On this Aftershow podcast special, host Katya Allison is joined by Content Creators Nya Bryanna Henry, Joy Baker and Calvin Kang to answer listener questions about creator and brand partnerships. To hear these three creators tell it, aspiring influencers should keep several important principles in mind when making content: - A consistent posting schedule is foundational to building a strong social media following. - Going viral is often a product of creating intentional, high-quality...

On today’s episode, host Katya Allison is joined by Rand Fishkin, Co-Founder and CEO at SparkToro, to hear how brands can more accurately market to their target demographic. Rand offers several insights into best practices for better, targeted marketing: - Focus on targeting your audience, not just your potential buyers. - People who don’t buy your product can still amplify your brand voice to reach new buyers. - Influence isn’t always about reaching a bigger audience but about reaching the...

On today’s episode, host Katya Allison is joined by Kim Arnold, author of “Email Attraction” and Chief Executive at Kim Arnold Consulting and Training. When it comes to sending emails, Kim has some words of wisdom to offer: - Be intentional with how you craft non-marketing emails. - Simpler is often better — emails should be easy to read and understand. - Most emails should be no longer than five or six sentences. - Find a balance between a professional tone and your unique personal...

On this aftershow episode, host Katya Allison is joined by Rachel Davidson, Sarah Crow, Caroline Stern, Rebecca Beach and Kristen Gioscia, Influencer Marketing Strategists at GRIN. Looking back at 2022, and ahead to 2023, the GRIN team has several insights into the future of influencer marketing: - The uncertainty of TikTok’s future has put a spotlight on how some brands have invested too heavily in a single platform without diversifying their online presence. - Economic shifts will likely...

On today’s episode, host Katya Allison is joined by Jamie Beckland, Co-Founder and President at Contxt, to hear how marketers should approach issues of data privacy and security. With privacy being such an important topic in today’s digital environment, marketers should take note of several important points: Marketing is about building a relationship, and proper data etiquette can build strong relationships with brands and customers.Customer data is like a conversation and data harvesters...

On today’s episode, host Katya Allison is joined by David Allison, Founder of Valuegraphics, to learn about a more effective way to create a targeted marketing strategic plan. The concept of valuegraphics offers marketers some new perspectives on market segmentation: Individual values inform purchasing decisions more than traditional demographics like age or gender.Values may seem abstract but can be quantified and analyzed just like any other data point.Understanding personal values can...

On today’s episode, host Katya Allison is joined by Mark Pollard, Host and CEO at Sweathead and Author of “Strategy is Your Words”, for a discussion about creativity in the marketing space. Sometimes, marketers can get bogged down by data and it causes brands to lose the human spark that made them compelling. Mark offers a few words of wisdom to combat this: - Clarify common department language and create definitions that everyone can clearly understand. - Learn to view ideas as...

On today’s episode, host Katya Allison welcomes Jon Mowat, MD, Marketing Consultant and Author at Hurricane. For Jon, leveraging video effectively means keeping a few things in mind: - Tailor different types of video to target different parts of the marketing funnel. - Use video to create an emotional response that can then drive customer action. - Use other marketing channels to provide product information and features. Video is meant to provoke emotional decision-making. - Embedded...

On today’s episode, host Katya Allison is joined by Margherita Maspero, Head of Brand and Communications at Know Your Customer. Margherita is an exceptional B2B marketer, working to provide businesses with the technology needed to meet their industry regulations. For marketers in similar positions, she offers some words of advice: - Finding a voice and marketing niche is just as important for B2B marketing as it is for B2C marketing. - B2B marketing revolves more around logical reasoning...

On today’s episode, host Katya Allison is joined by two members of Historic Agency: Mark Miller, Co-Founder and President, and Ted Vaughn, Partner - Brand, Culture and Strategy. Mark and Ted literally wrote the book on company culture and, in their conversation, they share a few key insights into building a brand’s cultural identity: - Culture has to have concrete mechanics attached to it; it can’t be abstract. - Brand alignment can be more important than a traditional “healthy” culture. -...

In today’s conversation, host Katya Allison is joined by Rob Walch, VP of Podcaster Relations at Libsyn, to hear Rob’s strategies for marketers trying to partner with podcast producers. To Rob, it’s important to keep a few things in mind when approaching podcast audiences: - Podcasts are more like magazines than radio shows; they have very niche audiences. - Keyword SEO is limited to podcast titles and has no effect when used in show descriptions. - Advertisers should consider the...

On today’s aftershow, host Katya Allison hears from Audrey Van Vark, Senior Influencer Manager at Mari + Gold, about how she manages relationships with influencers of varying sizes. In managing influencer relationships, Audrey offers several words of wisdom: - A small community of dedicated micro-influencers is better than a macro-influencer who has a weak brand relationship. - Strong influencer relationships will create a better long-term ROI than paid partnerships. - Organic posts often...

