I'm a small business owner dealing with some negative reviews and outdated search results that are hurting my business. We've done a lot of work to listen to the reviews and make adjustments, but honestly I'm not even sure all of them are real and they're still hurting us. I've been looking into hiring an agency to help with online reputation management, but I'm kinda overwhelmed by the options and wildly different pricing I'm seeing. I don't know what I should be looking for in a proposal.

Also, I want to make sure I'm working with someone ethical. I don't want to accidentally look into an agency that uses shady tactics like fake reviews or review suppression that can backfire. How do you evaluate whether an agency uses legitimate methods? Are there specific questions I should ask or red flags to watch out for?

Any advice on vetting proposals or even recommendations for what's a reasonable budget/who you've worked with that you liked would be super helpful.

I'll go first. Someone was supposed to figure out the total addressable market for an edtech brand (DevOps and AWS), and they came back with 468 Billion (with a B) users.

Didn't think there might be something wrong with trying to market to 4x the entire human population throughout history. Just presented it.

I keep seeing that stat about 46% of searches having local intent, and it makes me wonder how much of that traffic most small businesses are actually set up to catch. A complete Business Profile feels like the bare minimum now, not the whole job. What has actually moved the needle for you beyond that? I am curious whether it is reviews, local pages on the site, getting mentioned on other local sites, or something less obvious. And is there anything you tried that looked good on paper but did nothing in practice?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some objective career advice because I’m at a bit of a crossroads and would really appreciate hearing from people who have been in a similar position, particularly those in marketing leadership or senior corporate roles.
I have several years of professional experience across marketing, communications and executive support. Earlier in my career, I held marketing roles, including positions with managerial responsibilities. However, after a couple of difficult experiences in marketing, I moved into executive support, where I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with senior leadership and gain a much broader understanding of how a business operates.

I’m currently in a role where I support senior leaders and have exposure to strategic discussions, business operations and cross-functional priorities. I’ve enjoyed developing this side of my skill set, and it’s made me realise that I’m interested in more than just traditional executive support. I’m drawn to strategic work, problem-solving, commercial decision-making and helping turn business priorities into action.

Recently, an opportunity has arisen internally to move into a marketing-focused role. The initial conversations suggested there could be scope for a fairly strategic position, with responsibility for planning, coordinating activity across the business, assessing commercial impact and working with senior stakeholders.

However, the level currently being discussed seems more junior than I had initially understood from the proposed responsibilities. There is also some uncertainty around salary, decision-making authority and what progression would actually look like. I’ve been told there could be an opportunity to progress in the future, but I don’t yet have a clear picture of what that would involve.

I’m trying to approach this objectively. I don’t want to reject a potentially good opportunity because I’m overly focused on a title, but I also don’t want to accept a role where the responsibilities exceed the level of recognition, compensation or autonomy I’m given.

Part of the difficulty is that I originally wanted to build a career in marketing and eventually become a Head of Marketing. I stepped away partly because the roles I experienced weren’t financially rewarding enough, and my experiences left me questioning whether it was the right path for me. I recognise, though, that senior marketing roles can offer very different opportunities in terms of influence, responsibility and earning potential.

At the same time, my experience in executive support has opened my eyes to other possible routes, such as executive operations, business management or eventually a Chief of Staff position. I enjoy understanding the bigger picture and working across different functions, so I’m not entirely sure which path would make the most sense for me long term.

I’d really appreciate advice on the following:

1. If you’ve worked in marketing, how important is your job title when moving towards Marketing Manager or Head of Marketing? Would you consider a less senior-sounding title if the experience and responsibilities were valuable?

2. How would you assess whether an internal opportunity is genuinely a stepping stone or whether you’re being asked to take on too much without the appropriate level of authority or compensation?

3. Would you prioritise securing a permanent position and gaining experience, or continue looking externally for a role that better matches your existing experience and longer-term ambitions?

4. For anyone who has moved from executive support or business operations into marketing leadership, or vice versa, how did you decide which path to pursue?

5. Finally, how do you find a genuinely good career mentor? I’d love guidance from someone experienced enough to help me think strategically about my career, identify any gaps in my experience and make better long-term decisions.

I’m ambitious and want to build a career that offers both meaningful work and strong earning potential. I’m also conscious that I need to make decisions based on evidence rather than fear from previous experiences or the desire to prove myself.

I’m not expecting anyone to tell me exactly what to do, but I’d really value perspectives I may not have considered.

Thank you!

I've been working in influencer marketing for a few years now, and honestly, I'm feeling deeply burned out.

I work at an agency, so the pace is really fast. We are a team of 2 and it's one client after another, and while some are lovely to work with, others can be incredibly difficult (I'm currently dealing with one who's making my life a living hell).

