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Bridging commentary on the art & science of content; content marketing, branded content, native advertising and the analytics, attribution and intelligence that powers it.

How do you mitigate losses in media?

Losses in media is a fact of doing business. But the simple solution to mitigating potential losses is a robust measurement and analytics program. One that keeps the media accountable, linked to strategic objectives, and is independently measured. That way, anomalies can be identify, fraud can be caught early, and low performing media can be weeded out. Taking learnings from the measurement program and adapting contracts to suit is also crucial. To make sure media buys have make goods or… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 21, 2022

How to map the digital customer journey

This is a fantastic white boarding scenario, printing out and sticking up each part of the customer journey. Failing that, using presentation software can suffice. Just screenshooting and creating flow charts. Where possible, overlay relevant data at each step, number of people each reaches, the click through rates, attention, drop off, conversion etc. This helps to understand how well each component of the journey works. Many brands struggle with that, as they make it too complicated. This is an exercise,… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 21, 2022

How to convert data analytics to actionable metrics?

The best approach to this, is to sit down and map out the customer journey. Where they start from through to where they end up. Note down their behaviors, and show this in a bit of a flow chart. Its no easy challenge but rest assured most marketers have faced this and it is addressable. Then overlay that with the metrics you get at each step. This then, helps show how analytics is involved in the customer journey, whilst keeping… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 21, 2022

First time CMOs

Edition #381First time CMOs are on the up, marketing is soup du jour and Substack.One big thingThe rate of first time CMOs is up 50% in the past 12 months. Curious.I’d been having a chat with a marketer, about how Peloton right now is a perfect opportunity for a CMO to cut their teeth. It’ll be challenging but they’ll learn a lot as they tackle the many challenges the business faces. So I wondered, has all the market activity created opportunities for new CMOs to break through?I looked at all the CMO announcements in the past 12 months. And then peeked their job history on LinkedIn, to see if they were a first time CMO. Using Nasdaq announcements as my source.It turns out, yes, in the past 12 months, 45% of the CMOs announced were first time CMOs as compared to 29% in the prior 12 months. An increase of 50%. Note a small sample size of 24.That’s refreshing to hear in some respect, bring in new blood, fresh perspectives. And there are new opportunities for new folks at the table. 45% of the CMOs named were female, and 55% of the first time CMOs were female.It’s a reminder, that change creates opportunity and enables people to move up. And that’s nice to see.That leads nicely into my other observation, it feels like marketing has got its mojo back, companies are leaning more into investing in marketing, view it as a strategic priority. And we heard this repeated at AdWeek.https://twitter.com/LouPas/status/1582373403914182657?s=20&t=dCYHjVRlRABr1nbP9aah4AWhatever this back to work recovery is, its still messy and marketing has to work hard, with digital experiences, to bridge customers lifestyle. An anecdote I heard was, at the moment, weekend flights are still high in the US. Every weekend is like a holiday weekend, as people can come back on Monday, and remote work as they go. All of this makes it harder for brands to cut through, and with growth in margins, they have room to invest. Marketing is soup du jour.Are you seeing the same?Notable stories this weekPlease stop calling it the ‘newsletter economy’. The rise of the VC publisher. Branded content on Facebook Reels rolls out globally. Walmart launches new content creator platform. Who are the Twitter creators? Semafor woos advertisers with promises of depolarization. Will include content options for advertisers. How publishers became addicted to the traffic hit from news alerts. The next Sims game aims to be a “nest generation creative platform”. YouTube’s providing more creators with access to shoppable links. TikTok announced a new performance monitoring tool which will charge advertisers based on users attention and engagement. Everyone wants to sell your attention. Netflix announces their ad tiers, and previews what ads will look like. Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 21, 2022

How does content marketing drive sales for SAAS startups?

This post outlines how content marketing drives sales for SAAS companies. Customers engage with the content created, consume it, and then if interested will make a purchase. Content acts as a way to get in front of potential customers, educate them and gets them closer to purchase. It may be they read a blog post, sign up to the newsletter, then later purchase the product. That’s the path for how content marketing drives sales for SAAS. Content can sit at… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 14, 2022

How important is content marketing for a SAAS startup business?

Content marketing is quite important for SAAS startups, because it is a cost effective way to market the company, build the brand and educate about the product. Content is easily shareable, discovered via search engines and also works 24/7 for you. Businesses can create a great piece of content, and it delivers value hour in hour out for a long time. That’s a great marketing asset to have – very efficient. The more of them you can have working for… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 14, 2022

Is content marketing effective for SAAS?

Content marketing is an effective channel for SAAS businesses. Content marketing helps SAAS companies educate the market as to the value they add, the problems they solve and to enhance their differentiation. All very valuable things in building the brand, marketing the product and driving business results.   Content marketing brings customers in the door The fact that content marketing can sit so close to the customer and their ability to make a purchase, makes it a lot more effective. Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 14, 2022

What are the biggest mistakes B2B SAAS startups make with content marketing?

The biggest mistakes B2B SAAs startups make with content marketing are: Not keeping the customer at the core of the content. Not distributing the content enough. Not putting calls to action in the content. Not making the content accessible. Not creating content relevant to the customer. Not benchmarking their content. Not analyzing the content with data. Not being accountable for the business results. Accepting low quality traffic This would cover the bulk of mistakes people tend to make.   … Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 14, 2022

What are the best ways to determine if your SAAS content marketing is working?

This post outlines the best ways to determine if SAAS content marketing is working. Data provides that feedback loop to tell you how effective content marketing is going. But you do need to take it a step further, you need to articulate what that data means, for the customer and for the business. So that in that context, does it make sense. You should be able to demonstrate, this is the totality of the impact we have had, from our… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 14, 2022