80 - How A Consumer-First Mindset Shapes Marketing At Figma (Nairi Hourdajian, VP of Communications, Content and Community Marketing at Figma‪)‬ Modern Startup Marketing

I had the pleasure of welcoming Nairi Hourdajian (VP of Communications, Content and Community Marketing at Figma) to the show. Nairi is also the founding member of All Raise (programs to accelerate the success of female founders and funders to build a more prosperous, equitable future). She has held marketing leadership roles at Canaan (early stage VC firm) and Uber.

Figma was founded in 2012, has 550 people, and is based out of San Francisco, CA. They've raised Series E funding ($332.9M total). Figma is a design platform for teams who build products together. Customers include Slack, Twitter, DropBox, Square, AirBnB, Netflix, Zoom, Uber, and more.

Here's what we hit on:

Figma’s Marketing team, what are the different groups, who and how many people on your team;

How does your team integrate campaigns together across other teams within Marketing? Internal communications - how do you make sure the whole company knows and is excited about what you’re working on? What processes are in place (HINT: preview those BIG initiatives internally first, this gets people excited and talking which is more leverage for your company);

Your 2022 Marketing Plan. How are you thinking about and splitting your budget for content and community;

To build your content/community, what marketing channels are you leaning into;

What specific content are you leaning into;

What have you learned from your expert designers so far;

You're an expert in PR. Tell me about your experience with PR, what has changed, what has stayed the same? What are startups doing wrong with their PR efforts (HINT: if you’re the PR head at your startup, tell it straight to your founder "here’s what’s possible, here’s what’s not");

What are your thoughts on building a brand successfully for early stage vs. for later stage startups? What tends to happen and what should be done instead (HINT: your website is a channel and it's worth taking a beat to really think about your positioning, where you fit in the competitive landscape, what kind of response from customers are you looking for, that foundational brand work, what is the core narrative, what is the brand promise);

What are your top marketing challenges? (HINT: make sure there's philosophical alignment at your company around ROI from brand marketing efforts);

What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team has come up with.

You can reach Nairi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nairi-tashjian-hourdajian-37601411/

Find out more about Figma: https://www.figma.com/

Check out the Figma store: https://store.figma.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

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You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!


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