A Penny for Your Advice

What’s the best marketing advice you ever received?

Hold that thought for a second, as I have a fun new way for you to share it below. You’ll even potentially receive two kinds of rewards for doing so.

(If you can’t wait, see how it works here.)

Before we get to that though, here’s one of my favorite pieces of advice.

It comes from the author Adam Grant, and specifically his book Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World.

Grant shared the story of Rufus Griscom who, with his partner Alisa Volkman, founded media property Babble. Griscom described a way of establishing authenticity immediately when pitching his company to buyers.

Griscom said, “When I put up a slide that says, ‘Here’s why you shouldn’t buy this company,’ the first response was laughter. Then you could see them physically relax. It’s sincere; it doesn’t smell, feel, or look anything like sales. They’re no longer being sold.”

Maybe it’s my self-deprecating nature, but I loved that advice and regularly look for ways to use it.

It’s easy to make it too self-serving, like those job interviews where you’re asked to name a flaw of yours and you say, “I’m too much of a perfectionist,” “I care too much,” or “I sometimes am so focused on my team’s best interests that I forget to look out for my own.”

In the immortal words of G.O.B., “Come on!”

What if you were honest and said, “I’ve never worked in an ad agency before, so if that’s the only experience that matters to you and you don’t want anyone there who has brand-side experience, I’ll be a terrible candidate for this role.” No one will call BS on you, and you’re way more likely to get that call back — because it’s true.

It’s also an approach you can use in your personal life.

Say you’re dating, for instance. You could try to hide the fact that you’re divorced, or bald, or don’t have a daily fitness routine, or on the short side, or live with five cats, or have 85% custody of your kid(s) and will be a royal pain to schedule a date with.

Or you could say, “I’m the only person on this app who will admit that I spend way more time on Netflix than a Peloton (and that I don’t even own a Peloton).” You know how many more hits you will get from people who also prefer binge-watching to binge-biking?

People say they want that perfectly attractive, fit, financially successful, available but not too available mate within six inches of their height, just like we all have our checkboxes in those RFPs or job reqs.

You know what everyone really wants though? That unicorn of a person or service or product that does exactly what they say that they’ll do. They just want the real deal for a change.*

Sincerity sells.

I’d be remiss not to share some related advice from a constant source of inspiration, the one and only Leo Morejon.

Once you’ve gotten through a pitch, he recommends asking, “What don’t you like about my product, service, or offering (or me)?”

If the audience brings up the flaw, you can work with that. It’s your lack of information that can kill the deal.

Again, it’s true with professional relationships but also personal ones.

We may all know about FOMO, but the fear of missing out is often nothing compared to FOFO — the fear of finding out. Yet what we find out gives us an opportunity to learn, grow, and maybe even make a situation more favorable not just for you but for all parties involved.

A penny (or a few coins) for your advice

Now, it’s your turn.

What’s the best marketing advice you ever received?

Submit yours here, using the Bonfire app. Any legitimate responses will get 3 $CMO coins — worth about $30 right now (and earning dividends for everyone who holds the coins each week).

It doesn’t have to be the best advice ever. It’s not a contest. But select entries will also be featured in next week’s column, with attribution.

This is the very first public pilot of such a bounty using the Bonfire app that connects with Rally. Let’s see what we can do with it.

But most importantly, let’s collect some great marketing advice — however strategic or tactical, career-related or execution-oriented — and provide more insight and value to all the thousands of readers here.

My advice to you: take five minutes to participate, share what you’ve learned, and help ensure we do these kinds of round-ups way more often.

Thanks.

David

*Some people also want a good kisser. Not at the office though. Right, Governor Cuomo?**

**In the words of G.O.B., “Come on!” I had to. What a week.

————————————————–
OFFICIAL UPDATES
————————————————–

Join our Upstream Mixer today for four 5-minute matches with fellow ad and marketing industry pros. New meeting time: 12pm ET! And if you’re new to the Upstream group, you’ll get invited to yet another coin drop through Bonfire.

