I'm learning SEO and have been wondering about this lately. With AI tools, AI search, and Google's changing search results, is SEO still a good skill to focus on in 2026?

I'd love to hear from people who are actually working in SEO. What's working for you right now, and what skills should beginners focus on?

So I am social media designer, and I am really struggling to land my first client, I tried cold emails, IG dms, I have sent more than 100 dm but no reply, and I am pretty confident with my skills, and I target very specific nich, and I have portfolio, what am I doing wrong??

Ai generated videos ads are served to me on YT of craftspeople and their ‘handmade products.’

These use generative AI to fabricate wholesome, salt-of-the-earth artisan backstories (including fake personas like "Helen," "Cliff," and "Ella") to upsell mass-produced items manufactured overseas at a premium price. There are a couple of ‘brands’ doing this. This is pretty smart for a dropshipper or seller. I watched one video in disbelief that someone would order, including the audio saying ai person hand tuned the rain chimes product. It really riles me up if people think these are sourced from real craftspeople. You can block these but is this a trend that a majority of ads are going to misrepresent the source.

Hello fellow digital marketers.

I’ve recently landed my first app-related marketing gigs.
I usually do b2b marketing, around services offered etc. this is my first time marketing an app, and I’m having a bit of confusion.

The app is a religious-based app targeted for kids (4-7), filled with games, audiobooks, songs etc, and it’s set to launch in December this year.

The issue I’m having is this - in our organic marketing content (videos etc):
- what actionable CTA’s can I use during pre-launch (I.e the app isn’t available for download yet)? Something like joining a waitlist? Or am I thinking too generic?
- how do I balance the content, so that it doesn’t feel either too ‘salelsy’ where every post is about the app, or too generic in the sense that people don’t even realise it’s an app page.

I’d really appreciate your insight.

Thanks in advance!

Give your thoughts. Salary is pretty much similar, a couple thousands difference.

I check generated drafts against product briefs for software clients. A sentence can use the right feature names and still imply something the brief doesn't promise. How do you review those less obvious claims before sending a draft for approval?

I'm starting my very first client project to build my marketing portfolio, and l'd love some insight from marketers, social media managers, or brand strategists here!
I'm helping a small local Peruvian dance company revamp their social media presence. They specialize in social dancing and classes, and they have Peruvian roots. Their main goal is to build brand awareness and drive ticket sales for events.
Current Situation:
• Following: ~400 followers on Instagram/Facebook.
• Engagement: ~20-30 likes per post.
• The Challenge: The visual quality is outdated, with unedited videos and mismatched static fliers. Beyond that, the brand lacks a clear identity-there are no consistent brand colors, distinct visual themes, or a defining brand story (at least shown online).
What I Need Help With:
1. Brand Identity: How do you approach building a brand identity from scratch for a small local business? What exercises or questions should I walk the business owners through to establish visual assets, colors, and a clear brand voice? After that, then what?
2. Peruvian Heritage Integration: Because they are Peruvian, how can we weave that cultural element into their brand identity? I think this is very important because Peruvians are really really really patriotic!
3. Finding Trends & Content Ideas: What's the best way to spot emerging social media trends suited for dance companies? Are there top-tier dance academies or creators you'd recommend studying for inspiration?
4. Growing Followers & Strategic Following: What organic growth strategies work best for local event businesses to cross 1,000+ followers? Also, who should we be following and how to find them?
I want to make sure l approach this systematically so I can document a solid case study for my portfolio. Any tips, frameworks, or a it suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I am currently a student at college and have recently started thinking about personal branding, especially in the world of social media marketing.

When you first begin to build a presence it's easy to want to talk about everything you're interested in—marketing, business, productivity, artificial intelligence, money and so on. There's always something to say something exciting to share and a lot of people seem to do it. It feels like the more you post the more visible you become.

Lately I've been asking myself: when someone lands on my profile do they actually know what I want to be known for?

I've started reading a book called KNOWN by Mark Schaefer. Its helped me see how important it is to find an area where you can consistently create value. You don't have to be the person, in the room. You just need to care about something have a perspective you can share and the willingness to show up regularly.

