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BUILD WITH FANS FRAMEWORK: HOW TO INVOLVE YOUR COMMUNITY IN A NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH

The ‘Build With Fans’ framework describes how you can immediately start building up traction in a community, even when you only have an idea for a product.

TIKTOK PUBLISHES LEAD GENERATION BEST PRACTICE GUIDE

TikTok’s comprehensive 25-page Lead Generation Playbook offers actionable insights into forms, hooks, messaging, and calls to action on the platform.

THE FOMO EFFECT: WHY SPOTIFY‘S PERSONALIZATION FEATURES ARE IN THE MARKETING SPOTLIGHT

By tapping into the FOMO effect, Spotify's Daylist feature has emerged as a key element in the company's marketing strategy. It capitalized on users' desire to be part of the cultural zeitgeist while highlighting the platform's commitment to personalization. The move not only enhanced user loyalty, but also served as a catalyst for broader user engagement and adoption of Spotify's personalized features.

RETURN POLICIES SWAY CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR

A recent survey showed that return policies significantly influence consumer behavior, with 82% of respondents saying that they consider them when making purchases. Data also shows that in-store return rates are notably lower than those for online purchases. Retailers should adjust strategies to address evolving preferences to mitigate the impact of returns on their businesses.

HOW TO WRITE COPY AS STICKY AS LEMON JUICE

Marketers need to repeat the same message to buyers several times before it sticks. Rather than showing the same exact ad over and over, it’s more effective to communicate the message from various angles, with different wording and in new formats. This article breaks down an old Schweppes ad that masterfully sells a drink with effective copy.

HOW TO GROW WITHOUT PAID MARKETING

Many brands get stuck in a cycle where they over-dump money into paid marketing to keep growing. Rising CACs and saturated audiences make this approach impossible to scale long-term. The CEO of Bobbie, an organic baby formula brand, advocates for a 60/40 split — 60% of growth is your product/brand and 40% is how you get the word out. Tactically, this means using blogs as an SEO and thought leadership play, building processes to talk to customers directly, focusing on garnering social proof, and finding relevant creators and communities to drive reviews and conversations.

HOW TO HIRE A HIGH-LEVEL INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR IN MARKETING

A true high-level IC is someone who doesn’t manage a team but manages themselves. This translates into independently making deadlines, managing workflows, and not having to report weekly updates to colleagues or constantly run meetings. Senior leaders don’t manage the day-to-day of a high-level IC but are expected to have an awareness of the types of projects the ICs are working on.

HOW I REPURPOSE BLOG CONTENT INTO LINKEDIN POSTS TO EXPAND MY REACH

This guide discusses how to repurpose blog content for LinkedIn to boost blog traffic, personal brand, and LinkedIn following simultaneously. It covers key steps like selecting the most suitable blog posts, customizing them for LinkedIn, and maximizing visibility and engagement. Some strategic techniques to optimize engagement include tailoring content, using native LinkedIn features, and creating compelling calls to action.

HOW FIGMA GROWS FROM 1 TO N

Figma has grown to $600M in annual revenue despite initially entering a crowded design tool market. The founders used intuition and customer proximity to build a product people want at a fast rate. Figma has effectively gone from 0 to 1, so to go from 1 to N will require it to be a product for design – not just designers. This means expanding beyond core offerings meant for designers and creating solutions that more broadly serve product design and development. The company's $1B separation fee from Adobe could be used for strategic M&A or for building new products in-house.

YOUR BLOG IS NOT A PUBLICATION, BUT IT’S NOT JUST A LIBRARY EITHER

This article dissects the traditional blog approach, distinguishing between the publication and library models. The publication style demands substantial resources and prioritizes timeliness, while the library model champions evergreen, SEO-optimized content and depth over volume. Use a hybrid strategy that blends elements of both models while prioritizing audience building to adapt to the evolving content landscape effectively.

B2B COMPANIES FINALLY UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF BRAND

Businesses are starting to allocate more budget towards brand-centric campaigns that capture attention, convey compelling messages, and foster emotional connections with audiences.

A TIP ON WRITING INTROS FOR COMPARISON PAGES

Comparison page intros should lead with either pain points or benefits of the product or service.

GET 9 SOCIAL POST IDEAS FROM 1 SENTENCE

This post shows how to generate 9 social post ideas from one big foundational idea by asking strategic questions.