————————————————–
WHAT TO READ
————————————————–
Recent pieces published or shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

The first rule of CrossFit, always talk about CrossFit by Danielle Zeitlen Hughes
What Should Happen to Our Data When We Die? by Adrienne Matei
“Ted Lasso,” “White Lotus,” “Schmigadoon!” and More: Sizzling Summer TV by Ed Martin
We Read the 4000-page IPCC Climate Report So You Don’t Have To by Amanda Shendruk et al.
Why It’s So Hard to Get Off Slack and Set Boundaries at Work by Yasmin Gagne

————————————————–
HOW TO SHARE
————————————————–

Thanks to Mat Zucker, Nancy Harhut, E.B. Moss, Praveen Mishra, Amy Gittelman, Matthew Silverman, Jeremy Woolf, and Jason Gardner for spreading the word about the newsletter recently.

Share it with five others who subscribe and receive 10 $CMO coins, along with other rewards. Even one referral will net you a coin (try it out).

Here’s your own personalized link, with more referral rewards for sharing the newsletter. Visit https://referralhub.page/serialmarketer to see how you’re doing.https://sparklp.co/823bcd55

Share via: Email | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn————————————————–
EVENTS
————————————————–

Please submit any events you’re hosting to our calendar at https://serialmarketers.net/events/. All events below are virtual, and all times are ET.

Upcoming Serial Marketers events:

8/11: UPSTREAM MIXER (12pm) — trying an earlier time again
9/1: First Wednesday – in-person social chat in NYC (5pm)

HOW YOU CAN SHAPE YOUR BUSINESS BRAND
August 11, 12pm
Via Nishant Aggarwal in the community:
“Creatives, consultants, and other independent professionals here, has your business brand been top of mind for you? Brand strategist and designer, Amanda Guerassio will talk about how you should approach branding like a CEO, and how having a clear brand not only helps your business but makes your life easier.”
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvfu6upjIoH937fw8cBnijYkhPiWSji1w7

SUMMER NETWORKING AT TOMMY’S TAPHOUSE
August 11, 5pm
Via Chris Vaglio in the community:
“The NJ Ad Club will be hosting our first in-person happy hour networking event on Aug 11th starting at 5pm at Tommy’s Tavern + Taphouse. It’s an outdoor event and a great way to connect in person with other pros in the industry.”
https://njadclub.org/summer-networking-at-tommys-taphouse/

SPOTIFY’S WORK FROM HOME REVOLUTION
August 12, 2pm
Via Plus Aziz in the community
Webinar by GoodTime looking at change management for a distributed workforce, no matter the size of your company looking at
– Best practices in global change management
– Leveraging WFA for improved diversity
– Tech stack to ensure compliance + collaboration
– WFA’s impact on hiring opportunities
– The importance of employer branding
– Your WFA implementation questions answered
https://bit.ly/goodtime-spotify-21

HOLIDAY DEMO DAY
August 18, 3pm
Via Randy Levy in the community
“Please join us for the Cogent Demo Day Series. This month’s demos will focus on how Marketers can improve their performance this holiday season and drive more incremental sales. We will present ideas on how to make your current channels better and new channels that can help you rise above your competition. Each idea can still be implemented this year without a heavy lift.”
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Uu_RnsB_SyOAZjxxzJJHAQ

WOMXN OF COLOR EMPOWER HOUR
September 2, 8pm
Via Serin Silva in the community
“Intune Collective hosts a monthly gathering for Womxn of Color to amplify our collective voices and build a community of support. Ignite your Voice. Elevate your Impact. Build your Community. Please join us for a monthly power hour of womxn supporting womxn in a safe, open learning environment where you will leave inspired and more confident to express your voice and gifts in the world.”
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/womxn-of-color-empower-hour-tickets-142171491759

————————————————–
JOBS
————————————————–

Keep checking out the #jobs channel in Serial Marketers for more. Better yet, subscribe to get updates from our job listing board. Here are some great opportunities shared in these places or sent to me directly.

