Info

Actionable Marketing Podcast

You're listening to the Actionable Marketing Podcast, powered by CoSchedule - the only way to organize your marketing in one place. Weekly interviews, strategy, and advice from marketing geniuses delivered right to your earbuds. For the marketing professional ready to make sh*t happen.
RSS Feed Subscribe in Apple Podcasts
Actionable Marketing Podcast
2022
April
March
February
January


2021
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2020
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2019
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2018
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October


All Episodes
Archives
Now displaying: 2019
Dec 17, 2019

Marketers use key messaging and positioning to connect with target audiences and create personalized customer experiences. Design is a strategy that requires collaboration between marketing and designers to make content visually appealing.  

Today’s guest is Megan Otto, marketing design lead at CoSchedule. She describes how marketing design drives brand engagement. Great marketing with poor design is poor marketing.

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

  • What makes an unforgettable brand? Relevant and consistent experiences through design to make a connection with customers across all mediums
  • Why is design a go-to-market strategy? Design allows marketing and messaging to be seen and understood 
  • Team of Teams: CoSchedule’s marketing and design teams focus on specific areas of expertise and effectively support other teams to ensure consistency
  • Kickoffs to Handoffs: Determine strategy, objectives, goals, roadmap, and in-progress demos to track projects and tasks
  • Translating Strategy into Design: How you’re presenting the message to the audience is as important as the message
  • Work Assignments: Depends on capacity, expertise, and interests
  • Purpose of Design: Understand goal and over-communicate to reach completion
  • What do marketers need to know about designers? Design involves strategy, ideation, graphic design, illustration, Web development and much more 
  • Design is in the Code: Web design and development should be a strategic role within marketing teams
  • Evolution of Brand, Design, and Marketing: Always new challenges and unique value to be better 

Links:

Dec 10, 2019

Marketers know that the value of data from the past helps them strategize for the future. However, it may be time to gather data in a different and proactive way. Why not try an organic and mathematical approach?

Today’s guest is Susan Baier of Audience Audit, a marketing research company. She describes how attitudinal research can be more effective than demographics research. Susan explains the difference between audience and customer research.  

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Audience Audit: Attitudinal audience segmentation research that gains quantitative insight into audiences trying to be reached via marketing efforts
  • Attitudinal Research: Understanding how opinions, assumptions, perspectives, and preconceived ideas affect purchase decisions
  • Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research: Each offer value, including quantitative statistically significant insights of things affecting some of your audience
  • Marketers need to answer ‘Why?’ by providing reliable data
  • Audience Research: Only listening to customers, can create skewed perspective
  • Who is your sample? Talk to past, present, and potential customers in the market to solve a problem that you understand
  • Where to find your audience? Don’t rely on a single source; understand audience via email subscriber list, customer files, and social media platforms
  • Why are people here? What kept them from getting help sooner? Focus on what problems your company’s products and services solve, not on what they do
  • What does CMT stand for? Write compelling content using existing customers language/lingo to attract a similar audience
  • What method(s) to use to gather research? Survey of connotative data; avoid pushing your assumptions that artificially stratify people and don’t make sense
  • What doesn’t matter? 95% of studies that identify attitudinal segments reveal that company size, gender, household, and other factors aren’t important
  • Crafting Questions: Remove bias from data gathering and analysis processes to improve product positioning, audience targeting, and personas 
  • Segmentation: Understand, implement, and use information/data

Links: 

Dec 3, 2019

Is your marketing workflow bogged down with urgent requests, inefficient software/systems, undocumented processes, and manual tasks that could be automated? How can marketing leaders implement work management solutions to help high-performing teams, especially when it’s a matter of life or death?

Today’s guest is Erin Koschei, digital marketer at Laerdal Medical. Erin describes how to efficiently and effectively manage the "Grand Central Station" marketing analogy.  

