Mediaboss Marketing

Whether youre a global technology brand actively growing your stack through acquisition or a private software-as-a-service (SaaS) company looking to steal market share and create new categories, its never been more important to have strong product marketing that sits at the intersection of your product, marketing and sales functions.This is especially true because nailing market fit and product adoption right out of the gate will make or break software companies in categories full of innovation and competition.

Even today, product marketings fit within an organization can still be described as unusual or hazy. Its not quite sales or product, but its not quite classical marketing either. However, when done correctly, product marketing can elevate all three: marketing, sales and product management.

Working in the product marketing function myself, I have five bold predictions for the next evolution of the product marketing role, its impact and career path predictions I believe well start to see this year.

Product marketings impact will transition from conceptual to empirical.

In 2020, well no longer see the days where product marketings impact was considered a volume play. Rather than lazily focusing on the number of campaigns, products launched or resources built, product marketings metrics will span the entire intersection of product, marketing and sales. The ultimate indicator of success will be product adoption and customer retention.

These are two metrics with values that anyone could understand. And they ultimately point to the fact that the capabilities were positioning and launching have market fit, are driving demand, are understood by sales and are being bought by prospects and customers.

Product marketing will drift further away from traditional marketing.

As an intersectional role meant to incorporate and unite multiple disciplines, product marketing doesnt truly win unless all three functions it supports do. Product needs its capabilities effectively positioned and adopted. Marketing needs context and content to fuel programs to meet its demand metrics. And sales needs training, tools and intel to close new business.

If thats the case, reporting to just one of these functions may not make sense. Is it possible to be fully accountable to three different divisions? Is it reasonable to report to three different bosses? Im still not entirely sure. This is where the product marketing role begins to enter truly uncharted waters. But ensuring 100% alignment with these three areas of the business is going to be mission-critical, as products continue to deploy faster, needs become more complex, sales becomes more competitive and executive and board-level expectations continue to increase.

Product marketing will begin to develop its own subspecialties.

The idea of marketing specialists isnt a new one in fact, youll find them across virtually every other marketing function! Under demand generation, youll find growth marketers, events marketers and field marketers. On traffic teams, youll find writers, back-linkers and technical search engine optimization (SEO) experts. And strong creative teams are made up of copywriting, graphic design and web design pros.

Expect product marketing to follow suit, especially as resource investment and head count increase. Eventually, it wont be uncommon for product marketing teams to be organized by discipline rather than product, with some product marketers specializing in tactical product launches, while others focus solely on value messaging, persona and market analysis, or resource creation and enablement.

Product marketings path to the C-suite will become clearer.

Its anecdotal, but product marketings path into the C-suite has felt hazy. And even today, its far more common to see chief marketing officers (CMOs) with traditional demand generation and brand backgrounds in the role than product marketers themselves.

There are a number of reasons for that. Brand marketing is the most visible part of a company, and demand generation is the easiest to measure and most closely tied to revenue. All are good reasons. But perhaps product marketings direct path to CMO is still less common because CMO isnt actually the most natural C-suite seat for product marketing!

The emergence of the chief experience officer (CXO) role offers similar intersectionality to product marketing, focusing on every single customer and using related touch points across a companys journey. The role is gaining traction. Its been reported (subscription required) that three-quartersof executives see improving customer experience (CX) as a high priority. With many companies establishing a C-level position to oversee CX, we may soon reach a point in business where its accepted that every company needs a CXO.

The next generation of marketers will choose product marketing.

While its common for many product marketers (including myself) to have fallen into the path by chance, this will soon cease to be the case. I believe the next generation of product marketers will choose product marketing.

Once the great unknown area of modern marketing teams, product marketing is finally getting its time to shine. The launch and growth of the Product Marketing Alliance, industry awardsandglobal influencer lists have provided recognition like never before. Its now only a matter of time until these product marketing leaders get promoted into the C-suite and take full ownership of their brands marketing and experiences.

This increase in awareness and influence is likely to catch the attention of up-and-coming marketing generalists as they prepare to choose a track to specialize in. And it should inspire the next generation of product marketers to raise the bar and push the profession to new heights.

More:
Five Reasons 2020 Will Be Product Marketing's Breakout Year - Forbes

According to the Rosenberg Survey, revenue growth, at 7.7%, is up from last years 7.0%. Larger firms lead this trend, with higher growth rates than the smaller firms. What do you make of this?

