Newsletter Archives - Page 7 of 12 - Christopher S. Penn

Almost Timely News, 3-July-2022: Helping Causes, Personal Brand Strategy

Almost Timely News, 3-July-2022: Helping Causes, Personal Brand Strategy (7/3) :: View in Browser

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Almost Timely News, 3-July-2022: Helping Causes, Personal Brand Strategy

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What’s On My Mind: You Are The One You’ve Been Waiting For

The reactions I got to last week’s newsletter have been all over the spectrum, from seething rage – one person wrote, “I thought you were smart but you are so,” followed by quite a string of profanity – to outright praise that belongs in a place of worship. But there was a common theme in many of the responses: thanks for sharing ways we can help. This week, I want to dig into that a bit more, inspired by your responses.

Every organization, every cause – no matter where you are on the political spectrum or what you believe in – needs help of some kind. And every person – like you – who is able to earn money from your skills can donate those skills to an organization. Even if it seems at first that there’s no obvious connection, if someone else is willing to pay you for it, a cause-based organization desperately needs it.

This is what Beau of the Fifth Column refers to as the rest of the spear. The “tip of the spear” refers to the people most visible in a military, but behind them is a massive apparatus that makes their efforts possible. An army can’t fight without food, without cooks, without logistics or supplies or construction or the many, many things that let warriors wage war. The same is true of any cause. The people who are visible, on the front lines of protesting and such, need a support mechanism of some kind if the cause is to be sustainable.

And that’s probably where you and I come in. Let’s look at a couple of mundane examples. I’m headed over to a friend’s house in a little while to help her with her email newsletter. Not the content, but the infrastructure powering it. She didn’t set up the deliverability protocols necessary to make her email marketing work as best as possible, and it’s hurting her open rates. The fixes for this are fairly straightforward but arcane if you’re not an IT person with knowledge of how DNS works and how deliverability works. The difference can be a 2x increase in email marketing performance overnight.

So I’ll go make those changes. Could anyone do this? Yes. Though you’d want to be careful because if you screw it up, you might accidentally remove yourself from the Internet entirely, which happened not too long ago to Facebook. Now, how many causes and non-profits rely on email to get their message out and solicit donations? Based on the contents of my inbox, literally every single cause and non-profit uses email heavily. How many of them have done this arcane little bit of housekeeping?

Here’s the key point, as someone who has worked in non-profits before: the smaller the organization is, the more desperate the need is. A gigantic non-profit like The Red Cross should have its ducks in a row and its infrastructure together. (though like corporations, it’s amazing how badly some are run) But the smaller an organization is, the less help it typically has, and the more your help is needed. Feeding America probably is all set. Your local food pantry? They’re probably lucky to even have a functioning website, much less email deliverability protocols in place.

And that means that for all their efforts, they’re not earning as much as they could be without your help. With our help, these organizations are more effective. An improvement in email deliverability directly translates into more money and more support for the cause, so even if you’re not on the front lines, you’re enabling the front lines. You’re helping make their work possible.

What do you have to bring to the table? Are you a designer? A musician? A writer? A WordPress expert? An accountant? A cook? Whatever your skills are, you have something to offer.

Here’s another example. I manage the Google Analytics accounts of dozens of organizations, including several pro bono organizations and people. Many of them have no budget for marketing at all, but because I believe in what they do, I’m happy to help out by keeping their analytics instances running smoothly. In turn, they make better decisions about their marketing and where they spend the very limited budget they have. Again, running someone’s Google Analytics account doesn’t look like the person in a parade marching with a sign, but it helps enable those marches and those activists.

A third example: I volunteer with the Mautic organization, the folks who make the open source marketing automation software that powers this newsletter, among other things. They just had their annual conference and put out a call for folks to help process all the session videos. While I’m no Hollywood pro, I know my way around Adobe Premiere and Adobe Audition well enough that I can produce coherent, clean session videos from their raw footage, and I processed probably two dozen of them last month. Why? Because I believe in their software and I had the ability to help. This example is really important, because it illustrates that you don’t have to be awesome to help out. You just have to be better than the alternative, which for many organizations is nothing.