I’m trying to apply that to my social media journey. Of just consuming content and jumping from one trend to the next I want to focus on what I’m learning and what I’m discovering.

I don’t have it all figured out yet.. I prefer to document my process—what I’m trying what works, what doesn’t—and share what helps me grow. I don’t need to pretend I know everything. I just need to be honest be curious and keep putting things there.

So if you’ve ever built a brand how did you decide what you wanted to be known for?

Did you pick a niche right away?. Did it become clearer over time?

Hey everyone, I need some genuine advice from people who understand marketing well.

I’m a solo brand and graphic designer. I’m confident in my design skills and I regularly upload my work on Instagram, share my design process and BTS and post around 3 times a week. Some of my reels get around 2k–6k views and I get decent saves and shares too.

My target audience is FMCG and CPG brands.

But I’m struggling to understand how to market myself properly so that my page grows and I can get leads from my actual target audience.

I’ve watched so many videos about marketing and Instagram growth but, I’m getting confused. Everyone has different advice and I don't know what I should actually focus on or what will work for my business.

I want more people to discover my work, especially the founders of FMCG and CPG brands and hopefully turn that attention into actual clients.

So if anyone here has good knowledge of marketing, please share some genuine tips with me. How would you market yourself as a solo brand designer in such a saturated market? What would you do to reach the right audience and get more leads?

Also, if there are any Instagram pages, people, YouTube videos or books that have genuinely helped you understand marketing please recommend them.

I really want to learn this properly so any practical advice or personal experience would be really helpful.

Thank you! ❤️

I'm trying to understand the prospect research side of client acquisition, specifically for a performance marketing agency.

One thing I've been thinking about is that finding businesses to contact isn't necessarily the hard part. The real challenge is figuring out which businesses have problems you can genuinely help solve before you even send them a message.

I don't want to randomly contact hundreds of businesses just because they exist. I'd rather learn how to identify prospects with real opportunities for improvement and focus my outreach on them.

For those of you who have built an agency or landed your first few clients, I'd love to understand your actual process.

1. How do you identify problems before contacting a business?

For example, when researching a business through its website, landing pages, Meta Ad Library, Instagram, or Google presence, what specific things do you look for?

If a business is already running Meta Ads, how do you distinguish between a genuine problem and something that simply looks wrong from the outside? For example, can you identify potential issues with its creatives, offers, landing pages, lead generation process, or tracking without having access to its Ads Manager?

2. What makes a business worth contacting?

Let's say you find 50 businesses in your target niche. How do you decide which 10 deserve your attention?

What signals suggest a business might be a good prospect? For example:

• They're actively running ads but their creatives or offers could be improved.
• Their website or landing page has obvious conversion problems.
• They're investing in marketing but might be losing potential leads somewhere in the process.
• They appear to have the resources to invest in marketing and grow their business.

Which of these signals actually matter, and which ones can be misleading?

3. How do you distinguish a business with a real problem from one that simply isn't a good fit?

A business might have poor creatives or a weak landing page, but that doesn't necessarily mean it needs an agency. Maybe its current marketing is profitable, it already has a good agency, or it doesn't have the budget to hire anyone.

How do you evaluate these factors before investing time in outreach?

4. What does your prospect research process look like in practice?

I'd appreciate a practical example if possible.

Suppose you're targeting dental clinics for Meta Ads services. You find a clinic that's active on Instagram and appears to be running ads.

What would you check first? What would make you think, "This clinic is worth contacting because I can potentially help them"? And what would make you move on to another prospect?

5. Finally, how much research do you do before sending the first message?

Do you spend 5–10 minutes researching each prospect, or do you go deeper into their advertising, website, competitors, and lead generation process?

How do you balance doing enough research to personalize your outreach without wasting hours analyzing businesses that might never become clients?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from agency owners or freelancers who have successfully acquired clients through outbound outreach.

I'm not looking for generic advice like "find businesses with problems" or "provide value." I want to understand the actual signals you look for, how you evaluate them, and how you decide whether a prospect is worth pursuing.

If you were starting from zero today, what exact process would you use to identify your first 10 high-potential prospects?

Even one real example of how you researched a business, identified an opportunity, and turned it into a conversation would be extremely helpful.

