Do you ever struggle to visualize your ideas or consolidate your thoughts in one place? I certainly have. As a marketer, generating numerous ideas for campaigns, collateral, and messaging is essential — yet managing them can be challenging without proper documentation. Without a clear, organized visual for others to follow, communicating said ideas becomes even more difficult. That’s why creating a mind map is my go-to solution to address these challenges. In this article, I’ll explain what a mind map is, how you can use it to articulate ideas more effectively, and provide you with a free template to use […]

In the first few years of business, small companies come up against many different problems. And – you’ve probably guessed it – some are harder than others to overcome. According to Shopify, the average annual business rate of business failure from 2019 to 2023 (for companies started only half a decade ago) is a scarily small 12.1%. This means that between 2018 and now, starting a small business hasn’t been the easiest task; if anything, it tells us that maintaining a business is a hell of a lot harder than starting one. With this potential fate looming over small business […]

Want to know what‘s really working in AI marketing right now? I’ve been tracking the real impact of AI across different B2C companies, and the results have blown me away. Competera’s real-time pricing helps retailers recover an average of 6% in gross profit. Jasper AI, on the other hand, cut content creation time by 40% and boosted response rates by 3% across 10 campaigns for a Turkish bank in just three months. This is just a tiny glimpse of what’s actually out there. Ready to transform your B2C marketing? Keep reading for actionable tips, real-world success stories, and a curated […]

Long before ChatGPT, I worked with clients who used AI and machine learning to speed up data analysis at scale. Their enthusiasm about AI’s ability to improve everything from business operations to AI marketing funnels piqued my interest. So when ChatGPT took over the news cycle, after my initial skepticism, I haven’t looked back. While it’s always important to take AI with a grain of salt, it provides companies of all sizes opportunities to personalize marketing, deepen customer intimacy, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing programs. More importantly, it lowers the barrier to entry for sophisticated marketing efforts, […]

As an ‘external’ marketer, I have to say that I hadn’t given much thought to internal marketing until I started writing this article. My first thought was … that’s not my job. But the more I dug into the subject, I realized that’s not entirely true. Anytime I share a new content series or blog campaign across our internal channels and encourage my colleagues to help promote it, that’s internal marketing. When I lead onboarding sessions for new hires or recognize my teammates for their great work as part of our performance review process, that counts too. *quietly adds internal […]

When I graduated with a marketing degree over a decade ago, I hit the scene thinking that marketing would always be its own thing. Something like “holistic marketing” seemed unnecessary to me. Marketers had their swim lane; I’d stick to mine. Now, when I lecture marketing students at my alma mater, I couldn’t imagine not thinking holistically about marketing. The marketing function keeps expanding, as Deloitte’s Spring 2024 CMO Survey affirmed. And marketing must help other departments and the entire company accomplish its goals and objectives. That’s one of many benefits holistic marketing offers. When we free marketing from swim […]

I‘ll be honest: I don’t know anything about an “AI target audience” or finding an audience via AI. However, I want to learn because I recently started working with a local pole fitness studio in my neighborhood. I want to help it gain new students. So, dear reader, we are going to learn about AI audience targeting, its benefits, and helpful AI target audience tools together. Here we go! Table of Contents What is AI audience targeting? Benefits of Using AI for Target Audiences How to Find Your Target Audience Using AI 6 Best AI Tools for Target Audience Research […]

I cringe whenever I look at how many unopened emails live in my work inbox. I’m lucky if I open maybe ten percent of them — including anything promotional. But, of those ten percent, what convinced me to open and respond to them? Those companies did below the line (BTL) marketing right. Email marketing, direct mail, events — below the line marketing includes these and similar targeted tactics to convince and convert buyers. What goes into running a successful BTL campaign? And where do you begin? To help you start, I dug into BTL marketing: the history, its relationship with […]