Erin Balsa

Most people don’t understand a single thing about brand marketing. No, Karen, it’s not about slapping on a new logo or obsessing over "aesthetic vibes" on your website. If you think being a “brand marketer” is all about playing dress-up with fonts and color palettes, sit down—we need to talk. Brand marketing is the difference between people buying your product because they love it versus because they got it on sale. It’s about creating an EMOTIONAL chokehold, the problem/solution, the why, the connection that has customers saying, “Shut up and take my money,” without even comparing prices. Yet somehow, people still call it fluff. They’ll pour money into performance marketing and throw pennies at the very thing that makes all that ad spend actually work: your brand. Newsflash: Your CPC doesn’t mean 💩 if no one remembers your name. Good brand marketing makes you unforgettable. It’s not optional. It’s the foundation. You can’t buy loyalty, but you sure can build it—if you know what you’re doing. So, next time someone calls brand marketing "soft," remind them it’s the reason their customer LTV isn’t in the toilet. 💅 And for the love of marketing, stop pretending you can grow without it. End of rant. 🖤

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5 reasons why your content marketing may not be working today. Your team posts content across channels (LinkedIn post, blog, whitepaper, etc.) But, what you see 😢 : 👎 Low Engagement Metrics 👎 Low /no audience feedback 👎 Declining or Stagnant Traffic 👎 Poor Conversion Rates 👎 High Bounce Rates What does this tell you? Content marketing ≠ Content posting Your content marketing may not be working because: 👉 You haven’t set your upstream (positioning + messaging) right  👉 Your content is not delivering any value to your target audience 👉 Your content is overloaded with ‘me’, and lacks the customer focus 👉 Your content doesn’t follow your customer’s journey 👉 Your channel mix may not be working What can you do to fix it? Coming up soon... #contentmarketing #contentcreation #socialmediacontent #contentstrategy

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Are you producing content that actually contributes to your digital reader revenue model? DRIVE research has found that 85% of articles are what they call 'ghost' articles, meaning they get less reading time than they take to produce.... Assuming that the average article takes 5 hours to produce, less than 5 hours of Media Time would be considered a ghost. According to DRIVE, the average is between 5 - 50 hours Media Time, and the star articles reach 50+ hours. In short, these ghost articles don’t meet the expectations of readers and so don’t contribute to a business’ digital reader revenue model. One solution: implementing user needs models What research has suggested is that publishers are producing too many “Update me” articles (under the user needs model) that don’t perform as well in terms of engagement and conversion rate. Instead, “Inspire me” content, which is primarily positive, constructive, emotional and inspiring, has the biggest impact. According to DRIVE, these are often about people or projects that have achieved something outstanding. Despite being longer and taking more time to produce, these stories have the best Media Time and conversion rate, meaning editorial resources are better invested in these stories than “Update me” content. Two articles to dive deeper into the topic of user needs on The Audiencers: -> Dmitry Shishkin's user needs 2.0 model, explained by Khalil A. Cassimally: https://lnkd.in/eNwuUtV4 -> Lars K Jensen on how implementing user needs is cultural change https://lnkd.in/eK4-Gp-a cc Katja Fleischmann Hendrik Langen

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"This is not mentioned within my job title" 🙃 I promise everyone speaks about having a growth mindset, but only a smaller % of teams actually implement it. I love this post by Vladlena Mitskaniouk, since it's indicating a pure example of silos within the marketing team. That's why I advocate for growth teams or Heads of Growth to come into the role of overseeing the whole strategy and look at building bridges between departments to streamline the communication and improve the overall efforts of all teams with streams of information. Doing growth is NOT just focusing on acquisition! You do need to get your hands dirty and understand a bit of everything to move the needle. Too many people undervalue the role of a generalist/strategist within their SaaS Once again are you a specialist who lifts their hands from the table when the fire comes to your place or embracing to look at the whole picture and start doing proper growth? MarketHackr #growthmarketing #b2bmarketing #marketingops

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Is there a better message than this for a marketer to get? AE Slack message to the marketing team: "I just got off a discovery call for a manufacturing firm. They said they watched the new manufacturing case study. Social proof makes our job much much easier." Woot woot! Sometimes I look at my daily tasks and I get bogged down in the details. Then, you see a message like this and you know. The videos you record matter. The social posts you craft matter. The events and webinars you plan matter. Fellow marketers: keep on crushing it!

