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6 Skill Sets Every B2B Marketing Team Should Have On Its Roster

In order to execute an ABM campaign in 2020, you need a team filled with B2B experts-from forward-thinking copywriters to behind-the-scenes gurus.

September 17, 2020 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If you’re like 15% of B2B marketers, your eyes are squarely focused on account-based marketing—but you haven’t fully invested in the strategic approach just yet. Account-based marketing, or ABM as it’s commonly known, flips classic marketing on its head, targeting a select number of high-value accounts while utilizing personalized content to generate qualified leads. ABM appeals to B2B companies across a range of industries because, quite frankly, it makes sense. With ABM, your ROI is higher, and both marketing and sales teams are in constant communication about what’s working, what’s not working, and the necessary next steps to achieve your KPIs.

If you’re reading this, though, you’ve probably already done your ABM research. You know how it works, you know why it works, and you know the types of accounts you want to target. There’s no use waiting around anymore; you’re only wasting precious time and resources focusing your efforts elsewhere.

Once you’ve made the decision to execute an account-based marketing strategy—and received the monetary approval from the CFO— your next task is building out an ABM team. Whether it’s a brand new team fully dedicated to account-based marketing or just a new direction for your current marketers and sales executives, there are several types of people you’ll need on your team in order to execute a dynamic, locked-and-loaded ABM campaign.

From creatives to developers, here are the six skill sets your account-based marketing team needs to succeed.

1. Art of the Written Word

B2B copywriters are easy to come by, but ABM copywriters, specifically, require a knack for nailing copy that appeals to a very specific person or audience. They have to know which words, phrases, and general ideas will appeal to a CMO—and they have to be able to alter that message to resonate with a Director of Operations. For example, if you’re trying to engage with a healthcare company in order to sell them your software, your ABM wordsmith should create content focusing on growth and revenue generation for a senior marketer, whereas a high-ranking member of the operations team will be more interested in the implementation of the service. And with ABM, the messaging has to be continuous. The ultimate ABM copywriter has the stamina and creativity to sustain a campaign from the awareness stage all the way through evaluation—and then continue to generate engaging copy as necessary.

2. Graphic Design Expertise

When it comes to designing an ABM campaign, experienced graphic and UX designers are critical. They should feel confident designing e-books, programmatic ads, and even podcast logos; ABM campaign creative assets truly run the gamut. While target accounts consume B2B content on multiple channels—including email marketing, LinkedIn advertising, and even direct mail—the visual messaging should be aligned. Branding guidelines and general awareness of when and where the targets interact with the content are instrumental for the design process.

3. Project Management Proficiency

Organization, organization, organization. While the right ABM software will automate a large portion of the process, a real, live human will keep all parties within the marketing and sales teams on track. Is the creative for the lead nurture email campaign ready and approved to launch? The sales team identified a new lead; what do they now need from the marketing experts? This type of employee can fall on either side of the marketing/sales spectrum, but they’re always well aware of the happenings taking place throughout the entire ABM campaign.

4. Analytical Ingenuity

No questions asked, your ABM team needs someone adept at taking a bird’s eye view of a campaign and aligning it with the granular details. They can spot everything from an account engaging at a higher rate than others to a missed opportunity when it comes to site conversion. The ideal team member with this skill is always pushing ahead and looking to reinvent the B2B marketing wheel. They may have seen another B2B software company’s ABM techniques and feel inspired to go one step further, asking the rest of the team, “How can we do this, but make it our own AND make sure it’s successful?”

5. An Eye for Budgeting

A trait that tends to fall under the “analytical” umbrella, budgeting in ABM focuses on the ever-important ROI. With a more focused strategy, 71% of marketers report they saw a higher ROI compared to previous non-ABM initiatives. But that high ROI isn’t just guaranteed. Your team needs someone, or multiple someones, to pay close attention to where and how the marketing budget is being spent. This type of marketer knows to hold back on PPC spend when an account is in the consideration stage of the sales funnel; the cost of keywords targeted at this stage is ultimately cost-prohibitive. And they’re not afraid to give a nod to a major spend on content marketing if they’re confident in the return.

