Ian Barnard
@mixesintheattic
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Marketing strategy and brand management. I write practical advice & deep dives that make you a better marketer.
Toronto
Joined July 2013
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Here are my top Marketing Strategy tweets so far.
(will update throughout the year)
1/ A step-by-step guide to segmentation for any brand in any category
MARKET SEGMENTATION 101
Segmentation is often misunderstood or misused, which is a shame because it’s a vital ingredient in any good marketing strategy.
I’m going to show you how to properly segment any market.
Marketing Strategy Thread 1/n
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Ebay accidentally stopped bidding on $20m of branded keyword searches.
Instead of traffic and sales crashing, all the traffic from paid ads just shifted to organic instead.
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Save this image to your desktop and use it the next time you see a shitty "Marketing 101 🧵" tweet.
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Branded search is... a scam?
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Organic social media is a complete waste of time for 98% of brands.
No matter how good your content is, it will never be able to reach enough people to have a significant impact on your business.
I can prove this using napkin math (1/n)
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MARKET SEGMENTATION 101
Segmentation is often misunderstood or misused, which is a shame because it’s a vital ingredient in any good marketing strategy.
I’m going to show you how to properly segment any market.
Marketing Strategy Thread 1/n
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The eBay chart was taken from this excellent long-form article from 2019.
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Here's another study that contradicts the eBay findings, and suggests that branded search's usefulness depends on market you're in.
h/t
@Shepherd
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The difference between brand and performance marketing in one tweet.
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Buying funnels are the backbone of a marketing strategy, but rarely used correctly.
You need to ditch the generic models and customize them for your company. Here is an example for a B2B SaaS business.
(1/n)
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It’s your first day on the job as the new brand consultant for DoggoTreats, the hottest new D2C startup in Canada.
Do you have what it takes to launch their next big campaign without getting fired?
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3 reasons why purpose is killing brand marketing.
1. Purpose statements are bland by design.
They are built by moving up the benefit ladder from the specifics of a business to generic themes common to all brands in the category. This means they all sound the same.
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Performance ads are great at converting existing demand, but they can never build a big brand because they cannot create future demand.
Understanding this concept is the key to growing a business.
Here's why so many companies and startups can't scale profitably (1/n)
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@tomfgoodwin
Yep. I know a lot of people will scoff because it's eBay, a well-known brand, but the point is that most companies have no idea how much branded search contributes to incremental sales and just blindly spend on it. It's a low-risk test for a potentially high reward.
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Despite marijuana being legal in Canada for 2 years, Canadian cannabis brands are having a tough time getting consumers to notice them.
This is a case study of bad marketing strategy that highlights the importance of strong brand management.
Let’s see what went wrong. (1/n)
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Marketing tip: use reach maps to demonstrate the importance of reaching enough people to have an impact.
Most companies aren't reaching anywhere near enough people - putting this into a chart is a quick way to visualize the problem.
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A few of you sent me an amazing Facebook deck that killed the idea of using engagement as a social media metric. I couldn't find it anywhere on the internet, so I've put it on my site for you to download.
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Pro tip:
@bebornsocial
has the best presentation I’ve ever seen on how brands should use (paid) social to grow their business.
Read it. Internalize it. And start growing your business.
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Most marketing campaigns are not reaching enough people to make a significant impact. You can spend weeks crafting the perfect message and visuals, but if 90% of your potential customers never see it it's a wasted opportunity.
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Most people buy things on auto-pilot.
Instead of carefully rationalizing between products, they use heuristics to quickly decide what to buy.
The most powerful heuristic is, "I've seen it before."
Brand marketing ensures people are familiar you before they're ready to buy.
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Ads that get more engagement and clicks do not sell or persuade more than ads that don't.
Clicks are not a proxy for sales. Ads do not have to be clicked in order to be effective.
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I feel like 95% of B2B brands have a major positioning problem. Everyone's saying the same thing ("saves time/money, easy-to-use, all-in-one"), no-one has a unique point of view or compelling reason to choose them over a competitor. WTF is going on?
