Finding the C-Suite Unicorn: How Executive Search Lands Top Talent

by Rajat Kapur | Aug 20, 2024 | Fractional CMO, Insights, Marketing Insights, Marketing Strategy, Outsourced Marketing

Finding the C-Suite Unicorn: How Executive Search Lands Top Talent

Finding well-qualified talent for senior leadership positions (aka the executive search process) presents quite a challenge. From niche industries to competitive salaries, companies have a ton to consider when attracting top-tier candidates for these crucial roles.

Enter the executive search firms. These specialists partner with companies to find the perfect fit for C-suite executives, VPs, and other leadership positions. Executive recruiters understand the complexities of senior-level hiring. By leveraging their industry expertise and networks, executive search firms streamline recruitment and ensure companies hire the best candidates. Keep reading to learn how executive search professionals act like talent scouts.

What is the difference between executive search and recruitment?

Before we dive into the executive search process, let’s clarify the difference between executive search and recruitment agencies. They aren’t the same.

Executive search agencies

These specialized recruiters focus on filling senior-level and C-suite positions critical for a company’s success. These firms often have expertise in specific sectors like healthcare, retail, or technology. An industry focus allows these professionals to build deep networks of qualified candidates. For example, a firm specializing in CMO roles can leverage its knowledge to deliver a perfect fit via careful screening and post-placement support.

Consider hiring an executive search agency if you’re:

Filling senior-level management or executive roles
Finding qualified candidates for hard-to-fill positions
Maintaining confidentiality during your search
Identifying top talent in niche or specialized industries

Recruitment agencies

Need to fill a position quickly, and you’re less focused on a long-term leadership hire? Recruitment agencies can help you fill those gaps. They specialize in finding qualified candidates for a wide range of roles.

Consider hiring a recruitment agency if you’re:

Filling entry-level through mid-management roles
Finding candidates for roles not requiring highly specialized skill sets
Quickly staffing multiple open positions

Depending on your company’s current needs, these agency types serve an essential purpose.

What is the executive search process?

Finding the perfect candidate for a leadership role — a process that can take an average of four to six weeks to narrow the list to the most qualified candidates and another few weeks (or even months) to make the final decision — typically follows these steps.

Step 1: Know Your Needs and Define the Position
Finding the perfect leaders starts with understanding your company’s goals and analyzing its landscape. What challenges are you facing? What opportunities are you trying to seize? Answering these questions helps define the skills and knowledge your new leader needs.

Step 2: Craft a Candidate Profile
Build a detailed picture of your ideal candidate by gathering information from hiring managers about the required skill set, education and experience levels, desired behavioral traits, and specific challenges the new leader will face.

Step 3: Begin Outreach
Executive searches go beyond traditional recruitment methods. C-suite candidates are sometimes not actively seeking new opportunities. Develop a compelling recruitment strategy showcasing your company’s unique strengths and vision. Use professional networking sites like LinkedIn to build rapport with candidates.

Step 4: Assess Potential Beyond the Resume
Evaluate senior leaders with a nuanced approach. After pre-qualification, only a select number (typically 2-5) of candidates remain. The agency briefs you on each candidate, sharing insights and recommendations. In-depth interviews and possibly cognitive ability tests are crucial for uncovering the specialized traits and leadership potential needed for success.

Step 5: Decision Time
Once you review your shortlist, the interview process begins, often involving key stakeholders within your organization. The executive search professionals will guide you through this stage for a smooth, efficient evaluation by presenting data and candidate scorecards to help you make an informed decision. Before extending the offer, conduct thorough background and reference checks. Craft a competitive compensation package that reflects the value they bring and lean on the executive search firm during negotiations.

Step 6: Beyond the Offer
Your company’s relationship with the executive search firm doesn’t end with offer and acceptance. The lead consultant understands your organization, culture, and strategies and can become a trusted advisor. An ongoing partnership offers several benefits:

The consultant can provide ongoing advice and support on talent acquisition, leadership development, and overall business strategy.
Having a trusted partner allows for proactive discussions about future leadership needs and potential succession planning.
The search firm stays current on industry trends and can offer valuable insights into the talent landscape.
Staying connected with the new leader helps identify any roadblocks or areas where they might need additional guidance.
Executive coaching can help new leaders navigate the complexities of their new roles and develop strategies for achieving their goals.

