Haley Slade Of Slade Copy House: 5 Tips for Your B2B Marketing Strategy
An Interview With Rachel Kline
Success relies on feedback. Each piece of customer feedback serves as a catalyst for refining our strategy. A testimonial isn’t just a pat on the back to inflate our ego; it lets us know what we are doing right and what we need to change. We ask our clients in a feedback form to tell us what could have been done better when working with us. We take feedback seriously and we ask for it from every client that we work with.
The B2B marketing landscape is a complex and evolving space, with its unique challenges and opportunities. Navigating it effectively requires well-thought-out strategies and insightful tactics. With a myriad of digital channels available, what are the best ways to connect, engage, and convert potential business clients? As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Haley Slade.
Founder of Slade Copy House, Haley has climbed the ladder in her industry writing for brands such as The Real Housewives, Lufthansa Airlines, and Dove. Due to her signature method rooted in human science, she has had press features in known publications and broadcasts such as Business Insider, HuffPost, & NTD News. Haley teaches methods including (but not limited to) A/B testing, psychology-backed approaches to building brand loyalty, and copywriting techniques that turn words into clients– giving her a multi-six-figure business that continues to grow.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share your personal backstory with us?
I was raised in a small county in Virginia known as the Bible Belt. Where women are taught to love Jesus, get married, and stay home to serve their husbands, I knew that path didn’t feel big enough for me. I was a licensed mental health clinician for nearly a decade, serving people in my community who suffered from mental health disorders. But having a degree in Psychology and a love of human science and people didn’t protect me from being completely burned out. I wanted more and I wanted to impact as many people as possible. I wanted to help people in a way that was not as emotionally draining. I knew I was meant for more. Being someone who has read hundreds of books and loves to write, I discovered the art and science of copywriting and never looked back. I knew I could make a huge impact by fusing my love of human science and writing. I took a leap of faith, went against the grain of our societal norms, and became an entrepreneur. Within 2 years of starting my business, I quadrupled my corp income, was speaking on stages all over the US and my work even took me to Europe impacting people all over the world.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I quite literally wouldn’t be here today without my therapist, Sydney. She helped me work through trauma, anxiety, and all the things that plague us in life. Working on myself in therapy gave me the concrete confidence that pushed me through all of the hardships in entrepreneurship. She helped me see what I have in me, how to tame my mind when it spirals, and how to not let “failure” define me during the journey. She also taught me boundaries which has been one of the biggest things you need in business. There isn’t a day in business I don’t pull from all of the things I’ve learned in therapy.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Do It Scared”
It’s so simple but it is so powerful. When I started my business, I had zero previous experience in copywriting and zero knowledge of how to be an entrepreneur. I struggle with anxiety and I was terrified to fail. But I did it anyway. In your personal life and in business, growth is scary. It’s uncomfortable. But anything easy isn’t worth having. We grow in the hard moments. We grow when we’re scared. If I allowed being scared to stop me in life, I would have absolutely nothing to show for it. When we “do it scared,” we become better people. We learn not to let fear control us. We learn how to control our emotions. We succeed. We learn lessons. We conquer. Because I grapple with anxiety, I feel like I do so many things scared ha! And I’ve never regretted doing it anyway.
Can you share with us three strengths, skills, or characteristics that helped you to reach this place in your career? How can others actively build these areas within themselves?
Resilience is something I feel like I never really thought I had until becoming an entrepreneur. I realized I’m extremely resilient and I’m where I’m at because of it. As successful entrepreneurs, we face so many challenges and setbacks. But when you can bounce back from failures, learn from them, and persist with adversity, you’re unstoppable.
If you want to build resilience yourself, I’d tell you to form a growth mindset. Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and develop coping mechanisms. To some it sounds overly simple, but practice mindfulness, exercise, or other activities that help manage stress. It WORKS. Also, surround yourself with a support network and build relationships with mentors who can offer guidance and encouragement. It really does take a village.
Secondly, I’ve learned to be adaptable. Adaptability is crucial. As someone who loves planning and routine, this was hard. You have to learn how to pivot your strategies, embrace change, and capitalize on emerging opportunities consistently.
To build adaptability, keep up with industry trends, tech advancements, and market changes. Stay in the know as much as possible. Also, experiment with different approaches and be willing to adjust your strategy based on feedback and results. This will drive the best, most effective results no matter your industry.
