FAKEGRIMLOCK

PRIME CUTS DELIVERED TO YOU BY

FOREWORD

HOW YOU GROW?

ME, FAKEGRIMLOCK, MOST FAMOUS ROBOT STARTUP DINOSAUR ON PLANET,

KNOW. SO DO PEOPLE IN REST OF BOOK. THEM SMART! YOU READ! YOU GET BIG! YOU GROW! OR YOU GET SMALL, AND THEN YOU GET EATEN BY SOMETHING BIG. LIKE A ROBOT DINOSAUR.

@FAKEGRIMLOCK MOST FAMOUS ROBOT STARTUP DINOSAUR ON PLANET

WHY ANOTHER EBOOK?

Ever wondered what goes into the mix of a company’s perfectly healthy growth? So have we. That’s why we simply decided to ask.

Geckoboard and Mention bring you the delicious secrets behind some of the most interesting brands on the web, including Moz, Trello, Zendesk, Copyblogger, Everlane, Creative Market and KISSmetrics.

So here they are, the dietary guidelines of some of the world’s top marketers. They’re sharp, funny and most importantly, honest. And they’re guaranteed to teach you a few new delicious tricks or perhaps even make you reassess your entire diet...who knows!

Dig in and we hope you’ll enjoy it, because we sure enjoyed making it.

ABOUT GECKOBOARD

Geckoboard puts your data where it should be – right in front of you. With Geckoboard you can monitor campaign performances, budgets and social stats in one place. Connect to your data, build your dashboard and share with your team. See all your data on a beautiful and intuitive real-time dashboard. Get instant access to your data today: geckoboard.com

ABOUT MENTION

With Mention, you’ll never miss another thing online. Mention, a media monitoring app, allows you to listen, join, share, and analyze the conversations that matter most to your brand, available on desktop, web, and mobile. Become a better listener today: mention.com

WHAT’S ON THE MENU?

We’ve split this ebook into three main sections, the past, present and future of marketing.

Oh, and we’ve got an extra treat for you! We’ve also included a section that reveals who these top marketers admire. Scrumptious.

LESSONS: EATING RIGHT

Great marketers love what they do and they understand that trying new recipes (and sometimes failing at them) is part of the deal. It’s why we love it. In this section, top marketers reveal their epiphanies.

SEE LESSONS

UNCOVER INNOVATION

FOCUS: STAYING HEALTHY

In order to maintain a healthy diet, you need focus. Knowing what kind of nutrition your business needs, and when it needs it, is essential to success. In this section, get actionable tips on what to focus on.

GET FOCUS

INNOVATION: DIETS TO WATCH

The digital marketing environment reinvents itself constantly, trends come and go, and dietary guidelines change over time. But hey, that’s part of the fun. In this section, find out what these marketers are excited about.

HEROES: THE GOURMET CHEFS

We all have marketing champions we look up to and admire. Those that are able to turn a recipe for disaster into a raging success. In this section, top marketers reveal who their heroes are. Delicious.

LESSONS

1. THE SOCIAL EFFECT

2. PRODUCT + MARKETING = LOVE

3. BE A PAVER, NOT A FOLLOWER

4. IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

THE SOCIAL EFFECT

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU’VE LEARNED AS A MARKETER?

Social capital is important – it’s like a bank account. You can only take out what you put in. So if you’re always asking people to buy your stuff or promoting solely yourself on social media, your balance will hit zero or negative quickly. People don’t want to buy something from someone else if that someone else is constantly bothering them on social media with ‘Buy my stuff!’ tweets, or newsletters bestowing the virtues of their products every week.

PAUL JARVIS @PJRVS BEST-SELLING AUTHOR AND DESIGNER

Word of mouth (WOM) is the most powerful customer acquisition channel. WOM happens when a positive experience happens – a positive experience happens when product or customer service go above and beyond the expectations of the customer.

JUN LOAYZA @JUNLOAYZA CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER AT BUNNY INC

Marketing is comprised of an incredibly diverse team of people. In order to do great marketing, it’s not enough to stay in your individual silo. This year, I’ve learned how vital it is to take on or create projects that require collaboration with other parts of “ the marketing operation. We’ll all be better marketers and our marketing will be more effective if it’s united.

CARA HARSHMAN @CARAHARSHMAN CONTENT MARKETING MANAGER AT OPTIMIZELY

It’s all about attention. Herbert Simon said decades ago that we live in an information age, and what information does is consume your attention. As a result, we’re in a time of huge attention scarcity. Google has our attention every time we have a question. Facebook gets more than 60 minutes of our time a day.

Bearing that in mind, the hardest task a marketer faces is getting attention. It’s no longer, ‘If you build it, they will come.’ Rather, it’s, ‘If they come, you should build it.’ This changes the order of operations for all aspects of product marketing – from pricing, to channel creation, to communications, to feature and persona design.

Attention also gives you the eyeballs and opinions you need to grow, learn, and improve. Without attention you can’t iterate, because you don’t have engagement from your market.

So when I talk to companies, I spend less time on their intellectual property, founding team, financing, and business model. Instead, I focus on how they’re going to get attention. What’s their hack? How have they figured out a way to get inside people’s brains and command the attention they need to launch, improve, and scale a product or service?

ALISTAIR CROLL @ACROLL

FOUNDER AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF LEAN ANALYTICS

STEP BACK & FOCUS

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU’VE LEARNED AS A MARKETER?

Getting people to wear multiple hats is a death sentence.

SEAN WORK @SEANVWORK DIRECTOR OF INBOUND MARKETING AT KISSMETRICS

Marketing is a vast field with hundreds of paths you can take, but unfortunately, many of those paths can eat through all your resources and time, without getting you any closer to accomplishing your goal. “ The most important thing I have learned in marketing is to spend a little time thinking about the goals, what various marketing methods will do to help you accomplish those goals, and how much resources and time are going to be needed for success. Success in marketing can be as much about avoiding bad decisions as it can be about making good ones.

BRENT CSUTORAS @BRENTCSUTORAS SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST AT KAIRAY MEDIA

Forget about what you want to say and focus on what your audience needs to hear.

JEROD MORRIS @JERODMORRIS VP OF MARKETING AT COPYBLOGGER MEDIA

Focus on one channel at a time. Once you get it right, then expand. Too many marketers try to do it all, and then they find out they are doing a mediocre job at all of them versus an excellent job. “

NEIL PATEL @NEILPATEL CO-FOUNDER OF CRAZY EGG

Remembering the basics while the marketing world is moving at the speed of light.

There’s an ever increasing number of new platforms, channel and growth strategies coming online every week. With the growth hacking culture that we’re in, it’s easy to overlook the fundamentals:

• Who our target market is
• What our objectives are (what we’re trying to achieve, and by when) Most marketers get excited by the bright shiny objects and dive right in (I think we all have a touch of ADHD). But stepping back and taking the time to really understand these points are the foundations required to build all future decisions. So when you see the next shiny object you’ll be able to decide easily if it’s right for your business. HOWARD KINGSTON @HOWARDVK CO-FOUNDER OF ADLUDIO (FORMERLY FUTUREADLABS)

If you want to be a good marketer, you have to understand how to think programmatically. This doesn’t just mean knowing how to speak to developers (though this undoubtedly helps), but how to break challenges and projects into manageable chunks and which tools you can use to get sh*t done.

MARIE STEINTHALER @MARMARLADE HEAD OF MARKETING & GROWTH AT HOPSTER

You have limited resources to communicate your message to potential customers, so simplify the message.

If you have a $10k/month adwords budget and a list of 10,000 keywords to advertise, you logically wouldn’t advertise on all of them right away. If you did this, you wouldn’t be able to produce any conclusive results. Not to mention, you would be pretty busy making ads and landing pages.

However, with soft resources such as potential customers’ attention span, lots of us seem to go for the 10,000 keywords approach.

We ‘focus’ our messaging for the entire internet instead of a beach-head where we can gain traction.

We ‘highlight’ 27 features instead of the few key benefits customers are really looking for.

We encourage the product team to ‘enter new markets’ before actually understanding the ones we’re in.

As a marketer it’s your job to help your entire company develop a focused message.

WILL FRASER @GETFRASER

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF SAASQUATCH

PRODUCT + MARKETING = LOVE

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU’VE LEARNED AS A MARKETER?

Product, product, product and supply. The biggest levers for growth are not in marketing. They are in: Scalably acquiring supply and systemically improving product. In most businesses, the rate at which you grow is the rate at which you improve your product.