The point of all this can be summarized by a line from the movie Frozen 2: you are the one you’ve been waiting for. The power to create change, to advance the things you believe in, is in your hands. If someone pays you money for it, it’s valuable – and that skill can be donated to the causes you care about most. Don’t think that just because you can’t be on the front lines doesn’t mean you can’t play a vital role.

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ICYMI: In Case You Missed it

Besides the new Google Analytics course I’m relentlessly promoting (sorry not sorry), I would recommend the piece on personal brand strategy. It’s a walkthrough of my personal brand strategy framework, and it’s super helpful if you’re stuck.

Skill Up With Classes

These are just a few of the classes I have available over at the Trust Insights website that you can take.

Premium

Free

Get Back to Work!

Folks who post jobs in the free Analytics for Marketers Slack community may have those jobs shared here, too. If you’re looking for work, check out these five most recent open positions, and check out the Slack group for the comprehensive list.

Advertisement: Google Analytics 4 for Marketers

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You’ll learn how Google Tag Manager and Google Data Studio form the essential companion pieces to Google Analytics 4, and how to use them all together
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You’ll learn how to determine if a migration was done correctly, and especially what things are likely to go wrong
You’ll even learn how to hire (or be hired) for Google Analytics 4 talent specifically, not just general Google Analytics
And finally, you’ll learn how to rearrange Google Analytics 4’s menus to be a lot more sensible because that bothers everyone

With more than 5 hours of content across 17 lessons, plus templates, spreadsheets, transcripts, and certificates of completion, you’ll master Google Analytics 4 in ways no other course can teach you.

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Thank You Notes

These are the places you’ve had or mentioned me – on your podcast, on your blog, in your newsletter. Thank you!

What I’m Reading: Your Stuff

Let’s look at the most interesting content from around the web on topics you care about, some of which you might have even written.

Social Media Marketing

Media and Content

SEO, Google, and Paid Media

Advertisement: Ukraine Humanitarian Fund

If you’d like to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, the Ukrainian government has set up a special portal, United24, to help make contributing easy.

Donate today to the Ukraine Humanitarian Relief Fund »

Tools, Machine Learning, and AI

Analytics, Stats, and Data Science

All Things IBM

Advertisement: Google Search Console for Marketers

Of the many tools in the Google Marketing Platform, none is more overlooked than Google Search Console. Marketers assume it’s just for SEO, but the information contained within benefits search, social media, public relations, advertising, and so much more. In my new Google Search Console for Marketers course, you’ll learn what Google Search Console is, why it matters to all marketers, and then dig deep into each of the features of the platform.

When you’re done, you’ll have working knowledge of the entire platform and what it can do – and you’ll be ready to start making the most of this valuable marketing tool.

Click/tap here to register »

Events I’ll Be At

Here’s where I’m speaking and attending. Say hi if you’re at an event also:

MAICON, August 2022, Cleveland, OH – use code PENN150 for $150 off any conference ticket
Content Marketing World, September 2022, Cleveland, OH
MarketingProfs B2B Forum, October 2022, Boston
Heapcon, November 2022, Belgrade, Serbia

Events marked with a physical location may become virtual if conditions and safety warrant it.

If you’re an event organizer, let me help your event shine. Visit my speaking page for more details.

Can’t be at an event? Stop by my private Slack group instead, Analytics for Marketers.

How to Stay in Touch

Let’s make sure we’re connected in the places it suits you best. Here’s where you can find different content:

My blog – daily videos, blog posts, and podcast episodes
My YouTube channel – daily videos, conference talks, and all things video
My company, Trust Insights – marketing analytics help
My podcast, Marketing over Coffee – weekly episodes of what’s worth noting in marketing
My second podcast, In-Ear Insights – the Trust Insights weekly podcast focused on data and analytics
On Twitter – multiple daily updates of marketing news
On LinkedIn – daily videos and news
On Instagram – personal photos and travels
My free Slack discussion forum, Analytics for Marketers – open conversations about marketing and analytics

Required Disclosures

Events with links have purchased sponsorships in this newsletter and as a result, I receive direct financial compensation for promoting them.

Advertisements in this newsletter have paid to be promoted, and as a result, I receive direct financial compensation for promoting them.

