Big Lessons from Marketing’s Fearless 50

For the past couple of days, I (and the other 6,000 people at Marketing Nation Summit 2018) have had the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with some of the most successful and fearless marketers in the world. This included hearing from an all-star panel moderated by Marketo CMO Sarah Kennedy, and five remarkable members of the Marketo Fearless 50—our inaugural program sponsored by PFL and cultivated by Sarah to bring marketers from around the world who are intrepid in their use of technology, data, and leadership to drive bold digital transformation in their organizations.

Naturally, while listening to the panel discussion, I found myself thinking about how I, or anyone, can be as consistently bold, brave and inspiring in our own careers. Where is the “on button” for marketing fearlessness? How do you sustain fearlessness on a daily basis? And how do you nurture it across your organization?

As it turns out, those fearless panelists—Kristen Wendel, director of marketing operations at Planview, Emily Poulton, marketing manager at The Adecco Group, Tyler Lessard, vice president of marketing at Vidyard, Aria Pergolino CMO at Anaplan, and Nnamdi Nwoke, senior director of demand generation at GreenSky—provided answers to these and other germane questions, both in their roundtable and in video interviews.

Here are some of their best insights and experiences that resonated with me and I hope it will inspire you as well.

CMO Sarah Kennedy took the stage for day two’s opening keynote asking the question: “What does it mean to be fearless?”

“Fearlessness should be at the core of all we do,” Kennedy told the audience. “But the goal is not always success—sometimes there’s no glory, it’s just a labor of love. In fact, failure can be a gut-check moment what makes us who we are. Fearlessness sometimes just equals ‘trying’,” In other words, “leaning into what we believe and not being afraid to fail can create a better version of ourselves in the end,” she explained.

That’s fearlessness on the personal level. On the business level, with things moving so incredibly fast, Kennedy said, today’s marketers are “accountable and responsible, but have no idea what’s coming next.”

Nevertheless, she said, there are three things we can do to maintain fearlessness. First, change perspective and attitude about failure. “It can be the beginning of the story, not the end,” she said, “so accept the shift, embrace it, and take action.”

Second, pick one thing and be fearless—but not reckless—about it. “Pick one thing to experiment with and take a risk from a new perspective. Bring your conviction and, remember, what works today might not work tomorrow.”

Finally, make space for your team. “Be their catalyst,” concluded Kennedy. “Give them space to learn and grow, and don’t dilute their passions. You must create a culture of empowerment. Decide to be bold and bring bravery to all you do. As leaders, we have no choice but to this.”

Being Bold is a Mindset

The motivational mantra “be a warrior, not a worrier” applies perfectly to being a fearless marketer. For Kristen Wendel, being fearless begins with “not having an aversion to risk.” She goes even further, drawing a line in the sand against mediocrity in saying, “Being bold is a mindset. I am not okay with being average or taking the easy way out.”

Neither does Tyler Lessard pull any punches, claiming, “Fearless marketing is about embracing the idea that ‘good enough is no longer good enough,’ and having the conviction to do whatever it takes to stand out from the crowd and make your voice heard.”

Confidence Clears the Way

Confidence is a great dispeller of fear. Not surprisingly, it is a theme visited by most of the panel members. According to Emily Poulton, “The most important characteristic of a fearless marketer is to be confident—confident in your abilities, confident in what you can do.”

For Maria Pergolino, confidence gives boldness legs to stand on, saying, “Don’t just be bold. Be bold with great information, with great ideas, and then move forward with confidence.”

Tyler ties confidence to leadership, saying that “a fearless marketer must have the confidence and courage to lead by example.”

Fearless for Your Customers’ Sake

As the customer needs to be at the center of everything marketing does, it’s only natural that we be fearless in providing them value and protecting their interests. Nnamdi Nwoke believes, “The fearless marketer is a ferocious champion for the customer.”

Emily clearly agrees, saying “Fearless marketing to me is not being afraid of doing what you think is right for the customer.”

Tyler draws the inspiration for his fearlessness from the responses his company gets from its customers. “Replies that ‘I love you guys,’ and “Vidyard has a soul and I thank you for that,’ are all the inspiration I need,” he says.

When Opportunities Knock

Fearlessness in the face of new opportunities is another theme picked up by many of the panelists. Emily believes, “Opportunity inspires me to be bold. You’ve got to find opportunities and take them while you can.” Leaving full-time employment and taking a contract role at her current company was just such an opportunity. “Terrifying, but so worth it,” she claims.

Says Maria, “The most courageous thing I’ve ever done is just following great market opportunities and not being scared to take the next step.”

Partnerships and Leadership

We are at a time that marketers must step forward and take responsibility for the end-to-end customer journey, which often means stepping outside of our comfort zones. It’s daunting but necessary. Kristen believes in the power of partnerships. “Find someone within your organization that shares your passion and your vision for marketing,” she says. “Don’t try to go out and do it alone.”

Emily councils, “Believe in yourself, but also do not be arrogant. You need to be able to take people with you and bring people up and help them on the way.”

Maria adds that knowledge of marketing is not enough. “You really have to understand the entire business; all of those things that make up having great business acumen are critical to being a fearless marketer.”

Finding the Fearlessness “On” Button

How do you jump-start fearlessness? Says Maria, “Being fearless to me is really just moving forward, getting stuff done, being excited about what you are doing and then, most importantly, sharing that back so that all of us can do better together.”

Emily boils it down to, “Always trust yourself. Trust your abilities. And just be the best person you can.”

Concludes Nnamdi, with a smile, “Any marketer who is looking to step out there and be fearless and bold, my advice would be to just go for it. Do something that dazzles and amazes, and always push the envelope of your job each and every day.”

Ready to Join the Fearless 50’s Class of 2018?

If you, like me, sat in my seat and had goosebumps from the fearless stories, and know someone just like that, nominate them to join the 2018 class of the Fearless 50. You have until May 8^th to put in your nominations. Create a short video and post on social media with #Fearless50. Read more about it here.

And keep checking back here because we’ll be sharing more of the Fearless 50 stories with you. Now take a step, do something fearless today. I am.

The post Big Lessons from Marketing’s Fearless 50 appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from Marketo Marketing Blog https://blog.marketo.com/2018/05/lessons-marketings-fearless-50.html

8 Impressive Ways to Start a Cover Letter, with Examples

According to Addison Group, only 18% of employers rank cover letters as important.

But if you had to flip through a hundred cover letters a day, and each one began, “To whom it may concern, I am applying for the digital marketing position at your company,” how important would you rank them?

A cover letter might not always be the most important thing to a hiring manager, but if your resume or connections aren’t enough to get you through the door, a powerful cover letter could be the factor that gets you an interview. For instance, a hiring manager might only read your cover letter if your resume raised questions about why you’re applying for the position, or why you’re leaving your current role. In cases like this, your cover letter can become a critical factor in whether or not you move forward.

Your cover letter is an opportunity to showcase your personality, display your interest in the job, and include relevant information that otherwise wouldn't be surfaced in your application. But there’s a fine line between standing out and coming across as brash or gimmicky. An ideal cover letter leaves the hiring manager with a positive and memorable impression of you, something a resume alone won’t always do.