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Content Marketing has a PR problem. At least that's what "The State of (Dis)Content" survey is telling me. "[we are] viewed in an org as a service provider, not a strategic partner." "My company refuses to see the strategic role that written content can play." "[When] you also have strategic goals to meet, most of the times the goals are pushed aside for yet another "urgent" ask from sales or execs." Thing is... content is on the front lines of all inbound and bridges the gap between company and customer. So what can content marketers do to become seen as more strategic partners. I've got my own thoughts that I'll share in the final report, but I'm curious to know what you think?

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Here’s a wild thought for all the marketers out there: talk to people. Shocking, I know. But instead of asking, “How do I get customers?” in yet another LinkedIn thread, maybe ask your actual audience what they want. Revolutionary, right? After well over a decade in marketing, I can tell you: Your idea? Not special. Sorry, but you didn’t invent the wheel—you just slapped a new logo on it. What makes you different is execution. It’s not just about having a cool product; it’s how you brand it, price it, and, let’s be honest, how you keep your support team from quitting in the process. And can we stop pretending that optimizing our SEO and hiding behind analytics dashboards will magically bring success? Talk to people. Ask them if your product solves a real problem. And here’s the kicker—ask them if they’d pay for it. (If they don’t, well, good luck.) Also, let’s be real—you can’t do it all. Stop trying to be a one-person startup army. Hire or partner with people who know sales and marketing, or you’ll end up burned out and buried under an avalanche of to-do lists. So here’s the deal: 🔥 Your idea isn’t unique. Your execution is. 🗣️ Stop hiding behind funnels—talk to actual humans. 🛠️ Get help, before you crash and burn. #MarketingStrategy #ExecutionOverIdeas #StartupTruths #TalkToYourAudience #SaaSMarketing

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Marketing efforts falling flat? It might be time to ditch the fluff and rethink your product messaging. No one has time for BS in their inbox. I've seen countless companies rely on vague descriptions and jargon like "innovative solution platform." These terms and phrases are overused and irrelevant. They don't tell us what problem you solve or why we should care. Here are 4 practical tips to craft product messaging that resonates: 1.   Find out what actually matters: Ditch the assumptions and talk to real users. What are their pain points? Uncover their needs and tailor your message accordingly. 2.   No BS:  Be honest, transparent, and authentic. Jargon screams red flag. Focus on the tangible benefits you offer and speak their language, not yours. ️ 3.   Get sales input: They're the ones on the front lines, talking to customers daily. Use their insights to craft messaging that relates to real buying behaviors. They'll be your biggest cheerleaders and data source if they're involved. 4.   Back it up with data: Numbers speak volumes, but make sure they're measurable and relevant to your target audience. Avoid fluffy adjectives and use accurate data points to support your claims. Nothing destroys trust like false promises. Authenticity and value are the keys to winning hearts and wallets. #productmarketing

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I’m gonna mix a little bit of info with a lil sharing. If you know me this is pretty standard behavior. I was chatting with someone about programmatic direct mail and incrementality. When I think of incrementality I think of stickiness vs reach. Showing your ad to a new person is dope, but the data shows that channel diversification is more about breaking through the noise then unlocking a new audience. If you’re spending in the millions there’s a pretty good chance you’re hitting a lot of your target demo on digital channels. Tell me the last 10 meta ads you saw? 5? Tell me one meta ad you saw today? (This brings up another convo of frequency in this evolved digital age but Idk best practices) it takes a lot for something to stick so if you’re going to a new channel for incrementaltiy choose channels that are going to stick. Hence programmatic DM. When you start testing I’d think of it as a lift channel. Part of your lifecycle nurture flow. Test with unconverted audiences and see if it lifts. Then use the lifted to lal for prospecting. Ok the other thing. I was chatting with a brilliant marketer who complemented my posts and it gave me the biggest imposter syndrome ever. I thought about it a bit and I think it’s because all of these posts are the results of failures, experiments, and learning from other great marketers. Plan A has worked so rarely I could count it on my hands. The speedy pivot to plan B, C, & D is the real gold. I’m learning new stuff constantly because I care about marketing (I’m learning about social media right now). I’ll probably suck at it for a bit and then I’ll get good and write something about it if I think it can be helpful. Idk just thought I’d share.

