425: Marketing Strategies to AVOID Repeat Customers with the CMO of National Debt Relief, Jeff Biesman

Marketing Today with Alan Hart

Jeff Biesman grew up in Texas with dreams of being an NFL GM. While those dreams didn't pan out, he learned a lot along the way and decided to heed the advice he received to separate his hobbies from his career and went on to grow his marketing skill set in a very purposeful way. His path started in CPG product marketing with Converse, LA Gear, and Disney, went on to learn digital and performance marketing at Sony, got deep into data with Bank of America, moved onto venture-backed startups ShoeDazzle and Little Black Bag, then pursued B2B at YP and Remoov. In 2021, he was offered a role that was a perfect fit for all the skills he’d gained throughout his career and aligned with his personal values, so he accepted and joined the NDR team as their new CMO. In this role, Jeff is responsible for all direct-to-consumer marketing activities for the company, including PR, partnership development, paid search, social media, and CRM.

The state of consumer debt is grim as we are coming out of COVID and battling inflation. NDR acts as an agent on behalf of qualified consumers, putting them on a budget and getting them into an escrow-like program payment that is less than their debt service. As those funds accumulate, NDR then works with creditors to negotiate down the debt owed. Jeff tells us most of their customers are out of debt within 24 to 48 months and see long-term changes in their credit behavior.

On the show today, Alan and Jeff talk about why NDR doesn't want repeat businesses, how that impacts their marketing efforts, and what they are doing to stimulate demand in the upper funnel and then capture and migrate those consumers. Many people need help, but unfortunately, most are unaware that there are options like NDR to help them with debt relief, so a large part of the work for Jeff and his team revolves around building awareness, education, performance marketing, and meeting the consumers where they are by layering marketing through paid search, organic search, broadcast TV, and earned media.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

• How does debt relief work?
• Why does National Debt Relief NOT want repeat businesses, and how does that impact their marketing strategy?
• How can marketers maximize demand stimulation, capture, and migration when the pool is shrinking?

Key Highlights:

• [02:00] NFL Dreams
• [04:30] Purposeful steps in the career path
• [07:50] What drew Jeff to NDR?
• [09:40] The state of consumer debt
• [12:00] NDR's role and how it works
• [15:55] Qualifying to be a customer
• [18:40] Real human stories
• [20:00] NDR does NOT want repeat customers.
• [23:00] What marketing looks like at NDR
• [25:10] What CMOs need to know about demand capture
• [28:45] Learning grit, determination, and perseverance
• [31:15] The importance of patience
• [33:05] Neuromarketing just makes sense.
• [34:35] Nothing is set it and forget it.
• [35:55] We’re in the midst of an AI revolution.

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