Updated: April 5th, 2024 (for SparkToro V2) Every day, I help folks in fascinating, unique niches uncover key information about the audiences for their marketing efforts. It’s a fun problem! For a few minutes, I get to feel like a digital Sherlock Holmes, digging into their products and services, trying to understand their customers, and
Too Much Creative Marketing is Stifled by Attribution
By You’re listening to a podcast. The guest describes a product that sounds compelling, alluring, something you’ve been looking for… What happens next? Yup. You search Google. And then what? Google shows you the website for that alluring product, and you click. Maybe you explore the site a bit, perhaps give them your email address or
Content Marketing Superpower: Small, Invite-Only, Amplifier Groups
By Every month or so, I get an email via BCC. It’s short and to the point, containing a blog post or research paper from the marketing field. More than half the time I click the link, I end up sharing their content on Twitter and LinkedIn. ~10% of the time, I end up linking to
The “Wall Street Journal” Marketing Problem
By If you’ve worked in the marketing field long enough, either with consulting clients or as an in-house practitioner with executive participation, you’ve encountered a scenario just like this one. Marketer: “Based on this market research, we know our primary audience: tabletop board game enthusiasts with kids. So, we’ve designed a content marketing campaign, followed by
Survey: 734 Marketing Professionals Share How They’re Hiring in the 2020 Recession
By If you’re a marketing student about to graduate, a job-seeker considering the field of marketing, or someone who’s looking to advance in their marketing career, this report is for you. Marketing is an immense, growing, and well-paid field, and is one of the few where credentials and alma mater mean far less than quality of
The Dirty Secret to Ranking #1 in Google (Part 3 of 3)
By Years ago, one might reasonably separate the elements of Google’s results into distinct entities: Google News, Books, Videos, Images, Local… But today it’s near-impossible. The list of elements Google might show for a given query are so vast and varied that at the macro-level there’s really only three kinds of search results that matter: 1)
The Dirty Secret to Ranking #1 on Google (Part 2 of 3)
By Yesterday, we explored how Google puts their own products before any others, often regardless of quality. When they do, *even* when those results are superb, it discourages competition. Why bother building something better if Google’s going to send 70, 80, 90%+ of the search traffic to their own property? Today, we’ll look at how Google
The Dirty Secret to Ranking #1 on Google (part 1 of 3)
By For the last few years, I’ve had a tongue-in-cheek phrase on my official bio that reads: “If you feed him great pasta or great whisky, he’ll give you the cheat code to rank #1 on Google.” It’s mostly there because I dislike standard, overly formal, professional bios. But… not infrequently… someone (often a podcast host
SparkToro’s Statement on Racial Injustice
By SparkToro is a tiny company of just two people, Casey and Rand. Our small size does not preclude us from taking a role nor from an obligation to make the world around us more fair, equitable, and diverse. We are sickened by the persistent, pernicious racism and white supremacy that infects our country. We are
22 Minutes on Audience Intelligence: Slides, Video, & Q+A
By Last week, I was honored to join Jeff Sauer’s superb Data Driven U for a class on audience intelligence. And, thankfully, kindly, Jeff gave me permission to share our class and the subsequent Q+A on this blog. I think it’s invaluable, but frustratingly difficult to understand the answers to questions like: What can I learn