Category: Marketing Automation

Hi! I’ve looked though some marketing automation tools to start using at my job in a B2B SaaS company. I’ve done quite a few rounds of discussions with Hubspot but it’s quite expensive, doesn’t have all functionality and looks a bit old-fashioned. What other marketing automation tools would you suggest? I want to see the client journey connected: everything from organic, social media, newsletters, emails, website, ads, our app. submitted by /u/koranne12 [link] [comments]

How do you know when to say ‘yes’ to opportunities for growth and ‘no’ to the things that will lead you from your path? Turning down chances to bring more money or manpower into your business can feel foolish. And in a time of billion-dollar valuations, it can be tempting to look at the growth of your business and feel inadequate. But growth looks different for every business, and it’s vital that business owners can identify when to scale and how to do it without compromising their core values.In this article, we bring you success stories of businesses that have figured out ways to grow sustainably, entrepreneurs who scaled without compromise, and we offer practical advice to those thinking about retaining their identity while building their future.🖊️Small Business, Big Lessons is a podcast from Buffer that goes behind the scenes with inspirational small businesses to explore how they are questioning the best ways to build a business and uncover the big lessons we can learn from their journeys (so far). This article is adapted from the fourth episode, which is out everywhere you listen to podcasts now.Define and understand your vision and valuesWhen thinking about growth, it pays to take a holistic approach – to think hard about all of the aspects of your business, where you are, and where you want to be. Then use that to help identify areas of growth that best serve those goals.Holly Howard runs consulting firm Ask Holly How and highlights the importance of not only understanding the vision for your business but also staying true to the experience you want to have. Not all businesses will grow into millions of revenue – and not all business owners want that. She says, “The reason we start a business, oftentimes, a lot of people will say for the money, but also people say for freedom, and what they mean is the freedom to work in the way that they want to work.”To hone in on your vision, Holly shares the following questions she also asks the businesses she consults with:How do you want to spend your time daily?What are those interactions?What are you doing with your time?While it can be easy to define your vision and values, it can then be difficult to keep putting them into practice, especially when it comes to making decisions that will impact your business. Sheena Russell of Made with Local, a snack foods company, understands this.Sheena faced some big decisions about how to respond to the growing demand for her products and how to scale her operations. “When you go to the energy bar section in your grocery store, you’re gonna see that the lion’s share of those bars are made in the same way because they’re made at the same manufacturing facilities, with the same equipment, and with the same ingredients — just in different packaging,” she shared.But Sheena wanted something different for her business: “We knew from the get-go, that we were not willing to take that route. I didn’t want to make the same kind of product as everybody else. I didn’t want to compromise on our product and on our values. [That] works for a lot of brands, but I just knew that it wasn’t for us.”She pushed back against convention and decided to build partnerships with social enterprise bakeries instead, even though that would slow the company’s growth. But she maintains that she was and is proud of her decision. By sticking to her original vision, Sheena ensured Made with Local didn’t lose its soul and continued to be the business she wanted.Scaling your business isn’t just a question of where you can grow and how you go about that growth, it’s also a question of sustainability. How much to grow and at what rate are equally important questions to grapple with. This is something that Joel Gascoigne, CEO at Buffer, has thought about a lot as he shares that, “When you’re growing fast [at 50-100 percent every year], that pace of growth [can] cause a lot of problems culturally.”Hypergrowth isn’t part of Joel’s vision for Buffer, who states that the ideal growth rate would be 20 to 30 percent yearly. “That’s the growth rate that allows us to be very intentional, [it] allows us to continue experimenting within our culture in the working environment,” he says.The next step after defining your business’ vision is usually choosing which metrics to measure performance against. And if you have a set of values you don’t want to stray from, you’ll need to be firm about choosing metrics that help you maintain your vision.Step away from traditional metrics to avoid traditional pressureWhen you know your vision for your business, it’s easier to define the metrics with which you’ll measure performance. And although tried-and-true metrics exist for a reason, it’s crucial to determine and stick to your own goals – even if they buck against the traditional methods.Huw Thomas, co-founder of Paynter Jacket, shared, “When it comes to growth, the stereotypical way to measure business is by its revenue, or the number of employees., We might look at it and just go okay, it was a positive measure of reputation or impact. How interesting we are as a brand.  Can we just stop for a minute and stop measuring traditional metrics and think of other ways to grow a brand.”The founders of Paynter Jacket have avoided looking at their business through the lens of traditional growth metrics because the ways they want to grow are at odds with some conventional ideas of growth, such as producing more products. In a saturated market like fashion, choosing metrics and goals that make you stand out is also vital. “To make sure that we make a small dent in our industry, we’d like to be the thorn in the industry’s side. To make an impact, we need to be around for a long time, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to be a big company or grow a lot. That means we do have to grow our reputation,” says Huw.The Paynter founders focus on quality and sustainability, which also influence how they measure and determine how, when, and where to grow their business. Becky Okell also shares that because production takes so long, customers build an emotional connection with the brand and the product, so improving customer experience is an essential metric for them.Each piece of your business framework, from your vision and values to the metrics you use to measure performance, impacts the other – including your chosen growth model. You may not start out with grand expectations, but most people hope for a successful business. Determining what to do when that success comes is one of the steps in defining