I'm constantly working extra hours on top of my regular 8-to-5, and I've reached a point in my life where I really need a change. Even the people around me keep telling me it's really time to try something different.

The thing is, I really want to switch careers, but I feel a bit lost and don't know where to start. I've been thinking about email marketing because it's something I'm genuinely interested in, but I can't help worrying about AI and what the job market is at the moment, especially for someone like me. Is it still a good field to get into?

Did anyone here made a similar career change or work in email marketing, I'd really welcome any advice. I'm also open to exploring other fields that could be a good fit. I just want to find something I really enjoy without being stressed on a daily basis.

For businesses targeting a very specific healthcare audience, generating consistent, qualified leads seems to be a challenge.

Broad targeting might bring in volume, but a lot of those leads don't necessarily match the ideal customer profile.

I'm curious how marketers working in niche B2B healthcare are approaching this.

Are you seeing better results from LinkedIn, cold email, targeted outbound outreach, or paid campaigns?

Also, for those who've worked with outsourced lead generation agencies, how consistent has the lead quality been over time?

Would love to hear what's actually working based on real experience.

I’ve been thinking about how much businesses focus on finding new customers while overlooking the experiences of the people who have already bought from them.

I’ve spoken to a few people about testimonials, and the common advice is “to collect more of them. They help build credibility, improve landing pages, and give potential customers a reason to trust a business.”

I agree, but I wonder if we’re focusing too much on the review itself.

We’ve all seen landing pages filled with five-star testimonials. Sometimes they’re helpful, but other times they feel generic or difficult to trust because there’s no context behind them.

I’d be more interested in knowing what the customer’s situation was before they bought, what problem they were trying to solve, and what their experience actually looked like.

That seems much more useful than a simple “Great service, highly recommend!”

I’m curious how other people approach this:

Do you actively turn customer experiences into content that helps acquire new customers? If so, what has worked best for you beyond simply collecting reviews?

Hi everyone,

I’m 25, from Italy, and I’m trying to seriously understand what it means to build a career in marketing in 2026.

I have a degree in Marketing and Communication from the University of Naples Federico II, within the Sociology area, and I already have some basic experience and knowledge of digital marketing.

But lately I’ve been asking myself a bigger question:

If a company gave me a brand today and said: “Help us grow this business”, what would a good marketer actually do in 2026?

A few years ago, the picture in my head was relatively clear:

- website

- SEO

- Google Ads

- Meta Ads

- social media

- organic content

- email marketing

- analytics

- funnels and landing pages

But is this still basically the job today?

Or has marketing changed much more radically than I realize, especially because of AI, automation, TikTok, creators, new search behaviour, privacy changes, attribution problems, etc.?

For example:

Are paid ads still one of the main engines of growth, or are they becoming just one piece of a much larger system?

How important is organic content today compared to paid acquisition?

What does SEO mean now that people increasingly use AI search tools?

How much campaign management is still done manually when Google and Meta automate more and more of it?

What skills are becoming more valuable because AI can now handle a lot of execution?

And most importantly:

If you were starting your marketing career from scratch in 2026, what would you study?

I’d especially love to understand:

- Which fundamentals should every marketer know, regardless of specialization?

- Which technical skills would you learn?

- Would you specialize early in something like performance marketing, SEO, analytics, CRM, CRO, content, etc.?

- What tools should a junior actually know how to use?

- What should I build or practice to become employable instead of just collecting certifications?

- Where would you learn today?

- Would you recommend starting in an agency, in-house, or somewhere else?

- How has AI changed your actual day-to-day work?

- What do marketing agencies and marketing teams actually do for clients today?

- Which skills that were important 5–10 years ago matter less now?

- Which skills do you think will matter much more in the next few years?

I’m not looking for a “10 best marketing tools” list or a course to buy.

I’m trying to build an actual mental model of what modern marketing is, how companies grow today, and what I need to become genuinely useful to a business.

I’d particularly love to hear from people who currently work in agencies, performance marketing, growth, paid media, SEO, analytics, brand, or marketing management.

I’m based in Italy, so perspectives on the Italian market would be especially useful — but I’d honestly love to hear from people anywhere in the world and compare how the industry differs between countries.

And if there are other juniors here trying to figure out the same thing, feel free to jump into the discussion. I’d be happy to connect and compare notes.

Thanks to anyone willing to share their experience.

When people on this sub seem optimistic or at least not as pessimistic about AI takeover it sounds like ‘100% of the scientists at Crest recommend Crest!’

Of course people within the industry will have 100 reasons why they’re irreplaceable but the truth is: leadership doesn’t care.

Lots of leaderships want to keep overhead as low as possible. They’d rather invest the money into something more directly.

I think it’s just a matter of time. I want to know where to pivot in. I’m at a loss. I’m not sales driven, not financially literate or great at the corp game.