In today’s conversation, host Katya Allison is joined by Mark Whitman, Founder and CEO of Contentellect, for a conversation about making effective use of SEO practices. To leverage SEO to its maximum potential, Mark offers a few pieces of advice: - Three SEO principles must be utilized together for best results: keyword clustering, bulk content creation and interlinking. - Keyword clustering involves utilizing an appropriate number of key terms related to your niche in high density. - Bulk...

On today’s Customer Spotlight, host Katya Allison is joined by Jess Doherty, Social Media and Influencer Marketing Manager at Osmo Salt Co. In their conversation, Jess offers a few words of wisdom for smaller brands seeking to effectively leverage influencer marketing: - Good relationships will lead to more authentic influencer marketing campaigns. - Paid partnerships with influencers who haven’t previously tried the product are often ineffective. - Flat rate partnerships may not work in the...

In today’s conversation, host Katya Allison is joined by Jason Bergman, Co-Founder of MarketPryce, to discuss the impact of the NIL ruling on brands’ relationships with student athletes. In light of the new rules surrounding student-athlete income, brands need to keep several important factors in mind: - The cost of entry is often very low for the majority of student athletes. - Gen Z students can be a valuable resource in helping a brand appeal to a younger market. - Student athletes can...

On today’s episode, host Katya Allison is joined by Jordan West, Agency Owner of Mindful Marketing Co., for a conversation about how ambassador communities can act as a valuable marketing tool. In working with brand ambassadors, Jordan recommends keeping a few important concepts in mind: - Ambassadors and influencers are not synonymous, and they should be treated differently. - Paying ambassadors often doesn’t encourage real commitment to the brand. - Ambassadors should be self-selected from...

In today’s conversation, host Katya Allison is joined by Dylan Kelley, Founder and CEO of Wavebreak, to discuss the power of combining SMS and email marketing, especially around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Dylan has helped many organizations grow their revenue based on a few important marketing principles: - The most successful marketing strategy makes use of both SMS and email marketing. - Well-executed creative elements on an email or text can drive revenue without altering the rest of...

In today’s conversation, host Katya Allison is joined by Mitchell Pehlke, Social Media Influencer and Student Athlete at The Ohio State University, to hear about how the recent NIL ruling affects student athletes like Mitchell. Mitchell had to dramatically limit his approach to content management when he started playing lacrosse at OSU. Rules about how student athletes were able to earn an income handicapped the kind of content he was allowed to create. Now, in a post-NIL world and with his...

In today’s conversation, host Katya Allison and Steffen Hedebrandt, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder at Dreamdata, discuss the varying journeys that customers take between their initial contact with a brand and the final sale. Steffen has spent the bulk of his career focused on B2B marketing, where the time between contact and sale, and the number of touchpoints along the way, can be extensive. This gives him a unique perspective on the customer journey, since he’s often intimately...

In today’s Customer Spotlight, host Katya Allison hears from FIVE Years Apart sisters Carolina Torrens, CEO, and Belen Torrens, COO, about their relational approach to connecting brands and influencers. The Torrens sisters know that knowledge is king when building a successful marketing strategy. In the early days of any campaign, they’re avid information gatherers, and FIVE Years Apart uses that information to foster mutually beneficial relationships between brands and...

Featuring Kaya Yurieff, Reporter at The InformationThe Information in April 2021 to launch the creator economy newsletter and write features about the fast-growing sector. Previously, she covered technology and social media platforms at CNN. She started her journalism career writing breaking news at TheStreet. She is fluent in Polish and based in New York. Episode quote:“Now, we really think of like independent musicians, as creators, we think of podcasters we think of newsletter writers,...

The importance of DE&I in today's economy is vital. Taylar Barrington-Booker, Founder, and Head of Talent and Partnerships at Agency Cliquish, explored the importance and value of DE&I for creators. During our fireside chat, we focused on the effects of DE&I in the Creator Economy, dove into what it means to creators and brands, how we can make gradual changes that are impactful, and why DE&I is a movement, not a moment. Some of the topics we discussed:> The impact of not...

During the latest Brands Talking Influencers fireside chat, How to scale your influencer program via testing, was sharing influencer marketing insights from Natural Dog Company.During the live portion, we discussed how they leverage their creator community for content to repurpose across multiple marketing channels, building brand awareness and acquiring new customers.We also touched on:Workflow best practices.How to test with purpose.Finding creators at any stage of an influencer...

The Customer Spotlight series of the GRIN Gets Real podcast highlights GRIN brands successfully leveraging creators as part of their marketing strategy. Each brand shares its brand story and insight on how creators add value to that story.In each episode, we dive into who the brand is, its customer, the creator program, and the impact the creator economy has on its brand.This customer spotlight features Inkbox.Inkbox has been producing semi-permanent tattoos and accessories since 2015 and is...