“Other people were doing it, so we thought we should, too.”
“It looked cool.”
“I don’t know.”
Those are some answers you don’t want to hear from your marketing team when you ask, “Why did you decide to do this?”
Many marketers see other people conducting webinars, interviews, podcasts, etc., and think their company should follow suit. They also want to invest in events or launch a newsletter for the sake of branding, without any indication those initiatives will interest their customers or increase their bottom line. Sometimes marketers will try something new because it “looked cool” or out of desperation, because what worked before isn’t working now.
I was guilty of this up until recently, when Deliverr drilled into my soul that everything I do for them (especially the time-intensive stuff) needs to be justified with data. (This is how I found out that one of my articles acquired $8,400 worth of customers in Q4 last year.)
How to decide where to spend your time
Online events, podcasts, and interview series are time- and resource-consuming initiatives that need to have credible reasoning behind them.
For example, in their customer interviews, one company noticed several people mention the same three or four podcasts when talking about reputable places to get eCommerce updates. So, the company discovered podcasts were one of their audiences’ preferred content channels.
I wanted to learn how marketing leaders decide what initiatives to push, so I spoke to some awesome marketing folks to hear their thought process and results.
Key Takeaways
- If 2020 was the year of webinars, 2021 is the year of the podcast.
- There’s a huge focus on being a “partner” versus a provider.
- Sometimes, marketing decisions are top-down, and that’s okay.
- Repurpose your content for other channels to extend value.
- Know who your target audience is, where they are, and how they speak.
Initially, I wanted to put all the insights from my interviews into this article, but once it hit the 8,000-word mark, I figured it was better to break them up for the sake of readability. Please follow the links below to learn from some of the sharpest marketers I’ve had the pleasure of working with in my career.
Gina Tirelli Ellison on partner marketing in eCommerce
Main takeaways:
- Provide each partner separate webinar registration pages for clean tracking.
- Take advantage of HubSpot’s automation and workflows to score and nurture leads.
- Make sure any co-marketing partners have the same ICP.
Darius Kunca on why AdKings invested in a podcast relaunch
Main takeaways:
- It’s not about what you do, but how you do it.
- You need to diversify your customer acquisition channels.
- Invest in things that will work tomorrow over things that are working today.
Victoria Sullivan on sponsoring YouTube videos for lead generation
Main takeaways:
- Use video and podcast sponsorships to supplement your leads during slow months.
- Focus on partner relevance by checking for overlap between customers.
- Update any older content that still generates leads and traffic.
Victoria Sullivan on sponsoring YouTube videos for lead generation
Andrew Maffettone on perfecting your top 3 content channels
Main takeaways:
- Prioritize the top three channels where your audience is active, optimize your process, then move on to the next.
- Document everything and analyze the data to find trends and seasonality.
- If you run a podcast, work with other podcast hosts to share viewers.
Isabella Jiao on FanFood’s content distribution and repurposing strategy
Main takeaways:
- Figure out how to make all of your content go the extra mile.
- When everyone is producing, distribution is your differentiator.
- Track your user journey and their touchpoints.
Isabella Jiao on FanFood’s content repurposing and distribution strategy
Katie Capka on how Kaspien drives conversion rate through their funnel
Main takeaways:
- Pay attention to how your user journey changes based on referral source.
- GoToWebinar has a great HubSpot integration for tracking webinar leads.
- Run small tests to see what’s working and pivot quickly.
Katie Capka on how Kaspien drives conversion rate through their funnel
Ashley Levesque on the importance of knowing your audience
Main takeaways:
- Knowing pain points isn’t enough; you need to know your audience’s desired outcomes.
- Be clear about what your content promises, and manage expectations.
- Differentiate your newsletter lists, especially at the signup stage.