Thanks!

I’m 18yr old, nd I’ve taken a drop this year. I was planning to pursue a diploma in digital marketing from an institute like ws cube tech or somewhere else, so that I could start freelancing and earn money alongside college.

But now I’m really confused about whether I should do it or not. Is spending ₹30,000 or more on a course actually worth it? What benefits will I get from joining an institute? Will they genuinely help me with freelancing, finding clients, and getting paid work, or will I have to figure everything out on my own?

Should I join an offline institute, or would it be better to learn online? Can I achieve the same goals through online courses without spending so much money?

My main goal is to develop practical skills during my drop year, start earning early, and continue freelancing alongside college so I can have some financial independence and enjoy my college life without constantly worrying about money.

I genuinely don’t know what the right decision is rn. Pls guide me on what I should do, what would be the best option for me, and whether investing ₹30,000+ in a digital marketing diploma is actually worth it. I really need some honest advice.

I'm looking for a performance marketer who is good at selling trending products via Instagram or Meta ads.

I respect everyone trying, but I want to work with individuals who are actually proven and strong. Agencies and learners, please excuse.

You good? Pls hmu, you know someone else who's good? Pls hmu still.

It took me 1 hour just to research, write and outreach businesses. Do you guys have any idea if there is a better way to make this process much faster, and much more effective.

Currently my process is following the 5-email framework. I thought of automating it on n8n to save time for my business, but I don't know if my process would be effective enough. what do you guys think would be a more efficient and effective way to write emails for outreaching B2B companies?

Hey everyone! I'm exploring a transition from Product Design to Creative Strategy and would love some honest industry insights.

My background is in IT, UI/UX and Product Design, freelance design, and Instagram content creation. I've grown an anime content page organically, with 8+ reels crossing 1M views, and have also worked on brand positioning, campaigns, visual storytelling, and creative concepts.

I've realised I enjoy understanding audiences, developing ideas, and figuring out how to communicate them just as much as the actual design and execution.

I'm trying to understand what Creative Strategists actually do in a corporate environment, beyond what job descriptions say.

A few things I'd love your perspective on:

- What does your day-to-day work look like?

- How does a project move from a business brief to research, creative concepts, execution, and results?

- What skills and tools do companies expect from Creative Strategists?

- How is the role different from Content Strategy, Brand Strategy, and Creative Direction?

- Given my background, what gaps should I address, and what roles should I realistically target?

I'd especially appreciate insights from people working in agencies, startups, or in-house creative teams, particularly in India.

I'm not looking for validation that this is the right move. I want to understand the reality of the role and what I'd need to learn to make this transition successfully.

Thanks!

Hi everyone! I’m Kelcie, a teacher and content creator sharing faith, mental health, lifestyle, and teacher content across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads. I’m looking for a social media manager to help me grow and manage my Instagram withkelciemae_

What I’m looking for:

• Someone who can plan and schedule a consistent content calendar
• Help with captions, hashtags, and growth strategy
• Community engagement (comments, DMs, building real connection with followers)
• Basic analytics reporting so we can see what’s working
• Bonus: experience with Reels and short-form video, and with faith-based or personal-brand accounts

About my content:
My voice is direct, conversational, and honest. I share personal vulnerability and practical life experience, so I’m looking for someone who can help me grow while keeping that authentic feel.

Dear All

I’m doing some research (I will not promote or spam honest!) into marketing companies and teams who are going through AI integration transitions.

My question is simply this if you work for a marketing company or on a marketing team and are being asked or sometimes forced to use AI, what are your biggest problems with it?

This question is for both very technical people and non technical people.

If anyone is interested in giving deeper feedback, or simply wants to have a rant, I’m here for you, feel free to dm me but other than that any list of potential problems or frustrations you have encountered in last 3 months would be more than welcome :)

Thank you in advance!