Read on to find out eight ways to grab an employer’s attention with an exceptional cover letter introduction.

1. Start with humor.

Employers are humans too, and they’ll often appreciate a good joke, pun, or funny opening line as much as the next person. If done tastefully and respectfully, starting your cover letter off with a joke can be an excellent way to stand out.

Plus, a joke can still include a powerful explanation for why you’re the right person for the job, without coming off as boastful. For instance, think about something you love to do or something you’re really good at, and then imagine how friends or family might make a joke about it -- if you’re really good at analyzing data, for example, a joke or pun related to that might be a good way to exemplify both your skills and personality.

Here’s a good example of using humor to bring attention to your skills, from The Muse: “I considered submitting my latest credit card statement as proof of just how much I love online shopping, but I thought a safer approach might be writing this cover letter, describing all the reasons why I’m the girl who can take Stylight’s business to the next level.”

Right away, the personality displayed here grabs the reader’s attention. Even better, this applicant uses humor to convey an important message to the employer -- she loves shopping, and she’s well-versed in ecommerce as a consumer -- which might’ve otherwise not come up on her resume or phone screening.

2. Start with passion.

For an employer to know you’ll stay dedicated to the role and company, they’ll want to ensure you’re passionate about what the job entails. Passion is more incentivizing than a paycheck.

For an employer, demonstrating how your passion matches the required skillset is a promising sign that you’d enjoy your job -- if you enjoy your job, you’re more likely to stick around longer, help drive company growth, and become a dedicated member of the team.

Consider starting your cover letter with a few lines that showcase your passion: “I’ve been passionate about writing since I was ten years old. My love for writing has led me to write two personal travel blogs, get published in a local newspaper, and pursue two summer internships at publishing firms. Now, I’d love the opportunity to combine my writing skills with my interest in storytelling as a content marketer at Company A.”

If you don’t have extensive work experience in the industry you're trying to break into, but you’ve been unofficially preparing for years, let the employer know. In the above example, the candidate’s resume would probably look weak, with only internships indicating professional experience. Her cover letter introduction, however, shows the employer she’s been writing for audiences and advancing her natural ability for years.

3. Start with an accomplishment.

Employers like seeing numbers. It isn’t enough to mention you’re a “digital marketer with proven success in SEO strategies.” Proven success? Okay, can we see?

It’s more powerful to provide statistics. You want to show the employer you’re capable of solving for long-term results. How have you contributed to your company’s bottom line? For instance, did your Facebook marketing campaign grow your social media following, or has your blog content increased organic traffic?

Consider starting your cover letter with something like this: “Over the past year as digital marketing manager at Company A, I’ve generated $30k+ in revenue, increased organic traffic to our blog by 14%, and almost tripled our social media ROI.”

Even if you don’t have the work experience to report impressive numbers, you can still offer proof when opening with an accomplishment. Think about the qualitative feedback you’ve received from employers. For instance, how would your boss compliment you or tell you you’re doing a good job? An accomplishment can be as simple as your boss sending you an appreciative email regarding your diligent meeting notes.

In this example from The Muse, the applicant provides an example of a skill for which he’s been previously acknowledged: “My last boss once told me that my phone manner could probably diffuse an international hostage situation. I’ve always had a knack for communicating with people -- the easygoing and the difficult alike -- and I’d love to bring that skill to the office manager position at Shutterstock.”

Even though the applicant doesn’t offer numbers as proof of success, they do manage to highlight some proof of their past performance in the form of a former boss's praise. The candidate’s candid and funny explanation -- that his last boss liked his phone manners -- is another good way to brag about accomplishments without, well, bragging.

4. Start with excitement for the company.

Employers want to know why you like their company, and they’ll appreciate an explanation on why you’re interested. But it’s imperative your reasoning is thoughtful and considerate, and specific to the company. For instance, if you’re applying for a financial position, don’t write about your interest in finance; write about how your interest in finance relates to the company's goals.

You don’t want to just say, “I’m excited to work at Company A because I’m passionate about finance, and I think my skills and experiences will be a good match.” Sure, you’ve explained why you want to work in the financial industry, but you’ve done nothing to explain why Company A specifically suits your interests.

Instead, you’ll want to mention something about the company and culture in correlation to your interest in finance. Take a look at this example from Glassdoor: “When I discovered Accounting Solutions was hiring, I knew I had to apply. I’ve been waiting to find a company where I feel like I can make a difference while working as an accountant. Not only are your clients awesome, but the overall mission of your company is something I believe in, too.”

This candidate shows they've done their research and care about Accounting Solutions in particular. Remember, employers want to hire people who have a demonstrated interest in working at their company. They want someone who will enjoy the nature of the work, but just as importantly, they want a candidate who enjoys the work culture and the company mission as well.

5. Start with news about the company.

Mentioning company news in your introduction indicates you’ve done research on the company. Plus, including company news might give you the chance to incorporate your own values, as well. If the company just won an award for its innovative solutions in the computer industry, for instance, you might add how you value forward-thinking methods in technology, as well.

Here’s an example of an introduction that uses a newsworthy event, from Indeed: “When I saw that Company ABC was featured in Fortune Magazine last month for its commitment to renewable energy and reducing waste in the workplace -- all while experiencing triple-digit revenue growth -- I was inspired. With my track record of reducing costs by 30%+ and promoting greener workplaces, I’m excited about the possibility of taking on the account executive role to expand your company’s growth and work towards a more sustainable future.”

The candidate does a good job demonstrating how Company ABC’s news aligns well with the candidate’s personal achievements. She shows she’s done her research on the company, and also indicates she values similar environmental efforts in the workplace.

6. Start with what they don’t know.

Your cover letter should never directly restate what’s already listed on your resume -- it should offer something new, expand on what the employer already knows about you, and offer new details about what you can bring to the company. Impress employers by telling them something about your skills or experiences they don’t already know.

To offer new information not displayed on his resume, one of my colleagues at HubSpot wrote this cover letter introduction: “My resume will tell you I’m Content Marketing Certified. Your records will tell you I’ve interviewed for a few different HubSpot positions in the past. What neither one will tell you is that I’ve been working with your customer success team to build a new campaign strategy for my company--one of your latest (and largest) clients.”

The candidate wrote an introduction that captured the reader’s attention and demonstrated he wasn’t interested in wasting anyone’s time. This is a memorable and impressive tactic. Consider writing a similar introduction, where you provide information absent from your resume.

7. Start with what you can bring to the table.

A hiring manager here at HubSpot told me she always looks for cover letters to tell her how the company and applicant can benefit each other.

Any employer is going to want to know why you think you can grow from the position you're applying to. An employer is more inclined to hire you if she thinks you have a genuine, intrinsic motivation to work hard in the role.

A hiring manager is also going to want to know how you’ll contribute to the company’s larger vision and goals. It’s important for the manager to know what you want to get out of the role, but it’s equally important to know how you’ll help the company grow. How will the company benefit from you, over someone else?

Here’s an example: “I am seeking opportunities to improve my writing ability in a forward-thinking environment, while growing organic traffic and optimizing content to beat out competitors in search engines. At Company A, I believe I will find that match.”