TRUST & WILL
Influencer Marketing Specialist
Remote US
Via Danielle Nuzzo in the community:
“Come join my team at Trust & Will! We’re the leading digital estate planning company, with more than $23M in funding. I’m hiring for an Influencer Marketing Specialist to manage and develop strategic partnerships with influencers and content creators.”
https://jobs.lever.co/trustandwill/e10a95ab-19dd-4eb7-997d-9e86f30f9b03

PROPHET
Client Services Director
Chicago, Atlanta, New York, or Richmond
Via Mat Zucker in the community
“Prophet is enhancing our existing creative capabilities, building a new, complementary creative capability at Prophet which includes a brand and content studio (CoLab) to take storytelling to new places. We’re looking for a team of outstanding talent to help build this new unit which will brilliantly activate our client brand and marketing strategies for fame and impact.”
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2668558504/

(UN)COMMON LOGIC
Various roles
Austin, TX or willing to relocate
Via Weston Armstrong Woodward in the community:
“Amazing agency hiring. Link to all the open roles: https://www.uncommonlogic.com/jobs/
In terms of priorities, these 3 positions are the ones they’re in most need of:
Account Manager
Senior Paid Media Specialist
Digital Marketing Strategist“

EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM ANYWHERE
Community Director
Remote anywhere
“The Community Director will be responsible for growing the Effective Altruism Anywhere community through strategy, event planning, supporting members in having an impact, and more. The position is funded through a Community-Building Grant by the Centre for Effective Altruism.”
https://80000hours.org/job-board/?role=community-director___recuvUijtXBPih9eQ

THE LIFE YOU CAN SAVE
Marketing Director
Remote anywhere
“The Life You Can Save is looking to hire a Marketing Director who will be in charge of leading our charity’s marketing efforts in distributing Peter Singer’s book The Life You Can Save and raising money for our recommended charities.”
https://80000hours.org/job-board/?role=marketing-director___recySl7clW6H015Zq

THE KRAZY COUPON LADY
Content Marketing Manager, Social Video
Remote (8 US States)
“KCL is looking for a smart, digital-media-savvy, and hard-working creative content producer and designer who can bring an incredible ability and unique vision to help build the Krazy Coupon Lady brand on TikTok and other social media platforms.”
https://remotewoman.com/job/content-marketing-manager-social-video-2/

BOULEVARD
Senior Content Marketing Manager
Remote US
“As a Sr. Content Marketing Manager you will help establish Boulevard as the preferred platform-as-a-service solution (beyond software) to the personal care industry through impactful content that attracts, nurtures, and converts relevant audiences throughout the marketing funnel. We are focused on two different yet intersecting worlds: beauty and technology. You should have a passion for and experience with these important parts of our business that is equal to your passion for storytelling and digital content.”
https://www.candidate.co/refer/90c665b5-e77d-47c0-ab2d-f8416638ee50/330

WYNG
Director of Product Marketing
New York
“Willing to hit the ground running with positive attitude, strong energy, and curiosity, the future Director of Product Marketing has:
* ~5-10 years of experience successfully developing and positioning mar-tech companies, ideally with a brand or product marketing speciality
* Deep B2B expertise in the ZPD or martech space and has been trained in a best-in-class or startup environment and worked closely with agencies
* Has implemented successful enablement programs, created product/brand messaging and GTM strategy, and has a history of working closely with sales and customers.”
https://app.huntclub.com/jobs/2262?share_token=PcodCfyyr1Yz93evqQdoZGYw

UNYBRANDS
Director of Amazon Growth & Marketing
United States
“Driven, data-based professional with the ability to lead, the future Director of Amazon Growth & Marketing has:
* 7+ years experience in growth / performance marketing + 3+ years of Amazon advertising experience
* DTC or e-commerce industry experience
* Develop brand growth strategy, build GTM plans, manage advertising on Amazon marketplaces, budget management
* Ability to lead and build team. Data based decision marketing
* Driven by ownership, values customer experience, eclectic background.”
https://app.huntclub.com/jobs/2251?share_token=PcodCfyyr1Yz93evqQdoZGYw

PASSTHROUGH
Director of Customer Success
NYC Area
“The problems you’ll solve:
* Ensuring that our client engagements are successful for our customers, their lawyers, and fund administrators
Learning how to take our existing processes, structure them, and find points of leverage
* Designing and implementing a review process that produces error-free deliverables
* Seeking customer feedback about how we can improve our product for our users
* Developing your team through training, mentoring, and leadership”
http://www.candidate.co/refer/90c665b5-e77d-47c0-ab2d-f8416638ee50/336

