The StrategyCast podcast explores the nature of what it means to be at the helm of marketing decisions. Every episode is crafted to make people think, to spark some “aha!” moments, and to illustrate just how important a truly integrated marketing strategy and a solid, inspired brand presence are to success and longevity.
Your host, Lori Jones, is the President & CEO of Avocet Communications, and she has over 30 years of integrated marketing experience. Lori has interviewed over 400 top business leaders on the show with backgrounds in B2B and B2C from brands such as General Motors, IBM, McDonald's, and Netsuite.
It is the wisest and most successful of leaders who know the value of advice, can listen, and can share their experiences with others. Whether you're a CEO, a CMO, a Marketing Director, or an entrepreneur who wears many hats, this podcast is for you.
For more information and show notes, go to strategycast.com. You can also follow @Strategy_Cast on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Customer-first PR strategies with Lori Jones and her guest Kristin Miller of Ping Identity on this episode of the Integrate & Ignite Marketing Podcast. Tune in as Lori and Kristin discuss PR’s role in handling cyber security, why storytelling from the customer’s perspective is so important, and how to measure the quality and quantity of PR campaigns.
How growth is understood, broken down, and owned across an organization is the topic of this episode of the Integrate & Ignite Marketing Podcast with host Lori Jones and her guest Angeley Mullins of Latana. Tune in as Angeley and Lori take a deep dive into how marketing is tied to building a brand’s long-term stability and growth strategies, how to improve communication, and how to bring more customers into your funnel.
Using experiential marketing to differentiate your brand in the sea of sameness with host Lori Jones and her guest Karen Kelly of Tapple on the Integrate & Ignite Marketing Podcast. Listen in as Karen shares her insights into how she focuses on physical-world marketing technology, creating connections with her customers, and on the WHY behind a brand.
If you are solving your customers’ problems, why aren’t they buying from you? Guest Jeremy Miner of 7th Level and host Lori Jones explore the misalignment between sales and marketing on this episode of the Integrate & Ignite Marketing Podcast.
Sean Campbell of Cascade Insights discusses areas of opportunity in B2B marketing research on this episode of the Integrate & Ignite Marketing Podcast with host Lori Jones.
“We forget that what made an ad great was not that it was cheap, it was that it was interactive.” Listen & Learn: Why interactive content is more important than ever. How interactive content helps brands cut through the overwhelming amount of information available in the marketplace. How just about anything on your website can be turned into interactive content. How strategic interactive content helps brands gain interest and intrigue with the buyer. How B2C companies can create more engagem...
“TikTok is making marketers into performing artists.” Listen & Learn: How TikTok changed -- and gained popularity -- during the pandemic. Why TikTok is an entertainment platform rather than a social platform. The platform’s product roadmap aimed at highly creative and engaged creators. How brands can find their authentic voice. How TikTok is a multi-sensory platform marketers need to master. On TikTok, content is king. Mike Westgate manages TikTok’s US Growth Brand business, supporting hundr...
“It’s about solving, not selling.” Listen & Learn: Defining conversational marketing. The difference between pushing out messages vs. having a conversation. Why it’s important to solve customers’ issues vs. sell them a product or service. The importance of being a good listener. Including chatbots and live chats into your conversational marketing strategies. Meet people where they are in the buying cycle. Amy Anderson is a widely respected and creative industry leader who sees the unique opp...
“An omnichannel approach is what we have to start looking at.” Listen & Learn: The five generations of consumers you need to know about. Insights into shifts in buyer behavior. Why everything needs to start with an integrated omnichannel approach. Getting back to basics and targeting individual consumers. Why a broad approach to media buying will ultimately cost you money. How your audience uses the same platform but for different reasons. Mary Ann Pruitt, CEO of the Mosaic Media Agency, str...
“ Hitting a pause button and being willing to invest a little bit more time in taking a good look at all aspects…buys off in dividends right now.” Listen & Learn: Why it was so important to understand where the brand had come from before setting out to do a refresh. The six-phased strategic marketing process RMG and Avocet took together to refresh the brand. Coming to a consensus and defining the brand’s what, how, and why. How focusing on the WHY of what you do has the greatest impact on gr...
