Agencies Hiring Industry Research

The State of Digital Agencies in 2024: Big Challenges, Bigger Optimism, and Is Remote Work Here to Stay?

Introductory note from Rand: This extraordinary research was put together by the brilliant Paddy Moogan, who’s had a long career in marketing agencies, and now coaches other agency owners and runs The New Leader newsletter (to which I’m a subscriber). Paddy’s contribution here cannot be overstated – he’s assembled a mountain of survey data from 612 agency owners and consultants…

How Do We Anchor Content Marketing Efforts in a Multi-Platform Distribution World?

This week, I’m taking a full 8 minutes because I want to address an incredibly important email from Russell Wojcik of Liquibase that came in reply to my previous 5-Minute Whiteboard on Content Marketing Evolving Beyond SEO: What distribution point do we rally around if it’s not just keyword rankings in Google? It’s a fair question because, for many content…

How Paid Media Buyers Can Get an Edge in 2024

(The following post was written by Sam Tomlinson, EVP of Warschawski and one of the smartest marketing strategists operating today, and published on his blog. He’s kindly given us permission to reprint it here. Once you start reading, you’ll see why I believe everyone who subscribes to SparkToro should check it out. -Rand) The past three months have been jam-packed…

Win the RFP: Nail Your Next Client Pitch With Audience Research

Why do in-house teams hire agencies or consultants? It’s almost always for two types of expertise: Tactical: Mastery of a specific tactic in a domain (e.g. handle all the Meta ads for your online shop) Domain: Deep knowledge of a given industry (e.g. PR strategy in the healthcare space) Clients expect these tasks to be done more efficiently and effectively…

Why Digital Marketing Agencies Have it Tough in 2023 | 5-Minute Whiteboard

3 months ago, a dear friend’s agency closed for good. 2 months ago, another close friend had a round of layoffs at their firm. And in just the last two weeks, I talked to four agency owners who reported their first revenue-declining year in the last five. It’s rough out there for a lot of digital marketing agency owners. My…

Why the Worst Search Marketers Start Content Strategy with “SEO Keywords” — 5-Minute Whiteboard

I’m worried. Worried that thousands of agencies, in-house practitioners, and even marketing leaders who should know better are STILL prioritizing their content efforts based primarily or entirely on keywords for search. I get it. 10 years ago, that practice worked. It still technically works in a number of fields. Prioritize keywords, create content, publish, get links and ranking signals, earn…