MarTech Interview with Riikka Söderlund, CMO at Katana

Riikka Söderlund, CMO at Katana talks about the latest trends impacting B2B marketing processes in this quick chat:

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat, Riikka, tell us about yourself and more about your role as CMO at Katana Cloud Manufacturing.  

I’ve been in the marketing field for nearly two decades, specializing in scaling B2B and SaaS with vertical expertise in technology, retail and cloud. Across these teams, my goal has been to increase pipeline, optimize revenue growth and build brand awareness. In my role at Katana, I oversee all marketing efforts, including content and public relations. This work is incredibly rewarding because it allows me to help small and medium-sized businesses streamline operations, diversify sales channels and grow their businesses in the 21^st century. It is such an exciting time to be in the inventory management and manufacturing space. The traditional ERP industry is witnessing disruption from multiple angles, allowing Katana to step in and become a trusted partner to growing companies in need of support. We have had consistent month-over-month growth since Katana’s founding in 2018 and now manage over $2 billion in sales annually – I’m very proud to be working with such a talented and hard-working team.

We’d love to hear about some of your brand’s core marketing strategies and processes and the martech that drives all of it? 

We are a customer-driven company and always want to meet customers where they are. Many of our customers are moving from Excel to the cloud and helping them see the value of integrated technologies is a part of the job. We provide educational and actionable strategies for companies to navigate their tech stack and use a robust stack of martech tools to create, deliver and measure those efforts. Our goal is to make inventory management as clean, simple and easy to use as possible – providing an “inventory at a glance” platform where you can integrate other platforms to enhance your business, such Shopify and QuickBooks. No matter what company I’ve worked for I’ve found that creating a customer feedback loop from current and future customers is vital to ensuring the product and marketing are the best that they can be. So, it becomes less about the specific tools in the martech stack and more about how you gather and parse customer data to feed those tools.

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How are you using the latest in AI to drive further business impact and marketing goals?

We see a future where our customers can use AI to better understand their inventory levels, manage supply and demand and avoid stockouts, so we’re working toward implementing AI into the platform to enhance the features Katana already offers. Internally, we’re using AI to streamline operations, automate processes and repurpose product marketing content. The technology offers a wealth of potential and is already a valuable co-pilot for the marketing team. AI is also key in finding trends in customer data, which in turn feeds into marketing – and company-level – planning process.

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What in your view should B2B marketing leaders be doing more of in 2024 to drive actual business ROI and support business and sales pipelines more effectively?

Being open and curious and an active listener are imperative for successful B2B marketing – especially with sales teams and customers. What’s winning customers over? What’s causing them to choose Katana year over year? It’s important to understand customers’ needs, wants and wishes, as this knowledge drives successful B2B marketing campaigns with meaningful impact to business ROI and sales pipelines. I am always looking to learn more about the tactics that sales teams are implementing to help us better understand what customers need. Their strategies help inform our team’s marketing practices. Additionally, I always recommend listening to sales podcasts to stay up to date. B2B marketing professionals should be in tune with what’s happening in sales and ultimately what customers are saying.

How will generative AI eventually play a more important role in the marketing and martech domain: what are your top thoughts and observations around this? 

This year, as a whole, the industry is still in the exploration phase of how AI can best support marketing initiatives and martech platforms. It provides efficiency improvements for sure, but hasn’t disrupted the current setup yet. However, in the coming years, generative AI will make a much bigger splash in the industry. At Katana, the team is always working to implement the latest and most innovative technologies into our platform as well as our internal best practices, and we look forward to exploring AI further this year and next.

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Can you talk about some of the leading B2B tech / SaaS brands you feel have a robust online framework that resonates well with end users: what takeaways from those would you leave us with here? 

While Shopify is primarily known as an e-commerce platform, it offers a range of features and services that are attractive to B2B customers and SaaS providers, and its product resonates well with end users. I think its success derives from its robust and comprehensive ecosystem of tools, apps and integrations. Its platform is also highly customizable making it suitable for a wide range of industries and business models, including B2B. One of its top strengths is its user-friendly interface, which appeals to businesses of all sizes. My top takeaway would be to focus on platform adaptability and flexibility, as it has made it a compelling choice for businesses looking to establish a strong online presence and streamline their operations.

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