Nicolas Vargas Nicolas Vargas

How to Turn Your Marketing Skills into big $$$ in Australia’s Booming Digital Scene!

Entry-level media and marketing professionals with the right skills can access diverse career paths, providing opportunities to earn more than traditional, lower-paying entry-level roles.

Here’s a few options you can consider

Be Your Own Boss (Solopreneur)

Freelancing: Offer services based on channel expertise, such as successful Meta campaigns that drive brand awareness for fashion brands in Sydney.

Start by exploring platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and Gumtree.

Consulting: Due to a shortage of experienced professionals, many agencies fail to deliver results, leading businesses to frequently switch agencies.

Start by exploring platforms like Bark

Content Creation/Influencing: Use your marketing expertise to build a personal brand on platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok or YouTube.

2. Launch Your Own Business (Entrepreneur)

E-commerce: E-commerce provides the potential for passive income and the freedom to work from anywhere.

SaaS Products: Creating a successful SaaS product can lead to revenue and offer a scalable business model

“Do not act following customary beliefs.”

Miyamoto Musahi

Start an Agency (be careful): This is for those with 5+ years of proven results. It’s high-risk but profitable, involving more than campaign management—like accounting and sales.

3. Climb the Ladder: Corporate Career Opportunities

If you prefer the structure and resources of a corporate environment, digital marketing skills can pave the way for rapid career most companies follow a rigid structute that look like this

  • Entry Level Assistant

  • Coordinator - (70k)

  • Executive - (80k)

  • Manager - (100k+)

  • Senior Manager - (120k)

The average marketing salary in Australia is $88,126 per year

Talent.com

Closing Thoughts

By focusing on skill development and leveraging your expertise, you can build a career that not only pays well but also supports your desired lifestyle.

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Nicolas Vargas Nicolas Vargas

How Art Movements Can Inspire Powerful Media & Marketing Strategies

Emotional engagement is crucial for differentiation in today’s crowded media landscape. By leveraging the principles of iconic art movements, your strategies can resonate with audiences and increase revenue.

1. Baroque (17th Century)

The Calling of St. Matthew” by Caravaggio

The contrast between light and dark creates drama and urgency, engaging viewers in the story.

Use Cases

Media: Use dramatic visuals and high-contrast imagery in digital ads to capture attention.

Marketing: Use dramatic narratives to engage audiences during moments when the product changes the user's life.

Product: Focus on simplicity in product design, akin to the clarity of light in darkness.

2. Romanticism (Late 18th to Mid-19th Century)

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich

A reminder of the human connection to nature and inspire a sense of adventure or self-discovery.

Use Cases

Media: Use immersive media, likevirtual reality (VR), to create unique experiences.

Marketing: Develop content that appeals to emotions of exploration, tapping into people’s desire for self-discovery.

Product: Create features that connect users with a healthy relationship with your product i.e “Are you still watching?” on YouTube versus Spotify.

3. Impressionism (Late 19th Century)

Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet

It highlights the beauty and importance of everyday moments.

Use Cases

Media: Use pastel colours in media to create an inviting, warm atmosphere in digital customer experiences.

Marketing: Focus on the beauty of everyday moments. Use themes that resonate with daily life, a broad audience.

Product: Develop features that enhance everyday experiences (habits), encouraging habitual use.

4. Expressionism (Early 20th Century)

The Scream by Edvard Munch

Represents a universal sense of fear, resonating deeply with viewers as it capture raw emotions.

Use Cases

Media: Incorporate sound and visual effects that create a visceral, emotional response in the audience.

Marketing: Address raw human emotions & Tackle common fears in ways that deeply resonate with the audience.

Product: Highlight features that directly address emotional concerns.

5. Surrealism (1920s - 1960s)

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí

Challenges viewers’ perceptions of reality. Its unexpected elements draw people in, sparking curiosity.

Use Cases

Media: Use unexpected elements like surreal and imaginative visuals that stand out to captivate and engage viewers

Marketing: Create campaigns that play with reality and challenge perceptions. Use mystery to draw in audiences.

Product: Design features that surprise and delight users for example Netflix’s trivia quizzes.

6. Pop Art (1950s - 1970s)

Campbell’s Soup Cans by Andy Warhol

Pop Art’s use of popular culture and everyday objects resonates with mass audiences.