How do executive search firms get paid?

Executive search firms offer a valuable service, but it comes at a cost. Usually, they charge 33-38% of the hired candidate’s first-year total cash compensation. Some firms may add charges for travel, direct search expenses, or a 10-15% administrative fee. Big firms like Heidrick & Struggles and Korn Ferry often start at $100,000 due to their global reach.

Boutique search firms, however, offer a more personalized approach with lower fees, making them increasingly popular.

How long is an executive search process?

The executive search process can range from a few weeks to several months, typically taking about 60-90 days. Factors include role complexity, candidate availability, interview efficiency, and time for evaluation and negotiation.

For immediate marketing leadership, partnering with an agency that places fractional CMOs can expedite this process. These agencies have pre-qualified, experienced CMOs ready to step in, reducing the search time to just a few weeks. This ensures you get top-tier expertise quickly, keeping your business on track.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, match me with a great-fit fCMO

Finding the perfect CMO isn’t a stroke of luck. It’s about working with experts who vet, handpick, and recommend the best candidates. Our fractional CMOs (fCMOs) adapt quickly to diverse business environments. We take the time to understand your market and needs, ensuring a smooth onboarding process.

Here’s how it works:

We collaborate to define your goals and qualifications for the ideal fCMO.
You choose from our network of 55+ experienced fCMOs.
Your fCMO creates a tailored strategy, leveraging our marketing team if needed.

Ready to find your perfect match? Contact us today to get started with an expert fCMO.

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About &Marketing:

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

About the Author

As the Founder & CEO of &Marketing (www.and-marketing.com), Raj and his team strive to provide growing businesses unparalleled marketing strategy and execution services. Raj has more than two decades of experience in B2B and B2C marketing, sales, & strategy. He has led nearly 100 high-profile marketing strategy projects for Global 100, mid-sized clients, and SMBs, plus over a decade with General Electric and General Mills. He is a sought-after advisor and facilitator, with experience across five continents. He is known for bringing the best of ‘big company’ marketing and strategy to smaller companies without the baggage, his bias for practical implementation, and his unrelenting customer focus.

Lessons any growing business can learn from the Stanley quencher

by Rajat Kapur | Aug 9, 2024 | Branding, Fractional CMO, Insights, Marketing Strategy, Social Media

Lessons any growing business can learn from the Stanley quencher

Even the most well-established brands can find it challenging to grow in competitive markets. The massive popularity of Stanley Cup’s Quencher tumbler is a fascinating case study that demonstrates the power of letting your audience’s passion for your product guide your growth strategy—even if it’s an audience you didn’t know you had.

This blog will explain why the Stanley Cup Quencher is so popular, how Stanley used the cup to expand into a totally new target market, and our top takeaways from the Stanley Cup marketing strategy.

Stanley Cup Marketing History: The Quencher Launch

More than a century old, Stanley was founded by William Stanley Jr. in 1913, who invented the steel vacuum insulated bottle technology that maintains hot or cold temperatures for hours. The brand has been popular with outdoor enthusiasts and the construction industry thanks to its durability and practicality, the focus of Stanley Cup marketing for decades.

The Quencher was launched in 2016 but didn’t find much success with Stanley’s mostly male audience, so it was close to being discontinued forever. However, that changed when a different type of consumer discovered the product — and loved it.

What Is the Target Market for Stanley Cups?

When a co-founder of shopping blog The Buy Guide discovered the Stanley Quencher, she found it offered several features that made it a better choice than any other cup she had. She recommended the cup on the site and included it in promotional curated boxes sent to influencers. When a Stanley employee saw Bachelorette star Emily Maynard promoting the cup on social media, she was surprised that the cup appealed to a market completely different from the outdoorsy males Stanley Cup marketing typically targeted.

