The Marketing Meetup

The Marketing Meetup is a really, really nice place for the marketers of the world to come together to listen, learn, meet, and share knowledge. 

Founded in June 2016, the meetup features two talks with actionable insight per meetup and now has a community of over 50,000 people across the globe, running 150+ events per year from London to Tokyo.

At its simplest, it's lovely networking for people who like speaking to other people and learning together.

Join at https://themarketingmeetup.com

Co-Founder

The Marketing Academy

The Marketing Academy's purpose is to turn the marketers of today into the leaders of tomorrow. I was selected as one of 30 marketers from throughout the UK to be part of the class of 2020 scholarship.

Scholar (Class of 2020)

The Keynote Club

Board Member

CoWork Club

The CoWork Club is all about the magic that happens when you bring together freelancers & business owners into a space, once per day, to learn, work, and meet with one another in a positive environment. 

We're starting with our first event in Northampton, but we have big plans to roll out across the world. If you want to get in touch to run your own CoWork Club, host us in your space, or sponsor an event - get in touch :)

Advisor

Empath Marketing

Founding Consultant

Humans Come First

Humans Come First: 

"A podcast for marketers about being more human in your marketing by two marketers passionate about being more human in marketing.

Richard Wood and Joe Glover discuss weekly topics in the world of marketing they find interesting and how they sit within the scope of taking a human approach to marketing.

We're also calling out some shitty marketing practices."

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The Marketing Meetup Podcast

"The Marketing Meetup Podcast is an audio series by marketers, for marketers. Featuring live talk recordings, interviews, and discussions, The Marketing Meetup Podcast is the place for marketers to come to stay in touch, learn, and be inspired."

Co-Host

School of Marketing (SoM)

The School of Marketing was created to solve a growing issue in the industry; to help the next generation of marketers understand how marketing is evolving and to give them the skills needed for a successful career.

I am one of the 'Founding 50' - a group of 50 marketers selected from around the UK under the age of 30 to represent the programme and help bring through the next generation of marketers.

Founding 50 Member

Genie Goals

Genie Goals are a digital marketing agency for great retail brands. We specialise in PPC, Social, Affiliates and Amazon Marketing Services, and I must say... we're pretty blooming good at it. We were named by Google as the most innovative Premier Partner for Google Shopping in EMEA, and have won other awards for our work with clients such as Karl Lagerfeld, Mamas & Papas and many more. 

My role is to lead our marketing efforts - finding new clients, but also making sure opportunities to help existing clients more are being offered. The output of my work at Genie has seen us win a raft of new and impressive clients, being acknowledged for our work on an international scale, rebranded the entire company, and built a legacy for the entire marketing and business development operation to grow from in the future.

Marketing Manager

Business of Software Conference

Business of Software is a world-renowned conference in the software industry. Bringing together the likes of Seth Godin, Joanna Wiebe, DHH, Rand Fishkin, Rory Sutherland and so many more people who eventually became heroes of my own. 

During this time I was the sole marketer in the company, which also happened to be my first proper marketing role. I gained an entrepreneurial attitude and operated independently - teaching myself marketing as I went. 

During this time, I improved the year on year attendance for the main show of the year, Business of Software USA, and consistently delivered on my main metric of increasing email sign-ups. 

I left Business of Software proud of my achievements, having been head-hunted for my next role at Genie Goals.

Bluefin Solutions

My first job was at Bluefin Solutions who were a wonderful company filled with great people. 

I soon realised after joining the company that SAP was not for me, however. I entered the role for the wrong reasons (namely, money) but learned a lot about myself in the process, which inspired my future career choices. It should also be said this time gave me the experience of what it is like to work in large FTSE companies as a consultant. 

My time at Bluefin were some of the most important of my career, and although my time there was short, the lessons learned will last a lifetime.

SAP Consultant

👋  I'm Joe. 