See how it works? In the example above, the candidate explained how she’d benefit from the role. She also explained what Company A could get out of the transaction -- increased organic traffic, and optimized content -- so the hiring manager is informed of the equality of the potential relationship.

8. Start with a statement that surprises them.

When applying for a role at HubSpot, one of my colleagues began her cover letter like this: “I like to think of myself as a round peg thriving in a square hole kind of world.”

Doesn’t that make you want to keep reading? It certainly kept me interested. Of course, you’ll only want to include a bold statement if you can follow it up with some concrete supporting information. My colleague, for example, continued by writing this: “What does this mean? It means that my diverse background makes me a well-rounded candidate who is able to comprehend, develop and execute various functions in business.”

While the rest of her cover letter veered on the side of professsional, her opening line was casual, quirky, and surprising. Plus, you feel her personality in the line, and when an employer feels like a real person is behind the cover letter, she’s going to want to keep reading.

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-start-cover-letter

Facebook for Dating, and 5 Key Takeaways From F8

We kind of saw this coming, did we not?

In Facebook's most primitive days -- if you can remember a time when it was restricted to college students, there was no News Feed, and status updates forced the inclusion of the word "is" -- there was also the "Poke" feature.

Poking, as many of you recall, was a fairly simple feature in which you could click a button that allowed you to "poke" someone else on Facebook -- often, even if you weren't friends with the person. That user would then receive a notification that you had Poked them, and could Poke you back, ignore you, or send you a message.

And I'm about to get real with y'all. Back in the day, I loved the Poke feature. As a fresh college grad/twenty-something, Poking was a simple gateway to indirectly introduce yourself to someone with whom you had mutual friends but didn't yet know yourself, or -- as was more often in my case -- flirt with someone.

So now, nearly 12 years after the height of my Poke usage, the inevitable has happened: Facebook is getting into the dating game. And that was just one of the major announcements made in today's opening keynote at F8: Facebook's annual developer conference in San Jose, California.

Facebook for Dating, and 5 Key Takeaways From F8

1. Leading up to the Event

There was a lot of speculation around what the nature of this year's opening keynote might be like. I predicted that one of three things would happen:

1. Mark Zuckerberg would ignore the recent Cambridge Analytica and data privacy scandal entirely -- which is not entirely unlike what he did for the opening keynote at Oculus Connect in October, not long after it had been revealed that foreign actors had weaponized the network to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
2. Zuckerberg would mention the scandal at the beginning of the keynote, but quickly move on to product announcements and new initiatives.
3. Zuckerberg would lean into the "mea culpa" aspect of the scandal to the point where the keynote would almost go overboard.

In the end, it seemed that the keynote was a combination of the second and third predictions, with Zuckerberg kicking things off with a mea culpa and maintaining that theme of safety, people first, and privacy reverberating throughout the two-hour opener.

We kick things off with a video mea culpa. Really starting to think the keynote will go in the direction of leaning almost too far into “we messed up” pic.twitter.com/tg4tZMRkSM

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW) May 1, 2018

"This has been an intense year," Zuckerberg said. "I can't believe we're only four months in."

And not just for him, he was sure to point out -- but for many of the developers that have long leveraged the Facebook platform to build experiences and marketing initiatives. Those in the audience, Zuckerberg acknowledged, were trying to use the platform to build good things, and that was why Facebook has reopened app review. (More on that here.)

Before the keynote even began, Zuckerberg published a post on his official Facebook page on the soon-to-be-launched "Clear History" feature, which will allow users to see which websites and apps send Facebook information on when they're used, and delete that information from their accounts. Users will also be able to turn off Facebook's access and storage of that information in their accounts moving forward.

It's not entirely unlike the ability to delete your browsing history, cookies, and cache from a web browser, causing many to argue that this move is long overdue for Facebook. And yet, writes Facebook VP and Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan in a formal written announcement, "It will take a few months to build Clear History."

Facebook is adding a new "Clear History," catching up to, um, Netscape... @dmccabe in @axios https://t.co/0ufi4nJuUG

— Scott Rosenberg (@scottros) May 1, 2018

But overall, Zuckerberg opened the keynote with remarks not entirely unlike those used to start his congressional hearings last month: acknowledging Facebook's role in organizing good things, but how that's come with the bad -- including Russian interference and major setbacks from data privacy problems.

From there, it the focus was almost entirely forward-facing, with a constant underlying theme on "people first."

2. The Emphasis On "People First"

Not long into his opening remarks, Zuckerberg commented on "how little of our industry is focused on people first. ... I believe we have to design technology to bring people closer together."

That's one thing Facebook set out to do even before the Cambridge Analytica fallout, but after foreign interference was revealed, when it overhauled its News Feed algorithm in January to give better ranking to content from friends and family.

Since then, Facebook has continued to lean into the narrative, announcing several new initiatives today to emphasize experiences on the network and the other apps it owns that bring people together.

Watch Party

Facebook first unveiled its plans for Watch Party -- a group video-view feature that allows Facebook friends to watch an event on the network as a group -- in January, when Facebook VP of Product Fidji Simo published a blog post on the experience.

Today, Watch Party had its official debut, with Zuckerberg making light of his recent Congressional hearings as an example of something your friends might want to watch on Facebook together while commenting it in real-time -- something that some of his friends actually did last month, he said.

Ha , ha. On rolling out the new Watch Party feature: “let’s say your friend is testifying before Congress. Now you can watch it as a group” — which Zuck says some of his friends did, in fact. “Let’s not do that again any time soon.” pic.twitter.com/7ljwRX5hTw

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW) May 1, 2018

3. Facebook for Dating

Yes, here we arrive at the inevitable: new features that Facebook will be rolling out within the realm of dating.

To cover the ground rules, here are a few of the items Zuckerberg immediately addressed when he first unveiled this new, yet-to-be-named product:

• Dating will not "co-mingle" with the rest of your Facebook experience and will "live" separately from the rest of the network's tools or features.
• Your friends will not be able to see if you're using the dating features, nor will you be matched with any friends who are using it.
• According to tech journalist Molly Wood, it won't be available to those who have indicated they are "Married" or "In a Relationship" on their profiles.

Oh, Jesus. Facebook is launching "a new set of features around dating" ... focused on "long-term relationships, not hookups," and it's been designed "with privacy and safety in mind," and you won't see any of your friends in your potential matches.

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW) May 1, 2018

Who else remembers when Poking was first a thing? #F8 pic.twitter.com/d1bsahkB5t

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW) May 1, 2018

The news of Facebook for dating seemed to spook many investors in competing apps, like Match Group, which owns many of the players in the space like Tinder. Here's a look at how MTCH's stock was behaving as of writing this post:

Source: Google

As I mentioned in the introduction, this move makes sense for Facebook, especially when you consider that it will be integrated with the network's event and group features. For the former, for instance, users enrolled in the dating features can see other "singles" who will be at an event that interests them, and given tools to connect in advance.

It also aligns with Facebook's recent "bringing people together" campaign and the messaging around it making a statement that the company wants to go back to its roots of connecting people. Where once that was limited, at least on the surface, to friends and family, now there will be a designated system for forging romantic relationships through the site. That's the plan, at least.

