Stephanie Jiang’s Post

Marketing has two arms: performance and brand. Both are very important to growth, but both serve very different functions. The goal of performance marketing is to lean on data and industry best practices to create stable, sustainable growth. What you see: Consistent revenue that you can rely on to keep the lights on month after month. The goal of brand marketing is to take calculated risks and create moments that can 10x the efficiency of whatever performance marketing is doing. What you see: Sharp spikes in revenue with a long-tail trailing effect that increases your overall MER and profitability. The biggest mistake that marketers make when they grow from Director of Performance/Brand to Head of Marketing/Growth, is using the experience they learned to measure the efficacy of Performance to measure Brand (and vice versa).

PSA: Meta is apparently sneaking in their "Advantage+ Creative" optimizations on an account level; such "optimizations" could include cropping your product out and putting it into an AI-generated scenario that absolutely makes no sense. If you're running Meta ads, please go into "Ad account settings" > "Ad account setup" right now and make sure the "Advantage+ creative" option is checked off. (Look at the screenshot below.) In general, I recommend checking to make sure none of the Advantage+ creative optimizations are turned on at an ad-unit level as well. Meta will do things like adjust the color grading on your ads, use ad copy for one ad unit haphazardly on another ad unit, add music that might be completely off-brand, and more — you have zero control over any of those changes they test. Also, double-check that you have those options turned off when you duplicate existing ad units that don't have it turned on. Sometimes they just turn it on by default even though you've never checked the option.

I really thought my job in Marketing was just going to be about the ✨vibes✨

One of my biggest agency pet peeves is when a salesperson starts their cold pitch with, "I just took a look at your website/emails/ads and see a lot of low-hanging fruit. We've improved CVR/CAC/AOV for our clients by 272% and we're confident we can do the same for you. Wanna hop on a call?" If you want a Director of Growth to hire your agency, you need a much stronger hook that communicates a real problem that they're struggling with, and you need to credibly prove that you can solve it. So here's the three-part sales pitch that will attract smarter, calmer clients with bigger budgets (yes, I am totally projecting 💅): 1. Make a contradictory observation about something tangible that they're doing that you disagree with. "Hey, I noticed that you're only running static ads on Meta. That caught my attention, because video ads almost always out-perform in terms of ROAS. I'm curious about the reasoning behind that decision?" 2. Disclose your services & why you think you can help them do better. "I'm asking because I run a performance content agency, and we work with brands like yours to produce conversion-focused video content. We can help fill that white space you have right now by creating UGC content and product video ads that will do a better job of communicating your product's unique selling points to your prospective customers." 3. Include social proof and a call-to-action. "Here are a few case studies and work samples that show the impact that our video creatives have made for brands like yours. I'd love to hop on a call to show you what we can do for you." Do you know why this type of hook works in eliciting a genuine response? Because it taps into the psychological framework known as social identity theory. Social identity theory posits that humans derive a portion of our self-perception from the social groups we belong to, and these perceptions influence our behaviors. So when you ask a marketer, "Hey, why did you do this marketing thing?" It prompts their brain to justify their actions in order to reaffirm their alignment with being a (good) marketer. This type of hook can be very engaging, especially when used in an authentic, non-judgmental manner. (PSA: Please don't be an asshole and use this framework to neg people. Nobody likes that.) Test out this outreach framework and let me know if your response rate improves ✌️

I don't know who needs to hear this, but "Let's build a referral program!" is NOT the answer to "How do we improve word-of-mouth and lower customer acquisition cost?" If people like your brand, they're already talking about you organically. Starting a referral program isn't going to drive incremental eyeballs, and the chances of you converting a significant amount of new customers through a referral program are slim-to-none, UNLESS... You follow the three golden rules of referral marketing! (This is totally made-up, there are no golden rules, but I'm trying to hustle the algorithm so cut me some slack.) Golden Rule No. 1: People are fanatical about your brand. If you want to turn your referral program into a growth flywheel, your brand needs to have a cult following. I'm talking enthusiastic advocates who can't stop tagging you on Instagram, leaving you 5-star reviews that make you feel like the existential dread is worth it, and sending you unsolicited marriage proposals via email. If your brand has succeeded in building this level of organic advocacy, congratulations! You are ready to move on to Level 2. Golden Rule No. 2: You sell a product with mass appeal. The product you're asking your brand fans to shill must have mass appeal. Think about it — if I adore your brand but you're a high-end women's handbag designer, I can share you with my 2 rich friends. That's about it. But if you're a cute sunscreen brand and one of your products is literally whipped sunscreen in a bottle, you're going to all my group chats. Referral programs are a numbers game — never forget that fact. The more people your fans can share you with, the higher your chances of creating a growth flywheel. Golden Rule No. 3: Your referral offer conveys a sense of scarcity. Your referral offer needs to convey a sense of urgency or exclusivity — ideally both. This can be in the form of early access to a product with limited quantities, rewards that can only be earned by referring new customers, or access to private communities/events. If your referral offer is "get 20% off", please just run a segmented 20% off retargeting campaign on Meta. I promise you'll get a better ROI, and you won't have to explain to your CFO why you spent $15K building a referral program that hasn't generated any meaningful revenue. If you want your referral program to generate outsized returns from new customers, and you already qualify for Rule 1 & Rule 2, then the most important thing you can do is to invest in a unique referral offer that is tailored to your superfans. Your referral offer should be so compelling that it's not just seen — it's screenshot & shared. Those are my thoughts on how to think about referral programs! Follow me for more unhinged strategy dumps. ✌️

I love this hot take! Virality is a concept that should be built into every brand’s content strategy. It’s not about “we need to post more on TikTok”. It’s about understanding the unique perspective that you as a brand have that is a solution for a very specific pain point experienced by a lot of people. How can you deliver that perspective in a way that can connect authentically with your audience’s emotions and identity? And that can be implemented into things you already do as a brand. When you’re brainstorming new social ad creatives, think about it from the perspective of virality. If your ad goes viral, that dramatically decreases your blended CPM and you’re reaching way more people per dollar spent. That makes all your other middle-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel channels way more efficient, which results in a much more profitable blended ROAS/MER for your business.

This is one of those things that every brand who markets their product in multiple channels will struggle with — how many options do you give consumers in your post-purchase survey? I've run quite a few of these surveys, and my key takeaway is that most consumers can't even differentiate between an organic social media post, a social media ad, and an influencer's sponsored post, much less remember where exactly they first got to know your brand. My recommendation is to keep it high-level, and stay with the 5-6 categories that drive the most traffic to your site. This is most likely: - Social Media - Search Engine - Friends & Family - Blog or Publication - Other Then add an optional field for additional clarity after they've selected the high-level category. (This is where you can ask people who selected Social Media if it was an Ad, Influencer, etc.)