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Resusci Anne: Laerdal Medical creates, manufactures, and sells resuscitation mannequins and medical simulation trainers
  • Saving More Lives: No one should die or be disabled unnecessarily
  • Grand Central Station: Laerdal’s marketing teams communicate and collaborate on content campaign components
  • Plan ahead by prioritizing projects based on company goals, initiatives, products, and providing the right information to customers at the right time 
  • Flexible and Supportive Team of Friends: All hands on deck to help when needed
  • CoSchedule: Best option for teams to communicate, plan, get organized, meet deadlines, and increase visibility 
  • S.M.A.R.T. Success: Set specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals that show value contributed by teams and individuals to stakeholders 

Links:

Nov 19, 2019

Do you have content that answers your audience’s questions and provides value along every stage of the sales funnel? Some of the most influential pieces of content include proof of ROI value, thought leadership, customer stories, and case studies.

Today’s guest is LaRissa Hendricks, product marketing copywriter at CoSchedule. She describes how to create relevant and compelling customer case studies. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • What are case studies? Success stories about how customers use product or service to reach specific outcome
  • Goal of Case Studies: Share how and what can be achieved with CoSchedule   
  • Possible Outcomes: CoSchedule helps marketers complete more projects, meet deadlines, and prove value to stakeholders
  • Gartner ranks case studies as third most-valued marketing asset for buyers
  • Case studies prove most effective at start of sales funnel by covering customer challenges and outcomes achieved to engage and establish trust 
  • Pitfalls to Avoid: Focus on customers and outcomes, not product and features
  • Target Audience: Anybody with an interest in CoSchedule, including specific industries, various team sizes, and common customer issues 
  • Short- or long-form structure used for case studies depends on sales funnel stage, challenges, outcomes, and key data points
  • Customer Story Matrix: Who, what, when, where, and why of sales enablement content case studies to use for specific situations
  • When is enough, enough when it comes to case studies? Depends on customers and different factors 

Links:

Nov 12, 2019

Nobody enjoys tedious, manual busywork. Precious work time is wasted, instead of spent on completing projects. Makeshift marketing isn’t fun. It’s unproductive and creates inefficiencies due to a disconnected marketing stack.

Today’s guest is Jared Rhue, head of business-to-business (B2B) marketing at rewardStyle. Jared describes his strategy of combining a core plan with agile methodologies to improve team collaboration and communication.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • rewardStyle: Influencer marketing pioneer started from passion for fashion
  • rewardStyle’s revenue model drives more than $1.2 billion annually in retail sales
  • Global Community: More than 250 team members; 50,000 top-tier influencers, and 5,000 retail partners
  • Strategy, Plan, and Review: Jared’s average day at rewardStyle
  • Strategy Steps to Success: Document marketing plan, strategy, and methods
  • Marketers must be agile for ability to ask and listen to audience challenges
  • Short Message Service (SMS): Relevant channel for B2B marketing in the future
  • rewardStyle’s core plan consists of positioning, value proposition, and priorities 
  • Secret to Team Success: Eliminate fire drills/urgent projects created by makeshift marketing chaos
  • Questions to prioritize projects: 
    • Does it support quarterly/yearly Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals?
    • Does it drive annual revenue?
    • Are there dedicated deadlines?
    • What’s the scope of work, and which team members will it impact? 
    • Which projects will need to be deprioritized?
  • Stay on Track with Tasks: Implement marketing organizational management platform and agile methodology  

Links: 

 

Nov 5, 2019

Inbound marketing is one component of content marketing that is often misunderstood. Relevant, compelling, and interesting blog posts, Webinars, and other content can attract and educate prospective and existing customers. What best practices should you use to align team of teams creating content marketing?

Today’s guest is Valaer Goldsworthy, director of content marketing at EZ Texting. Valaer describes how teams collaborate with business units outside of marketing to understand use cases of EZ Texting’s products and services. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • EZ Texting: #1 mobile marketing platform for business that focuses on messaging and voice solutions
  • Team of Teams: Identify, create, and review content needs
  • Rapid Growth: Doubled in size, retained long-term staff, and hired new voices 
  • Customer Base: EZ Texting is easy to use; doesn’t require tech-savvy marketers 
  • Lifetime-value customers inspire content for prospects in various verticals
  • Is text messaging safe? 90% of people believe so; EZ Texting tries to maintain that protection in all its content, collateral, voice, and point of view
  • Everything to Everyone: Trust and consumer confidence are critically important
  • Customer Success Team: Shares constant customer roadblocks creating churn
  • Customer Marketing: EZ Texting segments content into “Hero,” “Hub,” and “Help” content to create awareness and ongoing education
  • CoSchedule Transition: EZ Texting coordinates and collaborates content creation for campaigns to offer transparency and avoid silos 
  • Change Management: Lessons learned via objectives and key results (OKRs) 

Links:

Oct 29, 2019

Some companies have multiple target industries, verticals, business regions/units, and personas. It’s impossible for marketers to do it all and quantify the results that they produce. Focusing on too much means focusing on nothing at all. Are you spreading yourself too thin to be effective?