My company, Trust Insights, maintains business partnerships with companies including, but not limited to, IBM, Cisco Systems, Amazon, Talkwalker, MarketingProfs, MarketMuse, Agorapulse, Hubspot, Informa, Demandbase, The Marketing AI Institute, and others. While links shared from partners are not explicit endorsements, nor do they directly financially benefit Trust Insights, a commercial relationship exists for which Trust Insights may receive indirect financial benefit, and thus I may receive indirect financial benefit from them as well.

Thank You!

Thanks for subscribing and reading this far. I appreciate it. As always, thank you for your support, your attention, and your kindness.

See you next week,

Christopher S. Penn

July 2, 2022

Almost Timely News, 26-June-2022: Good Habits Lead to Great Change (WARNING: POLITICAL)

Almost Timely News, 26-June-2022: Good Habits Lead to Great Change (WARNING: POLITICAL) (6/26) :: View in Browser

This week’s newsletter is going to be intensely political, very USA-centric, and leaning on the liberal side. No marketing content. Feel free to skip if that’s not your thing, or even unsubscribe. That’s totally okay.

Again, no marketing content in here, but lots of liberal political content that’s very America-centric, with apologies to you if you’re not focused on the USA.

Last chance to skip and come back next week!

OK.

Almost Timely News, 26-June-2022: Good Habits Lead to Great Change (WARNING: POLITICAL)

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Click here for the video version of this newsletter on YouTube »

Click here for an MP3 audio only version »

Let’s talk about habits and change.

When was the last time you went to the gym once, got fit, and didn’t need to work out ever again?

When was the last time you changed what you ate for a day, lost X kilograms, and never had to do that again?

Yeah, me neither. That doesn’t happen. Big sustainable changes don’t come from one-time events. They come from applied diligence, from making a little bit of progress all the time, bit by bit, day by day.

Back at the height of the pandemic, I took up running. In the beginning, I sucked at it. REALLY sucked at it. I could barely run a kilometer, much less a mile. (1 kilometer is about 2/3 of a mile) But I kept at it, and 6 months after I started, I ran my first 5K road race – virtually, because pandemic.

6 months after that, I was able to run 5k a week.

Since the start of 2022, I’ve been running 5K or more every Sunday, 3-4K on Wednesdays. Last weekend, I managed 9K for the first time. As a guy in his mid-forties who has never, ever been athletic in my adult life, that was a big deal and a huge moment. I’m on my way to 10K, and I’m healthier than I’ve ever been in my adult life.

How did I make such a big change? With habits over time. Once I figured out how to run without injuring myself (which happened all the previous times in my life I’d tried to take up running), I started running as a habit. Rain or shine, I ran on Sundays in 2020 and half of 2021. Rain or shine, I’ve run on Sundays and Wednesdays for the last year. Almost no days off – I’ve taken off 4 Sundays in 2 years, mostly due to holiday travel.

When friends ask me how I maintain such discipline, the answer is easy: it’s habit. It’s routine. It’s so regular that I don’t have to think about whether or not I should run, I just run because it’s what I do. It’s part of who I am. It feels weird when I do have to miss a run, like something’s very wrong with the day.

Good habits lead to great change.

What does this have to do with politics? I’m glad I asked.

How did the neo-conservatives in America manage to overturn a 50-year old court ruling and make abortion illegal in about half the US states?

With good habits. They had a message they repeated endlessly, true or not. They applied consistent discipline, consistent effort, consistent resources, consistent focus over a very long period of time to get local, state, and federal officials elected, until they had enough people in power to influence the highest court in the land, and they placed their candidates on it in lifetime positions.

And those habits paid off. They achieved a decades-long goal of federally de-recognizing people’s sovereignty over their own bodies, women (well, anyone with a uterus) especially. In the opinion of the court, one of the Justices, Justice Thomas, also made clear the court needs to re-examine and reverse similar decisions about same-sex relationships, same-sex marriage, and the availability of contraception. You can read that opinion on page 119 of the official ruling.

