Actionable Marketing Podcast

Marketers are expected to do more without increasing headcount and know how to use marketing tools and technology (MarTech). Change is inevitable, and embracing it can help marketers succeed. 

Today’s guests are G5’s Marketing Campaign Manager Celena Canode and Content Marketing Manager Emily Pick.They offer insight on how a hub and spoke content model promotes and delivers marketing content to get major results.G5’s goal is to help clients increase exposure and achieve peak occupancies via digital marketing for self-storage, multifamily, and senior living verticals. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Day-in-the-Life of G5 Marketers: Multi-purpose, do everything, always changing, never concentrate on one task for too long
• Norm for Marketers: Set aside time to focus; be agile to adapt to the unexpected
• Open Office Space: Remove distractions, find a place to hide, or work remotely
• Marketing Strategy: Streamline plans and align tasks with business goals
• Vertical Leads: Identify pain points, develop tactical side of strategy, and provide value through content and education to overcome challenges
• Hub and Spoke Model: Distribution plans consider channels, how to share and amplify content, and empower internal teams to appropriately use content
• Marketing Analytics: G5 uses Salesforce and Pardot to track goals and KPIs
• G5 selected CoSchedule to consolidate and centralize tasks, schedules, and staff to provide visibility and accountability 
• Lattices, not Ladders: Are you willing to move and take a different position? 

Links:

• G5
• Salesforce
• Pardot
• Gartner
• CoSchedule Academy
• New CoSchedule Marketing Suite
• Write a review on iTunes, and send a screenshot of it to receive cool CoSchedule swag!

Remember the 1990s, when people used old school search engines? Cost per click for SEO was unheard of back then. Now, everybody uses Google. People have more control over marketing content than ever before. What’s the best way for your target audience to discover your marketing content? Search engine optimization (SEO). 

Today’s guest is Stephan Spencer, SEO expert and co-author of The Art of SEO. Stephan describes myths and truths about SEO, including why remarkable content wins.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Stephan’s Career Path: Studying for a PhD in biochemistry, only to switch to SEO
• What makes a good headline? Decision to consider SEO and keywords that attract users
• Quality over Quantity: Google rewards sites with Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT) and Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) 
• Myths Debunked: Meta keywords and descriptions are not as valuable for rankings and click-throughs; guessing game with no data to back it up
• BS Detector: Ask specific SEO questions to verify so-called expertise
• Where to begin with SEO: Start by defining strategies, followed by tactics
• Prioritize and balance both internal and external requests; don’t become the “butt” of jokes 

Links: 

• Stephan Spencer
• The Art of SEO 
• The Social eCommerce 
• Google Power Search 
• Stephan Spencer’s Free Gifts for AMP Listeners 
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu
• Rand Fishkin
• Netconcepts
• GravityStream
• Google’s Quality Rating Guidelines
• Google Analytics
• Stanford.edu
• Harvard Business Review (HBR)
• Google RankBrain
• Netscape
• This is How To Grow Your Blog From Zilch To 1 Million Monthly Views With Leah DeKrey From CoSchedule [AMP 144]
• CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
• New CoSchedule Marketing Suite
• Write a review on iTunes, and send a screenshot of it to receive cool CoSchedule swag!

It’s good enough. Usually, “good enough” isn’t enough to solve problems for employees and customers. 

Today’s guest is Brianne Hoffman, senior marketing and communications manager at Wanzek Construction. She offers advice on how to avoid makeshift marketing to improve productivity. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Internal and External Marketing and Communications: Create strategies that grab and engage target audience 
• Wanzek Construction: Builds and maintains industrial wind turbines, solar farms
• Plan Persona and Associate with Audience: Long-term projects decrease need for brand new business and customers
• #1 Priority: Safety is cornerstone of Wanzek Construction’s people and property
• Core Values and Work Culture: Big, happy family
• 7 Internal Beliefs: Protect, Trust, Talent, Information, Integrity, Communication, and Profit
• Fist Bump App: Callouts to coworkers for a job well done 
• Content Pillars: Document marketing and communication goals and game plan 
• Plan in advance to help anticipate and alleviate fire drills and pop-up projects
• Weekly Summary: Reinforce and reflect on list of accomplishments
• Pressure to do more, with less: Identify inefficiencies to shift responsibilities, and find tools that get things done faster 
• Wanzek Way: Be the best and deliver excellence
• Back to the Drawing Board: What do you think we should do? 
• Marketing and Communication Metrics: Track popular posts, recruitment campaigns, followers, and more

