SparkToro Blog

Posts by Amanda Natividad:

Content Marketing Marketing Tactics

You’ve Done the Audience Research… Now What?

Amanda NatividadBy Amanda Natividad
Our friend Tommy Walker, founder of The Content Studio, contributed the following, superb, much-needed article; thank you sir! Tommy was the Editor-in-Chief at ConversionXL, the first marketing hire at Shopify Plus, and Global Editor-in-Chief at QuickBooks. As a 20-year career veteran, his methodologies have contributed to 10-figures in revenue, and have become integral to developing category-defining brands. You’ve just wrapped…
Marketing

The Fastest Way to Understand Your Audience Without Talking to Them

Amanda NatividadBy Amanda Natividad
“Talk to your customers” is one of the most common pieces of advice in marketing. And it’s not wrong. But it’s also not always realistic. Maybe you don’t have direct access or contact information for these folks. Maybe your team doesn’t prioritize customer interviews. Maybe you’re a founder wearing seven hats, or a marketer who doesn’t have a warm list…
Content Marketing

Nobody Is Dying on Hills

Amanda NatividadBy Amanda Natividad
One massive hurdle for would-be creators is feeling that everything they say must represent a hill they’re willing to die on. Sure, if you’re publicly taking a stance, it should genuinely reflect your beliefs. But nobody is actually dying on these hills. It’s not that serious. There’s tremendous value in the philosophy of “strong beliefs, loosely held.” Absolutely, take a…
Marketing

No, I Will Not A/B Test That

Amanda NatividadBy Amanda Natividad
Marketers love to talk about A/B testing. Heck, I’ve said it too. It sounds prudent. Responsible. “Test before you commit! Don’t waste resources!” But the longer I work in marketing, the more I believe most A/B tests are a waste of time — at least for small and medium-sized businesses. More often than not, these tests are just procrastination disguised…
Marketing

The Internet Needs Less Fighting, More Invisible Subtweets

Amanda NatividadBy Amanda Natividad
I guess we can’t really say “subtweets” anymore because Twitter is now X and tweets are now blandly called “posts.” But we all know in our bones what a subtweet is. It’s a unique description for the subtle shade thrown someone’s way on a text-based social media platform. Someone you know (or hate?) writes about the importance of waking up…
Advertising Content Marketing Marketing Tactics

Getting Executive Buy-In: How to Tie Audience Research to Business Strategy

Amanda NatividadBy Amanda Natividad
It’s a tale as old as time, or uh… for as long as you’ve been doing digital marketing: You’ve uncovered powerful audience insights that you fully believe will transform your company’s approach, but when you try to share them beyond the marketing team, eyes glaze over. Executives nod politely before steering the conversation back to quarterly targets and sales forecasts.…
Content Marketing Marketing Tactics

How to Turn Audience Research Into Content Ideas

Amanda NatividadBy Amanda Natividad
If you’ve ever stared at a blank content calendar wondering what to create next, you’re not alone. Even the most prolific writers* sometimes feel like they’re running nonstop on the content creation hamster wheel… even after ideas dry up and writer’s block sets in. But while continuing your creation habit can build momentum, sometimes the best content ideas aren’t hiding…
Marketing Startups

ROI vs. VOI: Smart Marketers Look Beyond the Numbers

Amanda NatividadBy Amanda Natividad
Most of us default to Return on Investment (ROI) for measuring marketing success. It’s the tried-and-true metric that quantifies financial returns. Money in, money out. But we all know the messy reality of attribution. The prospects who subscribe and unsubscribe from our newsletters, who toss us a LinkedIn like now and then, who eventually Google us one day because they…

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