what growth means for your business.Evaluate your growth model — or define it if you don’t have oneDifferent businesses will scale in different ways – the priorities and values of the business owner often drive decisions to grow. “Sometimes people might think of growth as creating a family legacy. Other people have defined growth in terms of how can they set up a structure that they can take a sabbatical six months of the year. [And some] think of growth as scaling to some sort of acquisition…or an employee ownership model,” says Holly Howard.However you think about your business, and whatever your vision is, a growth model can help you achieve the scale you seek. Zingerman’s, for example, hasn’t taken the traditional model to growth but has scaled regardless.Instead of franchising or opening up more of the same original unit in different locations, Ari Weinzweig, co-founder and CEO, had a different idea of what the business could be. “Zingerman’s community of businesses has certainly grown in a model that, at least in our minds, we made up, it’s certainly not the typical growth model,” he says. “Those aren’t necessarily bad [but] they’re not for me.”Although Ari and his co-founder Paul didn’t start out with a set-in-stone vision for Zingerman’s, Ari acknowledges that, in hindsight, they had one. “Essentially, [the vision] would have said from the beginning, we want something unique and really special. We also want great food, great service, a really down-to-earth place, and a great place for people to work. And those were very clear in our heads from the beginning. And then last but not least, and we knew from the beginning, we only wanted one [business].”The growth model that Ari and Paul eventually devised was to create a community of businesses all operating as one connected organization with semi-autonomous pieces. In the way they imagined it and wrote it in the vision, each business would have a managing partner or partners in it.“So there was an owner on site who was really passionate about the product and or service that that business did, and that we would operate as one synergistic organization that models that philosophy and that framework still underlies everything that we do,” Ari explains.Following this growth model, Zingerman’s family of businesses now includes the original deli, a roadhouse diner, a creamery, a bakery, and many more companies, including a business management consultancy.Prioritize people when seeking growthPeriods of growth are periods of change. When you’re growing and changing, it’s very likely that you will have to make compromises — choices between two opposing priorities — and making the right choices can be more accessible when you communicate and consult with other people involved in your business.Ari understands the value of involving the community in decision-making, saying, “Compromise is something that we all do every day – and that’s okay. Part of the benefits of the community is that we can bring diverse perspectives together of like-minded people and through that arrive at better conclusions. And then by making conscious collective choices, when we do compromise, it’s a group [decision].”Part of the value of prioritizing people is avoiding communication breakdowns which can lead to tension and mistrust. Holly emphasizes the importance of over-communicating with your team by pointing out what happens if you don’t: “…when the team doesn’t have an awareness of what’s happening, that’s when we start to have tensions within the team. Or we might say we have things like culture issues.”Whenever you’re going through a phase of change, involve the people that are stakeholders in your business. Explain why you’re making certain decisions and what you hope to achieve. Give the people your big-picture context.“We define that vision or purpose statement, and they live in the manual, or they live on the wall in a poster or something like that. But they should be living and breathing documents that continually weave into our conversations. Maybe we’re checking on our goals or our KPIs – we want to keep that context alive,” Holly advises.Be aware that alternative paths to scaling your business will bring unique challengesGrowth can be challenging and will require hard choices. So to be prepared, you need to look inwards and consider how our decisions now impact the future we want to build.One of the main challenges of scaling a business is staying agile in understanding and defining who the customer is as you grow. “Understanding our customer should be a continual process,” says Holly. “We sit down to define who the customer is and then we’re like running with a content calendar and strategies and our social media marketing, but it should be a constant conversation. Are we sure that this person doesn’t exist in this area?”Another challenge might be dealing with the consequences of an alternative choice in your overall business model. Made with Local has been outpacing demand and production capacity but their decision about how to scale their business sometimes leads to capacity crunches.As Sheena shares, “It has slowed our growth, because we’ve been doing things differently. And proving that we can grow this model, but we’ve been pulled out in the market faster than what we’ve been able to grow at. So that has been tricky.”Or, as you grow, you might find yourself with more competition and a changing industry that requires you to redesign and repackage your product – a challenge that Buffer has been facing. Navigating shifts in the market while staying true to the vision and mission of the company has been a significant challenge over the years.As Joel shares, “Social networks changing so rapidly has been a challenging place to be within the last five, six years. [There have] been times when we’ve seen opportunities to keep our growth going. But it would have taken away from really the DNA of the company, which to me was always around merely serving small businesses and staying committed to them.” Working through challenges like these is why you must know and connect with the vision you have for your business.Finally, when you’ve chosen an alternative path to growth, it can be a strength to take the constraints you encounter and turn them into an opportunity, as Paynter has done. If they chose the traditional way of making clothing, they wouldn’t have the same connection with customers.“To think about growing our experience and making [it] better, we have to be firm on staying small and what that actually means to us. So think about what you have and the constraints that you have in your business. And then what that actually means because it often means that you can do things in a way that no one else would,” shares Huw.Want more on growing a business? Check out the full episode.For more thoughts on growing a business from the small business owners in this interview, check out Season 2, Episode 4 of the Small Business Big Lessons podcast.Listen to every single episode of the podcast here

