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COMING AT YOU THE WEEK OF 2.14.23

THIS WEEK’S MOST IMPORTANT MARKETING NEWS

TWITTER NOW SHARES AD REVENUE WITH CREATORS

You’ll only see ad revenue if you’re verified. Youtube did something similar with their Partner Program. Plus all legacy Blue Verification check marks will sunset in a few months. There are new requirements to get verified.

TIKTOK INTRODUCED MORE WAYS TO BOOST YOUR ORGANIC CONTENT

Did you know that promoting organic content helps improve overall paid ad performance? Yup, and that’s why TikTok just launched a new way to boost your ROAS by getting your content in front of more people.

TWITTER MORE WORDS ANNOUNCEMENT

You can now post Tweets up to 4,000 characters, up from the current 280 characters. But that’s only for verified Blue subscribers. We’re not sure if this is a good idea or not since Twitter’s original focus was on being short and sweet. Only time will tell.

FACEBOOK ROLLS OUT NEW COMMENT MODERATION TOOLS FOR CREATORS

Checkout your FB Professional Dashboard. There’s a bunch of new features to speed up your group and page management. Search comments by keywords, find commenter by name and date, take bull actions like hiding or liking, and lots more.

USEFUL LINKS

GROWING UP NEWSLETTER

Ok, this one is for my SaaS and software marketers. Brendan humble-brags that 78% of his subscribers read each email he sends out. That’s wild. But it makes sense because his emails share the results of the regular survey he sends to 600 SaaS marketers asking them what they’re doing that works (for their marketing and career tactics). So if you don’t want that, I don’t know what to do with you.

TWITTER MIGHT CHARGE BRANDS $1,000 / MONTH FOR GOLD CHECKMARK

That’s per organization. They might also charge an additional $50 per employee / affiliate associated with your org. This isn’t official but something like this is on the horizon. What is official is that a gold check mark isn’t worth the 1k.

TIKTOK IS MORE ENGAGING THAN YOUTUBE, META IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE

If you’re wondering where to spend your time on social, look no further. This post reveals the cold hard facts about cost, users, time spent and lots more. Thanks Matt for putting this together for us.

GOOGLE ADS PRIVACY HUB HELPS YOU MEASURE PERFORMANCE MORE EFFECTIVELY

This isn’t a new feature in the ad platform. It’s homework. Get reading and stay up to date with the latest privacy changes, learn how to level up your business strategy and get your questions answered.

GOOGLE SEARCH’S GUIDANCE ABOUT AI-GENERATED CONTENT

With AI content taking the world by storm, how do you know where you should pour your time, money and energy? Google’s new article outlines how they reward content, however it’s produced. Hint: creating MORE content FASTER is NOT the solution.

FOIL CHARACTERS FOR YOUR BRAND

FOIL CHARACTERS FOR YOUR BRAND

Remember that early moment of Harry Potter when Draco is sneering at Ron and says, “Some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there.” And Harry in that quick wit of his that’s much more obvious in the books than in the movies says, “I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks.”

And boom. The Harry-Draco rivalry is born. And throughout the entire series, we often learn about who Harry is as we learn about who Draco is not.

A FOIL CHARACTER’S PURPOSE

Maybe in one of your English classes you learned the term for characters like Draco. They’re called foils. A foil character often mirrors another character in certain ways. Like how Harry and Draco are in the same year at school and they both play quidditch. But ultimately, the foil character contrasts the other.

Their key characteristics act to make the other person’s traits even more apparent. Draco’s pride in his monetary wealth makes Harry’s humility more pronounced. Draco’s cowardice makes Harry seem even more courageous.

BRANDING THROUGH CONTRAST

Brands can have foils too. Think of Walmart and Target or Etsy and Amazon. Most organizations don’t have such an obvious, contrasting brand. But identifying contrasting organizations or opinions can be a great way to clarify your values. It can also create more connection between you and your audience.

Scratch: How to Build a Potent Modern Brand from the Inside Out talks about this idea. The authors say, “Sometimes, it helps a brand to have a foe. This can be another brand, cultural ideas or beliefs, in general. What are you against? What other brands are your “philosophical” enemies?”

Here are some things to keep in mind as you leverage this idea.

SOME EXAMPLES OF BRAND FOES

Target vs Walmart

Walmart largely focuses on the bottom dollar, which results in nice prices but also gives their stores a kind of wilted-flower vibe. Target embraces the 🛍 joy of shopping 🛍 instead. At Target, you’re much more likely to buy something for fun—to indulge—whereas at Walmart you’re grateful that what you need is coming to you at a low price.

Patagonia vs Irresponsible Consumerism

Patagonia focuses on building products that last long. They’ve done things like cancel Black Friday to give employees a day in nature. They’re a great example of increasing their connection with their customers by having a clear foe.

Highrise vs The Marketing Brew

I’m declaring our brand’s foil The Marketing Brew because the info in those newsletters is not easy for marketers to apply to their day-to-day marketing and in general I find myself finishing their newsletter wondering, why did they talk about what they talked about, how am I suppose to use that, am I stupid for not understanding their articles, and why were the resources they gave useless? I don’t like to assume the worst of other people’s hard work, so instead of assuming that newsletter is total garbage, I’ll hope that there is just another group of marketing professionals that get something out of their content and I’m writing to a different group. One that likes clarity and obvious helpful stuff.

THE NATURAL ORDER OF DISSEMINATING BRAND VALUES

As you identify brand foes and work to use that to tighten/define your brand, remember this pyramid.

Internally know your brand foe → Customers know your brand foe → Sales qualified leads know your brand foe → Marketing qualified leads know → the world knows.

– Hayley

INTERESTING STUFF