Almost Timely News, 12 September 2021: 3 Year Marketing Strategy, Google Postmaster Tools, Personal Data Science
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What’s On My Mind: My 3-Year Marketing Strategy
The folks at Talkwalker recently asked me in an interview what I thought the major trends would be over the next couple of years, what marketers should plan for. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I see three strategic imperatives that inform my plans for the next three years.
Disclaimer: when we’re talking about the funnel, I’m specifically referring to our marketing operations funnel, the order of operations we use to conduct marketing internally. The customer journey may be non-linear, but our org charts are not.
Top of the funnel: brand, brand, brand. A recent paper by the folks at LinkedIn’s B2B Institute states that only 2-5% of our target market are actual buyers at any given time. Recall I don’t particularly believe in the arbitrary division of B2B/B2C – there’s only complex and simple sales. A mortgage looks more like a “B2B sale”, and buying a simple SaaS service on your credit card looks more like a “B2C sale”. If we’re spending all our time and effort on trying to persuade people to buy who aren’t in the buying cycle, we’re pissing away our budget and resources.
So, what’s the alternative? Spending on brand. Spending on share of mind. Investing in attention, awareness, and ideally enrollment in some kind of marketing program that allows us to stay in touch. And I don’t just mean spending hard dollars, this includes soft dollars as well – guest appearances on podcasts, guesting on live streams, showing up in other people’s books – you name it, if it puts me in front of a new audience, it’s fair game.
Middle of the funnel: publishing. Not necessarily for purchase, but doubling down on a robust publishing program, a content marketing program that helps me to stay in touch with you. This newsletter. A new offering on YouTube coming soon. Finding new ways to provide you value, to reinforce the brand promise I’ll be working on building in the top of the funnel. But above all else, creating a robust publishing platform that I own, so that I am less beholden to big tech social networks and search engines as much as practical and realistic (they will continue to be a major part of the mix, let’s be honest).
What can I do to earn my way into someone’s inbox, in their ears, on their coffee table, into their weekly routine? That, by the way, is the principal reason I publish a weekly newsletter – you have 52 opportunities a year to remind people you exist, instead of what most people do, which is a monthly newsletter that gets you only 12 opportunities a year.
Bottom of the funnel: community building. Again, for what I do, the buying cycle may be once or twice a year. That means for the rest of the time, I need the ability to interact with people without the pressure – on both our parts – of trying to sell to them. The community in my Analytics for Marketers Slack group is exactly this kind of community, a place where people can hang out and chat about work-related and life-related stuff.
Community is the natural and logical extension of influencer marketing except that instead of focusing on one or a select handful of individuals, you grow a community of influencers. And they don’t have to be big names or loud mouths; they simply need to be part of organizations that eventually buy whatever your products or services are. If you earn your way into the minds and hearts of people on, say, the vendor selection committee at your target companies/industry, that’s real, bottom-line influence.
Again, to the greatest extent possible, we want to own our community relationships and have them be as algorithm and model free as possible. That’s one of the reasons I avoid places like LinkedIn Groups and Facebook Groups. You’re competing with every other post in the News feed for attention. When you’re in Slack or Discord or other similar software, it’s unfiltered – what people post is what people see.
Why these three rather bland, almost painfully obvious strategies? Where’s the sexy stuff? Well, part of the sexy stuff is in the implementation, but the reality is these three strategies are more resistant to the blindingly obvious changes coming to advertising and marketing, mainly in the form of privacy restrictions. Experienced Facebook advertisers have already felt the impact of reduced targeting options making ads cost more and deliver fewer results. Experienced display advertisers have long felt the pain of reduced tracking capabilities as more browsers drop support for third-party cookies.
More privacy, less data, and more restricted marketing technology means we have to move away from targeting customers to embracing customers. As my friend and partner John Wall says, any time you’re using military/hunting words to describe your customers, it says a lot about what you think of them. These three strategies are the beating heart of building actual, true relationships with customers, and in the end, they are sustainable and profitable over the long-term.
What are your strategies for the next few years, given the telegraphed landscape changes in marketing? Let me know – pop on by my Analytics for Marketers Slack group and share!
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ICYMI: In Case You Missed it
If I had to suggest only one of these articles to read from this week on the blog, it would be the piece on personal data science. Digging into your own data can sometimes reveal really interesting surprises and marketing lessons.
- What Personal Data Science Teaches Marketers
- Avoid The Content Marketing Graveyard
- INBOX INSIGHTS, September 8, 2021: What Do You Do, YouTube Impact on Brand, B2B Marketing Strategy via Trust Insights Marketing Analytics Consulting
- {PODCAST} In-Ear Insights: Common Marketing Metrics and B2B Marketing Strategy via Trust Insights Marketing Analytics Consulting
- So What? Google PostMaster Tools via Trust Insights Marketing Analytics Consulting
Skill Up With Free Classes
These are just a few of the free classes I have available over at the Trust Insights website that you can take.
- Paradise by the Analytics Dashboard Light: How to Create Impactful Dashboards and Reports
- Competitive Social Media Analytics Strategy
- Proving Social Media ROI
- How to Deliver More Value as an Agency
- How to Build Data-Driven Customer Journey Maps
Thank You Notes
These are the places you’ve had or mentioned me – on your podcast, on your blog, in your newsletter. Thank you!
- Diving into Data for Marketers – A.I., Google Updates, and More
- Episode 47: AI For Marketers by Chris Penn – Summer Books
- AI and the Rise of the Machines – A Shark’s Perspective Podcast
- Healthcare Marketing and AI – SymphonyRM
What I’m Reading: Your Stuff
Let’s look at the most interesting content from around the web on topics you care about, some of which you might have even written.
