Marc Thomas, Senior Growth Marketer at Podia, shares his RINse and Repeat marketing framework.
Marketing playbooks are quickly becoming relics in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Just think about it—in the last 12 months alone, we've seen the rise of AI, significant layoffs, the emergence of generative search, and constant tweaks to social media algorithms. It's like trying to hit a moving target with a blindfold!
That's where Marc Thomas' RINse and Repeat framework comes in. He's the Senior Growth Marketer at Podia, and he uses this strategy to drive growth in this era of uncertainty.
In episode 61 of the Marketing Powerups Show, you'll learn:
- Why marketing playbooks no longer work.
- How to come up with out-of-the-box marketing ideas.
- One example of a creative marketing campaign Marc ran at Podia.
- A powerup that's accelerated Marc's career.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcast and Spotify now, or watch it on YouTube.
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⭐️ The RINse and Repeat Framework
Marketing playbooks are relics. The digital landscape evolves so rapidly that conventional channels offer diminishing returns. So how do you break through despite constant change?
Marc Thomas, Senior Growth Marketer from Podia, developed an anti-playbook framework for flexibility. He calls it “RINse & Repeat." This iterative 3-step formula equips you to constantly adapt and drive growth amidst uncertainty.
1. Related deeply with customers.
The first critical step is building a rich understanding of your customers and market. Too often, people say you should do customer research but don’t explain how or what to do with the insights.
Marc takes a narrow-to-broad-to-narrow approach. Here’s how that works:
- Define a clear scope for your research tied to a business challenge, such as increasing trial signups from email marketing. Then, start quantitatively by surveying customers to segment them on metrics like past email platforms used. This helps identify the most relevant participants for qualitative interviews later.
- Conduct open-ended interviews to uncover backstories. Ask wide-ranging questions like “How did you get started with email marketing?” and “What role does it play in your business now?” Avoid leading questions. Instead, let customers guide the conversation to uncover unexpected themes.
- After interviews with 20+ people, rigorously code transcripts to extract themes and insights. Do this by creating a spreadsheet of potential topics and tallying interviewee quotes and sentiments. See what themes bubble up organically.
- Finally, build a survey to validate key qualitative insights across your entire customer base quantitatively. This grounds themes in statistically significant data. Synthesize both data streams into customer reports, fueling messaging and product decisions.
“This narrow-to-broad-to-narrow approach lets you develop a rich pulse on customers’ needs versus superficial pains. It builds real customer intuition through a mix of quantitative and qualitative inputs.”
3. Ideate creative campaigns.
Armed with the latest customer insights, generate novel ideas for campaigns that Armed with the latest customer insights, generate novel ideas for campaigns that capture attention in new ways.
As Marc advised, “Don’t limit yourself to the same worn-out channels because you know their cost-per-click or conversion rates. This is the post-playbook era.”
Ideation is about breaking through creative blocks to unlock new directions. Marc shared how a joke about "Creative Juice" turned into a sponsored creator. While silly at first, it evolved into an innovative sponsored video with the Plant-Based Cooking Show, a popular YouTube channel and blog, crafting a purple smoothie while discussing Podia’s offering.
This massively increased Podia’s reach and built real affinity with niche audiences far beyond their existing referral traffic.
"You have to get smart and experimental to place yourself in front of net new audiences. Keep pushing creative boundaries to growth-hack attention."
3. Narrate the impact.
Lastly, avoid over-indexing on conversion metrics that often under or overstate campaign success today.
“It’s ineffective to ask whether it simply worked or not in a black-and-white way. Instead, build a narrative blended with qualitative quotes and quantitative data at varying confidence levels.”
For example, with the Creative Juice Smoothie campaign, they shared customer testimonials declaring purchase intent. Supplement with directional metrics like viewers and site visitors. And incorporate any available attribution reporting.
Leaning solely on cost per conversion over-simplifies and misses the mark given reduced tracking. Holistically nurturing attention and affinity now drives viral lift over time.
Rinse & Repeat
The RINse framework is an ongoing process to solve evolving business challenges. Constantly re-immerse yourself in customers’ realities. Brainstorm inventive engagements that pierce attention clutter. And tell compelling stories blending signals to illustrate impact. Avoid stagnant playbooks. Instead, keep rinsing and repeating to sustain relevance.
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🎉 About Marc Thomas
Marc Thomas is a growth and creative marketer who helps companies come up with innovative campaigns to acquire and retain customers. He has over 10 years of experience in digital marketing, previously leading growth at Powered By Search. Marc now works at Podia as their Senior Growth Marketer. You can read some of his latest posts and sign up for his newsletter at PositiveHuman.co
🕰️ Timestamps and transcript
- [00:00:00] The Rinse, Rinse, and Repeat Framework for Marketing Success
- [00:00:44] Marc's Career Journey
- [00:01:05] The Death of Marketing Playbooks
- [00:01:26] The RINse and Repeat Framework
- [00:09:01] Why Some Companies Grow Faster Than Others
- [00:11:08] The Evolution of SaaS Marketing
- [00:15:00] The Importance of Having Strong Marketing Foundation
- [00:17:11] Creating a Rinse and Repeat Playbook for Growth
- [00:21:12] Podia's Approach to Customer Research and Insights
- [00:27:34] Why Customer Research is Crucial for Product Development
- [00:32:07] Ideation and Customer Research at Podia
- [00:37:49] The Shift in Marketing: From Data-Driven to Idea-Driven
- [00:43:29] The Power of Creative Marketing with Podia
- [00:52:48] Career Powerups with Marc Thomas
Episode transcript
Loren Ipsum
✨ Useful links
- Marc Thomas on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/iammarcthomas/
- Positive Human (Marc's website and newsletter) - https://positivehuman.co/
- Podia - https://www.podia.com/
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