Advancing Growth With Permission Data For Modern Marketers | Colleen Barry from Ketch

Rick: Pathmonk is the AI for website conversions. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors simply don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in the buying journey separates you from the competition Online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are, the buying journey, and influencing them in key decision moments with relevant micro experiences like case studies in videos, and much more.
Stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50% by adding Pathmonk to your website in seconds. Letting the AI do all the work and increase conversions while you keep doing marketing as usual. Check us out on pathmonk.com. Hey everybody. Welcome back to today’s episode of Pathmonk Presents.
Today we are joined by Colleen Barry. She’s the head of marketing at Ketch. Colleen, welcome to the show.

Colleen Barry: Thanks, Rick. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

Rick: Pleasure to have you. Of course. I’m excited to, to dive in, Colleen. we were talking about, some things going on offline, but maybe let’s start with the basics.
right now, what’s the big idea behind Ketch? And if you were to explain it to a friend over coffee, how would you describe what you do?

Colleen Barry: Yeah, you bet. so if I’m explaining Ketch to a Friend, the first thing I say is, those annoying cookie banners that pop up when you go to a website? That’s what I do, but, in a more cool and data oriented and strategic way.
so that’s what Ketch does. We’re data privacy management software, but the big idea that we have is. Is really permission data and envisioning a future in which businesses can run on permission data, that’s consented, data that’s responsibly gathered, and, permeates its way to every system and app where marketers, growth leaders are actually using that data to grow the business.
That’s the big idea, and that’s what we’re focused on is end to end from that initial, consent or privacy choice collection in the, cookie banner or consent banner, all the way to how do you get that permission to, your Snowflake database, your, LinkedIn audience, how do we get that permission data flowing across the business so growth leaders can actually use it, to grow in database ways?
So that’s the big idea and, that’s what we’re trying to shop from the rooftops at Ketch.

Rick: Okay. Are there any certain types of businesses or industries where you feel something like Ketch really shines and ’cause I, I assume there’s a key problem you’re helping them solve there. but also maybe, there’s some industries that are specifically, needing what you guys offer in terms of data privacy.

Colleen Barry: Yeah, absolutely. So it is unique because in a way, every company needs data privacy, right? Like every company today in 2025 should be respecting people’s data. And so in one way Ketch can serve everybody from a basic, notifying consumers on the website that you’re collecting their data, you may be sharing it.
So in that way, we can serve everybody. And we do have a lightweight cookie banner consent management platform that’s suitable for just about every business who wants to notify consumers of their data practices. but for companies that really want to handle this in a, in an end-to-end responsible way, there’s usually two key signals that Ketch, Ketches a good fit or something that could be helpful for one, businesses that serve a lot of consumers.
So you have a lot of consumers at visiting your website. That usually means you’re retail, e-commerce, media, entertainment, right? You have a lot of consumers visiting your digital properties. That’s one signal, that it’s a good fit for Ketch. And then second would be complexity of data systems.
So not only do you have a lot of consumers visiting your website, you have a lot of data systems and third party applications and, third party vendors to which you need to orchestrate and send that data to. And so again. that comes back to what are the types of businesses that serve a lot of consumers and have complexity in their advertising, those ecosystems and their data systems.
And that often translates to, retail and eCommerce as well as media and entertainment, occasionally other businesses that serve a lot of consumers like travel or hospitality or what have you. But that’s the gist of it.

Rick: Got it. Okay. So let’s assume I’m, I work at a company that’s, heavy on data systems, and, I’m a data controller or whatever fits your ICP, if you will. How do I, discover you? And by the way, feel free to correct me on, I said data, controller. And as far as, or your ICP, feel free to come, correct me there and, actually declare on your ICP is, but the, I guess the, The meat of the question is, how can I discover you? And were there any channels that have become your, go-to for bringing in new customers? More of those, if you will.

Colleen Barry: Yeah, great question. most companies discover us because they’re looking for an alternative to a legacy data privacy solution. State of privacy, especially in a digital context. First really came to market in 2016 when GDPR was passed in Europe, right? And then went into effect in 2018. And there’s a couple legacy solutions that came to market when that started. Built for just GDPR compliance. Let get, let’s get something basic up on the website.
So a lot of companies, specifically the lawyers and companies, bought some kind of legacy solution now in 2025. It’s not just GPR anymore, okay? 75% of the world is covered by data privacy regulations. In the US especially, there’s a very active regulatory environment. And so what’s happening now in the data privacy market is that there are, Companies using legacy tools that are breaking or not up to speed to serve this very complex regulatory environment. ’cause they were built just for GDPR.
So usually what happens is you have somebody at the business that’s searching for what’s an alternative, what’s a new data privacy solution? Just, what’s out there now that can replace these old school tools that are breaking or require way too much engineering or. Now, so most folks find us, via, paid search, organic search, just direct traffic. Those are from a marketing standpoint, channels, right? The demo requests coming into Ketch.com, those are the biggest channels performing, usually typing in something like, insert legacy, brand alternative, or insert legacy brand options.
that’s the kind of keywords and things that we’re capitalizing on that are leading folks to Ketch.com. It’s often, um, a legal or privacy, ICP because that’s who usually bought the first tool. But as, privacy has become more and more a data issue and data-centric problem, we are seeing, data leaders, IT leaders, and now even marketing leaders because, the cookie banner’s part of the website as part of that consumer journey.
And so now even marketers looking for, for tools like Ketch, that’s usually how folks find us searching for an alternative to a legacy issue.