Today’s guest is Tessa Barron. She is the senior director of marketing at ON24, which is on a mission to help marketers make intimate connections and engagements in the digital world via Webinars and other platforms. Tessa describes why cross-channel campaigns are more effective than multi-channel communication. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • ON24: Create and deliver Webinar campaigns and curate bingeable content to drive demand and revenue
  • What is marketing? Driving profitable customer action starting with engagement
  • Backend Obsession: Lack of frontend technology for marketers to create products and experiences
  • Find creative ways to connect with and engage your customers’ emotions 
  • Orchestrated vs. Random Acts of Engagement: Don’t create something for the sake of creating it; identify purpose and insight that solves customers’ problems
  • Future of Marketing: Integrated demand-gen, product, and customer marketing creates brand experience
  • Marketing Strategy: Organization and planning are key tactics; document cross-channel roadmap so team members know what they’re doing is important
  • Experience is Everywhere: ON24’s upcoming campaign tagline 
  • Fragmented Digital World: Allow customers to make sense of brand message
  • Build on, not Rebuild: ON24 evolves beyond Webinars, while retaining heritage 

Links: 

Oct 22, 2019

Most of us look at our phones too much and too often. We’re distracted by the sounds and vibrations of notifications. We like to be distracted because it makes us feel important and wanted, but such interruptions can damage personal and professional relationships. 

Today’s guest is Nir Eyal, author of Indistractable. He offers several frameworks to understand and control internal urges to avoid being distracted. It’s easy to blame your phone for distractions, but it’s time to gain traction. What and who is more important and to blame? Your phone or your family?

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

  • Deep Dive into Human Psychology: Hooked on building habit-forming products
  • If you could have any superpower, which would you want to use for good?
  • Proximal vs. Root Cause: Distractions and reasons to procrastinate 
  • Motivated Reasoning: Place blame and pin responsibility on proximates  
  • Definition of Distraction: Opposite of distraction is not focus, but traction
  • Definition of Traction: Any action that pulls you toward what you want to do
  • External and internal triggers motivate us toward traction or distraction
  • How to channel discomfort into traction, not distraction:  
    • Step 1: Master internal triggers (re-imagine trigger, task, temperament)
    • Step 2: Make time for traction
    • Step 3: Hack back at external triggers
    • Step 4: Prevent distraction with pacts

Links:

Oct 15, 2019

Email marketing to the masses is quickly becoming an “old school” idea. Your audience of real people expect customization and personalization. Yet, your email list is one of your most valuable marketing assets. How can you engage your email subscribers to nurture them through your sales funnel and encourage them to convert?

Today’s guest is Val Geisler of Fix My Churn. A self-proclaimed email geek, Val shares some of what she knows about engagement, segmentation, and automation. She describes how email is a powerful communication tool and agent for change in battling churn problems. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • If and when subscribers are ready to take the next step via engagement and interest in purchasing—do something
  • Valid Metric: Val encourages and recommends engagement points and emails
  • Engagement Equals Responses: Engage with email subscribers by asking them to reply to emails
  • Common Complaints Create Content: What’s the biggest problem with email marketing?
  • Cross-functional vs. Siloed Teams: Get more people involved in custom email replies to offer personalized solutions to problems
  • Mass to Micro Email Marketing: Create a connection and build a bond because  it's easy to walk away from software, but harder to walk away from a person
  • People-to-People vs. Automation: Different questions during specific email segments and sequences identify and offer solutions to subscribers’ pain points  
  • Why include more form fields upon subscription? Reduce number of sign-ups with more quality sign-ups
  • Clean Cold Contact Database: Every email service provider (ESP) defines a cold subscriber differently; re-engage them via brief email sequence requiring action 

Links: 

Oct 8, 2019

Go to the homepage of your company’s Website, and read the copy aloud. How does it sound? Like a pushy salesperson? Cute and clever, but unclear? Why not sound like yourself? Avoid corporate speak copywriting that almost no one understands. 