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DISNEY ANNOUNCES GOOGLE PARTNERSHIP AS IT EXPANDS AD PLATFORM

Disney's partnership with Google and The Trade Desk will expand the Disney Real-Time Ad Exchange (DRAX). Users of Google's DV360 and The Trade Desk will have direct access to ad inventory on Hulu and Disney Plus. It will offer marketers a wider range of options to reach audiences across streaming platforms.

MIND OVER MATTER: HOW CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING SUCCEEDS IN A COOKIELESS WORLD

With the phasing out of third-party cookies by browsers like Chrome, marketers are challenged to deliver relevant content without relying solely on cookies. The change will prompt a shift towards contextual advertising strategies that prioritize audience context over behavioral data. It presents an opportunity to create more meaningful interactions and better targeting accuracy in the cookieless future.

ACTIVECAMPAIGN’S GROWTH STRATEGIES TO REACH $250M ARR

This article discusses how ActiveCampaign, a marketing automation SaaS company, reached $250M in ARR. Key growth strategies included experimenting with LinkedIn ad formats to drive engagement, activating customer advocates for social media campaigns, and verticalizing content hubs to better cater to specific industries. The company's initiatives, focused on conversion rate optimization, drove improvements to its bottom line.

COPYWRITING STRATEGIES FOR OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS

It’s common for companies to not address any objections on their websites, but this often leads to lost conversions. Address common objections by simply stating counter-objections, for example, “no rote memorization” targets online course buyers who don’t want the feeling of being back in school. For objections that are strong but embarrassing objections, frame the counter-objection in a different way, for example, “let the audio do the work for you” addresses buyers who feel too lazy to do the work. Some objections are so taken for granted that they’ve become assumptions. It’s best to address them directly.

ZAPIER IS HIRING A SENIOR PARTNER MARKETING MANAGER (REMOTE, $167K-$251K USD)

Lead and expand our partner marketing team, using your deep experience to manage budgets, drive impactful marketing strategies across platforms, and develop partner programs that align with our goals and boost growth. Click here to learn more and apply [10].

TESTIMONIALS THAT WILL MAKE USERS TRUST

Adding a testimonials section to your site can help build customer trust and improve brand credibility. There are various testimonial types you can test, including text testimonials, video recordings for high-value personas, and quotes from influencers or opinion leaders. Combining testimonials with trust elements like trust badges, awards, ratings, and numerical results can be highly effective. Mokker includes a “wall of love” reviews on its site to focus on product usage. Canva uses reviews with video recordings for high-value personas (enterprises). GitLab combines reviews, functional benefits, and numerical results.

25 RESEARCH-BACKED STATS ABOUT WEBINARS

This post contains a compilation of statistics about webinar setup and scheduling, promotion, viewer engagement, and marketer behavior. Thursday has the highest attendance (41.5%) of the week, while 2 PM is the best time of the day (50% attendance). Webinar registration page conversion rate can be up to 59%, and 54.7% of registrations happen <7 days before an event.

FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING A STRATEGIC PLAN

A visual that outlines how to create a strategic plan in 6 steps: define the mission, perform a SWOT analysis, define OKRs, use tools like Gantt Charts to stay on track, measure progress with KPIs, and use a balanced scorecard to evaluate performance.

EXPECTANCY THEORY: WHY OUR MOTIVATION IS DRIVEN BY DESIRED REWARDS AND OUR LIKELIHOOD OF GETTING THEM

Expectancy Theory is a psychological concept that can help marketers motivate potential buyers. Psychologists have found that motivation is influenced by 3 factors: the expectation that the goal can be achieved, the belief that achieving the goal will lead to a reward, and the value of the reward to the individual. Airbnb breaks through fears about renting your home to strangers by showing you what you can achieve with the extra income. Starbucks uses gamification tactics in its rewards program to reinforce continued purchases. UNIGNORABLE uses customer success stories to show prospective students the real impact of enrolling in its courses.

YOUTUBE ANNOUNCED #WOMENOFYOUTUBE MENTORSHIP PROGRAM FOR SHORTS CREATORS

YouTube announced a new #WomenofYouTube Mentorship program designed to educate and uplift female creators by partnering them with other women creators for coaching, advice, and general support. Through this creator-to-creator coaching framework, seasoned Shorts creators lend their expertise to emerging talents in the YouTube Shorts Creator Community. The community is open to all Shorts creators who regularly post to the app.