Links: 

• Brianne Hoffman on LinkedIn
• Wanzek Construction
• Xcel Energy
• ENGIE
• The Marketing Management + Strategy Statistics You Need to Know in 2019
• New CoSchedule Marketing Suite
• Who do you want on the podcast? What do you want to talk about? Send suggestions for guests and topics.

Unexpected projects derail your marketing process or work management. It happens. How do you prepare or respond to such stress? Do you find a way to complete your work and meet deadlines? Marketing teams are always expected to do more with less. 

Today’s guest is Dree Ziegler, director of digital marketing at Fulton Fish Market. Every marketer has similar tactics, but they’re all talking to different audiences and pitching different services and products. Dree brings a fresh perspective and describes how she created a process using CoSchedule to stay organized and constantly communicate. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Not a Can of Corn: Fulton Fish Market in New York City follows the same way of doing things since the beginning of time
• Nothin’ Fishy about Dree’s Marketing Experience: Digital and eCommerce marketing and technology strategy that moved to the merchant side of the business
• Remote Headquarters: Dree manages a dispersed team of people in a number of places who are in contact with all the people in the market on a daily basis
• Challenges: Dree understands the importance of visibility across the team, staying organized, and constant communication
• Gone Fishin’: Fultonfishmarket.com’s goal is to bring that fresh seafood experience to people, wherever they may live
• It’s not the same: Fresh fish from a grocery store is fish caught months ago, frozen, kept in a warehouse, trucked across the country, thawed, and put on display
• Fulton Fish Market features about 40 vendors that bring fresh fish that’s sent overnight and delivered to your doorstep
• Fulton Fish Market’s Documenting Strategy for Marketing Plan: 
• • Set high-level goals for team that’s still growing
  • Update Website to improve consumer experience
  • Put baseline digital marketing tools in place to plan daily tasks
  • Draft and create day-to-day marketing plan and content
• Fish-on-the-Fly Campaigns: Ordering and buying fish that’s only good for so long; purchasing department buys what’s fresh in the market and expected to sell
• Project Plan: Visual waterfall of tasks and who’s doing what; monitor team’s tasks, pickup slack, work collaboratively, and deliver what’s promised 
• Fulton Fish Market’s next frontier is doing the things that people should be doing vs. automation and machine learning (ML) tools
• Marinating on Future of Digital Marketing: No experience needed, continue to learn, differentiate yourself, and stay hungry

Links:

• Fulton Fish Market
• Fulton Fish Market (for restaurant owners)
• Fulton Fish Market (for retail consumers)
• Slack
• MailChimp
• Google Data Studio
• Magento eCommerce Platform
• Shopify
• The Marketing Management + Strategy Statistics You Need to Know in 2019
• New CoSchedule Marketing Suite

Do you work alone, or as part of a content marketing team? Do you have a strong content marketing presence? How do you measure content marketing success? Learn from marketing content engines that do it right. 

Today’s guest is Jennifer Pepper, head of content marketing at Unbounce. She describes how to build successful content marketing teams and processes. It's easy to get mesmerized by marketing technologies, but most marketers focus on strategies and goals to stay organized and productive.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Unbounce: Leading landing-page platform with drag-and-drop feature to easily make changes and better control conversions 
• Content Strategy: Driven by marketing team’s strategy, needs, and best practices
• Balance and Alignment: Marketing strategy with business to prioritize content
• Content Machine: Set foundation, create funnel, and focus on content services
• Content Updates vs. Neverending Creation: Serve everything, and keep it fresh
• Different Departments: Work well with others to align content marketing priorities 
• Unbounce’s Future Goals: 
• • Attract target segments with core content that’s difficult to replicate
  • Regain organic traffic
  • Improve discoverability of evergreen content
  • Become exceptional at multimedia content
• Makeshift Marketing: Who’s doing what? Using what tools? 
• Content Creation Process: Editorial calendar for blog, roadmap for long-term projects, and project manager to keep staff on schedule
• Team Size Matters: Requires ruthless prioritization and alignment on projects
• Defining and Measuring Success: Monthly results for direct and organic traffic, number of new subscribers, and keyword positioning on Google
• Psychological Safety Net: Supportive and fun culture of content marketing team
• Competition-free Content: Stand out by creating useful, value-add, quality, and compelling content that can’t be replicated

