Vassilena (Vassy) Valchanova

I’m a digital strategist, trainer, and content creator. I empower businesses to build content they are proud of and capture minds and hearts with stellar brand messaging. On Growth Mentor, I can help you craft a cohesive marketing strategy and develop the know-how to execute and improve on it long-term: ✔️ Marketing & Audience Strategy: starting from the ground up, researching target audiences, and developing data-driven buyer personas. ✔️ Content Strategy: identifying key audiences and strategic goals to design content marketing initiatives that drive results. ✔️ Content Planning: finding the topics your audience cares about and addressing them in the right channels and formats. ✔️ Brand Positioning: specifying the value you bring, the target market you compete in, and the unique elements of your offer. ✔️ Brand Messaging and Copywriting: crafting the right words that express your value proposition and key differentiators. Bringing your messaging to life across landing pages, email flows, sales decks, and more. I work with three main types of clients, and if you fall in one of these categories, I'll be a good fit for you as a mentor: · Services Businesses – both B2B consulting and B2C coaches; · SaaS products – from pre-PMF to early scale-ups; · E-commerce and DTC – working on positioning and messaging or specific copy and content formats. Why am I here? I have a passion for sharing knowledge, and I believe that the process benefits both the "teacher" and the "student". I've already trained more than 2,000 students in content marketing, copywriting, and marketing strategy. I love working on new challenges and being a mentor lets me meet ambitious teams with exciting projects - and that's what energizes me! I hope we can meet up soon!

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  Branding

  I help customers create consistent brands that stand out in a sea of sameness. I can work with you on the building blocks of branding, like defining your brand personality and voice, laying out the brand story, figuring out your brand's positioning, or repositioning in a new market.

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  Content marketing

  Building a sustainable content strategy that drives results is no easy feat, but I've helped dozens of companies do just that. Together we can discuss your target audience, build your personas, and use smart ways to find the right content topics, formats, and channels. Once the plan is there, I can give you battle-tested advice on long-form copywriting, optimization, reusing content, distribution, and measurement.

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  Copywriting

  I’ll help you find the right words to attract, retain, and monetize attention. Together, we can clarify your positioning – specifying the value you bring, the target market you compete in, and the unique elements of your offer. We can discuss brand messaging – crafting the right words that express your value proposition and key differentiators. Or we can bring your messaging to life across landing pages, email flows, sales decks, and more.

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  Email marketing

  Email is an often overlooked channel, but it has great applications - from getting your e-commerce customers to purchase more often to onboarding SaaS users. We can plan specific funnels and flows for your audience, segmentation criteria, and tools that fit your needs.

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  Idea validation

  If you're just starting out, you need to start with the customer. I can show you how to validate your idea with the help of customer research practices like interviews, surveys, extracting insights from online communities, and more.

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  Personal branding

  I've grown my own business on the back of my personal brand, and I help founders, digital experts, and freelancers position themselves better and gain more visibility. I've used the same tactics to grow my own following on LinkedIn and keep people engaged with my marketing newsletter.

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  Product market fit

  I use in-depth customer research to help startups find the true pain points of their customers and align their products as indispensable solutions. I can help you plan your customer development project and define value propositions based on the data.

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  Social media

  Content marketing is my core focus and social media is a big part of that. I mainly focus on LinkedIn for the purposes of personal branding and B2B sales. I can help you plan organic content for B2C and DTC brands, too. However, I wouldn't be the best fit if paid social is what you're after.

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  User research

  I've spent more than a decade in digital marketing, with a primary focus in e-commerce and SaaS. My last role at a B2C SaaS startup with more than 500,000 registered users. Then I decided to go solo and work as an independent consultant on other exciting projects - and I always like to see new ones! I have extensive experience using the Jobs-to-be-done methodology to execute product repositionings.

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  SendinBlue

  7 years of experience

  I've used Brevo / SendinBlue for a number of accounts I've managed. I've worked on complex email automation flows to satisfy different client needs and use-cases for B2B consulting companies and enterprise agencies.

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  Teachable

  5 years of experience

  I built and distribute my own marketing course on Teachable, and I worked with clients who have hundreds of thousands of students, so I've seen different Teachable setups. I know the technicalities of the platform and I've done integrations with the rest of the marketing stack.