Use Cases

Media: Incorporate cultural references and familiar imagery to create an immediate connection with the audience.

Marketing: Develop campaigns that resonate with mass culture, making the brand feel relevant and in tune with the times, like Coca-Cola’s branding campaigns.

Product: Use packaging and branding that is eye-catching and relatable to consumers.

Using Art to Shape Media & Marketing Strategies

Using these art principles can create emotional stories that resonate with people, making brands more memorable and strengthening audience relationships to drive revenue.

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Nicolas Vargas Nicolas Vargas

Master Reporting in No Time: A Simple Framework Every Junior Marketer Can Use to Impress!

1) What’s Happening: Identify Key Metrics and Trends

Identify What Happened: Highlight specific changes in key metrics.

Example: Website traffic increased by 20% or Conversion rate dropped by 5%.

Analyse the Data: Break down the changes by audience, channel, or time period to identify specific drivers.

Hypothesise Why It Happened: Suggest possible reasons based on the data.

Example: The increase in traffic may be due to our recent email campaign or The drop in conversions might be linked to the new website layout

2) Context: Explain the Business Impact

Link to Business Goals: Explain why these changes matter.

Example: Increased traffic aligns with our goal to boost brand awareness or Lower conversions could negatively impact our Q4 revenue targets.

Historical Comparison: Compare current metrics with previous periods.

Example: This month’s traffic is up 15% compared to last month and 10% compared to the same period last year.

Benchmarking: Use industry benchmarks or competitor data.

Example: Our conversion rate is 3% below the industry average, highlighting room for improvement.

3) Actions and Recommendations: Develop Actionable Insights

Learnings: Summarise key insights.

Example: Our email campaign effectively drove traffic but didn’t convert as expected.

Recommendations: Propose specific actions.

Example: Optimise the checkout process and A/B test call-to-action buttons to improve conversion rates.

Expected Outcomes: Estimate potential impact.

Example: Improving conversion rates by 1% could increase monthly revenue by $10,000.

Next Steps: Outline immediate actions and assign responsibility.

Example: Marketing team to implement new campaign restrcutre tests by next week.

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Nicolas Vargas Nicolas Vargas

How Process Documentation Can Fast-Track Your Digital Media & Marketing Career

Starting Out in Digital Media and Marketing: The Challenges

For junior staff, the jump from theory to real-world application can be tough. Many come in with book smarts but lack hands-on experience, making it hard to connect the dots. That’s why process documentation is key—it provides the structured guidance new team members need to learn and succeed.

Documentation as a Learning Tool

Process documentation is crucial for junior team members. By documenting tasks like setting up Google Ads or tracking analytics they learn each step in depth. This hands-on approach, guided by senior staff, quickly builds their skills and strategic thinking, making them valuable contributors to the team’s success.

Equipping Juniors with Skills for Growth

As junior staff document, learn, and practice, they build the skills and confidence to take on more complex challenges. They move from basic tasks to developing strategies, managing multi-channel campaigns, and improving user experiences. This growth is key for their career development.

Building Critical Thinking and Strategic Insight

Mentorship is key to effective learning in digital marketing. Senior team members guide juniors through the complexities of digital channels, tools, and platforms, helping them understand not just how to do things, but why certain strategies are chosen.

Developing Strategic Thinkers

Getting juniors involved in documenting and refining digital marketing processes benefits the entire agency. It turns them from simple task doers into strategic thinkers who see the bigger business impact of their work.

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Nicolas Vargas Nicolas Vargas

Turn Your Junior Staff into Strategic Legends

Involving junior staff in documenting processes for campaign planning, execution, and reporting is a big win for the agency. It helps turn them from just doing tasks into strategic thinkers who can quickly see the bigger picture of how their work impacts the business. This shift boosts the agency’s ability to run campaigns that are tightly aligned with business growth goals, which keeps clients happy and the agency profitable.

Impact on Key Business Metrics

Investing in effective staff training through process documentation and mentorship directly impacts crucial business metrics:

Reduced Employee Churn: A well-structured training program improves job satisfaction and retention by offering clear paths for career growth. When employees see a real investment in their development, they’re more likely to stay, leading to lower turnover rates and cutting down on associated costs.

