Call To Action

Hear the business leads of Weber Shandwick, 88 Creative and 6S Marketing lead a powerful discussion on how to generate more organic growth for your agency in 2016. This is the first half of a two part episode. 

In this episode of the Call to Action podcast, we interview Scott Stratten of Unmarketing about why he thinks most marketing is bad... and is only getting worse. Plus, Scott shares how sales, marketing and customer service can all work together to create a seamless brand experience.

The great folks at Uberflip have just launched their very own podcast, Flip the Switch, and our Content Director Dan Levy spoke with Uberflip's VP Marketing Hana Abaza about the nitty gritty details: finding your audience, figuring out ROI and what can go wrong on launch.

In this episode of the Call to Action podcast, we talk with Brian Hemeryck, Unbounce's Growth Strategist, about the results of his ambitious project to launch eight new marketing growth experiments in eight weeks. Plus, learn why Brian accepted the position under the condition that he would not be titled "Growth Hacker."  

What happens when you've seen more landing pages that anyone on the planet? Well, for one, you start noticing poor and positive marketing experiences all over the web. And then you start noticing optimization tactics at play in the real world, too, like when you're shopping for a blender or using a poorly-designed bathroom sink. But you also learn a heck of a lot about marketing. And if you're Oli Gardner of Unbounce, you try your best to share your learnings with other marketers. 

After writing a couple best-selling books and speaking at a ton of marketing conferences, Julien Smith decided it was time to put his money where his mouth is - so he co-founded Breather, a company that rents out private spaces by the hour. Since Breather is based here in Montreal, Julien came by the office to chat us about his seemingly backwards transition from marketing thought leader to real-world marketer and CEO.

Imagine being the only marketer on the team at a budding startup. You need to know the best practices for all sorts of campaigns: paid, content, social, email, partnerships… the list goes on. What's more, you're responsible for both strategy and execution (no matter how brilliant you are, there are only 24 hours in a day... and fewer if you want to, y'know, sleep). That's a lot of hats to wear. Sound like a nightmare? Well, it was the reality for Georgiana Laudi back when Unbounce was just a baby company. Today, she is the VP of Marketing and has watched the department grow to have more than 30 employees. And while the role was surely stressful (wearing a lot of hats can make you look goofy), Gia's hands-in-everything position taught her a lot about being a marketer and a manager.

We all have that friend we go to when we need relationship advice. But it's not always about heartache or that roommate who won't do their dishes. Sometimes it's your leads who are breaking your heart. You thought you made a great first impression, so why don't they want a second date? When your lead gen opportunities are resulting in the marketing equivalent of a one-night stand, let Mike King of digital marketing agency iPullRank be that friend. In this episode of the Call to Action podcast, Mike tells you how you can create long-lasting relationships with leads - the kind that keeps them coming back for more.

The first year of becoming a parent is a rollercoaster of emotions, from terror to pure joy and everything in between. You can't sleep, you don't have time to eat and you go from laughing to crying in mere seconds. But in the end it's all worth it, because like every proud parent, your podcast's achievements become your own. Nope, that wasn't a typo. We're talking about a different kind of baby - one you can download on iTunes. That's right, folks, the Call to Action podcast just turned one, and we're celebrating as many others have celebrated their first birthday: by diving headfirst into a volleyball-sized cupcake. (I wish!) Join me, Unbounce's Multimedia Producer, Stephanie Saretsky (a.k.a. Beansie), and Content Strategist Dan Levy as we chat about the lessons learned during the podcast's first year, including how dang tricky it is to measure the value of a podcast and why not all ideas are good ideas. On top of that, we chat about what's to come for season two, and how you can get involved.

We've all experienced that feeling of dread. You've got your pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), but your mind is as blank as your Google doc. And your landing page copy isn't going to write itself. Before you throw up your arms and abandon your work, listen to the latest episode of the Call to Action podcast. Unbounce's Content Strategist Dan Levy interviews Grant Lingel, Content Manager of professional service provider Bunny Inc. about tricks he's used to break free of the prison that is writer's block.