But it serves as a possible significant new revenue stream for Facebook. Its pricing structure, if any, was not mentioned in today's announcement, and given the financial reprecussions (even if they are only short-term for now) experienced by publicly-traded competitors, this could be another space for acquisition for Facebook.

One of the first brands in the space that I thought of was dating space Bumble ... 

Honestly though, Facebook getting into the dating game makes sense. I wouldn't be surprised if we see an acquisition down the road of the apps that aren't already owned by Match ... like Bumble, maybe

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW) May 1, 2018

... who, according to a statement, had already been in talks about ways to collaborate before today's announcement was made.

Here's a statement from Bumble about Facebook getting into the dating space. Reminder: Bumble is looking for an acquirer... pic.twitter.com/C8rk0jwb89

— Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8) May 1, 2018

4. New From Instagram

Watch Party wasn't the only new group chat feature unveiled today. Similar capabilities will also be coming to Instagram, with a video call feature due to roll out in the coming weeks.

Source: Instagram

But perhaps even more significant was Instagram's announcement that it would be adding a new filter for bullying comments. This filter will have a particular emphasis on younger members of Instagram, especially those who are public figures.

"This new filter hides comments containing attacks on a person’s appearance or character, as well as threats to a person’s well-being or health," the official announcement reads. "The bullying filter is on for our global community and can be disabled in the Comment Controls center in the app. The new filter will also alert us to repeated problems so we can take action."

This announcement comes after what Facebook later called a temporary "bug" that allowed all users to respond to a prompt asking if a given post contained hate speech. While it wasn't a carbon copy of these new Instagram filters, the timing was interesting, to say the least.

Some people saw 'does this post contain hate speech' today on some posts. This was a test - and a bug that we reverted within 20 mins. It was shown for a short time on posts regardless of their content (like this one). pic.twitter.com/iuNKSVTOqQ

— Guy Rosen (@guyro) May 1, 2018

Finally, Instagram is introducing new integrations within Stories: adding your listening activity from Spotify to your Story in real-time, as well as seamlessly adding GoPro video footage.

5. And finally, VR

In what was arguably the most exciting moment for most of the keynote audience, Zuckerberg announced that its VR headset Oculus Go would be shipping starting today -- and that everyone attending F8 would be receiving their own.

And everyone at #F8 is getting a free Oculus Go! "Sorry for screwing you over, developers! You get an Oculus headset! You get an Oculus headset! You get an Oculus headset!" pic.twitter.com/DPAhgaFWgb

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW) May 1, 2018

Priced at $199, many of today's speakers made the case that at that price point -- combined with its wireless nature -- the Oculus Go is the "most accessible" VR headset on the market.

It's another step in the direction of Facebook's efforts to make VR a mainstream technology. That was an underlying theme at Oculus Connect in October, where Zuckerberg stated his goal of getting one billion people using VR -- by when, we aren't sure.

But it would be yet another revenue stream for Facebook, and the company might be leaning into these other brands and how they can be monetized in the wake of shell-shocked advertisers who might be straying from the platform in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

In the meantime, Facebook is also leaning into augmented reality (AR) technology, namely by integrating new AR camera effects to Messenger: a program that will first launch in closed beta.

So Facebook now seems to be coming for some of the AR functionalities in iOS and on the Pixel that allow you to see what objects look like in your home environment #F8 pic.twitter.com/pmBOJT2bqD

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW) May 1, 2018

That's a wrap on the major announcements from today. Day 2 of F8 kicks off with another keynote at 10:00 AM PST, and I'll be there, live-tweeting and offering insights.

Of course, after the event, there will likely be more thoughts coming out of the woodwork regarding how these changes can impact the tech industry at-large and the businesses that use it -- and I'll be offering up an analysis of it when the conference has concluded.

In the meantime, if you've got questions or something you're hoping to come out of tomorrow's keynote, feel free to weigh in on Twitter.

Featured image credit: Facebook

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-f8-2018-announcements

Why SaaS Brand Advocacy Is More Important than Ever in 2018

Although it’s no secret that the realm of marketing is constantly evolving, it seems that the space is changing especially dramatically for SaaS companies nowadays.

And these changes are cause for concern for brands looking to flourish in 2018.

For starters, consider the overwhelming push toward personalization.

This signals the need for SaaS brands to segment their content assets and interfaces to hone in on messages that speak directly to specific customers.

Gartner predicts that by 2020, 90% of all brands will practice at least some form of real-time personalization. Currently, nearly half of the businesses polled use real-time personalization to inform the majority of their messaging. In the SaaS industry, where every interaction is ideally tracked, the opportunities are enormous.

Then, there are the recently announced changes to Facebook’s algorithm that basically mean that organic reach for pages is finally altogether dead.

Afraid of being frozen out of users’ feeds, SaaS marketers are trying not to panic in the face of what could potentially put their existing marketing funnels in jeopardy.

There’s also the rise of automation to think about.

SaaS companies are investing heavily in AI and machine learning to reduce churn and win more new customers simultaneously. From services that provide A/B testing to conversational bots that capture leads on-site, brands are rapidly experimenting with new ways to optimize their content.

Why Brand Advocacy Is Such a Big Deal for SaaS

Simply put, your content marketing strategy is at the core of your capacity to adapt as a SaaS brand. Beyond the basic benefits of driving traffic and raising brand awareness, an effective content strategy is essential to consistently nurture and onboard leads.

Conventional wisdom says that we should shell out piles of money for paid media or sponsoring influencer posts to grab people’s attention. However, is this sort of “pay-to-play” strategy really the best way to go?

In an era where social proof is such a powerful currency for marketers, it’s more important than ever for SaaS marketers to seek out brand advocates wherever we possibly can.

And who could possibly be better brand advocates than your own customers and employees? These people are already emotionally invested in your product’s success, and they know your brand better than anyone else.

Encouraging your own network to promote your content and product from their personal social accounts is a potential game-changer for SaaS brands. Rather than spend the resources to chase paid outlets and influencers, brands should focus on advocacy, which can produce better results in a shorter amount of time.

“By creating a product that solved a problem that a lot of people faced, it meant there were already millions of people looking for us when we launched,” Canva CEO Melanie Perkins recently told Forbes, “so when they found us, they told their colleagues, friends and families.”

Here are some of the biggest benefits associated with brand advocacy, along with some ways that SaaS marketers can get started with realizing them.

1. Overcome Content Overload and Mistrust

In an era where people are consuming a staggering 12 hours or more of content per day, your customers obviously have a lot to sift through. And trust in the media – which includes “platforms” like social apps, by the way – continues to sit on shaky ground.

While the concept of “quality content” might be cliché at this point, consider how a higher volume of shares highlights a piece of content as buzzworthy. This is social proof at its best.

Content shares and product recommendations work because people trust peers and thought leaders more than they trust brands and institutions.

Bear in mind that employees who serve as active advocates on social media can quickly emerge as influencers on your behalf. Indeed, transforming your own employees into thought leaders is a desirable byproduct of brand advocacy.

2. Expand Your Reach Organically

No matter how you slice it, competition in the SaaS space is fierce.

