Optimizing Marketing Performance with Statistical Software | Joshua Zabel from Minitab

Ernesto Quezada: 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, 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, 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 access to 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us out on pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Joshua Zabel from Minitab. How are you doing today, Joshua?

Joshua Zabel: I’m doing great, thanks. How are you?

Ernesto: I’m doing great as well. Thank you so much for asking. And, well, I’m sure our listeners are tuning in, wondering what Minitab is all about, so let’s kick it off with that. Joshua, in your own words, can you tell us a little bit more?

Joshua: Sure. Minitab is one of the market leaders in data analytics, specifically statistical software. We also have a suite of products and solutions that really help customers solve everyday business challenges. Minitab has been around for 50 years plus. We started with a number of professors who were teaching statistics and recognized that students memorizing formulas probably wasn’t the best way to learn, so they created a software package to enable students to apply statistics to real-life problems. Those students took it to industry. Since then, we’ve grown into a solution portfolio of problem-solving solutions, harnessing the power of your data to solve problems. Statistics is used more often than people realize. I always tell the story that if you ever bought a bag of candy with different colors or flavors, you might wonder how every bag has the exact same amount and different flavors. It’s not because the company checks every piece of candy in the bags. It’s because they use statistical software to infer and understand the risks in their manufacturing. That’s something a lot of people can relate to. As we go throughout the conversation, I’ll highlight other examples of how we apply our analytics to everyday business problems.

Ernesto: That’s awesome to hear from you, Joshua, and from Minitab. So that way our listeners can get a good understanding of Minitab, what would you say is the key problem that you guys like to solve?

Joshua: People understand statistics. Many of us took it in college or grad school, whether by choice or as part of a core curriculum. We have a sort of core understanding. A typical example is when you look at an election, and you’ll see that candidate A has 50% of the vote, candidate B has 45%, and they say there’s a confidence interval of ten points. A ten-point swing on 50 versus 45 is pretty important and dramatic. In business, we look at two bar charts, one has 50, one has 45, and we don’t ask about the confidence interval. We say 50 is the right choice. That’s where Minitab plays. It helps enable people to make better business decisions and understand the risks associated with that decision. We play a role in quality, specifically in safety, ensuring products are reliable and safe, from drugs to automobiles. Minitab is global and plays a role in improving the quality of almost all the products you purchase. If you see a product with low quality, chances are they’re not using Minitab. Let us know, and we’ll be happy to get them as a customer.

Ernesto: Great to hear that. Is there a certain vertical or an ideal ICP that Minitab targets?

Joshua: Minitab is across all industries. We’re not vertically driven. We started in the quality and continuous improvement arena. Quality professionals ensure that products are safe and meet customer satisfaction. Continuous improvement professionals try to improve business performance. Minitab provides tools to identify, map out, and solve problems using data. We help monitor improvements to ensure they stick. If you realize you’ve got all browns and you fix it, but a month later you’re getting all browns again, you haven’t fixed the problem. Minitab plays a role in all phases of problem-solving.

Ernesto: How do people usually find out about Minitab? Is there a top client acquisition channel?

Joshua: Minitab has a great brand associated with quality. We’re well known in manufacturing circles, quality, and continuous improvement. Over the last five or six years, we’ve expanded to create awareness around what Minitab does. I’ve worked in different arenas, and these engineers have secret tools applicable to everyone, but we don’t know about them because we didn’t go to engineering school. We apply them in marketing too. We have strong inbound interest from the engineering community. It’s our job as marketers to support that base and expand awareness to other personas. We look across PPC, social, organic, paid channels, and our website.

Ernesto: Talking about your website, Joshua, so that our listeners can visit you, they can check you out at minitab.com. What role does the website play in client acquisition?

Joshua: Our website is our most important asset. It’s living and breathing, getting the most traffic. We redesigned it in 2022 to tell a broader story. We focus on providing solutions and identifying key personas so visitors can find what they need. It’s critical to telling our story and is constantly updated.

Ernesto: Any tools, tips, or methods you recommend for website lead generation?

Joshua: The best advice is to put yourself in the visitor’s shoes. Think about what they are looking for, not just what you want to tell them. Marry what they’re looking for with what you want to put in front of them. Balance having a well-designed site with the opportunity to put calls to action in front of them. Always think about what you want them to do and how to get them there.

Ernesto: Great, thank you for sharing that. Let’s talk about you, Joshua, and your day-to-day work as the CMO of Minitab. What are some key tasks you focus on?

Joshua: Every day is different, as I’m sure you hear from every CMO. I tend to go through the week with meetings with the content team, understanding what content we’re putting out and why. I meet with the executive team to understand the business perspective and regional managers to see what’s going on in the regions. Day-to-day, I’m checking sales, looking at lead gen, and making sure there’s nothing out of the ordinary. I follow up on ideas, whether they come to me or I go to them. We follow the best ideas, whether they come from interns or senior people. I spend time vetting those ideas and making sure the right ones are pursued.

Ernesto: With all these ideas and marketing strategies, how do you stay up to date with new trends? Is there a specific channel you prefer?

Joshua: I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, reading different papers from competitors and other companies. Marketing is interesting because some of it is common sense and some of it is proven. You have to understand what’s out there and if it applies to you. Experience plays a role. I listen to my team because they consume more ideas and information than I can. They bring different experiences and perspectives. As a marketer, I’m not our customer, so I try to take my opinion out and rely on data to support decisions. We look at data to see if something is working and make decisions based on that.

Ernesto: Great to hear that. Let’s jump into our rapid-fire question round. Are you ready?

Joshua: I’ll see, I guess.

Ernesto: First, what’s the last book you read, Joshua?

Joshua: The last book I read was “Lean Six Sigma and Minitab.” I spend a lot of time reading books about our product. Understanding your product is just as important as marketing techniques and skills. It makes me smarter, which isn’t the most interesting answer, but it’s the truth.

Ernesto: Great to hear that. If there were no boundaries in technology, what would you want to have fixed for your role as a marketer today?

Joshua: Data cleanup. We spend a lot of time trying to look at our data. If I could wave a magic wand and have everyone fill out their name the same way every time, it would save a lot of time.

Ernesto: Great to hear that. If there’s one repetitive task you could automate, what would that be?

Joshua: We send a lot of emails, and a lot of that is automated. The tedious tasks in marketing require digging in. If there was a better way to instantly understand leads rather than dig into them, that would be ideal.

Ernesto: Lastly, Joshua, with all your experience, what is one piece of advice you would give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer?

Joshua: Be great at the things that don’t take talent—show up on time, work hard, do your homework, prepare. Good things will happen. As a 21-year-old, you don’t necessarily understand that. Show up prepared, willing to work, interested, engaged, and open. People will share their advice and information that make you better, whether it’s in marketing or anything else.

Ernesto: Great advice. We’re coming to the end of our episode today. If someone forgets everything about the interview, what is the one thing they should remember about Minitab?

Joshua: People think they understand data analysis or think it’s too hard for them. Minitab makes it easy to use. If you’re listening, our marketing campaigns use process mapping techniques and data. Take a look at our website, reach out to me at jzabel @ minitab.com. We’d love to help you become more data-driven.

Ernesto: You heard it from Joshua. To our listeners, understanding your data is the first step in reaching your business’s full potential. Minitab has solutions to get you there. Thank you so much, Joshua, for being with us today. To our listeners, thank you for tuning in. I’m looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents. Thanks a lot, Joshua.

Joshua: Thanks for having me.