Spooky season is officially upon us. It’s a fun time for consumers and an even better time for brands that get to be playful with their audience.

Below, you’ll find examples of Halloween marketing campaigns, from ad spots and seasonal products to social media posts and influencer campaigns.
1. Twix
It’s hard to think of Halloween without thinking of chocolate.
Since 2012, Twix has delivered ad campaigns focused on the left and right sides of their chocolate bars.
For Halloween, they continue with the same theme – except this one comes with a twist (or should I say Twix?).

In this commercial, young adults dressed in costumes sit in a circle in front of an Ouija board, a device used to communicate with ghosts, spirits, and other supernatural beings.
As they play, a gust of wind blows through the room, and before they know it, the “spirit” has taken a bite of a Twix bar. Everyone starts screaming and the ending shot reads, “The spirits have decided. Left or right, either is a good decision.”
This is a great example of how a brand can tweak an existing campaign and give it a holiday twist.
2. Disney Parks & TikTok
On TikTok, text-to-speech is a popular feature used by a lot of creators. Voices can range from standard American accents to popular characters and serve to add more depth(or fun) to videos.
To celebrate Halloween, Disney Parks recently announced a collaboration with TikTok, in which three characters from Disney’s theme parks can voice videos on the platform.

Image Source
When we say “Meet your audience where they’re at,” this is what we mean. This partnership is a great play for Disney, as they presumably attempt to reel in a younger crowd and garner interest in their parks.
While they could go with flashy ads, this approach is subtle, as it is embedded into a process users are naturally engaging in.
3. Vegan Treats
Wondering just how early you can start marketing your seasonal products? For Halloween, you can start as early as September.
Although Spooky Season doesn’t officially start ‘till October 1st, the start of fall is a great time to start introducing Halloween-themed products and services.
Take Vegan Treats. On September 7, they started sharing product images all relating to Halloween, starting things off with a skull cake.

Image Source
The earlier you can start the better. It gives your audience time to review your offers and decide if they want to purchase. If you wait until the week of Halloween to start, it’ll already be too late.
4. Elysian Brewing
During Halloween, you’ll find some of the most unlikely brands pair up. That’s because holidays allow businesses to branch out in a way that feels natural and fluid.
Take this co-branding campaign between Elysian Brewing, USA Network, and Syfy.