Considering that there are approximately 5,000 brands in the martech space alone, SaaS companies must fight tooth and nail for the attention of potential customers.

Think of advocacy as a sort of numbers game. The more people promoting your content, paid or otherwise, the more likely you are to break through the noise and reach the people who need your product most.

When you encourage employees to regularly promote your content with their own social media audiences, you essentially amass a small army of promoters you can call on time and time again. This year’s State of Employee Advocacy study from JEM Consulting found that over 75% of respondents see their advocacy program as yielding satisfactory or better results.

Whether you’re dealing with a few dozen or a few hundred employees, those numbers are nothing to scoff at. Through social brand advocacy, you exponentially increase your social reach and potential to be seen by leads.

And keep in mind – in many cases, all it takes is for the right person to see a link and opt in for a free trial to pave the way to the sale. TOPO CEO Scott Albro notes that the smaller the company your prospect works for, the more likely he or she will be to stick with your product once the trial period expires:

“SaaS buyers won’t engage in more than one trial. Our data shows that this is particularly true in the small and medium size business market where buyers tend to comparison-shop less. You need to make sure that buyers find your trial first. You also need to make sure that you don’t squander that opportunity when you get it.”

3. Engage Your Employees

Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of encouraging brand advocates among employees is the actually task of asking them to do so.

While most workers would be glad to promote your content, keep in mind that brands should treat advocacy like any other sort of campaign. That means having a defined strategy and measuring performance.

But SaaS teams often have highly specialized skill sets. You can’t expect everyone to be a seasoned content marketer and social seller, too. Instead of having employees post content haphazardly, consider some of the tools out there that help streamline the process of internal brand advocacy.

One such tool is Smarp, which aggregates company news and industry-relevant content to categorized feeds. Team members can pick up the content that speaks to them most and schedule posts for their own profiles with just a few clicks.

This cuts down on potential wastes of time on social media and streamlines the process of sharing new content amongst your workers.

Features such as gamification signal the most active advocates within any given company, providing additional incentives for employees to become eager advocates. In addition to content aggregation, Smarp provides analytics on both a company-wide and personal level to identify top advocates.

This type of system works because it makes employees from all departments into partners in your SaaS product’s exponential sales growth success, a process which Roketto Co-founder Ulf Lonegren compares to the growth of a tree that spawns more trees:

“Make your employees proud of the work they do, make them feel like an important part of the process by reminding them how the software provides value and informing them of the successes, listen to their ideas, and provide a sales chart in the engine room that tracks the progress. Set sales goals and provide rewards for reaching those goals. Provide incentives for team members to make sales. In this world of mass marketing, word of mouth often provides the authenticity that buyers want when seeking a product, so remember that every member of your team could be that one oak tree, and from one tree many nuts can fall.”

4. Supercharge Your Social Selling

SaaS customers are heavily influenced by what they see on social media when it comes time to make purchases.

This rings true in terms of how often they see content and the sharers of that content. If social posts from sales pros, marketers and brands themselves are deemed less worthy of people’s attention than social posts from peers and laymen, then it follows logically that your prospects are more likely to respond favorably to content shared by a high volume of people.

Research from Sana indicates that social media is the number two driver of digital sales in the B2B sector, ranking just behind onsite buying.

Again, the numbers game of brand advocacy comes to light based on what your customers see on social media.

According to LinkedIn, 87% of social customers have a favorable view of products that were introduced them through their own network. By promoting products via employees, you have access to personal networks that you might not otherwise reach exclusively through a brand channel.

Keep in mind that the average buyer consumes over 11 pieces of content before they’re ready to respond favorably to a sales pitch. Similarly, 61% of customers have made a purchase based on a recommendation from a blog. A greater number of brand advocates translates into more brand equity in the minds of potential customers, which makes it easier for sales reps to build relationships on social channels and to close more deals in shorter sales cycles.

And those sales cycles need as much shortening as they can get, in order to remain scalable. The Bridge Group’s Matt Bertuzzi notes that total contract value for a SaaS conversion correlates with the number of days it takes sales reps to seal the deal. According to his firm’s data, B2B SaaS sales cycles can last anywhere from five weeks to five months.

Dennis Koutoudis from LinkedIn SuperPowers told SalesHacker that he sees prospecting on social media, especially on LinkedIn, as one of the key SaaS sales opportunities of 2018:

“I predict that the usage of LinkedIn Sales Navigator by Sales Teams will increase considerably, enabling them both to zero in on their target prospects with extreme precision and also to delve deeper into Social Selling. The key here is to focus on providing value, build trust and develop solid professional relationships with target prospects that will ultimately improve sales figures. Great emphasis will also be placed on the way we present ourselves as Sales Professionals on the LinkedIn platform since with such fierce competition, now more than ever, we need to not only stand out in our professional field but also to engage in actions that will significantly increase our visibility on the LinkedIn platform.”

Prospecting platforms like 2Factr’s SocialPort are major game-changers in this regard. Social selling teams can use this tool to scale operations, thanks to smart libraries of content assets that reps can append to posts on the fly, as well as sophisticated contact intelligence data that can be used for qualifying leads mid-discussion and enriching CRM entries.

5. Keep Your Content Budget Under Control

According to Content Marketing Institute, 38% of brands are looking to up their content marketing budgets in 2018. Even so, that’s no excuse for brands to spend recklessly.

And given the emphasis on automation and other tools that could potentially cut into any given SaaS company’s budget, a leaner content marketing strategy just plain makes sense.

When your employees and customers are doing the legwork of promoting your brand, you cut out any sort of middleman when it comes to promotion. While there might be a time and place for paid media or influencers, SaaS brands should focus on an organic promotion strategy that keeps costs down.

Encouraging brand advocacy costs next to nothing compared to paid media. Additionally, popping up more and more via social media could actually score you earned media mentions as an added bonus.

Based on the previously noted CMI study, 50% of marketers believe that their ROI is closely linked to the way they go about distributing content. Rather than paying for promotion and distribution, creating your own advocates represents a more financially sensible strategy.

Conclusion

As competition continues to emerge in the SaaS space, having voices on deck to promote your content becomes a critical piece of standing out from the crowd.

Not only does advocacy keep content marketing costs down, but allows SaaS brands to seamlessly signal their authority. Rather than pay for that same credibility, why not generate it yourself?

And while marketing strategies at large never stay the same for long, brand advocacy is here to stay.

About the Author: Nadav is a veteran online marketer and the Founder & CEO of InboundJunction, an Israel-based content marketing company. Nadav helps well-known brands in boosting their online visibility through PR, SEO and Social Media.

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog https://blog.kissmetrics.com/saas-brand-advocacy/

What I Learned About Marketing From Lindsey Vonn

This week at the Marketing Nation Summit, Marketo is excited to bring one of the most fearless athletes of our time to the keynote stage—Olympic skier, Lindsey Vonn.

Now, a quick disclaimer that I’m not an athletic person. I went skiing exactly once when I was 13. I fell down the hill, kicked myself in the face with my ski, took them off, and never put them back on again.

I already admired Vonn for putting on those skis every day and getting onto the slopes, but once I dove deeper into her life and career, I had even more respect for her. Her career is directly applicable to our marketing lives.

