Hey everyone,

I’m a 27F with a B.Tech + M.Tech dual degree in Biotechnology. Realizing early on that biotech wasn't my calling, I pivoted completely into the advertising/marketing space.

I’ve spent the last 3 years working as a copywriter, ran my own brand for a year, and my last role was a Senior Copywriter at a very early stage startup. I started my career at a mere 3 LPA, and I just accepted an offer to join a mid sized SEO agency as a Brand Strategist at 11.63 LPA (this is for in house branding).

I’m feeling incredibly conflicted and a bit down. I was really pushing to touch the 14–15 LPA bracket with this switch, and I can't help but feel like I fell short. At 27, seeing my peers (especially engineering grads) pull in massive packages makes me feel like I’m falling seriously behind.

To add to the confusion, my career graph has a lot of short stints (max 11 months at any organization). Even after accepting this offer, I’m still getting interview calls for Senior Copywriter roles from other agencies, which makes me second-guess myself. Am I making the right call moving into Strategy, or should I stick to Copy?

I want to know if this new trajectory, without an MBA, can eventually help me break past the 30 LPA mark down the line? Or will I hit a hard glass ceiling?

To compensate for the lack of a formal business degree, I’m heavily considering doing one of those 1-year online executive certificate programs from MICA in Digital Marketing/Brand Strategy. Will that actually add premium value to my profile, or is it just not worth it.

I feel like I am banger at creative ideation and conceptualization and copy but the analytical parts of it and digital marketing are my weaker suite.

Would love to get perspective from industry seniors here. How do I progress from here, and what skills should I target next to ensure I'm on the right track? Thanks in advance!

I have 7 years in graphic design/marketing and, most recently, 2 as a creative strategist at a major ad tech company. No bachelor's degree. I have a CAPM.

I can't decide whether to keep climbing in ad tech or pivot to something else (brand strategy, product marketing, maybe even architecture, etc.).

Has anyone faced this choice? What tipped your decision, and does the missing degree matter either way?

Blunt advice welcome.

I’ve chosen a topic for my bachelor’s thesis: “Evaluating the Contribution of Fan Content to the Distribution and Popularization of Media Products in the Digital Environment.”
However, I’m still struggling to understand where to start and what exactly I want to achieve with this research. I can’t change my topic, but now I’m starting to feel like it’s obvious, uninteresting, and has no real practical value. How can I narrow it down to make it more meaningful and produce something genuinely useful with this thesis?
I’m open to all kinds of methodologies. I could really use some advice 😭
What initially interested me was the phenomenon of participatory marketing is how fans pick up a media product and sometimes promote it even more effectively than official marketing campaigns do.

My co-founder and I (a designer and an engineer) are launching our first consumer app. Right now we're using a social scheduler for TikTok and Instagram, a simple website with a signup form, and a lot of trial and error.
For a two-person team with no marketing background:
- Which tools saved you the most time?
- Which ones looked useful but weren't worth paying for?
- Is there anything you'd automate on day one, and anything you'd never automate?

Hey everyone! I am currently working as an ambassador and paid partnerships manager in cpg and have found that it is incredibly difficult to find quality ambassadors. I’m not sure if anyone else has had this issue and would love some advice on how you grew your companies ambassador program.

For some context, the founders of my company think that growing a high revenue ambassador program will happen overnight. They asked me to get 200 ambassadors with the hope that at least 20% would drive at least 1-2 sales…. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. We are sitting around 7% of ambassadors generating revenue. They do not want any coupon sites in the program which I completely understand, but we don’t have much of a brand presence as we originally started out in a very niche market.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Were you able to grow the program and find high earning affiliates?

What are the best value YT videos about marketing, branding, design, marketing psychology... you found out there?

I'm currently learning digital marketing but I'm tired of the slop videos that are out there and I was wondering if there's actually good videos out there worth watching.

I'm interested on marketing, branding, graphic design and logo design, Instagram, and marketing psychology.

Thank you guys!

Hi everyone, I'm planning my music production mentoring program, but I need some help with narrowing down to the "perfect client" thing.

So Allan Dib wrote in his book, that for example a photographer can offer several services, such as: wedding photography, advertising photography, photojournalism and portrait (family) photography but these are very different market segments.