Its encouraging to see this year-over-year lift in accounting firm revenues. Hinges own study of over 240 CPA firms, conducted in late 2018 and early 2019, agreed with the Rosenberg Survey, finding the profession took a similar rebound after hitting a four-year low the previous year (http://bit.ly/2OdhXKI). Will this upward trend continue? That may depend on whether the United States can extend this streak of economic growth.

While a growth rate of nearly 8% is great news for the profession, its important to put it into perspective. Historically, accounting and finance has underperformed all other professional services sectors, and last year was no exception. TheExhibitshows the median growth rates for four key professional services sectors over the past four years.

Median Growth by Professional Services Sector

Every year, the accounting sector consistently lags other industriesa trait we have noted for at least the past decade. We see three important factors behind this phenomenon. First, the accounting profession spends less on marketing than other professional services. Accounting median marketing budgets are tied for last with law firms in the professional services sector. Second, accounting firms have traditionally focused on compliance-oriented services. These are services clients undervalue and strive to minimize. Third, and more speculative, is accountants supposed aversion to risk. Whereas tech firms have to make risky bets to remain relevant in a fast-changing industry, accountants are often seen as more conservative. As any investor knows, riskier investments have higher potential upsides. Most CPAs seem comfortable with lower risk and lower returns.

Organic growth grew from 4.3% to 5.9%. Does this prove that the accounting profession is really cultivating a focus on business development?

Mergers and acquisitions have high failure ratesbetween 70% and 90%, according to Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Alton, Curtis Rising, and Andrew Waldeck (The Big Idea: The New M&A Playbook,Harvard Business Review, March 2011,http://bit.ly/34XzPQg)so organic growth can be a safer way to build an accounting practice over time. If CPA firms are indeed focusing on business development fundamentals, it will only make their organizations more resilient in an economic downturn.

Hinges ongoing research into high-growth firms provides some insight into how accounting firms are starting to approach new business development. High-growth firms do more content marketing, invest more in training their experts in business development skills, and leverage powerful digital techniques like SEO and social media more than low-growth firms. In short, they are making their expertise more visible in the marketplace.

Income per partner was $470,000, 6.6% higher than the prior year. Growth in profitability (6.6%) caught up to top line growth (7.7%). What does this trend mean?

Over the past few years, weve witnessed more and more accounting and bookkeeping functions become automated and commoditized. This trend can only dampen profitability, so it is encouraging to see profitability rising again.

That 6.6% number, however, only tells the story of the average firm. The high-growth segment was on another level altogether. According to Hinges Marketing Budget Benchmark Study (conducted with the Association for Accounting Marketing), high-growth CPA firms generated nearly $1 million more revenue per equity partner than their low-growth peers (http://bit.ly/2CFC8eZ). These firms must be doing something different from everyone else.

There was a noticeable increase in the percentage of partners over age 50 in the smaller firm category (less than $2 million in net fees). Do you think partners at smaller firms are not retiring because their firm doesnt have a partner to replace them, because they dont want to retire, or because the firm simply cant afford to pay for their retirement?

Lacking a clear succession path, many owners find they have little choice but to work well past retirement age. Many of these firms ultimately sell to local or regional rivals, fueling the recent spate of acquisitions. In fact, M&A activity is playing an important role in the evolution of the profession.

If you look at high-growth firms, however, most (approximately 80%) of their revenue growth happens organically. High-performing firms have many advantages, of course. They are able to attract top young talent more easily, and their higher profits and ability to generate strong revenues on a consistent basis make it easier to plan for and fund equity buyouts.

There was an increase in the percentage of firms that have mandatory retirement provisions. Do you think this is a result of firms trying to make room for new partners and allowing retiring partners to exit while still at the top?

In our experience, these provisions are often driven by a desire to keep the firm young, vital, and more likely to change with the times. In a marketplace that is rapidly being transformed by automation and artificial intelligence, this adaptability is going to become a competitive edge.

Do this years results once again prove that leverage and rates drive profitability?