6. Mastery of Operations

Finally, your team needs an individual with a keen familiarity of Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and whichever ABM reporting platform you’re utilizing. They work behind the scenes to keep your ABM campaign up and running. Question about channel performance? They’ve got your answer—in just a couple of quick backend clicks. Wondering why a particular account is lagging? This person can identify a low-performing campaign and communicate numerical data to help inform the next strategic step.

At the end of the day, account-based marketing is a complete team effort. A successful ABM campaign combines creativity with hard-and-fast numbers, and it seamlessly marries marketing and sales efforts in order to keep your business growing quarter and quarter and year after year.

Should You Spend Money on Branded Search Ads?

If you’re not allocating any of your budget to branded search, you’re probably making a mistake.

September 16, 2020 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

From mom and pops to global brands, we’ve all felt frustrated at times with paying money to Google, Microsoft, Amazon, or any number of other paid search platforms for your own brand name.

The biggest question that everyone has is, “Why should we pay to show ads on our own branded terms? Shouldn’t we be investing in ads that help us compete for all the other non-branded terms people search for?” Fair questions — after all, if someone is searching for the name of your brand or product in Google already, don’t they already have intent to buy from you? Why should you “throw away” money (as some have said) to show ads for your brand terms when your website already ranks as the first organic result on the page?

It’s true that non-branded search ads can drive a lot of clicks and conversions, but if you’re not allocating any of your budget to branded search, you’re probably making a mistake.

Here are 4 reasons why you should be spending money on branded search ads:

1. You have greater control over messaging

Branded search ads give you much more control over the message you’re presenting and where you’re directing people to when they find you on Google.

To a certain point, with organic listings, you’re stuck with whatever title, description, and site links the “Google gods” want to display.

With branded search ads, you can test provocative, conversion-driven, and timely messaging that you might not want to put on your website yet. You can also decide where you want people who click on your ad to go. Instead of sending them to your homepage or products page, you could send them to a landing page that aligns with the copy you’re using in your ad. Or, you can prompt users to fill out a lead form and collect valuable information about them before ever reaching your landing page.

2. It’s Easier to keep competition at bay

Without branded search ads, you risk losing your customers to another brand who’s more than happy to spend money on search ads that reference your brand name or the names of the products you sell.

Markets are saturated. People are hungry for success. There are resources and tools and processes out there that make it easier than ever for competitors to pop up quickly. And even if every single brand agreed to “play nice,” they still might unintentionally show up for your branded terms because of things like Dynamic Search Ads. For all these reasons, you have to be willing to go on the defense and do whatever you can to hold your competition back.

Branded search ads allow you to compete and ensure that when people are searching for your brand and product terms, they aren’t getting distracted by someone else’s message—a message you have no control over. Thankfully, Google recognizes that you’re likely more relevant for your branded terms than your competitor, so it should cost you a lot less to bid on them than for your competitor.

If this seems to be a real problem for your business, you can take one other step to stop competitors from poaching your customers with branded search ads: you can file your trademark(s) with Google Ads. Going through this process won’t stop your competitors from bidding on your brand name, but it will stop them from using your brand name in the ad copy.

3. You get improved visibility and coverage

Running branded search ads can teach you a lot about your customers and prospective customers.

“The greatest value provided by running brand paid search campaigns is the data that gets acquired from doing so,” says Brett Bodofsky, Senior Paid Search Specialist at Elumynt. “Running branded search campaigns can provide you with greater visibility into your users’ questions, behavior, and interests via the search terms report and observation audiences,” he adds.

You also can ensure more coverage on the search results people see when they type your brand or product names into Google.