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  UserInterviews

  6 years of experience

  I've done customer research projects on UserInterviews and participated in setting up the selection criteria, choosing participants, and conducting the sessions.

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  Ahrefs

  9 years of experience

  I started using Ahrefs recently but it's a tool that has become a part of my daily work stack. I use it to discover content opportunities and build detailed content plans for clients - as well as to do a basic health check on technical SEO.

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  Buffer

  17 years of experience

  I've been a long time Buffer user and it can do wonders for small teams that want to scale content production on social media. An NGO's whole content process relies on a Trello + Buffer Zapier integration which lets us be consistent with content, although we work solely with volunteer content creators.

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  ConvertKit

  5 years of experience

  I currently use ConvertKit for my own email marketing, and I know its full capabilities for audience growth, automation building, and regular content production.

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  Facebook

  17 years of experience

  If it's an ad format and it's on Facebook, then I've probably done it. I follow closely the newest developments on the platform and help my clients promote content, get leads, and acquire conversions through Facebook.

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  Google Analytics

  15 years of experience

  I'm a data nerd and although Google Analytics falls short for some projects, it's still the best tool to start measuring. I've worked on the technical setup and troubleshooting, as well as the day to day use of GA to uncover insights. And I love it!

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  Google Data Studio

  11 years of experience

  I'm a great fan of Data Studio as you can easily create charts that bring data to life and keep your team on the same page. I use it extensively with clients to prepare reports and funnel dashboards that reveal what's working and what needs improvement.

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  Hotjar

  12 years of experience

  Hotjar is one of the first things we install with new clients - I use it to get some behavioral data and see how we can improve landing pages. Recently, we got a 3x increase in conversion rate on a client landing page based on insights from Hotjar alone.

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  Instapages

  12 years of experience

  Another great landing page builder, I've used Instapages with clients that need some standard functionalities and need a simpler tool to do that. You can leave your developers at peace and get landing pages out quicker.

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  Intercom

  10 years of experience

  Intercom is a favorite company of mine and their tools are well thought out and very helpful. I've created onboarding and retention flows for customers, worked on re-engagement campaigns and set up ways for triaging support requests.

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  LinkedIn

  11 years of experience

  I've been planning content on LinkedIn for most of my B2B clients and find it really useful to showcase expertise for enterprise agencies or personal brand development.

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  Mailchimp

  15 years of experience

  I have worked with Mailchimp on a number of projects with clients, not just sending one-offs, but creating automation flows based on different behavioral triggers.

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  Quora

  11 years of experience

  The beauty of Quora is that it gives you very detailed targeting options - something indispensable for niche businesses. I've found it especially helpful as a way of promoting content that then serves as a qualification method for new visitors.

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  Unbounce

  12 years of experience

  Unbounce is my favorite landing page builder as it provides even more options to do advanced stuff like adding scripts to your pages. It provides a lot of options for quick and dirty A/B testing of landing pages, so you can see what sticks and improve your user journey.

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  E-Commerce

  My marketing career started in consumer electronics and e-commerce. I was the head of marketing for one of the top 3 e-tailers in my country, and we went from a niche gaming store to a 14-category mass site with €12,000,000 annual turnover during my tenure. I've done everything, from big-picture marketing planning, to writing emails and launching social media campaigns.

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  Professional Services

  I help consultants, agencies, coaches, and other professional service providers differentiate themselves through thought leadership and personal branding. My clients range from 60-people teams creating enterprise IT solutions to business consultants that work with brands like Adidas, Red Bull, Oreo, and Mattel.

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  SaaS

  I've worked with many SaaS products, both B2B and B2C, helping them define their positioning, understand customers better, create messaging that resonates, and build growth loops through content and copywriting. My last in-house role in SaaS was for a successful international brand that, at the time, had 500,000+ active users. However, I also know the peculiarities of finding your first customers.

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  Personal Branding

  All my current work is based on a strong personal brand. I know first-hand how important it can be – for B2B consultants like me, as well as other businesses. I've helped founders develop their personal brands to promote their companies, and I've worked with sales teams and marketing teams on social selling through personal branding. I've also helped a few B2C coaches (mainly in fitness and productivity) to promote their work.

• https://valchanova.me/blog/