The small-ish company I work for hosted its annual board meeting last week. On top of being a marketing team of one, I'm expected to partially plan these meetings and act as secretary to record meeting minutes, action items, etc. and share with board members after. The director of a particular initiative I have crafted a marketing strategy for spoke about the initiative's progress and, to my surprise, his talk was focused almost entirely on how it has been marketed completely wrong during my tenure with the company. Supposedly people have approached him saying they aren't interested in the initiative because of how it's being marketed online. My supervisor agreed with him that the marketing was wrong too.

I have had conversations with both the director and my supervisor about how we communicate about and market this particular thing. Apart from a few small wording tweaks, neither of them said to me that he thought I was marketing this initiative the wrong way. The director never shared with me that people have told him they don't like how it's marketed online. My supervisor and I have check-in meetings every week where I share strategies and progress updates but she has never told me she felt this way. The board, director, and my supervisor tore my work apart for an hour and I had to take notes on all of it in the back of the room. I spent the rest of the meeting wanting to crawl into a hole.

I'm feeling incredibly defeated about being blindsided like this. I have 10 years of experience under my belt and have been at this company for a year and a half. Based on the data I've collected and shared in all-hands meetings, it's clear that I've been moving the needle in meaningful ways at this company. My coworkers and other directors often tell me to my face that I've stepped the company's game up and that I'm doing great work so this was a total shock. I'm starting to question all of it and my place at this company.

What does this mean for me and my future at the company? Do I need to start looking elsewhere or is this normal? Am I overreacting?

My understanding is that consultants or freelancers with
- complementary service offerings or
- same services but different geographies
come together and work as a "collective", so they essentially have the same value of an agency but retain their autonomy.

Conceptually it sounds great, mutual growth and everything. But in practice, idk how messy it can get. Lots of points of friction and lots of points of conflict.

So here's asking, are you or have you ever been a part of anything like this.
If yes, how well does it work in practice?

Hi all, I wanted to reach out and seek clarity on how to best position my experiences and skills when applying for a role outside my current industry. I work in Digital Marketing at a bike shop. For clarification: We have a local shop but are also a national dealer with a strong e-commerce focus. We are one of the top dealers in the nation of a very niche cycling product.

I have been here for a year and a half and have a year and a half of experience prior to that working in part-time roles for other local businesses doing social media strategy. I want to apply for a social media role that recently opened up at a very large B2B insurance company in the area.

I’m wondering - both in applying for this job but for others as well - what would be the best way to position my experience that makes it sound like I’m more than just someone who worked at a bike shop. Should I write up case studies for my portfolio that emphasize strategy and process?

I guess I’m kind of having imposter syndrome about this given how different the two industries are from each other but I do not want to work at a small business forever.

Does anyone actually believe this?

The author seems so insistent that because some data points show that consumers are using AI in their purchasing decisions, they’ll eventually offload all of the decision making to an AI, and when that does, a marketeer will no longer exist because the role of brand comms is to illicit an emotional response from humans.

I think it’s nonsense personally.

I’ve been working at a B2B distributor for several years now, and 99% of my job is editing PDFs for people, registering for trade show booths, and putting products on a colored/textured template to sit on our socials page and get 5 likes. Any idea outside of the box and mildly modern is completely shut down and looked at as a waste of time. Examples:

-posting on reddit in addition to Facebook/linked-in
-filming fun, engaging short form content
-high effort lifestyle product shoots
Etc.

I got into this field as an artist, and now even the rare poster design is just being done with AI, often from people outside our department!

I don’t know if I want to be in this field anymore.
If I can’t be creative, and the pay/job market sucks, what is the point?

Considering switching to sales, and being creative in my free time. At least then I will know my worth and be compensated for it. Thoughts?

These two are a pair that deliver on each other and find a way to grow since they were kiddos.They put out a product made with love. ❤️

Hello! I was laid off 3 months ago and and am in a kind of unreal feeling situation, I have two job offers, both with pieces I am excited about. The social media manager position pays more (by 30k) but I would have to be in-office 4 days a week, it seems slightly less well managed, but the scope of the job is much more narrow.

The content strategist position really feels like I would be doing a bit of everything and would be paid much less. It is also in person 2 days per week and is closer to where I live now, so less travel. The team also seems really tight, and they have so many people who have been there for years and speak highly of it despite the low pay.

Both are with companies I am excited about the mission of.