Stanley executives began leaning into and embracing this new target market, creating cups with different color ways and finishes that consumers could coordinate with their outfit or mood. For the first time, Stanley wasn’t just useful — it became a trending status symbol. Paired with Stanley’s incredible durability and effectiveness, the Quencher is one trend that’s likely to stand the test of time.

Why Is the Stanley Quencher Cup So Popular?

What makes the story of the Stanley Quencher cup so unique is the way the brand was guided by consumers to tap into their desire for a sustainable, stylish, and practical travel cup option. This alignment with customer values didn’t happen by accident. It was the result of Stanley’s willingness to listen to its users and make updates to its product based on direct feedback. Here are some lessons growing businesses can take away from Stanley Cup marketing.

1. Listen to Your Customers
The first step in creating a product that resonates with your market is understanding where the true value lies for your customers. This goes beyond surface-level desires or the initial feedback loop and involves deep dives into customer behavior, preferences, and unmet needs. Stanley’s success with the Quencher was largely due to their ability to discern not just what customers said they wanted but to understand the underlying needs and preferences that drove those statements.

2. Test and Learn
Adopting a lean startup approach, characterized by the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) concept, is crucial. This method emphasizes the importance of rapid prototyping, testing, and iterating based on real user feedback. It’s about being agile enough to pivot when certain aspects of the product don’t meet customer expectations and doubling down on the features that do. For Stanley, this meant continuously refining the Quencher’s design, usability, and marketing approach to better align with consumer demands.

3. Devote Resources Wisely
When you hit on a product or service that gains traction, it’s essential to devote significant resources to scaling it. This doesn’t just mean financial investment but also dedicating time, talent, and technology to ensure that the product can grow without losing the quality or essence that made it popular. Recognizing the Quencher’s potential meant ramping up production, enhancing Stanley Cup marketing efforts, and ensuring supply chains were robust enough to meet the surging demand.

What Is the Stanley Cup Marketing Strategy Today?

Today, the Quencher story is more than just a tale of a product becoming a hit; it’s a blueprint for Stanley’s growth in the modern business landscape. By listening to customers, embracing a test-and-learn philosophy, and strategically allocating resources, companies can navigate the complexities of market demands and consumer preferences. As the Founder & CEO of a marketing agency, I see these principles as fundamental to guiding businesses through pivots and scaling efforts. The Quencher’s journey underscores the importance of agility, customer-centricity, and strategic investment in innovation.

A critical component of being able to pivot as quickly and effectively as Stanley has is the agility and open-mindedness of the members of the C-Suite. Stanley’s President through this successful blitz was recruited from Crocs, where he was the CMO, so had a marketing mind. While not all companies need a full-time CMO at the helm, it’s crucial to have one to turn to for marketing leadership and strategy.

A fractional CMO can help you choose the best strategies to grow your business. Download our overview to learn more about our fCMO services, our deep bench of specialized CMOs, and our unique matching process!

Contact Us

About &Marketing:

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

About the Author

As the Founder & CEO of &Marketing (www.and-marketing.com), Raj and his team strive to provide growing businesses unparalleled marketing strategy and execution services. Raj has more than two decades of experience in B2B and B2C marketing, sales, & strategy. He has led nearly 100 high-profile marketing strategy projects for Global 100, mid-sized clients, and SMBs, plus over a decade with General Electric and General Mills. He is a sought-after advisor and facilitator, with experience across five continents. He is known for bringing the best of ‘big company’ marketing and strategy to smaller companies without the baggage, his bias for practical implementation, and his unrelenting customer focus.

Why Tactical Marketing is So Hard for the C-Suite to Get Right

by Rajat Kapur | Jun 25, 2024 | Insights

Why Tactical Marketing is So Hard for the C-Suite to Get Right

Tactical Marketing Often Trips Up Even the C-Suite

The C-suite—any organization’s brains and brawn—sets the course for a company’s success, but even these top leaders sometimes stumble over the nitty-gritty of tactical marketing. The question is, why?

