Building Blocks: Seth Greenberg, CMO at Bask Talks Marketing Tech
by Ankush Gupta May 18, 2016
1. Could you tell me a little about yourself and how you came to be the CMO at Bask?
I had just finished a two-year stint as the CMO of LifeLock. I was busy consulting and advising start-ups and other tech companies in the Bay Area when I was approached by an up-and-coming tech company in Utah. At first, I was asked to join the company as a consultant. Then, it made sense for me to join the board. Finally, I broadened my role to become CMO.
I’m here because I believe Bask’s mission is exciting. Being from the Bay Area, I’m fortunate in that I can be very choosy when it comes to where can I help make an impact. But Bask offers a compelling problem to solve, and it’s a common problem people face today. If you’re reading this and have parents who ask you for tech support, but you don’t have the time or patience to solve those issues – that’s our calling.
2. Are you happy with the buy-in for Marketing Technology that exists at Bask? Do you think the investments being made are adequate or could be more?
3. What is the key problem you are attempting to solve with marketing technology implementation – could be 360 customer view, better customer experiences, crafting better journeys, full circle attribution?
I would say customer nurturing. That is, making sure that our members are engaged with us, and that they see what value we’re bringing to the table. We support our members in ways that they might not always see – such as data backup, antivirus, and identity protection – so it’s important for us to build a relationship, not just when they need our help, but when things are going well through strong communication.
4. What are some of the challenges your team faces from a technology & integration perspective?
We’re small and we’re scrappy. We don’t have the resources that big companies have, so we’ll bring in experts for implementation and then cross-train ourselves to be utility players. Our team members cover more than one area, rather than becoming siloed as subject-matter experts.
5. What is your take on the massive explosion of martech companies across so many categories? Do you feel spoilt for choice or is it just more of a chore to evaluate additional options?
No salesperson ever tells me that they can’t solve our problems, so it’s harder now to discern B.S. from reality. I’m seeing a trend where many forceful martech companies come to me with their agenda before they develop any deep customer empathy for what our needs are.
Unfortunately, running a business is not always linear. We have immediate needs across CRM, social advocacy, measurement – and we’re addressing all of them concurrently. For now, those are our big three.
7. Build your own stack or buy into a pre-built martech cloud - what team are you on?
Throughout my career, including when I ran digital marketing for TurboTax at Intuit, I’ve tried both approaches. The promise of a pre-built martech cloud – which I have a bias for – isn’t usually fulfilled, because often, some of that cloud is based on acquisitions. My team ends up knowing more about what’s going on within the different technologies that have rolled up under one company than the folks who are responsible for their individual units. So the answer really depends on timing and their bandwidth and cross-knowledge issues. We just want to make our experience the best, so I don’t have a definitive preference.
8. Could you share for our readers, an infographic, list or description depicting your marketing stack (various marketing software products or platforms your team uses or subscribes to)?
We prefer to keep this close to the vest. But I can tell you that we’ve built a proprietary platform which enables us to resolve 95% of our members’ tech support issues remotely. We use several martech solutions to integrate and support that platform.
I had just finished a two-year stint as the CMO of LifeLock. I was busy consulting and advising start-ups and other tech companies in the Bay Area when I was approached by an up-and-coming tech company in Utah. At first, I was asked to join the company as a consultant. Then, it made sense for me to join the board. Finally, I broadened my role to become CMO.
I’m here because I believe Bask’s mission is exciting. Being from the Bay Area, I’m fortunate in that I can be very choosy when it comes to where can I help make an impact. But Bask offers a compelling problem to solve, and it’s a common problem people face today. If you’re reading this and have parents who ask you for tech support, but you don’t have the time or patience to solve those issues – that’s our calling.
2. Are you happy with the buy-in for Marketing Technology that exists at Bask? Do you think the investments being made are adequate or could be more?
My concern is always “to what end?” Marketing technology needs to serve your business strategy, so if it can move us along faster and better and with more impact, then I’m happy.Currently, I’m evaluating how technology can better support our company strategies. Getting your house in order is more important at first, because you need solid legs before you can move forward with technologies that can help you efficiently scale.
3. What is the key problem you are attempting to solve with marketing technology implementation – could be 360 customer view, better customer experiences, crafting better journeys, full circle attribution?
I would say customer nurturing. That is, making sure that our members are engaged with us, and that they see what value we’re bringing to the table. We support our members in ways that they might not always see – such as data backup, antivirus, and identity protection – so it’s important for us to build a relationship, not just when they need our help, but when things are going well through strong communication.
4. What are some of the challenges your team faces from a technology & integration perspective?
We’re small and we’re scrappy. We don’t have the resources that big companies have, so we’ll bring in experts for implementation and then cross-train ourselves to be utility players. Our team members cover more than one area, rather than becoming siloed as subject-matter experts.
5. What is your take on the massive explosion of martech companies across so many categories? Do you feel spoilt for choice or is it just more of a chore to evaluate additional options?
No salesperson ever tells me that they can’t solve our problems, so it’s harder now to discern B.S. from reality. I’m seeing a trend where many forceful martech companies come to me with their agenda before they develop any deep customer empathy for what our needs are.
Earn your credibility – if you tell me you’re not right for us, I’m going to remember that. And later, when maybe you are right for us, I’m going to remember that too.6. What is the one area of investment you'd like to make in the immediate future from a marketing tech perspective?
Unfortunately, running a business is not always linear. We have immediate needs across CRM, social advocacy, measurement – and we’re addressing all of them concurrently. For now, those are our big three.
7. Build your own stack or buy into a pre-built martech cloud - what team are you on?
Throughout my career, including when I ran digital marketing for TurboTax at Intuit, I’ve tried both approaches. The promise of a pre-built martech cloud – which I have a bias for – isn’t usually fulfilled, because often, some of that cloud is based on acquisitions. My team ends up knowing more about what’s going on within the different technologies that have rolled up under one company than the folks who are responsible for their individual units. So the answer really depends on timing and their bandwidth and cross-knowledge issues. We just want to make our experience the best, so I don’t have a definitive preference.
8. Could you share for our readers, an infographic, list or description depicting your marketing stack (various marketing software products or platforms your team uses or subscribes to)?
We prefer to keep this close to the vest. But I can tell you that we’ve built a proprietary platform which enables us to resolve 95% of our members’ tech support issues remotely. We use several martech solutions to integrate and support that platform.
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