CLUEP
Sales Director roles
“Sales Directors will be responsible for generating and growing mobile ad revenue through consultative sales that lead to highly successful campaigns and ongoing programs. The ideal candidate will possess a curiosity to research consumer behaviors and have a passion to develop those data insights into client solutions. You will be a key player, working with an account team to drive our clients’ business growth.”
NYC, Chicago

ONRAMP
Customer Success Manager
Located in the Eastern time zone
“As our first CS hire, you’ll have a huge amount of autonomy and responsibility as to how our customers experience OnRamp. Aside from working side-by-side with some of the best Customer Success teams in the industry to provide a world-class experience, you’ll have a huge say in figuring out the early playbook. We’ll ask you to experiment and move quickly and help us determine which investments will have the highest impact for our customers.”
https://www.candidate.co/refer/90c665b5-e77d-47c0-ab2d-f8416638ee50/334

TOVALA
Chief Growth Officer
Chicago, IL
“Transparent, motivated, cross-functional growth leader, the future Chief Growth Officer has:
* 15+ years of experience leading marketing and sales organizations, overseeing budget and performance for omnichannel growth efforts
* High growth, complex / big ticket D2C eCommerce expertise; subscription D2C preferred. Brick and mortar retail nice to have
* Drive and own overall strategy for acquisition growth and performance marketing. Highly analytical with experience forecasting and reporting ROI. Proven experience being accountable for and driving results against KPIs (ideally CAC: LTV or ROAS)”
https://app.huntclub.com/jobs/2199?share_token=PcodCfyyr1Yz93evqQdoZGYw

WELCOMETECH
Director of Digital Acquisition
“A successful candidate for this role will have experience in acquisition marketing – ranging across search marketing, digital display advertising, and social media performance marketing. This role requires the ability to define our paid media growth strategy, deep-dive on cohort analysis, set customer-centric campaign goals, provide excellent project management skills, establish a deep and current knowledge of each platform’s unique offerings, maintain a keen eye for compelling and innovative creative concepts, and possess a passion for continuous improvement.”
https://www.candidate.co/refer/90c665b5-e77d-47c0-ab2d-f8416638ee50/312

WISELY
Remote US
Via Tina Glickman in the community:
“Calling all MARKETERS who love the HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY! Team Wisely is on the hunt for talented, wicked smart, creative marketers to add to our growing team! Current roles include a Marketing Coordinator,Sales Enablement Manager (or Sr. Manager), and a Video Content Creator (contractor with potential to transition to permanent hire).”
www.getwisely.com/careers

(St. Louis-based company in healthcare, insurance, and employment)
St. Louis or remote
Via Bob Bishop of Bishop Partners:
“Our Client is privately held, over 35 years old, 400+ employees and one of the most highly respected providers of the professional services they deliver, in the U.S. Perhaps the best part is that their services make a huge difference in people’s lives
UX & Accessibility Designer/Developer
Sr. Digital Marketing Copywriter
Paid Digital Media Buyer

QRY
Remote
Via Orli LeWinter in the community
“QRY is an advertising agency that specializes in launching and scaling consumer brands. Our mission is to “always be people first”, ensuring that we focus on our employees, clients, and customers. We believe in empowering smart people to come up with smart ideas. Come create the future of advertising with us.”
Paid Media Strategist
Paid Search Srategist

ATTENTIVE
United States
“Reporting into the Director of Customer Marketing, this role will guide our customer engagement strategy, ideating, launching and managing campaigns to retain, engage, and grow Attentive customers. The ideal candidate is a customer-centric lifecycle marketer with a track record for delivering programs and touchpoints that drive top-notch customer experience, account growth, and brand affinity.”
https://jobs.lever.co/attentivemobile/dc33a6e3-fd4b-468a-9c8f-bf83b0cd852e