NILAN PEIRIS @NILANP VP GROWTH AT TRANSFERWISE

I’ve learned two things:

1. Growth is a team sport. Without the support of engineering, product, and upper “ management, marketing is just marketing. And when you rely on just marketing for growth, you’re not using everything at your disposal. It’s like trying to launch a rocket into outer space using a motor from a scooter. When engineering and product are involved with growth, that’s where the real magic can happen. All three departments – heck, the entire company – need to be aligned around growth to make really magical things happen.
2. Doubling down on what’s working is the key to growth. As marketers we’re too focused on what we need to get done next on our long list of marketing items and tasks. Instead, we should look at what’s working and ask: ‘How can we make this even better?’ MORGAN BROWN @MORGANB HEAD OF GROWTH AT QUALAROO

Demand for your product is of most importance. It defines the success of your marketing efforts. To put it simply, Success (number of quality leads) = Product demand multiplied by your efforts. If the product demand is low (below 1), you have “ to put much more effort into being successful. The opposite could be true as well.

MIKITA MIKADO @MIKITAMIKADO CEO AT QUOTE ROLLER

The vast majority of marketing is a complete and utter waste of time. All too often marketing is seen as separate from the product and its role is to change user behavior (usually unsuccessfully), moving users closer towards the product. However, one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that people don’t really want to change. So entwining marketing with the product and wrapping them around the user so they have to take as few steps as possible to interact is the key to modern marketing.

LIAM REYNOLDS @MRGROWTHHACKER CEO AND FOUNDER OF TRUE UP

I’ve been on both the marketing and the product side and I’ve come to strongly believe in the magic area between marketing and product and how crucial it is for both to really play nice.

Too often, it seems like product is water and marketing is oil spilled on it. Some symptoms: Different visions, throwing-it-over-the-wall mentality where marketing and product own separate KPIs, use of personas completely detached from the product’s jobs-to-be-done, etc.

Product people need to better understand what marketing (and by that I mean good marketing) really is about, consider it less evil, support marketing pro-actively and include marketing thinking before the product even gets built. On the other hand, marketing people need to understand what drives product, how it works and how you can use product as the decisive factor in successful marketing.

There are too few examples of holistic approaches that deliver great experiences at every single touch point.

So, please marketing and product: Make love.

ADRIAN YOUNG-SAN ROESSLER @ADRIANYSAN

OFFERING LEAD/PRODUCT MANAGER AT PODIO

BE A PAVER, NOT A FOLLOWER

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU’VE LEARNED AS A MARKETER?

It’s so incredibly valuable to be early in a new acquisition channel. If you can be one of the first companies or products to utilize a new acquisition channel or platform, you can reap gains that will be impossible to get as that channel gets more popular (and saturated).

JUSTIN MARES @JWMARES CO-AUTHOR OF TRACTION: A STARTUP GUIDE TO GETTING CUSTOMERS

Take risks, be creative and think about the time customers will spend consuming your message. It better be worth their time!

DENNIS GOEDEGEBUURE @THENEXTCORNER VP SEO & GROWTH AT FANATICS INC.

Just when you think you have everything figured out, it all changes. As a marketer, it’s critical to keep up with all the latest online marketing tactics if you don’t want your business to fall behind the times. I’ve been a marketer for over 18 years and I just stopped counting the number of times I’ve needed to revamp our marketing efforts. The one constant in marketing is change.

MICHAEL STELZNER @MIKE_STELZNER FOUNDER OF SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER

The most valuable thing I have learned as a marketer is to question conventional wisdom, maintaining healthy skepticism at all times.

Now don’t confuse skepticism with cynicism. The latter merely scoffs at assertions. The former tests them. I’ve learned I have to try things for myself before I can accept them as gospel (unless they have been well-proven and verified by people or sources I trust).

There is an awful lot of ‘truth’ about online marketing out there that’s become ‘true’ merely because people repeat it so often.

MARK TRAPHAGEN @MARKTRAPHAGEN SENIOR DIRECTOR OF ONLINE MARKETING AT STONE TEMPLE CONSULTING

All marketing comes back to human psychology. I realized that most of the ‘best practices’ I had come across had already been shared widely, tried and tested, but with diminishing returns. So I stopped reading about marketing tactics and started picking up psychology books in order to understand human behavior. This has allowed me to engineer my own unique strategies and hacks.

LIAM GOODING @LIAMGOODING CEO AT TRAKIO

Be the exception to the rule. Uniqueness creates massive marketing opportunity, brandability, and inherent differentiation.

RAND FISHKIN @RANDFISH WIZARD OF MOZ

Literally, the most valuable lesson has been that in general in our field, once you’ve studied something carefully, you know the majority of what there’s to know, and you know the gaps in your knowledge. Everything else that stands between you and success is a combination of hard work and luck. Too often, we hold back, thinking that there must be some secret sauce that we don’t know.

It’s proved valuable to me to realize that this isn’t generally true.

Related: I’ve learned that it’s almost always true that when you see something shoot to overnight success, at least one of the following holds:

1. Someone smart was working hard behind the scenes for quite a while to make it happen. And/or:
2. It’s utterly uncommercial and not making anyone rich. MARK TRAPHAGEN @MARKTRAPHAGEN SENIOR DIRECTOR OF ONLINE MARKETING AT STONE TEMPLE CONSULTING

To differentiate your brand, you must learn, live, and tell its unique story.

LAUREN MAFFEO @LAURENMAFFEO CONTENT SPECIALIST AT AHA!

I’ve always believed in the power of content for growth, but I didn’t always understand how hard you had to work to make content actually work. I think all good marketers have a similar story. In the beginning, it’s easy to believe that your content is so great that all of the promotion will take care of itself. It’s the typical Field of Dreams scenario, “If I write it, they will come.” But, it doesn’t work.

The reality is that most marketing takes a combination of extreme quality, hard work, and a ton of hustle. The hustle is the piece of the puzzle that I was missing for a long time. This includes stuff like conversion optimization, blogger outreach, and guest blogging for all of the right reasons (and so much more).

This realization is what turned me into a content hacker, or a marketer that can actually use content for growth, not just a baseline of traffic.

So, what does it take to become a content hacker? I put some of my ideas into this infographic, but I think the main thing is becoming a marketer who doesn’t see content itself as the benchmark, but rather seeing growth as the primary yardstick for your work. Sure, many marketers have growth-related KPI’s that they look at on occasion, but how heavily do those metrics really influence their marketing?

I’m continually shocked at how often growth and marketing are seen as completely different disciplines. They aren’t. They share a common bond. Growth without marketing is rarely possible. Marketing without growth happens all the time, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a crime against humanity.

So, the most valuable lesson I learned was that marketing without growth is dead. Today, marketers need to understand funnels, optimization, SEO, content, growth hacking, and good old fashion hustle. I tend to think that it makes everything more fun anyway!

GARRETT MOON @GARRETT_MOON

CO-FOUNDER AND CONTENT HACKER AT COSCHEDULE

LISTEN TO THE HUMANS

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU’VE LEARNED AS A MARKETER?

Ask what people want and give it to them whenever possible. I’m very focused on providing people with the tools, resources, and information they need and when they need it. Also, I like to under-promise and over-deliver. That’s a great way to satisfy customers or potential customers.

SHAWN COLLINS @AFFILIATETIP CO-FOUNDER AT AFFILIATE SUMMIT

Building a great customer experience requires tons of uncomfortable conversations with different parts of the business. It’s about pushing for a deeper understanding of customers and it’s about making everybody accountable for their impact on the overall user journey. Customer centricity is never easy and success lies in the accumulation of small battles fought in the name of the customer.

SOFIA QUINTERO @SOFIAQT HEAD OF GROWTH GECKOBOARD

No amount of ‘tricks’ or hacks will ever replace genuine human connection with your target audience.

KELSEY JONES @WONDERWALL7 MANAGING EDITOR AT SEARCH ENGINE JOURNAL & MARKETING CONSULTANT AT MOXIEDOT

The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is that marketing is far more effective when we learn what people actually want rather than trying to convince them they want what we have to offer.

There’s too much crap out there that’s useless, and those are the things that don’t last, even if they appear to strike lightning. Even if you have the best thing in the entire world, something that everyone wants or needs, you need to let people know it exists.

AMY VERNON @AMYVERNON CONSULTANT AND SPEAKER AT AMYVERNON.NET

Know thy audience. It’s impossible to execute a decent marketing strategy without establishing a target.

COURTNEY BOYD MYERS @CBM FOUNDER OF AUDIENCE.IO

Customers are key. It all comes down to the customer. Never lose sight of the customer.

MAXIME PRADES @PRADES_MAXIME PLATFORM PRODUCT MANAGER AT ZENDESK

While it seems ridiculous to have to say to remember the humans, I always find myself returning to the fact that we’re dealing with people problems in order to bring clarity to marketing challenges. Marketing success relies on understanding psychology and communicating effectively.

You just can’t have marketing without other people, so you have to understand whether you’re actually connecting with your messages or sending useless noise out into the void. Marketers get so caught up in easily measurable numbers like traffic and shares. Are you merely driving views or are you moving the needle in a meaningful way?

JANET CHOI @LETHARGARIAN MARKETING MANAGER AT CUSTOMER.IO

Listen carefully to customers and potential customers.

ROBIN KLEIN @ROBINKLEIN PARTNER AT INDEX VENTURES

TEST, MEASURE, AND REPEAT

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU’VE LEARNED AS A MARKETER?