Should I just go into construction??

AI search engines evaluate factors such as content relevance, accuracy, credibility, topical authority, and how clearly a website answers a user's query. Understanding these factors helps explain why certain websites are selected as trusted sources in AI-generated search results over others.

I’m in my mid-20s and still building my career. So far, all of my managers have been completely incompetent but experienced, and that experience is the only reason they were managing me. I find it frustrating that years of experience = seniority. People seem to stay in positions of power without having to develop themselves or at least build fresh skills.

I recently got out of a growth-adjacent role, where I built effective systems, owned the strategy, learned automation in a matter of months, and reached record KPIs. But the team still pushed me towards primitive tasks like graphic design, social media, and “going viral”, which made me quit my job.

I got into the industry thinking it would require complex skills or high-level expertise, but I’ve realized the bar is quite low. Most people don’t even know what they’re doing.

Nevertheless, I want to prove myself. I tried posting thought leadership content on LinkedIn, however, it seems like my posts come off as too complex. I find it hard to be light or silly.

I tried aiming for complex roles - but again, it’s all about years of experience… Is there any way to fast-track growth, learn some valuable complex skills, and reach a more advanced level? Should I get into data science perhaps, or get a master’s degree in strategy?

Hello. I currently work in an apparel manufacturing company, where my responsibilities are quite diverse—ranging from website operations to planning content for the company’s social media channels. With the launch of our own in-house apparel brand this year, I’ve also taken on the management of Meta ads. However, I feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to begin; while I’m familiar with the technical backend of Meta Ads and basic performance analysis, I lack any real expertise in creative testing or content strategy. I am, however, very keen to learn more about B2C advertising and DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) brand marketing strategies.

My company has now asked me to choose between focusing on B2B advertising or B2C advertising. B2B efforts would primarily center on Google Ads—an area where I have no prior experience or knowledge. I’m concerned that if I go down the Google Ads path, the skills I acquire might not be easily transferable to other companies, and I might also end up inheriting a "mess" that needs fixing. On the other hand, the DTC brand marketing initiative is in its infancy; the direction is undefined, and everything remains uncertain. Yet, if this project proves successful, the experience gained would be far more transferable to other roles.

I’m struggling to decide which path to take.

coming from the research side, I always see the same bottleneck, when the time a product is ready, you have ingredient specs, brand story, sensory notes, functional benefits, maybe also tester feedback... 10+ things you could say.

then it hits the pack, the PDP, or the first ad creative, and you realistically get one headline and maybe two callouts before it turns into wall of text.

I expect to learn , for those who dont' have a huge brand team, how you make the cut? Is it gut feel, copying what works in category, running cheap meta tests first, or something else?

and what's a claim you guys you thought would be the hero that ended up falling flat?

Hi All! I started a clothing brand (Promenade Supply) in August of this year and during our launch weekend we sold nearly half our inventory (about 70 pieces which isnt a ton but felt successful at the time). Since then I have started working with a meta ads team and continued posting organically on my social media platforms but I am still seeing very few orders. For example, today we had roughly 400 people on our site but no purchases. Is there a marketing tactic that you have seen small brand use that works well? I feel like we have a clear message and high quality products but it's hard to display the quality of a t-shirt from a flat lay photo... Any suggestions on how to market the quality? Finally what have you seen boost conversion rates of Shopify?

I’ve been told that marketing positions open up in August and right now is prime time for positions. I’ve applied to several postings but I haven’t received any interviews. I’m wondering if this is normal as it’s reaching almost November and I know several people who have already secured their internships. I’ve had appts with my career center, done coffee chats, etc. I will say the number one aspect that’s been difficult is finding the people that are in charge of the recruitment process for these jobs so I cant follow up on them. However, if I can, is it normal to send a message that I just applied and would like to chat, or is that too pushy?

I know a lot of the reach lately has been focused on social media. My question for those that have had success with it, what has been your angle? I post regular firm approved post, which whatever, not great but it’s what I have to keep a presents. My real friction is framing my message to those I’ve connected with. I tie in the relatability, and really just propose a brief phone call or coffee to get to learn more and see if there is value in us connecting. Has anyone had success framing up an introduction this way and getting the meeting or phone call. Not as concerned with landing the assets at the moment, but really just want to break the barrier to an introduction

They’re actually funny, it seems like effort goes into them, and the ideas are original. What’s the difference between that and a Liberty Mutual, for example?

Everyone is an influencer now. Do you still trust product recommendations, or has it become one big advertisement?

I just need maybe a different perspective or something.
I’ve had my brand since 2019, when I was a junior in high school. I’ve been building ever since. Hell, I even trademarked my brand. Year after year, I can genuinely see the improvements in my clothing.