“No executive wakes up and says, ‘I’m going to create siloes within the organization,’ but it happens.” Listen & Learn: The top five things companies do that lead to misalignment between sales and marketing. The importance of understanding your audience from a psychological perspective. Why marketing can’t do it all and products don’t sell themselves. The two biggest mistakes marketing and sales teams make. The risks and threats of product sales and marketing misalignment. The three key ques...
“ Finding new ways to be relevant is what we all have to do, especially in this climate.” Listen & Learn: The eight simple steps to incorporating humor into your marketing strategies. Why some brands are afraid to use humor in their marketing. Where humor works well, and where it doesn’t. How all brands, not matter the industry or the product, can incorporate humor into its marketing strategies. Connecting to your customers with humor. How to find a comedy writer. Maggie Scivicque joined arc...
“There isn’t a brand out there whose customers don’t like to smile.” Listen & Learn: The eight simple steps to incorporating humor into your marketing strategies. Why some brands are afraid to use humor in their marketing. Where humor works well, and where it doesn’t. How all brands, not matter the industry or the product, can incorporate humor into its marketing strategies. Connecting to your customers with humor. How to find a comedy writer. Joseph Wilkins founded ProCreative Studios in 20...
“ You can’t expect that the expected is going to do what you need it to do.” Listen & Learn: How thinking divergently fosters growth. Tying bold creative strategies to growth. How to become your clients’ creative agent. Why curiosity is the most important element of all creative strategies. What defines the creative mindset. Why big ideas don’t have to have big budget. Tips for embracing a creative. Ben Ingham is a brand and digital communications leader, a content marketing strategist, and ...
“Every organization has an employee value proposition; you just need to be sure it’s the right one.” Listen & Learn: Why social media needs to speak to all your stakeholders. Storytelling as a way to get your customers and potential customers excited about your brand. Attracting the right customers vs. the number of customers. Defining your employee value proposition. Creating a culture and environment of belonging. The importance of incorporating goals for your brand’s diversity, equity, an...
“If you ask someone about their company’s mission, you just see blank stares.” Listen & Learn: The building blocks for creating a Vivid Vision for your brand. The difference between a mission, a set of goals, company values, and a vision. How a Vivid Vision creates a culture and impacts retention. The questions you should ask to articulate your Vivid Vision. The importance of leadership when creating a Vivid Vision. How a Vivid Vision must start with alignment Graeme Strachan is the founder ...
“Placing yourself in the story you’re trying to tell is where marketers hit gold.” Listen & Learn: The four tenets of strategic storytelling. The importance of people-first storytelling. The power of narrative. Why it’s never about what you make or why you make it. It’s not about selling a story; it’s about telling a story. Creating a compelling narrative for your brand from the beginning Michael Ashford, director of marketing at The Receptionist, is a builder, a communicator, and a strategi...
“ Direct marketing does not work without brand awareness and brand awareness is driven by creative.” Listen & Learn: Tips for measuring your creative’s ROI. The tools you need to measure the impact of your creative. The importance of having a “creative minimum standard.” Why it’s important to not rely on creative for creative’s sake. How great creative makes the customer feel smart Cody Gillund is the director of internal creative agency, Squircle, at Experian Consumer Services. A former age...
“People are looking for trustworthy content to guide their decision making. ” Listen & Learn: Where marketers are getting wrong, and where they are getting it right when it comes to leveraging the power of SEO, AI, and content. How to think about content with AI in mind. How marketers can benefit from a more “human-sounding” approach to content and SEO marketing. Use data to find out what is most important to your audience. Technological advancements, like GPT-3. Building and owning your aud...
“ Make sure to properly test the local market before you go full scale. ” Listen & Learn: The elements of performance marketing. The difference in focus between traditional marketing and performance marketing. Navigating GDPR when marketing internationally. The international markets that are easiest to work with. The importance of developing a proper customer journey to keep your audience engaged. The products and services and price points align well with a performance marketing strategy Dav...