Question and validate all perceived results and, as a pilot would say, trust your instruments.

DYLAN WHITMAN @DYLANWHITMAN CO-FOUNDER AT BVACCEL

The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is to be ever-evolving. It’s human nature to continue to ‘go back to the well’ when something works. However, so, so many factors determine the relative ‘success’ of a marketing effort, and there’s no guarantee the same tactics will yield the same results over and over. Constantly review success/ failures and constantly adjust.

ANDREW J COATE @ANDREWJCOATE SENIOR COMMUNITY & CONTENT MANAGER AT KAPOST

Always be testing. Test everything. Test it quickly. Test it often. Even if you don’t think it’ll work, test it anyway. There’s almost never a bad idea when you’re trying to acquire new customers at a startup. This lesson can be applied to A/B testing landing pages, advertising campaigns, copy, product or any other function of your startup, including how you manage your employees.

SHANE BLIEMASTER @BLIEMASTER VP OF MARKETING AT NUTSHELL

I’ve learned over the years that marketing is all about B&E… and no, that doesn’t stand for breaking and entering. The B is all about your company’s Brand. It’s an understanding that your brand is much more than just what your logo looks like or the colors you use in creative – your brand is reflected in EVERYTHING your company does – customer service, operations, employee on-boarding, team culture, supplier relations, and everything in between. As a marketer, you need to understand what you want your company’s brand to represent and ensure it permeates into what your company does.

The E stands for Experimentation. Marketers today have the ability to be a little bit like mad scientists. There are a plethora of experiments that can be run: Channels, tactics, language, communication frequency, pricing, content, etc. A marketer should not only be continuously testing, but also be aware how metrics differ per channel. For example, with something like paid SEM (search engine marketing), you can see immediate results, whereas traditional advertising or PR may take slightly longer to impact your business. It’s also important to try new things. With technology advancing at its current pace, there’s always something new that can be tried and tested. My general rule of thumb is to assign 5-10 percent of resources to testing things that are completely new – you may find yourself pleasantly surprised with what you discover.

RUSS MORGAN @RUSS_MORGS

CO-FOUNDER AND MARKETPLACE GROWER AT BIDVINE

It’s nearing two years since I started working with my company, import.io. This was not the first time that I had worked for a small team, but it was the first time in my career that I was an incremental part of growing a company from the ground up.

Making the move from working in the design and music industry into technology was a massive culture shock. I had never spoken to the community we were looking to target, APIs had never played such an important part in my vocabulary and the technology was pretty revolutionary. Needless to say, building out the initial brand and communications strategy was challenging. To be honest, I really had no idea what a massive learning curve it would be in such a short space of time.

When you have to act fast and learn quickly, you should expect both mental breakdowns and champagne toasts, which makes the learning curve even greater. So here are some of my key takeaways from these crazy couple of years:

1. DON’T FEAR EXPERIMENTATION

When I think of the grand old world of marketing, I think of the wonder that is Betty White, swigging bourbon, and preaching to the choir: ‘I’m a big cockeyed optimist. I try to accentuate the positive as opposed to the negative.’

That’s pretty much how I feel about marketing: It’s about seizing opportunity at the right time; the ‘can dos’ that allow people to easily discover your product in new and exciting fashions – I love that.

Planning is great. There’s nothing I love more than making a list, ticking it off one by one before giving myself a pat on the back. As much as all the ‘4000x growth in a week’ hype would have us think otherwise, growth does take time and requires a lot of forward thinking.

But sometimes you have to cast those checklists to one side, try an idea out and if it fails, accept that it might not have been the right time and move on. There is no better marketing experiment than trying out your idea on a real life audience. Working in a dynamic industry, our product is continuously developing, our audience rapidly expanding, and new tools are always popping up on the market, so it’s vital that our marketing efforts reflect this ever-changing landscape.

2. NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

Will Freeman realized the error of his ways in About a Boy, when he said ‘No man is an island.’ Like many other people, I’ve made the mistake of taking on too much at one time, under the blind assumption that I’m capable of doing everything. Well, I can safely say: I can’t. Nor do I want to.

The reason I love marketing so much is because of its collaborative, thought provoking nature. Today marketing includes everything from social, SEO/SEM, market research, paid ads, A/B testing, events, and so much more, it’s impossible to be an expert in all these areas.

The most successful marketing campaigns have a divide and conquer mentality. When you work as a team, you finish projects quicker, react to feedback more effectively, and cover multiple bases at once. Personally, I love handing over work to someone that I know can do it better. Some of our most successful marketing campaigns were derived last minute, with an ‘all hands in’ mentality – and an abundance of Nespresso.

3. LOVE METRICS

Over at import.io, we love us some metrics. Geckoboard has become a serious addiction, setting the tone for the day depending on the numbers logged on the screen hanging over our desks. Now more than ever, it’s essential to focus your marketing team on assessing the right growth metrics.

These numbers inform feature development, give you insight into high performing content, measure how design and layout affects conversions and lots more. One of the most wonderful aspects of ‘marketing by numbers’ is being able to anticipate success with real-time data.

Example: You push out a piece of content across social, load up Google Analytics, and real-time data allows you to see the link that a person landed on and how many people are currently viewing it. You can now begin to anticipate how many impressions it’s likely to garner – whether it’s useful for increasing conversions, or simply building brand recognition.

Gut instinct no longer cuts it, and you shouldn’t settle for anything but proven growth to move the needle forward.

SALLY HADIDI @SALLY_HADIDI

HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS AT IMPORT.IO

Work iteratively. If you have an opportunity to improve an important metric quickly, and it doesn’t go against your brand, do it. Big project ideas will always be there, but the investment in resources they require does not always pay off. In the meantime, you could have been driving growth, one small win at a time. And, those small wins can add up to real growth.

ROB MICHAEL CARPENTER @ROBMCARPENTER VP OF MARKETING AT FRONT

There are no silver bullets. Just a lot of tests, failures and tiny gains that build to something bigger… but bigger is never enough.

JEANNE LAM @HWANGJEANNE GROWTH MARKETING AT SHAPEWAYS

Decisions are only as good as your data, but it’s not a guarantee. You can make horrible decisions based on misinterpreted data. If you confound correlation and causality, you’ll end up with bad decisions.

So each time I join a new company or advise a startup, I end up rebuilding their analytics tracking and their reports, so good decisions can be made.

In essence, I could say that 2015 is the year of tracking. With the emergence of tools such as Segment.io, PopcornMetrics and many others, companies who are not up to speed with their analytics will lose ground to those who are.

GUILLAUME CABANE @GUILLAUMECABANE HEAD OF MARKETING AT MENTION

There’s no silver bullet, single growth hack, easy solution or magic dust that you can sprinkle on your business to grow it. Instead, it takes blood, sweat, tears and calluses. It takes a lot of hard work, manual labor and hustle. Growing a company is the combined effort of a diversified marketing strategy, multiple channels and tactics, compounding month over month. If you’re lucky, after months of iteration and experimentation, you’ll discover a channel and message that work. Then you can start doubling down on that and scale your company to the next level. However, most startups don’t make it that far.

ZACK ONISKO @ZACK415 HEAD OF GROWTH & MARKETING AT CREATIVE MARKET

Launch campaigns and experiment. Learn quickly, but don’t get caught up with forecasting and worrying about scaling every program. Often, marketers get too caught up second guessing if something will work or not before testing it. Get involved with the creative team, promote on social, sponsor an event, or send out gifts to your best clients. Have fun!

ERIC MACCOLL @MARKETINGERIC DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AT SCRIPTED

I’ve spent more than $1m in budgets, testing campaigns for clients and ourselves. We’ve learned so much along the way, but the biggest lesson learned so far is to test campaigns with a small budget first. Get the initial results and calculate your returns. Once you see something you find satisfiable, then scale it up. But never forget that the market is always right.

MARCUS HO @MARCUSHOKH CO-FOUNDER OF SOCIALMETRIC

I learned that organizations expect more from modern marketers today. This means marketers could be running multiple experiments across several digital mediums while juggling responsibilities expected of a traditional marketer. Referring to the CODA (cancel, optimize, delegate, automate) system regularly will help resource strapped marketers keep their sanity.

Cancel: If an approach isn’t working well for your product despite a set period of trial and optimization, consider investing your resources in more efficient channels that bring greater return on investment (ROI). A general rule of thumb is to take into consideration the Pareto Principle: Ask yourself, what are your top 20% marketing channels that brings 80% of qualified inbound prospects?

Optimize: Optimization could mean arranging your data analytics dashboard to reveal the most important business metric in your organisation or simply doing A/B tests with the available web software services out there. Google once wrote how a 400ms delay leads to a 0.44% drop in search volume. Small wins can stack into big improvements.

Delegate: Delegation is underrated. There are a myriad of services today that serve the purpose of executing parts of marketing for you while you focus on planning and probing. Specialists do research, design and editorial duties more cheaply and efficiently.

