Article's Content
Article's Content
Welcome to Volume 161 👋
Happy Thursday!
In this week’s newsletter, we cover:
- 🔮 The Future of Digital Marketing—Looking to 2024 and Beyond
- 🗓️ How to Run an Annual Marketing Strategy Meeting (Agenda Included)
- 👀 What’s the Latest in B2B SaaS This Week?
- 🎧 A Distribution Master Class with Conversion Cast
- 🧠 This Week’s Brain Food
- ➕ The Best Content Across the Web
Let’s get into it.
🚨 Traffic & Conversion Summit 2024 🚨
Better get those 2024 calendars out because your January just got busier. You can ring in the New Year with Ross and a panel of amazing speakers—including Sir Richard Branson—at the Traffic & Conversion Summit from January 9th to 11th, 2024. The event will be full of can’t-miss insights from experts on the most pressing topics of digital marketing, including:
- The high-ROI, low-CPA channels you need to target
- Improving acquisition and retention rates with customer-centric marketing
- The results from thousands of A/B tests on landing pages, emails, and social posts
- Unlocking a new level of productivity by producing high-quality AI-generated content
So, what are you waiting for?!
Get your tickets for the Traffic & Conversion Summit 2024 before it’s too late!
B2B SAAS INSIGHTS
The Future of Digital Marketing—Looking to 2024 and Beyond
In pop culture, The Future is often depicted as an age where robots have augmented or replaced so many physical aspects of our lives. Whether it’s Rosie cleaning up after the Jetsons or J.A.R.V.I.S. turning Tony Stark into a superhero, the future is always portrayed as something that looks different.
For now, though, things more or less look the same, especially for marketers. That’s because the tools of the future exist online.
Whether it’s ChatGPT, Jasper, and Copy.AI revolutionizing the content creation process and boosting productivity or Salesforce’s Einstein AI providing deeper customer insights—we see the future through our screens. But that doesn’t make them any less impactful than a robotic assistant.
Fresh off the press for the Foundation Lab, I explore the major trends emerging in the digital marketing space and what the future may have in store as we look to 2024. And don’t worry; it’s not all about generative AI. I also touch on:
- The role of AI in enhancing business intelligence and eliminating silos
- The changing landscape and uncertain future of SEO due to AI
- The rise of first- and second-party data as third-party cookie tracking phases out
- The increasing need for hyper-personalized content to reach customers
You can check out the full analysis on the Foundation Labs page.
B2B MARKETING STRATEGY
How to Run an Annual Marketing Strategy Meeting (Agenda Included 👀)
As we move into the second-to-last month of 2023 (yikes), it’s time to prepare for 2024. If “how you practice is how you play” explains production in the world of sports, then “how you prepare is how you perform” works just as well for marketing. That’s right, it’s annual strategy planning time.
I won’t pretend to have any expertise in running this type of meeting, and thankfully, I don’t have to:
Ross—with his 15 years of experience strategizing for tech startups, mid-market brands, and the Fortune 500—is spilling the beans.
In a new blog post, Ross provides a detailed guide for marketing professionals looking to plan and execute an effective annual strategy session. From creating a unified marketing vision to empowering team member contributions, he goes over everything you need to know about planning and running the optimal planning session. This includes an eight-component framework for facilitating annual marketing planning sessions:
- Pre-meeting preparation, such as setting a date, booking a venue, and preparing materials
- Meeting kick-off with ground rules and an overview
- Facilitating agenda items with time management and participation encouragement
- Scheduled breaks for networking and refreshment
- Feedback collection through forms or interactive tools
- Collaboration with the sales team for better customer insights
- Closing the meeting with a summary of decisions and next steps
- Post-meeting actions to ensure follow-through and accountability
If you’re ready to take your strategy planning sessions to the next level—and get your hands on a battle-tested two-day meeting agenda—check out the full article here!
👀 What’s the Latest in B2B SaaS This Week?
📢 New core update just dropped—Google announces changes to search engine algorithm
💰 AI startup Aleph Alpha raises $500 million in Series B led by Bosch Ventures and Lidl owner
🚫 YouTube fights back against ad blockers by withholding video access while enabled
👷♂️ ChatGPT Pro users may soon be able to create and manage their own chatbots
🔒 Palo Alto Networks acquires Talon Cyber Security for $625 million
📌 Gen Z is behind the surge driving record-breaking Pinterest usage
🎧 A Distribution Master Class with Conversion Cast
On the most recent episode of Conversion Cast, Ross links up with host and Leadferno CEO Aaron Weiche to talk all things content distribution. Ross discusses the distribution tactics the Foundation team has leveraged for SaaS giants like Canva, Unbounce, and MailChimp.
Check out this episode now—it’s a master class you don’t want to miss!
🧠 This Week’s Brain Food
Google’s recent core update is just another in the long list of reminders to all of us in the marketing realm: There’s very little stability in the digital landscape.
Between advancements in AI, heightened consumer privacy regulations, the ever-evolving search engine algorithms, and other disruptive events, there’s a new normal every week. As marketers, we’re on the front lines of tech, where the only constant is change itself.
This relentless pace of change doesn’t just challenge our strategies; it challenges our mindset. The tools and tactics that worked yesterday may not hold the same power today, and the content that shines now might need to be polished anew tomorrow.
But here’s the silver lining: These disruptions are opportunities in disguise. They push us to innovate, to understand our audience more deeply, and to craft messages that resonate on a human level beyond keywords and analytics.
As we navigate this dynamic environment, our superpower will be our ability to adapt—to be agile in our planning while maintaining our commitment to quality. Don’t just ride the wave of change; become a better surfer.
Want to sponsor our next issue? Reply to this email, and we’ll share how you can reach more SaaS founders and marketers today.
🏅 X Post of the Week
Studies show we’re biased against technology that’s developed after we’re born by Ethan Mollick
🎖️ LinkedIn Post of the Week
Using social media as a feedback cycle for content marketing by Peter Caputa
🤳🏽 Nice Finds You Should Binge
- Why startups shouldn’t replace their marketers with generative AI
- Be kind to your AI—study finds that LLMs may have an “understanding” of emotional intelligence that impacts performance
- The “New Era” of social media may be just as bad for privacy as the last one
- Prompt Engineering: A Guide for Marketers and Content Creators
- How Content Can Support Upsells & Cross-Sells in SaaS
🎧 What We’re Wired Into This Week:
The Crossing by Menahan Street Band
This SaaS news smattering is brought to you by Ethan Crump!
If you have any feedback, suggestions, or ideas you want to see in this newsletter, feel free to email me at ethan@foundationinc.co. We’re always looking for ways to improve and make sure you’re getting the best B2B SaaS marketing resources.
Have a great weekend, and see you on the other side!