To kick off trick-or-treat time, this beer company released a limited batch of beers for Halloween, “A Killer Wit Beer.”
“Just like Chucky is synonymous with Halloween, Elysian’s pumpkin beers have become synonymous with the season. Seeing Chucky’s iconic, freckled face on our cans feels like a match made in… ah… hell,” said Joe Bisacca, co-founder of Elysian Brewing, in a statement.
Collaborations like these can be key for new audience growth and can work well during holidays when strategies and goals are more likely to align.
5. Heinz
Although the concept of a vegetarian vampire during Halloween doesn’t sound very interesting, Heinz found a way to make it work.
Enlisting the help of content creator and TikTok influencer E.J. Marcus, Heinz released a campaign to promote its annual Halloween-themed ketchup, dubbed “tomato blood.”
The multi-channel campaign included an ad spot during AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire,” a partnership with Six Flags to offer branded menu items, and QR-code-scannable billboards.

Where does Marcus come in? He takes on the role of a vampire who’s learned to resist his thirst for humans and instead sustain himself with Heinz’s tomato blood. The ad seems to appeal to Gen-Z, given the ambassador they’ve chosen and the purpose-driven character he embodies.
One takeaway here is that there isn’t only one way to success. If you have the resources for a multi-pronged approach, don’t be afraid to do it. Even unsuccessful campaigns teach you about your audience and what they’re looking for – so it’s always a win for your team.
6. Target
On TikTok, Target leans heavily on user-generated content. They understand that perfect curation – à la Instagram – isn’t the key to success on this app.
So, they partner with influencers and content creators who can share authentic content using Target products. During Halloween, the strategy remains the same.

@target doesn’t matter if it’s 105 degrees, we ride at dawn 🧙‍♀️ @Dalia Elizabeth
♬ Halloween ・ cute horror song – PeriTune

One of their latest posts features creator Dalia Elizabeth who invites viewers to go Halloween shopping with her at Target. Viewers follow along as she walks the aisles and looks through Halloween decorations.
It’s simple but for TikTok, it might be exactly the right approach.
These diverse examples highlight the many ways you can approach the holiday while still staying true to your brand. 
 

The Augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality market size worldwide is expected to jump by more than 220 billion USD between 2021 and 2028. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, has said that AR will one day be as important in our everyday lives as “eating three meals a day.” 
AR has also made its way into different industries, including marketing. In fact, many people use AR experiences from brands every day without even realizing it, like picture and video filters on social media. 
If you’re wondering how AR plays into marketing, this post will look at eight companies that have used AR in innovative and inspiring ways that you can use to brainstorm and execute your own strategy. 
Augmented Reality Examples
Augmented Reality for Product Marketing
1. Pokémon GO
Pokemon GO took the world by storm in 2016, and it is one of the most notable AR experiences. 

Image Source
In the app, users get notified of eligible Pokémon in their area and receive directions to find and catch them. When they come across a Pokémon, the character is superimposed over the real-life location of the app user — an AR experience. 
The game is built around catching the available Pokémon before anyone else can, which is why, when the app first came out, people would gather in groups to try to be the first to capture the character.
2. Home Depot
Decorating a home isn’t easy — how do you know if you’ll actually like the yellow paint that looks beautiful online but might be too bright in your bathroom? What if that coffee table doesn’t fit in your living room as you’d hoped?
In 2015, Home Depot released its Project Color app, which uses patent technology to show users what a paint color will look like in their home. The AR technology considers lighting, objects, and shadows in the room, so you can see how that yellow shade will look in real life. If you don’t trust your judgment, you can also share images from the app on social media to get a friend’s opinion.
Home Depot isn’t the only home furniture store to use AR to create value for their users — IKEA has similar AR technology built into its app.
3. IKEA
IKEA uses AR to help shoppers test and visualize products in their own space before making a purchase. 
It offers multiple tools for customer needs, like the IKEA Place app that superimposes to-scale models of furniture in real-life rooms or the IKEA home planner that helps people build furniture sets, like kitchen cabinets, to ensure they’re satisfied before placing an order. 