If you’ve done a good job with SEO, your website should be the first result that shows up when someone searches for your brand. If you’ve done a great job with SEO, the first page of results should be flooded with links to your website or social media profiles. But that’s an unlikely reality for many brands.

Branded search ads allow you to extend this coverage by taking up more whitespace at the very top and very bottom of search results pages. What this does is ensure that users have to do a lot more scrolling to find a competitor’s organic or paid result.

And while each brand’s results might vary, a large study by Google demonstrated that “even when advertisers show up in the number one organic search result position, 50% of clicks they get on ads are not replaced by clicks on organic search results when the ads don’t appear.” That’s not something you should quickly dismiss.

4. It’s better for seasonality and specials

Branded search ads are great ways to promote seasonal specials, and limited-time offers that you’re running for your ecommerce business.

“While you may already be showing up as the first result in the SERPS, what happens if you are running a flash sale?” asks Bodofsky. “Are you going to change your meta title, description, and page content in hopes that your organic result changes, probably not. A quick and easy way to promote this sale would be through a branded search ad where you can quickly make changes to your messaging, add a countdown and lead users to the landing page of your choosing,” he adds.

It’s a smart way to grab the attention of users already searching for your brand and drive action through urgency.

Wrapping Up

Without branded search ads, your search strategy is incomplete. You miss out on the ability to learn more about your customers, you can’t play defense very well against your competitors, and you have less control over the message you want to present to people and the actions you want them to take.

If you aren’t already, start investing in branded search ads to build a stronger overall search strategy for your business.

Why Every Brand Should Have a Blog

A blog is one of the most effective ways to boost brand awareness and reach your target audiences by authoring content that is relevant to their searches.

September 10, 2020 8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

This article was written by Alex Sixt, a member of the Entrepreneur NEXT powered by Assemble content team. Entrepreneur NEXT is our Expert solutions division leading the future of work and skills-based economy. If you’re struggling to find, vet, and hire the right Experts for your business, Entrepreneur NEXT is a platform to help you hire the experts you need, exactly when you need them. From business to marketing, sales, design, finance, and technology, we have the top 3 percent of Experts ready to work for you.

Social media. Newsletters. Video. You name it. When it comes to marketing a brand, there are seemingly thousands of options to choose from. Although every digital channel has something unique to offer, the first option brands should consider when enhancing their marketing strategy is a blog. Believe it or not, a blog is one of the most effective ways to boost brand awareness and reach your target audiences by authoring content that is relevant to their searches.

Before you race to your computer to click that “get started” button in WordPress, you’ll need to outline a few things, starting with finalizing your topic and focus. Establishing a topic will help you to determine the niche your blog will fit into, and showcase your brand as a market leader within the industry. To set your blog up for success from the beginning, consider your brand’s purpose and audience; this will help you identify the right keywords and phrases to ensure your blog will drive readers toward your website.

Even with the right blog positioning, Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tough topic for many entrepreneurs and business owners due to constantly shifting trends and algorithms. Regardless of your SEO experience, blogging is an excellent, user-friendly step to take toward driving more organic website traffic.

If you’re still skeptical about how blogging can contribute to your SEO, here are the top ways that a blog can be valuable to your brand:

Keep your website fresh.

If you’re like most of the population, when you stumble on a website that hasn’t been updated in years, you’re likely to exit immediately and never return. Google is the same way; when a website or its content hasn’t been updated for a while, it will move on past it to find the next best search result for the user. Therefore, websites that are updated have a much higher chance of ranking higher as a search result than pages that are stale.

Keeping an updated website doesn’t mean you’ll need to implement 24/7 content coverage, but it’s a best practice to release content at least once per week, if possible. By publishing fresh content, users will be more likely to trust that your brand is up-to-date on the latest in the industry and, therefore, more trustworthy. When a user feels your content is credible, they’re also more likely to share it across digital channels, greatly improving your SEO by generating more views for your post.

Increases ‘dwell time.’

