Confessions of a Marketer
233 episodes - English - Latest episode: 11 days ago - ★★★★★ - 20 ratingsIn each episode of Confessions of a Marketer, Mark Reed-Edwards talks with a marketing leader or thinker about the deepest challenges in our business. Luminaries such as Beth Comstock, Whitney Johnson, Jacques van Niekerk and more share their wisdom with Mark. The podcast is a must-listen for marketers around the world and has ranked consistently among the top-rated business and marketing shows.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
The Art and Science of Conversion
October 31, 2019 04:00 - 18 minutes - 17 MBOn Episode 109, Jon MacDonald is back to continue our discussion of conversion optimization. This time, we talk about best practices—Amazon and the like. But Jon makes a point that you need to know YOUR data, and shouldn’t focus on your competitors because you don’t know whether that’s working. After all, you may have seen an A/B test. Plus we talk about how B2B companies can avoid having a leaky funnel and how there’s a lot to learn from your e-commerce colleagues.
Time to Optimize Your Marketing
October 28, 2019 04:00 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBOn Episode 108, Jon MacDonald is in to talk about conversion optimization. Jon helps brands understand the clicks and movements of their website visitors, and how to use that data to convert more existing visitors into buyers. His company, The Good, is an interesting operation that has worked with Adobe, Nike, Intel and a lot of other household names to help them squeeze more revenue from their e-commerce. In this first part, we get a look at Jon’s background, mistakes people make when ...
B2B is Really P2P
October 24, 2019 04:00 - 13 minutes - 13.1 MBOn Episode 107, we're back with Carman Pirie. Carman thinks that, from a tactical perspective, although B2B is different, people want consumer-like digital experiences in their B2B experiences. Plus, he shares some insights on working with an agency and says the secret to success is taking advice—listening. What a concept!
Your Funnel is Flawed
October 21, 2019 08:00 - 14 minutes - 13.1 MBOn Episode 106, Carman Pirie is in to talk about marketing, the metrics we watch, and lots more. Carman started out in politics and then came to marketing with an interesting point of view. All the technology we’ve thrown at the task doesn’t mean that we’ll improve lead flow. He says marketers focus on vanity measures and things that appear to show ROI but really don’t. Plus, the notion of the funnel is really flawed. He also tells us a much more useful metric that might not be as easy t...
The Business of Expertise
October 17, 2019 04:00 - 11 minutes - 11.2 MBOn Episode 105, we dig back in with David C. Baker on the subject of his new book. Anyone who’s a consultant—in advertising, marketing, you name it—is in the business of expertise. David’s new book (The Business of Expertise), with all of his rich experience, is a must-read for those of us who sell our expertise. How can you make a difference in your client’s lives and make money at the same time? David has some answers. Plus, we talk a lot about storytelling, the in-housing of marketing...
Things Are Never as Good or as Bad as They Seem
October 14, 2019 04:00 - 15 minutes - 14.6 MBOn Episode 104, David C. Baker joins me to talk about building an agency and so much more. In this first part of our discussion, we have a bit of a philosophical discussion and then talk about how his skills, including being a pilot, prepared him for building an agency and being “the expert’s expert.” As an entrepreneur, he says he thinks like a pilot--things are never as good or as bad as they seem.
Human Experiences
October 10, 2019 04:00 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MBOn Episode 103, we're back with Steve Randazzo to talk about human experiences. In this second part of our chat, we delve more into the emotional connections that experiences can foster. Plus, Steve shares stories about experiences he’s created for Tractor Supply Company and Disney. Sure, it’s about emotion, but there’s a science to making an experience magical. Plus, we look at the future of experiences—with AR/VR and all of that.
Building Connections
October 07, 2019 04:00 - 17 minutes - 16.7 MBOn Episode 102, we've got award-winning experiential marketer Steve Randazzo. Steve has had an idea for a book in his head for a while and finally was able to get it out this year. It’s about how brands can stand out in this cluttered world. We talk about the book, the work he does at his company around building experiences, and the “aha” moment he had that helped him change the title of his book. Oh, and we also talk about the key to a good customer experience. The key? Emotion. And tha...
