Andrew hosts Leontien Rutenfrans and Rebecca Hornig from Textmetrics on the WeMarketers podcast, discussing B2B marketing strategies for their AI writing tool. The conversation covers how Textmetrics stands out through personalized software, data protection, and multilingual support. Key marketing approaches include partnerships with ATS systems, event participation, content strategy, and the use of LinkedIn. The guests share their insights on managing marketing tasks with a small team, utilizing AI safely in content creation, and maintaining unique selling points. They also discuss their preferred marketing tools, sources of inspiration, and provide advice for other marketers.
Connect with Leontien Rutenfrans: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leontien-rutenfrans-027257153/
Connect with Rebecca Hornig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccahornig/
Connect with Andrew Demianenko: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-demian
Andrew: Hello and welcome to the WeMarketers podcast. I am Andrew, and my guests today are Leontien Rutenfrans and Rebecca Hornig from Textmetrics. Today, we’re going to talk about B2B marketing strategies for AI writing platforms. Leontien, Rebecca, happy to have you today. Given that your platform is tailored to overcome bias in texts, please tell us a little more about your AI platform and your roles as marketers within Textmetrics.
Leontien: Yes, thank you. Thank you for having us. Textmetrics is a smart AI writing software designed to enhance and streamline the text creation process by focusing on consistent text quality, readability, and inclusivity. It uses advanced AI to generate and improve text in real time, ensuring that content is high in quality and aligned with the target audience. By optimizing language and providing actual insights, Textmetrics helps every user save time and create engaging and effective content.
Andrew: This is such a great mission. But with so many AI writing tools in the market, how do you manage to stand apart from the competition?
Leontien: Currently, as far as we know, we are the only software company to offer a personalized version of the software. We integrate all branding rules and other specific rule sets of our customers directly into our software, ensuring that all data remains exclusive. Being based in Europe is also a big plus for our customers, especially with data protection. Additionally, our platform supports multiple languages, which many others don’t do. We rely on our own data and algorithms to ensure consistency, which guarantees that our results are always reliable. So unlike ChatGPT, for instance, which can be used for creativity and inspiration, Textmetrics consistently adheres to high standards, making it a trustworthy source.
Andrew: Let’s zoom in on marketing strategies. With a product focused on B2B, I assume that partnerships with different CRMs and ATSs are a major focus in your marketing. Could you tell us more about how you establish partnerships and what challenges you face in this area?
Leontien: Yes, that’s correct. We focus on ATS systems, or applicant tracking systems, and we’ve been doing this for a few years now. We’ve noticed that we get a lot of interesting leads from them, so we focus more and more on these partnerships. Our primary focus is on recruitment and HR. While we can also do integrations with CRM and CMS, our main focus is on ATS. We often see recruiters writing first in Word, then uploading into the ATS, and then sharing it with managers or coworkers. This process can be very time-consuming, so we came up with a solution to have a built-in integration with our software.
For our partners, we just go to them and mention our solution for this problem, and from this, we build a partnership. On the marketing side, we do a lot of blogs together, attend events together, and host webinars together. It can be a lot, but it’s very nice, and we have partnerships all over the world with big ATS systems.
Andrew: It’s great that you mentioned events because we actually met through your collaboration with Matchr, where I’m currently working as head of marketing. You mentioned that you host and participate in events, which caught my interest. What is your event strategy, and how do you benefit from it?
Leontien: We noticed that events are very good for us to get leads and to speak to people in person. They can understand more easily what we can do, and we can show them what we do. It just makes people more enthusiastic about our product. Before AI and ChatGPT, it was also very hard to explain to people what AI is and what text generation or text improvements are. That’s why events were more crucial then. Now, more people know what AI is, so we’re shifting a bit more to digital marketing actions like search engine advertising. But we still go to events to raise brand awareness.
Andrew: When it comes to measuring the success of events, which metrics do you use?
Leontien: Basically, we just check how many people we spoke to and if they’re open for follow-up, such as a product demonstration. The more people we speak to and the more open they are to follow-up, the more successful the event is.
Andrew: So it’s more about brand awareness for you rather than lead generation, or is it both?
Leontien: Both. The people we get information from to contact for follow-up are the leads, and since we’ve already spoken to them, they’re also high-quality leads.
Andrew: I noticed that you are very active on your company blog. What other content strategies do you use to promote your AI product, and which of these strategies work well for you?
Rebecca: We primarily focus on identifying our target audiences and the platforms they use. Where are they located? What are they searching for? What do they need? We analyze how these audiences think, their specific needs, and how to meet them. That means that on LinkedIn, for example, we use a different approach than we do on TikTok or Instagram. For our content, we mainly use AI to write our text—mainly Textmetrics, of course—but we also like trying out new things for inspiration and to stay on top of trends. I think what works for us isn’t really one strategy that fits all, but staying on top of trends and needs within our target group.
