#11. An End-Of-Year Round-Up
That's A Wrap
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Hi there!
I've tried to say thank you a lot this year, but really…
Thank you.
The fact that you subscribe to this newsletter means a lot to me.
This newsletter represents my commitment to myself to not give up on building and creating. It takes a lot of time each week, and I'm not always sure what the purpose is. But watching it grow encourages me to continue. Not only working on this, but looking to move myself forward professionally as well.
And I am so appreciative of how many of you lent support to me throughout this year without any expectations.
And how many of you inspired me by sharing your own success and experiences. It's so cool to see brilliant people like yourself being transparent about your own challenges, achievements and goals.
I’m really looking forward to keeping this going in 2021. And hopeful that there will also be positive changes and new opportunities next year as well.
For this newsletter I decided to switch up the format a little to make it simpler for me to put together (I’m on holiday time right now to recharge a bit). This is a round-up of some links and content I enjoyed and wanted to share. Hoping you find it beneficial!
(I also decided to just have fun with the graphics. Most of them are a little random, but kind of a farewell to 2020 and all the things we continued to talk about. 😅)
Let me know what you think of this style versus my usual.
And I guess I’ll talk to you again in 2021!
Annual Reports:
The design of this Mailchimp report on email marketing alone makes it worth giving it a look. What a creative way to present data! I’d love to see more companies trying out formats like this instead of the usual white paper or blog approach.
SEMrush released a 2020 content marketing report that analyzed a number of data points, including over 600k tweets and over 1M blog posts. Dig into it for some inspiration for your 2021 content marketing strategy.
It’s that time of year! Building out end-of-year reports to look back on all you achieved (or didn’t). Here’s a guide (and free template) from Talkwalker to help you create a complete 2020 marketing report.
Business of Apps provides a complete review of LinkedIn performance from its launch years ago in 2003 to this year. Great information if you want to start building on LinkedIn or improve your current use.
The year 2020 was a great time to become an investor or to analyze your portfolio. If you’re like me and love following interesting financial news, here’s a list of all the IPOs that happened so far this year.
Tools:
Remote Sales Toolbox
One of the biggest messages I heard repeated throughout 2020 was that marketers need to be more concerned with revenue and sales. If you’re looking to help become a better champion of the sales - marketing alignment challenge, here’s a list of some of the best remote sales tools to take back to your team.
Freelance Pricing
I see a lot of discussion about how to set your prices for freelance projects, and it can be really confusing. Here’s something I saw shared that I found useful for considering my own freelance pricing strategy.
Hiring Board
Speaking of freelance work, if you’re looking for a full-time or part-time position or freelance gigs, here’s a job board. Not a ton this month for marketing, but it’s a great page to bookmark and keep an eye on, especially if you’re interested in tech or startups.
One-Sentence Research Papers
This tool, SciTLDR, is looking to use AI to create extremely brief summarizations of research papers. Check out this article to learn more about it.
Global Sharing Is Caring
This chart shows which countries’ social media users share brand content most often on social media. Pretty interesting info here!
The Non-Technical Guide to Building Technical Products
Anyone who knows me knows I’m fascinated with entrepreneurship, specifically within the tech space. I follow a lot of inspiring founders, and Janine Sickmeyer is one of my faves. She shared an article full of great tips for how to build apps without extensive tech experience.
The No-Code Cheat Sheet
As a follow up to Janine’s article, here’s a great resource if you’re looking for how to build tech stuff without a coding background.
Stand-Out Brand Moments
A B2B Ad That Breaks The Mold
You rarely see B2B ads that stray from a very safe territory. Gong is one of the outliers. They’ve developed a very fun brand persona, especially with their LinkedIn presence, and this end-of-year ad stands out for its risk-taking approach.
Interesting News
TikTok becomes the first social media platform to ban multi-level marketing schemes in an effort to protect users from “Frauds and Scams,” as they refer to it in the new, revised version of their community guidelines.
Newsletters are what’s hot right now. What if, to bolster the struggling local news industry, newsletters became the norm for delivering regionally focused news content?
Read it now
No, you’re not imagining it. The organic reach on social media for brands has gone down to encourage buying ads. The question about what to do about that will continue to be a big topic of discussion in 2021.
Google search algorithms are an obsession for a lot of marketers. Did you miss this article about how they’re switching things up using AI? Now they’ll be able to analyze specific passages from websites to create better search results to answer search intent.
With all the talk about the antitrust laws and how they apply to Big Tech like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, the discussion about regulating social media has been top of mind this year. And part of this is the question of who regulates social media?
YouTube streamer MrBeast started his own “ghost kitchen.” He has no experience in F&B, but his millions of followers are still driving his latest endeavor to success. It’s an interesting example of why audience is the hottest currency right now. (Also here’s a thread on who MrBeast is and how he got started.)
Social media use among Fortune 500 companies is changing. Surprisingly, LinkedIn is a top player for most companies. Also surprisingly 1 in 12 are already on TikTok.
For Fun
The Prediction Game
You should check this out. Make your predictions for what 2021 holds, and you could win cash and more.
Batman in Black
DC Comics announced the next Batman will be Black -- and have brought in John Ridley, the screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave, to write the four-book miniseries around him.
AI Dungeon Game
A few weeks ago I wrote about my tests of new AI copywriting tools, like Copy.ai, which seems to be getting great buzz everywhere. In any case, while researching for that I came across this fun game that runs on GPT-3. If you’re a writer or you like old-school RPG games, this should be fun for you, too.
Is the McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine Broken?
This was shared months ago on social media, but it’s important, so I’m bringing it back. Track whether your local McDonald’s has a functional ice cream machine!
Hope you all enjoyed this one. I'll be back again next week in 2021 with some new year predictions courtesy of some of my favorite thought leaders on social media.
If you've got any thoughts to share with me on this newsletter or anything else, please send them over to me here!
💋
C
The Top Posts From My Website This Year:
Holiday Marketing Campaigns 2020: 40+ Brand Examples (Read it)
How to Create a Winning LinkedIn Brand Strategy (Read it)
Tips for Creating Your Freelance Marketing Strategy (Read it)
That Rapper You Hate is Better at Marketing Strategy Than You (Read it)
[Infographic] Disney Princesses as Different Types of Marketing Pros (Read It)
This gif is for Elius! (Click here for reference) 😂 If you found this useful or entertaining at all, I'd really appreciate your help in getting the word out to others by clicking the share icons below or just forwarding it to others!