PROTON
Head of Marketing
Cambridge, MA (open to remote)
“Customer-focused and comfortable with managing a fast-growing team, the future Head of Marketing has:
* 5+ years of B2B Marketing leadership experience having successfully built and managed a fast-growing marketing team
* Strong Demand Generation experience utilizing proven tactics to generate sales pipeline through top-of-funnel marketing initiatives
* Proven startup experience, ideally having seen an organization scale from Series A to Series B and beyond
* Familiarity with customers similar to Proton, who are highly discerning and take a longer time to make buying decisions and can be reluctant to implement new technology”
https://app.huntclub.com/jobs/2225?share_token=PcodCfyyr1Yz93evqQdoZGYw

PIVT
Marketing Lead
NY; remote
“Pivt is looking for a Marketing Manager to lead, develop, and execute the company’s marketing strategy. Being an early-stage startup, the Marketing Manager will be required to wear many hats performing strategic, managerial and tactical duties. This role will be the primary point of contact for all marketing related initiatives. The ideal candidate is self-motivated, creative, and willing to continually pursue new ideas to ensure the Pivt marketing effort is effective and intriguing.”
https://pivtapp.com/marketing-lead/

SOCIAL STUDIES
Paid Media Marketing Lead
Remote OK
“Social Studies is looking for a Paid Media Marketing Lead with ~8+ years of experience. Essentially this person has years of experience buying paid media and now wants to be more client facing and help us evangelize what business impacts are possible by pushing influence down the funnel towards performance.”
https://socialstudies.io/careers/?gh_jid=4058540004

DATAGRAIL
Engagement Manager (Customer Success)
Remote US
“DataGrail’s Engagement Manager will be responsible for onboarding new DataGrail customers and getting them to first value quickly and efficiently. You will be the main stakeholder on projects, responsible for the success of enterprise-level software deployments. In order to achieve this success, you will leverage your previous professional services experience, project management expertise, strong communication/written skills, relationship building prowess and conflict management skills.”
https://www.candidate.co/refer/90c665b5-e77d-47c0-ab2d-f8416638ee50/290

WHATNOT
Remote US
“Whatnot is a livestream shopping and community marketplace where you can geek out with collectors and other like-minded people. Whatnot is backed by some of the industry’s best venture capital investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator.”
Senior Partnerships Manager (Emerging Categories),
Partnerships Manager (Sports Cards)

NADA
Head of Marketing
Dallas, TX
Collaborative, well-rounded, and a strong communicator, the future Head of Marketing has:
* Well rounded marketing experience – digital, performance, content, brand, communications
* Ability to lead the vision and execution of marketing strategies
* Ability and desire to build, scale, and managed a team of high performers
* Success in marketing function for high-growth DTC company in a heavily regulated industry
* A strong communicator, comfortable with ambiguity and collaborative nature of high-growth startup
https://app.huntclub.com/jobs/2185?share_token=PcodCfyyr1Yz93evqQdoZGYw

Other job resources:

