Marketing Unf*cked
Siobhan Solberg
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Top 10 Marketing Unf*cked Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Marketing Unf*cked episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Marketing Unf*cked for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Marketing Unf*cked episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Marketing isn’t the problem. Everything is. | Tim Stewart
Marketing Unf*cked
12/13/22 • 38 min
If a company makes a $50m profit in its first year but goes bankrupt less than a decade later, should it be considered a successful business? It’s easy to equate success to sales, yet chasing short-term profits makes long-term success unattainable. Developments in digital marketing have made it easier than ever before to deliver quick results. Still, new businesses that jump in without doing the work to support cross-departmental collaboration will soon face stagnation. So, do we need to unf*ck marketing, or do we just need to learn to work together better to support business-wide goals?
In this episode of Marketing Unf*cked, your hosts, Siobhan Solberg and Russell McAthy, chat with digital consultant Tim Stewart about why it’s not the state of marketing that’s the problem: it’s everything. We delve into the origins of split testing, why the big picture should guide all business teams, and the importance of always asking ‘why?’
In this episode:
- Marketing covers everything that impacts the audience’s perception of the company; this isn’t limited to advertising or PPC.
- How has the introduction of digital technology impacted marketers’ approach to audience segmentation and split testing?
- Is the greater degree of accountability for legal and social responsibilities in digital marketing a sign of maturity in the market?
- Is it arrogant of digital marketers to assume the data they’ve collected is accurate or ‘theirs’?
- As marketing is such a broad category, is it inaccurate for consultants to call themselves ‘marketing experts’?
- While specialisms are important, extensive fracturing can lead to inefficiencies.
- How can specialist marketing teams work better with the wider business to improve their understanding of the big picture?
- ‘Business as usual’ rules set for a company or team’s convenience can harm customer satisfaction.
- Growth hacking is the enemy of long-term success; incentivizing marketers to deliver quick results has led to a narrow and short-term view of marketing.
- We need to encourage people to communicate, admit when they don’t understand, and ask ‘why?’
- Why do we fight fires with CRO instead of focusing on fire prevention?
- Why businesses should always prioritize efficacy over efficiency.
- Focus on measuring what’s important, valuable, and can be changed rather than measuring for measuring’s sake.
- Why the ‘that’s just how it is’ mentality and standard operating procedures don’t account for the nuance of our clients’ businesses.
- When businesses allow teams to develop innovative solutions without fear of repercussions, they see optimizations happen naturally.
Resources:
How failed tests help you make better decisions | Craig Sullivan
Marketing Unf*cked
10/04/22 • 46 min
It’s easier now than ever before for businesses to run CRO experiments, but what happens when great technology is misused? From not running enough tests to manipulating data to prove a favored hypothesis, there are many ways businesses use testing resources incorrectly — and screw up their growth in the process. So, how can we Unf*ck these issues?
Join me, Siobhan Solberg, and my co-host Russell McAthy as we chat with Optimal Visit’s Optimiser in Chief, Craig Sullivan, about all things testing. We get into why there is no such thing as a ‘failed’ test, the importance of optimizing your experiment programs, and how A/B testing can help you grow better tomatoes (literally).
In this episode:
- Many more businesses are starting to run tests, but few run enough to drive real impact.
- The more you test before setting updates live, the fewer mistakes you’ll make.
- There’s no such thing as a failed test. Tests that don’t prove your hypothesis are as valuable as ‘successful’ tests — and can actually tell you more.
- Tests should provide strong evidence that changing from what you’re doing now is the right idea.
- Hunches and leaps of faith have their merit but need to be augmented by data, not driven by assumptions.
- What should start-ups focus on if they don’t have adequate sample sizes or KPI outcomes?
- How can businesses blend qualitative and quantitative data to generate better quality ideas?
- Tests should never be run until a clear and measurable hypothesis that’s rooted in critical thinking has been written.
- Manipulating data to support your hypothesis and personal biases leads to flawed business decisions.
- The only way to truly understand your audience is to talk to them and run tests.
- Accurately and authentically representing your audience drives better results and can change the way they engage with your business.
- How to optimize experimentation programs in order to scale.