There’s often a disconnect between the high-level vision that CEOs and CFOs excel at and the day-to-day realities of customer engagement. C-suite executives are masters of strategy and big-picture thinking. But the constantly evolving world of tactical marketing demands a deep understanding of customer preferences, ever-changing channels, and the delicate balance between data-driven results and emotional connection.

Sometimes, a C-suite doesn’t completely understand these factors or lumps together two different, though related, marketing elements: tactical and strategic. We’ll define and compare each, show how one complements the other, and offer tips for implementing tactical marketing to develop a more robust, successful marketing program.

What is the difference between strategy and tactics marketing?

The main difference between marketing tactics versus strategy? Their objectives.

Strategic marketing—an area where the C-suite excels—takes a big-picture approach. It defines the overall direction of your company’s marketing efforts and considers factors like target audience, brand positioning, and competitive landscape. This long-term vision helps companies build a sustainable competitive advantage.

Tactical marketing, on the other hand, focuses on the specifics of executing that strategy. It involves marketing teams’ day-to-day activities to achieve short-term goals, like increasing website traffic or generating leads for a specific campaign. These tactics should align with your company’s overall strategic plan.

Strategic marketing: The breakdown

This long-term vision prioritizes understanding market and customer needs, fueling a marketing plan to address those needs effectively. The process includes comprehensively analyzing the business environment and pinpointing a company’s ideal target markets. These insights empower you to tailor a marketing mix aligned with the organization’s goals.

Key components of a strategic marketing approach

The first step involves conducting market research—gathering data about the market, competition, and customer behavior. Analyzing this data helps uncover trends, opportunities, and potential threats. These insights inform the creation of products and services that resonate with your target audience’s preferences, buying habits, and motivations.

Next: Developing the unique value proposition (UVP). A strong UVP clearly communicates the unique benefits of your product or service—something your competitors simply can’t offer. A well-crafted UVP fosters customer loyalty and lifts you above the competition.

Last: Strategic marketing plan creation. This roadmap outlines the specific strategies and tactics to achieve your marketing objectives and includes your marketing budget, a defined timeline, and clear metrics to gauge your goals’ success.

Strategic marketing in action

Suppose you wanted to boost your social media campaign’s click-through rates (CTRs) by 15% on Facebook over 30 days. Your strategic approach might include redefining your target audience and using that info to craft and launch new ads.

Tactical marketing: The breakdown

What are tactical decisions in marketing?

While strategic marketing is the blueprint, tactical marketing is the toolbox used to execute the plan. Tactical marketing encompasses specific channels and methods to reach your target audience and goals. Tactics focus on the daily execution of marketing activities, translating strategic information and content into impactful presentations to drive short-term results.

While tactical marketing thrives on immediate results, it shouldn’t operate in isolation but align with your broader strategic initiatives. For example, a company might leverage social marketing to introduce and launch a new product and achieve short-term sales growth. The ultimate goal? Extracting valuable insights from tactical marketing to inform and refine your overall marketing plan and build a sustainable competitive edge.

Key components of a tactical marketing approach

A well-stocked tactical marketing toolbox overflows with tools and channels: advertising campaigns, promotions, events, and sales techniques designed to deliver a quick boost. You might develop a user-friendly website, strategically place targeted ads on social media, or send informative brochures or newsletters via email drip campaigns. These tactics all serve to get your product or service in front of the right audience at the right time.

Tactical marketing in action

Let’s say Happy Cow brand is preparing to introduce a new ice cream flavor—S’mores Explosion—in July (National Ice Cream Month) to boost sales and brand awareness. A tactical marketing campaign might include a pre-launch tease in the weeks leading up to July, with Happy Cow creating a buzz on social media platforms. The marketing team could post teaser images featuring shadowy silhouettes of ingredients or close-up shots of textures to spark conversation. The company could engage its audience with interactive polls asking followers to guess the new flavor and its ingredients or run contests where followers could share their most creative S’mores recipes for a chance to win free pints.

