In this exciting episode, Sue Frech sat down with Tiffany Pegues, Head of Social, Search, and CRM at Church & Dwight Co. 

Tiffany shares insights into the digital strategies she leads, emphasizing the importance of authentic voices in brand communities and the power of consumer energy.

We discuss the challenges of keeping up with social media algorithms and the role of brand communities in advocacy. Tiffany also provides valuable advice for marketers looking to start a brand-owned community.

Looking ahead to 2024, she highlights the opportunities and challenges in social commerce and the significance of user-generated content. Plus, Tiffany shares her thoughts on AI's role in revolutionizing marketing productivity.

Tune in for a dynamic discussion on the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing!

It can be sad to see a podcast season draw to a close. But when you focus on translating a season of learnings and insights into bite-sized, actionable steps to drive impact in the year ahead, it can become something to eagerly anticipate.

For the finale of season one, host Sue Frech brought together members of her team to dish on the highlights of the season. With over 30 years of collective community marketing experience, Cathy Courtney, Vice President of Marketing, Mary Gilbert, Director, Business Development, and Jordan Ben, Brand and Marketing Strategist, identified key takeaways and shared how to translate all of the Community Powered Marketing podcast inspiration into impactful next steps.

You’ll hear which episodes and guests challenged the panel members to think differently and what they took away from them.

You’ll learn some of the ways community marketing is helping marketers face emerging challenges and actionable tips that you can use in 2022.

You’ll discover some of the brands whose initiatives and ideas are inspiring the panel as we move into the new year, including Drunk Elephant, Yumi, Little Spoon, Liquid IV, and Olly.

And you’ll be inspired to craft brand resolutions to harness the power of advocacy, insights, and engagement through community marketing.

Join Sue and her team as they discuss the lessons, inspirations, and insights they've taken from this season.

Enjoy!

What You'll Learn in this Show:

• Which podcast episodes of the season spoke to each of the panel members, and the “aha” moments they took away from them.
• Unique community marketing insights from the panel and actionable tips that you can use in 2022.
• The marketing resolutions this season’s guests have inspired for our panelists.
• The industries and brands that our panelists think are primed to benefit from community marketing.
• And so much more...

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Resources:

Website

X, formerly Twitter

LinkedIn

Today's guest could be called a guru of growth. Over the past decade, he has focused on building lean growth teams to rapidly scale businesses, working obsessively to crack the blueprint of successful fast-growth companies.

Along the way, he’s driven over $1 Billion in revenue, worked at over 250 companies, from hyper-growth startups to global brands, spent thousands of hours studying everything from UX to market research, built training programs, and so much more. So naturally, when he launched his own business, it was christened the Growth Shop.

In today's episode of Community Powered Marketing, Sue chats with Mark Patchett, founder of Growth Shop, an innovative growth marketing advisory and startup accelerator that works primarily with D2C e-commerce brands to help them create exponential and sustainable growth. They also devise, launch, scale and manage an ever-growing brand portfolio of their own, expanding it by 70x in 2020.

You’ll discover how Mark and the Growth Shop team developed their "secret sauce," identifying the mechanics of successful and speedy growth that can be replicated time and time again for brands.

You'll hear about the "unfair advantage" Mark and his team offer to their clients, leveraging the power of technology and community.

You’ll learn why he believes the community is the outcome of really “getting it” and building a brand that resonates beyond the utility of the product or service you’re selling.

You’ll explore how brands that gained during the pandemic can understand what comes next and work to retain loyalty.

Join Sue and Mark as they discuss the way community-building will be a key factor in brand development now and into the future.

Enjoy!

What You'll Learn in this Show:

• Why Mark is passionate about Ukraine and the opportunities its employee base offer to fast-growth companies.
• The critical role of Growth Shop’s Head of Happiness as a custodian of values and monitor of culture to make sure the team doesn’t burn out on its rapid rise. 
• The value of engagement and why taking a qualitative approach to understanding your consumer journey will reveal deeper and more meaningful learnings.
• The inspiration for “Authentic Authenticity” - his idea for a book title - and the critical importance of ensuring your brand’s “why” is honest. 
• And so much more...