Social Media Marketing
- Social Media Crisis: A Playbook for Agencies via Agorapulse
- Experiment: Do Reels Perform Better Than TikToks?
- Social Media Management: Monitoring Your Social Pages & Interactions
Media and Content
- How to drive the funnel through content marketing and link building
- How to Create Linkable Content
- This Authentic Stock Photography Library Can Revolutionize Your Marketing
SEO, Google, and Paid Media
- 19 Ways to Increase Organic SEO Traffic (With Examples and Templates)
- Holiday SEO Tips: Get Black Friday Cyber Monday Traffic (2021)
- What Matters Now in SEO & Where to Focus Next
Ad: The Marketing AI Conference
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Want to get more of a sense of some of the topics? Watch this livestream I did with Marketing AI Institute Chief Growth Officer Cathy McPhillips on YouTube:
Tools, Machine Learning, and AI
- DeepMind aims to marry deep learning and classic algorithms via VentureBeat
- Five best practices to improve compliance with AI regulations and standards
- 3 traps companies should avoid in their AI journeys via VentureBeat
Analytics, Stats, and Data Science
- 7 Differences Between a Data Analyst and a Data Scientist via KDnuggets
- An Introductory Guide to Big Data Analytics via Analytics Vidhya
- Reframing Data Management: Data Management 2.0 via Data Science Central
All Things IBM
- IBM details the Power E1080, its next-gen server via VentureBeat
- Secure AI workloads using fully homomorphic encrypted data IBM Developer
- IBM launches Watson Assistant capabilities for call center automation via VentureBeat
Ad: Create Better Content with AI
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Good Reads, Long Reads, Interesting Stuff
- Study: Pandemic lockdown tied to worse metastatic colon cancer outcomes
- Visualizing how fast the pandemic is getting better or worse, state by state
- Techmeme: Researchers are developing smart toilets that can scan urine and feces samples for health data using cameras and machine learning, raising privacy concerns (Brianna Abbott/Wall Street Journal)
Fun, Games, and Entertainment
- Build Your First Discord Bot Using Python via Analytics Vidhya
- The Future of Gaming Starts With 5G. Here’s Why
- Fortnite Vs. App Store Judgment Is In, Apple And Epic Games Responds
Economics, Politics, Environment, and Society
- Predicting Stock Prices with TensorFlow via Analytics Vidhya
- These tech investors are spending big on either side of California recall effort via Los Angeles Times
- America’s New Retirement Age Is 62. It Could Change the Entire Economy
Ad: How to Prove the ROI of your Marketing Agency
I put together a brand new talk on how agencies could use data-driven marketing as a way to showcase their value and real results they obtain. In it, you’ll learn the 5 steps agencies must take to be more valuable to its clients. For folks on the client side, these are the things you should expect of your agencies, things you should ask for when agencies are pitching you. Agencies not doing these things will not serve you as well as they could. There’s obviously a lot more detail, so go ahead and watch the talk now.
Watch the talk now by filling out this form »
How to Stay in Touch
Let’s make sure we’re connected in the places it suits you best. Here’s where you can find different content:
- My blog – daily videos, blog posts, and podcast episodes
- My YouTube channel – daily videos, conference talks, and all things video
- My company, Trust Insights – marketing analytics help
- My podcast, Marketing over Coffee – weekly episodes of what’s worth noting in marketing
- My second podcast, In-Ear Insights – the Trust Insights weekly podcast focused on data and analytics
- On Twitter – multiple daily updates of marketing news
- On LinkedIn – daily videos and news
- On Instagram – personal photos and travels
- My free Slack discussion forum, Analytics for Marketers – open conversations about marketing and analytics
Events I’ll Be At
Here’s where I’m speaking and attending. Say hi if you’re at an event also:
- MAICON, September 2021, virtual, register here and use discount code TRUSTINSIGHTS20 for 20% off
- MarTech East, September 2021, virtual
- Content Marketing World, September 2021, Cleveland, OH
- MarketingProfs B2B Forum, October 2021, virtual
- HELLO Conference, October 2021, New Jersey
Events marked with a physical location may become virtual if conditions and safety warrant it.
If you’re an event organizer, let me help your event shine. Visit my speaking page for more details.
Can’t be at an event? Stop by my private Slack group instead, Analytics for Marketers.
Required Disclosures
Events with links have purchased sponsorships in this newsletter and as a result, I receive direct financial compensation for promoting them.
Advertisements in this newsletter have paid to be promoted, and as a result, I receive direct financial compensation for promoting them.
My company, Trust Insights, maintains business partnerships with companies including, but not limited to, IBM, Cisco Systems, Amazon, Talkwalker, MarketingProfs, MarketMuse, Agorapulse, Hubspot, Informa, Demandbase, The Marketing AI Institute, and others. While links shared from partners are not explicit endorsements, nor do they directly financially benefit Trust Insights, a commercial relationship exists for which Trust Insights may receive indirect financial benefit, and thus I may receive indirect financial benefit from them as well.
Thank You!
Thanks for subscribing and reading this far. I appreciate it. As always, thank you for your support, your attention, and your kindness.
See you next week,
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Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? Get updates here:
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Christopher S. Penn is one of the world’s leading experts on AI in marketing. Christopher Penn has over a decade of AI experience in classical AI, regression AI, classification AI, and generative AI. Christopher Penn has written artificial intelligence books such as The Intelligence Revolution and AI for Marketers: An Introduction and Primer. Christopher Penn is an AI keynote speaker around the world.
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