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If TV audiences are declining, why does it still deliver 71% of all advertising-generated profit?
Because eye tracking research proves it captures the most attention.
Ad dwell time:
TV = 14s
YouTube = 5s
Facebook = 1.5s
TV ads have x3 longer to get a message into your head.
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Of course that's your contention. You're a performance guy. You just got finished reading about persuasion, Cialdini probably. You're gonna be convinced of that until next month when you research what happened with p-hacking 2021
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Here's how you turn (x1) low-cost online video into a big budget TV/mass-media campaign.
1. Create a 30s hero spot with big brand promise (Awareness)
2. Cut into 15s spots to act as reminders (Consideration)
3. Turn into GIFs or static images and add a CTA (Purchase)
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Big brands grow because they have the resources to chase both in-market shoppers and future customers at the same time.
Performance marketing converts active shoppers.
Brand marketing gets you into the consideration set of future shoppers.
You need both to grow.
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How are you supposed to measure brand campaigns?
The dashboard we use for digital-video has 4 sections that let's you track different goals...
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There are only 2 types of marketers. You need to pick a side.
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.
@Grace_Kite
's concept of Digital Rent is one of the most important breakthroughs of digital marketing.
Understanding the difference between generating and harvesting demand in an online world will change the way you advertise.
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This is a
#marketing
thread about four digital-era myths that are hurting your brand, right now. It's called "Everything you know is wrong".
You can also view it here:
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Just putting this out there: as a jr-ish marketer my main challenge isn't knowing what to do, it's getting execs/clients to agree with me. I'd pay to learn how to sell ideas to managers, especially those not trained or aware of things like Long & Short, How Brands Grow, etc.
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Digital marketing alone will never make you a household name.
It should be every D2C brand’s goal to get on TV.
Why TV specifically?
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Google has a new report on online shopping behaviour.
It’s a meaty and fascinating report with some surprising findings.
Here are the key points and takeaways.
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How to perform on YouTube:
- Start high
- Get subtle branding in first 5 seconds
- Introduce something unexpected
- Tell a longer story that shifts between highs/lows
Credit to
@Grace_Kite
and
@BinetLes
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The single biggest challenge a marketer faces is convincing the client/company to increase the marketing budget. Strategy and tactics come second.
Most SMEs are not spending anywhere near enough to grow.
It's weird you don't see this discussed more.
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The goal of having a brand isn't to increase sales.
The goal of having a brand is to decrease price sensitivity and charge a premium for your product or service.
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Here's everything I know on:
• How PPC kills long-term sales
• Why you need brand advertising to fix it
TL;DR performance ads can't convert 95% of total revenue. You need brand ads to create future demand and profitable, long-term growth
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Why brands grow - is it penetration, or loyalty?
Penetration is the driver of dramatic growth, but loyalty strongly boosts it for larger brands.
Good paper shared by
@bruceclarkprof
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What's the secret to building a big brand?
Big brands know a something that most smaller businesses don't - that most people are future customers.
They don’t know you exist, and aren’t even aware that your product is something they need.
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This is your average B2B buyer. He doesn't know who you are and isn't interested in what you're selling.
You need to get into his consideration set now, so that he thinks of you when he's ready to buy.
That's brand marketing.
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I'm going to commit
#DigitalMarketing
heresy and suggest that branded search is a complete waste of money. At the root of branded search is an idea that Google and every digital ad agency don't want you to understand...
#Marketing
THREAD:
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Repetition > personalization. Say the right thing again and again, so people think about you in the way you want them to.
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POSITIONING 101
Brand values, DNA, essence, personality… They are different words to describe the same concept: positioning.
It sounds easy, but a good positioning statement is surprisingly hard to create.
Here’s how you should do it…
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Strategy is about making choices with limited resources.
Think of it like a FPS - you have limited ammo, and need to decide how to score the most points.