Tactical marketing channels & how to use them

The list of tactical marketing channels is quite varied — and long! Examples include:

Catalogs and brochures
Direct selling/phone customer service
Email marketing channels
Indirect marketing via retailers
Industry networking events
Marketing events and company conferences
SEO marketing channels
Social media platforms

Another impactful channel? Tactical advertisements, which are essentially targeted ads designed to achieve specific, short-term marketing goals. They’re the action-oriented component for executing your marketing plan and can include digital advertisements like social media and search engine ads or email marketing campaigns.

Tactical advertising offers measurable results that are easy to track and measure, allowing you to see (and communicate to the C-suite) the immediate impact of your campaign and optimize it for better performance. You can target your ads to very specific audiences based on your ideal customer profile (ICP)’s demographics, interests, and online behavior to maximize the ROI of your ad spend. The short-term nature of tactical ads facilitates flexibility and adaptability in messaging and approaches based on real-time results.

Designing a tactical marketing strategy

Don’t confuse your tactical marketing strategy with branding strategy as you develop it. Branding strategy outlines how to build and strengthen your brand identity, while tactics are the specific actions that translate the strategy into reality.

Conduct a business assessment
Define corporate goals and your audience, identify threats (external factors that could impact the success of achieving corporate goals), weaknesses (internal factors hindering business performance), and opportunities, and then identify your company’s market position.
Define your marketing goals.
Use the insights from your business assessment to develop your company’s marketing goals. Those goals should leverage any identified opportunities and strengths and address threats and weaknesses.
Choose your marketing tactics.
The best approach depends on your company and its products, the market, and available resources. While planning, include a clear timeline for each tactic to keep the execution focused and help measure the progress toward your goals. Define the metrics you’ll use to measure performance.
Implement your strategy.
Use the timelines from Step 3 to guide the implementation of each tactic. Lean into the sales funnel stages here and let each stage guide you on which tactic to implement and when. For example, social media campaigns might work well in the awareness and interest stages. Offering a discount might help potential customers to say “Yes” when they reach the decision stage.
Review the plan
Once you’ve implemented your plan, monitor its effectiveness based on the metrics you defined earlier—whether it’s an increase in sales, new customer growth, or something else. If the numbers don’t align, adjust and try again.

Strategic and tactical marketing are two sides of the same coin. Strategic marketing provides the overarching direction and long-term vision, while tactical marketing implements specific actions to achieve more specific short-term goals. Understanding the interplay between these two elements—and keeping the coin in their pocket—empowers C-suite executives to create a more solid, effective marketing program.

Many growing companies need C-Suite person to drive that top-level strategy and ensure the tactical elements get executed but don’t want (or can’t) add a full-time executive. That’s where we come in. Download our overview below to learn about our fractional CMO services.

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Commercial Due Diligence Services for Private Equity Investments

by Rajat Kapur | Jul 27, 2023 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights, Marketing Planning & Execution, Storytelling & Branding

Commercial Due Diligence Services for Private Equity Investments

Written By Rajat Kapur

On

Private equity acquisition is a complex undertaking with countless moving parts. Your company’s funds, time, and reputation are all on the line, and as new products emerge and marketing capabilities expand thanks to advancing digital intelligence, it’s more important than ever that you know the commitment you’re making.

Commercial due diligence offers invaluable clarity into your acquisition, from helping you determine whether or not it’s worth the investment to understanding how to maximize its opportunities for long-term growth. Today, more and more private equity firms are choosing to outsource these services — and they’re quickly seeing all the benefits that it provides.

What is Commercial Due Diligence?

A commercial due diligence is a critical deep dive into a businesses’ current position and future potential. Typically led by an executive marketing consultant (or a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer), this internal review involves assessing everything from a company’s ability to attract and retain customers, its market positioning and digital presence versus its competitors, how it defines its brand positioning and value proposition, and a number of other key elements that allow a business to identify opportunities to accelerate growth and value creation.

