Generating Demand for a Compliant Hiring Solution | Jordi Black from Zinc

Kevin Shirley: Welcome to the Pathmonk Presents podcast. Pathmonk is the AI for website conversions. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments. With relevant micro-experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more. Stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50% by adding Pathmonk to your website in seconds, letting the artificial intelligence do all the work and increase conversions by 50% while you keep doing marketing as usual. Check us out on pathmonk.com. Hey everybody. Welcome to today’s episode of the Pathmonk Presents podcast. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We’ve got Jordi from marketing operations over at Zinc. Jordi, how are you today?

Jordi Black: Good, thank you. What about yourself?

Kevin Shirley: Doing quite well, getting over a little bit of a sickness but moving forward. So, we’re really looking forward to having you on the show today and talking a little bit more about Zinc. Obviously, this is a podcast that focuses around growth and marketing and digital strategies, and we’re really looking forward to learning about what Zinc has been doing in terms of growing your operations over there. But before we dive really too far into the details, I was hoping we could get started with a nice introductory type question. Why don’t you tell us about your company? Tell us about Zinc. What’s it all about?

Jordi: Nice. So, yeah, we are an employment background-checking service, primarily focused on the UK mid-to-enterprise companies. We enable hiring teams to hire faster, more efficiently, and compliantly by providing various checks that they need to do on candidates.

Kevin Shirley: Very nice. Everyone’s got a niche. To dive a little deeper, I wanted to know about who you serve. What sort of companies or industries do you work in? What are some of the problems you solve for these people?

Jordi: Yeah, sure. I think primarily anyone who’s hiring we can serve. But I guess our focus and where we do our best work are around regulated industries, like finance, healthcare, and education. These industries have checks they are required to do by law because they are bound to specific regulators. Often, there’s a need for quick hiring due to competition, so these processes need to be as quick and accurate as possible.

Kevin Shirley: I know oftentimes when you’re dealing with regulations, it can really slow things down. It seems like you guys are stepping in and allowing those processes to be more streamlined.

Jordi: Yeah, 100%.

Kevin Shirley: Speaking more on the growth and marketing side of things, I’m interested to know about the client acquisition channels you’ve been working with. Can you tell me about what’s been working for you recently from a marketing standpoint?

Jordi: Our website is like our front door, the house of our marketing and demo generation. It does very well, which we’re happy with. We’ve also found a lot of success with in-person events like trade shows, where we speak to customers directly and sell our services. These events and the website play really nicely together. People often see us at the event, check out our site, and then book a demo or book directly at the event.

Kevin Shirley: In terms of the website, saying it’s their first interaction with the company and you’re using it as a lead generation tool, how do you measure its success? What metrics are you focusing on most?

Jordi: We’ve moved away from being hyper-focused on the number of demos generated. About a year or two ago, we launched a self-serve model to allow smaller clients, who may not be a fit for a demo, to start using the platform themselves. Now, our main focus is on generating pipeline for the sales team and the company as a whole.

Kevin Shirley: Got it. Working in tandem with the sales team—flooding them with as many potential opportunities as possible. Love hearing that, especially as a sales guy myself. When managing growth, are there tools or methods you’d recommend?

Jordi: Yes. As a startup moving into a scale-up, we’ve had to evolve constantly. Early on, everything was ad hoc—just trying different things to see what worked. Now, we’re more structured, recognizing that some channels take time to show results. Activities like brand awareness, which might not yield demos or leads immediately, are essential for people to remember us 6–12 months later and come back.

Kevin Shirley: So, where you were two years ago is totally different from today. How long have you guys been around?

Jordi: We started in 2017.

Kevin Shirley: Congratulations on the growth, by the way.

Jordi: Thank you.

Kevin Shirley: Moving into Jordi as the marketing professional, what are some key responsibilities you focus on daily?

Jordi: My main task is ensuring our marketing data is accurate. I spend a lot of time in Google Analytics and HubSpot, identifying user behavior and iterating based on what we find.

Kevin Shirley: We do something similar at Pathmonk—always identifying which parts of pages convert best and how to improve. How do you keep learning and growing as a professional?

Jordi: I’m a sucker for LinkedIn. I’ve curated my feed to focus on meaningful content rather than rubbish. With the rise of AI-generated content, originality has decreased, but LinkedIn remains a good resource for genuine ideas and tips.

Kevin Shirley: I’m more of a YouTube tutorial person—quick 15-minute videos instead of 2,000-word articles. But it’s easy to get lost in content.

Jordi: Yeah.

Kevin Shirley: Let’s move into the rapid-fire round. Short, crisp answers. Ready?

Jordi: Let’s do it.

Kevin Shirley: What’s the last book you read?

Jordi: Useful Not True by Derek Sivers.

Kevin Shirley: If there were no boundaries in technology, what’s one thing you’d want fixed for your role?

Jordi: 100% visibility into a customer’s user journey.

Kevin Shirley: What repetitive task would you automate?

Jordi: Cleaning up my databases.

Kevin Shirley: What’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger self as a marketer?

Jordi: Ask “why” more. Understanding the context behind actions leads to better results.

Kevin Shirley: Wise words. That wraps up today’s episode. Jordi, thank you so much for joining us. For anyone looking to automate their employee background checks, check out Zinc. One last question: If listeners forget everything else, what’s the one thing they should remember about Zinc?

Jordi: The hiring process is often long and arduous, but it doesn’t have to be.

Kevin Shirley: Well said. Thank you so much, Jordi.

Jordi: Thank you, Kevin.