Advisable: Get instant access to top marketing freelancers
AMA Job Board: Listings from the American Marketing Association (maybe you can also ask them anything)
Beeler.Tech: Job listings for ad operations, programmatic account management, sales operations, and more.
Braintrust: A new freelance platform where you are the owner and where freelance talent keeps 100% of the bill rate.
Built in NYC: Jobs at a range of levels and functions, as long as you’re okay working in this quaint, backwater hamlet.
CareerList: Here’s a form for companies hiring and a form for job seekers; here’s the public list with tabs for both
Content Writing Jobs: Content marketers, enjoy
Creative Women of Color: List yourself in the database and find talent, via Women Who Create
Demand Curve: Growth and marketing jobs
DiscoverTheTalent: An initiative designed to build partnerships with businesses to advocate, train, and hire military spouses
ExecThread: Senior roles spanning a range of verticals and cities; membership is free but fully vetted (this uses my referral ID to get you in faster)
Ex-Equinox Media Talent: A spreadsheet of available talent (permission given by those listed) who are recent ex-Equinox media folks.
Gently Ventures: Helps scale businesses by finding the right talent
GLG: Get paid to share your topical expertise; it can lead to some interesting conversations at a potentially decent hourly rate
Growth Collective: Apply to join this network of notable freelance marketers
Grace Blue Transitions: A portal for hirers and seekers with resources from this exec recruiting firm
The Hired Guns: An array of jobs in marketing and related fields at brands, agencies, and media companies
Hue: Amplifying voices of people in color working in marketing
Hunterz: A way for connectors to get paid to introduce startups to large enterprises
Lead5: A paid service for executive roles, plus intel on changes with companies and PE investments; you can try a risk-free weeklong trial to see if it’s any good for your needs
Lunch Club: Match 1:1 around predetermined goals with accomplished professionals (free)
NYC Ad Jobs & Networking: A popular Facebook group
One Club for Creativity: COVID-19 jobs Board
#OpenToWork: There’s a channel in Serial Marketers where you can share what you’re looking for
Pangea: Where you can hire college freelancers (and college students can get gigs)
Pocit: A platform connecting people of color with jobs in the tech industry
Questions to Ask for a Marketing Role: What questions should you ask when starting a new marketing role or job?
Remotists: Remote startup jobs, chronicled weekly
Sales Hustle Stack: Find platform-based gigs and other creative ways to earn some extra cash
Serial Marketers Job Board: Post regular and featured listings and subscribe for updates.
Startup.Jobs: There’s a section for marketing jobs
Teal Job Tracker: A free Chrome extension to manage and enhance your job search
TechNY Daily: While more technical, there are also some sales and marketing jobs at NY startups.
VC Job Boards: Aleph, Eniac Ventures, Pear, Sequoia, Union Square Ventures
VentureLoop: Free startup job listings; their paid option is $15/month and might surface more leads (but it might not).
Venwise: Submit your job interests here and get in front of their roster of hiring leads; select “Serial Marketers” under “How did you find us”
Wanted: Wanted helps top talent in tech and marketing find a job at your desired pay.

Do you run or enjoy other job listing sites? Let me know, and I’ll share them.

————————————————-
OFFERS
————————————————-

Below are offers extended to the Serial Marketers community. To share your own or access the Premium member discounts, review membership options here.

GPO: Generate at least 20% more organic traffic. Doing a strong job in SEO but wonder if more traffic can be had? GPO will custom-build an AWS instance that will become a subdomain of your site, and generate at least 20% more traffic the first year. Contact Cory Cox in the community to redeem.

ContactSmarter: ContactSmarter is an AI tool that generates over 40% call booking rates without requiring human intervention. More details.

Markman Speaker Management: Get 15% off the half-day customized virtual training session “Get Speaking Engagements” for individuals or corporate staff through Sept. 30, 2021. Contact Steve Markman to redeem.

Thece: Get 10% off their Getting Started Kit — just let them know Serial Marketers sent you.

FocusedFounder
Get 5% back on any bookings of the Focus, Growth, and ReFocus plan. To receive your rebate, please contact me after you book the course.

My Software Tutor
Get a 15% discount on live online classes that teach practical, functional, business-centric Microsoft Office software skills (Excel today, PowerPoint coming soon). Use code SERIAL15 to redeem. Premium members get a 25% discount.

ReverseAds
Get 10% discounts on campaigns. ReverseAds reverses the search ad process, outperforming Google at a fraction of the cost. To redeem, contact Thom Feltz by email.

Northarc Media
Marc Lefton is offering brands a free one-hour consultation on your media mix to show how you can integrate programmatic. For agencies, you can get a free one-hour consultation on how to add programmatic to your service offerings. To redeem, contact Marc by email.

Secret
Sign up and use the promo code SERIALMARKETERS to get 20% off on any membership plan. Membership enables you to access all deals with unlimited usage. One deal should more than pay for itself.

Marpipe
Create an account and start a 7-day free trial for $125 in ad spend credit toward your first experiment with this multivariate testing platform. Redeem here. (Premium members get $175 in credit with a custom code)

Copysmith
Following a 7-day trial of this AI-powered marketing tool to generate ads, product descriptions, and more, use code SERIALMARKETERS for 35% off any plan for 3 months (premium subscribers get 50% off for 4 months).

No Comments

Want to get all the updates in your inbox?

Categories

Archives

Join our community that brings global marketers together!