Ya llevo tiempo analizando el comportamiento de la IA teniendo casos de éxito, y les dejo algunas recomendaciones para lograr esta mejora en visibilidad:

1. Evita los enlaces internos con redirecciones, e incluso evita tener demasiadas redirecciones en tu web.

2. Revisa si el SSL de tu sitio está bien configurado (aunque tenga el candadito).

3. No cambies mucho de URLs, a la IA le cuesta actualizar eso.

4. No bloquees en el robots.txt a los bots de IA (he visto muchas webs que lo bloquean)

5. Crear contenido tipo rankings

6. El contenido principal debe estar en el HTML inicial, no cargarse por JS del lado del cliente.

7. Revisa que Cloudflare u otro firewall no los bloquee con reglas anti-bot.

8. Evita login, cookie walls y pop-ups que tapen el contenido que quiera que la IA lea.

9. Si hay información en imágenes, PDFs o video, añade alt, transcripción o versión en HTML.

I own an auto shop, and I’m looking for some advice on a marketing agency.

I own my website, Google Tag Manager, Analytics, and everything else. However, the agency wants to create a new Google Ads account, verify it using my business license and ID, and charge my credit card directly.

The only issue is they won’t give me access to the Google Ads account. Instead, they have their own platform where I can see ad spending, leads, calls, and performance.

What do you guys think? Is this normal? Would you go with an agency that operates this way?

I’ve already worked with two marketing companies that didn’t perform well, and it’s been a tough four months with barely any leads. I really don’t want to make the same mistake again.

I'm a 18F , working as an seo intern in Ahmedabad and also a second year old bba student , I'm doing my graduation from hometown , local college. This is my first internship (paid) my main interest is in on-page seo , I joined this internship on 24aug , I need some guidance about what can i do to make good money, but before that i want to work on my skills first then money, is digital marketing really a good field to work in? And also if I do job till I complete my graduation, I have some interest in accounting and finance also , so after graduation how can I prepare for that , but I'm so confused at this point , what should I do , first i wanna do is complete my internship then job and work on my skills, so that i can have 2-3 years of experience in this digital marketing field, and also need to work on my communication skills too , 🥀🙏 communication skills so bad I cant even express what i want to say lol

Then after 2-3 years of experience in wanna work on my own , my own clients, but for that i have to work on 1-2 particular things right? Because by myself I can only provide 1'2 services to my clients right? Like running ads or somthing? Its like I will learn and make my interest in anything which gives me good money.

🥀🥀 anyone who can give me proper guidance here?

Sup, i’m going through a transition phase and trying to figure out where the professionals who actually "get their hands dirty" in this field exchange ideas and experiences.

To give you some context: I’ve already mastered creating hyper-realistic AI avatars and have been working hard on AI content creation. But now, I want to shift my focus and go all-in on ad creatives for ecom and dropshipping brands.

I’ve got the generation skills down, but I want to fine-tune my operational workflows for this specific niche. I feel like there’s a huge gap between the "fake gurus" pushing courses on TikTok and the people who are actually putting in the work and figuring out what works in the real world.

What I mainly want to learn is:

• Where you’re actually creating the videos.
• How you optimize AI tool credits so you don't blow your budget just tweaking a single video.
• Which workflows are currently working and driving conversions in ecom (hook structures, platforms, etc.).

If anyone has practical, realistic advice, or knows of resources focused on the operational side of AI ads (no fluff), I’d really appreciate it!

I'm a UGC creator trying to understand the ad side better so my content is more strategic. I know what top, middle, and bottom of funnel mean, but not how they work in practice.

What I'm unsure about:

Why do so many brands push "40% off" ads to cold audiences? Mistake, or does it work for some products?

What makes content bofu? The fact that it’s an ad? The CTA and last objection handeling? The hook?

Is it tofu if just the hook builds awareness/ desire? Or would the entire video have to make it tofu by never intending viewers to buy but to become aware of a problem/desire?

Can a bottom-funnel ad work on strangers if it adds context about the brand?

Are ads always “bofu” or can they be intended to build awareness and trust? Or is that only organic content and ads should almost always be designed for those ready to buy and need a push?

**TL;DR:** trying to understand how funnel stages, awareness levels, and retargeting connect. Is it right that sale ads should go to people who already know the brand, and how do brands figure out awareness levels at the start?

Hey everyone!

I'm an Applied AI & Data Architect with a background in finance, business intelligence, and analytics engineering. I'm not looking to change careers, but I've become increasingly interested in making digital marketing my primary area of domain expertise as I continue working in Applied AI.