INSIDE NBCUNIVERSAL’S PLANS TO TURN TV INTO A PERFORMANCE MARKETING CHANNEL

NBCUniversal has rolled out new innovations, including several AI-powered capabilities, in its continued effort to bring TV in line with digitally powered ad channels.

OPENAI’S CHATBOT STORE IS FILLING UP WITH SPAM

GOOGLE HIT WITH $270M FINE IN FRANCE AS AUTHORITY FINDS NEWS PUBLISHERS’ DATA WAS USED FOR GEMINI

France's competition authority slapped Google with a hefty $270M fine for allegedly using news publishers' data to train Gemini without proper notification.

YOUTUBE WILL REQUIRE DISCLOSURE OF AI-MANIPULATED VIDEOS FROM CREATORS

YouTube now mandates disclosure of AI-manipulated videos by content creators. The new policy is particularly focused on content that presents realistic depictions of individuals, places, or events. Google says the labels will start rolling out across all YouTube surfaces and formats in the weeks ahead.

HOW TO TACKLE MEASUREMENT AS GOOGLE ROLLS OUT OPEN-SOURCE MARKETING MIX MODELING

Google announced the launch of Meridian earlier this month. Meridian is an open-source marketing mix model (MMM) that aims to provide marketers with a foundation for comprehensive, privacy-durable measurement. It represents a major step in boosting marketers’ measurement capabilities, but comes with its own caveats and challenges. MMMs won’t be able to provide the same level of granularity that third-party cookies allow, but can fill some attribution needs once cookies are deprecated.

FORGET A LTV:CAC RATIO TO PREDICT GROWTH. LOOK AT THIS INSTEAD!

Looking at Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) payback period and Net Dollar Retention (NDR) together provides you with a strong predictor of efficient growth. Companies with a high NDR (>100%) and low CAC payback period (<18 months) have a median growth rate of 65% YoY. Meanwhile, those with a low NDR and high CAC payback period typically grow by 20% YoY. This data is based on a SaaS benchmark survey of 700+ companies from last year.

11 TIPS ON FINDING CUSTOMERS ON REDDIT

You can have 0 followers and still generate thousands of visitors by posting on Reddit. However, it’s important to note that Redditors hate spam, lazy marketers, and emojis, and that every subreddit is different. Tips for leveraging Reddit include hosting engaging AMA sessions, posting when communities are most active, targeting active niche subreddits, and engaging in comments on popular posts. A list of 224 growing subreddits is available in this post (requires an email for access).

LINKTREE IS NOW ALLOWING USERS TO HIGHLIGHT LINKS BETTER WITH FEATURED LAYOUT FUNCTION

Linktree launched a new featured layout to highlight links better. It fetches the latest posts from Instagram and supports larger profile pictures to enhance link visibility. When you select “Featured layout” for a link, it automatically expands with a content preview for links from YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, and Instagram. “Text Links” are also available for displaying information like detailed bio, opening hours, or whatever you typically write on your blog.

CHECKLIST: MEASURING THE HEALTH OF EMAIL PROGRAMS

Email health is a program’s ability to reliably send high-quality campaigns that avoid the spam folder and deliver on business goals. Common signs that you might have an email health issue include high spam complaints, a sudden drop in clicks, or increased unsubscribe rates. This piece includes a checklist of 12 indicators to ensure your email program health is in tip-top shape.

LOOM’S BILLION-DOLLAR GROWTH LOOP

Loom was acquired for $975M by Atlassian and had been growing >500% YoY. It achieved this by designing an effective growth loop — a mechanism where inputs generate some output, and outputs can be reinvested as inputs. As new users join, they create videos and share them with others, which prompts new signups and restarts the loop. This enables UGC, leverages social sharing to build trust, and turns existing users into acquisition channels. This post briefly covers growth loops from companies like Netflix, Dropbox, and Airtable.

THE POST-PANDEMIC CUSTOMER: MORE DEMANDING, HARDER ON EMPLOYEES

Organizations are adapting to new customer expectations post-pandemic. 56% of US employees report higher customer expectations for service quality. The elevated demands are increasing burnout and leading to a cycle of dissatisfaction and staffing challenges. To navigate these complexities, organizations must prioritize a customer-centric workplace culture and empower employees.