Automate: Marketers today have a lot more tools at their disposal. Services like IFTTT and Thunderclap are great examples of free tools. The former helps you keep a more efficient workflow through inputs and outputs of your favorite web services while the latter amplifies your message at a given time with permissions granted through your fans’ social media accounts.

DAYLON SOH @DAYLONSOH

COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER AT METALWORKS BY MAXUS

ADD VALUE. ALWAYS.

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU’VE LEARNED AS A MARKETER?

Delivering undeniable value will always gain you an engaged community, and more importantly, customers. This applies to everything; your marketing campaigns and of course, your products/services. There’s a trust and loyalty built when you deliver beyond expectation that’s far more valuable to you as a business than a sale.

GEORGIANA LAUDI @GGIIAA DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AT UNBOUNCE

Attention to details and no compromise. I need to convince our customers to aim for the top and very often I help them reach it.

JEAN-PIERRE GIANNETTI /JEAN-PIERRE-GIANNETTI SENIOR SALES MANAGER AT APPLE INC

Marketing is about presenting the right message, to the right audience with the right communication tools. It’s not about flashy, pretty graphics or exotic words. Speak to your audience in a way they understand and with a message that solves a pain point and you will succeed as a marketer.

EDER HOLGUIN @EDERMAN1 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT IDEAL MEDIA

Marketing is about telling stories and providing people with the tools necessary to help accomplish something in their lives. STELLA GARBER @STARTUPSTELLA DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AT TRELLO

IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU’VE LEARNED AS A MARKETER?

It’s all about relationships-and even if they don’t seem reciprocal to begin with, most connections prove their value with time. MARY C LONG @MARYCLONG CHIEF GHOST AT DIGITAL MEDIA GHOST

Be honest and think about the long-term value and importance of any relationship you’re starting today. MARCUS B SVENSSON @MARCUSBSVENSSON HEAD OF GROWTH AT SHOPROCKET

FOCUS

1. THE SOCIAL EFFECT

2. PRODUCT + MARKETING = LOVE

3. BE A PAVER, NOT A FOLLOWER

4. ADD VALUE. ALWAYS.

THE SOCIAL EFFECT

WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE A MARKETER’S MOST IMPORTANT TASK TODAY?

Networking, and being helpful.

PAUL JARVIS @PJRVS BEST-SELLING AUTHOR AND DESIGNER

Deeply understanding the changes in user behavior that we have already seen, that we are seeing right now, and that we are about to see in the next few years. The marketers that win will be those who position their companies, brands, and products to win in an always-connected world.

WILL CRITCHLOW @WILLCRITCHLOW CEO AT DISTILLED

Standing out among the sea of messages, distractions, and ads is the biggest challenge. People are getting more and more into blocking out irrelevant messages so figuring out a way to reach them at the right time is the biggest challenge.

STELLA GARBER @STARTUPSTELLA DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AT TRELLO

Today, as ever before, the most important task is to truly understand the contexts, behaviors and motivations of your customers and users-not relying on demographic analyses, second source reports or data. But foremost engaging directly with those people, every day.

ADRIAN YOUNG-SAN ROESSLER @ADRIANYSAN OFFERING LEAD/PRODUCT MANAGER AT PODIO

STEP BACK & FOCUS

WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE A MARKETER’S MOST IMPORTANT TASK TODAY?

Provide more revenue to a site. Whether it’s indirect or direct, the goal should be to increase revenue and profit.

NEIL PATEL @NEILPATEL CO-FOUNDER OF CRAZY EGG

Ruthless prioritization. Marketers today have so many tools available to them and countless tasks to accomplish. Great marketers need to be nimble and continuously re-assess what needs to be done, when. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t establish an annual marketing plan, but it does mean that your strategy should be fluid and responsive to your business.

RUSS MORGAN @RUSS_MORGS CO-FOUNDER AND MARKETPLACE GROWER AT BIDVINE

Drive the growth of a business.

HOWARD KINGSTON @HOWARDVK CO-FOUNDER OF ADLUDIO (FORMERLY FUTUREADLABS)

Build and consolidate the brand. At the end of the journey that’s what’s left ... the brand.

JEAN-PIERRE GIANNETTI /JEAN-PIERRE-GIANNETTI SENIOR SALES MANAGER AT APPLE INC

Staying true to your brand’s values. There’s always the temptation to create junk content simply because the internet loves junk content and gets tempted by click baits these days. Sticking to your brand values allows clarity around your key customers (or target audience) and lays the foundation of a brand that attracts the right following over time. All organisations have two competitive advantages that are non zero-sum games and build incremental value over time: the first is technology innovation, and the second is brand affinity.

DAYLON SOH @DAYLONSOH COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER AT METALWORKS BY MAXUS

Focusing. Really, in all areas of marketing, you probably could be doing a better job focusing. Want to drive higher conversions? Focus on your messaging and offer. Want to get more ad impressions? Focus on your targeting, ad, and landing page. Want a raise? Focus on driving real results that drive increased revenue.

Closing the loop is another one. Marketers should know exactly how their efforts are impacting revenue, or whatever the most important metrics are for their business, because:

1. Your boss most likely expects this of you.
2. You’ll be much better at your job when you can see exactly what works and what doesn’t. It seems obvious, but I’ve seen too many companies with their metrics not even set up. If that’s you, find the resources, and make it your #1 priority.

ROB MICHAEL CARPENTER @ROBMCARPENTER

VP OF MARKETING AT FRONT

The marketer’s most important challenge is to focus time and budget on whatever is going to make the biggest impact on the business. This is not purely an acquisition task but includes engagement, conversion, retention, advocacy through to the product itself.

In order to achieve this, modern marketers need to be able to draw on a wide range of inspirations including data analytics, business modelling, A/B testing, research, psychology and behavioral economics, UX, design, copywriting, social media, paid media, SEO, APIs etc. This is in addition to keeping up with the latest digital marketing developments. It’s a busy job.

LIAM REYNOLDS @MRGROWTHHACKER CEO AND FOUNDER OF TRUE UP

Bringing together all the different strands of activity under a common theme. This includes an understanding of the whole customer lifecycle, the product roadmap, and customer acquisition activity, but also keeping everyone in the business informed on what’s coming back from the ‘frontline’.

MARIE STEINTHALER @MARMARLADE HEAD OF MARKETING & GROWTH AT HOPSTER

PRODUCT + MARKETING = LOVE

WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE A MARKETER’S MOST IMPORTANT TASK TODAY?

Brand is still king. As a startup looks for product-market fit – its essence, the reason it exists – is being iterated. Over time, as it scales this reason is distilled down to a single ‘Why do we exist?’ The brand needs to reflect this, and a marketer’s job is to capture this and amplify it.

NILAN PEIRIS @NILANP VP GROWTH AT TRANSFERWISE

To maximize growth of the business in the shortest amount of time possible.

ZACK ONISKO @ZACK415 HEAD OF GROWTH & MARKETING AT CREATIVE MARKET

Whether you’re talking about product marketing – which is what I do – or talking about more traditional forms of marketing, I think the most important part is to juggle the role that marketing holds today in companies, especially in tech companies. Marketers are not only responsible for making sure demand is high, but they’re also responsible for shaping the way the entire company is positioned and talking about the product(s). Therefore, one of the most important tasks is to juggle those two very different roles and goals.

MAXIME PRADES @PRADES_MAXIME PLATFORM PRODUCT MANAGER AT ZENDESK

BE A PAVER, NOT A FOLLOWER

WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE A MARKETER’S MOST IMPORTANT TASK TODAY?

1. Experimenting with new marketing ideas to drive growth. Marketers should be able to point to a tangible benefit to the business.
2. Building an experiment-driven culture where the company understands the benefits of continuous testing.
3. Championing growth as a key initiative across all parts of the company.
4. Getting better aligned around activities that lead to growth versus just activities for the sake of doing things. MORGAN BROWN @MORGANB HEAD OF GROWTH AT QUALAROO

Keeping up with the ever changing world of social media.

MICHAEL STELZNER @MIKE_STELZNER FOUNDER OF SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER

Focus on LEARNING. Learning by doing, learning by experimentation, learning what works, what doesn’t and why.

SOFIA QUINTERO @SOFIAQT HEAD OF GROWTH GECKOBOARD

It’s very difficult to tag any one task as ‘most important’ but if forced to name one, I’d go with education.

Education isn’t just what you learn from reading blogs and attending conferences (as important as those can be). It’s more of a mindset where you’re always seeking to be learning something while pursuing whatever task or mission you’re currently doing.

And it’s a constant application of that healthy skepticism I mentioned earlier.

I’ve always tried to follow a maxim I heard many years ago from one of my favorite teachers: ‘The one who will not read will not lead.’ I want to be the best-educated marketer I can be. That’s how you help your clients skate to where the puck is going, not where it’s been.