Historically, weve seen a strong correlation between high growth and profitability. For example, weve seen this connection in high-growth accounting firms ability to generate greater revenue per partner (see above). But what drives this growth? According to Hinges data, high performers approach marketing differently. They tend to invest more than other firms in digital marketing techniques and in the business development skills of their experts. They also allocate 40% more of their marketing budgets to creating content and 600% more to educational events than low-growth firms. While these areas of emphasis may not fully explain these firms success, they almost certainly play an important role.

Why do the firms in the lowest quartile of performing audit work (as a percentage of fees) actually outperform (in terms of income per partner) those firms in the other three quartiles?

This comes as no surprise as the profession moves from compliance to advisory services. When Hinge looks at the high-growth segment of accounting firms, we also see this effect. High-growth firms are much more likely than low-growth firms to offer advisory and information security services. We expect this transition to continue in the upper tiers of the profession; thats where the value and profits will be. Furthermore, as automation takes over even more traditional accounting functions, expect the competition for clients at the lower end of the market to become more difficult and the margins thinner. The profession is in the throes of reinventing itself, a process that could take a decade or more.

The percentage of female partners continued to increase, moving from 21% to 23% for all multipartner firms. How do we get further along to gender parity?

While this increase is certainly good news, more than three-quarters of partners at CPA firms are still men. There is a long, long way to go if the profession wants to achieve anything close to gender parity. The cultural causes of this gap are dauntingly complex, but by acknowledging, monitoring, and discussing the problem, we are taking a positive first step. This is a statistic well be following over the coming years.

The Rosenberg Survey found an increase in the percentage of firms, across all firm sizes, offering investment advisory services. How do CPA firms perform and market such services successfully?

As firms grapple with the changing marketplace, they naturally look for new sources of revenue to replace or supplement services that have become less profitable. In this case, the new services replicate those offered by traditional investment and brokerage businesses, which could contribute to the professions challenges in differentiating its services. As firms offer more and more disparate services, they become more confusing to buyers. These jacks-of-all-trades could soon find themselves outmaneuvered by a new wave of specialists that deliver a narrow range of easy-to-understand services. High-growth firms arent necessarily following the same strategy, as Hinge has not found an association between offering investment services and high performance.

Those firms in the lowest quartile of the percentage of billable hours during busy season (meaning their work is spread more evenly throughout the year) outperform (in terms of income per partner) the other three quartiles. Why do you think this is?

While Hinge has no high-growth data on this specific phenomenon, it fits a pattern of the best-performing firms. First, high-growth firms monitor the evolving needs of their clients and build their businesses to address those needs. If their clients need accounting or advisory services outside of tax season (for example, business valuation services), high performers are equipped to recognize the need and provide the relevant services. Second, high-growth firms focus on educating their audience, so that they are visible to potential buyers year round. When a buyer has a need, he will think of the most visible firm first.

Read more:
Perspective on Revenue Growth and Profitability: Lee Frederiksen - The CPA Journal

Most people would look at you suspiciously when you tell them that youd like to start a weed delivery service. Some have their own moral qualms with it and others perceive it as a risky investment. What many do not see is the amount of growth that the cannabis industry has been reaping in the last few years.

The cannabis industrys growth depends on which part of the world youre in, but it seems that theyre all seeing some positive improvements and acceptance from the public. The number of active weed users has doubled between the years 2013 and 2016 to reach 13% of all Americans. Recreational use is no longer as stigmatic as it used to be and medical use is becoming more prevalent as research continues to show improvements. A lot of people may be a bit confused about how to start their own online weed delivery business since the industry is still relatively in its infancy state. Well try to help by offering our little guide that should help you get on track.

This is one of the most important factors that is going to affect your business drastically or even determine its existence. Marijuana is still not legal on the federal level, but many states would allow it as long as you follow their rules. The legality of weed is dependent on its purposes, whether its medical or recreational. Youll find some states allowing only the use of medical marijuana while banning recreational cannabis and its cultivation. Its clear that you shouldnt begin any form of investment in online weed delivery services before you do your homework on the legality of the business in the intended location. Youll want to check the state law and ensure that youll be operating on a 100% legal base before you make any decision.

Considered by many the hardest step yet one of the most important is the process of obtaining permits and licenses to distribute marijuana from the government. Its highly advised to contact a legal professional expert on the laws of the state to help guide you through the process. Youll want to make sure you know everything there is about the needed documentation, licensing fees, and other regulations before you start investing. Once youre able to get the clearance certificate from the state you want to operate it, you should be more than ready to start.