In my mentoring program it will be EDM genre (Electronic Dance Music), which I know the most about. It's kinda big, different and wide audience for aiming it as one audience (Dubstep, House, Bass House, Drum and Bass, Techno etc, all of them are different subcultures). I would like to focus first on bass house music, then dubstep, techno, etc. Are these also very different market segments, as in the case of the example photographer in Allan Dib's book?

Do I understand correctly that I should first narrow my audience to, for example, bass house music, then expand it to bass house and dubstep, etc.? Or should I narrow my audience for bass house music even further to producers who meet certain criteria? And if so, what would you suggest?

I will be grateful for any information, criticism and suggestions.

Is there any best URL shortner which is fast, free or may come up with super affordable cost?

I recently joined a new agency after a year at a large marketplaces integrator, my move was motivated by the need for a better salary and role progression. I work with digital marketing focused on Amazon Ads. At the time I had an offer from WPP (Associate Director) and a smaller Amazon Ads agency as a Senior Advertising Manager. I decided to take the smaller agency role as the salary was better and I was promised to lead a team. After a week in the job, I feel that I made a mistake. The company organisation is confusing, a few people already leaving after a 6-7 months in the company and the team management role I was promised, is really a managing oversees contractors.

Mid-week I reached out to the WPP recruiter and she said the role still open and we will have a phone chat this week. My gut feeling tells me that the best thing here is to course correct and take the WPP role, even if this means burning bridges and leaving after a couple of week. Am I overreacting ? I need a long term position after a shorter (12 months stay in my previous company. Any advice is welcome here.

Hi,

I’m starting a new active/yoga wear but need help and guidance to point me to the right apps, software and promotions. I want to start first with a landing page ( getting buyers info until I do drop) then a regular page.

Consider this as Question & Support.
I’m looking for genuine advice on how to market and sell a single product from my small garden in Simang Valley, Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh.
Our product is Handmade • Organic • Natural • Indigenous Green Tea.
We follow traditional cultivation practices, relying on nature and carefully hand-plucking every leaf. It’s a niche product with limited, traceable batches, and I want to reach people who genuinely appreciate fine tea.
As I’m occupied with fieldwork and cultivation, travelling frequently to different cities for product promotion and display isn’t practical for me. So, I’m exploring the possibility of working with someone who has experience in marketing and can help introduce this tea to premium cafés, restaurants, hotels, lounges, and other HoReCa businesses serving green tea.
My initial focus is B2B, starting with just one Tier-1 city to keep things manageable at this micro-business stage.
I can provide around 100–200 samples for tasting purposes to someone interested in taking up this initiative and helping connect the product with the right establishments. Cities could include Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, or any other suitable market.
I’d appreciate advice on how to execute this idea effectively, find the right person to collaborate with, and generate meaningful results through offline promotion and product sampling.
The proposed B2B price is ₹499 for 50 g of handmade, natural, loose-leaf green tea.
Is this price suitable for premium establishments that value artisanal tea? How would you approach the market, and what would be the most practical way to begin?
My broader vision is to create better market access for native small tea growers and help them bring their fine, natural, and organic produce to people who truly appreciate it.
Any advice, suggestions, or honest opinions would be greatly appreciated.

im an indie dev who loves building and shipping apps and games fast my problem isnt that i dont get marketing basics i just genuinely hate doing it and it drains me completely but shipping to zero users sucks and finding an ambitious marketing cofounder feels utopian rn so how do i actually solve distribution without doing the marketing grind myself

Hey folks,

Well, I need to work in Category management or Trade marketing I have background in sales analytics and studied Marketing. I need to take my next step help me to land a role on any of these roles What to do? Thanks

Every time I open my feed, it feels like the same doom-and-gloom narrative:

• "SEO is dead."
• "Web design and development are dead."
• "Graphic design and content writing are dead.
• "Developers will be dead"

We've all seen the headlines about mass layoffs, where companies cut massive chunks of their tech, marketing, and design teams under the banner of "AI efficiency."