Lower Recruitment Costs: By developing talent from within, companies can rely less on external hiring. This approach cuts down on recruitment costs, such as job ads, hiring agency fees, and the time spent interviewing and onboarding new employees.

Increased Productivity: Well-trained staff who deeply understand their roles can work more efficiently and accurately which leads to faster project turnaround times, higher-quality work, and the capacity to take on more projects, all of which contribute positively to the agency’s bottom line.

Investing in Process Documentation and Mentorship

For senior business leaders, investing in process documentation and mentorship goes beyond improving efficiency. It’s about developing the next generation of digital media & marketing leaders. By equipping junior staff with the right tools, guidance, and mentorship, companies can build a more capable, innovative, and strategic team.

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Nicolas Vargas Nicolas Vargas

Woolies’ Agile Marketing During the Olympics

Overview

During the recent Olympics, Woolies launched a rapid and dynamic marketing campaign to celebrate Aussie medal winners. This activation included digital signage across over 2,400 Out-Of-Home (OOH) sites and 1,000 Front of Store Screens, featuring updates on medal wins and celebratory messages.

How They Did It

Andrew Hicks, Woolies’ Chief Marketing Officer, attributed the campaign’s success to a collaborative partnership between media, creative, publishers, platform partners, and Cartology, Woolies’ retail media business.

Key Takeaways

1. Pre-Planning and Content Creation: Woolies’ team anticipated key moments and medal-winning chances, creating content ahead of time.The pre-planning phases normally involve significant operational costs, including creative development & media spend.

2. Agile Meetings: The marketing and agency teams met each morning to identify notable moments from the previous day, enabling them to quickly adapt and deploy responsive content.

3. Partnerships: Collaborating with M&C Saatchi for creative and Dentsu for media ensured that Woolies maintained a high level of execution across various formats and platforms.

Results

Engagement: Customers reacted positively to the campaign, both in-store and through digital platforms. The celebratory tone of the ads resonated well, creating a buzz around Woolies’ association with the Olympics.

Source: facebook.com/ads/library


Visibility: Woolies maintained high visibility with over 2,400 OOH sites and a dominant presence on TV during peak Olympic coverage times.

Source: bandt.com.au

Customer Interaction: In-store activations, like the mini running track, engaged customers directly, allowing them to create their own “mini Olympics” moments.

  • Positive Customer Feedback: Andrew Hicks mentioned that the customer and in-house team reactions have been overwhelmingly positive.

Closing Thoughts

Woolies’ agile marketing approach during the Olympics is a good example of how pre-planning, collaborative partnerships, and agile meetings can lead to highly responsive and engaging marketing campaigns. This strategy not only increased Woolies’ visibility but also strengthened its connection with customers, both in and out of the store.

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Nicolas Vargas Nicolas Vargas

The 4-Step Process for Measuring Content Success Efficiently

According to the latest stats, 70% of marketers dedicate quite a portion of their overall marketing budget to their content marketing strategy.

And it’s no wonder they choose to do so - 85% of B2B marketing specialists confirm content marketing brought them some fantastic results in 2020.

Content helps you build authority and trust. But how can you make sure your content is on point and helpful to your readers? Some marketers claim they struggle with finding the best tools and identifying KPIs to measure content success efficiently, and if you’re among them, don’t worry.

This article will provide you with a simple, four-step process for effortlessly tracking your content’s success.

Setting Goals

Nothing can be tracked and measured unless we know why we’re doing something and what we’re looking to achieve.

You may see how many social shares your newest blog post has, but what does that data tell you? What do you do with it if you haven’t set goals? That’s why the first step in measuring content success is setting goals.

Your goals may depend largely on your industry. For example, an e-commerce business will track metrics that have to do with direct sales and conversions. If you’re in SaaS, you may measure the lifetime value of your customers.

You can set goals on different levels: for your overall content marketing strategy, a specific campaign, an individual blog post, or another piece of content.

Setting KPIs for Your Goals

Once you know your goals, it’s time to determine what KPIs you’ll be using to measure your progress towards these goals.

If you’re looking to increase user engagement on your website, you may find it helpful to track metrics such as bounce rate, pages per session, or average time on page.

Although different goals will require you to track different KPIs, experts recommend focusing on these categories: website user behavior, SEO impact, and engagement on social media.