Image Source
4. Sephora
There’s a reason many people don’t buy makeup products online — it’s impossible to know if you’ll like the lip color or foundation coverage if you don’t try it on in-store. Sephora understands this struggle and is known for allowing in-store visitors to test products on themselves before buying them, but not everyone may be comfortable doing so. 
For those not as comfortable, it offers an in-store virtual try-on kiosk where visitors can see how products look on themselves to ensure they’re satisfied.
5. StubHub
Augmented reality enables you to visualize and interact with a space — two critical functions when choosing how much you’re willing to pay for a stadium seat.
For Super Bowl LII, StubHub introduced an AR feature on their mobile app that allowed ticket buyers to see a virtual 3D model of the U.S. Bank Stadium and nearby parking garages and concession stands. This enabled potential buyers to visualize their full experience before purchasing and minimized the risk of paying for a subpar seat.
StubHub’s reliance on AR solved a common customer problem — as StubHub CTO Matt Swann points out, “We’re solving for real pain points, not just tech for the sake of tech. For many people, it’s not an event you just show up for; it’s kind of a bucket list item.”
For out-of-towners, the ability to virtually compare different seat locations adds comfort for hesitant buyers.

Image Source

6. Social Media Filters
Filters are AR features that social media users use daily on different apps, from TikTok to Instagram to Snapchat. Over 250 million people use an AR feature on Snapchat every day, and creators on the platform have built over 2.5 million AR lenses. 
With filters, users simply take a picture of themselves or something of interest, and a filter is superimposed over the image, whether it’s a funny pair of sunglasses or changing the color scheme of a scenery.
AR and Experiential Marketing
7. Netflix
To market season four of Stranger Things, Netflix launched an in-person experiential marketing and AR experience called the Stranger Things Experience. Fans visit an in-person location and participate in an immersive experience related to the show, where they play games with AR features that help them feel like they are in the Stranger Things world.
In the past, Netflix has advertised other Stranger Things seasons with AR experiences like Instagram filters that place users within the universe, all from the comfort of their homes. 

8. Pepsi
In 2014, Pepsi installed AR technology in a London bus shelter, making it appear like a lion, UFOs, flying saucers, and other objects were headed straight for Londoners.
The production showcased Pepsi’s playful personality and provided the audience with an exceptional experience. Afterward, a video of the bus shelter’s AR technology attracted over six million views on YouTube — making it one of YouTube’s most viewed advertising campaigns.
Pepsi’s campaign highlights the effectiveness of AR when a company truly knows its audience. Pepsi didn’t need to use AR to advertise its products — instead, it trusted its consumers to appreciate the surreal experience and naturally share the story with friends, creating buzz around the brand.

Image Source

The State of AR in Marketing
While incorporating AR into marketing is still new, marketers can still note how these brands creatively incorporated technology into their marketing strategies. 
Ultimately, as the media landscape changes and technology gets more advanced, marketers at businesses of different sizes might have more opportunities to implement technology. And, when they do, they’ll need to think creatively and innovatively about how they invest in it.

Since it launched in 2005, Reddit has remained a mystery to many marketers. Reddit is a user-influenced platform that embraces discussion and community engagement over content creation or branding. Its difference in focus makes Reddit vastly different from other networks — like Facebook or Instagram — where brands naturally find their niche.
In the past few years, however, Reddit’s attempted to gain more attention from brands by introducing several advertising offerings. The platform also launched features such as video streaming and video hosting, enabling the platform to evolve from the text-based format it’s known for.
The platform is also thriving with Gen-Z and millennial audiences that might be using that platform to make purchasing decisions later in life. Though we don’t encourage you to put all your money into Reddit ads or a community manager to build subreddits just yet, there are still ways businesses and brands can use Reddit to their advantage if they choose to.
One way is to host “Ask Me Anything” posts (also known as an AMA) to build community and trust with your audience. Another way is to start subreddits about specific topics relevant to your brand, similar to Facebook groups.