Dwell time is defined as the length of time a user spends looking at a webpage after they’ve clicked a link on a search engine results page (SERP), before returning back to the SERP results. It’s a key metric in determining how well your website is performing and can provide valuable insight related to what your audience seems to be most interested in. However, dwell time doesn’t only provide you with feedback; Google likely uses this metric in its algorithm to decide where a website ranks (this is not confirmed, but highly speculated by SEO Experts). The longer the dwell time, the more likely it is that your website ranking will rise.

The content you publish to your website plays a large role in increasing dwell time, as users are much less likely to spend any amount of time on a page they deem to be stale or outdated. It takes approximately 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they’ll stay or leave. What can you do to make the best impression in such a short amount of time? Publish content that is relevant and tailored to your specific audience. Most users will arrive at your website via some form of content, likely a blog post, and will stay if they feel the content answers a specific question or peaks an interest they have.

The number one problem shared among entrepreneurs today is finding, vetting, hiring, and retaining expertise.

Identifies long-tail keywords.

For those just starting out with SEO, it can be tempting to only target the most relevant, obvious keywords for your industry. For example, a hair salon would likely use the keyword “hair salon” to show up in related results. However, this technique neglects the value of using more specific keywords that can benefit smaller businesses that may not rank as first in general searches, known as long-tail keywords.

Long-tail keywords are keywords that are more specific and gain less traffic but have a higher conversion rate due to fitting within more of a niche. Although relevant keywords should be included in blog posts, long-tail keywords that are more specific to an individual brand, rather than an industry, are incredibly valuable. Due to the incredibly competitive nature of SEO, your content has a higher chance of reaching your target audience with more specific keywords than those that are more general.

Although content that contains long-tail keywords may not attract as much traffic as opposed to more general keywords, the users who do land on your site should be much more likely to convert. Long-tail keywords can help you to identify specifically what your audience is interested in and pinpoint their needs by targeting more specific searches.

Learn about your audience.

So, you’ve done your research and created a blog that will cater content to your audience’s interests. That’s awesome, but the learning doesn’t stop once you hit “publish” on your blog page. As you begin to create content, it’s important to resist the urge to “set it and forget it.” Even after content is published, you’ll need to pay attention to which blogs are getting the most traffic and shares, as these topics are huge hints toward what topics are likely to drive your SEO and earn more conversions.

The more you’re able to improve your SEO with blog content, the higher your website will rank, as well (after all, that is the goal of SEO). As you begin to hone in on topics that perform well, more users will land on your website and become followers, increasing overall traffic. Bonus points: creating stellar, SEO-driven content will also help you to build a loyal brand following (*cue happy dance).

Get expert help.

This all sounds amazing, but let’s be honest: running a business is difficult, and finding the time to create SEO-focused content doesn’t always make the cut on the to-do list. If the thought of creating and maintaining a blog still feels like a massive undertaking, then there’s good news: you can hire someone to take care of it for you.

As the business landscape continues to shift and evolve rapidly, there are several platforms that can help you find the Expertise you need without the burden (and high cost) of hiring a full-time employee. Platforms such as Assemble can match you with perfect Expert to help you with blogging needs and improve SEO.

No matter your industry, a blog is a powerful tool to help your website reach higher rankings and earn more organic traffic. Whether you take on the task of blogging yourself or hire an Expert to help, you’ll quickly begin to reap the benefits that quality content can bring to your business.

To hire the Experts you need, exactly when you need them, visit next.entrepreneur.com to schedule a meeting with our Expert solutions team.

4 Things You Should Change About Your Email Marketing

Pruning, consistency and other tricks of an increasingly vital trade.

August 11, 2020 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

More than 306 billion. That’s how many emails were expected to be sent and received each day in 2020, according to Statista. With millions of companies switching to remote work and brands sending more emails, the number may well exceed Statista’s prediction this year.