In this blog, I’ll explain the five things I learned about marketing from Lindsey Vonn’s career.

1.    Be Fearless in the Face of Adversity

Lindsey has had a career filled with injuries, from broken bones to torn ligaments, serving as roadblocks on her quest for greatness. They never stopped her. Not only is she the fastest woman on skis to ever walk this earth, she’s a bad@ss in the face of adversity. Currently, Lindsey is looking to raise the stakes for herself even higher. She’s petitioned the International Ski Federation to be able to race against men in a World Cup race in November 2018. Her quest to compete is not only inspiring; it’s something that marketers can learn from.

All too often, we’re afraid to make big decisions for fear of failure. Lindsey fully admits that she may not do very well when she goes head-to-head (or is it ski-to-ski?) with her male counterparts. But she knows she has to take the risk to get the reward. As marketers, we aren’t as risk-averse as many of our colleagues, but we do have a tendency to rely on the same tactics and campaigns that work. Take a risk and try something new—you never know what you’ll learn.

2.    Protect Your Personal Brand

Lindsey’s been just as successful off the slopes as she is on. With partnerships with powerful companies like Red Bull, Under Armour, Bounty, and more, Lindsey is not only financially savvy; she’s dedicated to making her image as positive and well-known as it possibly can be. She’s careful with her partnership choices because ultimately, her partners also help define her personal brand.

Your personal brand as a marketer will follow you from company to company. Your tenure at ABC Corp might be five years, but you will be you for the rest of your life. As you build your personal brand, it’s important not to make career moves for the money. One company may offer you a higher salary and bigger perks, but if their values conflict with yours (e.g. you’re known for being an environmentalist and you sign with a known polluter,) you’re tarnishing your brand. Choose wisely, and you’ll keep a consistent brand for yourself throughout your career.

3.    Be Aware of Your Impact

Not only does Lindsey impact lives on the slopes by encouraging others to give it their all and beat their own records, but she also runs the Lindsey Vonn Foundation. With this nonprofit platform, she’s committed to engaging the community around her and influencing future generations with positivity and opportunity. She’s supporting women around the world through scholarships, education, and athletics to help them grow.

While Lindsey doesn’t likely have an ROI number she needs to report back to the rest of her team, she does have a lot of people looking to her for inspiration. Likewise, marketers have to prove their impact constantly to maintain both their budgets and their jobs. As you set out to create each new campaign, do so with a clear understanding of its intended impact on the business.  Equip yourself, and your team, with a way to measure the process with success metrics along the way. Marketers shouldn’t fear the challenge of proving their impact. Instead, it’s an opportunity to show exactly how much you are moving the needle every day.

4.    Let Yourself Be Coached

It can be hard to accept feedback—especially if you feel like you’re doing just fine. Excellent athletes like Lindsey know that a good coach can improve their game. Lindsey knows she can’t do it alone. She’s had fantastic coaches and mentors over the years to help her improve.

In your marketing career, feedback is vital—but learning to accept it and apply it can be tough. Whether it’s a more experienced marketer or a teammate who can offer you an outside perspective, creating opportunity for honest feedback can really make your efforts soar.

5.    If You Fall, Get Back Up

Lindsey falls. A lot. Any great athlete can tell you how often they airballed before they scored that first mid-court three-pointer, or how they didn’t get it right the first time they tried. It’s important to remember that failure is only a momentary setback in your journey. If you fall or make a mistake, it’s vital to get back up and try again. It’s the only way to move forward and learn.

As a marketer, you will fail. You will spend hours, days, weeks, maybe even a year, working on a campaign that doesn’t live up to your expectations. You’ll spend hours on a project that never sees the light of day. You’ll send things out with typos that you SWORE you fixed. You’ll schedule emails that wake you up in the middle of the night because you remember you forgot to include the date in an invitation that’s scheduled to go out in an hour. You will fail. But, like Lindsey Vonn, it’s vital to get back up, dust yourself off, and keep skiing.

Who inspires you? Is there someone like Lindsey you’ve learned from? Tell me about your experiences in the comment section.

The post What I Learned About Marketing From Lindsey Vonn appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from Marketo Marketing Blog https://blog.marketo.com/2018/05/learned-marketing-lindsey-vonn.html

What Does a Future With No Jobs Look Like?

In 1931, at the height of the Great Depression, British economist John Maynard Keynes published the essay, "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren."

Keynes concluded that the Depression was only temporary and predicted that by 2030, people would work no more than 15 hours a week, devoting the rest of their time to leisure and culture.

Keynes was right about economic growth recovering, but most of us work far more than 15 hours a week. We’re still living in a time of over-rapid changes. Technological innovation has fundamentally changed the way we work, but are we really moving toward a society where humans are free to pursue culture and leisure while enjoying an age of abundance?

We Are Living in An Unprecedented Age of Change & Progress

For the majority of human existence, we’ve made progress at an unremarkable pace, but in the last 80 years, as this chart shows, progress has exploded.

Human progress can be marked by five significant revolutions, the most transformative of which occurred 50 years ago, as Yuval Noah Harari wrote in Sapiens. First was the Cognitive Revolution; about 70,000 years ago, we invented language and started to preserve knowledge. Then came the Agricultural Revolution; about 11,000 years ago, we transformed from nomadic tribes to town and city dwellers after we learned how to harness the power of nature to farm instead of forage for food. The Scientific Revolution brought Europe into the age of imperialism and rapid expansion about 500 years ago. This in turn kickstarted the Industrial Revolution, about 250 years ago and Information Revolution, about 50 years ago.

Each time human history jumps forward, we’ve replaced countless jobs by inventing ways to do them better: The farmer replaced the hunter, steam engines replaced human workers. At every single point, such inventions have coincided with rapid economic growth, making the lives of humans better off as a whole.

Even though we’ve demonstrably been good at replacing ourselves with machines, we still pride ourselves on being the best thinkers and decision makers on earth. Because while machines could help a farmer increase his crop yield, the ultimate decision on what to sow and when to harvest still lies on him.

We believed we were the best thinkers and fastest learners on earth. But it’s no longer true.

In 2016, history was made when AlphaGo became the first computer program to beat the highest ranked professional Go player, Lee Sedol, without handicaps. One reason this was so impressive is that Go is considered much more difficult than other strategy-based board games, with over 250 possible opening moves compared to chess’ 20.

Machines are rapidly replicating (and improving upon) our previously unique ability to learn quickly and make decisions in reaction to changes in our environment. Eventually, machines could replace most types of jobs  --  including roles where the worker has to make decisions based on limited amounts of information, not just routine and predictable human labor.

It’s Hard for Humans to Predict Technological Change

If someone invented a time machine and transported an ordinary person from the 16th century to the 18th century, she would not, for all intents and purposes, have a hard time understanding the world. The same would not be true if someone was transported from the 18th century to the 20th century  --  technology has changed so quickly that she’d probably think she’d been brought to a different universe!

The changes in outputs of key industries created a drastically different worldThe changes in outputs of key industries created a drastically different world.