A Focus on Brilliant Creative
October 03, 2019 04:00 - 15 minutes - 14.5 MBOn Episode 101, we're back with Lindsay Pattison, chief client officer of WPP. In the second part of our discussion, we look at what it's like to manage such a large organization, the transition of WPP, and the advice she gives to clients on working with an agency. Have we been spending too much time on technology and programmatic work and not enough on creative? Creativity can make a difference. Listen and learn.
Episode 123: A Focus on Brilliant Creative
October 03, 2019 04:00 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MBOn Episode 101, we're back with Lindsay Pattison, chief client officer of WPP. In the second part of our discussion, we look at what it's like to manage such a large organization, the transition of WPP, and the advice she gives to clients on working with an agency. Have we been spending too much time on technology and programmatic work and not enough on creative? Creativity can make a difference. Listen and learn.
It's All About the Clients
September 30, 2019 04:00 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBOn Episode 100—and the first episode of the third season of Confessions of a Marketer—we're chatting with Lindsay Pattison, WPP's Chief Client Officer. Lindsay is right there on the front lines with WPP's clients around the globe. She has an interesting point of view on her role, and the ongoing changes at WPP. In the first part of our interview, Lindsay gives us a glimpse at her background, what drives her every day, and what she’s hearing from clients—their confessions.
Brainy Marketers
September 27, 2019 18:00 - 20 minutes - 19 MBOn Episode 99, we feature a look back over the wisdom we've heard from our guests. We feature some of brainy people I've had the good fortune to talk with, including Tony Temple, Tony Rudel, Duncan Chapple, Jacques van Niekerk, and Elle Woulfe.
Marketing Starbucks
September 26, 2019 04:00 - 15 minutes - 14.5 MBOn Episode 98, David Lemley is back to continue our chat about retail marketing. This time we focus on his time early on at Starbucks, which taught him a lot. He takes that education with him today to help him current client roster. There are some valuable lessons in David’s story—plus he gives us a look at the future.
Marketing in Retail
September 23, 2019 04:00 - 18 minutes - 17.2 MBOn Episode 97, we have David Lemley in to chat about marketing in retail—he calls it retail voodoo. David was an early employee at Starbucks, and that experience taught him a lot. His company, Retail Voodoo, does brand strategy for specialty food and beverage brands. David’s expertise in brand strategy, innovation, consumer markets, and consumer behavior is deep, so I wanted to talk to him about retail marketing, what the retail landscape looks like, and of course Starbucks (which we get...
Celebrating Our Differences
September 19, 2019 04:00 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBOn Episode 96, Christina Mallon and and I continue our discussion on the way in which fashion brands like Tommy Hilfiger have been on the vanguard of celebrating our differences. We discuss how Tommy Adaptive elevated the brand by making functional and fashionable clothing available. We also delve more into the work that Wunderman Thompson did. The key, Christina says, is staying away from inspiration porn. We also talk about the non-profit organization she co-founded—the Open Style Lab,...
Inclusive Design: A Better Way to Design
September 16, 2019 04:00 - 14 minutes - 13.5 MBOn Episode 95, we're talking with Christina Mallon, Inclusive Design Lead at Wunderman Thompson and Partner/Board Member of Open Style Lab, which was founded at MIT. Christina has a fascinating story to tell about her career path and her creation of the inclusive design practice at Wunderman Thompson. We discuss the three principles of inclusive design, how we see inclusive design in practice, how Christina employs design thinking in her inclusive design work (they’re really the same thi...
