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Maria-Cristina Muntean

I build Shopify apps and grow spicy SaaS with extra chilli 🌶️ Conversion-Apps.com

Maria-Cristina Muntean is an accomplished professional with a diverse educational background and extensive experience in various roles within marketing, business development, social media, and account management. She pursued her academic interests at the International British School of Bucharest, the CXL Institute, The University of Sheffield, the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, and the University of Roehampton. Maria-Cristina has held key positions at Conversion Apps, Chillital, ScaledOn, King Billy, Desige Decors, Green Tree Marketing, Hearst Magazines, and CH&Co.

Highlights

Nov 29 · linkedin

Traditional agencies as we know them will see a significant transformation.

I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking of creative ideas for how I can overcome this at Chillital and how I can be ahead of the curve when this happens.

I’ve already stopped focusing on top-level content for the early stages of a marketing funnel and started focusing solely on BOFU/MOFU around a year and a half ago, BUT…

… something more needed to be done.

So, I’ve rebranded our boutique content marketing agency to a ✨Content-as-a-Service✨ subscription model,

⇝ 𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗬 for MarTech companies

⇝ 𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗬 offering bottom-of-the-funnel, conversion-focused content (but not shying away from supporting content, like the occasional top-of-the-funnel that’s not yet killed by AI).

💡Through my process of chatting with existing clients and figuring out how I want to position this, here’s what I found out:

🔹 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀, 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 I've noticed a growing trend: clients are craving efficiency and less time-consuming interactions. Our solution? Moving to an async collaboration model, only through platforms like Slack and PM tools like Trello (calls are still okay, but none of my existing clients right now are obsessed with them). This shift gives customers more freedom while we focus on delivering top-notch content without constant check-ins.

🔹 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 6 𝘁𝗼 12-𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 We don’t know what content’s gonna look like in one year; why should I tie you to a 12-month contract? A subscription-based approach has a more flexible and adaptable framework. Cancel or pause anytime you want, or escalate if you need to.

🔹 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 My co-founder and I will be capping our client list to just 8 customers at any one time, and will still be the only ones working on the account (this number was previously 10). No outsourcing, no more writer-hopping by the client, or hours spent on giving feedback to different people in the team.

🔹 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 No more lengthy hiring processes. This is a subscription-like experience. It's a format our target audience is already familiar with, making the entire process smoother and more intuitive for both of us.

🎈I plan to grow this product in public and share my learnings as I go.

If you have ideas or questions or just want to follow along and provide feedback, I’d love to connect.

Let's turn the content world upside down 😄

Oct 24 · linkedin

If you want to validate your next big idea before investing time, effort, and resources into it, consider transforming into a “media company” first.

🔍 Why?

With a media company-first approach, you can dive deep into a niche, and explore its needs, gaps, and interests.

Even if you don’t have a concrete product in mind yet, this approach can help shape it.

✨The benefits are innumerable:

  • You get audience feedback through their reactions, comments, and engagement. 
  • You discover your audience’s pain points and get to know what they truly want and what’s missing in the current market.
  • You can build loyalty (e.g., by building a related newsletter).

This is an iterative feedback loop:

🔄Create content 🔄Share and promote 🔄Analyze reactions and feedback 🔄Refine your understanding of your audience’s needs 🔄Repeat

🤔 You’ve got an existing product? Same concept!

Use content to look for potential new features to adapt.

Don’t ask, “What should I build next?” Instead, let your audience guide you.

Every company can benefit from thinking a bit like a media company.

Maria-Cristina Muntean
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Location

Romania