Email marketing is performing better than it has in a long time. There’s been a spike of 200 percent in engagement since March, writes Ray Schultz of MediaPost, a clear sign that people are spending a lot more time in their inboxes.

What are they looking for and how can your business respond? Moreover, how can you anticipate your customers’ needs and expectations? Being quick to adapt is vital. Let’s take a look at four things you should consider changing in the way you use email for marketing.

1. Prune your lists more often

If you used to clean your email lists of bad contacts every quarter, email hygiene involves more initiative right now. Think about the massive loss of jobs across almost all continents and industries. In the U.S., the unemployment rate is 11.1 percent. Although that’s a decline compared to March and April, millions of business-to-business (B2B) email addresses are now invalid.

“We’ve gotten feedback from customers that many of their B2B email addresses are bouncing,” ZeroBounce COO Brian Minick told me. No surprise there. Many businesses have had to reduce their staff or shut down permanently. That’s awful for the people involved, and it also poses a risk to email marketers. “To avoid deliverability issues, we recommend keeping an eye on your bounce rate,” Minick added. “If it’s above the industry benchmark of 2 percent, you know it’s time to validate your contacts again.”

2. Be empathetic and offer practical help

Your message and the way you convey it can make the difference between someone choosing your business or cutting you out of their lives for good. “People can be very sensitive, especially during a crisis. Some of your customers may be facing countless challenges right now,” says InvoiceBerry founder and CEO Uwe Dreissigacker. How is your business there for them?

“You don’t have to mention the pandemic in every email you send,” Dreissigacker elaborates. “Rather, ask yourself: Is this helpful to my audience? How can I show more clearly that I care? Make sure to run your content by your PR department and all the executives/ There may be nuances you fail to catch. More eyeballs looking at your emails means fewer risks.”

Expressing empathy during difficult times is common sense, but words are not enough. Back them up with practical, immediate assistance. Make the crisis easier to bear with offers that help your customers the most. Can’t figure out what that is? Use email to encourage conversations and run a survey if you can. The sooner you get to the bottom of your customers’ problems, the more prompt and relevant your response will be.

3. Be more aware of spam complaints

Here’s a cliché. No matter how good your intentions are, someone is going to be unhappy. It applies to email, too.

It could be that your newsletter or marketing offer came at a bad time. Or perhaps the person feels you shouldn’t be running any promotions during the crisis. By labeling you as spam, these subscribers are telling inbox providers that your content is bothering them.

More than one spam complaint for every 1,000 emails is worrisome. Abuse emails — accounts that belong to frequent complainers — will taint your sender reputation and cause your future campaigns to land in spam or be blocked altogether. You can’t afford that, especially if you’re hardly keeping your business afloat. To secure your spot in the inbox, be more diligent about removing complainers.

Apart from weeding them out from your list, you can also prevent them from getting there in the first place. An email verification API checks every subscriber’s email address in real-time and rejects the bad ones — including abuse emails.

4. Stick to a consistent sending schedule

Speaking of spam complaints, a simple way to keep them under control is by following a consistent sending schedule. Being punctual fosters familiarity, so your subscribers are less likely to feel your messages are spam.

Emily Ryan, email strategist and co-founder of Westfield Creative, confirms, “When you stay consistent, your readers stay engaged. If you send one email and then don’t show up for two months, you risk getting unsubscribers the next time you email.”

Nervous about emailing people too often? “Just remember they want and expect to hear from you,” Ryan continues. “Whether you send something once a month or once a week, showing up for your subscribers is so important. One of the biggest things we do for our clients is to help them stay consistent with their email campaigns. After determining a frequency that is in line with their overall marketing goals, we make sure to stick to an email campaign calendar. A simple spreadsheet works. Also, we constantly monitor the need to increase or decrease the consistency if there are too many unsubscribes happening.”

So, create your own calendar, fill it up with content ideas, and stick to it. “Even if it’s a short, simple email,” Ryan concludes, “show up for your people.”