Determine How to Measure the KPIs

When you choose suitable KPIs to track, the next step is to find what tools you will use to measure the data. Some KPIs are straightforward, and you can easily locate them, but other important metrics you want to follow may need some digging.

In many cases, you’ll need to combine different data sources to find out what you want to know.

For instance, if you’re running a campaign on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google simultaneously, you may need to track and measure CPC across all three. Some of the most popular tools to measure your KPIs are Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMrush, and others.

Measure and Adjust as Needed

Most marketers opt for daily, weekly, or monthly monitoring, depending on what the goals and KPIs are. Reviews are essential if you want to pinpoint exactly what caused growth or drops in your website traffic, engagement, or session duration.

Based on the data you get from this monitoring, you can react timely and fix potential issues before they cause more trouble on your website or social media. Also, you can identify tactics that work and bring you more traffic so you can replicate them in the future to reach your goals more quickly.

Four Steps Towards Success

These four simple steps are exactly what a marketer needs to take to track and measure progress towards content marketing goals effectively.

Is your content successful? You’ll find out by setting precisely defined goals, determining which KPIs will tell you if you’re doing it right, identifying the ways you’ll track these KPIs, and then measuring them and analyzing your data.

This straightforward process will help you create and implement successful strategies and maximize your content marketing efforts without wasting your time or budget on tactics that don’t generate results.


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Nicolas Vargas Nicolas Vargas

Google Analytics Dimensions and Metrics: What You Need to Know

You’ve just set up your Google Analytics account and now what? 

Which dimensions should you pay attention to? And which metrics should you track?

Metrics and dimensions are the building blocks of Google Analytics, and once you understand them, you’ll be able to better segment, organize, and analyze your traffic data. 

Here’s what you need to know about Google Analytics dimensions and metrics,

unsplash-image-eveI7MOcSmw.jpg

What Are Google Analytics Dimensions?

Dimensions in Google Analytics are different attributes of your data that allow you to manage it more easily. When you use different dimensions to segment and categorize your data, you can measure more specific metrics and get more precise results.

For example, if you want to track the number of new website visitors in a month, you can look at this data through different categories - dimensions. Some examples are:

  • City

  • Gender

  • Age range

  • Source

  • Device

  • Browser

In Google Analytics, you have access to two types of dimensions: default ones, which are already available in the tool, and custom ones, that you can set up for your needs.

What Are Google Analytics Metrics?

Metrics refer to specific actions happening on your website. Some examples are:

  • Number of new visitors

  • Bounce rate

  • Average session duration

Metrics can also be divided into different categories.

For example, if you want to know how successful your marketing strategy is at acquiring new leads and bringing traffic to your website, measure acquisition metrics, such as the number of unique visitors. 

Which Google Analytics Metrics Should You Track?

There’s no single correct answer to this question. Everyone has different marketing and sales goals and the metrics you’re going to measure depend on those goals.

Still, there are some metrics that most websites need to measure to determine how successful they are.

Here are some of them:

  1. Number of visitors. This metric can show you if you need to change something in your marketing strategy to obtain more visits.

  2. Conversion rate. How many website visitors have subscribed to your newsletter, signed up for a trial, or bought a product through your website? If the number is low, you may need to revisit your marketing strategy.

  3. Average session duration. How long are people staying on your website? This metric can, for example, tell you more about the quality of your content.

  4. Number of unique visitors from emails. If you’re using email marketing, you’ll want to know how successful your campaigns are.

  5. Organic click-through rate. This metric may depend on where you’re ranked in the SERP, but it can give you valuable insight into your SEO efforts too. Do you need to optimize your meta descriptions or URLs?

  6. Organic traffic. How many people find your website without you having to pay for ads?

  7. Bounce rate. If too many visitors leave your website without taking any actions, like making a purchase or subscribing to your newsletter, you may need to make some changes in the content.

  8. Sessions. This engagement metric shows you the volume of your website visits.

Know Your Numbers

You can’t really know if you’re a successful coach if you don’t know how many games your team has won or how many times they’ve scored.

The same goes for your website!

To learn what works and what doesn’t, you should determine your goals and track the right metrics.

Then you can make the necessary changes to boost your performance or simply keep up the great work if you’re happy with the results.



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