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"Ppl born between 1997-2013 have no stronger connection to each other than to the rest of the country. There’s an entire industry built on churning out Gen Z insights and it’s complete bollocks."
A must-read segmentation article from
@BBHLabs
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Even 1 million followers is a tiny drop in the ocean of most brands' potential customers.
Stop wasting your time on organic social.
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This is such bad marketing advice on every level.
Greg's main points:
- Make products with a social purpose
- Work with creators for broad reach
- Build communities of fans instead of advertising to the masses
Doing any of the above is a recipe for disaster.
Here's why... 🧵
Marketing isn’t a scam
Marketing makes change happen. Marketing makes your creations known
I'll share some tactics & frameworks I use
How to get lucky in marketing in 2021:
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YouTube ads require a different story arc to succeed:
1. Start high (get attention)
2. Introduce subtle brand cues in first 5 seconds (distinctive assets)
3. Introduce an unexpected shift (hook)
4. Cycle through multiple peaks and shifts (hold attention)
Source:
@tomroach
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Pretty much nails it...
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Marketing Strategy for $800:
What's the biggest lever marketers can pull to make their company more profitable?
The answer will surprise most of you... 🧵
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Each month I share the best marketing articles I find.
For June:
- Research on a shoestring budget
@SamuelBrealey
- How to attract your first 1,000 customers
- The future of marketing careers
@colinalewis
- 64 distinct brands
@yesnoum
- Why brands grow
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This is a masterclass in positioning.
@Hublot
CEO Jean-Claude Biver explains how he freed a struggling luxury watch brand from their product and developed a one-word positioning statement that has made them one of the biggest luxury watch brands today.
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We really need a chart that shows different brand priorities and strategies based on company size, maturity and/or growth stage.
Startups → DTC challengers → FMCG giants
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Despite believing that market research is vital, I understand why so many brands are loathe to do it.
Reviewing some brand tracking research done by a huge agency and it's a total mess. No insights, no story, just pages of disjointed data and charts.
Is this normal?
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"Many of my clients have had 30 years to figure out how to improve loyalty but when you look at the metrics, loyalty doesn't move at all."
Real OG marketing knowledge, excellent thread
1 - A marketer said to me "you realize we're trying to improve customer loyalty because it costs too much to acquire a new customer and costs to acquire customers are increasing, causing problems."
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Why do SEO ppl only ever share traffic increases as proof of expertise? Isn't it more important to know if the traffic converted?
500,000 organic visits per month at a bounce rate of 95%, Avg. Session time <30s, and 0 trackable conversions isn't a win.
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Side note, IRL you'd need to conduct market research before starting a segmentation.
More on how to do that here...
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I'm giving away 25 copies of my marketing strategy booklet/manifesto/rant.
DM me your mailing address and I'll send it to you, where-ever you are, for free (while supplies last)!
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Brand marketing has different targeting, messaging and objectives compared to performance marketing.
You need to treat them differently.
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I'm baffled that the most banal advice tweets consistently get hundreds of likes and RTs. Things like "take time for you", or "don't forget to focus on what's important."
What am I missing here?
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How to:
- Visualize your marketing reach
- Analyze campaign impact
- Set realistic goals with clients & executives
- Make a strong case for increasing your marketing budget
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A market segmentation should always be customized to your category and business needs.
Never use generic segments like age, gender or income.
It's lazy, and there's a much better way to do it:
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I read A LOT of marketing articles, and like to share the best of what I find.
This month has articles from
@tomcritchlow
@jdaykin
@clairestrickett
@Grace_Kite
@Slightly_Random
and more.
Subscribe to get these delivered monthly.
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P.S. The best briefing method I've ever come across is the
@davetrott
Binary Brief. If you've ever had to brief an agency, team, or cranky boss, you need to give this a read:
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TARGETING 101
If segmentation is about understanding the market, targeting is deciding where to play within it.
This is the start of strategy - you are choosing what, and more importantly, what not to do.
Here’s how it’s done...