Eight years ago I was the guy who was too shy to speak to people at networking events. Even when I did pluck up the courage, it felt all people valued was my job title or my budget rather than me as a person.

I knew I wanted to meet other marketers and learn about marketing in a safe space, so when I couldn't find it, I made it.

The Marketing Meetup is a positively lovely community for marketers. (Basically, we all look after each other and treat one another as people first 😊)

Through good luck and hard work, in the years since, I (as part of a big team effort!) have built a global community of 50,000+ lovely marketers with a social following of 250k+.

Each week, we're lucky to have amazing guest speakers such as Mark Ritson, Rory Sutherland, Seth Godin and many more share time with our community - educating and connecting us all.

You should join one of our webinars, our membership, or the newsletter: I think you'd get a lot from all of them. 

Some places I have spoken/been a guest on include: 

- Festival of Marketing,
- Innocent Smoothies Internal Sessions,
- Everyone Hates Marketers Podcast with Louis Grenier, 
- The Next Web
- Marketing Week Columnist,
- Fiverr Webinar Series, 
- VeryGoodCopy
- GREENHOUSE Jersey
- SocialDay
- Freelancer Magazine,
- Startup Summit, 
- Marketing News Canada,
- Digital DNA, 
- Moneysupermarket internal inspiration event,
- The Marketing Meetup (of course), 
- Durham University guest lecturer, 
- London College of Fashion guest lecturer, 
- Norwich University of the Arts guest lecturer,
- Essex University Incubator guest lecturer 
- Cambridge University Judge Business School panelist, 
- Linkjoy Social Media Summit
- Habitz Podcast with Mike Winnet

And quite a lot of other places/podcasts. By all means get in touch with speaking/podcast ops. Or, just say hello :)

Yesterday I was invited to attend LinkedIn’s B2Believe event where they showed some of their latest research. Here are the most useful things I learned in five hours - in under two minutes:

(All stats from LinkedIn unless stated otherwise.)

⬆️ Big picture

- B2B is a $20T market (B2C is $6T).

- Average CMO tenure: 4.5 years.

- The average buying group in B2B is 22 people.

- The biggest growth drivers in B2B: being known and being trusted.

- 82% of B2B buyers say creator content influences them.

- Peer video endorsements are 4× more influential than company-made ones.

💰 Getting buyer groups confident to buy

- “Marketing is an unfair game — the brands that spend more, win.”

- Companies are 20× more likely to be chosen when everyone in the buyer group knows them — not just the experts. Think: HR, legal, procurement.

- On a vendor shortlist, buyers have five jobs to be done. Only two relate to product. The top job: “Can I defend this decision?”. Number two: "Felt confident it would do the job"

- Winning the game is moving from being the biggest or cheapest → to being the most liked and recommended.

📈 Measurement

- The typical B2B buying journey is 211 days (Dreamdata).

- 70% of that happens outside the sales pipeline.

- Only 60 days sit inside the sales process.

- Big thing to note: this completely shifts how we think about “sales cycle length.”

🎥 Making video work harder

- Creative quality drives performance.

- 73% of video completions come down to the creative.

- 49% of engagements depend on it.

Five proven levers:

- Cultural coding - shared references that make a brand culturally relevant & instantly relatable - (Pop-culture references: +41% engagement, Memes: +111% engagement)

- Human stories - (Highly emotive creative: +102% CTR, People-led stories: +65% engagement)

- Attention hacking - story structuring to not waste time - (Mobile-first, bold visuals: +15% engagement, Dynamic text: +14% engagement)

- Expert takes (Featuring exec experts: +53% engagement, Experts on stage: +70% engagement)

- Inspiring imagination (31–60s brand films: +67% engagement, Strong inspirational message: +36% engagement)

There was loads more, but this felt like the most useful chunk. Hope it’s helpful.

P.S. Great to bump into Rachael Higgins and Matt Swain too.