I am very future focused, and eventually want to be in management--for anyone in marketing especially, which position would you take and do the titles help or hurt me in any way and my desire to move into management or lead positions in the next 2-3 years?

Hey everyone, does anyone have experience with marketing in Germany, or in the EU more broadly, especially with HubSpot and double opt-in for email marketing?

Here's our situation: we get leads through lead magnets, but a lot of them never complete the double opt-in, so we can't send them any emails. In HubSpot specifically, almost nobody confirms our DOI email. We do have marketing contacts and leads based on legitimate interest (for example, webinar sign-ups), but without a confirmed opt-in we can't run nurturing campaigns or anything similar.

It's pretty frustrating, and we're losing a lot of leads because of it.

How do you handle this? Any tips for getting more people to confirm, or alternative approaches that are still compliant?
Thanks in advance!

I’m a marketing generalist who has spent the past few years in music/live entertainment and I’m looking to leave that specific industry (7+ years of working 12+ hour days and weekends is enough for me). I have experience working in (briefly) higher ed, a bit in F&B/hospitality, and then a decent amount in non profits (worked at one that had a music/arts component).

My resume is kept pretty general, showcasing achievements like “drove $X in revenue,” “increased engagements by X%” etc. and all the things the job descriptions ask and want from a candidate.

I feel like when it’s a different sector, they want people who already have experience in that sector regardless of skill set and achievements. Anyone got advice or examples of how they’ve pivoted sectors these days in this highly competitive market right now?

Bear with me, it's been a wild ride, and I've been working since 4am.

1.5 years ago I was Regional Marketing Manager handling big picture marketing strategy & execution for the #1 sales teams in the company, working with our in-house National Marketing Managers, Project Coordinators, and Designers to bring ideas & large-scale campaigns to fruition. I was in that role (worked my way up after 2 promotions) for 8 years.

Then a very large, well-known company bought us, and luckily, I was 1 of 3 marketers of many that were chosen to move to the new company (with a lovely $35k pay cut, title change, and literally nothing to do at the new company.) I am used to being a high producing creative who thrives on seeing results, so after 3 months of literally building LEGO while WFH and waiting for any assignment or direction at all, I got a job as Marketing Coordinator with people I knew from my old company.

Problem: Boss has never managed a dedicated marketing person in 25+ years - even at the old company - and knew my extensive background. In her ChatGPT job description, running events and some design was listed. No problem, I used to design a few social posts here and there and have run large scale events (2 per year) previously.

What I did not know is that 14 months later I'd have personally coordinated, written copy, designed assets for, handled digital promo, and more for over 80 events. 80 events. I am a team of 1.

I am not a designer, but 80% of my time is spent taking orders for various random events that I cannot effectively promote or track the effectiveness of because I do not have time to. I get an event request, write copy, design 2-3 assets because I'm a personal Etsy shop so everything has several rounds of revisions, handle compliance, schedule & deploy event promo... I
am one person. Right now I have 12 events I have not started that expect several deliverables before December.

I hate marketing now...mainly because I am designer against my will. I am not proud of anything I do because it's so half-baked, uninspired, there's no strategy or way to track ROI, turnaround times are not respected, and there are no boundaries. I'm so disappointed that I'm no longer interested in my morning ritual of researching and reading about platform updates, newer marketing tactics and strategy to bring to my team...because I've also personally designed, written copy for, and scheduled over 10,000 social posts on 19 different channels in the background while also designing cutesy bullshit in Canva for 80+ events in 14 months. There is no time for anything but taking orders and spending my day in Canva.

A marketing assistant was recently hired without my knowledge, and I was told after the fact that they were here to help me. I could delegate as needed. Let's just say they have a very close relationship with my boss, and have no marketing or design experience, and absolutely zero experience in the niche field we are in. I do not have time to train this person, and yes, I have brought this up multiple times. I have always hired my own assistance in the past and this never would have been a hire I'd make. But that was when I was a regional marketing manager, not a marketing coordinator.

TLDR: Has anyone had experience working for a non-marketing manager who does not have realistic expectations or a realistic outlook on what effective marketing is; and/or who did not set boundaries with sales staff from the get go, so they just keep piling things on until you rage quit? And now you hate marketing because you're no longer doing proper marketing?