“When you’re out there shouting, and everyone else is shouting, is it a surprise that no one can hear?” Listen & Learn: The four steps to the “flywheel” funnel. All about consensus creation. The one framework all marketers need to understand. How to boost demand-gen and topline revenue. Why marketers need to define the problem rather than talk about their product or service. Understanding the buyer journey Mark Donnigan is a startup trailblazer and a go-to-market engineer. He designs and exe...
“ The reason why companies fail is NOT because of the product or the technology. It’s because they fail to understand that…they have to engineer their marketing.” Listen & Learn: The essence of category design. Why some brands make the mistake of leading with parity. The role of marketing in demand generation. Understanding the buyer’s journey. How the buyer’s journey impacts the marketing funnel. Building touchpoints along the buyer’s journey. Mark Donnigan is a startup trailblazer and a go...
“ Conversational marketing allows you to have conversations with your customers along the whole journey.” Listen & Learn: The advances in AI that are helping brands connect to their customers. The Don’ts and Dos of conversational marketing. How to get chat marketing wins out of the gate. The benefits of the flexibility of conversational and chat marketing. Tips for having powerful conversations. Why it’s important to get your audience’s phone numbers and emails so you can own the data and co...
“ New knowledge is always built on something we already know and then extending it.” Listen & Learn: How thought leadership is based on new knowledge. The importance of not publishing a book before it’s ready. Building credibility through thought leadership. Why content is critical to help grow your brand through a thought leadership strategy. The pros and cons of working with a publisher vs. self-publishing. Trademarks, intellectual property, and distribution of a book Ken Schuetz is the CE...
“Don’t do PR in a silo.” Listen & Learn: How PR and earned media strategies should be part of your integrated marketing approach. The credibility of third-party endorsement. Why you need to incorporate influencers into your PR strategy. Milestone releases. What would make an editor or producer ignore a release? Why it’s important to be humble and to take ego out of your news releases. Mickie Kennedy is the founder and president of eReleases, the small business leader for press release distri...
“I am a bigger fan of fear than most people.” Listen & Learn: Why fear is an important emotion. The difference between fear and anxiety. Turning fear into positive strategic wins. How to soothe your audience. The one thing all marketers should STOP doing. The power strategy of pairing something new with something familiar Dr. Roger Hall is the author of Staying Happy Being Productive: The Big 10 Things Successful People Do and Expedition . He is a business psychologist with clients all over ...
“If you get the circumstances right and you find the right influencer, you can make a very powerful program.” Listen & Learn: The three “must-dos” of a successful influencer marketing strategy. Why consistency and authenticity are the basis for an influencer marketing strategy. The myths of influencer marketing. Defining what an influencer is Drew Vernon is the U.S. marketing lead at ToniesUSA and a disruptive innovation marketer with experience in beauty CPG, toy, and early childhood develo...
“Originality comes from within.” Listen & Learn: Why marketers must be original. The five “Must Be’s” every marketer needs to embrace. Tips for staying focused and grounded in the midst of change. Staying relevant. Why bending the rules is a good thing Lisa Morris is the director of marketing at Dapicon Inc., a company that considers the idiosyncrasies of each supply chain participant, provides solutions that work for those participants, and delivers value that solves real business problems....
“A brand is defined in a consumer’s mind and that takes time.” Listen & Learn: Products don’t sell themselves. Why being bold and brave strategies win the day. How to rise above the sea of sameness and differentiation your brand in the marketplace. Understanding the intersection between a well-planned brand strategy and brand activation. The importance of immersion and of truly understanding your customers’ pain points and needs. Defining your points of parity and points of differentiation. ...
“Start thinking about how your content is created and stop thinking about it as a replacement.” Listen & Learn: Why a Subject Matter Expert is the most important asset a business has. The Natural Language Generation tools that improve AI content. The difference between Natural Language Processing and Natural Language Generation. Understanding content sentiment. The power of combing sentiment, intent, and content formats. The risks of antiquated content. Jeff Coyle is a cross-disciplined, dat...