Joe Glover

Co-Founder of The Marketing Meetup | Co-Host of ‘Your CMO Mentor’ | The Marketing Academy Alumni

Today I'm happily sharing a personal landmark. 

I'm handing over the keys to the Cambridge Marketing Meetup local group (not The Marketing Meetup in its totality - I'm in this one for a long time!) to a good friend and someone I admire a whole bunch. A bit of a story:

9 years ago, I landed in Cambridge post-university for work. No network. A keenness to learn about my profession, but not a lot else. 

 started running a group out of a canteen in Cambridge. The first one. Things got popular, which was really lovely.

I ended up running six events by myself per month across the country in the evenings after work/taking time off. 

I was having fun - but defo burning the candle at both ends. Covid enforced a change upon me and a pause on IRL.

Post-covid - we started to build the model out so TMM didn't physically require me everywhere. 

Local organisers stepped up across the world to build networks and communities closer to their homes. They are some of the best, most generous and proactive people I've ever met. There are nearly 90 of us now running events in 40 locations on 6 continents.

But, I still hung onto my home town meetup in Cambridge. Running it until the beginning of this year.

Life has changed a lot in that time. Two kids. TMM growing a lot. Frankly: needing some sleep at some point. I needed help - but it was James Sandbrook who recognised it and asked the community on my behalf.

And a good friend answered the call. Christian Pratt is someone I met through the meetup and has acted as a mentor and friend for many years now and will be leading the group. 

Supported by a whole cast of legends including Baz, Jon, Guy, Michelle, Paul, and Chris. All people I admire and appreciate so much.

It's a real privilege to be surrounded by so many kind and proactive people who want to build community in their local area. I'm proud as anything to pass on my local and the OG meetup to Christian and everyone so I can support TMM in its entirety. 

9 years to get to this point. Looking forward to the next 9 :)

Co-founder of The Marketing Meetup, helping marketers learn, connect with each other and build confidence

Bringing clarity and momentum to your business | Marketing Insight ▪︎ Strategy & Planning ▪︎ Practical Stuff | Unpicking your problems to get the business back on track | FCIM ▪︎ Chartered Marketer

Creative Director solving business and marketing problems through thought-provoking branding, content, campaigns and positioning

Communication Coach | Creator of +1 Confidence | Helping introverted tech and creative teams speak with impact (and enjoy it)

Fractional Head of Marketing | Turning Messy Marketing Into Measurable Momentum | Ask me how to get your entire marketing strategy on a single page of A4, and what that could do for your results.

Head of Corporate Affairs at Cambridge Innovation Capital

I help B2B businesses uncover their winning strategy, story and style. Head of Strategy at Fellowship. Board Member at Cambridgeshire Community Foundation. Enthusiastic but slow cyclist.

Content writer, PR and Marketing consultant and strategist

Tuesday marks the last online The Marketing Meetup event of the year - and we're going out on a high with Rory Sutherland joining us.

The concept of the session is simple: 

- No slides.
- The community's questions. You can submit ahead of time (below) or in the session itself.
- And one marketing legend.

For those of you who know Rory (and I'm guessing a large amount do!) - you know it'll be an entertaining and useful session with one of the industry's most treasured folks.

For those of you who don't yet: Rory is a TED main stage speaker, Ogilvy's vice-chairman, and TikTok's favourite "marketing uncle" (not my words!) with millions of folks tuning into his thoughts.

Sign up is free. You'd be very welcome :)

---

On a more personal note - I owe Rory a great personal debt of gratitude.

When Covid hit - he was one of the first people to say yes to doing an online event with us. 

The momentum from those early days has helped carry us through to this day.

I'll never forget that, and will remain really thankful to him, and everyone who was part of those early days when things looked a bit scary (and everyone before and since!)

Vice Chairman at Ogilvy UK | TED Global speaker | Author of Alchemy: The Surprising Power Of Ideas That Don't Make Sense

It's been a long time since I reintroduced myself. So here's my story. Read if you'd like to, or ignore if you'd prefer that :)

About nine years ago, I was a solo marketer in a three-person company.