But when I look at the actual ground reality—tracking industry forums, agency performance, and client pipelines daily—I see a very weird contradiction:

• Companies on the ground are still thriving: Dev shops (especially those doing custom apps, software, and AI agent integration), web agencies, and established marketing firms are still bringing in high-ticket clients and generating solid monthly traffic.
• The "Layoff Regret" cycle: A lot of companies rushed to replace human teams with pure AI tools, only to realize that raw AI creates generic, repetitive slop. Now, many are realizing AI without skilled human direction tanks their brand authority.
• Search intent shifted, it didn't disappear: Traditional Google web traffic might be down compared to prior years, but that's because search intent migrated to conversational AI platforms, LLMs, and social search. The demand for solutions is still there; the channels just changed.

My Opinion: It feels less like a "dead industry" and more like an adaptation dilemma. AI didn't kill the demand for human expertise—it just exposed low-effort work while raising the bar for what clients expect. The agencies and pros who pair strong core fundamentals with AI mastery seem to be winning, while the ones relying on old playbooks are struggling.

I’m curious to know where you stand on this: Is your side of the market actually shrinking, or are we just watching the market punish companies that tried to cut corners? What are you seeing in your own workload right now?

Hi!
I have an upcoming job interview and have been asked to prepare a three-minute self-presentation.
I feel confident about the other aspects of the role. However, the job also involves digital content, social media, promotional materials and marketing campaigns to some extent. Although it isn’t a dedicated marketing position, these skills are still required.
Apart from some marketing exposure at school, I don’t have much professional experience in this area, and my CV doesn’t really demonstrate these skills.
The organization is the city’s official tourist information office and has around 150k Instagram followers. Since it works on tourism campaigns, promotional content and various projects, I feel it’s important to show that I could contribute. This is probably the weakest part of my application, and I’m worried it could hurt my chances if I can’t demonstrate my potential.
I have about a week to prepare, and because the presentation is only three minutes long, I’d like to show something practical rather than simply talk about my skills.
How would you approach this?
What would you create or present to demonstrate your potential in such a short time?
I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, so I’d really appreciate any tips, ideas or examples of what might make a good impression.
Thank you so so much! :)

Hi there. I’m a gay man trying to build a cool fitness startup, BUT I am trying to find queer marketing people and it’s so difficult. I refuse to bring on a straight person because frankly, I don’t think straight people are particularly good at consumer marketing. I myself have an amassed enough of a following to be skilled in social media marketing but there’s so much more to it.

For clarification this is not a self promo, I just want to know resources or ways to attract talent not through garbage ai slop on LinkedIn…

So I’m 17 in the UK and starting to think about university but I‘m torn between a few different subjects: Anthropology, Film Studies, Marketing, Psychology, Sociology and Media and Comms. I’m also open to other subject ideas if anyone has any! I already know I’d like to work in film marketing in the future, ideally in audience insights analysing data or something like that.

Marketing is obviously the most straightforward answer and it’s what I feel like I should study however I worry I’ll find it boring as I’m not interested in all types of marketing like social media or data science. To clarify I know I said I want to work with data but I mean I don’t want to be involved in science/maths/spreadsheets, I just want to be given the numbers and asked to analyse what this means and how it can be applied for example to a movie trailer. Also if I decide for whatever reason not to work in marketing because you never know I would be a bit more stuck compared to some other subjects. But at the same time I feel like marketing is the best path directly into work.

What I’d enjoy most is Film Studies, I’ve not studied it before but I just know I’d love it. I do English Literature A Level and since I’m very analytical I‘m good at it and I really like it however I hate reading books so probably wouldn’t enjoy Lit at degree level, but Film Studies is much more appealing to me. If I ever decided marketing wasn’t for me, I’d love to work in film doing script development or something behind the scenes. I also started building a film blog a while back as I really love analysing movies. But I feel like in a way Film Studies is kind of restrictive too if I didn’t like the industry it might be hard to move into more corporate marketing.

Anthropology as well, I‘ve read up about it and it seems super interesting. These are definitely my top two but I worry they’re not relevant enough for my career and are just “Mickey Mouse“ degrees as some people annoyingly like to call it. I know the marketing industry is already competitive so I wouldn't want to lose out on opportunities just because of what I studied. Same with sociology. Media and comms is a maybe, and same with Psychology because I love the social side but not so much the biological/cognitive. But I’d love to hear other people’s perspectives as to whether any of these subjects are an absolute no career wise, or actually a decent option instead of marketing.

