No honestly,

I have tried everything.

Hiring micro-influencers, or the ones with a specific aesthetic.

People with high engagement rate- ones with more followers.

Influencers who have loyal followers like they are running a cult,
or even the ones who set trends rather than follow them,

But no part of this b*llsh*t works anymore.

Nobody buys stuff just because an influencer said they should

The buzz, the shine, the mystery- it's gone!

This 2004 release still holds significance. Just finished reading "The Ten Deadly Marketing Sins by Philip Kotler". And woahh.. some brands are till date committing these sins.

I am a non-reader and I mean it when I say " This one was a fun read".

Curious to hear from fellow marketers, more such recommendations. The forum is open for discussion on the book!! Would love to hear your insights :)

It’s annoying…

to see them

trying so hard to appear relevant. trying to connect with people. putting photos from their personal life.

It’s okay, if you genuinely like to connect.

but there are sometimes telltale signs that this is not the real them.

Maybe they want to be the “face” of the company but is this really working?

Just curious to hear about it

This awareness campaign initiated by Mount Sinai health system has been one of the best examples of "PRINT MEDIA AT IT'S BEST ".

Creative director- Sal Devito ...

I would love to read more such examples that have been game-changers for certain media industries...

For me, it's a Social Media Marketing.

What about you?

Owner said, “I don’t want to interrupt people while they browse. But I want them to know we offer book clubs, coffee, and weekly events. Nobody ever reads the signs.”

So we made the songs do the talking. They ran through each offer clearly. The event times, the club name, and the espresso discount. Played every 20 minutes.

Customers started asking for club signup sheets and stayed longer. Nothing changed but the music.

Happy April Fool's, marketers!

If you've been following startup news, you probably saw TechCrunch's recent article about VC-backed startup 11x faking customer numbers. It got me thinking: in an age of AI where anyone can launch products overnight, the hardest part isn't building anymore, it's getting real, paying customers.

Many founders struggle to go from zero to one client. So, as an April Fool's joke, and maybe as a humorous reflection on entrepreneurship culture, I built Cliently, a fake "Client as a Service" platform, letting founders literally buy clients.

To my surprise, entrepreneurs didn't dismiss it outright. Some joked they wished it was real. Others enjoyed the joke and bought the dummy product. Not much of a point here, besides sharing that you can turn any idea into a marketing stunt, and you can just do things - so create a joke like this for your audience! 🙂

I've been diving deep into the data from Toksta (we scraped 5,000+ videos from 900+ startup founders on YT to see what tools they’re actually using), and a really interesting trend is emerging: less reliance on bloated “all-in-one” marketing platforms, and more focus on building custom solutions with automation.

The top marketing creators are increasingly leveraging tools like Make, N8N, and even just skillful use of Airtable to connect different apps and create hyper-specific workflows.

It makes sense. Marketing is, at its heart, about rapid testing. The faster you can test variations, the faster you can scale what works. These automation tools unlock that speed. Why pay a fortune for features you don't need when you can cobble together a solution that perfectly fits your workflow? It's easy than ever now with AI...

We’re seeing really clever uses. A big one is creators using APIs (like Perplexity) to automatically pull in relevant industry news, summarize it, and then include it directly in their newsletter. Another example is people connecting Google Search Console data to their WordPress sites and then using AI to automatically optimize blog posts based on search performance.

It feels like we’re entering an era where being comfortable with APIs and "no-code" tools is becoming a core marketing skill. It's less about being a "marketing generalist" and more about being a "marketing automater."

Keen to hear people's thoughts on where they see the future of marketing in this age of AI

(Context: I gathered this data while building a tool that analyzes creator tech stacks. Happy to share more insights and beta access if interested)

I’ve been working as an ABM manager for 3+ years at two different SaaS companies. I’ve created and personalized every kind of asset and plugged them into highly bespoke customer journeys for our biggest ICP accounts and just haven’t seen the kind of impact that is preached across the industry. I’m beginning to this ABM just doesn’t matter and we’d be better off focusing our efforts more on demand gen than pipeline acceleration. Is anyone having success out there? What are your ABM secrets?

Every tool every service I see here talks about nothing but how their AI tool is superior or how many data points they have. Or how “hyper personalised” their emails are. Or how “high intent” their leads are.

At what point do you think it will stop working?

Like sure it will work for untapped industries but most will and are getting saturated. Ppl are becoming more and more aware tht the emails in their inbox are all automated.

Thats why I feel like the ppl who focus more on being creative and sending 1 on 1 will flourish in the coming years.

