Mark Josephson
DEMAND GEN VISIONARIES
/
EPISODE
76
Stop Selling, Begin Solving, and Start Scaling
Mark discusses using storytelling techniques in demand gen marketing, how to engage with harder-to-reach audiences, and shares advice to CEOs and Founders figuring out their Demand Gen strategy. The interview wraps up Mark’s insights on investing in digital infrastructure with scaling in mind.
Castiron is a mission-driven e-commerce company that elevates how independent kitchen-based creators sell to their customers and provides them with resources and community to support their whole business. The world’s best bakers, juicers, canners, jammers, caterers, meal-preppers, private chefs and other culinary artisans use Castiron as a central hub to sell their products online, connect with customers, grow their businesses and save time and money so they can focus on making what they love.
INDUSTRY
E-Commerce
FOUNDED
2020
WEBSITE
www.castiron.me

Mark Josephson is a mission-driven leader with a track record of success. His career highlights include growing Seevast to $100mm in revenue (2006), building Outside.in and selling to AOL (2013), and being the CEO of the wildly succesful Bitly (2013-2020). Mark is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of Castiron – an e-commerce company for kitchen-based creators. When Mark isn’t breaking ground or disrupting markets as an entrepreneur and business leader, you can likely find him sharpening his crossword puzzle skills.

Episode Summary

This episode features Mark Josephson, a Co-Founder and CEO of Castiron, an e-commerce company that caters to kitchen-based entrepreneurs. Mark brings to the table an impressive track record of successfully building and growing software and tech companies. Mark came to Castiron from Bitly, where he was CEO from 2013 to 2020. Prior to Bitly, Mark held various positions at AOL’s Patch, Outside.in., and About.com.

In this episode, Mark discusses using storytelling techniques in demand gen marketing, how to engage with harder-to-reach audiences, and shares advice to CEOs and Founders figuring out their demand gen strategy. The interview wraps up Mark’s insights on investing in digital infrastructure with scaling in mind.

Key Takeaways

  • Successful marketers are obsessed with solving problems, not selling things.
  • Reaching new audiences requires providing more than a product, value needs to be added to their day.
  • Invest early in data architecture to avoid issues while retroactively building infrastructure after scaling.

Quotes

“Wouldn't it be great if we were obsessed with solving problems for our customers, instead of just trying to sell them something? Wouldn't it be great if our success was aligned with the success of our customers? … That means freemium, that means SAS, that means consumption-based pricing. A lot of truisms about great businesses have roots in the kind of relationship you want to have with your customers and that, to me, is all marketing.”

Episode Transcript

*(0:30) - Mark’s vision for Castiron 

*(3:03) - How Mark views the role of CMO and Demand Gen as CEO

*(5:00) - Segment: Trust Tree

*(7:51) - Getting in front of harder to reach audiences 

*(10:38) - Segment: The Playbook 

*(12:56) - Biggest surprises Mark’s encounter in marketing

*(17:42) - Segment: The Dust-Up

*(23:56) - Mark’s favorite campaigns

*(29:57) - How Mark views his website

*(33:04) - Segment: Quick Hits