SparkToro

SparkToro is an audience research startup founded by Rand Fishkin and Casey Henry.

VP of Marketing

Growth Machine

I grew the podcast to 20K downloads, launched the YouTube channel, and sent out a weekly newsletter with a 30% open rate.

Growth Machine is an SEO & content creation agency. Growth Machine has worked with sites like Sumo, Patreon, Kettle & Fire, Four Sigmatic, and many more.

Head of Marketing

Liftopia, Inc.

I led marketing for Liftopia, the leading provider of dynamic pricing and online ticket sales platforms for high volume ticketing businesses. I further grew the Liftopia Blog audience, improved email lifecycle, and yielded a positive ROI on paid acquisition.

Amanda Natividad, Inc.

Strategic marketing services from content marketing deliverables to product marketing collateral, top-line messaging, and more.

Marketing & Creative Consultant

Fitbit

I headed up B2B content marketing strategy for Fitbit Health Solutions, having led creation of thought leadership content, customer success stories, conference agenda/content, and social media. In 2018, I led the launch of the Fitbit Health Blog, as well as Fitbit Health Solutions' LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook channels. During my tenure, I helped build out the B2B marketing team.

B2B Content Marketing Lead

NatureBox

NatureBox is a direct-to-consumer healthy snack company. In leading content marketing and communications strategy, and helping to shape the company's voice, I wrote website messaging, product messaging and brand collateral, and hired and managed a PR agency. Leading the content/social media team, I was responsible for editorial direction, created healthy recipes for the NatureBox Blog, and oversaw social media strategy.

I secured reviews and features in TechCrunch, Lifehacker, Forbes, StrictlyVC, Fast Company, Kotaku, and USA Today, among others. I helped increase blog growth by over 50% within my first six months. I also named 45+ snacks, including the deliciously received "pop pops", and I coined the phrase, "snackisfaction guaranteed."

Content Marketing & Communications Manager

Los Angeles Times

I cooked. I ate. I wrote. Aside from having tested recipes by prepping, cooking or baking dishes from start to finish, I assisted with food styling in photo/video shoots. I wrote articles about upcoming events and restaurant openings, and have also been featured in “how to” online videos.

Test Kitchen Cook & Freelance Writer

Gigaom

I juggled various roles in news production and marketing. I managed editorial partnerships; managed the social media accounts; created graphics, tables and charts for news articles; copy edited and coordinated workflow among the reporters; wrote the community guidelines and moderated comments across the sites; and assisted with editorial copy for in-house events.

One highlight during my tenure was a TV appearance on KTLA News during the technology segment to discuss streaming video services.

Editorial Producer

Lifescript

Lifescript.com was a women's healthy living site (now owned by Everyday Health). I wrote/edited feature stories; edited/produced the recipe and diabetes newsletters; managed the recipe database; edited food/recipe features; produced art and graphics; wrote daily health news roundups; and helped troubleshoot the content management system (CMS).

Editor & Producer

paidContent.org

I served as Editorial Producer for digital media news site paidContent.org, as well as its related sites, mocoNews.net, contentSutra, and paidContent.co.uk. I helped oversee the content management system (CMS); compiled/distributed the 4 e-newsletters; copy edited stories and wrote news roundups; maintained the image library; and implemented metadata for all content.

VP Marketing at SparkToro | Can keep hydrangeas alive in a vase for 10 days

I'm currently VP Marketing for audience research startup, SparkToro. I'm also a contributor for Adweek, a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, and a former journalist.

Previously: Led marketing for Growth Machine; led marketing for Liftopia; built Fitbit's B2B content program; led content & comms for NatureBox.

Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of my profile to see the top 100 lists that I am not in.


Big news today at SparkToro! We just launched V2 of our product.

Here's how you can use it to instantly learn about an audience. And use those insights to power the rest of your marketing strategy.

Pretend the target audience is Product Managers.

