Mary Rykaczewski

Growth Advisor

Mary Rykaczewski

About Mary Rykaczewski

Mary Rykaczewski is a highly accomplished professional passionate about leadership and driving organizational growth. With a wealth of experience in strategic planning, business development, and project management, Mary has consistently delivered exceptional results throughout her career. She possesses a strong track record of building high-performing teams and cultivating strong client relationships. Mary's expertise drives innovation and implements effective strategies to propel businesses forward. Her dedication to excellence and strong interpersonal skills make her a true asset in any professional setting. Connect with Mary on LinkedIn to learn more about her impressive achievements and contributions.

Questions

What can SaaS companies learn and emulate from marketing strategies and techniques of the Transportation Industry?

The transportation industry naturally has a very high consideration of market dynamics, which means marketing strategies are hyper focused on the most valuable regions for the business at any given time. For less region-specific SaaS products, this is often overlooked for the sake of broadening reach and awareness, but can be a missed opportunity to increase profitability of the program.

Can you tell us about the top Digital Marketing strategies that worked for you unexpectedly? What are the new trends in marketing in this Industry?

I had a lot of skepticism working with Tiktok for the first time and was impressed with its ability to drive results. This seems to be a new channel that is quickly drawing attention from the gig economy. For the gig economy, the challenge isn’t converting people who are already in-market for a job. It’s finding channels where prospective drivers are spending their time, and planting the seed for when they are ready and in-market for that next opportunity. Finding those upper funnel channels and proving their effectiveness to the overall program is the challenge. You’ll notice a lot more transportation brands testing into more brand awareness as they start to scale. That, plus differentiating from a growing competitor set in the space, is the key to competing.

How do you think customer behavior in the transportation industry has changed since the pandemic? How are marketers targeting their audience differently now?

I think customer behavior in the transportation industry has changed greatly since the pandemic. I think on both the rider and driver sides of the market, there’s a heightened importance on safety of the transportation experience. This was something we needed to adjust both on the product side, as well as the marketing end to emphasize precautions put in place to make everyone feel safe (i.e- usage of masks and reflecting that in marketing photos). On the driver side, we’ve obviously been affected by the way the pandemic has impacted the employment market as well, which has created a larger market of those looking for additional income sources.

What are the marketing strategies that you feel might look easy but which create the most critical impact?

I think simply understanding your customer is the key to setting up any marketing plan or test for success. Understanding their demographics, where they spend their time, what they search for, and what motivates them is not only going to tell you where to be from a marketing POV, but also how to speak to them in a way that resonates. I find this simple step has the ability to have strong ripple effects in marketing program ROI.

The transportation industry naturally has a very high consideration of market dynamics, which means marketing strategies are hyper focused on the most valuable regions for the business at any given time. For less region-specific SaaS products, this is often overlooked for the sake of broadening reach and awareness, but can be a missed opportunity to increase profitability of the program.

I had a lot of skepticism working with Tiktok for the first time and was impressed with its ability to drive results. This seems to be a new channel that is quickly drawing attention from the gig economy. For the gig economy, the challenge isn’t converting people who are already in-market for a job. It’s finding channels where prospective drivers are spending their time, and planting the seed for when they are ready and in-market for that next opportunity. Finding those upper funnel channels and proving their effectiveness to the overall program is the challenge. You’ll notice a lot more transportation brands testing into more brand awareness as they start to scale. That, plus differentiating from a growing competitor set in the space, is the key to competing.

I think customer behavior in the transportation industry has changed greatly since the pandemic. I think on both the rider and driver sides of the market, there’s a heightened importance on safety of the transportation experience. This was something we needed to adjust both on the product side, as well as the marketing end to emphasize precautions put in place to make everyone feel safe (i.e- usage of masks and reflecting that in marketing photos). On the driver side, we’ve obviously been affected by the way the pandemic has impacted the employment market as well, which has created a larger market of those looking for additional income sources.

I think simply understanding your customer is the key to setting up any marketing plan or test for success. Understanding their demographics, where they spend their time, what they search for, and what motivates them is not only going to tell you where to be from a marketing POV, but also how to speak to them in a way that resonates. I find this simple step has the ability to have strong ripple effects in marketing program ROI.