I loved marketing and wanted to meet my peers, but traditional networking terrified me. I have a quiet voice, and didn't like the feeling like every room cared more about job titles and budgets than the humans behind them.

So, I booked the Redgate Software canteen in Cambridge, found two speakers, ordered a buffet, and hoped a few people might turn up. 

Forty people came along to that first Marketing Meetup - and the thing that mattered most was the feeling. Kindness. Curiosity. No judgement. Summed up in two words: 'positively lovely'.

I thought that might be it.

But it kept growing. Friends asked if they could run events closer to home.
By early 2020, we had 140 events planned across 13 cities… and then Covid arrived.

We moved everything online, and somehow the community got even stronger. 10,000 to 50,000 over the next period.

Fast forward to today and TMM has become something I never expected:

- An incredible group of in-person organisers (they're incredible)
- A small, dedicated team
- In-person meetups across on six continents
- Weekly webinars with thousands signing up
- A London conference with a theme of “campfire stories”
- Two podcasts that have hit #1 in the UK marketing charts
- A private community, Hive
- Courses, dinners, local groups, and all sorts of things I couldn’t have imagined when I was that nervous marketer trying to find his people

And we’re now a community of 50k+ marketers, with 200k+ across social. 

Which is cool. 

But my reference point is that feeling we started with in that canteen - that marketing can lonely and transactional. And it doesn't have to be. And now - it's less like that.

I feel fortunate to be about. And thankful for the community. A very nice nine years :) Thank you to everyone who has been part of it.

---

And if you’d like to work together in 2026, here’s what that looks like.

Next year, The Marketing Meetup will:

- Run 160+ in-person events
- Host 40+ webinars (around 1,000 sign-ups most weeks)
- Send 100+ newsletters
- Produce 100+ podcast episodes across The Marketing Meetup Podcast and Your CMO Mentor
- Run our London conference
- Host activity inside Hive (our private community)
- Deliver a handful of short “schools” with partners
- And bring people together for partner dinners throughout the year

We work with companies that genuinely want to bring value to the community first. If that’s you, drop me a message with your goals and we can shape something useful.

Alongside that, I’m personally available for:

- Speaking (quiet confidence, community, marketing)
- Occasional consulting
- A few fun projects if they feel like a good fit

If any of that sparks something, my DMs are open.

Whether we work together or simply share this space online, I really appreciate you being here.

Redgate Software

Enough distance has passed between this story happening and today... so I can finally share one of the funniest/potentially embarrassing moments in my marketing history. Heed this as a warning on what you purchase as Christmas presents for business friends this year 😂 

Each year we like to buy something for the folks at our sponsors as a thank you for the year just gone by. 

But we like it to be thoughtful. Different. Something that will stand out amongst a bevy of chocolate boxes and mid-tier bottles of wine next to a corporate printed card.

A long time ago, max hopkinson lent me a useful thought on buying gifts (and this is actually a useful takeaway): 

Purchasing a gift that sits on a desk as a gentle reminder beats something that’s gone in 48 hours.

And so - we settled on buying a house plant for our folks. But in the pursuit of 'something different' - we decided to buy a pineapple plant for everyone. A bit quirky, but unlikely something someone had. Hundreds of quids spent on them.

All was well. Messages started coming in with amused thanks. Until one...

"I love the plant, but y'know that pineapple plants are associated with 'couples who enjoy the company of other couples'?" (yes that's sanitised) 😅 

Which, not being one of those couples - I didn't know :)

Anyway. Folks found it funny. It was a memorable moment.

But the moral of the story: probably don't buy pineapple plants if you don't want your clients thinking you're proposing something quite different to what you intended :)

Happy Christmas shopping!

Building The Keynote Club. Not (just) public speaking.