Run the SparkToro search:

My audience uses these words in their bio: product manager.

You can see:

- Websites that product managers go to
- Keywords they're searching for 🤯
- Social networks they're using (and not using)
- Their fave YouTube channels, podcasts, Subreddits

...and more. You can also see the press & media publications they pay attention to, the social accounts they follow, even the types of apps they use.

You can take this info and use it across all your marketing functions.

PR: We now know the publications that product managers are most likely to pay attention to. Export a list and ask that these publications all be included on the outreach list for your next announcement.

Content marketing: Keyword research tools tells us the search volume of a given keyword. But they don't tell us *who* is doing the searching. Now we know. And now we know the keywords that are trending among product managers.

Performance marketing: Now we have estimated CPC for keywords. We also know product managers' demographics, visited websites, and most-followed social accounts. This informs next steps of your SEM strategy, social media ads, and retargeting.

Social media marketing: We know which social networks product managers are using — and not using as frequently. Now you can post where your audience is. Product managers are spending a lot of time on LinkedIn, not so much on Twitter.

Product marketing: Competitive analysis. We can see which of your competitors your audience is paying attention to. Further, you can analyze those websites and learn more about each of those competitors.

Brand marketing: Tons of inspiration here. You can look at the most frequently visited websites, look for shared terminology in this niche, see what creative/designs tend to be popular, etc.

Creator/influencer marketing: Make a list of the most-followed social accounts and keep an eye on them. Check which of these creators have a newsletter or podcast you can sponsor. Find an up-and-coming creator, and you can probably secure an impactful sponsorship on a relatively lean budget.

Voila. Every marketing function now has immediate next steps.

The new SparkToro comes after a year-long overhaul by Casey Henry and  Rand Fishkin. I'm just lucky I got to be along for the ride and help support where I could.

We now use a mix of search, clickstream, and social data. And we can give you insights on just about any audience.

You can try it free at sparktoro . com.

Oh, and you can read all about it on our blog too. Link below in the comments.

Amanda Natividad

It's a false choice to think you have to be creative or data-driven. The answer is both. The most successful creatives are outcome-focused.

Shoutout to the teams whose projects got sidelined because the marketing/creative team was too busy working on their April Fools' Day prank.

Normalize case studies written for the 5th grade reading level.

My toxic trait is not reading for months and then suddenly reading multiple books at the same time. 

Currently reading:

With the rise of generative AI, producing mediocre content at scale has never been easier. I'm an optimist, so I think this is a good thing for creators. 

...because YOUR experience and perspective are more important than ever.

I'm hopeful that this will usher in a new era of content:

Topic-driven content > keyword-driven content
Specific, focused content > comprehensive guides
Fresh, novel insights > regurgitating what everyone else already said

And this week, Bernard Huang published a set of blog posts that expounds on ideas he's been talking about for a while. Must-reads for all marketers today. 

Links below in the comments!

VP Marketing at SparkToro | I said Zero-Click Content first

"Storytelling is about the reader, it's not about you!"

I hear that a lot. But it's more nuanced than that.

Good stories are personal, honest, and specific to the storyteller. Great stories are clear about what that honesty and specificity mean to the reader. 

The best stories illuminate truths about ourselves.

Tomorrow morning at 11am Pacific:
 → Who sends traffic to the open web? Anyone besides Google?
 → How much? Where does it go?
 → What's changing? Is TikTok & OpenAI rising or falling? Reddit? Twitter?
 → How does traffic received compare to referrals sent?
 → What does all this mean for marketers?
 → How can we possibly know data like this? (hint: clickstream panels - we'll dive into what those are, how they work, & how you can use 'em, too)

It's a can't-miss episode of #SparkToroHours with myself, Amanda Natividad, and Eli Goodman of Datos Inc. Registration details 👇👇👇

The people in your marketing list are all different. So why would we send them the same email?