Five Keys to Brand Strategy
September 12, 2019 04:00 - 15 minutes - 14.8 MBOn Episode 94, Mitch Duckler is back to discuss brand strategy. Mitch has a book out called The Indispensable Brand. In part one, we touched on the premise of his book and the value of brand equity. This time, we cover the five key components of brand strategy—brand positioning, brand portfolio strategy, brand experiences, brand extension, and brand story. Episode Notes Mitch's firm: FullSurge Mitch's book: The Indispensable Brand Mitch on LinkedIn
The Indispensable Brand
September 09, 2019 04:00 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MBOn Episode 93, we're joined by Mitch Duckler to talk about differentiating your brand in this era of sameness. Mitch has a book out called The Indispensable Brand. In this first part, we talk about the premise of his book: that brands are very much copycats these days, what's lost in the effort to measure everything, the value of brand equity, and the keys to standing out in this crazy world. It's fairly simple: what, how, why, and who. Episode Notes Mitch's firm: FullSurge Mitch's bo...
Have We Reached Peak Podcast?
September 05, 2019 04:00 - 15 minutes - 14.6 MBOn Episode 92, we chat more with fellow podcaster Ben Shapiro. I read something recently that said, with some 700 thousand podcasts, we have reached peak podcast. I wanted to run that by Ben. He thinks we’re not even close. We talk about that and a few other geeky podcast things. Episode Notes Ben’s Podcast: The MarTech Podcast A Long Road Home, the podcast Ben mentions that started in his Lyft ride Ben on LinkedIn
Wisdom on Brand
August 30, 2019 18:00 - 12 minutes - 11.8 MBOn Episode 91, we take a different approach--collecting wisdom on brand, creativity, the words we use, and the value of a good creative brief from some our our guests over the past two years. We're joined by Elle Wolfe talking about her secret weapon during a rebrand at Path Factory, Tony Temple on how to approach the work, Alex Withers on creativity throughout an organization, Ben Afia on the power of words and and how it's really about culture, he says. And then there's the dreaded cr...
A Podcast About Podcasting
August 29, 2019 04:00 - 17 minutes - 16.7 MBOn Episode 90, Benjamin Shapiro, host of the MarTech Podcast, joins us. Ben and I have bumped into each other a few times over the past year. We chatted on the phone a while back about our shared experiences as podcasters. In this first part of our chat we get a look at Ben’s background, and how he came up with the idea of starting a podcast. He says he started it as an art project and that it can all be traced back to a few too many beers and a ride in a Lyft. Episode Notes Ben's Podc...
Video Saved the Marketing Star
August 26, 2019 04:00 - 14 minutes - 13.3 MBOn Episode 89, Joe Martin of CloudApp is back to finish our discussion about video, visuals, and marketing. We learn about what CloudApp has been up to, the kinds of customers they have and how they use it to enhance productivity. Then we turn to the future, and Joe sees video and mobile at the center of the marketer's universe in the years to come. And, we agreed, we need to do better with mobile--much better.
Using Video and Visuals in Your Marketing
August 22, 2019 04:00 - 14 minutes - 14 MBOn Episode 88, we're talking video and visuals in your marketing. Joe Martin is GM, VP of Marketing and Strategy at CloudApp, which helps you share video, screenshots, and gifs. He has a heritage of working at Adobe, and when I started thinking about having an episode about videos and visuals in marketing, he seemed like the obvious choice. In this first part, we talk about the way people respond to visuals, how Joe employs them in his marketing, and the lessons he carries with him from ...
We're Still Googling
August 19, 2019 04:00 - 13 minutes - 12.4 MBOn Episode 87, Victor Machado and I continue our chat about Google My Business. This time, we examine the role it plays in the life of a business, plus we also discuss some quirks we’ve all seen in searching for businesses, how to go about hiring an agency to help you with GMB, and lots more. Episode Notes Victor Machado on LinkedIn Post&Wall Digital Marketing Agency Google My Business
The Basics of Google My Business
August 15, 2019 04:00 - 14 minutes - 13.7 MBOn Episode 86, Victor Machado joins me to dig into Google My Business. When he was in last, we dug into SEO and SEM and touched briefly on it. Now, he’s back for the first of two episodes to get a bit more detail on GMB, as we like to call it. Episode Notes Victor Machado on LinkedIn Post&Wall Digital Marketing Agency Google My Business
Mastering LinkedIn Marketing
August 12, 2019 04:00 - 12 minutes - 12.1 MBOn Episode 85, AJ Wilcox is back with me to chat about mastering LinkedIn marketing. AJ Wilcox. We go deep on how he sets the expectations of clients, how he uses LinkedIn to nurture prospects, and some trends he’s following. We start with a discussion about how he talks with clients about targeting specific job titles and industries, and the metrics he uses.