A business license can be different depending on whether youll be operating with a dispensary storefront. If your business isnt going to have a dispensary storefront, youll need to apply for a retailer non-storefront business license to be able to do it. While this will still require you to have premises, it wont be needed to be available to the public. Always remember that once you acquire the license, every delivery driver should have a copy with them in their designated vehicles.

Your business model is going to greatly affect the choices you have when it comes to marketing. Your location, competitors, and legality are all very important factors that vary from one state to another. Online weed delivery services require an investment in digital marketing to grow. Regular SEO techniques are known not to be the best when it comes to marijuana, which is where Marijuana SEO comes into play. It helps deal with the restrictions that are hindering online paid advertising of marijuana. Specialized content and SEO techniques reserved for marijuana are quite crucial in your marketing campaign.

Since the marijuana market is a highly regulated marketplace, its important that all workers and owners in your business are quite aware of the regulation and their updates constantly. Some simple courier mistakes have the potential of dealing heavy losses on your business, not to mention that drivers operating under the influence can result in greater penalties. Compliance regulations include having a GPS tracking device that is always on and inside the vehicle. In most states, its not permissible for couriers to carry or deliver products that are worth more than $3000 at any time. Every transaction is required by the law to be recorded by the law with the business and customers information on the receipt.

In any business where delivery is a key element, making sure that the couriers or drivers have reputable records is a very important aspect. Since the stakes are higher in weed delivery businesses, its even more important than ever to do so. Youll want to reduce the training time by looking for drivers who are already familiar with the process, compliance, and regulations. Topics like physical address-only delivery, the products, and DUI are the most important ones youd like to ensure your drivers are familiar with.

The dispatcher is the coordinator who ensures that every order goes to the right customer at the right time and which driver gets assigned which order. Thankfully, technology is making the process easier and allowing automated software to handle high volumes of orders in mere seconds. Updates and notifications should be always maintained for both drivers and customers to ensure that the timely manner of the order flow.

Needless to say, in such a progressive industry, using technology to its full potential is quite rewarding. You want your users to be able to simply reach you, make orders, and pay without having to waste any time. Your drivers would also benefit from dedicated delivery applications that allow them to see the GPS location of delivery points and the expected time. Transactions can be done in numerous ways like using couriers phones as a register, cash, and credit transactions can be done online. In states where medical marijuana is only permitted, new customers should be able to sign digital forms online and upload the required documentation.

The world is slowly becoming more accepting and less stigmatizing of marijuana over time. Its these times that make investing in a weed delivery business a lucrative opportunity. As long as you do your homework and research the laws of your state, you should be able to start your business in no time.

More:
How To Start An Online Weed Delivery Business - Oregon Cannabis Connection

How do you ensure that potential customers come across your business at the right stage of the buying process? Digital Marketing trainer Ethan Giles of novi.digital explains.

Ethan will run the Digital Marketing Skills course on March 25th and 26th at Prolific Norths HQ on Princess Street, Manchester. We turned to him to provide a bit more detail on SEO and PPC strategy ahead of the session.

Each day there are 5.6 billion daily searches on Google alone, which provides a great opportunity to increase your website traffic, if you employ the right strategy.

But what is the right strategy? Consider that these potential customers will be in different stages of the buying process - some might just search for information or inspiration whilst others might have already made the purchasing decision and are now comparing their options.

There are two main ways you can take advantage of search engines - SEO or PPC. Both have their merits and both have their challenges, so make sure you understand them before you define your strategy.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) means you work on your website to ensure it is tailored towards users search queries. For example, if somebody searches for SEO training Manchester, Prolific North would want people to find their website as it is relevant for their training session. SEO is focused on the natural search results - those results on the search page that are not paid for.

Pay Per Click (PPC) is a form of advertising that search engines like Google offer in a number of different forms. With PPC, you tell the search engine what search terms or keywords you want your ads to appear for, and write relevant advertising. As the name suggests, you only pay when your ads are clicked, and you decide how much youre willing to pay.

Its free!Thats right, you dont have to pay to do SEO - apart from the cost of time of course.

Unlike PPC, you dont need to pay to appear in the natural or organic search listings, you just have to be well-optimised for user searches. Even tracking tools like Google Analytics or Google Search Console, which allow you to measure your SEO effectiveness, are free.