Marketing Thread 1/n
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To get brand marketing that actually sells, you need to position your company around your hidden advantage.
This presentation shows you how to do it.
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Forget Binet & Field, Byron Sharp and Mark Ritson. This is how people really think of brands.
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In other words... Performance marketing delivers short-term results at the expense of future growth.
So how do you convert today AND build demand for tomorrow? Answers here 👇
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I read a lot of marketing articles, and like to share the best of what I find.
November highlights include:
@Grace_Kite
@mrpaddygilmore
@JPCastlin
@bruceclarkprof
@maxslonim
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Here's the problem with ROI...
The Brown Bread company is trading comfortably and is looking for modest growth. The new finance director asks marketing to maximize ROI, and they produce the three plans in the table below.
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Trying to convince clients/CFOs that your marketing budget is too small? You need a market reach map.
- Visualize your marketing reach
- Set realistic goals with clients & executives
- Make a strong case for increasing your marketing budget
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@mrsharma
Agreed, huge red flag! Strategy before tactics, and Facebook ads alone are never gonna build a big brand
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One thing that drove me nuts working in-house was agencies presenting 10+ page campaign reports that had no clear narrative or results.
So now I'm having too much fun trying to make our own reports as succinct as possible.
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Customized sales funnels are powerful tools to help sell your strategy to clients and executives.
They give you hard data to back up projections and tactical recommendations, presented in a way that non-marketers can easily understand.
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@Slightly_Random
Don't use words like brand-building, or long vs. short term. Frame everything around increasing margins, reducing customer aquisition costs, increasing life-time value. Sell them on the dream, then use your theory to make it happen.
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I started a new job in August and have been quietly working on this with
@thecbcagency
team...
We've used this deck to win thousands of dollars of new client business - and now we're giving it away for free!
95% of your customers aren't shopping for products at any given time - so how do you get them to convert?
Check out our FREE guide that shows you how to get big results on a small budget.
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Brand ≠ purpose ≠ position
A brand is your reputation. It's purpose is to make money. It can make more money by eliciting the right associations and emotions in people's heads. Figuring out the right associations and emotions and how to express them is called positioning.
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Brands that can't afford TV usually double-down on performance marketing, which is a huge mistake. You can still build brand on social, but it requires a different approach.
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Proof that no matter how good your organic social is, it will never be able to reach enough people to have a significant impact on your business 👇
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Marketing is multiplicative, not additive.
Poor diagnosis (0) x Good strategy (8) = 0
Bad strategy (0) x Great execution (10) = 0
If you screw up any one stage, you will fail.
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Can someone point me to a good report/deck that shows Engagement is a terrible social media metric? Need something authoritative quick to stop a bad thing from happening...
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Now, we must size out the market and dig a little deeper...
(I show you how to research and segment a market here)
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The answer to everything in marketing is "it depends", but you'll never learn anything that way. You need to be decisive and risk being wrong.
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Most marketing debates are just people with different time horizons talking over each other.
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I'm sick of sleek minimalist web design. I wanna see opulent maximalist sites. Do these even exist?
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A tour-de-force that busts digital marketing myths using digital marketing data.
Highly recommend bookmarking this.
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It's sad looking at the blue check pricing debate and knowing that you could easily solve the problem with a quick Van Westendorp or conjoint. Would take $15k and 2 days.
There's a lack of basic marketing knowledge in tech, it's frustrating.
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Good marketing heuristic: Ask yourself if anyone will dislike or object to what you're doing. If the answer is 'no', whatever your doing will likely have no impact.
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I know we see what we want to see, but I hate influencer marketing so much and this chart makes me happy.
After watching 'Inside Missguided' last night – and seeing their focus on using social influencers – these findings from
@WARCEditors
make for interesting reading.
Only 15% of people who follow influencers say an influencer endorsement drives purchase.
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Why engagement is the worst metric to measure success...
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Everyone says they have a marketing strategy, but how effective is it?
Bad strategies usually share a few common traits.
Find out if your brand plan has them:
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