Last, but probably one of the most impactful is empathy. I’m a deeply empathetic person and my brand is known for being wholesome and empathetic. Without empathy, you can’t build community or meaningful relationships with your consumers. As humans, that emotional connection is what drives us all. Empathy helps you convey your vision and build successful teams as well as a strong community.
If you need to grow empathy, practice active listening. Truly understand others’ perspectives before responding. “Walk a mile in their shoes.” And work on developing emotional intelligence. Understand and manage your own emotions, as well as those of others, for better interpersonal communication. Think of what will serve your consumer best, not yourself.
Which skills are you still trying to grow now?
I’m always seeking to grow my critical and creative thinking skills. These are essential to scale and grow a business and “stay ahead of the competition.” Although, I don’t like that word. I believe there’s room for us all and specific consumers meant for each brand. We’re all about collaboration over competition over here! I’m currently learning how to better analyze industry trends, brainstorm new concepts, and research different markets to see where we can best fill the gap. I want to have original concepts and sometimes that’s hard in a saturated industry.
Let’s talk about B2B marketing. Can you share some insights into how you perceive the current landscape of B2B marketing?
Several trends and shifts are shaping the industry. The predictions I have for 2024 are a continued focus on efficiency. Companies are prioritizing doing more with less. There’s a clear rise in self-service buyers, with a significant percentage of B2B buyers preferring online transactions without direct sales interaction. Because of this, B2B marketers are likely going to invest in content and tools facilitating independent decision-making.
Also, my love-hate relationship with AI must be considered. I think AI is facing backlash in the short run as so many responses are producing inauthentic content and buyer dissatisfaction. This is why I scream to use a copywriter rather than copy and paste Chat GPT responses that I see everywhere. There’s very minimal conversion using AI. However, in the long run, AI, I predict, is going to have a transformative impact on go-to-market strategies, evolving from human-in-the-loop to more automated, agent-based systems and eventually to true self-driving marketing capabilities.
How have recent market trends and changes influenced your approach to outperforming competitors?
I take it back to psychology every time. Market trends and changes mean nothing if they don’t have a deep understanding of buyer psychology and what makes humans take action. It’s why we use a human science approach to everything we do. I watch trends and changes, and then I research how these are backed by human science and if there is a significant positive impact or conversion behind them. If so, I try to leverage these trends in my own way but if not, I try to find the gap and create a new marketing approach that works for my consumer while still staying relevant to the times.
B2B buying cycles can often be lengthy and complex. How do you maintain engagement and nurture leads throughout the various stages of the buyer’s journey?
Automation, automation, automation. If you’re not leveraging automation in your business, you are stunting your growth. We leverage long automation systems that constantly nurture leads at every stage of the buyer’s journey. We have a different funnel for each stage so it’s speaking to the consumer where they are currently at, which drives them further down the path.
Personalization is gaining prominence in B2B marketing. What are some ways marketers can effectively leverage data to deliver personalized experiences?
B2B buyers now seek and expect personalized communication. It’s almost a requirement moving into 2024. To effectively deliver a personalized experience by utilizing data, focus on effective segmentation in B2B marketing. By understanding your customers’ characteristics, such as industry, company size, or purchasing behavior, you can personalize marketing campaigns to address their specific needs and pain points. It makes it so easy to create a strategy when you know them.
Personalized content is also crucial in getting B2B customers to pay attention to you. Develop messaging that directly speaks to their challenges, goals, and interests. Make them aware of their problems rather than focusing too much on pain points. This includes customizing emails, website content, case studies, and other marketing materials to build stronger connections with your audience.
To personalize the buyer’s journey, map out each stage and identify opportunities for customization. Tailor your communication and content to guide prospects smoothly through the buying process, providing personalized recommendations, relevant content suggestions, and targeted offers to influence their decision-making.
Scaling your personalization efforts can be done through automation tools and AI technologies (at limited use of course.) These tools can efficiently collect and analyze customer data, offering real-time insights and enabling personalized interactions on a larger scale. Examples could be things like automated email campaigns, chatbots, and recommendation engines, all powered by AI to enhance personalization in B2B marketing.
ABM has also gained traction for its personalized approach to targeting high-value accounts. What advice would you give to fellow B2B marketers looking to adopt this strategy?