Rick: Okay. Got it. So people come through, say those keywords, they’re looking for the alternative. And then they land on, a landing page maybe, or your website, your main website.
So how much of a role does your website play in putting new customers? And is there anything about it that you think really works right now? or anything maybe that you got your eye on, improving even?

Colleen Barry: Yeah. the website is, critical to lead generation for Ketch. Um. When it comes to qualified, demos, making their way, through early lead stages and into pipeline for our sales team.
Right now about 60% of K’S pipeline is generated by the marketing team, by demo inbound demo requests. and so our sales team is hugely reliant on the marketing team to bring in leads, to get to closed one. so the website is a huge part of that.
When we pass leads on to our sales team, I’m. I’m very passionate about only passing on leads that are hand raises, demo requests, right? We, I really try not to be that marketing team that brags about all the white paper downloads and leads we’re sending to sales. And then sales starts complaining about, what are you talking about, Colleen? This isn’t a lead. I feel very passionately about that sending qualified leads to sales. we’re focused on getting folks to that demo request to that hand raise page. And, the landing page and homepage and all of that is just, hugely important to figuring out the right conversion paths for those people.
We’re constantly consistently spinning up new landing page tests, using HubSpot for us. we have a mix of kind of a HubSpot and Webflow stack when it comes to our website. Most of the iterative landing pages we’re doing in HubSpot, and then the core website is on Webflow. and so depending on the ad campaign we’re running, we’re choosing, Creating landing pages that are as focused as possible, tied as much to the keywords as possible so that when the user lands it’s, as relevant as possible and as much tied to whatever they were searching for.
when it comes to thinking about our search and how people find a strategy, one of our big focuses right now is a EO. How can people find us in the LLMs? And so for that reason, we’ve really increased, Our backlink and also forum strategy to make sure that when people are having conversations online, Ketch is mentioned. So that includes things like increasing how often we’re mentioned on Reddit, increasing how often we’re showing up in things like those listicle sites, right? Top 10 data privacy tools, top 10 consent management tools. We’re, hearing that those are, sites prioritized by LLMs, and so we’re, kicking up our investment and focus on those. and so we have seen marked increase in traffic from, chat BT and other sites because of that strategy.

Rick: That’s interesting.
I, know there’s a specific set of parameters that, these, LLMs, are using to determine, of course, what’s the best content or, what’s the quickest one also, that they can pull. And then it sounds like, those websites, those listicles and as you said, are a good source of it.
So landing on one of those then will help your case in being recommended. Is that it?

Colleen Barry: Yeah, I think so. we started this strategy, at the beginning of our fiscal year, which is February, 2025. Really as a result of sales team feedback, because we started hearing from our sales team that demo requests were coming in, we were giving Ketch demos, but our sales team was hearing from the buyer.
you guys are the last ones I’m checking in with, right? We, already looked at a bunch of other demos. We just, I just heard about Ketch, so I wanna get you guys in here.
So we, were getting this consi anecdotal, but consistent feedback that people were finding out about Ketch too late in their research cycle. And so because of that, we started this, initiative this year of how can we show up in research earlier, which for us means forums, those listical sites just. Frankly anywhere. That’s not the Ketch website, right? Non-owned entities. How can we show up in places where they’re doing research?
and so then by the time they get to Ketch the website becomes critically important ’cause we’re trying to get them to that quick conversion path to demo. but that’s why we started this, broader strategy to make sure that people are finding out about Ketches early as possible.

Rick: Okay. So Colleen, you’ve been mentioning, demos quite a bit, my next question is more about. From your experience, what do you think actually makes a website, convert?
And so how do you get more of those people to convert and book a demo? and are there any anything that helps in, this endeavor? say maybe there are tools or tactics or little frameworks that you’ve used that have worked wonders for you to be able to help convert more.