STARTUPS SHOULD OUTSOURCE THESE GROWTH TASKS

Virtual growth assistants come in handy when resources are lean at a new startup or when budget cuts are hurting mature growth teams. Outsourced workers can take over tasks like partnership outreach, marketing research, scheduling social posts, and more. This article includes tips for hiring virtual assistants as well as a short interview with a Philippines-based marketer.

LESSONS FROM GAINING 85K NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS IN 4 YEARS

Spending time optimizing subject lines and send times resulted in minimal long-term gain - the most impactful lever was publishing more consistently and frequently.

TOP 10 CUSTOM DESIGNED LINKEDIN PROFILES

Users with effective LinkedIn profiles have a clear message that resonates with their ICP, highlight problems they solve and for whom, and a clear CTA for those interested in their product or service offerings.

8 COPY ELEMENTS TO A/B TEST

A visual covering A/B test ideas for headline writing, value prop formatting, CTA placements, and short vs. long body copy.

THE POWER OF THREE

A cheeky, playful ad by SURREAL (cereal brand) that’ll stop your stroll down the aisle.

FACEBOOK AND X GAVE UP ON NEWS. LINKEDIN WANTS TO FILL THE VOID

With Meta and Google reducing their involvement in the news business, LinkedIn is using the opportunity to emerge as a news platform. Its user base is already increasingly engaging with news content. However, concerns remain regarding the company’s ability to combat AI-generated spam and misinformation.

ADS IN CHATBOTS ARE INEVITABLE

Advertisements will inevitably become a regular feature in AI-powered chatbots. Smaller startups are already monetizing their chatbots through advertising plugins. The future of ad-driven chatbots will depend on how developers and marketers implement ads.

ONE SIMPLE TACTIC TO REDUCE WASTED AD SPEND AND DECREASE CPCS

The biggest danger of widely adopted automated bid strategies is the risk of unintentionally paying extremely high CPCs in Google Ads. Setting a max CPC bid limit as part of the portfolio bid strategy can prevent this from happening. This article walks through how to correctly set up portfolio bid strategies to maximize ad performance.

UNLOCKING HIDDEN REVENUE: THE INBOX RETARGETING METHODOLOGY

Inbox retargeting is a tactic to identify users that land on key pages and then directly reach out to them in their inbox. It works by firing scripts to identify visitors, then mapping those users to segmented email campaigns based on which page they visited. It is effective on campaign landing pages, product pages, and registration pages.

RHYM: SUPERCHARGE YOUR BRAND WITH INTERACTIVE & GAMIFIED MARKETING

Rhym creates interactive and gamified campaigns within minutes, leading to increased engagement and first-party data collection. It offers a library of high-performing templates, including match-3 games, interactive banners, and more. These campaigns can be published to your brand's website, Meta ads, swipe up stories, and SMS/Whatsapp.

GOOGLE SEARCH ADS 360 GAINS RETAIL MEDIA CAPABILITIES

Google launched a closed beta in Search Ads 360 for off-site retail media campaigns. It claims to have created a privacy-centric way for participating brands to use their first-party data to fuel AI-powered Performance Max campaigns. Google said it will expand the beta to more retailers globally over the upcoming months and support additional retail media campaign types, including Microsoft campaigns.

INSTAGRAM LAUNCHES ADS WITH PROMO CODES TO ENTICE PURCHASE ACTIVITY

Instagram has launched its new “Ads with Promo Codes” option to all brands globally, enabling advertisers to entice potential shoppers with promo codes listed in ad captions. This provides brands another option to track IG sales based on the promo code entered.

WHICH AI SHOULD I USE? SUPERPOWERS AND THE STATE OF PLAY

There are 3 prominent models in the AI landscape: GPT-4, Claude 3 Opus, and Gemini Advanced. Each has distinct characteristics and capabilities, catering to different needs such as coding, writing, or streamlining basic tasks. This article delves into concepts like context windows and agents, highlighting how these features enhance AI systems capabilities. Even though GPT-4 remains the benchmark and standard, new emerging features in other models could make them solid alternatives in the near future depending on the specific use case.