But my main question is does it actually matter which one I pick as long as I have a strong marketing portfolio? I definitely also want to do a placement year during my degree ideally in a media company like Disney to build relevant experience. I already have quite a lot of marketing work experience so if I continue to build that would that be enough alongside a non marketing degree?

Thank you for your advice!

I've been building software for a while and I'm pretty comfortable on that side. Marketing is where I'm weakest, and I'd rather learn it from someone who has actually grown a product than from courses.

So I've been thinking about offering this: I build one app for free for an experienced marketer who has an idea they haven't built yet. In return I get to be involved in how they launch and grow it, like sitting in on the plan, the ad tests and the numbers.

For the marketers here, would you entertain something like that? And if you would, what would make it fair on your end? I was thinking we'd put scope, ownership and a revenue share in writing up front, but I'm curious how you'd structure it or if there's a better way to learn this.

P.S. I didn’t start coding by burning tokens yesterday lol my first app was entirely without AI.

was the million dollar give away just to have swing state voters self identify, so republicans could directly market to them? Can you explain how those people would have probably been digitally tagged. tracked and followed up with?

I've been using AI tools to write e-blasts for a healthcare audience and hitting some real limitations. Curious if others are in the same boat.

What does AI get wrong or miss when you're writing for healthcare specifically? And if you could fix one thing about how these tools work for this industry, what would it be?

For those who started a D2C brand from scratch, was hiring a marketing agency worth it?

I’m running a small e-commerce business, and I’m curious whether hiring an agency early on genuinely helps generate more sales and grow the business, or if it’s better to learn marketing and manage everything yourself until you have more experience.

I’d love to hear your honest experiences, especially if you’ve hired an agency when your business was still new.

Would you recommend hiring an agency early on, or waiting until the business is more established? Why?

I'm building an NHI (Non-Human Identity) security SaaS and thinking about how to make market research forms more useful for the people filling them out.

For example, say I ask someone how many NHIs their company manages. They select "I don't know" because they have no clear way to track them.

Instead of showing everyone the same generic thank-you page, what if I generate a response based on their answers?

Something like:

"You mentioned that you don't know how many non-human identities your company uses. That's a common challenge when API keys, service accounts and AI agents are spread across different tools. Our product aims to help you discover these identities and understand what they can access."

The idea is to make the person feel that their answers were actually considered, give them something useful in return and introduce the product only when it's relevant to their situation.

I'm curious about a few things:

• Have you seen SaaS companies do this well?
• Would a personalized response make you more likely to explore the product, or would it feel like a sales pitch?
• Would you prefer a useful insight based on your answers, or a recommendation to try the product?
• Is this worth building, or should I keep the research form separate from product marketing?

I'd appreciate perspectives from people who have worked on SaaS growth, product marketing or customer discovery.

Hey everyone, I’m trying to break into performance marketing, starting with Meta ads.

Last week, I ran a lead gen campaign for a small business and achieved 2.1x ROAS.

I’ve applied to 50s of jobs and internships at agencies and brands, and even cold called them, but got rejected by everyone. As they all want 2-3 years of experience. Classic chicken & egg situation.

If you’re an agency owner, media buyer, or business owner who could use an extra pair of hands on campaigns, I’d love to help out and prove my worth.

Happy to start small. Just looking for an opportunity to do real work and contribute.

I run an early consumer app, about food and everyday health. We're a small team, and I can't keep doing the marketing every day on top of building.

We have a few users, good signal but nothing major yet. We're trying to target both the US and Indian consumer markets.

I'm thinking of hiring a medium-sized agency to run our short videos, creator briefs, SEO, branding, awareness, and app store pages, starting with a paid test and a 30-day pilot.

What I need help with:

• Awareness, branding and distribution
• Marketing strategy and expansion
• Short-form video content
• SEO and our app store pages
• Working with creators

Please share recommendations if any. Thanks.

Hey all!

I’m a Snapchat creator (@goalreelz) with 30k+ followers and 1.6M Spotlight views in the last 90 days.

Viewers are early adults (late teens to early 20s) in mainly English speaking countries.

I’m looking for someone who can help me land brand deals, and I’m happy to give them a generous cut of whatever we make.

If you’re interested, shoot me a DM! I can send over my stats and media kit :)