229. Amplification ⭐️
Defining the new Amplification Marketing function and when it makes sense to bring amplification into your team
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Links that are worth your time:
Interesting video on Variable Brand Voice (video is in Portuguese, but there are English subtitles)
Hi there 👋
In last week’s newsletter, I put out a call for help with salary benchmarking. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences (and special thanks to those who shared salary figures). One resource that came my way, courtesy of the HelpScout team was this great article about how they approach compensation at HelpScout. Well worth a read
Wishing you a great week,
Kevan
Does your team need an amplification marketer?
Our Oyster marketing team is divided into five different functions:
Product marketing
Growth marketing
Content
Brand
Amplification
When I explain this setup to people, by far the most questions are about amplification.
What is it?
What does it own?
Sounds cool! (not a question, but a common reaction nonetheless)
Our cofounder, Jack Mardack, came up with the role as we were scaling Oyster, inspired by what we see as a big opportunity to amplify the Oyster brand. Many great SaaS brands like HubSpot, Wistia, Intercom, and more think about story and affinity and brand as an equal part of the marketing mix. Our way of making it official was to make it its own function: amplification marketing.
Now, back to those questions …
What is an amplification marketer exactly?
The amplification function exists to raise brand visibility and brand affinity.
What is it not?
It is not the team you send all your content to when you’re done with it, hoping they’ll get you some traffic.
What does it include?
Amplification includes:
Social media
Community
PR and communications
Analyst relations
Events
Partner marketing
(We’re hiring for social media and partner marketing today, to go along with the resources we have in place around PR, events, and community.)
Our amplification team is led by an incredibly skilled marketer, Mark Whelan. And the more he and I talk about this role, the more we come to realize that you can’t separate amplification from brand marketing. If brand marketing tells the story of “who you are,” then amplification is the mechanics behind making sure the story is known, widely.
In fact …
You may have an amplification marketer (or two) on your team already.
We had one at Buffer called an Audience Marketer (her name is Sophie Gil, and she’s great). Social media was a key responsibility for this role, but we wanted to think beyond the channel and into the outcomes. As I wrote in the blog post explaining the role:
The ultimate goal with audience marketing is to end up with a core group of fans and advocates.
Similar to amplification, we didn’t want the audience role to be constrained to a single channel. We had several key outcomes we were looking for also, which spoke to the breadth of audience-building:
Every new piece of content reaches 1000s of people, thanks to you
Reproducible playbooks for distributing content via paid social, display ads, email, and search
A fantastic, on-brand social media presence that makes people go, “Whoa”
Low CPMs and CPCs, getting lower every day
Neither the amplification role nor the audience role are reinventing the wheel. It’s more like a re-packaging of existing marketing work in a way that is strategic and compelling and that inspires remarkable candidates to come knocking on your door.
If you’re wondering if it’s worth listing a unique role like this for your team, consider the type of people you want to attract. You can take a known commodity like a social media role, a media relations role, etc and get a ton of great, seasoned pros to apply. Or you can think a little differently, package up a new role, and bring in a smaller pool of candidates who are eager to stretch themselves and own a brand new space.
If you choose the latter, I’m happy to get you started. Here’s an outline for the JD we put together for our Director of Amplification at Oyster:
You will own, orchestrate, and lead:
Media Relations and PR
Analyst Relations
Community
Events (virtual and otherwise, sponsored and owned)
Social Media
You will work in a collaborative manner with the content team, the product marketing team, the demand generation team, and the greater Oyster org to develop the stories and the experiences through which we reach and engage our prospective customers and other audiences of interest around the world.
Develop and execute B2C, B2B, corporate, and product communications programs to drive brand awareness and affinity.
Build a media relations strategy, seeking high-level placement in various types of media outlets.
Strategize and execute on content-supported PR initiatives, including data stories, leadership profiles, and bylines.
Manage our social media presences and activity to bring our global social strategy to life as a vector for mass amplification and reach.
Partner with the Director of Content to develop stories and story vehicles that can achieve mass distribution.
Develop and execute a roadmap of sponsored events, owned events, and speaking opportunities.
Foster and maintain relationships with key industry analysts following the HR tech space.
Partner with external agencies to enlarge Oyster's share of voice, around the world.
Offer communications counsel to our spokesforce.
Hire, manage and mentor the internal communications/amplification team.
About this newsletter …
Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. If you enjoy what’s in this newsletter, you can share some love by hitting the heart button at the top or bottom.💙
About Kevan
I’m a marketing exec who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I currently lead the marketing team at Oyster (we’re hiring!). I previously built brands at Buffer, Polly, and Vox.
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