The Customer Engagement Lab

Learn from 3 marketers who did a free trial of Jasper AI. Is the powerful and popular artificial intelligence tool for writing and content marketing worth the investment? Our marketers think so! Also, get a brief history of Jasper AI and its founders. See examples of projects made with Jasper AI and determine if it's worth it to swap from ChatGPT. Also, our marketers do a brief roundtable share of...

Experimentation sounds like fun, right? Take a creative hunch you have, and then validate it through rigorous testing. And afterward, you’ll have crazy new insights that will fundamentally change your business for the better! Well, Tim Davidson, believes much of the actual experimental work is rather boring but still incredibly important. With a 4 Million Dollar R&D Budget, Tim and the Directi...

A lot of people aspire to be their own boss. But becoming self-employed comes with challenges that can be hard to overcome. Maureen Horan, a brilliant branding expert and graphic artist, joins the Customer Engagement Lab to share her tips on how to successfully attract and retain clients during your first year as a full-time freelancer. In this episode, you’ll learn about: How and when to make the...

Use persuasion to advance in your career, achieve more personal goals, and build stronger relationships based on authority. Keith Rabkin and Stephanie Jenkins discuss some of the top persuasion tactics and how they’ve navigated their way into top leadership roles at Google, Adobe, Glassdoor, and now at PandaDoc. In this episode, you’ll learn about: The importance of using PRE-suasion to prime your...

In this episode, you’ll learn about: Long-term audience growth vs. short-term gimmick “hacks” Ad-supported vs. paywall subscription models for audience growth Audience benchmarks to aim for in years 0-5, 5-10, and beyond Check out I Love the Burg and That's So Tampa on Instagram Follow Travis on Instagram Follow PandaDoc on Instagram

Today, we’re joined by Grant Strayer, founder of Gateway Subs. Grant Strayer built one of the highest-rated sandwich shops in Florida by making every customer feel comfortable (and by serving great hoagies). Grant shares his tips on how he and his teammates quickly develop rapport with each person that walks into their business. In this episode, you’ll learn about: Creating “good vibe” environment...

Today, we're joined by Cat Lim, Creative Director at Pyper Inc, Jan Aclan, Marketing Operations Manager at Multiverse.io, and Ryanne Koch, Sr. Manager, Customer Success at PandaDoc, for a marketing roundtable discussion. In this month's Lessons from the Lab, we try a free trial of Canva Pro, an online graphic design tool for creating social media posts, presentations, videos, logos, and more. The...

Today we’re joined by sketch comedian turned business guy Chris Bogue. Chris Bogue is a Creative Advisor at RevPartners. Being on camera can be scary. How do you know what to say? What if you make a fool of yourself? Or worse, what if your audience ignores you? Well, you might want some help from Chris Bogue. Chris trained at Chicago’s Second City Improv, and he’ll help you loosen up on camera to...

🔗 Links: Hayden | Sunny Collabs | https://www.sunnycollabs.com Claire | Big Brothers Big Sisters America https://www.bbbs.org Juan | Juan Chamorro Videography | https://juanchamorro.com 📚 CHAPTERS 1:16 - Scroll-stopping TikTok Ads to generate views and comments 5:31 - Basics on planning a video shoot for your company 7:00 - Batched content to get 1-month of content in 2 hours 8:34 - Video shoots...

Today, we’re joined by Cat Lim, Creative Director at Pyper Inc, Jan Aclan, Marketing Operations Manager at Multiverse.io, and Todd Clouser, Marketing at Lavender, for a marketing roundtable discussion. In this month’s Lessons from the Lab, we try Vidyard, an online platform for marketing and sales video hosting, enablement, and analytics. We’ll dive into it all – first impressions, what they’re do...

Today, we’re joined by Dr. James Janack. James is a communication professor at Eckerd College specializing in rhetoric and oral communications. Have you ever listened to your voice on a meeting recording and immediately cringed? Us too. In this episode, Travis and James discuss all things vocal delivery, from the rate of speech to volume to tonality. They even listen in on a few product demos and...