Social Media Marketing
August 08, 2019 04:00 - 14 minutes - 14 MBOn Episode 84, I'm joined by social media advertising expert AJ Wilcox. AJ is founder of Founder B2Linked - The LinkedIn Advertising Agency and he's an expert on social media advertising, with a particular focus on LinkedIn. In this first part of our discussion, we look into what makes a good social media ad, how Facebook is doing as an advertising medium, how LinkedIn has been developing its marketplace, and how he advises his clients to utilize social media advertising. Episode Notes ...
Reimagining Marketing
August 05, 2019 04:00 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBOn Episode 83, Angel Hollis Vaccaro, digital practice lead at Hux by Deloitte, is back. Last time, we were discussing the Deloitte report Beyond Marketing: Experience Reimagined and talked a lot about how the CMO and CIO are close partners now. We then delved into the key findings of the report, which center on data, decisioning and delivery. We covered a bit about data in the previous episode, and we pick up with a point I made about data being at the core of that blossoming CIO/CMO rel...
Beyond Marketing
August 01, 2019 04:00 - 15 minutes - 14.4 MBOn Episode 82, Angel Hollis Vaccaro, digital practice lead at Hux by Deloitte discusses the report Beyond Marketing: Experience Reimagined. I read it a while back. It painted an interesting picture of how marketing has changed, and how it is still changing. There are two keys: the connection between the CIO and CMO is tighter than ever and treating your customers like humans (not lines on a spreadsheet or targets in a campaign) is the only way to go. This is part one of two. Episode No...
Building a Marketing Machine
July 29, 2019 04:00 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MBOn Episode 81, we're back with Scott Horn, CMO at PrismHR. In the first part of our chat, we looked at how how he approached his new job and interviewed candidates. Now we get a bit deeper. How does he run the marketing machine? He uses OKRs—a term that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Plus, we chat about the creative side of marketing, and a possible brand refresh for PrismHR. Then we look at how the CMO role is evolving and get Scott’s perspective on trends he’s following.
Being a High-Growth Company CMO
July 25, 2019 04:00 - 24 minutes - 22.4 MBOn Episode 80, PrismHR CMO Scott Horn joins me to discuss being a CMO in a high-growth company. He’s new in the role, so I wanted to talk with him to get a couple of perspectives: What it’s like running marketing at a fast-growing company and how he approached his new job and tackled things like interviewing job candidates. He’s got a system that was interesting to hear about. The key, as you’ll understand when you listen, is to put people before technology.
Making the Most of Intent
July 22, 2019 04:00 - 15 minutes - 14.1 MBOn Episode 79, Rob Weedn of DealSignal and Jeremy Middleton of Pramata are back for part two of our chat about ABM and intent. In the first part of our chat, we discussed the winnowing down of the martech stack plus a lot about ABM. Today we continue our chat about it--how to use intent-based data, the promise of technology, programmatic advertising, and more. And we start with a question about the tension around ABM. Episode Notes Pepper and Rogers: Is Your Company Ready for One-to-O...
Whittling Down Your MarTech Stack
July 18, 2019 04:00 - 13 minutes - 12.6 MBOn Episode 78, Rob Weedn of DealSignal and Jeremy Middleton of Pramata join me. I had Rob on early in the series for a chat about data in marketing. I wanted to have him back, and when he mentioned he could get one of his customers to join him, I jumped at the chance to talk about account-based marketing, data, intent and marketing, plus the ever-present martech stack. We have divided this chat into two parts. This is part one. Cover photo is copyright 2019 Mark Reed-Edwards from a rece...