- Big decisions can’t be made based on one A/B test that fails to take into account wider contexts.
- Marketers should not ignore the importance of segmenting mobile and desktop users when running cross-device experiments.
- Why governance and transparency are the largest things to be Unf*cked in testing.
Resources:
Why you need a Content Audit | Lauren Pope
Marketing Unf*cked
03/08/22 • 21 min
When was the last time you invested in a content audit for your website? A good content audit will help you decide which content to keep, re-write, update, or delete. If you keep convincing yourself that a content audit isn’t necessary, this episode of the Marketing Unf*cked podcast will change your mind.
My guest in this episode, Lauren Pope, is an independent content strategist who knows how to help marketers like you get the right content to the right person at the right time. She shares insider tips on how auditing your content can improve your accessibility, authenticity, and sustainability.
Listen in to find out how performing a content audit can unf*ck your marketing and stay tuned until the end for Lauren’s top three tips to make your content more user-friendly, accessible, and inclusive.
In this episode:
· 00:29 – Why marketing professionals need to focus more on doing less and sustainability
· 01:09 – How to be more sustainable when it comes to your content strategy
· 02:25 – How user research helps marketers slow down and become more sustainable
· 03:58 – Why it’s important to carry out a content audit and make sure your content is always relevant
· 06:14 – What to look out for when running a content audit on your website
· 07:28 – How auditing your content can improve your authenticity and sustainability
· 08:56 – How content audits can help determine if your website is accessible and inclusive
· 09:34 – How deleting irrelevant content will impact your SEO
· 11:27 – Tips for building a content strategy following an audit
· 13:00 – How Lauren builds a content strategy from start to finish
· 14:03 – How to make sure you’re delivering the right solutions for the user while also considering company stakeholders
· 15:11 – The consequences of not auditing and strategically thinking about your content
· 16:07 – Lauren shares some stories that’ll make you think twice about skipping your next audit!
· 18:26 – Three things you can do to make your content more user-friendly, accessible, and inclusive
If you enjoyed this episode and want more insider tips to help you unfuck your marketing and run a business that gives a shit, please subscribe to the Marketing Unf*cked podcast.
Resources:
Are you using spy pixels in your email? | Dave Smyth
Marketing Unf*cked
02/16/22 • 16 min
Did you know that many of the emails you receive from organizations contain tiny spy pixels?
Dave Smyth, Designer, and Developer at Scruples Studio joins the Marketing Unf*cked podcast to discuss how organizations use ‘spy pixels’ to send your email data back to the original sender - and the steps you can take to protect your privacy.
Spy pixels relay private information about how you engage and interact with your emails back to the original sender. These sneaky little pixels can log information such as if and when an email is opened, what device was used to open it, and some can even access a rough estimate of your physical location using your IP (internet protocol) address.
Listen to this episode of the Marketing Unf*cked podcast to hear what Dave has to say about spy pixels, including how to eliminate them from your emails.
In this episode:
· 00:24 – How spy pixels are used to collect data
· 01:03 – What information spy pixels relays back to the original sender
· 02:09 – How Dave learned the truth about the privacy implications of spy pixels
· 03:33 – Alternative methods to track open rates while preserving the user’s privacy
· 05:23 – How to block spy pixels
· 06:43 – Why tracking open rates accurately may no longer be a viable option for marketers
· 08:05 – How marketers can optimize their email marketing strategies
· 09:31 – How marketers can eliminate spy pixels from their emails
· 10:14 – Signs that could reveal whether or not your emails are tracked by spy pixels
· 11:10 – How users can prevent organizations from including spy pixels in their emails
· 13:12 – How to address the issue of spy pixels with small businesses
· 14:43 – Examples of email marketing software that you can use as a marketer that makes it easy to remove spy pixels
If you enjoyed this episode and want more insider tips to help you unfuck your marketing and run a business that gives a shit, please subscribe to the Marketing Unf*cked podcast.
Resources:
· Revue
Stop Forcing Customers To Do What They Wouldn't Want | Stéphane Hamel
Marketing Unf*cked
01/26/22 • 20 min
Are you guilty of trying to get your customers to do things that, deep down, they don’t want to do? You’d be surprised at how many marketers are guilty of this, whether they do it intentionally or not.