Andrew: I’m very cautious about using AI at scale in my content efforts because of the possibility that search engines may ban pages that actively use AI-generated content in the future. What’s your take on using AI in content creation?
Rebecca: I understand your concerns, and we think it’s important to ensure that AI is used safely and without infringing on any property rights. At Textmetrics, we’re not afraid of using AI because we know there’s a right way to use it. It’s always a combination. It’s not the right thing to only use AI for content creation; you should always use your human mind as well. We recommend always checking content, which is why we use Textmetrics ourselves, especially for things like tone of voice, branding, diversity and inclusion, and fact-checking. I understand it can be dangerous, but it’s all about how you use it.
Andrew: You mentioned the right way to use AI in content creation. Do you have any suggestions for marketers on how to use AI safely?
Rebecca: Always have that extra check. Never just ask ChatGPT, for example, to write something and then take it without changing anything. Always look at it critically. Make sure you have a steady tone of voice for your company or branding, which you can then add to the text. I recommend not just trusting anything that comes out of AI—always use your brain while writing.
Andrew: We’ve already talked about events, content strategy, and partnerships. Are there any other strategies you use to promote your product that we haven’t discussed yet? Is there something special that you do?
Leontien: I don’t know if it’s special, but LinkedIn has been very useful for us. It’s an approach we’ve been using for a few years, and it really helps with lead generation because we know it’s the right target group. We can contact them personally and get into conversations with decision-makers. We get good leads from that, so we still use it.
Andrew: What about cold outreach? In our experience in consultancy, it’s not a very effective strategy. But when it comes to SaaS platforms like yours, what has been your experience?
Leontien: We don’t use cold emails very often. We tried cold calling for a while, but that didn’t work for us either. The coldest approach we use is LinkedIn, and that works well because it’s more personal—you can immediately see the picture of the person you’re talking to. We also don’t approach people in a very salesy way. We start by saying, “Hey, we have a webinar coming up,” or “This might be interesting for you,” or “We have an event you might like to join for free.” That’s how we start the communication, and from there, we can move on to demonstrating our product.
Andrew: You only have two people on your marketing team, am I right?
Leontien: Yeah, that’s us.
Andrew: It must be challenging to manage all these marketing activities with such a small team. Do you have any advice on how to handle such a large amount of work with just two people?
Rebecca: A lot of planning and communication. I think what works for us is actually letting go—trusting each other to do the work and knowing that it will get done and that we know what we’re doing.
Leontien: And also doing the things you love. We’ve made a distinction between the tasks I like to do and the tasks Rebecca loves to do.
Andrew: What’s the main piece of advice you would give to marketers promoting AI products?
Leontien: For our product, with AI, we might think everyone knows AI and everyone wants to use it, but that’s not the case. It’s still complex and intimidating for a lot of people to start using it. It’s like in the old days when people were moving from horses to cars—first you have the early adopters, and then more and more people start using it. We need to keep in mind that not everyone wants to use AI yet, so mind the gap.
Rebecca: My advice would be that right now, a lot of AI companies are emerging. It’s very easy to set up a company based on AI, using existing technology, which has been challenging for us too. But what I’ve learned in the past year is that it’s very important to always keep your USPs in mind—what makes your company and software different and special from all the other AI companies emerging right now.
Andrew: To wrap up, I have three blitz questions. Are you ready?
Leontien: Yeah.
Andrew: If you had a marketing superpower, which one would you choose?
Leontien: I think it’s a very basic one, but I’d love to be able to create amazing content from scratch, content that immediately amazes and impresses people.
Rebecca: For me, it would be the ability to read the target group’s mind—to always know what they need and want and then create that.
Leontien: That’s a very good one.
Andrew: The second question: What is your favorite marketing tool?
Leontien: For me, as I mentioned, we use LinkedIn a lot, and Dripify is a perfect tool for that.
Rebecca: For me, it’s a very basic answer—Canva. It’s so easy to create things. When I have an idea, whether it’s a basic setup or an end product, it’s just so easy.
Andrew: Yeah, I’m in love with it too. Finally, what are your go-to sources for marketing inspiration?
Leontien: For me, it’s very simple—Google. I Google a lot. I Google the newest trends, I Google for inspiration for designs or events, and I get as many images as possible. From that, I check what fits with us and what I had in mind.
Rebecca: For me, it’s TikTok. A new, younger age group is emerging within our target group, and that’s where they spend their free time, so why not reach them there? There’s also a large marketing community on TikTok, with people sharing tips, tricks, and quick advice, which often inspires me.
Andrew: That’s an interesting one. I’ll note this down because it’s something new for me. Always learning. Leontien, Rebecca, thank you very much for this insightful conversation. Thank you for your time. I assume the best way to connect with you is through LinkedIn, right?
Leontien: Yes, or through our website.
Andrew: Okay, I will add all the links in the description. Thank you very much, and goodbye.