Links:

• Unbounce
• Unbounce Call to Action Conference
• Unbounce Marketing IQ
• Unbounce Conversion Benchmark Report for Marketers and Agencies
• Unbounce Page Speed Report
• Andy Crestodina
• Content Jam
• Content Marketing World
• Your Blog Is Not a Publication
• Vidyard
• Disney’s Toy Story
• 10X-Marketing Formula by Garrett Moon
• Google Analytics
• KISSmetrics
• New CoSchedule Marketing Suite
• Write a review on iTunes, and send a screenshot of it to receive cool CoSchedule swag!

Marketing is sometimes sensationalized, especially when media publications feature huge brands with huge budgets. In reality, most marketers come from small brands with small budgets. They need to be scrappy to get noticed, but with fewer resources.

Today’s guest is Andie Coupland, product marketing manager at Totara Learning. She describes how small brands with small budgets can achieve colossal results by avoiding makeshift marketing. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Game Plan: Strategies for marketing goals, product fit, and brand messaging  
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) vs. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs): Different approaches for deliverables to measure results of goals and objectives
• Stop Fighting Fires: Stay agile to remain focused on your quarterly priorities
• Keep on Track: Processes in place to stay organized and meet deadlines
• Productivity Pressure: Marketing is getting more done with fewer resources
• Shift in Mindset: Always ask why you’re doing something as a leader/manager
• Andie’s Advice: Find the right tool(s) and learn how to use them to meet your company’s marketing needs right now

Links:

• Andie Coupland on Twitter 
• Totara Learning
• Adweek
• Asana
• Trello
• Jira
• Google Ads
• Start With Why by Simon Sinek
• 10X Marketing Formula by Garrett Moon
• New CoSchedule Marketing Suite

Different industries directly impact the marketing processes, tactics, and tools that prevent marketers from being productive, organized, and focused. Is your industry leading or bleeding marketing and technology consumption?

Today’s guest is Ted Horan, vice president of marketing in eCommerce at RDO Equipment Company. Ted describes how the company overcomes makeshift marketing to be a leader in the construction and agriculture industry. 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Candid CoSchedule Customer: What works and what doesn’t with tool
• Farmer to Founder: Ron Offutt’s entrepreneurial spirit for equipment business
• Evolution of Equipment Industry: Sales-heavy, outdated, one-man operation
• Catch up vs. Keep up: Create digital presence to sell more and be relevant 
• Ultimate Goal: Become a strategic partner with those driving revenue every day
• Ever-changing Tech Environment: Rely on tools to react, pivot, and adapt
• Pop-up Projects: Prioritizing flow of ideas and fire drills depends on budget, resources, and capacity
• Qualifiers: Find tools to manage/optimize workflow in a way that makes sense
• Are you winning? Surround yourself with a strong team and necessary skill sets 

Links:

• RDO Equipment Company
• John Deere
• Vermeer
• Microsoft Teams
• Gartner for Marketers (formerly CEB)
• The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson
• The Challenger Customer by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson
• New CoSchedule Marketing Suite

CoSchedule’s blog and content engine generate more than 1 million views and 20,000 leads every month. How do we do it? Listen and learn. 