Here’s what you can expect from an effective commercial due diligence:

A deeper understanding of your acquisition’s market dynamics, competition, and customers/consumers
A robust roadmap for growth and a holistic marketing plan
Practical strategy execution with detailed analysis of the results and expected ROI

Outsourced commercial due diligence services typically involve a fractional CMO supported by digital specialists brought in through an agreement customized to the needs of the company. Their scope is specifically process-driven to help frame your portfolio company’s scale up, while ensuring you have the proper guardrails and strategic oversight to meet your long-term growth needs.

Why Do Commercial Due Diligence?

In the case of private equity firms, a commercial due diligence can offer invaluable clarity into the long-term potential of their investment through the support of highly experienced subject matter experts with practical advice and support to execute, ensuring the most meaningful results and greatest ROI.

This process will focus on fully understanding the target acquisition’s opportunities to determine whether there is potential for significant growth to create shareholder value. In many cases, commercial due diligence consultancy is usually employed after the private equity firm has conducted enough initial due diligence that it is willing to invest the time and resources to gain more transparency and confidence into whether it is a good investment opportunity in the long-run. And it can either be done pre or post-acquisition.

How Much Does Commercial Due Diligence Cost?

In order to best understand the costs associated with a commercial due diligence, it’s important to know your options — and what you’re getting. For example, &Marketing offers a flexible engagement through a retainer or “on-demand” model with various activities scoped on an ad-hoc basis. These retainers are typically for an initial project that is defined based on the specific target company’s needs (strategy, research, digital ads, SEO, email marketing, social media, etc). They can also be done as a “percentage of full time” on a weekly basis and paid monthly with a typical 3-6-month minimum engagement.

Here is a breakdown of a commercial due diligence framework/checklist and the associated costs

Market Position Analysis

Determine the company’s target markets or audiences based on its sales, margin, and customer retention history
Review and map the company’s positioning verses its competition for selected dynamics, such as value, uniqueness, market share & growth potential
Determine whether the product and service positioning is “True, Distinct & Compelling”
Map out the company’s Core Competences to determine whether it has sustainable competitive advantage
Costs range from $10,000 to $20,000.

Customer Insights Collection

Interview the company’s current and previous customers to guage how compelling and unique its products and services are from the perspective of their target audiences
Interviews with customers to reveal what’s effective & what’s not:
a. Why they purchased
b. The products/services’ strengths & weaknesses
c. Level of customer satisfaction & the likelihood they’ll continue to purchase or use products/services
d. The reason past customers chose to leave
Determine retention rates among customers over the last 12 to 18 months. (Note: many start-ups may have lower retention rates as they home in on higher potential target groups. For quick turnover consumer products, the metric here is repeat rate, which should be at least 50%)
Typically, 25-40 qualitative phone interviews are performed for a cost of approximately $15,000 to $20,000, or online surveys can be utilized with costs ranging from $5,000 to $10,000

Digital Marketing Strategy Positioning

Evaluate the company’s website for content, positioning and messaging, ease of use and technical functionality, and suitability for future value creation
Initiate discussions with key sales and marketing leaders to understand the existing lead generation pipeline and processes for managing leads generated to identify opportunities for future revenue growth
Conduct in-depth analysis to determine the company’s and its competitor’s digital strategy, approach, and effectiveness, quantifying its digital presence and identify high ROI approaches to accelerate revenue growth
Costs range from $10,000 to $50,000, depending on complexity

Marketing Capabilities Review

Evaluate the company’s marketing materials, both printed and digital
Conduct interviews with marketing teams regarding strategy and success to date
Work with the management team to outline the strengths and weaknesses found
Recommend cost effective improvements and internal organizational changes
Costs ranges from $5,000 to $10,000.

Is Commercial Due Diligence Stressful?

Performing a commercial due diligence can be time consuming and resource intensive if you try to tackle it internally without the right resources, bandwidth, or expertise to do it properly. This is why more and more private equity firms are relying on outsourced fractional CMOs and marketing teams to handle the commercial due diligence of their portfolio companies on their behalf.

