Shiv Narayanan’s Post

View profile for Shiv Narayanan

CEO of How To SaaS | Marketing Strategy Consulting, Fractional CMO and Marketing Due Diligence Services

Just because a channel is easier to track does not mean it is the more valuable channel. A lot of companies over-index on channels like Paid Media simply because it is a lot easier to connect investment to ROI. Meanwhile, channels that are equally valuable such as content do not get as much investment because the attribution is at times unclear. This is the same reason why some companies ignore more traditional channels (tv, radio etc.), channels that don't have clean attribution (e.g. podcast advertising, influencers) or building a brand through thought leadership (books, podcasts, YouTube). A lot of this pressure to track is driven by management, who want clean reports on all marketing activities. The answer is to educate internally on the value of creating a blended model of channels that are easier to track and ones that aren't so that you're building the best marketing engine. If you become obsessed with the reporting aspect of marketing, you'll eventually be limited to paid search and paid social as your only channels. Don't over-index on reporting. #marketing

  • No alternative text description for this image
Shiv Narayanan

CEO of How To SaaS | Marketing Strategy Consulting, Fractional CMO and Marketing Due Diligence Services

1y

If you've been enjoying my daily drawings on LinkedIn, join my newsletter: SaaS Marketing Simplified. It features bite-sized content on SaaS marketing, growth and strategy sent to your inbox a few times a week. https://www.howtosaas.com/saas-marketing-simplified

Emily Coughlin

Sr. Enterprise Marketing Manager | ITSMA ABM Certified

1y

Is content a channel? I agree people over-invest in channels that are easier to track. Paid media vs. podcast. But content is part of all of those, no? Paid media, podcasts, email, website... they're all vehicles for distributing content.

Camille Trent

Content & Community @ Teal + SaaS Advisor

1y

Content and Paid Media are not mutually exclusive. We recently created a helpful landing page that we mainly distributed via paid search. And it's driving demos faster than it would if we had distributed it other ways. Eventually, it should also rank on its own, but paid media is an effective distribution channel. No reason you can't use it to share valuable content vs standard direct-response ads.

Joshua Leatherman

Chief Marketing Officer | Advisor | Investor

1y

We’ll said Shiv. Another mistake is over indexing on channels that convert best in the attribution model. A common misconception is that a lead converts via certain channels, unassisted by others when in reality conversion channels are often dependent on channels that don’t convert. An example: content syndication provides the double opt-in required for outbound channels to convert, but rarely converts. It would be easy, through a last touch attribution model for example, to discount the contribution of content syndication and divest. In doing so, you directly impact outbounds ability to reach the right audience and convert. Rarely does a lead come in without assistance. In fact, I’ve found the more channels a lead interacts with prior to converting, the more likely the lead is to make it through the sales funnel. It’s a marketers job to communicate and help others understand this complicated process of attribution, but critical.

"It's amazing how much a company can accomplish when you don't care about who gets the credits." Sounds like a dream, but unfortunately reality is the opposite. Companies might never reach their growth potential because measurement systems are set up to incentivize chasing your personal credit over what's best for the company. Brand matters, thought leadership matters, demand matters. "Non-measurable" metrics and channels were a problem for the longest time, but soon, they won't be...

Sayyantann Senn

I guide you to become the most progressive version of yourself | Content Marketer turned Astrologer & Coach | 25x Author | Research Scholar

1y

The qualitative stuff always gets the beating. What can be measured easily is the best bet. But once the qualitative is taken care of, the quantitative aspect also improves drastically. In marketing, when long term focus on content is pursued deliberately with incremental increase in paid ads, we will soon discover the best vantage point.

Like
Reply
Carrie Zhang

Head of Strategy & Marketing

1y

All engagment through whatever channel is built fundamentally on content. Content itself is not a channel. It's the 'what' for 'where' (channel)

Anna Furmanov

I start up marketing at startups using the MaaS Method | host of Modern Startup Marketing podcast

1y

your content strategy is made up of 1) the actual content 2) distribution channels so I wouldn't place "content" vs. "paid media" on the same chart like you did there. To figure out the value of your digital content efforts check out my podcast recording here >> https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/100-100th-episode-how-your-digital-content-becomes/id1534533276?i=1000569600216

Like
Reply
See more comments

To view or add a comment, sign in

Explore topics