Colleen Barry: Yeah, absolutely. a few tools do come to mind.
what we’ve seen success with is certainly, product tours on the site. That’s been a huge trend in SaaS, obviously, within the data privacy software market, I think we were the first to really embed those across our site before our competitors. Self-service tours where people can actually click through our consent product, our data mapping product, and really get a feel for what the UI looks like.
we use Nova, for that on our site. We, found it to work very well, so that’s been really critical. Anywhere we can, not just high level product tours, but Specific use cases, right? How do you use Ketch to do X? We create a very tight specific product tour to show that on the site and then try to entice someone to take the next step or a custom demo with the sales team.
So product tours have been very helpful. The other thing we do is, dynamic website personalization. So we do dynamic messaging based on visitor intent data, right? So if we can tell based on available intent data, and of course we’re, as a privacy company, we’re very careful about. User privacy and making sure that we have consent to grab that kind of intent data. But if we can tell, for example, if someone is a retailer or SMB versus enterprise, we have dynamic messaging that changes on the page that matches what we think are the care abouts and value, prop for that, that segment of the audience.
So I think the message testing as well as the tours have been two critical levers for us on the website in that regard.

Rick: Yeah, it’s a seems seamless experience, right? It is like the product. Needs to be part of the website in a way, as in you, you within that experience, you have people, interacting with it already, like doing a tour, and they already see this themselves as a, as using the product.
And that’s a, that’s very interesting. It’s a, good approach for sure. something also we use at unk, I, I can confirm that works really well.
Now, let’s, switch gears for a second, Colleen, and maybe talk about you as a leader. Can you give us a glimpse into what’s a typical workday for you and, maybe the main things you focus on a day-to-day?

Colleen Barry: Sure. I think like a lot of marketing leaders for small teams, it changes every day and there’s really, there’s often no rhyme or reason, but there’s a few consistent things, right?
I’m consistently checking in on our just funnel metrics and dashboard. We use HubSpot for marketing automation and then Salesforce for CRM, so pretty common, tech stack there. On a daily basis. I’m checking on our funnel metrics. I’m seeing, I’m checking on, like I said, those demo requests, which are critical flow to our team. I’m making sure nothing’s stuck, folk things are routing properly. Just taking an eye over that.
also very consistently checking our social presence on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the number one channel for us from a social standpoint. We find that’s where our ICP is, and so we’re. We’re, all pretty granularly looking at what kind of posts are performing, who’s engaging, that kind of thing. those are probably two pretty consistent things.
And then from there, it really varies depending on what we have going on from week to week, from a campaign standpoint. we typically try to launch some kind of product or feature release every month, so that’s a consistent. sprint that we’re running. What’s the product launch this month? Where are we at from a, press release standpoint, from a visual assets, from a product tour perspe perspective? often doing a follow on webinar. So always managing that cycle.
and then outside of that it’s, I, I do quite a bit personally of a lot of, Engagement with our sales team and also partner activity we’re really interested in, growing our channel right now. Services partners that can implement Ketch, um, law firms that may be interested in recommending Ketch. So I’m personally doing quite a bit of outbound activity and relationship development to really get that going. that’s probably what’s top of mind right now.

Rick: Is there anything you don’t do?

Colleen Barry: yes, certainly I have a fantastic, head of demand gen on my team, and so he’s very good. he’s, he is great at, really the nitty gritty of managing the paid ads, managing a lot of these things we talk about on the website with conversions.
so he does quite a bit of that. we also have a fantastic in-house, brand design team, so that’s really great, to help us with unified visuals across all the channels. Those are probably the two that, that I don’t touch as much in the weeds. And it’s, so great to have the resources there.

Rick: Love it. And you’ll give it credit to the team. So that’s great.
now we’re on the back half of the episode here, Colleen, so I would love us to jump into a rapid fire segment. It’s simply, a few questions that we throw out rapid fire and we just try to keep it short and concise.
Should be ready for that.

Colleen Barry: I love it. Let’s go.

Rick: All right, let’s do it. when it comes to consuming content, do you prefer reading, watching or listening?

Colleen Barry: probably in order listening, reading, watching big podcasts. Not as, big on the videos. Reading somewhere in between. I think I’m old school like that.

Rick: Got it. Okay. So listening then, What’s the latest piece of content you listened to? It could be a podcast or an audiobook or whatever the case, that you picked up. And were there any gems or ideas that really stuck with you from it?

Colleen Barry: Sure. so right now I’m reading, listening to on, on Audiobook, empire of AI by Karen Howe. I would recommend that to anybody. It’s a fantastic examination of just, Open AI and genesis of chat, GBT and how all that came to fruition. But then also, just how AI has developed in a broader sense beyond that, it’s, very eye-opening in terms of the, funding that’s led to I to AI development, the motivations behind researchers and companies, and I think it’s, I’d recommended it to anybody today.