While some commercial due diligence experts will leave the execution of your marketing strategy to your portfolio company or a third party, there are full service digital agencies that provide the executive leadership and marketing team to see the entire process through from pre-acquisition advisory to practical execution. This approach not only leaves you with a single point of responsibility throughout the process, but also decreases the risks of issues and unapproved changes to ensure the overall effectiveness of the investment.

To learn more about the benefits of outsourcing your portfolio company’s commercial due diligence consulting to ensure you’re harnessing the best solutions for long-term success, contact the digital marketing experts at &Marketing today.

About the Author

As the Founder & CEO of &Marketing (www.and-marketing.com), Raj and his team strive to provide growing businesses unparalleled marketing strategy and execution services. Raj has more than two decades of experience in B2B and B2C marketing, sales, & strategy. He has led nearly 100 high-profile marketing strategy projects for Global 100, mid-sized clients, and SMBs, plus over a decade with General Electric and General Mills. He is a sought-after advisor and facilitator, with experience across five continents. He is known for bringing the best of ‘big company’ marketing and strategy to smaller companies without the baggage, his bias for practical implementation, and his unrelenting customer focus.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

The 6 Biggest Marketing Trends Entering 2023

by Rajat Kapur | Dec 22, 2022 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights

The 6 Biggest Marketing Trends Entering 2023

Written By Rajat Kapur

As I speak to business owners + marketing leaders, I’m always trying to keep a pulse on trends. Broadly, there are some macro business trends around economic uncertainty (duh!), inflation, supply chain, and data.

6 Marketing Trends Entering 2023

Let’s focus on what’s happening in the marketing industry. Since the landscape is constantly evolving, the trends that I’m seeing are a mix of old and new. Marketers will need to stay ahead of the curve to remain competitive. I’ve tried to identify the top 6 trends that will be driving the industry in 2023 and beyond.

AI & ML

Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can be used to automate many marketing tasks, such as customer segmentation, content personalization, data analysis, and predictive analytics. This will allow (force!) marketers to focus on strategic tasks, such as developing creative campaigns, optimizing customer experiences, and making better decisions to increase ROI. Are you at least exploring AI/ML’s role in your marketing?

Data & Insights

The use of data-driven marketing will only increase in importance. Data-driven marketing informs better decisions, such as which channels to use, which audiences to target, and most importantly how to beat competitors. Everyone says they use data – but are you using it to make better decisions?

Social is Evolving

Social media will continue to be a major trend in marketing. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok (and what about Twitter?) are powerful for connecting with customers and building relationships. Marketers use these platforms to engage with customers, promote their products and services, and build brand awareness. It’s more than just a content distribution channel. How are you evolving your social plan?

Video

Video will continue its surge. It is an effective way to engage with customers and build relationships. Marketers can use video content to showcase their products and services, tell stories, and create an emotional connection with their audience. Are you behind because you’re not using video?

Influencers

Influencer marketing involves leveraging the influence of well-known people across industries (not just social media) to drive credibility. Influencers can help to build brand awareness and trust, as well as drive sales. This is not just a B2C phenomenon on TikTok and Instagram… it’s happening all around in B2B as well. Who influences your prospects?

Data Privacy

Data privacy will continue to be a thorny topic. Companies no longer have free reign to use data to target customers, and there will continue to be a backlash on companies that overstep ethical boundaries. Are you evolving fast enough?

These are just a few of the major trends I’m seeing. How are these impacting your business? What is missing?

Contact Us

About Rajat Kapur

As the Founder & CEO of &Marketing (www.and-marketing.com), Raj and his team strive to provide growing businesses unparalleled marketing strategy and execution services. Raj has more than two decades of experience in B2B and B2C marketing, sales, & strategy. He has led nearly 100 high-profile marketing strategy projects for Global 100, mid-sized clients, and SMBs, plus over a decade with General Electric and General Mills. He is a sought-after advisor and facilitator, with experience across five continents. He is known for bringing the best of ‘big company’ marketing and strategy to smaller companies without the baggage, his bias for practical implementation, and his unrelenting customer focus

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

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