Today’s guest is Leah DeKrey, content marketing strategist and blog manager at CoSchedule. To know that a million people read the blog posts she writes every month is terrifying, thrilling, and core to CoSchedule’s growth.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Reasons for Successful Blog: 
• • Corporate and managerial buy-in 
  • Standards of performance
• Blog Posts: Be different than the rest, as the best
• Performance Pillars for Blog Posts:
• • Comprehensive; at least 3,000 words
  • Actionable
  • Relevant 
  • Content upgrade/value-add included
• Keyword Domination Strategy: Drive content by Googling around to search and seek high-volume, low-difficulty keywords
• Measure Success of Content and Blog: Give it time because reaching the top doesn't happen overnight and takes patience
• What you know now: College system is ripe for disruption, real world is where you learn 90% of what you do
• Tools to Try: Ahrefs, Google Analytics, and KISSmetrics 

Links:

• CoSchedule Blog
• 10X-Marketing Formula by Garrett Moon
• Ahrefs
• Google Analytics
• KISSmetrics
• What Is Mobilegeddon & The Google Mobile Friendly Update
• Write a review on iTunes, and send a screenshot of it to receive cool CoSchedule swag!

Is your email inbox out of control? Are you always clicking delete, spam, or unsubscribe? Brands and marketers need to minimize makeshift marketing to improve open rates, engagement, and relationships with subscribers and customers. 

Today’s guest is Cameron Cegala, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of AdKaddy. Cameron describes how AdKaddy, a startup experiencing significant growth on a small budget, stays organized.

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

• Mergers, Acquisitions, and Entrepreneurship: Hyper-focused to multi-functions
• AdKaddy: Addresses interruption caused by abundant advertising
• Why not unsubscribe? Fear of missing out (FOMO) and love for brands
• Control communication process by conveniently receiving messages  
• Content vs. Context: Shoppers want coupons, others want brand’s backstory
• AdKaddy: Organizes everything by brand and automatically sorts related emails
• State of Mind: Discovery process of feeding people ads is interruptive
• Email Marketing: Broken model and better ways to communicate with customers
• Connecting Consumers and Brands: Sweepstakes, earned media, Facebook ads
• Getting Started on a Small Budget: Be thoughtful about where to put dollars
• Google Drive, Trello, Slack: Leverage tools and strengths to stay on task 
• Advice for Entrepreneurs: Be comfortable feeling out of your league; and learn from others

Links:

• AdKaddy
• AMP 141: A Marketing Rebellion: Why The Most Human Company Wins With Mark Schaefer Author of Marketing Rebellion 
• Google Drive
• Trello
• Slack
• Write a review on iTunes, and send a screenshot of it to receive cool CoSchedule swag!

CoSchedule surveyed more than 3,000 marketers, and the results are in! Marketers want to publish more, complete everything on time, and prove their value to stakeholders. So, why do some marketers still use single-function tools, multiple platforms, and spreadsheets? These workarounds strangle your productivity and prevent you from reaching your goals. How can you overcome the madness of makeshift marketing? 

Today’s guest is Libby Hall, vice president of client services at Unearth, a digital public affairs agency. Libby describes how she found success despite makeshift marketing and shares suggestions on team development and project management.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Remember life before hashtags? From Foursquare to five people in Fargo on Twitter to being bit by public affairs bug in sunny Sacramento
• Cutting-edge digital tools, systems, processes, and teams help expand, grow, and scale services
• Marketers struggle with single source of truth and visibility across campaigns
• Evolution of what worked in the past, and transformative shift to being agile
• Measure changing situations and data to improve results and optimize what works best right now
• What do you want to accomplish? Document strategies, plans, goals, objectives 
• Elements of Successful Processes: Provide value, allow flexibility, and be accountable
• Put out fires and urgent pop-up activities: Bring in more resources/team members; simplify deliverable; and work extra hours
• What’s the right number for volume of communication to make an impact? Set measurements for success, and find benchmark to work from 
• Google isn’t a substitute for experience, but it’s the next best thing; do research and be prepared
• Don’t underestimate power of curiosity: Encourage, support, and mentor others

Links: 

• Unearth
• Libby Hall on Twitter
• Libby Hall on LinkedIn
• The Marketing Management + Strategy Statistics You Need to Know in 2019
• Mavenlink
• ClickUp
• Coursera
• Foursquare
• Flint Group
• 2008 Fargo Star winner - Eric Piela
• 10X Marketing Formula by Garrett Moon 
• CoSchedule’s Blog
• New CoSchedule Marketing Suite