Reddit Statistics
To keep you informed and help you make strategic social media decisions, here’s a list of 24 helpful and intriguing Reddit stats related to the company, its user base, and what it takes to engage audiences on the platform.
General Stats

Reddit has over 430 million active monthly users. (EarthWeb)
Reddit is the fifth most visited website in the U.S. (SemRush)
Reddit is valued at over $10 billion. (The New York Times)
Reddit was founded in 2005 and acquired by Condé Nast in 2006. (Crunchbase)

Demographics

The majority of Reddit users (63.8%) are male. (Statista)
47.13% of Reddit users are found in the U.S. (similarweb)

36% of U.S. Reddit users are between the ages of 18 and 29 years old.
Gen Z makes up 26% of Reddit Users. (Reddit Blog)

User Behavior

As of 2021, there are 2.8 million subreddits on the platform. (Orbelo)
Reddit has 52 million daily users. (The Wall Street Journal)
Reddit users spend close to 24 minutes a day on the platform. (Insider Intelligence)
Users spend significantly less time on Reddit than on other platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter — but that’s because Reddit is more of an information and education platform than a video and entertainment platform. (Insider Intelligence)
51% of Gen-Z users say they’re attracted to the platform’s user-driven features, such as subreddits, comments, and upvotes. (Reddit Blog)
82% of Gen-Z people trust Reddit when learning more about products. (Reddit Blog)

Source: Reddit Blog
Videos on Reddit

As of 2018, Reddit users consumed more than 1.4 billion videos on the platform per month. (Variety)
In 2018, video viewing time grew by 38%: Total users went from viewing 400,000 hours of natively hosted video every day to more than 13 million hours of video monthly. (Reddit Blog)
In 2018, three of Reddit’s five highest-performing posts included videos, while one had a photo. (Reddit Blog)

Engaging Content and Hot Topics

The top four subreddits as of 2022 are /r/announcements, /r/funny, /r/AskReddit, and /r/gaming. (OneUp)
In 2021 the most popular “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) post with over 90,000 upvotes was I’m a lobster diver who recently survived being inside a whale.” (Statista)
In a 2019 study of 60,000 Reddit posts, those between 60 and 80 characters get 8,600 upvotes. (Foundation Inc.)
The study also found that posts under 120 characters get more upvotes than posts above the character count. (Foundation inc.)

Source: Foundation Inc.

Posts with questions generate twice as many comments as posts without them. But, oppositely, posts without questions get more upvotes than posts with them. (Foundation Inc.)
In 2019, important topics of discussion included beauty, weddings, and self-care, a shift from 2018’s hot topics, noted below. (Reddit)
One of Reddit’s most popular topics is technology. In 2018, Reddit reported that all of its tech-related subreddits combined received more than 27 million unique monthly visitors and 284 monthly views. (Reddit Blog)

Source: Foundation Inc.
Takeaways from Reddit Stats
If you’re a marketer in a field related to consumer products, especially technology, you might not want to count out Reddit just yet. As we’ve learned from the stats above, young people, especially in Gen Z, are using and trusting the platform as a source for product research.
If your company has a lot of excellent video content, you may want to incorporate Reddit into your next marketing strategy. Remember, Reddit users consumed more than 1.4 billion videos monthly in 2018.
Online video, especially in a mobile format, is being embraced much more heavily than in the past. Because of this, it might be worth exploring the idea of a Reddit video strategy if you ever have extra time or resources available.
If you’re interested in testing out content on Reddit but don’t know where to start, it can be helpful to get inspiration from brands who’ve already succeeded there. In this post, you can check out a few great examples.

If you’re struggling to get in front of hiring managers, it could be because recruiters are shifting away from traditional methods to find candidates.

In this article, we’ll cover the causes behind this shift and how job seekers can meet recruiters where they are.
The Hidden Job Market
In 2021, employers everywhere experienced the Great Resignation, a phenomenon in which employees quit their jobs in droves. This means many things: There are a lot of openings now due to the mass quitting and the job market is more competitive because there are more job seekers.
In a TikTok video, career coach and former recruiter J.T. O’Donnell argues that the reason many job seekers are struggling to find desirable positions is that there’s a shortage of them. What’s out there, she says, is the undesirable jobs that people quit in 2021.

