Unleashing the Power of SaaS Marketing Genius | Tom Levers from Digital Levers

Ernesto: Pathmonk is the intelligent tool for website lead generation. 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 Pathman 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%. Add Pathmonk to your website in seconds. Let the AI do all the work and get x to 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us on pathmonk.com. welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Tom Levers from digital levers owner there with them. Um, how you doing today, Tom?

Tom Levers: Great, thank you for inviting me.

Ernesto: It’s uh, great to have you on and uh, I’m sure our listeners are tuning in wondering what digital levers is all about. So uh, Tom, in your own words, can you tell us a little bit more?

Tom Levers: Sure. Uh, we have narrowed the discipline from broader specializing in technology all the way down to fractional software as a service marketing channel, business development and equity advisors. So everything’s about grow your SaaS sales funnel, improve your SaaS partner channels and most importantly, create good content that celebrates the genius of the company itself and the people that have developed it that I would work for in that engagement, definitely.

Ernesto: All right, great to hear that from you and on that then, so that way our listeners could get a good understanding of your company. Tom, what are some key problems that you’d like to solve for your clients then?

Tom Levers: Well, I can give you three different examples. Um, very quickly, a large Linux based company that needed additional resources above and beyond their marketing department because they were going to be doing a global roadshow. Um, so that I, myself and others that work with me, um, facilitated basically an ad hoc part time marketing department where we would build brochures and data sheets and success stories and uh, some other more unique types of content, um, that’s more visual and less words. And uh, it would uh, be at the show trying to grab interest supporting the existing marketing department and sales. Uh, organization that was one another is a small niche, uh, erp company where uh, it’s sort of fallen between the cracks that it’s the last place in manufacturing or warehousing where paper is still used. And um, that’s a company called Smart Vol where they create electronic Bill of waiting that came out of the COVID where no one wanted to touch anything that another person knew. And, uh, built an ebol solution that some of the largest Fortune 500 here in the US are using. Um, those are standard process automation, digitization and workflow. That’s specifically for, uh, when a truck leaves a shipping dock. Uh, it’s an interesting little niche that, uh, the larger companies somehow just went, uh, dock to dock and then transfer the information in paper. And then the next company, after the shipment got there, would pick up the paper and turn it digitized again. So, um, this is an electronic form that takes it from the beginning to the end of a typical long ltl carrier that fills a whole container full of, uh, anything from pet care, food to computers, dell computers, as an example. So another type of company that I’ve been working with, or it’s not a company, it’s a university that is funded by the Department of Defense. And they needed someone that wasn’t very smart, like me, to translate what, uh, they did in their quantum mechanics tool sets for quantum computing. They’re building a number of different, uh, tools and solutions. Not the physical quantum computer, but, uh, the tool sets that support that. And since I was in the software tool business, uh, they met us to track me down and I did some dod work, ah, for them and translated what they do. Choose a common person. Those are three different examples also related to software.

Ernesto: Definitely. So then would that be your ideal ICP or is there another type, uh, of vertical that you like to go with on?

Tom Levers: That’s it. And it’s any industry because when I started, I worked for chale company that, um, had over 200 different software partners. Everything from fisheries to, uh, furniture software, uh, to library management, to traditional warehouse and manufacturing. Uh, it was across the board. There seems to be workflow and software requirements for every single business globally at this point.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Awesome. Great, great to hear that. Then, uh, and so then how would somebody usually find out then about digital levers? Is there a top client acquisition channel for you, Tom?