Today’s guest is Nick Usborne, a conversational copywriting mastermind with 40 years of experience. Conversational copywriting is clear, concise, and converts customers.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • What is conversational copywriting? Social and conversational copy that engages with an audience; write the way you talk 
  • Conversational vs. Corporate Copywriting: Clear and compelling copy with a human voice matters
  • Old School vs. Online Voice: Let go of marketing speak to create realistic, unique, and transparent voice and language 
  • Conversational Copywriting Traits: Start with a couple short, simple sentences; remove the fluff
  • Corporate copywriting is defensive, while conversational copy is disarming
  • Mirror and Reflect Customers’ Words: Use their language, not yours as a clever copywriter; creativity can get in the way of copy  

Links:

 

Oct 1, 2019

Content marketing isn’t only blogs, Webinars, guides, and podcasts. All content is meant to convert prospects and attract continued interest from existing customers. It costs more to convert new customers than to retain existing ones. While inbound marketing remains popular, how are you providing value to current customers?

Today’s guest is Leah DeKrey, customer marketing lead at CoSchedule. Customer marketing helps existing customers accomplish the dream they were sold by finding continuous value within products and services. Beyond knowing the features and functions, they can achieve outcomes. Provide value through content marketing for every customer experience—from beginning to end.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • What is customer marketing? Helping existing customers quickly find the most value in your company’s products and services to be successful
  • Sales Funnel: Traditional method neglects marketing process to retain current customers; multi-step process retains customers to turn them into advocates
  • Where does customer marketing fit in the sales scheme? Difference between ‘support’ vs. ‘help’ documentation
  • Funnel from Top-down: Customer marketing coincides with inbound marketing to bring in and nurture prospects via marketing automation to become customers
  • Customer marketing content can include workbook guides and video tutorials/courses on how to be a successful CoSchedule user
  • Delivering Customer Marketing: Email and marketing automation require creative and strategic options; Facebook ads produce mixed results
  • Let Your Voices be Heard: Be the voice of the market for the marketing team and the voice of the customer to the marketing team

Links:

Sep 24, 2019

What if customers found your business every single time they Googled an industry buzzword? Can you imagine the incredible amount of traffic that would generate? Connect the dots between increased traffic and true business value to convert opportunities into leads.

Today’s guest is Liam Barnes, search engine optimization (SEO) specialist at Directive. He describes how “guides” are the future of SEO-driven content marketing. Discover what quality content looks like, why long-form interactive content works, and get tips on SEO keyword selection and tools. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Where to start with SEO? Depends on several factors, including the client, industry, purpose of Website, and product 
  • Different Dynamic Ways for SEO Website: 
    • Content: Based on keyword research, purpose, and topics targeted
    • Product: Keywords describe the product or focus on user experience
  • Benefits of a Blog: Understand what, why, and how Google ranks content and utilize link building for search engine results pages (SERP)
  • Short-tail, High Demand vs. Long-tail, Low Demand: Find keywords and make guides for different intents
  • Guides that Rank: Long-form content pieces between 5,000 to 20,000 words where table of contents covers and breaks down every subtopic of a broad topic
  • What’s good for the user, is good for SEO: When a piece gets big, it must be consumable to keep user’s interest and attention
  • Single or Multiple Keyword Slugs: Which alternative offers a better user experience; what are you looking for?
  • Directive’s Guide: What is CRO? Gather information for as many people as possible and then apply what works best for clients
  • Go-to tools for SEO keyword selection include Google, Moz, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Backlinko 
  • Interactive Content and Tools: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and voice search based off of interactive content to create conversations with the search engine.
  • SEO Takes Time: Go back to the basics to understand what the search engine considers—quality content, highly authoritative links, and good user experience

Links:

Sep 17, 2019

Marketers who document their strategy are 313% more likely to report success. Yet, most marketer’s plans don’t change based on what works or not. Marketing is about generating results, not activity. Make a plan, and stick to it to be successful!