There's more but this is already too long, and I'm sure many of you are as burned out as I am. 😂

I am also interested in any advice about how to handle this, along with anyone who has successfully pivoted away from marketing completely due to once loving it with a passion to now dreading logging on every morning.

My CMO is obsessed with the idea of having a "really really cool" activation at all of our events that draws a crowd. He's looking for something that stops someone, gets them to line up, and is repeatable at every event we go to.

I'm gathering ideas.. what's the coolest thing you've seen and/or you've wanted to do?

Help a dude out. Please.

Chipotle sending out push notifications, emails, and social media posts pushing their FAMILY MEAL with the word ass… what do you think? Could this copy ever get approved at your company?

The job market is flooded with listings like this. That’s a lot of required experience and responsibility for $15 an hour. Please tell me I’m not crazy

Hi, so I've been doing consulting projects for 4ish years now, and I find it fulfilling. I have always wanted to do pro-bono work, but I definitely was not stable enough myself to be able to do it any justice.

After years of this, I am finally at a place in my career where I have the bandwidth, and the resources right now to be able to do this.

Since I work in the South-east Asian and Middle-east markets, now also feels like the right time.

With the current situation, rising costs, and geopolitical conflict, a lot of business owners are struggling to keep up. I want to help, and I know I can, but it obviously feels weird to charge them anything!

I have offered pro-bono services to a couple of them, already, that I was speaking with. But they refuse on principle, both because they don't want me to do "free work" and also because they don't think of themselves as needing help. I understand both sentiments.

So I thought I'd ask peers here...

If you do pro-bono work, and it's been working out, I am curious to know - what has your experience been like? What structure do you use so it works for both of you? And are there any pitfalls to it, or any reason that you think it's not a good idea?

-

For more context:

I still work as an individual, and engage partnered agencies and freelancers, as and when the project requires one. So, I am a little worried about over-extending myself since I may not apply the same cappings as I do with other clients. I'm also looking for a structure that makes my founders feel empowered, and not weak or like "charity cases". Those are my main 2 concerns right now.

I work in 12 countries right now (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal), so that's the best way to operate as of now.

Sorry for the long post! Any and all tips are welcome, and I absolutely invite stories or reality checks from your own experiences.

I think most marketers deal with the "everyone has an opinion on marketing"...

But with the rise of AI, I'm getting full AI generated marketing plans/ideas from sales, and then being asked to implement them.

How do I set boundaries/push back without it making it seem like I don't want to collaborate or that I'm unwilling to share the LEGOs, so to speak?

I’ve built a fairly large audience through aesthetic lifestyle content like cozy home videos, cooking, cute drinks, cafés, and daily vlogs. However, I also love makeup, beauty, fashion, and modeling, and I want to become known personally rather than just for my aesthetic content.

I created a separate account for my face, beauty, and fashion, but now I’m unsure whether to keep both accounts or combine everything. I’m worried that mixing cozy lifestyle content with makeup videos, fashion, and more personal content might make my main account feel inconsistent. I also don’t want to lose the audience and identity I’ve worked hard to build, but I also don’t want to limit myself creatively

The content overlaps a lot, too. Where would things like daily vlogs, beauty treatments, shopping, and café visits go? Those clips are of me and related to beauty, but they’re also my life and lifestyle

i also had thoughts like, if someone asks for my social media, which one do I give out? Which one is me? Which is my main account?

I’ve been going back and forth on this for so long that I genuinely don’t know what makes the most sense anymore it’s stressing me out😭

i really appreciate any ideas and opinions!

​

Hi

I’m not looking for judgment about the client or my skills. I genuinely want to understand how other people would handle this situation.

I have a client who provides ongoing operations consulting to businesses. My monthly package is around $500 and includes LinkedIn content writing, scheduling and publishing posts, and lead generation.

The lead generation side is where I’m struggling.

The client has a very specific ideal customer profile. They want businesses within a particular geographical area, specific employee count ranges, certain industries, and particular job titles.

The problem is that the target area is relatively small, and a lot of the people who fit the criteria have inactive LinkedIn profiles. I’m trying to find qualified prospects who are also active enough on LinkedIn for outreach to make sense.

Finding these leads manually can take me around five hours, and I’m expected to provide a set number every week. I also can’t currently justify paying for Sales Navigator because the monthly cost is significant relative to what I earn from this client.

We’ve discussed the difficulty of finding suitable prospects, and the client seems open to flexibility. However, I’m not sure whether I’m communicating the limitations clearly enough or whether I need to approach the strategy differently.