@j.t.odonnell @j.t.odonnell How I predict job layoffs.
#edutok
#careertiktok
#layoff
#recession
#jobs
#jobsearch
#jobsearchtips
#learnontiktok
#careeradvice
#career
#joblife
#worklife
#linkedin
#resume
♬ original sound – J.T. O’Donnell

Now, they’re looking for better benefits, higher salaries, hybrid/remote work, and better work/life balance.
This is where the hidden job market comes in, job roles that are filled through internal candidates, referrals, or recruits.
Recruiters like O’Donnell and Stacey Perkins argue that recruiters are no longer posting on public job boards for certain roles, as that can cost a lot of money and resources. Instead, they’re reaching out directly to candidates they believe will be well suited for the role.
“That’s all happening right now as part of the Great Restructuring of 2022,” said O’Donnell in a video shared on TikTok.
She continues, “And people don’t realize that and get frustrated and feel bad about themselves like ‘What’s wrong with me?’ There’s nothing wrong with you. You just don’t know the new rules to career success and jobs.”
This begs the question: Where are they finding them and how can job seekers make themselves more visible? We’ll tackle that in the next section.
How to Access the Hidden Job Market
1. Optimize your LinkedIn profile.
Many recruiters are contacting desired candidates on this social network, even if those candidates are currently not seeking new opportunities.
Those who are open to new opportunities have optimized LinkedIn profiles that allow recruiters to find them quickly.
The thing is, if your profile isn’t optimized for the job you’re seeking, recruiters won’t find you when conducting searches.
Here are some tips to improve your profile:

Keep your headline specific and concise – Don’t crowd your headline with a bunch of keywords. Stick to the title that aligns with your desired role.
Add a descriptive bio – In your bio, you have the space to boast about your skills and show off your personality. Take advantage!
Have a profile and banner image – Both should be complementary and tell viewers something about you.
Add interesting projects to your Featured section – So many tools within LinkedIn are underutilized, including this one. If applicable, take a few projects from your portfolio and add them here so they’re easily scannable.

2. Expand your network.
When looking for a new job, often the best place to turn to is your network.
They’re the ones who can refer you to jobs within the hidden market and make recommendations. If you’re struggling to build your network, here are ways to get started:

Attend conferences and industry events.
Be active on social media and engage with colleagues.
Join professional groups and/or associations to build a community. E.g. “Black Marketers in Texas” or “National Marketing Association”

3. Reach out to recruiters and companies directly.
Why wait for recruiters to find you? Instead, consider reaching out to hiring managers directly if you feel your skills would be a good fit for their team.
Even if you don’t see a job posting, you may have a dream company in mind. If so, don’t be afraid to be proactive and reach out to them. Share your interest in the company, your skills, and how you feel you could add value to the company.
Even if they don’t have any openings currently, doing this will make a strong impression and may land you your next gig once they do have room.
4. Subscribe to news alerts.
When you sign up for news alerts, you can stay up to date with companies, where they’re headed, and when they’re hiring – even if they haven’t yet announced it.
For instance, say a company announces they’re expanding to the East Coast and will open up offices in New York. That tells you that if they haven’t started already, they will soon start hiring.
From there, you can reach out to the company and pitch yourself.
Setting up a Google Alert is easy:

Head to this page.
Type in the term and/or company you want to receive alerts on.
Set parameters around how often you want to receive alerts, which regions they should come from, and where they should be delivered.

In this competitive job market, job seekers have to go above and beyond to secure the positions they want. These tips should help you access the hidden job market and get in front of the recruiters you want.

Spooky season is officially upon us. It’s a fun time for consumers and an even better time for brands that get to be playful with their audience.

Below, you’ll find examples of Halloween marketing campaigns, from ad spots and seasonal products to social media posts and influencer campaigns.
1. Twix
It’s hard to think of Halloween without thinking of chocolate.
Since 2012, Twix has delivered ad campaigns focused on the left and right sides of their chocolate bars.
For Halloween, they continue with the same theme – except this one comes with a twist (or should I say Twix?).