In the same vein, if you asked a factory worker from the 1970s if he believed that machines would eventually put him out of a job, he would find the question hard to understand, let alone answer. That’s why we must constantly question our understanding of the rate of technological progress and acknowledge that the vast majority of us are ill-equipped to make sense of it all.

It’s estimated that as much as half the world’s labor could be automated over the next 20 years. There are two potential outcomes of this massive disruption of the labor market:

(1) an era of mass unemployment and social instability, or
(2) an age of abundance where we are free to pursue creative work

Scenario 1: An Era of Social Instability

In 1990, the real inflation-adjusted income of the median American household reached $54,932, but then started falling. By 2011, it had fallen nearly 10%, even as overall GDP hit a record high, according to The Second Machine Age by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee.

Source: The Second Machine Age

In contrast, productivity grew at an average of 1.56% per year during this period, and most of this growth directly translated into comparable increases in average income. Brynjolffson and McAfee argue that median income shrank because of increases in inequality.

Source: The Second Machine AgeRay Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates , came to the same conclusion. In October 2016, Dalio evaluated the US economy by separating it into two cohorts, the top 40% and the bottom 60%.

He found that the average household in the top 40% earns four times more than the average household in the bottom 60%. While the bottom 60% has experienced some recent income growth, real incomes have been flat to slightly down since 1980 (in the same time period, income has increased for the top 40%). Those in the top 40% now have on average 10 times as much wealth as those in the bottom 60%.

Brynjolfsson and McAfee argue that the main driver of this inequality in income is the rapid downward pressure on wages for jobs that are being fully or partially replaced with automation.

For example, if one hour’s worth of human labor can be done by a machine for one dollar, then under a free-market system, profit-focused employers won’t offer a wage of more than one dollar. That worker will need to settle for lower wages, and could be laid off entirely.

Because digital technologies can replicate innovative ideas at low cost, a person who finds a way to leverage them will earn exponentially more than has been possible  --what Brynjolfsson and McAfee call a “winner-take-all” market. For example, a relatively small number of designers and engineers could create fact-checking software. Once the software works, it can be delivered to millions of users at almost zero cost. If this software gains widespread adoption, tens of thousands of fact checkers will be put out of work while a small group of individuals capture the wealth their software created.

A second important characteristic of winner-take-all markets is that individuals who create disruptive technologies don’t just get relative advantages — they win the whole market. In a traditional market, someone who was 90% as good would make 90% as much money. But in today’s market, there’s no reason to use the second-best fact-checking software when you can access the best.

In this type of economy, innovators gain disproportionate wealth while reducing demand for previously important types of labor.

This wealth gap will likely intensify if we fail to implement preemptive measures. In a hyperbolic scenario where technology causes mass unemployment, consumers will have less money to spend on products and services. Businesses will have to chase a shrinking pool of customers by cutting prices, sending the whole economy into a deflationary spiral.

 

Scenario 2: An Age of Abundance

The economic inequality that’s resulted from technological progress doesn’t show any signs of slowing, and the gap has implications beyond just differences in net worth. Another data point from Dalio’s study suggests that as differences in wealth get wider, premature deaths among the bottom 60% will also increase. We’ve already been seeing this trend from an increase in deaths associated with drug and alcohol use (up 100% since 2000) and an increase in suicides (up over 50% since 2000).
Unless action is taken to reduce this inequality, it is very likely that it will only continue to rapidly worsen. It won’t be an easy path  --  potential solutions require major changes in social policy that can only occur through a political process and require a dramatic shift in how we distribute wealth.

If policies aimed at solving this issue are successful, there’s a chance technological advancement could create an age of abundance, where we find viable solutions to mitigate the effects of a widening income gap caused by a consolidation of wealth.
One possible solution to provide people with basic security is a Universal Basic Income (UBI). A country using this system would pay citizens a basic wage that is conditional on their participation in the economy. By providing people with a safety net given their participation in the economy, people are incentivized to be productive and given the means to participate in the market.

Some proponents of UBI argue that we’ll be able to eliminate all social welfare programs once UBI is instituted, since those programs are just alternate ways of giving people money. One income system eliminates the need to run multiple programs side by side, reducing cost and complexity.

Another potential solution is the negative income tax. Under the present tax law, we operate a positive income tax, where a household is progressively taxed after income reaches a certain cutoff point. Under a negative income tax system, a person earning less than that cutoff point has a negative taxable income of the difference between their earnings and a cutoff point. Think of the cutoff point as a mirror of progressive tax brackets — the higher a person’s total earnings are before they hit the cutoff, the less taxable income they have and the less they’ll receive from the government.

This system provides a minimum income while incentivizing people to work. Research by Brynjolfsson and McAfee shows that people still stay productive if a negative income tax is in use. For example, if a cutoff point was $3,000 in annual income, someone who earned nothing could receive something like $1,500 in negative income tax and have $1,500 in total earnings for the year, but someone who earned $2,000 might receive $500 and would still end up with higher total income.

This system incentivizes people to find work, even if the income for that work is low, because they still get an uplift from every dollar they make.

A universal basic income or negative income tax could:

• Allow people to pursue work that has traditionally not been compensated well in a capitalist economy, such as community-building and social work.
• Create a more progressive entrepreneurial environment by enabling people to take bigger risks in pursuing valuable work.
• Help reorder social expectations. At the moment, we treat employment as a choice — but UBI and NIT treat unemployment as a market failure, not an individual one. As more and more people face being phased out of their jobs by automation, reframing how we think about work is essential to maintaining social stability.
• On top of UBI, another option is what Nobel Prize–winning conservative economist Milton Friedman termed as Negative Income Tax. Under the present tax law, we operate a Positive Income Tax, where a household is taxed on a Progressive Income Tax system above a certain cutoff point. Under a Negative Income Tax system, a person earning below the cutoff point will get a certain percentage of that difference from the government.

A future without jobs does not equal a future without work.

For either of these systems to work, we still have to focus on productivity, the driver of economic growth. Distributing money to be used just for consumption as a basic income rather than for improving production will diminish the value of money and stagnate the economy.

Unconditional grants of money can cause demand-pull inflation to occur because the aggregate demand for goods and services in an economy will increase more rapidly than an economy’s production.

So the key to an effective tax program would be:

1. A cutoff point or grant amount low enough that people will still strive for more
2. Grants that are only released to eligible consumers

Technology like blockchain creates an unprecedented opportunity to test out decentralized decision making on resource allocation. Using a distributed ledger system to ensure money is distributed only to people who’ve done productive work, as determined by an ever-changing set of conditions or priorities monitored by an artificial intelligence engine.

While we are still far away from developing general-purpose artificial intelligence, the computational tools we have at hand are already helping us make decisions on the factors that motivate different people. For example, Eitan Hersh, a political science professor at Yale University and the author of Hacking the Electorate: How Campaigns Perceive Voters studied how campaigns use big data and machine learning to mobilize voters. The algorithms developed to analyze voter behavior might be a precursor to developing more sophisticated models that predict how best to encourage participation in the economy.