Today’s guest is Agnes Józwiak, brand and communication director at ClickMeeting. Agnes focuses on process to empower her team to make, review, and iterate strategic decisions to produce significant results. What features and what process do you need to put into action?

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • ClickMeeting: Browser-based Webinar platform for online events, courses, product demos, sales presentations, and meetings via video conferencing
  • Platform full of features for Webinar process, from promotion through analyzing
  • ClickMeeting: Customer feedback built and shaped tool to meet needs and goals
  • Documenting Do’s and Don’ts: Processes should make people’s lives easier
  • Blog Posts: Create in-depth content to repurpose and provide value to get results 
  • All About Automation: Educate people on how to automate processes to make their businesses run smoothly
  • Happy Marketing Team, Happy Customers: Make decisions together based on results and trust your experts

Links: 

Sep 10, 2019

Do you spend more time coordinating or completing your work? Marketers need to create content that matters to their target audience. If the content is not valuable, then it’s worthless to waste their time and yours.

Today’s guest is Sean Gordon, marketing manager at Vanguard Charitable. Sean shares how a simple and agile “placemats” framework plans and delivers high-value projects. When clients expect more from Sean and his team, they expect more from themselves. 

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

  • Search for Efficiencies and Maximize Resources: Unintentional but not uncommon to use makeshift marketing 
  • Marketing and Planning Process: Vanguard Charitable sponsors and uses donor-advised funds (DAFs) to strategically think about charitable activities
  • Operational Communications: Conduct grant research, communicate with nonprofits, and reach donors
  • Placemats Framework: Set strategic vision of goals to achieve; execute, and adapt when necessary 
  • Prioritize/Deprioritize: Get more done, or do most valuable work
  • Value of Agile. Setbacks happen; accept, learn, and try something else next time
  • Successful Solutions: Leverage CoSchedule and other tools to communicate with clients and donors

Links: 

Sep 3, 2019

Marketers are expected to do more without increasing headcount and know how to use marketing tools and technology (MarTech). Change is inevitable, and embracing it can help marketers succeed. 

Today’s guests are G5’s Marketing Campaign Manager Celena Canode and Content Marketing Manager Emily Pick.They offer insight on how a hub and spoke content model promotes and delivers marketing content to get major results.G5’s goal is to help clients increase exposure and achieve peak occupancies via digital marketing for self-storage, multifamily, and senior living verticals. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Day-in-the-Life of G5 Marketers: Multi-purpose, do everything, always changing, never concentrate on one task for too long
  • Norm for Marketers: Set aside time to focus; be agile to adapt to the unexpected
  • Open Office Space: Remove distractions, find a place to hide, or work remotely
  • Marketing Strategy: Streamline plans and align tasks with business goals
  • Vertical Leads: Identify pain points, develop tactical side of strategy, and provide value through content and education to overcome challenges
  • Hub and Spoke Model: Distribution plans consider channels, how to share and amplify content, and empower internal teams to appropriately use content
  • Marketing Analytics: G5 uses Salesforce and Pardot to track goals and KPIs
  • G5 selected CoSchedule to consolidate and centralize tasks, schedules, and staff to provide visibility and accountability 
  • Lattices, not Ladders: Are you willing to move and take a different position? 

Links:

Aug 27, 2019

Remember the 1990s, when people used old school search engines? Cost per click for SEO was unheard of back then. Now, everybody uses Google. People have more control over marketing content than ever before. What’s the best way for your target audience to discover your marketing content? Search engine optimization (SEO). 

Today’s guest is Stephan Spencer, SEO expert and co-author of The Art of SEO. Stephan describes myths and truths about SEO, including why remarkable content wins.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Stephan’s Career Path: Studying for a PhD in biochemistry, only to switch to SEO
  • What makes a good headline? Decision to consider SEO and keywords that attract users
  • Quality over Quantity: Google rewards sites with Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT) and Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) 
  • Myths Debunked: Meta keywords and descriptions are not as valuable for rankings and click-throughs; guessing game with no data to back it up
  • BS Detector: Ask specific SEO questions to verify so-called expertise
  • Where to begin with SEO: Start by defining strategies, followed by tactics
  • Prioritize and balance both internal and external requests; don’t become the “butt” of jokes 

Links: 

Aug 20, 2019

It’s good enough. Usually, “good enough” isn’t enough to solve problems for employees and customers. 

