CEO/Sales Leader: “Hey marketing team! We’re behind on our quarterly sales goals and only have 3 weeks left. Do some marketing why doncha?! Crank up them SQLs!“ Marketer: “Yeah, that’s not really how this discipline works. It’s a long lead cycle between awareness, branding, and conversion, and…“ CEO/Sales Leader: “Sorry exec team. Marketing underperformed and
How One Media Placement Led to 1,600 Customers — And How You Can Do It Too
By “But, customer acquisition isn’t how you measure the success of public relations.” I didn’t have formal PR or marketing training and still, I knew it was a ridiculous KPI. This was during my time at direct-to-consumer (DTC) healthy snack startup NatureBox. We were a series A startup, a lean team that needed to grow our
5-Minute Whiteboard: Zero-Click Marketing 101
By When did you first promote content on the Internet? Some of us have been doing it long enough to—GASP—remember when Facebook post CTRs were 10%. Yes, folks, that meant a full 15% of all your Facebook page likes (back then we called them “fans”) would click a link you posted, and then we web marketers
An Employee’s Guide to Building a Personal Brand
By You don’t need to announce your bid to join the creator economy. You don’t need to sell templates or courses, or even start a podcast. And you certainly don’t need to quit your job. Because here’s the thing: focusing on your personal brand doesn’t need to mean becoming a creator. Taking charge of your personal
A Marketing Team’s FAQ for Meta’s Threads App (Plus, Findings From Our Survey!)
By If you work in marketing, there’s a good chance your leadership has asked you about Threads. If you work in social media marketing, then leadership has almost certainly asked for your early reaction to Meta’s Twitter clone. Should we make an account? Should we cross-post from our top-performing social media channel? What’s our content strategy?
Maybe the Best Threads Strategy Right Now Is to Listen and Learn
By When Threads launched on July 5, it was easy to get on the hype train. The battle for a Twitter replacement. A place where most of your friends already are. One-click login. Instagram even cleverly added number badges to profiles, indicating what number Threads user they are. (This blog post is written by user number
How Do You Create a Great Marketing Strategy? | 5-Minute Whiteboard
By This week, I’m going back to basics. Not because you need a refresher course, but because so many of us are frustrated in the weeds of marketing precisely because we can’t see the strategy forest for the tactical trees. I’ve written before about how too few marketers grasp the difference between strategy and tactics. If
5-Minute Whiteboard: How Obsession with Attribution Warps Marketing Investments
By Why do 90% of marketing dollars flow to paid/performance channels that provide attribution? HINT: It’s not because ads are 10X more effective than organic investments. It’s because ads aren’t just measurable, they’re attributable. Your CFO, CMO, and CEO can get in a room and look at the CAC:LTV ratio of every performance channel and feel
5-Minute Whiteboard: Measurement vs. Attribution
By Howdy SparkToro fans and welcome to the first edition of a new series we’re experimenting with—short, whiteboard style explainer videos. This inaugural video covers a concept that’s crucial to the future of marketing: measurement vs. attribution. For the last 20 years, we’ve lived in the golden age of attribution. Measuring the kinds of metrics I
SparkToro Year 3 Retrospective: Investor Payback, Systemic Challenges, and V2 on the Way
By 3 Years ago, SparkToro launched in the midst of a world-changing pandemic. In 2021 and 2022 I wrote updates about this business’ journey, both because I love to transparently share the adventure, and because we’re passionate about spreading the model SparkToro’s used to fund, grow, and bring value to customers. Let’s continue that tradition today