Rick: Okay, if you saw me looking down, it’s because I was jotting it down ’cause it’s sounds interesting. So thanks for that.
if you had a magic wand and could fix one frustrating thing in your marketing life with tech, what would it be?

Colleen Barry: what’s hard for me to answer? I feel like on our team, we’re leveraging tech in a pretty good way right now.
I think personally I haven’t cracked the code on, like the, email and scheduling and back and forth and stuff like that. Especially like I mentioned, as I’m working with a lot of partners, I’m, I find myself spending quite a bit of time on who’s in what time zone and how do I get this on the calendar.
So I, still need to find a good AI tool for that area, which I know they’re out there. So that’s my next little research project.

Rick: Yeah, you’d be surprised how many times that comes up. It’s fine for me to ask these questions ’cause it’s yeah. We’re all on the same boat, oh my gosh. That makes me

Colleen Barry: feel better. I feel like I’m behind. Yeah,

Rick: no, not at all. Don’t worry about it.
on the other end, maybe this is really related, maybe not, but what’s one repetitive task that you love to put on autopilot forever?

Colleen Barry: Ooh. Gosh, boring stuff. Maybe the calendaring, expenses, like just the admin stuff. Yeah. I dunno.

Rick: Yeah, I hear you.
okay. If you could go back and give, your past self young cocoa, if you will, a quick pep talk at the start of your marketing journey, what advice would you drop?

Colleen Barry: Oh. I would definitely say put yourself out there sooner from a social and LinkedIn standpoint on a personal brand level. that’s a priority for me now. But of course, like everything, I wish I had started doing that sooner. and building, building an audience and building net a network sooner.
Frankly, the, so that’s for me. And then I would add the, advice I give to every young marketer, because I feel this served me very well, is, if you’re starting out in your career, spend some time as a salesperson.
I started out as an account executive and then moved into marketing. And I find that to be the most valuable thing I did for, collaboration with leaders, understanding, what it’s like to carry the bag and have the pressure of the revenue. And I recommend that to every eye marketer I speak with.

Rick: Yeah, that’s good. If anything, it helps you empathize with your sales team, right? And yeah. And not create that divide that, that proverbial, silo of, marketing and sales and separate that kind of fight against each other. No, that’s, it’s one cohesive team. So that’s really good.

Colleen Barry: Exactly. Yeah. Especially, now, marketing is so important now to what we were just talking about all the research buyers do before they even get to you, like sales needs marketing desperately today. And the more you can empathize with your sales team and put yourself in their shoes, the better.

Rick: Absolutely. Colleen, I want to thank you a lot for being on the show with us today. I also wanna give you the last word. If someone forgets everything about the interview today, what is the one thing that they should remember about the guys, the, work you guys are doing?

Colleen Barry: I would say, that for the marketers listening, data privacy and getting a little bit sharp on how data privacy can complement and be embedded in your consumer and customer journeys and strategies is, really important in 2025.
And privacy is something that’s sneaking up on marketers and Luckily today we have the tech light Ketch that makes it easy to make privacy a seamless part of your marketing and consumer facing experience. So I would encourage marketers to get a little bit spicy and sharp on the data privacy topic because it’s not gonna go away and, the criticality of using only permission data in your campaigns is gonna get more and more important. So that’d be my advice.

Rick: Okay. That’s, a wise one of that. Colleen, again, thank you for being on the show with us today. If, people wanna check out, Ketch and see what you guys are doing, how can they do it? is there anything we can point ’em towards?

Colleen Barry: Yes. LinkedIn is the best way. We’re very active there, so just look up Ketch K-E-T-C-H or of course Ketch.com and you can find out all about us.

Rick: Amazing. Is there anything that’s coming up for you guys that’s, that’s gonna bring more attention even to Ketch or any event or anything of that?

Colleen Barry: Yeah, this month we’re very excited to put on our first inaugural US Privacy Summit. it’s a national event that we’re hosting in San Francisco.
We’ve been able to, secure a number of, very high profile regulators and industry leaders to speak at this one day summit that we’re hosting. So I’m super excited about that. I’m a huge believer in event marketing and the importance of in-person relationship development. It’s, absolutely critical too. accelerating pipeline, getting new relationships going.
And so this is our focus right now that we’re leading up to in a few weeks. So very excited about that. and of course you can, you’ll see all sorts of stuff if you check out, uh, Ketch.com and LinkedIn about that upcoming event,

Rick: I’m sure.
And it’ll probably come out at the same time, roughly when this, comes out, maybe that content. it all works together. So that’s, that’s amazing.
All right. As I said, Colleen, thank you again for being on the show with us today, and I wish you wonderful day.

Colleen Barry: My pleasure. You too. Thanks Rick.

Rick: Alright. Bye everyone.