Stéphane Hamel is a seasoned digital marketing and analytics consultant, innovator, keynote speaker, pre-seed investor, and start-up & agency advisor. He joins the very first episode of the Marketing Unf*cked podcast to discuss how marketers can unf*ck their marketing by focusing less on automated chatbots and more on building trust with customers.
Tune in to rediscover the true value of building a trust-based relationship with customers and why this may be the secret ingredient missing from your existing marketing recipe.
In this episode:
· 01:06 – The importance of developing trust with your customers
· 01:38 – Whether automation is effective at delivering personalized emails or not
· 03:43 – How to build trust with customers and retrieve essential data to help build powerful marketing campaigns
· 05:36 – Why brands need to focus on being transparent with their customers
· 07:00 – How to gain a customer’s trust
· 10:51 – The problem with GDPR cookie banners
· 12:54 – The hard truth about why so many marketers use ad and cookie blockers
· 14:20 – What marketers are doing ‘wrong’ with the data they collect
· 17:04 – How to avoid making the same mistakes as Cambridge Analytica
· 18:58 – Why marketers need to put themselves in the shoes of their users
If you enjoyed this episode and want more insider tips to help you unfuck your marketing and run a business that gives a shit, please subscribe to the Marketing Unf*cked podcast.
Resources:
· Brave
Making an impact: how to weave purpose into profits | Fiona Ras-Jones
Marketing Unf*cked
07/12/22 • 25 min
From planting trees to fighting hunger, many companies have a cause to champion. But with so much greenwashing and virtue signaling, audiences are (understandably) suspicious. How do you build an authentic purpose into your business in the right way? And can it really help your marketing?
Join me on Marketing Unf*cked as I speak with Fiona Ras-Jones, founder of the Make Impact agency, as we talk about the right ways (and wrong ways) to build a purpose-driven business.
We get into the perils of greenwashing, how to measure the effects of your work, and the many benefits you can find by aligning your purpose with your business — at every possible level.
In this episode:
- Let’s define what a purpose is, and how it impacts your business.
- You have to do integrate your company’s purpose throughout your entire business.
- Why do marketers need to have a purpose in the first place?
- Customers want companies they can believe in, and they are more aware than ever before.
- Why aren’t more marketers working on their purpose?
- Every good purpose aims to solve a clearly defined problem.
- Once you define your purpose, how do you measure its impact?
- What are the prerequisites you need to achieve first?
- When your purpose is aligned with your business, more profit also means more social impact.
- How do you align your purpose with your business when it comes to e-commerce?
- We’re all scared of doing this the wrong way...but it’s a learning process.
- Consider the negative impacts and side effects of your business.
- What are the benefits of the Theory of Change Framework?
- How do we communicate our positive impact to customers?
- Consider the power of a clear, compelling story that conveys your purpose.
- How do we deal with the challenges of greenwashing (and other forms of “washing”)?
- Don’t project perfection, but be honest and realistic about how much impact you can make right now.
Resources:
Fiona on LinkedIn
Make Impact
Theory of Change Framework
Website Carbon Calculator
Silos, egos, and why server-side is about control | Simo Ahava
Marketing Unf*cked
11/01/22 • 39 min
Taking the path of least resistance can be incredibly tempting. After all, if a solution promises to fix all your business’s problems, isn’t it worth a try? In reality, clever tools and tactics never deliver the fix-all solutions they claim to offer. Only an understanding of how our work impacts that of others, fluid communication, and a willingness to learn can improve business operations in the long term. But in a world where ego reigns supreme, how do we make communication a priority and become less reliant on tools? Simply, how do we unf*ck this process?
Join me, Siobhan Solberg, and my co-host Russell McAthy as we chat with Simmer founder and digital marketing consultant Simo Ahava about all things communication and control. We get into why better communication is the solution to siloed working, the importance of prioritizing collaboration over ego, and how the server-side model can help any company within the digital space get better control of their data flows.
In this episode:
- Are businesses too reliant on tools that promise to cure the symptoms of their problems rather than identifying the prime mover that causes them?