MARK TRAPHAGEN @MARKTRAPHAGEN

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF ONLINE MARKETING AT STONE TEMPLE CONSULTING

LISTEN TO THE HUMANS

WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE A MARKETER’S MOST IMPORTANT TASK TODAY?

To listen to customers and potential customers. We have preconceived notions of what should work in marketing. But for business models that have never existed before, you’re not just selling a brand, but an entire new industry. Preconceived notions are limitations unless informed by listening to customers at every opportunity. I call them all the time.

JEANNE LAM @HWANGJEANNE GROWTH MARKETING AT SHAPEWAYS

Discover and analyze the ideal customer personas; immerse every division of the company with the knowledge and importance of customer personas.

JUN LOAYZA @JUNLOAYZA CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER AT BUNNY INC

Have empathy for customers, potential customers, and potential amplifiers/ evangelists of your brand. Once you have empathy, you can effectively choose marketing channels, tactics, campaigns, and how to spend your time and energy.

RAND FISHKIN @RANDFISH WIZARD OF MOZ

Ask the right questions and never declare something as ‘done’. If you ask the right questions, you’ll always find opportunities to improve or optimize.

CARA HARSHMAN @CARAHARSHMAN CONTENT MARKETING MANAGER AT OPTIMIZELY

Try to really understand how your prospects view your brand. What do they think you do? Does that answer differ from what you’re trying to do? And then, figure out how you can use that insight to advance.

SEAN WORK @SEANVWORK DIRECTOR OF INBOUND MARKETING AT KISSMETRICS

Figure out who your customers are and where they hang out. I think a lot of marketers start blindly advertising on Facebook or Adwords without being able to answer these two fundamental questions.

JUSTIN MARES @JWMARES CO-AUTHOR OF TRACTION: A STARTUP GUIDE TO GETTING CUSTOMERS

Participate in a two-way conversation. It’s essential to respond to customers, whether it be email, phone, social media, etc. So many companies think it’s OK to have one way conversations, but that will alienate customers.

SHAWN COLLINS @AFFILIATETIP CO-FOUNDER AT AFFILIATE SUMMIT

A marketer’s most important task today is to listen. Too often, we’re like a bad interviewer, so focused on the next question we have to ask or next anecdote we want to tell that we’re not listening to the answers.

The end result for the interviewer is that the audience members sit there shaking their heads, knowing the interview had so much potential, but feeling as if it was just a waste of everyone’s time.

The end result for the marketer is that the users (existing or potential) won’t be bothered checking out what you have because they know you aren’t listening and don’t really care about their feedback.

AMY VERNON @AMYVERNON

CONSULTANT AND SPEAKER AT AMYVERNON.NET

Know your audience backwards and forwards. Never separate yourself from their wants and needs – those will evolve constantly. And if you’re not up to speed, your marketing will fail.

LAUREN MAFFEO @LAURENMAFFEO CONTENT SPECIALIST AT AHA!

The most important task for the marketer is to understand the target customer.

MIKITA MIKADO @MIKITAMIKADO CEO AT QUOTE ROLLER

TEST, MEASURE & REPEAT

WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE A MARKETER’S MOST IMPORTANT TASK TODAY?

Marketers are increasingly becoming platform selectors vs. executors of all. With so many advancements in marketing technology, it’s important to be able to quickly cut through the noise and understand what are truly best in class platforms and approaches.

DYLAN WHITMAN @DYLANWHITMAN CO-FOUNDER AT BVACCEL

Ensure your data stack is solid. Bad data can lead to bad decisions being made, so make sure you regularly block out time to check for ‘data blind spots’ or errors in your setup.

NICK SMITH @NICKWSMITH GROWTH HACKER AT GECKOBOARD

The most important thing to a marketer should be understanding what’s happening. It’s not enough to execute a task or campaign and move on. You must constantly review and understand what the results are and why they are as such. Never assume anything about a tactic, an audience, or, well, anything.

ANDREW J COATE @ANDREWJCOATE SENIOR COMMUNITY & CONTENT MANAGER AT KAPOST

There’s a lot of information out there. The most important thing a marketer has to do today is to make sure they are testing what’s really working and what’s not.

I cannot even count the number of times a statement has been made regarding the effectiveness of a marketing strategy, that when tested had a completely opposite result.

Every company, site, product, and situation is different, so you have to test what works for your situation at this exact time.

BRENT CSUTORAS @BRENTCSUTORAS

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST AT KAIRAY MEDIA

I think the most important task for a marketer is to tie what they do to measurable results. Despite all of our tools, this can still be a difficult task, but it’s an important one. We have to be able to connect our marketing to the bottom line. If we don’t, what are we doing? Sometimes I hear banter about marketing only being related to the ‘top of the funnel,’ meaning that its only job is to drive traffic. Bogus! And, if that’s what you’re doing, you’re doing it wrong.

For a growth marketer, onboarding starts in marketing. Those days, it’s how things are sold.

GARRETT MOON @GARRETT_MOON CO-FOUNDER AND CONTENT HACKER AT COSCHEDULE

Understand the analytics of your business, users, and marketing campaigns. As a marketer, you need to know the LTV of your user-base, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, and if each advertising channel is scalable. Each of these metrics needs to be broken down by channel to get the deepest insight into your marketing and acquisition efforts.

Test all channels available, and coming up with creative ways to capture new users.

SHANE BLIEMASTER @BLIEMASTER VP OF MARKETING AT NUTSHELL

ADD VALUE. ALWAYS.

WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE A MARKETER’S MOST IMPORTANT TASK TODAY?

Understand how to produce the right message that solves a problem for your audience, followed by finding the best communication tools to get that message across.

EDER HOLGUIN @EDERMAN1 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT IDEAL MEDIA

Create a real understanding of the target market’s needs and feelings. We used to rely on stale personas designed by committee. In a world where every customer is connected, that’s lazy.

ALISTAIR CROLL @ACROLL FOUNDER AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF LEAN ANALYTICS

In today’s fast-evolving internet world, attention is scarce and information is abundant.

Everyone’s talking about content marketing, but what you really need to do as a marketer is to plan a content strategy that will eventually sell your products/services. Just producing content alone isn’t going to help, you need content that is engaging and helps to sell.

MARCUS HO @MARCUSHOKH CO-FOUNDER OF SOCIALMETRIC

Be relevant. Product offering, timing, sales language as well as approach have to all be designed to suit the buyer-at all times.

MARCUS B SVENSSON @MARCUSBSVENSSON HEAD OF GROWTH AT SHOPROCKET

Don’t get sucked into making campaigns too cheesy, viral, or cool. Just make something funny that you would like to read or interact with. Chances are, your audience will feel the same.

KELSEY JONES @WONDERWALL7 MANAGING EDITOR AT SEARCH ENGINE JOURNAL & MARKETING CONSULTANT AT MOXIEDOT

A marketer’s most important task is understanding a client’s target audience and planning specifically for that audience. Beware of a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

MARY C LONG @MARYCLONG CHIEF GHOST AT DIGITAL MEDIA GHOST

Your job as a marketer isn’t to blare and blast about your product, but to know your audience and understand how best to serve potential and existing customers. That often means getting out of the marketer bubble and focusing outward – understanding customers and the population that your company/product serves. If you have that foundational knowledge of what people struggle with and care about – you can build everything on top of that, instead of the other way around of trying to push content or run promotions without that core.

JANET CHOI @LETHARGARIAN MARKETING MANAGER AT CUSTOMER.IO

Personalize your communication to the extreme. Each of your customers should get not the ‘best message for the average customer’, but the best message for him or her.

That means not only a nicely segmented Adwords campaign with adapted landing pages, but the whole website, sign up forms, and app experience afterwards!

GUILLAUME CABANE @GUILLAUMECABANE HEAD OF MARKETING AT MENTION

IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE A MARKETER’S MOST IMPORTANT TASK TODAY?

Growing a community for your brand is a marketer’s most important task, as well as building an intelligent relationship with that community.

COURTNEY BOYD MYERS @CBM FOUNDER OF AUDIENCE.IO

It’s easy to forget how awesome your customers are. Think about it, unlike your mom they don’t have to like you. By their own free will they agree to give you money in exchange for your product or service.

There are so many tools that can help build, maintain and strengthen customer relationships, you just have to remember to use them: social media, drip campaigns, transactional campaigns and customer referral programs.

But why would you want to worry about relationships? If you can create a bond with a customer, you’re likely to see higher lifetime values, less support tickets and more referrals.

WILL FRASER @GETFRASER CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF SAASQUATCH

1. EVANGELIZE THE CUSTOMER

As a person responsible for your company’s growth, your most important job is to emotionally connect with your audience so you can communicate their needs back to the rest of the team. It’s so important to feel confident about how you’re talking to your community in order to get the best feedback possible.

