Secrets of a Marketing Maverick

Last week, the Clay.com community hosted a masterclass with none other than the ingenious and always entertaining Jordan Crawford.

Now, let me preface this with what I also told Jordan and the group during the introduction round: I’m not an avid Clay user. I do understand some marketing, some AI, and I enjoy how Jordan thinks about his work and the role of technology in it.

I also generally like the content he’s creating. I wanted to find out more.

With that being said, don’t expect me to have in-depth notes on how to use the tool. Jordan has a course on that, which is probably good, if not great. (That’s German for very high praise, just FYI.)

However, I picked up a few things that I want to share. I am also going to add a summary of all key points, which I confirm to be correct/factual, albeit a bit dry. Good for students and TL;DR!

The List Is the Message

Jordan introduced an interesting perspective on targeting. Instead of starting with generic lists and trying to personalize messages, he suggests flipping the approach: start with high-quality targeting, and the message naturally follows.

Personalization sounds great. It seems to make sense, or remedy the fact that you actually don’t know those people you are sending messages to. But it doesn’t per se make what you sell more relevant to the person you have all that “personal” information about.

Let me abstract even more.

Before Jordan starts fiddling with the shiny tools, he has put actual thought and work into it. Only when he has something that he can see working, often based on manual probing and testing, he moves on to scale that up with tools.

Read more on his secret 5-C’s framework in the summary at the end. The guy’s thorough.

Detective Work

Next, this is what I got from Jordan on how he is using data. There’s a lot of publicly available data. There’s also some non-public data. The key is to be creative and inventive in terms of figuring out which data points can become “circumstantial evidence” in your case. No one data point by itself can mark a target, so to speak, but a combination of a few can increase the probabilities of your assumption/conclusion being correct.

The date needs to be organized and structured, which is where AI is really useful.

And this is where Jordan’s approach to AI really stands out. While many focus on the technical capabilities of tools like Clay, he brings a uniquely creative perspective to AI implementation.

The AI Part

Now, I know more about how to work with frontier LLMs than the intricacies of using Clay. This is where I really enjoy seeing how Jordan approaches his projects and problems.

• He is playful, curious and creative with AI.
• He treats it like an intelligent and capable collaborator.
• He gives it context and constraints, but is smart or humble enough to also allow it to be creative in problem-solving.

So, for the last point, Jordan’s best practice and habit is this: He instructs the AI, mostly by talking to it with Superwhisper dictation. Then he adds, “If you can think of any other ways of doing this or achieving that, please go ahead and try that too.

Love it.

And he will provide examples of how often the AI, or the agent, has added new ideas and interesting approaches that he hadn’t thought of by himself.

Being curious and open-minded can really become a boost to the types of solutions you build and the results you get using AI in knowledge work.

In conclusion (as the AI likes to say), my take on Jordan’s message is that you need to put in the work to understand the client/customer, have your marketing basics and strategic direction firmly in place, and then you can do so much more than what feasible and affordable just a few years ago. That’s how the cutting-edge “marketing mavericks” (whose idea do you think that title was?) outdo the old ways.

What makes Jordan’s approach particularly valuable in my eyes is how he combines fundamental, solid marketing principles with AI’s capabilities.

Actually, much of what any experienced professional will tell you about their field always sound a bit like common sense – though sometimes with a twist. But for expertise to express itself in that, you need hands-on practical experience.

The Clay magic Jordan gets admired for is not about replacing human creativity and strategic thinking - it’s about amplifying the basics. As marketing continues to evolve with AI, this balanced approach will likely become even more crucial.

Add-On: AI-Generated Summary

(This is the AI which I instructed to get all the main topics and points, and always add a nice quote, straight from the horse’s mouth.)

Jordan’s workshop masterclass on go-to-market (GTM) strategies using Clay and AI agents covered several key topics:

Approach to GTM and Outreach

Jordan emphasized starting with high-quality targeting rather than generic lists. He stated, “The list is the message,” meaning that with great targeting, the outreach message becomes more about describing the list back to the prospect. He gave examples like targeting hotels with recent reviews mentioning broken refrigerators or focusing on specific niches like roofing contractors.

Understanding Customer Context

Jordan stressed the importance of deeply understanding the customer’s situation before crafting outreach. He introduced the “five C’s of truth”: Customer, CRM, CSO/CEO/CSM conversations, Claude/ChatGPT analysis, and Customer validation. He noted, “You need to really just channel the buyer’s information.”

AI Agent Development

Jordan walked through his process of building AI agents using Clay and Claude. He emphasized giving agents context, constraints, and creative freedom. He said, “The agents perform really well with this thing I call creative constraint with context.”

Data Enrichment and Research

Jordan discussed using various data sources and APIs to enrich prospect information. He mentioned tools like Shovels for permit data and strategies for finding "behind the Iron Curtain" information that isn’t readily available online.

Pricing and Client Relationships

Jordan shared thoughts on pricing and his approach to client relationships. He emphasized setting clear expectations and exposing risks to clients. He stated, “I work with you, not for you,” highlighting the collaborative nature of his engagements.

AI Tools and Techniques

Jordan discussed using tools like Superwhisper for voice-to-text, Appify for web scraping, and various Clay integrations. He also shared tips on prompting and how to structure information for AI agents.

Challenges and Pitfalls

Jordan highlighted common challenges in outbound and agency work, such as the potential conflict between an agency’s success and the client’s internal team’s performance. He advised aligning with the client’s goals and understanding what success looks like for them.

Throughout the workshop, Jordan emphasized the importance of starting with a narrow focus, deeply understanding the customer and their context, and using AI tools to augment and scale human intelligence rather than replace it entirely.