Hello!
First and foremost, thank you SO much for subscribing to my newsletter. I’m really looking forward to growing this with your help and readership. This first edition is pretty straightforward. Read on to learn what to expect…
I want to touch on a wiiiiiide range of topics under the marketing sun. There’s quite a bit and nothing is off the table. I do hope each edition sparks curiosity, excitement, and can prompt a question or two from you.
Overview of Catch All™
(Fun Fact: you can put a trademark on any word or phrase that is not already trademarked. You’re basically saying you have the intention or are in the process of getting a legal trademark. Once you get that legal trademark, it’s common to use ®️ for Reserved.)
Each edition - published weekly - will cover a different area of marketing. Some topics will be huge (like Branding) or really specific (like Organic Social Growth Strategies). There is currently no logical order to which topics I publish each week besides “yeah I’m in the mood to write about that.” I absolutely welcome suggestions for future editions.
These newsletters will not be terribly long. 500-800 words sounds about right. For a topic like Branding, there’s lots of subtopics to talk about. I may outline those subtopics but will take a separate edition to dive into the subtopic further.
Each edition will cover a few things:
Brief overview of what it is I’m talking about
Any strategies, tactics, or dynamics relevant to the given topic
Personal experiences or thoughts
Relevant resources or individuals I like that go deeper into the topic
Remember: I’ll be scratching the surface on most topics. I bet there will be some topics I cannot help to write more about but for the most part, these will be introductions to marketing topics. I’m not an expert on ALL things marketing but am definitely enough of a nerd about this stuff to speak to most of it. If you need clarifications or have questions on any topic, don’t hesitate to reach out :D
The format is clearly flexible and few things will be set in stone. I’ll be relying on you, the wonderful audience, to help guide me in what you would like to see (or not see).
About the author
Some background on my marketing experience to see where I'm coming from:
I graduated from DePaul University with a degree in Marketing in 2016. I began an internship at Acxiom where I did 3 main things:
Ran and grew the twitter account of our division president to promote thought leadership
Sit in on executive strategy meetings and take notes - meetings were mostly about the largest marketing campaign in company history we were developing
Help develop the structure of a 3 year marketing plan for our new team. I even wrote a little bit of it!
So my first entrance into marketing was fairly non-traditional and I loved it. From there, I ran paid social and email for that big marketing campaign, along with lots of note taking and some team/office operations stuff. I was then responsible for 3 new things:
Figure out a system around marketing attribution for our organization which netted about $1 billion annually. Mind you, I’m barely 1 year into my career…
Research and develop an implementation plan for a new sales development rep structure under our marketing team. Map out the day-to-day, feedback pipelines with marketing, SDR growth path, metrics, reporting, etc. AGAIN, 1 year into my career…
This really was the ideal first job for me.. I always figured I would work on the branding and more ~ emotional ~ aspect of marketing which is what most people think of. But this company offered data and technology solutions for marketing so I learned a ton about the data and tech side and was able to touch so much of the marketing funnel. This gave me a holistic view of marketing and sales from the get-go. It also got me passionate about consumer data, privacy, all that good stuff.
After Acxiom, I continued to work in B2B (more on that in a minute). Left after several months - a toxic culture is 100% a valid reason to leave a job - and began my freelance business. I developed quite a network of startup founders early in my career and that led to some quick freelance work.
Eventually, I got Brightfield Group as my first real anchor client, collecting a solid monthly retainer and was the only marketer on the team. Their vision of the company aligned with mine and after a few weeks, I wanted to contract full-time for them. Some months after that, I became a full-time, W2 employee and officially the marketing director. The only way I was staying was if I could build out the marketing function from the ground up. They trusted me to do this, we accomplished a lot, and I stuck around until September 2021. Professionally, I accomplished everything I wanted to there with some incredible people and felt in my bones it was the right time to leave.
So now we’re here. November 2021. I’m freelancing a bit, developing a healthy relationship with investing, crypto and Xbox but overall don’t know what I want to do next. That really kickstarted the development of this newsletter.
I used to have regular conversations with soon-to-be or recent marketing graduates and they would have a ton of questions about where to go. I tried to give as much info and personal stories as I could but ultimately would be the one asking most of the questions to see where their passions lie and help them figure it out themselves.
The collegiate education system is often out of touch and in a field like marketing where a new trend could happen tomorrow, it’s just so difficult to get a realistic education at college. And that’s okay! In my opinion, marketing/business schools are great at helping you understand the concepts but your ability to learn the realities of the industry will vary school to school or professor to professor. Ultimately, you'll learn by doing; you’ll mess up a lot and you’ll succeed even more.
I do hope those conversations with students pick up as a result of this newsletter. You can always reply to this email with any questions or career stories (or ideas for the newsletter).
B2B + why it's sick
Alright last thing, I talked about B2B or “business to business” marketing. Most of my career and freelance work has been with businesses selling to other businesses. This is the lens at which I will talk about most marketing topics.
Pretty much all marketing concepts apply to both B2B and B2C (there’s also B2B2C but like c’mon….maybe I’ll cover that another day). If you are more interested in Business-to-Consumer models, you'll still find value. So go ahead, go work for LuluLemon, Pepsi, or Peloton. The comparisons or examples I use just may not be 1:1 in some cases. I'll be sure to explain the differences as they come to mind!
Some examples of B2B companies:
Personally, I prefer B2B. There are often more people you need to target in order to acquire a single customer - decision maker, end user, blocker, advocate, and more (sometimes they are all the same person!).
I also believe B2B just has a lot more variability and nuance to the deal process, marketing funnel, etc. And I enjoy that! Not sure if there's a lot of evidence out there confirming it actually is more complex though.
I do enjoy product-led businesses and they have become very popular in B2B ever since the 'SaaS revolution'. (Ok I just looked up that term to find a good article I could link to about history of Software-As-A-Service. Turns out, there's a whole podcast with that name. Check em out). And many of those companies are adopting models that B2C companies have been using for, well, forever.
All that being said - if a B2C CEO or CMO wants to reach out and offer me a cool job, I definitely would still take a meeting lol
I think that wraps up edition number one! If you read the whole thing, you’re amazing. If you liked it, please share with a friend who may be interested or is just getting started out in marketing. If you hated it, I would love to know why.
See you next week.
-Connor
Additional resources:
Language used in B2B vs. B2C (KoMarketing)
Why B2B is Harder than B2C (CBS News)
I think a lot their reasons could apply to B2C as well. They are just likely to happen more often in B2B...
Top B2B Companies (BuiltIn)
Product-led businesses + growth (Chameleon)