Today’s guest is Brianne Hoffman, senior marketing and communications manager at Wanzek Construction. She offers advice on how to avoid makeshift marketing to improve productivity. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Internal and External Marketing and Communications: Create strategies that grab and engage target audience 
  • Wanzek Construction: Builds and maintains industrial wind turbines, solar farms
  • Plan Persona and Associate with Audience: Long-term projects decrease need for brand new business and customers
  • #1 Priority: Safety is cornerstone of Wanzek Construction’s people and property
  • Core Values and Work Culture: Big, happy family
  • 7 Internal Beliefs: Protect, Trust, Talent, Information, Integrity, Communication, and Profit
  • Fist Bump App: Callouts to coworkers for a job well done 
  • Content Pillars: Document marketing and communication goals and game plan 
  • Plan in advance to help anticipate and alleviate fire drills and pop-up projects
  • Weekly Summary: Reinforce and reflect on list of accomplishments
  • Pressure to do more, with less: Identify inefficiencies to shift responsibilities, and find tools that get things done faster 
  • Wanzek Way: Be the best and deliver excellence
  • Back to the Drawing Board: What do you think we should do? 
  • Marketing and Communication Metrics: Track popular posts, recruitment campaigns, followers, and more

Links: 

Aug 13, 2019

Unexpected projects derail your marketing process or work management. It happens. How do you prepare or respond to such stress? Do you find a way to complete your work and meet deadlines? Marketing teams are always expected to do more with less. 

Today’s guest is Dree Ziegler, director of digital marketing at Fulton Fish Market. Every marketer has similar tactics, but they’re all talking to different audiences and pitching different services and products. Dree brings a fresh perspective and describes how she created a process using CoSchedule to stay organized and constantly communicate. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Not a Can of Corn: Fulton Fish Market in New York City follows the same way of doing things since the beginning of time
  • Nothin’ Fishy about Dree’s Marketing Experience: Digital and eCommerce marketing and technology strategy that moved to the merchant side of the business
  • Remote Headquarters: Dree manages a dispersed team of people in a number of places who are in contact with all the people in the market on a daily basis
  • Challenges: Dree understands the importance of visibility across the team, staying organized, and constant communication
  • Gone Fishin’: Fultonfishmarket.com’s goal is to bring that fresh seafood experience to people, wherever they may live
  • It’s not the same: Fresh fish from a grocery store is fish caught months ago, frozen, kept in a warehouse, trucked across the country, thawed, and put on display
  • Fulton Fish Market features about 40 vendors that bring fresh fish that’s sent overnight and delivered to your doorstep
  • Fulton Fish Market’s Documenting Strategy for Marketing Plan: 
    • Set high-level goals for team that’s still growing
    • Update Website to improve consumer experience
    • Put baseline digital marketing tools in place to plan daily tasks
    • Draft and create day-to-day marketing plan and content
  • Fish-on-the-Fly Campaigns: Ordering and buying fish that’s only good for so long; purchasing department buys what’s fresh in the market and expected to sell
  • Project Plan: Visual waterfall of tasks and who’s doing what; monitor team’s tasks, pickup slack, work collaboratively, and deliver what’s promised 
  • Fulton Fish Market’s next frontier is doing the things that people should be doing vs. automation and machine learning (ML) tools
  • Marinating on Future of Digital Marketing: No experience needed, continue to learn, differentiate yourself, and stay hungry

Links:

Aug 6, 2019

Do you work alone, or as part of a content marketing team? Do you have a strong content marketing presence? How do you measure content marketing success? Learn from marketing content engines that do it right. 