In this episode, Travis chats with Andrew Pearson , the co-founder of LiveNotary (now PandaDoc Notary ), about his sales journey and what it takes to survive and thrive post-acquisition. Andrew shares his story about LiveNotary and what's made him successful as a seller pre and post-acquisition. In this episode, you'll learn about the following: Major milestones to hit before getting acquired by a...

Attracting new business with your marketing or sales efforts is all about getting noticed. And pattern interrupts are the best way to do that. In this episode, Travis chats with Nick Cegelski , the host of 30 Minutes to President’s Club – the most popular sales podcast in the world. Nick and Travis review pattern interrupts used in sales calls, emails, and content. If you’re looking for some new p...

Today, we’re joined by Cassie Tucker . Cassie is the Founder of CAMM Media and co-host of the Marketing Happy Hour Podcast . Ever wonder why the ONLY people interacting with your company on social media are the people that work there? Or maybe you’ve poured your heart and soul into a thoughtful LinkedIn post that completely flopped, and you just can’t figure out why. We always blame the algorithm...

Creating local buzz for your brand can be challenging if you don’t know where to start. We’ve got you covered. In this episode of The Customer Engagement Lab, we chat with Zach Moore, Founder of Coastal Creative , to learn some of the creative marketing tactics his team leveraged to get people talking about their digital media agency at the height of the pandemic. The Coastal Creative team used ne...

Kevin Kermes built a thriving online community in less than a year. Seriously! He went from 0 to 300,000 subscribers in less than a year. Developing a community is paramount to business success, but it’s no easy task. Kevin shares tips on creating an online community and building relationships at scale in this episode of The Customer Engagement Lab. We'll cover: Harnessing your Zone of Genius to k...

Podcasts have been growing in popularity over the past few years, and many brands are experimenting with podcasts to connect with and grow their audience. When done right, podcasts can have a tremendous impact on your business. But is it a good idea for every organization to start a business podcast? Seth Kushner, radio veteran and the (former) host of the Tampa Bay Lightning Block Party podcast,...

In this round-table episode, we test a free trial of the popular note-taking app, Evernote. We’ll dive into it all – first impressions, what they’re doing right, and opportunities for improvement from a design and content point of view. Plus, the group shares what “marketing made me buy.” Cat Lim , Creative Director at Pyper Inc, Anna Gallese , Sales Readiness Program Manager at PandaDoc, and Todd...

Travis catches up Sally Weiss , Sales Enablement Program Manager at PandaDoc , to find out what really goes into successful sales enablement. In this episode: The true meaning of sales enablement The plot of Sally White and the Seven Sales Dwarves The need for a therapy channel on Slack

We have the first true software engineer, developer, and software architect on the show today. And no, we’re not going to talk about tips for API products, but we will discuss changing tool providers, a distrust of advertorial websites, and the importance of quality materials in your swag. In this episode, Travis speaks with friend and former colleague, John Adams , Principal Engineer at Fanatics...

It’s the end of an era. Patrick Downs, after discovering Chick-fil-a serves breakfast, is leaving to advance his sales career (and make a little more money) elsewhere. But his legacy will live on. In this episode, we say our ready goodbyes and share some of our favorite stories from that legacy, including: The time Patrick played hardball from Bikini Bottom Patrick’s SaaS-y insights on love and Ke...

If you think sales is an easy job, try cold calling an angry CMO at 1:22 in the afternoon. If you’re not too busy crying afterward, it might be time to discuss what it really takes to be in sales. On this episode, Travis speaks with Reid Anderson , Enterprise Sales at PandaDoc , about overcoming adversity in sales and how to be more effective at cold calls, demoing, and negotiation. In this episod...

In this episode, Travis speaks with Jack Shonkwiler , (former) Director of Brand and Digital Marketing at PandaDoc , about the limits of copy, website features that should never be used again, and tips to building a brand while also enabling demand gen. In this episode: Pushing the limits of copy The worst B2B website features Building a brand & enabling demand gen Non-profit vs for-profit mar...

In this episode, we find out how and why Shawn Herring implemented a B2B secret shopper experiment at PandaDoc. We uncover the biggest gaps and challenges that customers experienced when trying to buy PandaDoc's software. Shawn explains how beneficial it is to carve out a marketing role that is completely dedicated to fixing the buyers journey. Shawn tells us about how coupling prospect and custom...