12 Innovative Marketing Professionals You Should Know

In an ever-evolving practice, these dozen standouts have aced their game.

August 5, 2020 9 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Marketing is all about innovation. Marketers must innately understand and adapt to the ever-changing world around them to meet incredible demands and aggressive goals. I strongly feel the best marketers often realize that innovation is crucial, and remaining stagnant is a financial death sentence. By changing the game through their unique perspectives and innovative tactics, entrepreneurs and organizations look to the world’s top marketers for guidance during these turbulent times. Notably, these 12 marketers, in no particular order of preference, are making waves and names for themselves as they pave the way for their clients to succeed.

Derek Moneyberg

Known for being a “tough love” mentor, Derek Moneyberg doesn’t mince words and expects his clients to win or he won’t take them on. “My clients know that they won’t be coddled,” says Moneyberg. “I give my clients real, actionable advice, even if it is not exactly what they want to hear.” Moneyberg stands out as an influencer who doesn’t offer up cheap soft, sugar-coated advice and has built an incredible business with his brass tacks approach. “I set my clients up for success,” he states. “They don’t walk away with ideas. They get results.”

Dr. Denise McDermott, M.D.

Ascension Media’s CEO, Dr. Denise McDermott, M.D., brings a valuable perspective to marketing by producing intentional content surrounding conscious products, influencer engagements, marketing, inspirational shows and mindful messaging. “I believe in paradigm progression thinking, which combines eastern and western philosophies encouraging people to embrace their neurostyle and unique talents,” states Dr. McDermott. “My success in media and marketing is multidimensional.

She has created a system inspired by self-love, allowing people to stabilize the energy within them and live up to their fullest potential. Unifying the individual and group mindset, Ascension Media has created a win-win outcome for all by integrating capitalism with altruism.

Brett Larkin

A world-renowned yogi and entrepreneur, Brett Larkin has revolutionized the world of online yoga with her platform and yoga-teacher training that she has wholly shifted online of late. “It’s a really weird time not just for yoga but for all businesses in general,” concedes Larkin. “What we’ve seen is an influx of people wanting to study yoga online, so we quickly optimized our digital channels to accommodate them.”

Brett’s YouTube channel views are up 127 percent, with a 102 percent increase in watch time. Brett has been perfecting the art of virtual teaching since 2015, and her business is a shining example that, with the right mindset, there is an audience for you in any virtual space.

Vance Fundora

Best-selling author and entrepreneur Vance Fundora aims to hand over his marketing expertise to every small business and help them keep up with the latest in digital marketing. “While massive organizations run multi-million-dollar tests and campaigns all the time, small businesses can’t afford to test and make mistakes, so they stay away from digital marketing altogether,” explains Vance.

Through his guide, Keeping Up, an Amazon best-seller, Vance helps emerging entrepreneurs and existing organizations transition into the digital space.

Michael Escobedo

Driven by curiosity and a passion for showing the world his perspective, Michael Escobedo uses photography to tell stories. “Using my artistic ability as a photographer, I craft stories through collaborations, as well as of my own travels and endeavors,” shares Escobedo. He’s worked with brands such as MVMT, Zanerobe, Movado, as well as global icons such as Ludacris, Nipsey Hussle and A Boogie wit da Hoodie, and reveals that “a finely honed skill of photography and deep familiarity with social media tools and trends helps me create highly successful content. The photography I produce delivers great value to brands and public figures, while still connecting with my viewers.”

Zhenya Globazh

After a 10-year career in marketing for some of the top tech and FMCG companies, Zhenya Globazh co-founded Shiba500, a New York-based agency that develops branding and marketing strategies for B2B tech companies looking to launch their products in the U.S. and Europe. Citing empathy and determination as her main strengths, Globazh makes it a point to surround herself with diverse, driven and talented people.