Today’s guest is Jennifer Pepper, head of content marketing at Unbounce. She describes how to build successful content marketing teams and processes. It's easy to get mesmerized by marketing technologies, but most marketers focus on strategies and goals to stay organized and productive.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Unbounce: Leading landing-page platform with drag-and-drop feature to easily make changes and better control conversions 
  • Content Strategy: Driven by marketing team’s strategy, needs, and best practices
  • Balance and Alignment: Marketing strategy with business to prioritize content
  • Content Machine: Set foundation, create funnel, and focus on content services
  • Content Updates vs. Neverending Creation: Serve everything, and keep it fresh
  • Different Departments: Work well with others to align content marketing priorities 
  • Unbounce’s Future Goals: 
    • Attract target segments with core content that’s difficult to replicate
    • Regain organic traffic
    • Improve discoverability of evergreen content
    • Become exceptional at multimedia content
  • Makeshift Marketing: Who’s doing what? Using what tools? 
  • Content Creation Process: Editorial calendar for blog, roadmap for long-term projects, and project manager to keep staff on schedule
  • Team Size Matters: Requires ruthless prioritization and alignment on projects
  • Defining and Measuring Success: Monthly results for direct and organic traffic, number of new subscribers, and keyword positioning on Google
  • Psychological Safety Net: Supportive and fun culture of content marketing team
  • Competition-free Content: Stand out by creating useful, value-add, quality, and compelling content that can’t be replicated

Links:

Jul 30, 2019

Marketing is sometimes sensationalized, especially when media publications feature huge brands with huge budgets. In reality, most marketers come from small brands with small budgets. They need to be scrappy to get noticed, but with fewer resources.

Today’s guest is Andie Coupland, product marketing manager at Totara Learning. She describes how small brands with small budgets can achieve colossal results by avoiding makeshift marketing. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Game Plan: Strategies for marketing goals, product fit, and brand messaging  
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) vs. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs): Different approaches for deliverables to measure results of goals and objectives
  • Stop Fighting Fires: Stay agile to remain focused on your quarterly priorities
  • Keep on Track: Processes in place to stay organized and meet deadlines
  • Productivity Pressure: Marketing is getting more done with fewer resources
  • Shift in Mindset: Always ask why you’re doing something as a leader/manager
  • Andie’s Advice: Find the right tool(s) and learn how to use them to meet your company’s marketing needs right now

Links:

Jul 23, 2019

Different industries directly impact the marketing processes, tactics, and tools that prevent marketers from being productive, organized, and focused. Is your industry leading or bleeding marketing and technology consumption?

Today’s guest is Ted Horan, vice president of marketing in eCommerce at RDO Equipment Company. Ted describes how the company overcomes makeshift marketing to be a leader in the construction and agriculture industry. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Candid CoSchedule Customer: What works and what doesn’t with tool
  • Farmer to Founder: Ron Offutt’s entrepreneurial spirit for equipment business
  • Evolution of Equipment Industry: Sales-heavy, outdated, one-man operation
  • Catch up vs. Keep up: Create digital presence to sell more and be relevant 
  • Ultimate Goal: Become a strategic partner with those driving revenue every day
  • Ever-changing Tech Environment: Rely on tools to react, pivot, and adapt
  • Pop-up Projects: Prioritizing flow of ideas and fire drills depends on budget, resources, and capacity
  • Qualifiers: Find tools to manage/optimize workflow in a way that makes sense
  • Are you winning? Surround yourself with a strong team and necessary skill sets 

Links:

Jul 16, 2019

CoSchedule’s blog and content engine generate more than 1 million views and 20,000 leads every month. How do we do it? Listen and learn. 

Today’s guest is Leah DeKrey, content marketing strategist and blog manager at CoSchedule. To know that a million people read the blog posts she writes every month is terrifying, thrilling, and core to CoSchedule’s growth.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Reasons for Successful Blog: 
    • Corporate and managerial buy-in 
    • Standards of performance
  • Blog Posts: Be different than the rest, as the best
  • Performance Pillars for Blog Posts:
    • Comprehensive; at least 3,000 words
    • Actionable
    • Relevant 
    • Content upgrade/value-add included
  • Keyword Domination Strategy: Drive content by Googling around to search and seek high-volume, low-difficulty keywords
  • Measure Success of Content and Blog: Give it time because reaching the top doesn't happen overnight and takes patience
  • What you know now: College system is ripe for disruption, real world is where you learn 90% of what you do
  • Tools to Try: Ahrefs, Google Analytics, and KISSmetrics 

Links:

Jul 9, 2019

Is your email inbox out of control? Are you always clicking delete, spam, or unsubscribe? Brands and marketers need to minimize makeshift marketing to improve open rates, engagement, and relationships with subscribers and customers. 