At import.io, we place a lot of time and effort into getting to know the people who avidly invest time in using our product. We log data on the user’s journey – through our website and product – to better understand where people struggle and note areas of success. We also host annual user conferences, monthly meetups, and create Facebook communities where people can share their stories. All of these events allow us to better understand what problems our software is helping to solve, and how we can tailor our product to enhance the user experience.

Your marketing team act as evangelists that help everyone in the company understand opportunities, expectations, and how the company or product truly adds value to the customer base. Your community should be your real life testing ground, providing invaluable feedback to keep developing great products and businesses.

2. DON’T BE A ROBOT

Nowadays, your inbox is choc-a-bloc with a sea of marketing emails, meaning lazy robotic messages that lack personalization won’t cut it. If I see an email that looks like it was crafted by C-3PO, I’m hitting the ‘Delete’ button immediately.

Matt Ellsworth did an awesome presentation at our user conference in San Francisco titled, ‘I Are Not a Robot: Bringing Humanity to Data.’ He discussed how he used software such as import.io to gather emails from the web and craft personalized content for his outreach campaign. I seriously recommend watching it, though I’m careful to add the disclaimer, ‘Viewer Discretion is Advised!’ Taking time out to engage with your community across social media platforms, and writing emails that actually find their way into inboxes and not the spam folder is so important. Making sure to cut out all the industry jargon and focus on creating content that really tells a story, allows you to speak directly to your audience.

Customized messaging isn’t just restricted to blogs and emails. Working with your data science team allows you to see every move that people make on your platform, allowing you to create targeted welcome, help or promotional text. For me, this is one of the most exciting marketing moves in 2015.

SALLY HADIDI @SALLY_HADIDI

HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS AT IMPORT.IO

Making a connection with your community can be challenging and time consuming, but without it, no one is listening when time comes to launch (your business, your product, your campaign). It’s not as simple as it once was, of course. Just showing up to the party (on social networks, for example) isn’t enough. Another important and related task to invest in is connecting with other influencers in your space. Collaborations and partnerships are as old as marketing and advertising itself, but all too often marketers feel the need to ‘go it alone’ in fear that there aren’t enough customers to go around. Big mistake.

GEORGIANA LAUDI @GGIIAA DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AT UNBOUNCE

INNOVATION

2. STEP BACK & FOCUS

3. PRODUCT + MARKETING = LOVE

4. BE A PAVER, NOT A FOLLOWER

5. LISTEN TO THE HUMANS

6. TEST, MEASURE & REPEAT

7. IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

THE SOCIAL EFFECT

WHAT MAKES YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE?

Anyone who claims to know what the world of marketing will look like in five years is either a prophet or a fool. Five years back, I could have never predicted we’d be where we are now.

MICHAEL STELZNER @MIKE_STELZNER FOUNDER OF SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER

Vendor Relationship Management was something mentioned in the Cluetrain Manifesto ages ago. A world where the consumers give brands permission to connect to them, rather than brands pushing into consumers’ minds. The idea was solid, but far too early.

Now that we have ubiquitous computing and people are accustomed to online buying, microtransactions, and subscription services (think Uber, AirBnB, and the like), I could see a VRM shift happen. When consumers tell brands what they want to hear, rather than brands telling consumers what they want to say, it’ll be a serious upheaval in how we value marketing and customer approval.

ALISTAIR CROLL @ACROLL FOUNDER AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF LEAN ANALYTICS

As consumers continue to rely more and more on their mobile devices, the biggest trend will be a way to create and distribute content that will reach those mobile users in a meaningful way. Video is probably the best tool to reach users on their mobile devices, so a combination of mobile and video will be a growing trend for sure in the next couple of years.

EDER HOLGUIN @EDERMAN1 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT IDEAL MEDIA

STEP BACK & FOCUS

WHAT MAKES YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE?

I’m thrilled to see more brands embrace the art of storytelling. As content consumes more of marketing teams’ annual budgets, I hope journalists will find new passion driving the voices of disruptive startups. Why report on other peoples’ stories when you can write your own?

LAUREN MAFFEO @LAURENMAFFEO CONTENT SPECIALIST AT AHA!

I can safely say whatever I predict about the biggest advancement in the next five years probably won’t come true. :) But the world is only becoming more mobile, connected and fragmented. So anything that can help bring this all together will be big. I’m sure we’ll see more algorithms and machine learn type sciences becoming more prevalent and common place in the marketing mix.

What makes me excited about the future is the prospect of the old marketing rule book finally being laid to rest. Startups approach marketing in a completely different manner to big brands, taking a much more creative ‘growth hacker’ route that the big brands are just starting to wake up to. It means the marketing space is very much an open and constantly evolving playground where almost anything’s possible.

LIAM REYNOLDS @MRGROWTHHACKER

CEO AND FOUNDER OF TRUE UP

PRODUCT + MARKETING = LOVE

WHAT MAKES YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE?

Marketing and product become more intertwined and there are opportunities to share, refer, engage embedded throughout the product experience, whether that’s digital or physical.

JEANNE LAM @HWANGJEANNE GROWTH MARKETING AT SHAPEWAYS

Consumers are becoming more educated about what they want to purchase and less inclined to put up with bullshit. Marketing is moving towards more genuine and honest accounts of what’s being sold, and I like that. It’s becoming less about the slickest pitch and more about the best product. Because good or bad experiences with products nowadays, people are going to talk. And having Bono in your Super Bowl ad isn’t going to save you.

PAUL JARVIS @PJRVS BEST-SELLING AUTHOR AND DESIGNER

I think marketing will become a far more technical discipline. I think being able to do data analytics and program at some low level will be critical for digital marketing.

JUSTIN MARES @JWMARES CO-AUTHOR OF TRACTION: A STARTUP GUIDE TO GETTING CUSTOMERS

I think there will be an even greater shift to mobile over the next five years. That makes it essential to have mobile responsive sites and email templates to effectively reach the target audience. It excites me that tools and resources have become so accessible, both in usability and price, so that companies at any level can execute a professional marketing strategy.

SHAWN COLLINS @AFFILIATETIP CO-FOUNDER AT AFFILIATE SUMMIT

We’ve seen the evolution of marketing to encompass product and data more and more. This will only continue, as traditional marketers who only do comms, campaigns and PR become something of the past.

This is only a good thing as it will help improve the results and ROI of campaigns, giving greater credibility to the industry.

HOWARD KINGSTON @HOWARDVK CO-FOUNDER OF ADLUDIO (FORMERLY FUTUREADLABS)

Marketing in the future will be a broader company initiative as each individual in a company is now a marketer in some form. Marketing is gaining power in the business world.

AARON GINN @AGINNT GROWTH PM AT EVERLANE

In the future, marketers will have to figure out how to leverage every existing channel (offline and online) to effectively communicate their product or service.

MARCUS B SVENSSON @MARCUSBSVENSSON HEAD OF GROWTH AT SHOPROCKET

You need to make the connection between marketing and product. Within startups, this is already (mostly) the norm, but in larger organizations, I hope to see more impact from marketing on product and vice versa.

Also, personalization across product and comms-and not just the buzz word, but the actual implementation. Whether that’s getting your website more relevant, or your emails super-targeted, I’m looking forward to seeing the technology evolve that will make it possible to personalize at scale.

MARIE STEINTHALER @MARMARLADE HEAD OF MARKETING & GROWTH AT HOPSTER

Marketers can’t afford to think of themselves as the tip of the company spear, they have to think of themselves as the support team of the whole company. In the next five years, I think marketers are going to:

• Get deeper into the data with more in-app analytics tools so they can understand the customer better.
• Work closer with product managers to include marketing inside the product, and engage the users in unique community building ways.
• Focus on late stage customer lifecycle issues such as customer retention and referrals. Marketers who are willing to shake things up are going to continue to see their power grow.

WILL FRASER @GETFRASER

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF SAASQUATCH

BE A PAVER, NOT A FOLLOWER

WHAT MAKES YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE?

Performance marketing and the quantification of marketing has been the most exciting change. However, we’ve lost a bit of our creativity. As these two things come together again, magic will happen.

NILAN PEIRIS @NILANP VP GROWTH AT TRANSFERWISE

We’ll see a shift of brand advertising money to digital – I wrote about this here. This wave of money (which is bigger than the print business that flowed to Google in the 2000s) will revolutionize how brands are built and create some massive winners among the companies and channels that work out how to harness it most effectively.

WILL CRITCHLOW @WILLCRITCHLOW CEO AT DISTILLED

I think the most exciting advancements will be related to the ‘hacks’ that we see over the next five years. Who’s going to be the next Hotmail? Who’s going to launch the next blog that explodes like Groove’s? These are the hacks that we all talk about. I’m looking forward to seeing what we come up with next.

GARRETT MOON @GARRETT_MOON CO-FOUNDER AND CONTENT HACKER AT COSCHEDULE

I believe traditional marketing tactics and learnings are making a huge comeback and have a very strong role in the future of marketing.