Tom Levers: Um, well, I have a website which is digitallevers.com dot. Um, most of it is, uh, I don’t do a lot of outbound, I do a lot of content so that best practice documents that people may, uh, be interested in, that want to use themselves. Uh, so that on LinkedIn maybe I’ll write a little hook that says, gee, are you doing micro surveys in your software? And, uh, most companies that aren’t large are not doing small micro surveys right within their software. And it’s a great tool to learn. Hey, is this feature working or how do you feel in general about the software? Um, you’ve probably answered some quick questions without uh, even knowing that it’s an embedded micro survey, right. Within the software itself. That’s one of the best practice, uh, documents that I wrote. I’ve many others that uh, don’t uh, aren’t the traditional, right, it’s not what is your sales cycle and where does it stack? Even though that’s mom and Apple pie and everybody needs to know it and it’s all embedded into what is the CRM solution that you’re using as an organization. There um, are also nuances on how to get higher quality prospects, uh, that are already asking the right questions because maybe they’ve been ah, pointed out to go find a ah, certain type of software company. So that’s why I work with these companies. We try to find out what their requirements are and then myself or someone else has um, a role to assist them and we move forward all fractional. So rarely is it extremely expensive, it’s not big agency, um, numbers where to get started we need a uh, retainer of uh, $20,000 a month or something like that. It could be as small as we have a little project, let’s see how you do. And it doesn’t even have to be more than $1,000. So we work with, we understand that the entrepreneur in a software company is the very first time, it’s their idea of what software they have and they’re still testing and trying to grow the business so that one day maybe they will flip it to a larger company that will acquire that.

Ernesto: Uh, okay. Uh, awesome, great, great to hear that from, from you and well, like you mentioned, so that way our listeners 14 dean could go ahead and visit you, they could always check you out@digitalleverage.com. dot what role does the website then for plan for uh, client acquisition? Tom?

Tom Levers: I’m sorry? Uh, what role does my website or the prospects website?

Ernesto: Well uh, in this case both, right? I mean what would you say does a website have in order to clearly.

Tom Levers: Um, if it is not written for um, mobile, it needs to be uh, sometimes people built websites a few years back and the performance of the website, uh, doesn’t respond to mobile. Um, and so as a result, that very first on a phone thinking about or looking at a business card, uh, it has to have a very quick response time. Otherwise, no matter what you say on it, they’re not even reading it. And moving on, um, so that um, the very first homepage is extremely important. Um, once you get up to the homepage, you can communicate, uh, so that there’s no abandonment, uh, what you do, ah, if they’re looking, if the prospect’s looking for you and uh, drilling down into a, ah, fairly robust back end, uh, with resources and who you are and contact us and the various capabilities that you provide, whether it’s uh, development services or straight software. And what type of software, um, that homepage is really important.

Ernesto: Definitely. Okay, great. And on that note then, is there any tools or tips or methods that you would recommend to our listeners, Tom, as far as some website lead generation?

Tom Levers: Yeah, if you want to get them, if they don’t have a lot of time. Right. And they’re just looking. Real quick, who is this company? Uh, a call to action could be not we want to sell you software, but something that you could give them so that you could educate them about the topic that you specialize in. For example, um, uh, the ebol solution that I was talking about, there are all types of why, uh, ebol, uh, is not. Bill of lading is uh, an important time saving, uh, reducing paper, being able to access some documents that can convince them that it’s pertinent to learn more about.

Ernesto: Definitely.

Tom Levers: All right.

Ernesto: Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Tom. Uh, well, let’s switch gears a little bit, Tom. Let’s talk about as a leader, you’d be the owner there. For digital levers. What are some key tasks like to focus on in a day to day work?

Tom Levers: My day to day work, correct. Relationships, uh, uh, whether it is me working on a blog and talking to some people, uh, because I like to demo in putting a value proposition into a blog rather than just transactions. Um, this way, uh, there’s an elevator pitch in every single conversation, and it can be one topic or another. But those relationships with partners, and that’s the other leg of the stool that I have, that I deliver, is developing partner channels. And how you go about doing that. Sorry.

Ernesto: No worries.

Tom Levers: Go ahead.

Ernesto: Oh, okay, perfect. Um, and so, um, with that, right, I mean, you like those relationships, and it sounds like you’re really busy on your day to day. How do you stay up to date with the overwhelming data that’s out there with marketing?

Tom Levers: Right.

Ernesto: Every year there seems to be something new. Every month there seems to be something new. Uh, is there a preferred channel that you’d like to go with?