One solution I’m considering is expanding the geographical targeting to the wider UK and slightly broadening the company size criteria while keeping the relevant industries and decision maker roles. That would give me a larger pool of potential prospects without completely changing the ideal customer profile.

My questions are:

1. If you were managing this account, would you expand the targeting and present the findings to the client, or get explicit approval before making any changes?

2. How do you handle situations where a client's ICP is so narrow that finding the agreed number of qualified leads becomes very time consuming?

3. Would you prioritise strict ICP fit, or include prospects who are a slightly less exact fit but are more active and reachable on LinkedIn?

4. Is manually researching this many leads reasonable within a $500 monthly package that also includes content creation and publishing?

5. How would you communicate that the current targeting criteria are limiting the available prospect pool without making it sound like you’re making excuses?

I want to do good work and use my time effectively, but I also don’t want to keep going back to the client for approval on every small adjustment when I’m supposed to be bringing strategic input to the project.

Basically I'm looking for agencies that tie their success to the success of their customers

Have you personally ever scanned a sticker with a QR code or manually searched the URL on that sticker?

I’m trying to ascertain the efficacy of them. It seems mixed. But I’m still uncertain.

I’ve personally never scanned one. But I wonder if I’m in the minority.

Do people think it might corrupt their files/steal data?

What’s a more effective sticker strategy?

So many questions, so many unexplored answers.

Good morning guys and gals,

First , thank you in advance for reading and this and partaking in the discussion.

I was curious to your guys experience and advice for career advancement in marketing. I have been a senior account manager for a marketing agency for 1.5 years in my current Role, with verticals in home services and education. Before this, I did a lot of freelance work with finance groups and held temporary positions for travel companies.

In my current role, I am essentially being outsourced as the ‘marketing department’ for entire businesses. This forces me to upskill fast, which has been a bit easier with AI help. I cover all bases, from social media, advertising, SEO, referral marketing ; to the heavier, more technical work, like automations and CRM development (and, recently, building custom agents for various tasks). No doubt I’ve learned a lot in the last 1.5 years. That being said, my best strength is still my social abilities - working with clients, building relationships, taking the lead on strategy and organization.

A few clients have asked to come work for them, and some even to join them as they make their own ‘agency’. I politely turn these down as my position is fully remote and I love my team.

But I am looking at where I can advance my career. I see director roles hiring and my skills match up really well - but sending resumes over indeed and LinkedIn is like pouring a droplet in the ocean. I get a lot of callbacks for the city I live in, but nothing outside of it. So I’ve been narrowing in on roles in my city.

Do you guys have advice for getting to director level roles? I’ve never managed staff, probably my biggest weakness, but I’ve been part of huge growth for companies on my own, with several clients hitting $1 million in revenue in one month - always a fun goal influenced by a little luck. Overall, I’ve been working in-n-out of marketing over the last 15 years, with a decade of freelance work where my main career was guiding.

Curious to yal’s experiences and insight.

I hate social media and using it but I understand if I will have to use it during working hours. How do you balance this if you won’t use it outside?

I’m a 12-year copywriter turned strategist and campaign manager. I’ve worked agencies and client side. I love what I do because I get to use my brain (sometimes).

Coincidentally I’ve been laid off three times in the last six years, now potentially looking at my fourth as a new CEO and CMO step in and are now requiring that all our work go through them.

I’m not mad at what they’re asking. I don’t care. I honestly think it’s for the best. And I’ll do whatever they want to keep a job after my last layoff took almost 9 months to find a new one.

But is this what I have to look forward to for the rest of my life and career? I’m twelve years in and have the worst work related ptsd you could imagine. Every time I get comfortable or secure I have to start over. Every time I have to drain my savings. Every time my family and I go into fucking survival mode just to make ends meet and I’m absolutely sick of it.

Thanks for letting me rant, but I’m also looking for advice. Is this really what I have to look forward to no matter where I go and what I do? Because if so it’s time that I start over in another career. I just can’t take the threats and the fear anymore.

I have a mid-sized B2B Saas and have been able to get inbound leads with ads, but it's getting increasingly expensive. I know as soon as I stop paying for ads, the leads are going to stop so I'm looking for ideas from other B2B companies who are generating inbound demand outside of simply increasing ad budgets.

Does anyone here have unconventional channels or other ways you've been able to generate demand?