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Marketers, please stop doing this. It’s holding you back as well your company: The best Marketers aren’t the ones who can tell a CEO all possibilities... This is a commodity 👎   The best Marketers do 3 things instead:   1. Show the co. the small subset of things to focus on and why   2. Show the co. the many things to say “no” to and why   3. Build a weekly motion to relentlessly execute on 1 and 2   The best growth people are master Editors and Executors.   Don't kid yourself into thinking you need more.

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Great chat with Mark Kosoglow about who owns lead generation—here's my take on it: We often lump lead generation into a single group, calling them all SDRs. It's HIGH TIME to split the motions between New Logos and Existing Clients. New Logo Hunters This team sits within marketing, campaign-driven to reel in fresh clients. They hunt down and qualify these new logos, then hand off leads to the AEs. The AEs will conduct discovery calls to turn these leads into Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs). The New Logo Hunters are measured on how many leads become SQLs—no fluff, just results. Account Chasers These folks sit with sales, laser-focused on expanding business within existing accounts. They handle the initial outreach and pass the leads to the AEs. The AEs will conduct discovery calls to qualify these leads into SQLs. The Account Chasers are measured on opportunities that turn into SQLs and CSAT because we sure as hell don’t want to annoy our clients. In both cases, the AEs are the ones who qualify the leads through discovery calls, ensuring we’re not taking over and dealing with unqualified prospects. Next post is going to be about content ownership. Don’t miss it. And, heck yeah, listen to the full Podcast and follow the Rebel Sell Podcast—link in the comments.

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👇 Couldn't agree more with this. It seems that there is an ever-increasing amount of content "sludge" at the moment, driven by a "bang it into ChatGPT" mentality. At the end of the day quality rules over quantity. Strategic, well thought out and relevant pieces of content will always win out, giving the customer value that pushes them through the journey. I've yet to see this from an AI-first approach. I'm not some lyddite who thinks AI doesn't have a place in content marketing. As Danny Asling points out, smart content marketers know how to leverage it in the right way. (hint-they don't use five AI prompts that generate a five-paragraph, American English word salad)

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Content marketers who rely on internal subject matter experts (SMEs): You’re doing it wrong. And it’s not your fault. It’s a problem I’ve seen just about everywhere I’ve worked: Blog posts or other assets need input from SMEs from elsewhere in the company (often Product), for background or quotes, or as an entire byline by the SME. But the SME is too busy to help out — too busy to meet, too busy for questions, too busy to review the draft. You Slack them, you email them, and they put you off (“Next week, I swear!”) or even ignore you. It’s not their fault, either. So if it’s not your fault and it’s not their fault, who is to blame? No one. It’s a systemic problem. People who work in Product typically have no mandate or incentive to work with Marketing, while Marketing — by its very nature — has a mandate to work with Product. Here’s how the unavailable SME/pesky mosquito content marketer problem can be assuaged: 1) Make it clear to SMEs that working with the company’s content marketers is part of their job. Put it in the job description. Just one line along the lines of “Serve as an expert resource for Marketing” would do. Even an email to the Product team reminding them that it’s important to support Marketing as an SME helps, or a quick reminder in a team meeting. 2) Clearly convey that there’s something in it for the SME: If their contribution to the content is clear in the piece (or even if it’s not), then they get to brag about it on LinkedIn — never a bad thing for anyone’s career — and list it on their resume. Ideally, both the SME and the company post the asset, and the company prominently tags the SME. (Same thing on the company intranet and Slack channels: Give both the writer and the SME a shout-out.) 3) Make a point of introducing new Content team members to SMEs, rather than just handing them a list of SMEs (or worse, making them figure it entirely by themselves). The Content-SME relationship shouldn’t be rooted in an “oh, by the way…” comms. 4) Corny as it sounds, consider investing in swag just for SMEs. Something along the lines of a hoodie that says, “I’m an Acme SME” recognizes the SME and signals that their contributions are valued. That recognition then encourages others to participate as SMEs. Have other ideas for how to make the SME-writer relationship work better? I'd love to see them in the comments! (Shout-out to Nick Power – your post on how Product and Marketing should work more closely together in 2025 got my wheels turning on what works and what doesn't when the two collaborate.)

