Marketing Automation Lunch With Jake & Eric

Source: https://www.wte.net/Blog/July-2023/Marketing-Automation-Lunch-With-Jake-Eric
Date: July 2023
Author: Martin W Smith

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Introduction

The author recounts a lunch conversation with Jake Finkelstein and Eric Garrison, describing them as complementary halves of "a single digital marketing brain"—Eric representing analytical, technical expertise and Jake embodying creative visualization. The discussion centered on marketing technology stacks and the perpetual challenge of managing more marketing tasks than teams can handle.

10Cubed.co Easy To Use Marketing Automation

Jake's startup, 10Cubed, aims to democratize marketing automation through more accessible, affordable solutions powered by artificial intelligence and scaled systems. The author notes the marketing automation market is currently worth $4.5B but argues it should be substantially larger, as only enterprise customers can typically afford platforms like Salesforce Pardot and Adobe Marketo.

The author emphasizes that small-to-medium businesses need different solutions: "easier-to-use picks, shovels, and pans so SMBs don't have to become marketing automation experts."

The Digital First Gold Rush

As more small businesses transition to digital-first operations, they face overwhelming complexity managing CRMs, CMSs, social media, and email marketing. The author references the gold rush principle: profit comes from selling tools to those seeking opportunity, not from the work itself.

The Brand Brief - Do It For Them First

Jake explains his strategic approach involving mission documentation, "onliness" definition, value proposition articulation, ideal customer profile analysis, empathy mapping, and message mapping creation.

Currently, 10Cubed combines consulting services with platform development—a bootstrap strategy the author endorses as simultaneously funding growth and gathering market intelligence.