All About SEO and SEM
July 15, 2019 04:00 - 21 minutes - 20 MBOn Episode 77, we have Victor Machado of Post&Wall in to talk about SEO and SEM. Victor cofounded his firm, an integrated digital marketing solutions, in 2014. He's on the front lines of developments in search. So, as a follow up to my chat with Taylor Ryan in Episode 76 episode about the Google algo changes, I thought it would make sense to get a bit further into the weeds on SEO and SEM—and Victor was the right one to talk with. We talk about organic SEO, location SEO, confusion about ...
Google Algo Changes
July 11, 2019 04:00 - 24 minutes - 22.5 MBOn Episode 76, we have Taylor Ryan in to talk about the latest batch of Google algo changes. We chatted with Taylor back in Episode 47 about Hacking Your Marketing. One ingredient in hacking is how you use Google. And Taylor, who’s CMO at Valuer in Copenhagen, is an expert on that. So, with the hubbub about the Google algo, I asked him to join me to make sense of it. I think we made some headway. Episode Notes Google Algorithm Update Google Diversity Update Matt Cutts Gary Vaynerch...
Switching on Sales
July 08, 2019 04:00 - 12 minutes - 12 MBOn Episode 75, Jonathan Soares is back to continue our chat about social selling. We got to my favorite subject—trends—late in this chat. And we also discussed some success stories for Jonathan’s firm, Agency Labs. But to start, I asked him about the right time to start talking about your product—really when you start the switch from marketing to sales. And his answer was loaded with the kind of insight you’d expect from someone who deals with CMOs all day long. Cover photo is copyright...
From the Archives: Building an A Team
July 02, 2019 12:00 - 20 minutes - 19.3 MBI remember connecting with Whitney Johnson years ago on Twitter. Her posts were always brimming with insight. But her game is innovation and the focus of this podcast is marketing. So, how could I have her on? Didn't seem possible. Then she came out with a great book--Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve and I wanted to have her on so the managers, directors, VPs and CMOs in my audience would gain from her insight. It was a great discussion that cl...
Social Selling
July 01, 2019 04:00 - 12 minutes - 12.5 MBOn Episode 74, Jonathan Soares, founder and CEO of Agency Labs, joins us. His firm builds websites, software and mobile apps for companies around the globe. One common denominator: social media. He’s become an expert on social selling. So we dug into how to best use social media, when to sell, when to market—and lots more. Cover photo is copyright 2019 Mark Reed-Edwards from Boulder Mountain Park, Colorado.
Becoming Better Marketers
June 27, 2019 10:00 - 12 minutes - 12 MBOn Episode 73, Jon Chang is back to continue our discussion about his five-year career planning template. This time, he shares how you can use it to improve your work life and even become a better marketer. It's a good meditation on what's possible in your career and how to make it actually happen. dreaming is great, but doing is even better. Episode Notes Jon Chang’s career planning template is right here. See more of Jon’s thinking here. Learn more about Jon here. Cover photo from...
Special: Pilot for the Demystifying Data Podcast
June 24, 2019 04:00 - 18 minutes - 17.4 MBWe're thrilled to share the pilot episode for a new podcast we'll be producing starting in July. It's the Demystifying Data podcast with Chris Clegg, president and research director of PortMA. Chris has been my go-to on data and marketing. You may remember him from his previous appearances on Confessions of a Marketer. We got to know each other and his ability to deconstruct data and all it means for marketers was clear. So, as we look to expand our podcasts beyond this one and The Innov...
Marketing Your Career
June 20, 2019 04:00 - 13 minutes - 12.9 MBOn Episode 72, Jon Chang is back in to talk about some thinking he’s done on career planning for marketers. I first spoke with Jon early this year about a survey that IBM Watson did on marketing. Jon was knowledgeable, insightful and passionate—and not just about marketing. Follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter and you’ll see someone with broad interests in helping others figure things out. When I saw him post a career planning template, I thought it would be fun to have him in to chat about...