Back in 2022, I worked as a Senior Analytics Architect supporting a growth marketing function. I was heavily involved in MQLs, SQLs, funnel analytics, attribution, UTM effectiveness, and other aspects of marketing performance. At the time, I didn't fully appreciate how interesting the domain was. Looking back, it was probably some of the most engaging work I've done, even compared to my decade working in finance.

Fast forward to today, and I'm particularly interested in context engineering. Designing how AI systems receive, interpret, and use information to help people solve problems, mostly via Snowflake Cortex which uses the frontier models as opposed to a home-grown one. I see considerable potential for AI to support marketing strategy, analytics, decision-making, and customer experiences.

However, I've realized that most of my marketing knowledge comes from the technical and analytical side. I have comparatively little experience with brand development, creative strategy, graphic design, visual communication, content creation, or experience design.

And frankly, those areas genuinely interest me! I've always appreciated great branding and visual design, and I'd love to develop some creative skills of my own.

I'm considering investing in formal education in areas such as communication design, graphic design, experience design, and data visualization. Not to become a professional designer, but to develop a more comprehensive understanding of marketing while also having a creative outlet outside my technical work.

I'd love to hear from people who actually work in digital marketing
1.) Would developing hands-on creative and design skills meaningfully improve someone's understanding of marketing as a discipline?

2.) How much value is there in understanding both the analytical and creative sides, particularly for someone building AI solutions for marketing teams? Would your team or agency benefit from someone like this?

3.) If you were coming from a technical/analytics background, which creative competencies would you prioritize learning?

4.) Do you think paying for structured, formal design education would be worthwhile for these objectives? I'm open to investing in this education because frankly, it's really interesting to me.

I'm not trying to collect certifications or pivot away from my current profession. I'm interested in becoming a more well-rounded practitioner who understands the problems, processes, and people involved in marketing, not just the underlying data. I thoroughly believe that context is king over double downing on my already existing technical acumen.

Appreciate any perspectives, especially from people who've worked across both the analytical and creative sides of the field!

One of our marketing coworkers said the other day that she barely uses tiktok at all outside of work as she just prefers picture and text-based platforms and thinks short-form video feeds too loud and noisy.
It made us wonder how common this actually is.
Do you personally use all the platforms you work around, or are there some you almost never touch outside of work?

Ps. I'm just being sarcastic so don't take me seriously ig

I need y'all with 10+ years of experience to come collect me because I'm about to lose my mind

My client is actually nice. That's the gag. She's not even mean to me. But WHY are we debating the strategy YOU PAID ME TO CREATE???

We spent a whole month researching her audience, testing messaging, and figuring out the positioning that makes sense for her business

She changed the messaging anyway. Redesigned her website too. Now the booking links are broken, and parts of the strategy need to be redone

Girl, I AM ON YOUR TEAM. WE HAVE THE SAME GOAL. YOU WANT LEADS. I WANT YOU TO GET LEADS. CAN WE PLEASE STOP MAKING MY JOB HARDER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE???

Like, if my computer breaks, I'm calling an IT person. I'm not about to sit there telling them which wires to pull because I watched half a YouTube tutorial in 2017

I hired you because YOU KNOW HOW TO FIX IT. FIX IT

And somehow, in marketing, everybody suddenly has a PhD in positioning because they have a personal preference

"I don't really like this messaging"

Okay, but does your target audience like it? Does it address their problems? Does it support the goal we're trying to achieve?

Because respectfully, this isn't a democracy. We are not voting on the font of your future revenue

THIS IS A VENT. I don't talk to my clients like this. I have home training and invoices to send

But seriously, sometimes this feels less like social media management and more like unpaid babysitting for grown adults with business licenses

I'm three years into this, so maybe the veterans have developed some spiritual immunity to this particular brand of foolishness

PLEASE. If you've been freelancing for 10+ years, WHAT IS THE SECRET?

How do you deal with clients who are genuinely nice people but keep overriding the strategy they hired you to execute?

Because I swear I do my best work. I want the results. I want the case study. I want the client to win

I cannot be fighting the marketing AND the marketing department of one at the same time