Wednesday, January 22

Today's Essential Marketing News & Tips

Are you in a part of the US this week being hit by cold temps and winter weather? If so, I recommend my favorite winter activity: staying inside under a blanket with a warm beverage and your favorite growth marketing newsletter. 🥰

🌟 Today’s Highlights:

  • TikTok has been granted a 75 day extension on US sell-off

  • Instagram is recommending longer Reels to users now

  • The ultimate solution to hiring affordable SDRs and salespeople in 2025

  • 📊 Stat of the Day: Search queries related to the TikTok ban saw a 5000$ increase between January 1-16. (Source: Sobhi Smat)

  • 💡 Today’s Insight: 4 thought leadership myths that may be holding you back

🌎 What are companies like Google, IBM, and RingCentral doing in South Africa?

If you’re hiring SDRs or salespeople in 2025, listen up. Some of the world’s biggest tech companies are outsourcing their cold calling and SDR teams to South Africa and it’s not hard to see why.

💡 Over 5 million people speak NATIVE English in the country and thousands of reps with experience selling in industries like tech, finance, marketing, and many others.

🤯 Average base salaries start at around $700/month with lots of reps making $2,000-$3,000. If you’re serious about building a sales team that can get results, I recommend Go Carpathian.

💡 Today’s Insight 💡

🗞 TL;DR - The benefits of thought leadership content are well-documented with 74% of people trusting their peers more than CEOs and journalists when it comes to information about innovation. And yet, it’s still so hard to actually make a priority. LinkedIn has debunked four of the key myths about thought leadership and how you can overcome them.

💡 Insight - Myth 1: There’s not enough time to create thought leadership. It can be time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. If you focus on setting aside 15 mins 2x/week, this can be enough to research and write 1-2 posts per week. Make the most of your time by using AI tools or simply resharing a post with your POV.

Myth 2: I can’t be effective because I haven’t figured out my niche. You can actually have multiple focus areas and this can evolve over time. One great question to ask yourself to start is, “What is a work-related topic people commonly reach out to you for advice about?”

Myth 3: We need to build a whole separate content strategy for thought leadership. In reality, it’s actually easier to weave your thought leadership into your company’s overall content strategy as another pillar alongside other content.

Myth 4: Our brand has strong organic thought leadership, so we don’t need paid. LinkedIn has seen 2x higher CTR and engagement rates on thought leader ads compared to sponsored content directly from a brand. Boost your content to maximize your impact!

⚡️ Today’s Headlines ⚡️

🇺🇸 TikTok has gotten a 75 day extension on US sell-off. Which means, the app is still banned in the US (and the extension may not even be legal), but people can still use it. Yeah, we’re confused too.

💩 My Disgustingly Simple 2025 Marketing Hack! The newest episode of The @MarketingMax Show dives deep into the marketing strategy I'm going all in on for my businesses and my clients' this year. Check it out on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple (& don’t forget to subscribe)!

🎥 Instagram is recommending longer Reels in the Explore tab. Forget about the time Instagram told everyone that they shouldn’t post Reels longer than 90 seconds. Now, longer reels are in.

 Want more leads? This newsletter has generated thousands of leads for all sorts of businesses! And we have a special Q1 promo you won't wanna miss (2X Bonus)! Get in touch and learn more here →

✏️ Threads has added a ‘markup’ option to reshared images. Users will see the new option when they go to reshare a post, with the ability to highlight certain elements of an image, write over it, and more before reposting.

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