For example, I’ve sent handwritten emails that got WAY more positive replies and most importantly more long term client relationships than anything.

There are tons of ways of being creative:- book angle, podcast angle, gift angle, public callout angle, anything that make you memorable.

This is especially true if you’re starting out and dont have money to invest in expensive tools or are sick of the quality of leads you get from automated outreach.

I feel like moving forward ppl who either ditch AI completely and focus on being creative or ppl who focus on pure volume with quality offer (or relevant value prop) will be the only ones to succeed.

Just my personal opinion, feel free to share what you think.

Just wanted to share my recent experience with blogging as a marketing tool, in case it helps anyone on the fence about trying it.

I recently published my first blog post about a popular tech phenomenon. While it wasn't perfectly aligned with my target market (my actual audience is professionals, project managers, and office workers), it wasn't too far off either. I chose this topic because I'm knowledgeable and genuinely interested in it.

The results weren't mind-blowing... this isn't one of those "I got 10,000 views and became a millionaire overnight" posts. But they were encouraging:

• Posted on Reddit and Twitter (where I have virtually zero followers)
• Generated a couple thousand views
• Drove people to my waitlist
• One person joined my beta testers AND became an early adopter by subscribing to my software

Was it effort to create a relevant, valuable article? Absolutely. On the surface, it might even look like a lackluster performance, most subreddits blocked my post, it didn't exactly rise to the top where it was allowed, and my Twitter following is basically non-existent.

But the bottom line? It was enough to generate a real sale.

So if you've been wondering if blogging might be useful for promoting your company or product, this is me saying it's worth a shot.

Hello Everyone,

I recently joined the reddit group here. To give some background I am a graphic designer and worked within a marketing department for two years. While my primary expertise is in design, I’ve also developed a strong foundation in marketing through research, personal experience, books, and HubSpot courses.

I was initially hired under the title of "Graphic Designer" with the expectation of working closely with marketing and sales. However, when starting, I saw my official title was "Marketing Coordinator." This was unexpected, but I’ve taken it in stride and have focused on trying to adjust some things within my first month here.

So far, I have:

• Upped the professionality in their email design which in turn has lead to higher click rates, people are referring back to old emails to sign up for events, and even though open rate isn't as high the actual amount of click throughs is noticeably higher. (they use constant contact)
• Increasing social media engagement (likes and shares), despite not having direct access to posting. Content is managed by a girlfriend of one of the family members outside the office (it is a family owned business).
• Developing a marketing plan based on HubSpot methodologies using their template (which my boss hasn't looked over so we haven't gone over it to make any adjustments or make sure everyone's on the same page for goals at the end of the year).
• Creating a brand guide to ensure consistency in overall branding and overall look/feel of the company.

Currently, I don’t have a dedicated marketing budget, and the company primarily relies on Constant Contact for email marketing and some printed promotional materials for on-location events.

I’d love any insights or advice on how to navigate this role effectively, especially in a family-owned business setting with limited resources. It is in the club sport industry and I just want to know

• What data should I focus on in terms of email campaigns (click rates, conversations, open rate)?
• How can I expand the marketing for them from their current standing?
• How do you tell when you're making a difference or the marketing path you've set is affective?

If a question isn't listed above any advice you can give is still welcome!

I've just shifted from agency to client-side, after my previous agency went through multiple rounds of redundancies and seemed like it was about to go bust.

I'm now a Marketing Manager at a small business. What I wanted to get out of it was: more ownership, a better commute, and the chance to make more of an impact.

During my interviews there was a promise of big ambition in the business to transform their approach to marketing.

But I've just reached the 3-month mark and so far I've mostly been buried in admin, filling out risk assessments for events and exhibitions, and answering requests from the sales team.

I'm bored, frustrated, and feeling a bit embarrassed that I might have made a mistake.

A few red flags:

• The owners say yes to everything - so we're always overloaded and under-resourced
• I'm currently a team of 1, as the junior marketer left 2 days before I joined
• They're 'always on' and frequently message in group chats on the weekends and evenings
• They spent c. £20k on a 'marketing consultant' who created a marketing plan that's full of holes and is not embedded in the business at all
• And yet they're reluctant to use recruiters to hire for the roles we desperately need
• I haven't had a performance review/monthly check-in with my line manager since I've been here (it seems no one does)

So, my question is.... does this sound like a dead end? If I decide to leave, how can I make the most of the next few months so that I'll at least have something to show for my time here? And if I stay, how can I create space for real marketing, so I'm not just a glorified admin assistant?