real relationships.

"AI will make a huge impact on marketing...but I don't think that AI will replace marketing...I think what it will definitely do, and is doing right now, is enhancing people to spend more time being creative." - Michele Tropeano, Head of Growth and Marketing, TMMF ep. 19​

Example: Salesforce's Einstein AI analyzes customer data to predict which leads are most likely to convert. This allows sales reps to focus their energy on high-potential prospects, having more meaningful conversations instead of cold calling.

2. Become obsessed with your customers (in a good way):

Go beyond surface-level demographics. Dive deep into the "Jobs to Be Done" your customers are hiring your product to solve.

Example: Intercom doesn't just sell chat software; they understand their customers' core need is to build better relationships with their own customers. This insight shapes everything from their product development to their content marketing strategy.

3. Cut through the noise with radical authenticity:

In a world of polished marketing messages, genuine, transparent, and relatable companies will stand out.

"People buy in long journeys that are no longer attributable via any one marketing technology… You have to build a narrative." - Marc Thomas, Senior Growth Marketer, TMMF ep. 06​

Example: Buffer's radical transparency includes publishing their salaries, equity formula, and even their revenue dashboard publicly. This has earned them a fiercely loyal customer base and industry respect.

4. Build your "friend factory" from the ground up:

• Invest heavily in customer research (interviews, surveys, social listening)
• Break down internal silos and champion open communication
• Inject personality and empathy into every touchpoint

Example: Drift's conversational marketing platform is a prime example of a "friend factory" in action. Their chatbots are designed to feel like real conversations, their content is full of personality, and they've built a community around their brand with events like "HYPERGROWTH."

Every interaction is an opportunity to build a lasting relationship. And in the B2B SaaS world, relationships are the new currency.

"The voice of the customer has to win. ...Go get insights. Go learn from the customer and let the customer voice be heard." - Derik Sutton, CMO, TMMF ep. 05​

When you’re ready to join the "friend factory" movement and finally understand what you need to say and how to get more customers, hit me up.

📚 Copywriting nuggets in the wild

Content of the week:

A new research paper just dropped that could change how we understand our customers and work with AI for our marketing. Researchers from Stanford and NYU tested the ability of GPT-4, to predict the results of real social science experiments. The results are mind-blowing:

AI is a mind reader (almost): GPT-4 could accurately predict how people would respond to different messages, often matching or surpassing the accuracy of human experts!

AI can uncover hidden knowledge: The AI even made accurate predictions on unpublished experiments, suggesting its potential to reveal hidden customer insights.

Ethical red alert: The researchers also found GPT-4 could be used to identify harmful messages, highlighting the potential for misuse and the need for responsible AI development.

I've been writing about this for some time and will write more. If you have any questions on how you can use AI to understand your customers better than they know themselves, just ask away by replying to this email.

✅ Don't miss it

• 📹 Did you know that a while ago I hosted a free 1-hour masterclass on how to structure and write your SaaS homepage? If not, you can check it out on my Youtube channel​
• 🔥 Exciting new episodes coming soon on The Message-Market Fit podcast. For the "Shop Talk Sessions" series, we have interviews with experts Georgiana Laudi, Talia Wolf, and Gab Bujold coming soon.
• 🆘 Are you or do you know a junior conversion copywriter who wants to get on cool projects and learn directly from me? Let me know, I'm looking for help from someone awesome.

🤔 Thought of the week

Jim Loehr, The Power of Full Engagement

It takes guts to always see challenges and problems as opportunities, and to keep consistency on your path no matter what. When you see an optimistic man, you see a man who’s putting in the work to be that.

Have a great weekend!

​ Chris Silvestri Founder, Conversion Alchemy

🙌🏻 Let’s be friends (unless you’re a stalker)​

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