Tom Levers: Uh, tomorrow the number of touch points are infinite, and they vary over time. Um, uh, one of the things that I’d really like to do is read the marketing of the vertical market of my customer, because what I do is I learn what is prevalent in that business or industry. Who’s the leader? What are they doing? I look at the tactics and strategies of the customer’s prospect and what else is out there that their prospect may be looking at. As a result, it gives me a sense of the maturity of that industry. Some are not as mature, some are more. I mean, when you explain ah, ebol, it’s in supply chain. A fancy name for it is warehouse, uh, management. Or the documents are in a truck with coffee stains on them. It’s not as luxurious as it, uh, loves to make it sound. And, um, it can go all the way to the very complex, like the DoD example where I had to do huge amounts of background research just to learn how to ask the right questions.

Ernesto: Definitely. All right, great to hear that. And, well, let’s jump into our next section here, Tom, which is a rapid fire question round. Uh, are you ready for them?

Tom Levers: Sure. I’ll try to keep my words limited.

Ernesto: Awesome, great, great, great to hear that. Uh, well, first off then, Tom, is what is the last book that you read?

Tom Levers: I’m, um. Pardon?

Ernesto: What is the, what is the last book that you read?

Tom Levers: Oh, the last book that I read. Uh. Uh, it was, uh, a challenge for puzzles. And I don’t even know the title of it. You got me on that one. Um, it was, uh, how a puzzle maker makes puzzles. And what I’ll do is I’ll send it to you and I’ll list it. My apologies for not remembering the title.

Ernesto: No, no worries. Thank you so much for that. Uh, then next up is what is one single thing that you’re focused on at the moment the most with your company?

Tom Levers: Um, understanding time management, which, um, is really important. Uh, I’m a morning person. I know I get more done and the right things done and the creative things. Ah, during that period of time, I’m like a clock that you wind up by the end of the day. The spring’s pretty tired.

Ernesto: All right, uh, next then is, um, if there would be no boundaries in technology, what would be that one thing that you want to have fixed for your role as a marketer?

Tom Levers: Um, boundaries of technology? Well, the marketing stack is always changing. Uh, and one of the temptations is that the larger companies want to bundle everything. Um, I personally, I’m not sure I’m answering the question, but I prefer best of breed because often no one company can do all of the marketing stack as well. So the best of breed is a better approach.

Ernesto: Yeah, definitely.

Tom Levers: All right, awesome.

Ernesto: Great to hear. And, uh, is there one repetitive test that you could automate? Um, what would that be?

Tom Levers: Documentation. Um, not just documentation for my customers, but something that would automate process as I refine it and document it so that it’s more easily transferable to other people in my organization as well as my clients. Um, yeah, it’s, you know, it’s the classic management consulting workflow environment. Um, yet in the marketing area, it’s often start, doesn’t start in the same place all the time. Uh, you get the foundation, you understand the background, and then you jump around that documenting of workflow.

Ernesto: That’s, I think that’s super important. Right. Um, so thanks. Thanks for that. And, well, lastly, Tom, I mean, like you, like you mentioned before, uh, you have over 30 years of experience in the marketing world. But what is that one piece of advice that you would give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer today?

Tom Levers: Um, be the expert. Your brand as a person is your most important brand. And early days, you forget that you are a brand and you’re just trying to make your way and impress the CEO of at the time that you’re working for and recognize, um, that, uh, your strengths and weaknesses should be put into some type of productization. So you need to product yourself early on, and that can change. Uh, the product can adapt and change, but, uh, in the beginning, I had no clue that that was even possible, to position and productize and create verticals of what you can do.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Awesome. Great. Thank you so much for that advice. And, ah, well, Tom, we are coming to the end of the show here, but before we do end, I do want to give you the last word. If someone forgets everything about the interview today, what is that one thing they should remember about digital levers?

Tom Levers: Okay. Um, really, uh, software marketing experts, uh, and it’s not off the shelf. Every single one of the projects is unique to that business.

Ernesto: Perfect. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Tom, for being with us today in today’s episode and to our listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in, and, um, I’m looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents. Thanks a lot, Tom.

Tom Levers: Thank you very much. It was great talking to.