I happen to disagree with this decision in almost every possible way. I’m a big fan of freedom, of liberty, of self-determination and autonomy. So long as you’re not hurting me, you should be allowed to do whatever you want with your body. (this, by the way, is why I’m also in favor of mandating things like masks and vaccines as a last resort, because what you do with your body – or don’t do – WILL hurt me) You want a baby in it? That’s your business. You don’t want a baby in it? That’s your business too. You want to cover it in tattoos or pierce it with iron bolts? That’s your business too… and it’s not my business to tell you what to do with your body if you’re not hurting me.

For people like me, and maybe you, who vehemently oppose this decision, what should we do?

I’ll tell you what we should NOT do: Make a lot of noise for a brief time and then forget about it and move onto the next piece of news that crosses our smartphones.

That’s the equivalent of going to the gym once, working out real hard, and then never going back.

Great change requires effort and resources over a long period of time. It requires good habits.

What we should be thinking about is our own habits for creating change. We have a clear goal: to enact into law broad bodily autonomy, that the government should have no say over what we do with our bodies save when it causes harm to other people without their consent, starting with restoring the federal right to abortion. That’s the goal: more freedom and more liberty for all of us. How do we get there?

The blueprint that American neo-conservatives used to achieve their agenda isn’t unique to them. It’s not special, it’s not magic. It is eminently practical and can be used by anyone:

Work with like-minded individuals to get people with our point of view elected to local offices.

Then state offices.

Then federal offices.

Then to the highest courts in the land.

What habits do we need to enact to make these changes happen?

Finance: There are lots of organizations that work towards changes we want. Don’t donate once. Set up a recurring donation so that you’re in the habit of providing resources. Given a choice between a 12 one time donation and a1 monthly recurring donation, almost every organization prefers the latter because it allows for budgeting and resource allocation. Make donating a habit.
- If you want to donate specifically to abortion support, AbortionFunds.org is a good place to start.
- For civil liberties in general, the ACLU is a good place to start.
Elect: Vote. In every single election you’re eligible to vote in, even if it’s just for the dog catcher. Just as in running when there are no days off from your workout, if you want political change, there are no off-year elections to skip. Make voting a habit.
Communicate: In the USA, every major elected representative has some way to receive feedback. Don’t give feedback once, or when a hot button issue comes up. If you want representatives to know something’s a big deal, give feedback regularly and frequently. For example, ask your Senator or Representative to introduce federal legislation legalizing abortion – but put it on your calendar and do it every single weekday. You just copy and paste, but you keep up that habit. Make communicating with your officials a habit.
Advocate: These habits don’t mean much if you’re the only one doing them. Buddy up. Join groups. Just like having a workout buddy makes it easier to hold each other accountable, and a class at your local fitness center makes it even easier, your political habits need like minds. Ask your political workout buddies if they sent their daily messages to their elected reps, or made their monthly donations to the cause. Make building and growing your personal network a habit.
Investigate: The reality is that the American political system runs, like so much else in the country, on money. Spend time regularly seeing who funds politicians that made this happen. Then don’t do business with those companies, let them know why publicly, and spread the word in your buddy system to do the same. Make research a habit.

Neo-conservatives won a 50-year battle because they had better habits than liberals. They weren’t smarter or better educated or wealthier or more clever. They were focused and they were zealous about their habits. If we want to win back what they took, we have to be more focused and more dedicated to our habits than them over the same period of time or longer.

Good habits lead to great changes – but only if you stick by them.

I hope you’ll join me, if it’s appropriate and relevant to you, in establishing good habits to create great, necessary change for the better.

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Thank You!

Thanks for subscribing and reading this far. I appreciate it. As always, thank you for your support, your attention, and your kindness.

See you next week,

Christopher S. Penn

June 25, 2022

Almost Timely News, June 19, 2022: Thought Leadership, Jargon, Professional Certifications

Almost Timely News, 19-June-2022: Thought Leadership, Jargon, Professional Certifications (6/19) :: View in Browser

Happy Father’s Day to all who fulfill that role in life.

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Almost Timely News, 19-June-2022: Thought Leadership, Jargon, Professional Certifications

Watch this video on YouTube.