Here's how to segment your campaigns for each type of customer:

- Occasional
- Regular
- Frequent

OCCASIONAL:

This is the customer who's only made 1-2 purchases or who infrequently uses your product. Your goal is to inspire them to take action.

Send them an email that helps them get over a key objection. Maybe it's explaining how your product solves one very painful pain point. They might not know you very well, so be super clear who you are and what your product does.

REGULAR:

This customer knows you and (presumably) likes you. Your goal is to ensure retention. 

Send them an email that helps them get more utility out of your product. If you sell plants, make sure customers see your fertilizer options. If you sell mostly skincare, make sure customers are aware of your lip gloss.  If you sell software, share a user tip.

FREQUENT:

This customer is your biggest fan. Your goal is to show your appreciation. Send them a gift.

This can be literal — like having only VIPs qualify for a special gift with purchase. Or maybe it's the gift of knowledge. Share an advanced pro tip, the kind of advice that feels like a cheat code. 

What are your favorite ways to segment campaigns?

Just putting this out there... what if I started a marketing agency?

- Would you hire me? (Based on how you know me, what would you want to hire me for?)

- Would you want to work for me? 

- As the brand/employer, based on your experience, what are the best things about working with agencies? The worst?

Edited to add: I'm not leaving SparkToro. Just thinking about side projects. :)

Dave Gerhardt and I are not connected on LinkedIn and I honestly think it’s because neither of us know the email address associated with the other’s LinkedIn account, and this is both hilarious and deeply flawed.

My love language is finding you in live streams and webinars and hyping you up in the live chat.

It's finally done.

...just kidding, I keep procrastinating on building my SaaStock deck because I want it to be perfect. I've only made the title slide. 😖

Amanda Natividad's bar for creating anything new…

✅ Is this novel for the audience? 
✅ Can *I* articulate this in a clear way? 

This is what ultimately led to the concept of 'zero click content' and the marketing surrounding it. (Even if she didn't think it was anything at first.) 

SparkToro's newsletter. Amanda's tweets + blog posts. There's a reason why so many of us look forward to anything new she publishes – it's unique (for us) and in the wheelhouse (for her.) 

From Louder Than Words #40. (Available wherever you get your pods.)

I sometimes like to run multivariate tests in emails. So I can uncover the ideal subject line and the ideal sender name.

But I'm rarely ever able to yield anything more meaningful than a difference of .5-1%.

Which raises more questions than answers:

- Do I need greater variability in my tests? Here, I'm essentially testing generic vs. branded.

- Do people think a difference of up to 1% is meaningful? Is that the standard? If so, perhaps I just inherently disagree.

Curious what everyone thinks. Even better if you're willing to show receipts!

Customer interviews are great, but there's a difference between what people say they do and what they actually do.

Think of all the people you know who claim to read the Wall Street Journal. Do you think that's true? Or do you think they're simply reading the headlines of the Wall Street Journal?

An audience research tool like SparkToro can help you close this gap. If you search for an audience based on how they self-describe in their social media profile, you can see what people like CEOs, Product Managers, and B2B Marketing Directors are actually reading.

And by the way, B2B Marketing Directors are more likely to read Business Insider than the WSJ. 🙃

It's been fun contributing to LinkedIn articles and earning some badges.

Curious to see what the benefits are to being a Community Top Voice.

What if you could get 10,000 people in your target audience in one room and ask them:

- What keywords have you been searching lately?
- Which social networks do you use most? Least?
- What social accounts do you follow?
- What Subreddits do you post in?
- What podcasts do you listen to?

...and have these answers actually be accurate?

That's what our audience research tool does. We analyze millions of websites and distill all that data into information that can help you do better marketing.

#audienceresearch #marketing #marketingstrategy

Honestly, the LinkedIn News team consistently writes excellent headlines. 

It's where I look when I'm in need of general headline inspiration.

Shoutout to whoever came up with "EV ennui."

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