Branding and performance are typically seen as being on opposite ends of the marketing spectrum - the PPC specialists run their campaigns while the branding experts concern themselves with more high-level strategy. But as Dana DiTomaso, Partner at digital marketing agency Kick Point explains in the latest episode of the Call to Action podcast, if you don't see how the two relate, you're likely cheating yourself out of a higher conversion rate.

Your customers don't care that you think your product is better than the competition. But they do care about consuming delightful, in-depth content that will make them better at their jobs… which raises the question: is it possible to educate your audience with highly useful content without tiptoeing around what you actually sell? Gregory Ciotti, Content Strategist at customer support software Help Scout, thinks so. In this episode of the Call to Action podcast, our Content Strategist Dan Levy speaks with Gregory about how product marketing is the new content marketing.

"New year, new me" is a phrase I'm sure you're all hearing lately. For those who actually need to restructure their content teams or strategies this year, that phrase might be ringing especially true. But how do you figure out which changes will bring about the biggest benefits? Our content strategist, Dan Levy, nerded out with Jay Acunzo of NextView ventures about the different ways to grow a high-performing content team, and why developing a credible content strategy is hard work, but absolutely necessary. Plus, hear Jay talk about his issue with the growth hacking trend.

Psst! We're taking a lil' break for the holiday season but will be back to our regular podcasting schedule on January 6th. We all know what spam looks like when it lands in our inbox, yet we're quick to approve email marketing campaigns that are strikingly similar… That's the realization that Steven Moody, founder of Beachhead Marketing, had one day - and what he cautions against in our latest episode of the Call to Action podcast. In the episode, Steven chats with Unbounce's Content Strategist Dan Levy about how to woo the people on your email list (so they don't mark your emails as spam).

Every marketer (and their mom) knows the importance of running campaigns that are data-driven. But if you've got your head down optimizing for conversions, you can become blinded by that data - and forget that behind every click, there's a person. Creating better marketing experiences for the person behind the click was a recurring theme at MozCon 2015 - and it's what Chelsea Scholz, Campaign Strategist at Unbounce, discusses passionately in this week's episode of the Call to Action podcast.

Copywriters walk a fine line between adhering to best practices and thinking outside the box. On the one hand, you don't want to mess with what works. On the other, you need to get adventurous if you're going to stand out from the crowd - nothing kills conversions like lazy copywriting. In this episode of the Call to Action podcast, Copy Hackers co-founder Joanna Wiebe challenges marketers to take chances with their copywriting, and pinpoints three common mistakes that result in lazy copy that just doesn't convert.

Good copywriters aren't afraid to put themselves out there. They write from the heart and let their true voice shine through in their work. But being authentic shouldn't come at the expense of writing clear, helpful copy. So how do you make your boss and clients happy without sacrificing your voice? In this episode of the Call to Action podcast, we chat with Unbounce writer Brad Tiller about reconciling your company's (or client's) voice and your own. Then, we speak to Brian Lenney, copywriter at Inbound.org, about how you can use the power of vulnerability in your copy to connect with prospects and push them toward conversion.

Facebook users react to and interact with content differently than Twitter users, and you won't see results from your social media campaigns if you're blanket publishing across all networks. But with all the social media platforms out there, it can be a real pain in the booty to tailor every piece of content to each specific network. But as we learned in the latest episode of the Call to Action podcast, there's plenty that can be done to streamline the process; Ryan Stewart, founder of WEBRIS, shared some analytics hacks to help you see better results without having to work harder.

Have you ever run a PPC campaign that was working pretty well, but never seemed to get to the next level? You may have experienced what PPC insiders call the "AdWords Plateau," the point where your campaigns are maintaining their value, but are no longer driving the kind of growth you need. So, do you just sit back and rest on your laurels? Heck no! We want your campaigns to always be converting better. That’s why in this episode of the Call to Action podcast, we talk to Igor Belogolovsky, co-founder of Clever Zebo, about advanced AdWords tactics that can push your campaigns up and off the plateau.

Jobs in print media may be drying up, but content marketing has created thousands of jobs for writers. On this new playing field, what exactly does it take to set yourself apart from the army of other content marketers? According to Demian Farnworth of Copyblogger, it takes great determination, a healthy dose of usability knowledge... ...and a whole lot of caffeine. In this episode of the Call to Action podcast, Demian breaks down the anatomy of a successful web writer.