Category: Tactics

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.…
5-Minute Whiteboards Agencies Industry Marketing Psychology Tactics

How to Use Mental Jujitsu to Convince Your Boss/Team/Client to Make the Right Marketing Investments

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
“How do I convince my boss/team/client to invest in my audience’s true sources of influence? Especially when those sources are so hard to prove attribution?” Friend, I hear you. So, for this week’s 5-Minute Whiteboard, how about we try a little mental jujitsu to get everyone aligned on the reality of how the modern web works, and how people make…
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…
Content Marketing Tactics

The Overlooked Reason Your Content Isn’t Gaining Traction

Amanda NatividadBy Amanda Natividad
“Your content isn’t getting amplified? Well, maybe it’s not good enough.” If I haven’t said that out loud before, I’ve definitely thought it. But it’s the least helpful piece of feedback. It’s not specific and it doesn’t offer solutions for next time. Instead, consider this: Maybe your content doesn’t match the user’s intent. As in, there’s a disconnect between the…
5-Minute Whiteboards Marketing Research Tactics

The Biggest Mistake We Make When Asking: “Where Are My Customers?”

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
It’s January, and that means many marketers are tasked with a project to identify new channels and sources of influence for new potential investments. This year is likely more active than most given the decline of Google search traffic, the rise of AI, the Twitter exodus, and the meteoric growth of Threads and Bluesky. But, far too many times, we…
Advertising Content Marketing Industry Marketing Psychology Tactics

If your audience’s sources of influence and your marketing budget don’t align, you’re gonna have a bad time

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Yes, this is a rant. It’s a rant about where leadership teams allocate their marketing budget vs. where their potential customers actually pay attention. For most, that’s heavily in digital performance ads (Meta, Google, Apple, and if you’re in e-commerce, Amazon/Pinterest), a healthy amount in social media/brand ads (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, maybe Reddit), and then a bit of “content marketing,”…
5-Minute Whiteboards Marketing SparkToro Tactics

How Can My Brand Appear in Answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Other AI/LLM Tools?

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
It’s no surprise that marketers, founders, and business owners are starting to ask how their brands can be returned in the answers given by AI/LLM tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. But it’s downright shocking how difficult it is to find high-quality, accurate information about how to do this. Granted, you could just ask ChatGPT (the first answer is decent,…
Hiring Marketing Startups Tactics Team

Stop Making Your Team Own Tasks. Let Them Own Programs Instead.

Amanda NatividadBy Amanda Natividad
In a given week, I would write product descriptions, digital ad copy, pithy social media posts, a couple blog posts, and the abandoned cart email campaign. I loved having a variety of writing responsibilities. But there was a big problem: if I took a sick day, it would slow down the rest of my team.  Product, customer acquisition, social media,…

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