Ultimately, the question of whether to adopt a tax system that could help solve for growing inequality is more of a political than an economic question. It’ll be difficult to suggest the concept of ‘free money’ to a country built on the idea of free markets and fiscal conservatism. Any solution will have to blend new and existing policy, and allocate spending to training programs that can help workers be better equipped to work in a post-job economy, rather than just offering a universal payment for consumption.

The fact remains that no one has all the answers, and navigating the political landscape to arrive at a solution will be an uphill battle.

The policies advocated in this piece will not be easy to implement, and even if they are successfully adopted, rising inflation and decreasing wages will not be curbed immediately.

The Way Forward

As technology continues to progress, more traditional jobs will be threatened by automation. Any solution will involve government intervention to regulate the free-market conditions that create inequality in the first place.

One potential outcome of is the call for technology to be regulated or restricted in a way so fewer jobs will be threatened. That would be a huge mistake that can happen because progress in technology is the reason why we are better off today than even just a decade ago. Research done by the team at Human Progress shows that the cost of light has fallen by a factor of 500,000, where the amount of labor that once bought 54 minutes of light now buys 52 years of light.

However, the belief that the American government agreeing to tax reformers’ idea on handing out monthly checks to support a working class is a huge leap of faith.
My hope is that we have to actively tap on technology to help make our lives better and if not, change the way we utilize it with small course corrections instead of halting advancements through regulation or denying UBI and negative income tax based on pre-conceived notions of what a free capital market is.

The policies that are currently evaluated include:

• Support sectoral training, apprenticeships, and earn-while-you-learn programs.
• Implement universal pre-K, with subsidies that phase out as incomes rise.
• Raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation while raising the overtime salary threshold.

It is likely no single solution is perfect and we have to discuss and explore a multitude of policies to create a better future. While there’s a lot of work to be done, I’m just hopeful and optimistic that the future is bright.

Interested in taking a first hand look on how Artificial Intelligence can help you do your job better instead of replacing it? GrowthBot is a chat based digital assistant to help growth professionals (Sales & Marketing) grow better.

Message GrowthBot on Facebook Messenger or Slack.

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-does-a-future-with-no-jobs-look-like

9 of the Best Free Website Builders

Today, it’s almost impossible to maintain a successful business without a fully functional, responsive, SEO-compatible website -- but you don’t have to shell out the big bucks to afford one.

There are plenty of options for building and designing a website for free -- whether you know how to code, or not -- and these website builders are often comparable in quality to their paid alternatives, particularly for small businesses or personal brands.

The free website builders we're sharing today offer SEO benefits, embedded analytics systems, mobile optimization, and professional-looking templates. If you’re on a tight budget and can’t quite swing the paid builders, these are the next best thing. Read on to check out nine of the best free website builders, so you can build a website for free without forfeiting quality.

Best free website builders

1. Wix
2. Weebly
3. WebNode
4. Jimdo
5. Mozello
6. Webstarts
7. Webflow
8. IM Creator
9. SITE123

1. Wix: Wix is one of the most popular free website builders out there, with 110 million users. The fully hosted platform offers an easy drag-and-drop editor, and a large collection of professional-looking templates that are well-suited for small businesses, online stores, restaurants, or personal portfolios.

Wix supplies built-in Google Analytics to monitor your site, and even offers additional apps for individual preferences. If you want, Wix can even design your site for you. The biggest downside of Wix’s free version is it doesn’t come ad-free, and each page of your site will have a prominent Wix ad. Ad-free is only an option if you pay for the premium version.

2. Weebly: This open source SaaS offers web hosting, domain registration, web design, and even ecommerce functions, making it suitable for businesses and startups. Weebly’s a particularly flexible website builder, compatible with every device and platform, and easy to use -- like Wix, it has drag-and-drop functionality, as well as an integrated CMS solution, and hand-coded HTML files. The in-house editor comes with SEO tools and Google Analytics. With PayPal integration, an automatic tax calculator, digital gift cards, and more, Weebly is a smart choice for ecommerce businesses. Unlike some of its other free competitors, Weebly is ad-free.

3. WebNode: WebNode is a popular choice for both personal brands and professionals -- it’s easy to use, and you can create a website in a different language or on a different platform to suit your business’s needs. WebNode supports ecommerce stores, and the sites are compatible with Android, Mac, and IOS devices. WebNode will provide statistics to track your site’s success, free of charge, and even with the free version, you won’t have ads.

4. Jimdo: Based in Germany, Jimdo is a valuable option for international companies, with options to create a site in more than nine different languages. The builder is compatible with smartphones and tablets, and there’s a mobile app you can use to build a mobile-optimized site, as well. With no page limit and 500 MB of space, you’ll likely have more than enough space to build your site, and it even provides HTTPS/SSL encryption, meaning your visitor’s information will be kept safe. Plus, you’re able to integrate your site seamlessly with social media accounts. If you do decide to use Jimdo, beware of one thing: the builder prevents free websites from being indexed by search engines.

5. Mozello: One of the biggest selling-points for this Latvian-based company is the builder allows you to create a multilingual site for free -- something unmatched by other website builders. Its features include a blog, online store, SEO options, and 500 MB of storage. There is an advertisment, but it’s just a link in the footer, so most visitors won’t see it. The only drawback is the drag-and-drop system isn’t as intuitive or complex as some other options, and there aren’t a ton of design customization options.

6. Webstarts: With a wide collection of beautiful templates and a user-friendly drag and drop functionality, Webstarts makes building a website as simple as possible: best of all, whatever you see when you’re designing is exactly what your visitors will see when you publish the site. This can take some of the guess-work out of the process.

7. Webflow: While most of the other builders in this list are for people without a ton of coding knowledge, Webflow is specifically for designers and agencies who build sites for clients -- this means the HTML and CSS is entirely in your control. After you’ve built a site on Webflow, you will need to transfer it to a content management system. There are some features, like drag-and-drop widgets for adding social components, maps, and videos, that don’t require coding knowledge, but if you want the full benefits of Webflow, you’ll need to know HTML or CSS. There’s a limited set of themes, a responsive interface, and your Webflow site can be customized for desktop, tablets, or smartphones. Apart from the necessity of knowing code, one other drawback of Webflow is you can only have two pages, and there’s a limit of 500 visits for free users.

8. IM Creator: With over 11, 240, 766 sites build on IM Creator, it’s a popular option for a few reasons: there’s an easy point-and-click interface, an extensive range of templates and images, and unlimited web hosting and domain services. Plus, the platform is scalable, and you can have either single or multipage layouts. This builder is unique for its built-in ecommerce tools, and offers SEO and Google Analytics to fully optimize your site for search engines.

9. SITE123: Arguably one of the most flexible and easy-to-use builders, Site123 lets you customize anything and offers a one-click installation wizard with graphics and templates. Site123 stands out as particularly helpful with its free images library, professional fonts to add visual elements to your site, and creative DIY plans for creating multiple pages (which are unlimited). Plus, since it offers web hosting domain registration, 500 MB storage space, Google Analytics, and is ad-free, you won’t feel pressured to switch to a paid plan.

And there you have it! Since all of these website builders are free, try out a couple if you’re unsure of the best fit. In particular, take note of what you really want to get out of your site to ensure your needs will be met by one of these free builders.

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/free-website-builders