This is one of the smartest implementations of business models 🤝 guest experience 🤝 marketing I've ever seen. I love it from Dishoom and Sunday.

Here's what happens:

1. enjoy a meal from Dishoom (genuinely smashing)
2. at the end, you get served a QR code as above to pay (the server makes it clear other options are available)
3. once payment is complete, you're automatically prompted to give feedback
4. which also takes you through to the Google review page seamlessly to leave a public review

I think it's smart as it:

1. makes payment super easy. Instead of asking for the bill, and the server coming back with a card machine, it takes away one step of the process more seamlessly
2. getting feedback is hard - making it part of the process at payment makes it XX% more likely you will
3. clearly works. In less than two years of being open, this Dishoom has nearly 5k Google reviews. If you're looking for a place to go and you're new to an area... guess where you're headed based on the reviews

I don't think you can be a marketer or a business owner and look at this and think it's amazing how it works. 

For the price Dishoom are paying to use Sunday's platform - it must be worth it 100/100.

I'm not affiliated with either but I appreciate smart marketing and business when I see it!

Dishoom

Sunday

To celebrate Black Friday, tickets for The Marketing Meetup Conference will today be...

... exactly the same price as last Friday!

Which is a whimsical point to make - but a semi-important one in the sense that: 

1. Price is based on value. If our businesses discount every ten minutes - what is the real value of the event/our products/services in the eyes of our customers?

2. Revenue is one metric in a business - but as a small business looking to put baked beans on the table - the model of the event is based on margin which has been calculated up front. Discounts cut into this very quickly - and we want to be here in 2029 helping our community :)

3. We're all adults - so the idea of flash discounts, endless extensions on previously advertised prices and deadlines etc feels a bit tired. If we say what the price is and then stick to that - it feels respectful of the community.

And of course - so much of TMM is built on accessibility - so with an awareness that not everyone can afford tickets to an event for personal or systemic reasons: we're also making 20 scholarship tickets available via application to help out those who would benefit from being there, just can't be right now. 

The event is on March 19th (coming up quick!). If you wanna be there, the price is the same as last week :)

I've seen a bunch of posts from people telling folks to 'get over' changes to how we can reach one another here. 

And from a marketing perspective - these folks are right. This is rented land and always has been. Smaller, more targeted reach isn't a bad thing. Even if it was, there isn't a bunch we can do about it.

But some of the more binary arguments about this seem to miss another point of these online platforms (not just LI) - that there is the opportunity to be connected with new folks for reasons that start with friendship and continue into business.

I remember, for example, that when I moved to where I live now - I found comfort in connecting with folks online while I established a local community.

When I had a stinker of a morning yesterday - I rang people I met here - where our common thread had been business but expanded out to friendship.

And during times which felt lonely during Covid - I spent a bunch of time here as the conversations were more in line with what I am interested in, vs the other platforms.

I'm all for the argument of 'not blaming the algorithm'. I'm also not trying to overstate the importance of this platform ('go touch grass' as the kids say) - the only constant is change - and so expecting these platforms to stay the same is folly. 

But I also do think these platforms provide much more than just business for folks. And those telling one another to just get over it should also be aware of that side of it too :)

The final season of free online events of the year from The Marketing Meetup starts TODAY, and asks the question 'what drives marketing?' with guests including Rory Sutherland.

Over the next three weeks, we'll be asking the question 'what drives marketing?' in two ways: 

- First (today at 2PM) - what drives marketing buy in internally? We have two marketers, and two folks from finance, co-presenting on how they get great marketing done. This as I see it is one of the biggest challenges for marketers today.

- Then, for the next two weeks, we'll ask 'what drives marketing from a human brain perspective?' to do this - we have Phil Barden speaking how the brain understand value for money, and Rory Sutherland finishing out TMM's year with an open Q&A. 

All sessions are free, with sign up found on the TMM website. 