You can be creativeTheres an opportunity for you to be creative, as a big part of SEO is content and writing good quality content that users will care about.

This will help you stretch your businesss creative muscles. In addition, the usability of your site, including what it looks like and how it works, are important for SEO.

88%Organic results attract 88% of all clicks. So if you neglect your SEO and dont appear often or consistently, and rely on PPC instead, youre missing out on the vast majority of clicks and therefore a high proportion of potential customers.

CompetitiveIts not enough to simply have a website and expect this to be an effective SEO strategy. If you do your SEO properly, this will allow you to remain competitive and can often allow you to punch above your weight against larger competitors with bigger budgets.

SEO is about doing something really well, not about spending more money.

DirectUnlike SEO or other forms of advertising such as print, radio or TV, PPC allows you to directly target your customers by defining when your ads are shown and to who they are shown to.

There is no other form of marketing that is so effective at targeting relevant and engaged potential customers.

Cost effectiveYou manage your own costs and pay only per click. This means you can ensure that you only pay enough to ensure your ads generate an effective return on investment.

Unlike traditional forms of advertising, you have greater control of how much you spend, what you spend it on, and ultimately whether that spend generates results or not.

QuickPPC can generate instant results. If you were to set up a campaign now, you could expect to start seeing website visits within hours. This means that you can spend money and expect instant results without having to spend a long time working on campaigns.

SlowIt can take a long time before your SEO efforts start to generate results - changes you make today could take up to six months to start working. If youre looking to make a big difference in a short space of time, then SEO wont be an effective strategy for you.

ComplexSEO can often appear complex to newcomers - it combines multiple skillsets such as creative writing, web development, data analysis and even graphic design.

However, with expert training or expert support, SEO can often become easier as these complexities are explained or managed.

Lack of controlUnlike PPC, you do not directly control what search results you appear for. While you can optimise for particular terms, ultimately the search engine decides what is relevant and what is not.

You also cant control international targeting, so you may appear in search results in countries that are not relevant for your business.

CompetitionThe amount you have to pay to get clicks for ads will be defined by your competition and how much they are willing to pay. So if you are up against competition with bigger budgets or with a lack of understanding of their own profit margins, you may be quickly priced out of securing customers.

Too much controlSmall changes you make could make drastic differences to your bottom line. For example, you could increase your budgets tenfold in just a few clicks, or show your ad for irrelevant searches or in a location you cannot serve.

Google provides some security against this, but its recommended that you get proper training from experts before you pursue PPC.

Time investmentTo get PPC right, you need to invest time to manage your campaigns. Its not as simple as setting your campaigns up and leaving them to run without further changes.

PPC requires management and optimisation and things can change daily depending on your marketplace. This means that PPC can soak up time as well as the cost of the clicks. However, there are intelligent things you can do to avoid spending a long time within the PPC platform and its important that you prioritise on the things that will make the biggest difference.

Now that youre aware of both advantages and pitfalls of SEO and PPC, lets get back to the initial question, which one do I use?

The answer is, it depends. I wish there was a simple, universal answer but this is the beauty of it: it depends on your objectives.

What are the needs of your business? How much time can you invest? Whats your budget? And do you have the right skills in-house?

Depending on how you answer these questions, you might even look at a combined approach where you use both SEO and PPC together. In my experience, there are massive benefits to managing them holistically as it allows for the advantages of one to make up for the pitfalls of the other.

If you could use with more hands-on advice on search marketing tailored to your business, Ethan hosts regular workshops at Prolific North where we delve into just that. Browse the next available sessions here.

Read the rest here:
SEO and PPC - making the correct choice - Prolific North

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Online users love visual contentbut do you know how much? And are you aware of the importance of landing in Position Zero in online search rankings? 2020 is here and theres a lot to learn, even for those who think theyre got the ins and outs of digital marketing on lock.

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From email campaigns (Email Etiquette for Digital Marketers) to SEO (The Ultimate SEO Blueprint: How to Easily Rank #1 on Google) to building your own affiliate marketing team (The Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Step-by-Step Blueprint), this step-by-step playbook detailing the precise messaging and procedures that work for each medium is an invaluable aid.

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Read next: AirPods can damage your hearing heres how Apple could prevent it

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Online marketing is always changing. Stay current with this $29.99 training collection. - The Next Web