The Key to B2B Marketing
June 17, 2019 04:00 - 16 minutes - 15.5 MBOn Episode 71, I continue my discussion with Elle Woulfe. What is the key to B2B marketing? It's simple--think of everyone as a person. That's the main conclusion of my discussion with Elle. There's a lot more to it than that, though. So you'll have to listen to get the whole story. As always, a fun chat with Elle. Cover image from Flickr, public domain.
Special: E-Sports
June 14, 2019 13:00 - 18 minutes - 16.8 MBA look at an episode of The Innovation Podcast: We have Bruno Aguiar, VP Commercial Management & Analytics at ESL/Turtle Entertainment. Of course, ESL is the trailblazing e-sports brand. We were thrilled Bruno agreed to sit down with us. To kick off the first of three episodes, we heard about Bruno's background and learned about the difference between e-sports and real sports (hint: there isn't one). We had a few laughs along the way, too. Cover and header image from 123rf, standard lic...
Data and B2B Marketing
June 13, 2019 04:00 - 17 minutes - 16 MBOn Episode 70, Elle Woulfe joins us to dig into data and B2B marketing. Elle is VP of Marketing at PathFactory. You may remember the chat we had about six months ago about her rebrand. Elle did some special work with that and we got lots of reaction to it. But Elle has a lot of knowledge about using data as a marketer. What’s behind the data we collect and how should we use it? We get into that and more in part one of our chat.
Marketers as Customer Advocates
June 10, 2019 04:00 - 12 minutes - 12.7 MBOn Episode 69 we’re talking marketers as customer advocates with Riccardo Osti. In the second part of our discussion, we delve into how marketers can be customer advocates, the trends Riccardo is seeing, and we learn more about Wonderflow.
Marketing and the Customer Experience
June 06, 2019 04:00 - 14 minutes - 14.9 MBOn Episode 68, we have Riccardo Osti in to discuss marketing and the customer experience. Riccardo is CEO of Wonderflow, and we start our chat by defining the customer experience, then branch out into how to improve it and the role data can play in it. Riccardo is a fascinating guy with a really interesting company. Wonderflow gathers and makes sense of unstructured feedback from consumers. So Riccardo was the right one to speak to about the customer experience.
From the Archives: Why CMOs Should Listen to Creatives
June 04, 2019 21:15 - 15 minutes - 14.8 MBWe're taking another look back into the archives. In the middle of the first season, I had a chance to speak with Alex Withers, CMO of InMotionNow. It was great to get a CMO on the show with a fresh perspective. And it was even greater when we started chatting and Alex started to explain his thesis: that people like him should listen to creatives. As I wrote when I published it all the way back in March 2018, it was an inspirational chat--one that marketers and creatives alike will enjoy...
You and Your Funnel
June 03, 2019 04:00 - 24 minutes - 23 MBOn Episode 67, we continue our chat with Chris Dayley about converting social media traffic. We discuss split testing, understanding where people are in your funnel, and, of course, data—and lots more. He’s an engaging guy, and I think you’ll enjoy the chat.
Converting Social Media Traffic
May 30, 2019 04:00 - 17 minutes - 16 MBOn Episode 66, Chris Dayley is back to discuss the dark arts of social media conversions. We start off our two-part chat with a discussion of what a company should expect from social media, the value of a two-way dialogue, and using tech like Facebook LIve.
Even Deeper on Product Marketing
May 28, 2019 04:00 - 15 minutes - 15.4 MBOn Episode 65, we go even deeper on product marketing with Josh Martin. We talk about the value of data, balancing the demands of the day with planning for the future, plus he lets me in on the story behind his current company—Perfect Sense. It was a great discussion that makes, um, perfect sense. Enjoy!