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I've been spending the weekends putting together a content marketing playbook I've used over the last 10+ years to generate or support $100s of millions in pipeline. It's still ongoing and probably will never be finished, but I will share some thoughts from this ongoing manifesto. It’s 2024. Goldfish attention spans are certainly pushing the stakes higher. Exceptional content marketing must stand out and be dynamic, personalized, and creative. 2025 content marketing needs to achieve the following (and probably more): Be pitchable: Journalists, writers, and influencers should want to cite your content. Be valuable: Audiences should willingly trade something (even just an email) for your insights. Ask the question: Would you pay for this? Be shareable: People should want to share your content. It should be a conversation piece in community discussions. Be actionable: Your internal team should use it in their pitches, decks, and conversations. They should be seen as the experts! Be impactful: It should directly correlate with pipeline and revenue. It’s a tall order but completely doable if you focus on five types of content: Experience, Community, Peer, and Product. More on the five at a later date. Cheers!

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Unless you test your POSITIONING... You can never respond to data with specifity & optimize your offer to SCALE I can't tell how many biz owners(and copywriters) have NO CLUE about it. And even worse... Most of them NEVER get their POSITIONING right...(well, I'm only talking about business postioning 🤣 ) P.S Check out the first comment to discover how I scale offers with meta ads using strategic positioning P.P.S. Oh, it's linkedin. I should I only pose with shoes and not slippers, right?. lol #copywriter #marketer #alternativeheath #metaads

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I’m surprised folks aren’t talking about this. It’s going to be a big problem. There's a solution. In 2025, everyone’s still obsessed with leads—how many followers they have, how big their email list is, or how many views their content gets. But here’s the thing: A recent study revealed that the average attention span now lasts only 45 seconds. Think about that. You’ve got less than a minute to capture someone’s focus before it’s gone. If that doesn’t prove this is a massive issue, I don’t know what does. It’s sexy to say you’ve got millions of followers, tons of newsletter subscribers, and viral posts. But here’s the hard truth: if you can’t funnel that attention into a conversion mechanism, you’ll never turn it into sales. Too often, people celebrate the quantity of leads they have without asking the real question: How many of those leads are converting? (And when you do ask them? Crickets.) Here’s what more people should be talking about: 📌 ATTENTION ISOLATION This is a concept I coined after 15 years in the marketing game, watching attention spans shrink over time. If you want to build trust at scale, you need to isolate your audience’s attention long enough for them to see you as the solution to their problem. Don’t just focus on capturing leads. Focus on isolating their attention with tools like webinars, podcasts, and newsletters. Why? Because when you’ve got their undivided attention, they’re not distracted by competitors’ content or the noise in their feeds. They’re focused on you. Leads are great, but attention is what drives trust. And trust is what drives sales. What are you doing in 2025 to isolate attention? At WebinarRev, we specialize in webinars and would love to help you turn more of those leads into profits. P.S. Share this with your Director or VP of marketing.

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I get asked a lot about why I've stuck around at HubSpot for so long. It's kind of rare to see that kind of company loyalty these days. I've got my reasons (a lot of them) but one that has a special place near the top of the list is definitely the pace of innovation. I joined about 6 months after the launch of the CRM, a major milestone in the company's history. Since then, I've had a front row seat for thousands of changes -- both big and small. I've seen so many problems arise, solutions ship, and new products and features go to market that it feels like I've worked at 100 different companies. Today, we're coming at you with some of the best work I've seen to date. Introducing: Spotlight 💡 Think of this as your cheat sheet to HubSpot’s 100+ latest innovations. Check out hubspot.com/spotlight for all the exciting details on what our team has been busy working on.

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The backlash against the use of AI in content marketing is getting old. It also screams of insecurity and a fundamental misunderstanding of the technology. Instead of telling companies and marketers why they shouldn't or how they shouldn't use AI, content marketers should be investing their time learning how to use AI to create better content, faster, and at scale. That's where the opportunity lies. Stop wasting energy fighting the inevitable. AI is here to stay, and it will change the content game—whether you like it or not. #contentmarketing #contentstrategy #AI

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