Resources:

Connect with Mark & Growth Shop:

Website

Mark's LinkedIn

Dr. Allen Lim was working as a sport scientist and coach for a professional cycling team when he decided that the sport drinks available to athletes contained too many artificial ingredients, which reduced performance.

So he began making his own "secret drink mix” in his kitchen using less sugar, no artificial ingredients, and real fruit.

His "secret" soon got out and Skratch Labs was born, offering healthier drinks to athletes, firefighters, and active people looking for a better solution.

In today's episode of Community Powered Marketing, Sue chats with Joy Shure, resident Social Media & Loyalty Program Manager at Skratch Labs, who heads up the company's social media and loyalty program.

You'll discover why Skratch Labs eschews traditional Ambassador programs and created an inclusive rewards program that focuses on bettering the lives of its members and their local communities.

You’ll hear how to foster great conversations and to collect feedback to align your company and products with your consumers.

You'll learn how Joy has adapted the company's social media presence to only provide content that creates actual value for the audience - a concept she calls, "anti social media."

You’ll hear about the power of creating one-on-one wows for your community and explore ways to create big and meaningful impact with small budgets.

Join Sue and Joy as they discuss the benefits of remaining true to your company values and engaging with audiences in a way that goes beyond transactions and product promotion.

Enjoy!

What You'll Learn in this Show:

• A little background on Skratch Labs and its founder, Dr. Allen Lim. 
• Why Joy describes herself as a "Joy of all trades" as well as some of the many hats she wears in the company.
• Ways to rethink social media to create a presence that aligns with your company values.
• The technology features and functions on Joy’s community management wish list (spoiler alert: Vesta’s got them) 
• And so much more...

Resources:

Website

LinkedIn

X, formerly Twitter

It should come as no surprise that a company focused on communication prioritizes listening and having authentic, almost on-one-one consumer conversations in its loyalty program.

In today's episode of Community Powered Marketing, Sue chats with Lisa Routel, Marketing Strategy Manager at Verizon, about the award-winning Verizon Up loyalty program and her thoughts on fostering emotional loyalty in a post-pandemic world.

You'll hear why emotion is a key driver for the most profitable customer behavior, influencing spend, loyalty, and lifetime value.

Why performance measurement needs more than just a qualitative and quantitative approach - it must also incorporate the human emotion aspect to be truly effective.

The process of evaluating partnerships, and why a potential partner must be in alignment with your company values while also being relevant to your customers.

Why Verizon chose to expand its loyalty program into a full platform, becoming more fully integrated across the entire ecosystem, enhancing value and the customer experience.

Join Sue and Lisa as they explore the power of leveraging your community to listen to and understand your consumers and make better decisions based on the insights you gain from the process.

Enjoy!

What You'll Learn in this Show:

• The Verizon Up loyalty program and how it attempts to break free from a traditional points-based model to deliver immediate meaningful rewards and experiences to customers.
• How measuring performance requires both a qualitative and quantitative approach, as well as an awareness of human emotions, a key part of the loyalty process.
• The importance of listening to your customers and establishing a feedback loop to gain critical insights.
• Why partnership evaluations must take into account both their alignment with your company values, as well as an understanding of their relevance to your customers.
• And so much more...

Resources:

Website

X, formerly Twitter

LinkedIn

You're probably familiar with the phrase "they don't know what they don't know." This is very true of many brands' siloed cross-functional teams.

In this episode of Community Powered Marketing, Sue chats with Suzanne Reimer, in charge of Digital Engagement at Church & Dwight, about her efforts to help brands become digital first and to approach the consumer journey in a more holistic way.

You'll discover why brands that make use of siloed cross-functional teams miss pieces of the customer journey puzzle through a lack of communication.

You’ll hear why community is your best ally in understanding the ideas and content that resonate, and in offering insights into building consumer lifetime value.

You'll discover how Suzanne and her team are elevating understanding around the expectations of marketing programs, rather than just focusing on traditional KPI targets.