We are progressing very fast technologically, faster than I think many people can even grasp. This is going to usher in an age of virtual and augmented reality, possibly take us away from the traditional concept of an internet, and merge both social and technological elements into a single interaction that functions as layers instead of separate activities. This will require numerous new fields of marketing that we have not even begun to consider yet.

Everything about that excites me!

BRENT CSUTORAS @BRENTCSUTORAS

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST AT KAIRAY MEDIA

LISTEN TO THE HUMANS

WHAT MAKES YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE?

I’m excited about the continual integration of all services to understand the actual buying path and appropriate attribution of a customer.

DYLAN WHITMAN @DYLANWHITMAN CO-FOUNDER AT BVACCEL

Technology and marketing are wonderfully intertwined. As technology progresses, it changes how we communicate. If you don’t believe me, send me an @ reply on Twitter. As a result, marketers will need to stay on top of what technologies their customers use and be able to craft communications appropriate for each channel.

With so many channels that are, and will be, available to marketers, how we track success will continue to be incredibly important. One of the biggest advancements I look forward to, of which we have already made some headway, is multi-channel attribution models. In other words, being able to look at all of the touch points you’ve had with your customer and understand how they work together to drive engagement.

RUSS MORGAN @RUSS_MORGS CO-FOUNDER AND MARKETPLACE GROWER AT BIDVINE

TEST, MEASURE & REPEAT

WHAT MAKES YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE?

Right now, it would be using data to make better business decisions. In the future, it will be understanding how not to get tricked by your own data into making bad decisions.

SEAN WORK @SEANVWORK DIRECTOR OF INBOUND MARKETING AT KISSMETRICS

In the future, I’m excited to be working with ever-growing data sets of how potential customers interact with brands and products.

DENNIS GOEDEGEBUURE @THENEXTCORNER VP SEO & GROWTH AT FANATICS INC.

We’ve already seen an enormous proliferation of data available to marketers, but it’s still often a struggle to sift through and gain actionable insights within a realistic timeline. 2014 saw advancements in technology helping translate the data (i.e. Kapost’s ‘Content Scoring’), but it’s still very early. Over time, formulas and technology to automate results will improve and give marketers more valuable takeaways on their content’s performance.

ANDREW J COATE @ANDREWJCOATE SENIOR COMMUNITY & CONTENT MANAGER AT KAPOST

In the future, we’ll be able to track and analyze a lot more data. And we’ll have to manage a lot more channels.

MIKITA MIKADO @MIKITAMIKADO CEO AT QUOTE ROLLER

I’m excited about how the abundance of prototyping and business intelligence tools in the coming years will change the marketing discipline. Marketers in the near future might find themselves being challenged on how advertising campaigns and mobile applications can be done more cheaply and quickly. Or, what data points they have to support a certain course of action.

DAYLON SOH @DAYLONSOH COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER AT METALWORKS BY MAXUS

The future will allow marketers to spend money in more educated ways.

Marketing tools will make it even easier for marketers to analyze their users, traffic, and channels. Affiliate and advertiser matching with the use of historical data will give advertisers/startups and affiliates the ability to launch more advertising campaigns that have higher chances of success. Targeting will become easier, but click competition will increase.

I also believe we will see the resurgence of CPA/affiliate marketing. With more and more mid-level online personalities being created every year, the need and opportunity to monetize will increase for the affiliate, creating more partnership opportunities that will allow startups to get their product in front of their target audience.

SHANE BLIEMASTER @BLIEMASTER

VP OF MARKETING AT NUTSHELL

Working for a data company, it’s no surprise that data-driven growth is the marketing advancement I’m most excited about. Any marketing team that fails to adopt a data-driven attitude over the next few years is ignoring one of the most compelling opportunities for growth.

There’ll be a focus on sourcing people that fell in love with your product, following their user journey and discovering the pattern that turned them into an obsessive user. Using this information, you can build out brand new features that attract new customers and engage your existing community, strengthening retention and signup rates.

It’s awesome to see how the industry is beginning to think about turning product development and marketing into a virtually all data-driven cycle, which is focused on how you get more users by figuring out what they do and don’t want. I love that every department in your company will be required to get involved in growth: Marketing, business development, product and data science teams. There won’t be separate processes – building the product and getting people to use it will run in parallel.

SALLY HADIDI @SALLY_HADIDI

HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS AT IMPORT.IO

PERSONALIZATION IS THE FUTURE

WHAT MAKES YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE?

A few things make me excited about the future: The continued integration of testing and data into marketing. More data-driven decision-making and experimenting to find out what really works. The blurring of lines between marketing and other parts of the business to a focus on growth. Personalization and the continued progress toward true one-to-one marketing.

MORGAN BROWN @MORGANB HEAD OF GROWTH AT QUALAROO

Machine learning algorithms will usher in a new era of targeting and customer segmentation. When you purchase a product on Amazon, the algorithm learns about you, your preferences, and your wants and needs. Amazon is then able to customize a home page just for you, which recommends items that you’re likely to purchase. This isn’t anything new, but what’s new is that more companies will be able to take advantage of this technology and target users on an individual basis. Furthermore, as more and more data is collected, the algorithms will be able to make recommendations that any one person could never think about making.

JUN LOAYZA @JUNLOAYZA CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER AT BUNNY INC

The biggest advancement in marketing in the next five years is going to be the use of data to build better products and find the right audiences.

I love data and when it’s used properly, there’s so much information out there that can help us bring the right products to the right people. People are far more receptive when they believe that we know what they actually want and need and are listening.

Using data is the ultimate in listening. You combine the numbers with the Natural Language Processing capabilities of computers (which is getting better all the time) to analyze what people are actually saying, and then use people to go through that last layer to make sure you’re matching things up properly.

Basically, the idea that we can use massive amounts of data from various sources, combine that with the latest in machine learning, and use really smart people to analyze that final layer, and you have something super-exciting that I can’t wait to be a part of.

AMY VERNON @AMYVERNON

CONSULTANT AND SPEAKER AT AMYVERNON.NET

I’m excited for marketing automation to become more sophisticated and easily integrated between email marketing, search, social, and within the products that marketers are selling. Even small businesses can take advantage of tracking and marketing data to create fun and timely messages to individuals instead of masses.

ERIC MACCOLL @MARKETINGERIC DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AT SCRIPTED

New channels for scalable growth are extremely exciting. Nothing will beat the feeling of growing 500-600k new users a day at my last company. We’ll soon see new, better ways to track users across devices, from desktops, to phones, to wearables and other connected devices. There’ll be new and exciting ways to grow your company coming soon.

ZACK ONISKO @ZACK415 HEAD OF GROWTH & MARKETING AT CREATIVE MARKET

I get excited about how integrated marketing technology will become over the next five years. There’s so much about marketing that’s a huge pain that better integration will solve. Integrating tools to automate growth, improve attribution, be more productive, give more consistent customer experiences. I look forward to not having to ‘hack’ my way to creating personalized, one-to-one customer experiences across every customer touch-point.

ROB MICHAEL CARPENTER @ROBMCARPENTER VP OF MARKETING AT FRONT

How marketers start making use of wearables, and more specifically the data they provide, will be fascinating. We’re experimenting with wearable data ourselves and the potential is crazy!

LIAM GOODING @LIAMGOODING CEO AT TRAKIO

Today, my segmentation strategy is only as good as my experience. And that’s of course limited. I often ask myself, ‘What if a system could find logical segments in my users by itself and choose the best message, the best color, the best product to showcase?’ I believe we’re not far from that turning point, and it’ll be a radical change.

GUILLAUME CABANE @GUILLAUMECABANE HEAD OF MARKETING AT MENTION

I’m excited about the simplicity and affordability of incorporating adaptive content into a content marketing strategy. This is exciting because it’ll help more marketers deliver the right piece of content to the right person at the right time.

JEROD MORRIS @JERODMORRIS VP OF MARKETING AT COPYBLOGGER MEDIA

Interactive marketing with connected objects is opening up a myriad of new opportunities and it’s starting now.

JEAN-PIERRE GIANNETTI /JEAN-PIERRE-GIANNETTI SENIOR SALES MANAGER AT APPLE INC

In the future, real-time mobile targeting will be table stakes and brands will seek exceptionally creative writers and strategists to drive personalized tactics.

MARY C LONG @MARYCLONG CHIEF GHOST AT DIGITAL MEDIA GHOST

More targeted marketing and data around providing users with the most value gets me excited. Having that data be available to smaller companies and not just those that can afford enterprise solutions.

STELLA GARBER @STARTUPSTELLA DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AT TRELLO

I’m fascinated by the pace at which whole new categories of products (and future marketing channels) are advancing. Virtual Reality in particular is going to provide a whole new platform to create new experiences on-the potential for marketers to connect with audiences in a whole new dimension is extremely exciting!

NICK SMITH @NICKWSMITH GROWTH HACKER AT GECKOBOARD

ADD VALUE. ALWAYS.

WHAT MAKES YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE?

