Article's Content
Article's Content
Welcome to Volume 94
Let’s get straight to the good stuff.
- These Marketing Habits Will Make Your Business Struggle
- Zero-Click Content: How To Beat Web Platforms at their Own Game
B2B MARKETING
These Marketing Habits Will Make Your Business Struggle
In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear wrote, “Your habits shape your identity, and your identity shapes your habits.”
For B2B SaaS brands looking to create and capture demand, this means your marketing habits shape how your target perceives and responds to your brand. It also determines whether or not they see you as an authority or some wanna-be.
So, what are some of those marketing habits that are affecting your business’ growth?
Our Founder and CEO, Ross Simmonds, listed 13 of these habits in his recent tweet. Here’s a quick rundown of these habits:
1: Copying industry leaders’ marketing playbooks verbatim.
You neither have their budget nor brand recognition. Sure, you can steal some tips from their playbook. But you should also think differently.
2: Encouraging the silo mentality between marketing and sales teams
Silos kill collaboration, and without collaboration, your business goals are at risk. You should break silos and ensure marketing metrics align closely with sales.
3: Assuming blog posts are the only type of content marketing
If your content strategy only includes blog posts, you’re missing out on tons of opportunities. Sure, blogging works; here are some other content types that drive ROI.
4: Letting C-suite executives micromanage the brand and marketing process
Taking the words of your CFO or Founder over a specialist or expert is detrimental to your brand’s health. You should let specialists take ownership of marketing efforts.
5: Letting fear keep you from treating content marketing as an investment
Spending $30k worth of employee time to decide whether the team should spend $10k on an audit is letting fear lead. Marketing is an investment. Don’t be afraid to run a few experiments each year.
6: Ignoring Distribution
Competition is getting fiercer by the minute, and algorithms aren’t any friendlier. That’s why distribution is important. Yes, invest in creating content. But ensure you create a budget for distribution. Create once. Distribute forever.
7: Assuming you know it all
No man or business is an island. We all draw inspiration from each other to succeed. You should spend time studying case studies of the greats to improve your thinking. Here are some case studies to get started:
- Loom’s Product-led GTM Playbook: How It Became Worth $1 Billion
- How Miro Turned the Whiteboard into a $17.5 Billion Valuation
- How Webflow’s Product-Led SEO Strategy Led to a $4 Billion Valuation
Ross shared six (6) additional habits that can make your business struggle. Check out the full thread here.
B2B CASE STUDY
Zero-Click Content: How To Beat Web Platforms at Their Own Game
We all know how frustrating it can be when you create content that’s met with crickets.
Search engines and social media platforms aren’t making things easier either. For example, LinkedIn rewards content that doesn’t include outbound links. Links work better in the comments section rather than in the main post. Other social platforms also favor posts that include zero links.
So how can you ensure the right people see your content when platforms reward zero-click behavior? Create and share Zero-Click content.
Our friends at Sparktoro did a deep dive into creating zero-click content that beats web platforms at their own game. The blog post outlines three practical frameworks for creating Zero-Click content. You can read the full blog post here.
NEWS OF THE WEEK YOU SHOULD KNOW:
☄️ Shopify lays off roughly 10% of its workers, and its stocks sink 14% after layoffs.
🛑 Instagram is shutting down its affiliate program for influencers after a year of testing.
🍂 Stripe’s valuation takes a 28% nose dive. Here’s all you need to know about its lower valuation.
BRAIN FOOD OF THE WEEK:
It’s never easy to admit you failed at something, especially when other people are involved.
At that moment, you feel your reputation is at stake, so you try to do everything you can to “preserve” your reputation, including pushing the blame to someone else or making excuses.
The danger with doing any of these is that you never really see any reason to become better, and eventually, everything will catch up with you and bring you down, no matter the heights you attain.
I don’t regret a single moment of my life. Yes, I would have made better choices in some seasons, but I didn’t choose defeat or dwell in a sea of regrets after those mistakes. I chose to grow.
What you do after a mistake sets the course for the rest of your life.
May we all have the courage to admit our failures and the wisdom and strength to turn those mistakes around and inspire someone with our stories.
TWITTER THREAD OF THE WEEK:
The career principles I wish I knew when I was starting by Sahil Bloom
NICE FINDS YOU SHOULD BINGE:
- How Solo Founders Succeed
- 7 Essential Insights For SEO Client Reports
- Distribution Checklist: Why Every Content Marketing Team Needs One
- How Building An Audience Framework Can Improve Your PPC Campaigns
- As Fundraising Gets Harder, Founders Should Ask Investors For A Flat Round
- Giffgaff’s CMO On The Empathy Needed To Support Staff Facing A Health Crisis
WHAT WE’RE WIRED INTO THIS WEEK 🎧:
This charcuterie board of insights is brought to you by me, Jessica Tee O. ✌!