In the beginning, I was making pretty decent sales, mostly from family, friends, and people I knew. But now it’s like I’ve reached a point where the same people are seeing everything I drop. They’ve already supported me before, and I don’t expect them to keep buying every time.

I’ll drop something, see people looking at it through my analytics, but can’t even get one sale lol. Man, it’s discouraging.

My brand has a niche. It’s not necessarily a Christian brand, but I believe every brand reflects the person behind it. I’ve genuinely built an identity and message around mine.

I think my biggest problem is that I don’t have an audience outside of the people who already know me, and honestly, I don’t know how to build one.

For anybody who’s been in this position, how did y’all break out of that same circle and start reaching new people? I’m genuinely looking for different perspectives.

Hi you all! I wanted to get advice from anybody who is in the marketing analytics/ research space! I have my MS in Marketing however i don’t have any corporate experience. I took a non-traditional job after i graduated for a couple of years, which i did gain a lot of experience with digital marketing analytics however, it wasn’t in a corporate space. I’ve been applying to marketing analyst roles requiring between 0-2 years of experience however i’ve had 0 luck even getting an interview. I even had a hiring manager for a marketing analyst/ measurement role only requiring 1+ years of experience tell me I didn’t fit what they were looking for at the moment. I think I’ve done a good job of explaining my digital analytics experience in my resume but if a role requiring only a year of experience told me I didn’t fit the bill, how else can i break into this space!?

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some honest advice from people who have transitioned from sales to marketing or have experience hiring for marketing roles. I have around 5 years of work experience in sales, but over time, I've realised that I want to build my career in marketing, particularly in market research, consumer behaviour, and marketing strategy. The problem is that I don't have direct work experience in marketing, and I'm finding it difficult to get my foot in the door. For the last 7 months, I've been upskilling through Coursera courses, learning about market research, consumer behaviour, segmentation, positioning, competitive analysis, and other marketing fundamentals. I'm genuinely interested in understanding why customers make certain decisions, how brands position themselves, and how businesses identify market opportunities. However, despite investing time in learning, I'm not seeing the results I expected, and I'm barely getting interview calls for marketing-related positions. It's becoming frustrating, and sometimes I wonder whether I'm spending my time in the right direction or just accumulating theoretical knowledge without developing the skills employers are looking for. My sales experience has taught me about customer interactions, handling objections, understanding customer needs, and working towards business targets. I believe these skills are relevant to marketing, but I'm struggling to communicate their value to recruiters when applying for roles that require previous marketing experience. I'm confused about what I should do next.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to run LinkedIn outreach for a client.

The client is based in the US, and I’m not able to use his LinkedIn credentials because his account was flagged in the past. He doesn’t want to risk another login or give access to someone else.

The problem is I still need to handle the actual outreach:

1. Send connection requests
2. Message people who connect
3. Reply when they respond
4. Keep the conversation moving

Is there a tool that lets me do this without needing to log into the client’s LinkedIn account directly?

My budget is roughly $40–$50/month, so I’m looking for something affordable rather than one of those expensive sales platforms.

If you’ve solved this for a client before, what setup or tool did you use?

Im seeing noticeably higher churn from my customers in mexico compared to other markets, and im wondering if price is the issue. Has anyone experimented with lowering subscription prices in specific countries? Did it actually reduce churn or improve revenue, or did it just lower what you earned per user?

Hey everyone,

I’m a 19-year-old male from India who recently learned digital marketing. I have some basic knowledge of digital marketing, but I haven’t worked with any clients yet.

I want to target the US market, and I’m looking for advice from people who have experience in digital marketing and understand its potential in the United States.

Here are a few questions I’d love your help with:

1. Which cities should I target? As a beginner, which US cities would be best for finding potential clients?

2. Which businesses should I target? What types of businesses in the US have a strong need for digital marketing services?

3. How should I find clients? What are the best ways to reach US business owners and convince them to work with me?

4. What specific needs should I focus on? Which digital marketing services are in high demand among US businesses, especially those that a beginner can realistically provide?

5. What is the potential of digital marketing in the US? Is it a good market for someone like me who is just starting out, and what challenges should I expect?

My plan is to offer digital marketing services for free to a few clients initially so I can gain practical experience, build my portfolio, and collect testimonials. I believe this will help me understand how to work with real clients before I start charging for my services.

I also have someone who can help me with the work if I land a client, so I’ll have support with service delivery.

I’d really appreciate advice from experienced digital marketers who have worked with US clients. Please share your recommendations on which cities, industries, and audiences I should focus on, as well as any mistakes I should avoid as a beginner.

Thank you! I look forward to learning from your experience.

How much confidence do marketers actually have in last-click reporting these days?

A customer can see a creator, search for the brand, read reviews, click an email and eventually make a purchase. Yet the final click can still get most of the credit.