- All problems come back to two people failing to communicate their plans effectively.
- Stereotypes, like slow IT teams delaying marketing innovation, hold us back: how do we move on from them?
- How do we communicate complicated ideas and concepts around improving collaboration to all the different audiences these issues affect?
- To improve inter-team collaboration, egos must be dropped, barriers to cooperation removed, and company-wide goals implemented to connect siloed teams.
- Improving communication within micro teams is relatively simple, but how can we implement great communication structures across a large and complex organization?
- Could adopting agile practices be the solution to siloed working?
- Do consultants and agencies worried about becoming redundant prioritize protecting their tools and tactics over taking their clients on journeys?
- What is the function of a digital marketing consultant: to launch great campaigns or to answer questions their clients didn’t even know they were going to ask?
- What is server-side, and how can it help businesses control their data flows better?
- Browsers were previously intended to represent and protect the needs of the user. Why has this been turned upside down in recent years?
- What happens when businesses use server-side to try and circumvent data regulations?
- What GTM does well and why it should never be recommended as a blanket solution.
- Why it’s a red flag when vendors market their tools as 100% privacy compliant.
- Do companies use the server-side model to distract from the real conversations they should be having about improving their operations?
Is caring about customers always the answer? | Jono Alderson
Marketing Unf*cked
11/15/22 • 36 min
One simple truth is redefining the marketing landscape: consumers are getting smarter. With businesses like Amazon setting an increasingly high bar for customer experience, doing the bare minimum is no longer enough — especially when algorithms are learning to judge website quality on how much businesses care about their customers. But with so few willing to invest in delivering quality online experiences for their customers, what’s to be done?
Join hosts Siobhan Solberg and Russell McAthy as they catch up with Jono Alderson, head of SEO for Yoast, digital strategist, and award-winning marketing expert. Listen in to hear Jono’s views on prioritizing customer experience, the importance of accessibility for SEO, and why images are criminal. Plus, stay around until the end for Jono’s challenge to our listeners (it may win you a beer!)
In this episode:
- Considering the tools and research available, does having a slow website suggest you don’t care about your customers?
- Are disruptive companies investing in developing fancy yet ineffective SPAs (Single Page Applications) just as bad as old-fashioned businesses that rely on outdated tech?
- Today, the only differentiator between brands is whether or not customers want to shop with you, so doing the bare minimum to keep your website functional is not enough.
- Many organizations can’t deliver quality experiences as this has never been their focus. Without an organizational restructure, site optimization is a losing battle.
- Are algorithmically-driven systems like Google, Meta, and Amazon preventing some brands from reaching their audiences?
- Site speed is about more than load time; it’s impacted by accessibility, trends, and a business’s operations, including tech stacks, leadership, and marketing strategies.
- Why are businesses so hesitant to invest in improving their sites and marketing, despite their importance for driving growth?
- If you’re reacting to what a competitor is doing, you’re already too late; businesses need to be proactive in giving their marketing teams the resources and investment they need.
- Website quality scores are no longer based on site speed alone but on whether a company is taking steps to improve and is considered deserving of a high ranking.
- How is Google’s website analysis algorithm evolving to assess whether businesses care about their customers?
- Site speed isn’t about customers being irritated by slow load times but reducing the friction experienced as they browse.
- Why do so many businesses fail to use images appropriately?
- A complete organizational restructure is often the best solution to a poor website quality score. But when this isn’t feasible, what are brands to do?
- Should we treat mobile differently from desktop, or has this separation led to businesses’ hesitancy to invest in better experiences?
Resources:
Just Measure It: How Measuring and A/B Testing can Unfuck your Marketing | Dennis van der Heijden
Marketing Unf*cked
03/22/22 • 25 min
Do you want to know why your website isn’t performing as well as you hoped?
Dennis van der Heijden, Founder and CEO of Convert.com, warns marketers that neglecting to measure performance could send your business down the crapper...
Alright, maybe he didn’t say those exact words... but he did raise some important points around measuring and A/B testing. Don’t be fooled into thinking that measuring performance is only for businesses with tonnes of traffic! It isn’t. You should still measure even if you don’t get a lot of traffic.