Click here for the video version of this newsletter on YouTube »

Click here for an MP3 audio only version »

What’s On My Mind: Revisiting Thought Leadership

Thought leadership has been on my mind lately because of the sheer volume of PR pitches in my inbox asking if I want to interview so-and-so, a thought leader in whatever space or industry the PR person is pitching. Most of the time, I just straight up delete those pitches because they’re usually hilariously off target for what I create content about. The other day, someone pitched me on a thought leader in the cleaning products industry because they wanted to get in front of my high income female audience to persuade them to try this brand’s cleaning products.

Let’s recall my definition of a thought leader: a thought leader is someone whose thinking changes how you lead. Tons of people are in leadership positions – not necessarily the C-Suite, either. If you manage even one person, or if you manage a group of people who don’t work for you, like in a volunteer organization or your community, you are a leader. You are leading people, guiding them, directing them.

Thus, if someone else’s thinking changes how you lead (hopefully for the better), then that content is thought leadership content.

Here’s a clarifying filter on thought leadership content. Leadership inherently involves people. If a piece of content or a specific thinker is changing how you do things with technology, that’s not leadership. That’s perhaps tactical or strategic change, but it’s not leadership.

Think of leadership like parenting or pet ownership. You can change a lot of things about how you live or what you buy or which brand of food you serve, but how you interact with your children or pet is parenting. Someone sharing information about how to save money at the grocery store is essential and useful, but they’re not sharing information about the act of parenting itself.

If someone is claiming to be a thought leader but they’re not sharing ideas for how you interact with people, then they’re not sharing leadership ideas. They may still be good or great ideas, but that’s not thought leadership.

So let’s run through a couple of examples. All names have been changed to protect the guilty. “Bob has been able to reinvent the workplace mindset and offer innovative, out-of-the-box thinking that has created the foundation to his and other entrepreneurs’ success.” Okay, so far, so good. Bob passes the first test, which is that his pitch is about people. Let’s go to Bob’s signature post on LinkedIn which details his innovative 5 secrets to success.

Know yourself.
Be humble.
Hire the right people.
Sell more stuff.
Don’t rely on others.

So… does this change how you would lead? Does this thinking change how you’re going to work with people, how you’ll approach people?

Okay, let’s move onto another pitch, this one about… uh, Bob. “Bob is incredibly experienced in transforming the marketing strategies of startup organizations, fast-growing pharmaceutical companies and thriving corporations alike. She would be able to provide incredible insight and share her expertise on marketing in the healthcare and pharmaceutical space.”

Okay, I’ll bite. Let’s go read Bob’s flagship article on Medium. An interviewer asked her what her blueprint for marketing success looks like. “Successful marketing must be omnichannel with a true north focus on the customer experience and the customer journey, not the product. Your channel strategy has to provide a seamless customer experience at every touchpoint.”

Does this change how you would lead? Does this thinking change how you’re going to work with people, how you’ll approach people?

Thought leadership, despite its (over)use in our current marketing and business world, is shockingly rare. Very few things will legitimately change how we lead, how we make decisions that affect the people around us, the people who work from us, the people who buy from us.

What are some legitimate examples of thought leadership? Correct or not, Malcolm Gladwell’s piece in the Tipping Point about 10,000 hours of time needed to master something changed our expectations of how long it takes to become skilled. It gave us a concrete number and helped reset expectations about how long we should expect people who work for us to become proficient at something.

Brené Brown has coached an entire generation of leaders to be more vulnerable, open, and honest in their interactions in the workplace, encouraging people to live more complete lives. They don’t have to rigidly separate professional from personal, and that’s a big cultural change.

Bozoma Saint John, CMO of Netflix, focuses heavily on radical transparency in leadership roles, letting customers in to see the good and the bad, helping customers understand why we make the decisions we do. If you embrace radical transparency, you’re definitely going to change how you lead.

Thought leadership is rare. When you find it, when you discover it, grab a hold of it and don’t let go until you’ve changed how you lead.

Share With a Friend or Colleague

If you enjoy this newsletter and want to share it with a friend/colleague, please do. Send this URL to your friend/colleague:

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ICYMI: In Case You Missed it

Besides the new Google Analytics course I’m relentlessly promoting (sorry not sorry), I would recommend reading/watching the piece on business jargon. I enjoyed ranting about it a little.