In this commercial, young adults dressed in costumes sit in a circle in front of an Ouija board, a device used to communicate with ghosts, spirits, and other supernatural beings.
As they play, a gust of wind blows through the room, and before they know it, the “spirit” has taken a bite of a Twix bar. Everyone starts screaming and the ending shot reads, “The spirits have decided. Left or right, either is a good decision.”
This is a great example of how a brand can tweak an existing campaign and give it a holiday twist.
2. Disney Parks & TikTok
On TikTok, text-to-speech is a popular feature used by a lot of creators. Voices can range from standard American accents to popular characters and serve to add more depth(or fun) to videos.
To celebrate Halloween, Disney Parks recently announced a collaboration with TikTok, in which three characters from Disney’s theme parks can voice videos on the platform.

Image Source
When we say “Meet your audience where they’re at,” this is what we mean. This partnership is a great play for Disney, as they presumably attempt to reel in a younger crowd and garner interest in their parks.
While they could go with flashy ads, this approach is subtle, as it is embedded into a process users are naturally engaging in.
3. Vegan Treats
Wondering just how early you can start marketing your seasonal products? For Halloween, you can start as early as September.
Although Spooky Season doesn’t officially start ‘till October 1st, the start of fall is a great time to start introducing Halloween-themed products and services.
Take Vegan Treats. On September 7, they started sharing product images all relating to Halloween, starting things off with a skull cake.

Image Source
The earlier you can start the better. It gives your audience time to review your offers and decide if they want to purchase. If you wait until the week of Halloween to start, it’ll already be too late.
4. Elysian Brewing
During Halloween, you’ll find some of the most unlikely brands pair up. That’s because holidays allow businesses to branch out in a way that feels natural and fluid.
Take this co-branding campaign between Elysian Brewing, USA Network, and Syfy.

To kick off trick-or-treat time, this beer company released a limited batch of beers for Halloween, “A Killer Wit Beer.”
“Just like Chucky is synonymous with Halloween, Elysian’s pumpkin beers have become synonymous with the season. Seeing Chucky’s iconic, freckled face on our cans feels like a match made in… ah… hell,” said Joe Bisacca, co-founder of Elysian Brewing, in a statement.
Collaborations like these can be key for new audience growth and can work well during holidays when strategies and goals are more likely to align.
5. Heinz
Although the concept of a vegetarian vampire during Halloween doesn’t sound very interesting, Heinz found a way to make it work.
Enlisting the help of content creator and TikTok influencer E.J. Marcus, Heinz released a campaign to promote its annual Halloween-themed ketchup, dubbed “tomato blood.”
The multi-channel campaign included an ad spot during AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire,” a partnership with Six Flags to offer branded menu items, and QR-code-scannable billboards.

Where does Marcus come in? He takes on the role of a vampire who’s learned to resist his thirst for humans and instead sustain himself with Heinz’s tomato blood. The ad seems to appeal to Gen-Z, given the ambassador they’ve chosen and the purpose-driven character he embodies.
One takeaway here is that there isn’t only one way to success. If you have the resources for a multi-pronged approach, don’t be afraid to do it. Even unsuccessful campaigns teach you about your audience and what they’re looking for – so it’s always a win for your team.
6. Target
On TikTok, Target leans heavily on user-generated content. They understand that perfect curation – à la Instagram – isn’t the key to success on this app.
So, they partner with influencers and content creators who can share authentic content using Target products. During Halloween, the strategy remains the same.

@target doesn’t matter if it’s 105 degrees, we ride at dawn 🧙‍♀️ @Dalia Elizabeth
♬ Halloween ・ cute horror song – PeriTune

One of their latest posts features creator Dalia Elizabeth who invites viewers to go Halloween shopping with her at Target. Viewers follow along as she walks the aisles and looks through Halloween decorations.
It’s simple but for TikTok, it might be exactly the right approach.
These diverse examples highlight the many ways you can approach the holiday while still staying true to your brand. 
 

submitted by /u/Miserness [link] [comments]

Welcome emails are an important part of an email marketing strategy. It’s a chance to show that you are personable and thoughtful and eager to share useful information with your new subscribers. As a result, the subscribers will look forward to receiving more messages from you. You may be surprised that welcome emails have a…
The post How to Write Welcome Emails That Turn Subscribers into Leads appeared first on Benchmark Email.

submitted by /u/KKJA102 [link] [comments]