Scaling Data Movement With Allbound Marketing | Tanmay Sarkar from Airbyte

Kevin Shirley: Hey everybody. 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 today to the Pathmonk Presents podcast. I’m really excited to have our guest on the show today. We’ve got Tanmay from Airbyte. Tanmay, how you doing today?

Tanmay Sarkar: I’m doing great. What about you? It’s a great honor to be here.

Kevin Shirley: We’re excited to have you. I’m doing quite well as well. So, because this is all about digital marketing, growth marketing in general, we’re really excited to have you being the marketing manager over at Airbyte. But before we kind of dive into your role as marketing manager and some of your responsibilities, I was hoping we could kind of get this conversation started in a really easy general way. Just talking a little bit about Airbyte. So in your own words, why don’t you tell us about the company and what it’s all about?

Tanmay: Sure. So Airbyte is an open-source data movement platform. If you want to move your data from one place to another, let’s say any destination, kind of data warehouses, data lakes, or any vector databases, you would need a solution like Airbyte.

Kevin Shirley: Okay, excellent. Pretty straightforward, and I know that’s something that a lot of people need. I am curious, how long have you guys been around for?

Tanmay: So it’s been more than four years.

Kevin Shirley: Hey, so definitely within that growth phase and looking to make that next jump. Exciting. Okay, so thank you for the introduction about Airbyte. I wanted to focus a little bit on your audience. Why don’t you tell me in terms of the companies or industries, who do you serve and what are some of the problems that you solve?

Tanmay: Let’s say every industry deals with data, right? In the current market, if you look at any industry—be it healthcare, logistics, travel, e-commerce—everybody deals with data. So I would say we don’t specifically serve any particular industry. We serve anyone dealing with large chunks of data. If they have multiple sources and want to move their data to a particular destination, they would probably need a solution like Airbyte to make better business decisions.

Kevin Shirley: I see. And being that we’re in 2024, like you said, everybody is utilizing data in one way or another. It sounds like this is kind of industry agnostic. We’ll say any industry could use it, but maybe there’s a specific position or title within companies that you’re typically working with, like a head of engineering or CTO. Is there a typical audience member that you guys are working with?

Tanmay: Yes. The industries we’ve served so far include travel, e-commerce, fintech, and healthcare. Regarding roles, the users of our product are data practitioners, like data heads, CDOs, data engineers, senior data engineers, and VPs of data.

Kevin Shirley: Okay. If anyone out there is a CTO or data practitioner, go check out Airbyte. Sticking on the theme of your audience and who utilizes you guys, how do you typically find them? How do they typically find you, and what are some of those top acquisition channels?

Tanmay: In terms of inbound, organic is our main acquisition channel. We generate a lot of traffic to our website through SEO. About 20% of our searches are branded. We also run paid ads on Google and LinkedIn and do warm outbound activities, like emailing. Additionally, we attend data events, which bring us many clients. As an open-source tool, we have a big community, and that helps spread the word about Airbyte through word-of-mouth.

Kevin Shirley: Interesting. It sounds like between organic SEO, paid ads, and outbound activities, there’s a mix. I’m curious about the split between these efforts. Is it more 50/50, or are you leaning more into inbound digital methods?

Tanmay: In terms of traffic, the split is around 50/50. But in terms of closing deals, warm outbound and events work better for client acquisition than direct organic traffic.

Kevin Shirley: Interesting. Noted. I want to shift focus to your marketing team. We always like to highlight some wins. What’s one of the goals that the marketing team at Airbyte achieved in 2024?

Tanmay: A year ago, in 2023, we set a goal to achieve 100k unique visitors on our website. We hit that goal back in May 2024. When we set this goal, we were at around 60k visitors. Over the year, we made a significant jump and reached the milestone.

Kevin Shirley: That’s exciting—congratulations! Hitting your goals is always rewarding. What would you say led to that success?

Tanmay: Two major factors. First, our content-driven SEO strategy. Producing quality content helped increase our organic traffic, and we now rank for many Google searches. Second, our brand presence has grown over time, which also helped boost overall website traffic.

Kevin Shirley: That’s impressive, especially for a four-year-old company. Congratulations again. Now, focusing on your website, how does it play a role in client acquisition? Are there any strengths or weaknesses you’d highlight?

Tanmay: A website is vital for any organization—it’s the central hub for brand information, features, pricing, testimonials, and success stories. Strength-wise, clear messaging and positioning for your ICP are critical. Weakness-wise, many websites focus on fancy designs but aren’t optimized for conversions. It’s essential to optimize landing pages for the audience visiting your site.

Kevin Shirley: That’s a perfect segue to my next question: What makes a good converting website? Are there tools or methods you rely on to improve conversions?

Tanmay: First, identify the high-traffic pages on your site and set conversion goals for them. We conducted A/B testing with four versions of our homepage, each with different designs, messaging, and text. Using a tool called Statseek, we split the traffic equally and tested for a month. Initially, the differences were minimal, so we ran the test longer. Eventually, we narrowed it down to two pages, split the traffic 50/50, and tested for another month. By the third month, one page clearly outperformed the others, and we made it our main homepage. The key is patience—don’t rush conclusions. Let the data guide you over time.

Kevin Shirley: Wise advice. CRO professionals often face pressure to deliver quick results, but as you said, patience and long-term testing are crucial. Letting the numbers speak for themselves is key.

Switching gears, let’s talk about your role as a marketing individual rather than Airbyte as a company. What are some of your key day-to-day tasks?

Tanmay: Our main objective is to generate leads. Each day, I start by checking analytics—visitor numbers, conversions, and how things are moving down the funnel. I also monitor our paid ad campaigns closely, adjusting keywords, landing pages, and bidding strategies as needed. Additionally, I collaborate with stakeholders and agencies we work with.

Kevin Shirley: That aligns with what many marketers do—numbers don’t lie. It’s about spotting trends and pivoting when needed. Where do you go to learn and grow as a marketer?

Tanmay: Two main sources: LinkedIn, where I follow threads from peers and industry leaders, and podcasts. One I’d recommend is “B2B Marketing Podcasts.” I also watch YouTube tutorials and read marketing blog articles.

Kevin Shirley: Great choices! Podcasts are a fantastic way to learn from others. And maybe you can add the Pathmonk Presents podcast to your list.

Now, let’s move to the rapid-fire round. Short, crisp answers—are you ready?

Tanmay: Yes.

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

Tanmay: This is Marketing by Seth Godin.

Kevin Shirley: Nice. What’s one marketing tool you use every day?

Tanmay: Google Search Console or Google Analytics.

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

Tanmay: Build genuine connections early. Strong relationships can significantly impact your career growth.

Kevin Shirley: Great advice. Networking is invaluable, especially early on.

Wrapping up the podcast, I want to thank you, Tanmay, for joining us today. It’s been a pleasure. For our final question, if listeners forgot everything else we talked about, what’s the one thing they should remember about Airbyte?

Tanmay: Airbyte is the next big thing in the data industry. Data is vital, and Airbyte is here to make it accessible and actionable.

Kevin Shirley: The future of data—got it! Thank you so much, Tanmay. Everyone, if you work with data, go check out airbyte.com.

Tanmay: Thanks, Kevin.

Kevin Shirley: My pleasure. Thank you, Tanmay.