I believe we’ll see a massive increase in the overlap of skills required to be effective at any given channel or practice, and this will upgrade marketers’ ability to see the big picture. The ‘T-Shaped’ marketer is the future, IMO.

RAND FISHKIN @RANDFISH WIZARD OF MOZ

I’m excited about education. Marketers are now educating potential customers through content marketing. This has helped them build up their traffic, increase their loyalty, and build a stronger brand.

NEIL PATEL @NEILPATEL CO-FOUNDER OF CRAZY EGG

We’ll have better technologies on web and mobile to filter spammy marketing. A brand’s ability to deliver authentic and high-quality storytelling techniques throughout its marketing will define its success on both a local and global level.

COURTNEY BOYD MYERS @CBM FOUNDER OF AUDIENCE.IO

The tools, the proliferation of tools (user tracking, lead management etc.) will make it easier and faster for us to do our jobs. This will allow us to focus on the value adding stuff.

MAXIME PRADES @PRADES_MAXIME PLATFORM PRODUCT MANAGER AT ZENDESK

I’m not sure it’s so much a new development that I’m excited about as much as I am about seeing a serious improvement. Call it improved user experience but readers, customers, users, members regardless of location or device, will struggle less. Marketers will more carefully consider the experiences they’re building, or simply disappear behind those who do.

GEORGIANA LAUDI @GGIIAA DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AT UNBOUNCE

Soon, we’ll be utilizing big data, mobile, and the internet of things to give customers products they can interact with at any time that make their lives more enjoyable and less stressful. Focusing on making people’s lives better should be the core focus of any marketing campaign. I’m excited to see how apps and content will continue to improve as more brands and organizations realize how important they are.

KELSEY JONES @WONDERWALL7 MANAGING EDITOR AT SEARCH ENGINE JOURNAL & MARKETING CONSULTANT AT MOXIEDOT

I’m excited about content marketing. No one has started talking about content marketing in a way that can drive sales.

MARCUS HO @MARCUSHOKH CO-FOUNDER OF SOCIALMETRIC

In the next few years, being helpful will be a compelling marketing strategy. With people getting overloaded with information, relevance and utility will go such a long way to cut through all the noise.

Another important advancement will be the use of different mediums like video and audio. Just look at where audiences are moving towards and hanging out — like the current wave of podcasts and the consistent hunger for interesting/fun things to watch — and you’ll find exciting opportunities to be creative and stand out.

JANET CHOI @LETHARGARIAN MARKETING MANAGER AT CUSTOMER.IO

IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

WHAT MAKES YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE?

I think the biggest advancement in marketing as a discipline is one that’s already developing: Advanced data collaboration. We’re not only gaining better tools to measure and evaluate, but the web helps us to more quickly build relationships and partnerships so that we can be smarter than we ever would be on our own.

The future excites me because I know there’s always more to be learned in our profession, and I’m confident that I’ll never stop loving the learning.

MARK TRAPHAGEN @MARKTRAPHAGEN SENIOR DIRECTOR OF ONLINE MARKETING AT STONE TEMPLE CONSULTING

I’m excited about what B2B marketing will look like in the future. I think it’ll be harder to distinguish B2B from B2C tactics. Acquisition will become more human, more fun and more creative for B2B marketers.

SOFIA QUINTERO @SOFIAQT HEAD OF GROWTH GECKOBOARD

The last few years seem to have been a lot about new channels and ever more tools. I believe the next five years will have to be more about the people, redefining the marketing roots, and hopefully less cargo cult behavior and less outdated and contextless advice.

What excites me is that everything’s converging: The trends, the channels, the roles, the skills needed, data and people. The golden age of online marketing is probably over in certain areas, as more and more businesses and marketers compete for scarce attention levels. New opportunities will always arise but with ever shorter windows of very high ROI potential. So need for originality, quality focusing on people’s experiences, great storytelling and more love between marketing and product could make for an exciting mix.

ADRIAN YOUNG-SAN ROESSLER @ADRIANYSAN

OFFERING LEAD/PRODUCT MANAGER AT PODIO

HEROES

Denny's

“

I’m tremendously impressed with how they used really smart social listening to figure out what about their brand could actually connect with a generation that had written them off as irrelevant. They used that information to create content and interactions that turned their whole brand image around, and probably saved their business.

No other brand is killing it in content marketing like Red Bull. At times, I genuinely forget that their product is a fizzy little drink and insomniacs’ worst nightmare. Instead, people have come to associate the brand with achieving the impossible. The Felix Baumgartner’s record free-fall from the edge of space – an ingenious marketing stor y.

They have crafted their story to perfection, understanding the needs of their community to a tee.

SALLY HADIDI @SALLY_HADIDI

HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS AT IMPORT.IO

Slack is doing a great job at not marketing-they’re letting their product do the work, and redefining what marketing is by virtue of saying they haven’t done any of it. That’s not quite true, since marketing goes beyond spending ad dollars, and their branding, emails, PR pick-up, and website are all fine examples of marketing (i.e. creating a market for a product). They’re a great inspiration for all us marketers to raise the bar and see what’s possible without spending any money.

MARIE STEINTHALER @MARMARLADE

HEAD OF MARKETING & GROWTH AT HOPSTER

KISSMetrics has always been a company I’ve admired. Their infographics are my customer acquisition bible, and their blog is informative and forward-thinking. They are constantly testing their landing pages, products, and online presence. I consistently go to them for marketing and customer acquisition research.

SHANE BLIEMASTER @BLIEMASTER

VP OF MARKETING AT NUTSHELL

Like everyone, I absolutely love what Groove has done over the past year with their content. In their market, they faced some hefty competition from HelpScout, a content marketing heavyweight. Groove had this blog that was limping along, but how could they really make an impact? Groove shut down their traditional content marketing blog, and did something completely different. They became transparent and shared their company playbook with the world. What a great (and timely) hack!

It was an extremely unique approach (at the time) and it gave them a huge boost in attention. I think it was something like 5,000 email signups in just a couple of weeks. Even better, it was heavily focused on startups – one of their core demographics. We ate it up!

It was a great example of tying content to growth and the bottom line. I almost can’t say enough about it.

GARRETT MOON @GARRETT_MOON

CO-FOUNDER AND CONTENT HACKER AT COSCHEDULE

THE GOURMET CHEFS

Marketo are pioneering the ‘engagement marketing’ vision in a big way. The partnership they have with unique companies such as The Economist is working to bring thought leaders from various disciplines together to redefine what marketing looks like in 2015.

CARA HARSHMAN @CARAHARSHMAN CONTENT MARKETING MANAGER AT OPTIMIZELY

Ryan’s pre-launch of Product Hunt and beta on-boarding strategy was amazing to watch from the side lines. By inviting investors and journalists to the private beta, he was able to manufacture a lot of hype and build a crowd of early adopters banging on the door to get in.

ZACK ONISKO @ZACK415 HEAD OF GROWTH & MARKETING AT CREATIVE MARKET

Zendesk has been making big waves in content marketing. They picked a few topics to become thought leaders in and then they dominated the space of customer service. Every piece of content is professional and the fact that they have their own internal video team is unique for a tech company.

ERIC MACCOLL @MARKETINGERIC DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AT SCRIPTED

I’ve always respected Wooga massively. They’ve been cutting-edge when it comes to virality, A/B testing and data-driven decision-making for some years now. They’ve taken the science of marketing to a new level and you can learn more about viral marketing from an attentive walk through one of their games than you can from a dozen textbooks.

HOWARD KINGSTON @HOWARDVK CO-FOUNDER OF ADLUDIO (FORMERLY FUTUREADLABS)

HubSpot’s blog has always been invaluable. Their take on digital marketing is fresh, well-written, and educational. When I was new to marketing, it saved me. Helpful, interesting editorial is the strongest form of lead nurturing.

LAUREN MAFFEO @LAURENMAFFEO CONTENT SPECIALIST AT AHA!

SUMMARY: ONE LAST BITE

Phwooar. We hope you’re feeling stuffed with inspiration and maybe you even had a few aha moments. One thing is for sure, you’re now sitting on some serious inside knowledge served up by some of the world’s top marketers across all sectors.

We’ve learned from their mistakes and successes over the years. We gained insight into what growth ingredients we should be cooking with. We took a look at what’s in store for the future and, finally, we got to find out who they look up to.

As we’ve digested all this information, we think it’s safe to say that no matter what innovations occur or don’t occur, four things will hold true:

At the end of the day, marketing – and business in general – is about 1 relationships.

Listening to our target audience will aid us in growing and nurturing these 2 relationships, and consequential loyal brand advocates.

We need to always be testing, measuring, iterating, and growing. Without 3 data, we’re swimming in a vast sea of information with no land in sight. Use the data at your fingertips to make smart decisions and strategic plans.

It’s easier today than ever to bring our marketing and communication back to 4 one-to-one, personalized messages. Add the value each customer expects.

So let’s get cooking, shall we?

ONE LAST BITE

GOT AN INSATIABLE APPETITE?

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