Find out why in this episode of Marketing Unfucked featuring my special guest, Dennis van der Heijden. I promise that by the end of this episode, you’ll be ready to start experimenting and making data-driven decisions to help unfuck your marketing.
In this episode:
· 00:35 – The consequences of not measuring the effectiveness of your marketing and ‘going blind’
· 01:33 – Dennis shares some intriguing examples of times when marketers are going blind but pretend that they aren’t
· 03:52 – Why you should be willing to keep trying and learning as you go
· 04:49 – The ‘right’ approach to unfuck your marketing and why you should trust ‘the hunch’
· 05:33 – The value of quantitative measurement and how big brands (like Amazon and Netflix) have perfected their approach
· 07:54 – How to measure if you haven’t got a lot of traffic (yet!)
· 10:24 – The first steps to accurately measure your marketing
· 12:15 – Why you need to set a ‘big goal’ before you start A/B testing
· 14:36 – Dennis reveals a simple starting strategy to help marketers measure effectively
· 15:57 – Why you should try to learn something from your failed A/B tests and experiments
· 20:50 – Dennis talks about why people aren’t measuring
· 24:30 – What you stand to lose if you don’t measure
If you enjoyed this episode and want more insider tips to help you unfuck your marketing and run a business that gives a shit, please subscribe to the Marketing Unfucked podcast.
Resources
09/20/22 • 40 min
Collecting customer data is something businesses take for granted. It’s an expectation: if they can’t gather data on their customers’ behavior online, how else are brands meant to optimize their user journeys? Yet as legal battles between Google Analytics and European data protection authorities show no signs of slowing down, global businesses risk losing access to data on a massive market. They need to reconsider their compliance strategies — and quickly. The shifting landscape of data security is impacting marketers, businesses, and consumers, but are the changes benefiting anyone?
In this episode of Marketing Un*fucked, Siobhan and Russell talk to Cory Underwood, Analytics Engineer at Search Discovery, about all things privacy when it comes to marketing, legal, and analytics. Listen in as Cory shares his expert views on why brands can no longer collect data on everything and deal with compliance later, how data privacy goes beyond analytics teams to wreak havoc for marketing teams, and the rocky future of international data transfers.
In this episode:
- The legal issues Google Analytics is facing in Europe will get worse before they get better.
- What is the impact on consumers when their analytics data is accessible by a foreign government?
- The issue extends beyond Google Analytics to become an issue of American businesses versus EU laws and regulations.
- Data security becomes alarmingly complex when laws and regulations differ from state to state and country to country.
- Will hefty fines for breaching GDPR encourage businesses to act to avoid being caught off guard?
- Legal councils, marketers, and IT teams must share knowledge to protect businesses and customers.
- Is it possible to be 100% compliant when privacy requirements evolve rapidly?
- A lack of clear and unbiased materials explaining the situation and its implications prevents marketers from understanding rulings.
- Are marketing agencies aware enough of privacy regulations to make effective decisions?
- The challenge of retooling systems with entirely new architectures when the rules are constantly changing.
- Could the cost of maintaining compliance see small businesses priced out of the market?
- Will we see an increase in the number of businesses building compliance teams?
- Businesses will need to weigh up the value of their data versus the potential risk.
- How differing legal language and definitions between states and countries cause confusion.
- Marketers need to move on from talking about third-party cookies and email open rates.
Resources:
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FAQ
How many episodes does Marketing Unf*cked have?
Marketing Unf*cked currently has 22 episodes available.
What topics does Marketing Unf*cked cover?
The podcast is about Marketing, Podcasts, Digital Marketing, Business, Data Privacy, Sustainability and Online.
What is the most popular episode on Marketing Unf*cked?
The episode title 'Stop Forcing Customers To Do What They Wouldn't Want | Stéphane Hamel' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Marketing Unf*cked?
The average episode length on Marketing Unf*cked is 31 minutes.
How often are episodes of Marketing Unf*cked released?
Episodes of Marketing Unf*cked are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of Marketing Unf*cked?
The first episode of Marketing Unf*cked was released on Jan 26, 2022.
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