Consider implementing “micro-exclusivity” in your ABM strategy. Instead of being broad, create micro-campaigns exclusive to each high-value account by tailoring them to their unique pain points and aspirations. This hyper-personalized touch is more effective than traditional segmentation, making each account feel genuinely understood.
We’re also big on storytelling. Weaving storytelling into each high-value account’s narrative can increase sales and conversion greatly. This approach engages emotions, builds a profound connection, and transforms the marketing experience into a memorable story. Humans naturally remember stories. By infusing elements of storytelling, B2B marketers can create an immersive and personalized journey.
What are 5 Tips for Your B2B Marketing Strategy to Help You Beat Competitors?
Know your audience better than anyone else.
Marketing success starts with understanding our audience better than their friends or family, better than they know themselves. By going beyond static buyer personas and using detailed, insightful interviews, we know what drives them to take action every single time. Crafting tailored content based on these insights led to increased engagement, more leads, and ultimately more sales.
Create content they aren’t tired of seeing.
Most industries are saturated with the same type of content, making our consumer’s eyes glaze over and resulting in a big scroll onward. Our content marketing strategy focuses on storytelling and it’s tailored to each segment in our funnel. Between segmented email funnels, gripping and educational blog posts, and compelling narratives on social media we cater to the exact people we want to buy from us and it works every time. This approach leaves a lasting impression.
Tech-integrated personalization.
We rely on automation to consistently nurture our leads. Adding a personal touch involves integrating technology seamlessly. The CRM tool Dubsado became crucial, enabling us to track interactions and predict future moves while nurturing our leads and clients consistently.
Email campaigns.
We use finely tuned email campaigns and intuitive drips that seamlessly complement social selling on platforms. This creates a smooth customer journey but also allows the marketing the feel lighter and less salesy. We engage prospects through IG posts-turned-personalized email campaigns, resulting in converting leads to buyers. We have a steady flow of leads because of this simple system.
Feedback, Feedback, Feedback.
Success relies on feedback. Each piece of customer feedback serves as a catalyst for refining our strategy. A testimonial isn’t just a pat on the back to inflate our ego; it lets us know what we are doing right and what we need to change. We ask our clients in a feedback form to tell us what could have been done better when working with us. We take feedback seriously and we ask for it from every client that we work with.
How do you utilize data or AI to refine your B2B marketing approach, and what tools have been particularly impactful in gaining a competitive advantage?
We use ChatGPT to prep or outline content at times and it cuts down HOURS of work for us. It’s a great tool for getting outlines together quickly within seconds rather than hours. However, we NEVER use this for actual copywriting or content writing as AI doesn’t understand human psych enough to write anything that will drive conversions.
Which digital channels have you found most effective in reaching your target audience, and how do you optimize your presence across these channels to outshine competitors?
Surprisingly, we only utilize a website, blog, IG, and email. We take an intimate approach to connecting with our audience and we’ve found that it works. We stay consistent with these channels and our consumer always knows what to expect from us. With our IG strategy, we post 4 specific types of content tailored to specific types of people. It builds authority while also raising problem awareness for our consumers.
Are there any underrated skills or qualities that you encourage others not to overlook?
Treating humans like humans. Putting empathy first. Loving them like Jesus loves us. The second a consumer becomes just another paycheck to you, you’ve failed. Integrity in how we run our businesses and interact with our consumers has to come first always. It’s a hill I’ll die on!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I want us to go back to the basic foundations of what makes us human. We were made for connection and relationships. This age of hyper-digital communication and social media has deconstructed what makes us humans. You walk into a room and every person has their nose in a phone, not speaking to or acknowledging anyone else. But when we connect emotionally with other humans, psychologically, it makes us better people. It releases chemicals in our brains, fosters creativity, it builds confidence, and it makes us feel better about ourselves too. I would love to see more in-person conferences, meetings, or events that aren’t focused on making money but fostering human connection and building relationships at the core.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I am not a political person at all, but I would love to have lunch with Candace Owens because I admire her boldness to speak what she believes is right and true no matter what society says. Whether what she says is “right” or “wrong” she speaks with such conviction and isn’t afraid to be herself, speak what she believes, and make a huge impact. No matter what side of the table you’re on, she’s someone I think we can all learn from. I have so much respect for her.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
