#5 LinkedIn Digital Mafia

People who (actually) have something to say — and say it — on LinkedIn.

Focus on creating a business, not a brand

JD Jernigan is the founder of Propagate. Its mission is to help eCommerce brands grow and scale.

We agree with Jernigan. Here’s the truth: The best way to build a brand is having deep advertising pockets. 

People won’t remember your brand unless they constantly see it. And the only way to get your brand noticed is by paying A LOT. 

Of course, there are exceptions from time to time. Smaller companies manage to create decent brands without spending big on advertising.

But when we’re talking about huge brands, it’s all about the money.

These companies have massive advertising budgets that allow them to create memorability. And when people go shopping, they will always choose the most familiar option.

Overall, de-prioritizing things that make your business more money to focus on branding tends to be a bad call when you’re small.

Marketing is not a magic wand.

Dylan Whitman is a digital marketing and technology executive and co-founder of Inveterate and Pari Passu.

Most marketers copy each other instead of breaking new ground. 

A select few people at the top innovate new ideas and tactics. The rest try to replicate them. This puts them in a losing situation from the get go.

When you innovate, whether that’s software or marketing strategy, the risk will always be higher. But so is the potential pay off.

For startups with low budgets and resources, it might be best to minimize the risks. But bigger companies with big budgets can and should take the risk.

Create their own playbook instead of following someone else’s.

Make sure your retention marketing is working.

Vishay Gupta is a partner at ENSO. They offer consulting solutions in digital marketing and business intelligence.

Finding the reason why retention is failing for your business is critical. 

This is why deploying a system that allows you to identify those problems at scale is very important. And you can do it easily through email.

For example, you can automatically survey people after they buy and get in touch with them again after a certain period.

And you’ll get all of this information automatically. All you need to do is analyze, prioritize and act on it.

Ask these questions regularly to stay on the right track

Dan Ritzke is a digital marketing consultant and founder of Third Act Marketing.

Asking yourself these questions is always great. But wouldn’t it be better if you asked them to your customers?

At the end of the day, it’s their opinion that matters most.

Do they care about what I’m saying? Is there something unique about what I’m saying?

Your definition of unique and valuable may be different from your customers’ definition.

Let’s say you create very advanced and esoteric content. It’s excellently written too.

But your audience is full of beginners. The content is too advanced for them. So, even though the content is great, it’s not valuable or relevant to your audience. Recalibrating frequently is the best way to avoid that.

Go ahead, sign up. It will show us you’re interested, and we will make it happen.