You'll also learn why 100% customer loyalty is a myth, and how focusing on making small adjustments tied to specific customer wants and needs has enormous potential.

Join Sue and Suzanne as they discuss a more holistic approach to the many touchpoints found along the consumer journey.

Enjoy!

What You'll Learn in this Show:

• Why siloed cross-functional teams often "don't know what they don't know" - they miss pieces of the customer journey puzzle without ever knowing about it.
• The importance of having a first-party digital strategy and why you need to prepare now for a cookie-less world.
• Why clear communication with outside partners is crucial to ensuring more effective partnerships.
• How Suzanne and her team are helping brands refocus their KPIs away from traditional media line items and more toward understanding the expectations of the program as a whole.
• The reasons why 100% customer loyalty is no longer a viable goal, and why the focus must be on paying closer attention to customer's wants and needs.
• And so much more...

Resources:

Website

X, formerly Twitter

LinkedIn

The feminine care market is a crowded one, with a wide range of products from long-standing brands, brands that have built up years of customer recognition and loyalty.

However, the growing movement toward organic and eco-friendly products has failed to take root in this space. That is, until TOP the organic project entered the scene.

In this episode of Community Powered Marketing, Sue chats with Thyme Sullivan, speaker and storyteller, as well as CEO and founder of TOP, The Organic Project, to discuss her company's industry-changing offerings.

You'll discover why Thyme decided to leave behind a successful but otherwise uninspiring career in the corporate world to become an entrepreneur - and the challenges she's faced along the way.

You'll learn why TOP avoided the standard "disrupter" model of business, instead becoming a "challenger" brand, offering unique products and speaking to customers in ways no one else had.

You’ll hear about the importance of surrounding yourself with those who understand your mission and how TOP harnessed the power of their community to generate game-changing energy, passion, and word-of-mouth

Join Sue and Thyme as they discuss offering eco-friendly, organic products in an otherwise crowded market, finding your place as a female entrepreneur, and why Lady Gaga proved to be a major inspiration.

Enjoy!

What You'll Learn in this Show:

• How Thyme transitioned from a life in the corporate world to that of an entrepreneur, and the significant challenges she met along the way.
• TOP’s path to "challenger" brand, offering options that were otherwise unavailable in the market.
• The struggles female entrepreneurs face in the investment space, and how Thyme was inspired by Lady Gaga.
• How to amplify impact by harnessing the power of your most dedicated advocates.
• And so much more...

Resources:

Website

X, formerly Twitter

LinkedIn

How do you go about gaining audience insights for your business?

Traditionally, when brands want to gain insights from their audience about new products, messaging, etc., they would have to hire an outside marketing firm to conduct a research project to gain those insights. While this is certainly effective, it's time-consuming and inefficient, particularly if marketers wish to gain those insights on a continuous basis.

In today's episode of Community Powered Marketing, Sue chats with Cristoph Knudsen, VP of Insights for Vesta. During this fascinating discussion, Christoph provides some insight into the challenges faced by businesses looking to gain audience insights using traditional market research companies.

You'll learn why one-off research projects are ineffective for businesses looking for real-time insights to help them make better decisions. You'll discover why it's so difficult to keep consumers on research panels engaged over time.

Sue and Christoph discuss the benefits of online communities and how they can help your business engage with consumers and gain powerful insights based on their feedback.

They also provide some examples of businesses that use the Vesta online community to build their audience, personalize their messaging and define the unique attributes of their brand.

Join Sue and Christoph as they explore the power of leveraging your online community to build your business and make better decisions based on the insights you gain from the process.

Enjoy!

What You'll Learn in this Show:

• Why hiring a marketing research firm to gain audience insights is both time-consuming and inefficient for many businesses.
• How Vesta's online community software can address the key insight pain points faced by businesses.
• Examples of best-in-class businesses that are using the Vesta online community to generate powerful insights in real-time and define the unique attributes of their brand. 
• Three things you can do right now to leverage your community and generate insights.
• And so much more...

Resources:

Website

LinkedIn

X, formerly Twitter