“Working with top brands and agencies such as WPP, Danone & Yandex has certainly diversified my experience and strengthened my expertise, but what drives me is people,” she says. “I enjoy working with passionate and dedicated individuals who share my desire to create amazing products and help people in changing the world for the better.”

Chris Diaz

As founder of his eponymous Chris Diaz Agency, Diaz has become a leading marketing consultant who always puts his clients first. One of his key strengths is strategic partnerships. “Our team has developed a near-perfect digital marketing strategy for entrepreneurs to consistently start, grow and scale their business online beyond six and seven figures,” he explains. “We deploy automated marketing campaigns that speed our clients’ sales cycle by connecting them with their desired customers.”

Diaz believes that though he and his team have decades of combined experience in the digital marketing space, they make decisions based on data, not opinions. “We have one goal,” he insists. “And that is to help business owners, brands and entrepreneurs generate more revenue online, immediately. We understand that a business survives off making money, so we use marketing techniques that speed up success for our clients and get them closer to our revenue goals.”

Colton Bollinger

Fueled by his resilience, Instagram marketer turned entrepreneur Colton Bollinger is at the helm of Jumper Media, a startup changing the way brands leverage Instagram marketing and growth. As he shares, “When algorithm updates toppled our IG business, I thought maybe we could replicate the same kind of Instagram growth and engagement for clients by hand with people doing it from phones.” The rest is history.

Bollinger not only managed to keep Jumper Media in business, but he also scaled a team of approximately 1,000 people in another country within six months. While Jumper started as a software company, it has emerged as the largest organic Instagram growth agency catering to more thsan 1,500 clients.

Farhan Munshi

As the head of MMYCOM, which owns multiple ecommerce brands, Farhan Munshi doubles down in the face of adversity. “The pandemic forced me to look at things from a resourceful perspective rather quickly,” he says. Faced with a massive production delay in China, Farhan only had what was in his North American warehouses.

“What we did was focus on what we could fulfill while limiting our ad spend until things got back on track,” he explains. “That proved more than worthwhile because now we’ve increased our revenue projections by 300 person.” Munshi believes in staying laser-focused during challenging times makes all the difference.

Ryan White

Ryan White scaled his company Social Revelation Marketing into a seven-figure business in a record 18 months. With his exceptional marketing and communication skills, he has built a network of more than four million professionals across the globe. Talking about marketing in the age of social media, he shares, “The best storytellers get the most attention and money follows those with the most attention.”

White is seen as a thought leader in not just marketing but networking too, stating, “My key strength lies in my ability to network well and communicate effectively. I have always seen myself through the lens of a leader to help encourage and serve others, and therefore, I work hard daily to consistently develop into the best version of myself so that I can do this at the highest level.”

Kendall Shaw

In his role as founder and Head of Growth for Maybach Media, Kendall Shaw combines direct-response marketing tactics with data-based media buying strategies to help brands grow exponentially. “The results you can get from digital marketing become much more powerful when you can understand why people buy your products and the core desires that they have,” he offers. “This methodology is what has allowed us to consistently have success for our clients as well as our own DTC brands.”

Shaw and his team help ecommerce stores to scale up by leveraging ROI-driven ad strategies, email marketing and copywriting. And to test and share the best learning outcomes with his clients, Shaw owns and runs several ecommerce stores of his own.

Bozoma Saint John

With an exceptional career that spans more than 20 years, Bozoma Saint John, currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Netflix, has an incredible talent for bringing people together through stories. “Storytelling is critical to our global, societal well-being,” says Saint John. “I feel honored to contribute my experience to an already dynamic legacy and to continue driving engagement in the future.”

Saint John understands how stories drive engagement, and that engagement is critical to brand awareness. Her approach is all about adapting tried and true human storytelling elements, making them work in our modern digital landscape.

All these individuals serve as a reminder that business is all about having the confidence to branch out and put your faith in an idea. Change is inevitable, but what these marketers prove is that the best talent knows how to adapt, teaching us that strategy can set us apart.