As ever, with big thanks to Frontify, Wistia, Cambridge Marketing College and Planable without these companies: we couldn't bring these sessions to you for free. 

Sign up is now open... go, go, go :)

Frontify

Wistia

Cambridge Marketing College

Planable

I spent the morning going through VEED.IO's new “Guide to Video Marketing”… here are the most useful things I learned from 62 pages - in under two minutes.

⬆️ Big picture

- 98% of marketers say video is essential - but only 38% feel confident creating it (page 4).
- 83% don’t know where to start - which explains why so many feel overwhelmed before they even hit record (p.4–5).
- Marketers are juggling 10+ video formats at once, from ads to demos to TikToks (p.6).
- And despite all this pressure, throwing more resources at video isn’t fixing the confidence gap (p.8).

💥 The emotional reality

- 62% of marketers feel a negative emotion when asked to create video (p.4).
- 65% feel pressure to “be creative” on demand (p.9).
- 37% struggle with feedback loops, approvals, and sign-off - especially larger teams (p.9).
- 31% find adapting content for different platforms challenging (p.9).
It’s not a lack of ideas. It’s workflow friction.

🎬 What actually helps confidence

Marketers say they need (p.11):

- Clearer creative direction
- User-friendly tools in one place
- Examples of what “good” looks like
- Better performance insights
- Simple training that cuts through the noise

This is the bit that resonated most with me:

"Consume content in the environments you're creating for - YouTube, TikTok, Instagram - before you try to speak the language." (p.11)

📉 Why attention is so hard to earn

From the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s section (p.16–18):

- Most video attention is decided in the first 3 seconds.
- Short-form works because it ends before people can look away.
- Motion + faces slow attention decay, but constant motion gets ignored.
- Repetition matters - across formats, not inside a single video.
- Being consistent across channels is a scientifically proven way to capture more attention.

🔧 AI is officially part of the workflow

- 69% of marketers already use AI for video creation, captioning, repurposing, and clipping (p.12).
- 97% have generated a video from scratch using AI.
- AI helps marketers stretch budgets (41%), repurpose faster (39%), and create more content (38%).
- But 87% admit they publish videos they’re not happy with just to meet deadlines - so the workflow pressure hasn’t disappeared (p.13).

📚 What this means for us as marketers

A few takeaways that stuck with me:

- Video demand is rising far faster than our processes.
- Creativity isn’t the issue - friction is.
- And confidence comes from clarity, examples, and tools that reduce the busywork.

If you’re a marketer who feels stretched thin by video… you’re very, very normal. Hope this helps someone feel a bit more equipped (or at least understood) today. 

Full report here: https://lnkd.in/euk6QuSZ

[AD]

VEED.IO

[AD] How do folks see and find your business? I'm way too close to my business to know. That's why we do market research. That's also why tools like this one from Semrush are dead useful.

I popped in my URL, and the information back is blumin' ridiculous. (Anonymised results back below!). It gave me stuff like: 

- Market sentiment about the brand (TMM comes out strong)
- AI visibility of our brand compared to our 'competitors' (although we don't tend to view them that way! ❤️ )
- And, strategic suggestions to reaffirm our positioning as the community we want to me

Of course, the wonderful thing about these tools is the information you get back. The bad thing is how overwhelming it can be. And here's how I'll actually use it:

- I'll incorporate some of the suggestions into our planning for the 2026
- I'll be using the sentiment score in our sales deck, showing sponsoring us is not just about the number of folks in the community, but how they feel (a recent Pinterest study shows an outweighed benefit to advertising on platforms that are liked'
- And, I'll be discounting some of the advice because that isn't where we want to go - but that's the point of strategy: saying no to stuff too.

Something I'm enjoying with these tools is gaining quick insights back that supplement everything we hear when having chats with the community. V v useful. 

It's available at a pretty accessible price, and so would recommend!

You can find the tool here: https://lnkd.in/eeXvHvrm

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