Today’s guest is Cameron Cegala, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of AdKaddy. Cameron describes how AdKaddy, a startup experiencing significant growth on a small budget, stays organized.

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

  • Mergers, Acquisitions, and Entrepreneurship: Hyper-focused to multi-functions
  • AdKaddy: Addresses interruption caused by abundant advertising
  • Why not unsubscribe? Fear of missing out (FOMO) and love for brands
  • Control communication process by conveniently receiving messages  
  • Content vs. Context: Shoppers want coupons, others want brand’s backstory
  • AdKaddy: Organizes everything by brand and automatically sorts related emails
  • State of Mind: Discovery process of feeding people ads is interruptive
  • Email Marketing: Broken model and better ways to communicate with customers
  • Connecting Consumers and Brands: Sweepstakes, earned media, Facebook ads
  • Getting Started on a Small Budget: Be thoughtful about where to put dollars
  • Google Drive, Trello, Slack: Leverage tools and strengths to stay on task 
  • Advice for Entrepreneurs: Be comfortable feeling out of your league; and learn from others

Links:

Jul 2, 2019

CoSchedule surveyed more than 3,000 marketers, and the results are in! Marketers want to publish more, complete everything on time, and prove their value to stakeholders. So, why do some marketers still use single-function tools, multiple platforms, and spreadsheets? These workarounds strangle your productivity and prevent you from reaching your goals. How can you overcome the madness of makeshift marketing? 

Today’s guest is Libby Hall, vice president of client services at Unearth, a digital public affairs agency. Libby describes how she found success despite makeshift marketing and shares suggestions on team development and project management.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Remember life before hashtags? From Foursquare to five people in Fargo on Twitter to being bit by public affairs bug in sunny Sacramento
  • Cutting-edge digital tools, systems, processes, and teams help expand, grow, and scale services
  • Marketers struggle with single source of truth and visibility across campaigns
  • Evolution of what worked in the past, and transformative shift to being agile
  • Measure changing situations and data to improve results and optimize what works best right now
  • What do you want to accomplish? Document strategies, plans, goals, objectives 
  • Elements of Successful Processes: Provide value, allow flexibility, and be accountable
  • Put out fires and urgent pop-up activities: Bring in more resources/team members; simplify deliverable; and work extra hours
  • What’s the right number for volume of communication to make an impact? Set measurements for success, and find benchmark to work from 
  • Google isn’t a substitute for experience, but it’s the next best thing; do research and be prepared
  • Don’t underestimate power of curiosity: Encourage, support, and mentor others

Links: 

Jun 25, 2019

Are you dependent on technology? Rely on it to get you through the day? Suffer from shiny object syndrome? What would marketers do without technology? The hope is that technology helps marketers connect with customers in a more personable way. In reality, it’s killing marketing productivity.

Today, my guest is Mark Schaefer, author of Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins. Mark shares how marketing should create amazing experiences at specific moments to help customers authentically connect with brands.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Ready for a wake-up call? Traditional marketing strategies don’t meet customer expectations today
  • Customers Takeover Control: Marketers are losing control of a brand’s story, voice, and customer journey
  • Where the action is: Shift focus from relying on technology and automation to actually talking to customers
  • Human-centered Marketing Approach: Resonate with consumers and remove barriers by remembering what it’s like to be a customer
  • Purpose of Marketing: Build emotional connections by bringing people together
  • Experiential Marketing: Create encounter worthy of consumers giving brands their attention and sharing their story
  • Testimonial Stats: Content about a brand created by a consumer gets 600% more engagement than content created by a brand
  • Taking Social out of Social Media: Easy button for automation and technology is the opposite of what customers want; marketers have a way of ruining every medium
  • Hurdles to Overcome: Organizational, cultural, leadership, and measurement
  • Meaning is the New Marketing: Consumers want brands that represent values
  • Levels of Loyalty:
    • Shared Values: Take a stand to connect in a way that pushes loyalty
    • Show up and Represent: Unifying and uplifting to display beliefs
    • Dangerous Territory: Not every company needs to take a stand/political view
  • Words of Wisdom:
    • Remember what it's like to be a customer
    • Be more human in everything you do

Links:

1 2 Next »