The Marketing Meetup

The Marketing Meetup is a really, really nice place for the marketers of the world to come together to listen, learn, meet, and share knowledge. 

Founded in June 2016, the meetup features two talks with actionable insight per meetup and now has a community of over 50,000 people across the globe, running 150+ events per year from London to Tokyo.

At its simplest, it's lovely networking for people who like speaking to other people and learning together.

Join at https://themarketingmeetup.com

Co-Founder

The Marketing Academy

The Marketing Academy's purpose is to turn the marketers of today into the leaders of tomorrow. I was selected as one of 30 marketers from throughout the UK to be part of the class of 2020 scholarship.

Scholar (Class of 2020)

The Keynote Club

Board Member

CoWork Club

The CoWork Club is all about the magic that happens when you bring together freelancers & business owners into a space, once per day, to learn, work, and meet with one another in a positive environment. 

We're starting with our first event in Northampton, but we have big plans to roll out across the world. If you want to get in touch to run your own CoWork Club, host us in your space, or sponsor an event - get in touch :)

Advisor

Empath Marketing

Founding Consultant

Humans Come First

Humans Come First: 

"A podcast for marketers about being more human in your marketing by two marketers passionate about being more human in marketing.

Richard Wood and Joe Glover discuss weekly topics in the world of marketing they find interesting and how they sit within the scope of taking a human approach to marketing.

We're also calling out some shitty marketing practices."

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The Marketing Meetup Podcast

"The Marketing Meetup Podcast is an audio series by marketers, for marketers. Featuring live talk recordings, interviews, and discussions, The Marketing Meetup Podcast is the place for marketers to come to stay in touch, learn, and be inspired."

Co-Host

School of Marketing (SoM)

The School of Marketing was created to solve a growing issue in the industry; to help the next generation of marketers understand how marketing is evolving and to give them the skills needed for a successful career.

I am one of the 'Founding 50' - a group of 50 marketers selected from around the UK under the age of 30 to represent the programme and help bring through the next generation of marketers.

Founding 50 Member

Genie Goals

Genie Goals are a digital marketing agency for great retail brands. We specialise in PPC, Social, Affiliates and Amazon Marketing Services, and I must say... we're pretty blooming good at it. We were named by Google as the most innovative Premier Partner for Google Shopping in EMEA, and have won other awards for our work with clients such as Karl Lagerfeld, Mamas & Papas and many more. 

My role is to lead our marketing efforts - finding new clients, but also making sure opportunities to help existing clients more are being offered. The output of my work at Genie has seen us win a raft of new and impressive clients, being acknowledged for our work on an international scale, rebranded the entire company, and built a legacy for the entire marketing and business development operation to grow from in the future.

Marketing Manager

Business of Software Conference

Business of Software is a world-renowned conference in the software industry. Bringing together the likes of Seth Godin, Joanna Wiebe, DHH, Rand Fishkin, Rory Sutherland and so many more people who eventually became heroes of my own. 

During this time I was the sole marketer in the company, which also happened to be my first proper marketing role. I gained an entrepreneurial attitude and operated independently - teaching myself marketing as I went. 

During this time, I improved the year on year attendance for the main show of the year, Business of Software USA, and consistently delivered on my main metric of increasing email sign-ups. 

I left Business of Software proud of my achievements, having been head-hunted for my next role at Genie Goals.

Bluefin Solutions

My first job was at Bluefin Solutions who were a wonderful company filled with great people. 

I soon realised after joining the company that SAP was not for me, however. I entered the role for the wrong reasons (namely, money) but learned a lot about myself in the process, which inspired my future career choices. It should also be said this time gave me the experience of what it is like to work in large FTSE companies as a consultant. 

My time at Bluefin were some of the most important of my career, and although my time there was short, the lessons learned will last a lifetime.

SAP Consultant

👋  I'm Joe. 

Eight years ago I was the guy who was too shy to speak to people at networking events. Even when I did pluck up the courage, it felt all people valued was my job title or my budget rather than me as a person.

I knew I wanted to meet other marketers and learn about marketing in a safe space, so when I couldn't find it, I made it.

The Marketing Meetup is a positively lovely community for marketers. (Basically, we all look after each other and treat one another as people first 😊)

Through good luck and hard work, in the years since, I (as part of a big team effort!) have built a global community of 50,000+ lovely marketers with a social following of 250k+.

Each week, we're lucky to have amazing guest speakers such as Mark Ritson, Rory Sutherland, Seth Godin and many more share time with our community - educating and connecting us all.

You should join one of our webinars, our membership, or the newsletter: I think you'd get a lot from all of them. 

Some places I have spoken/been a guest on include: 

- Festival of Marketing,
- Innocent Smoothies Internal Sessions,
- Everyone Hates Marketers Podcast with Louis Grenier, 
- The Next Web
- Marketing Week Columnist,
- Fiverr Webinar Series, 
- VeryGoodCopy
- GREENHOUSE Jersey
- SocialDay
- Freelancer Magazine,
- Startup Summit, 
- Marketing News Canada,
- Digital DNA, 
- Moneysupermarket internal inspiration event,
- The Marketing Meetup (of course), 
- Durham University guest lecturer, 
- London College of Fashion guest lecturer, 
- Norwich University of the Arts guest lecturer,
- Essex University Incubator guest lecturer 
- Cambridge University Judge Business School panelist, 
- Linkjoy Social Media Summit
- Habitz Podcast with Mike Winnet

And quite a lot of other places/podcasts. By all means get in touch with speaking/podcast ops. Or, just say hello :)

Joe Glover

Yesterday I was invited to attend LinkedIn’s B2Believe event where they showed some of their latest research. Here are the most useful things I learned in five hours - in under two minutes:

(All stats from LinkedIn unless stated otherwise.)

⬆️ Big picture

- B2B is a $20T market (B2C is $6T).

- Average CMO tenure: 4.5 years.

- The average buying group in B2B is 22 people.

- The biggest growth drivers in B2B: being known and being trusted.

- 82% of B2B buyers say creator content influences them.

- Peer video endorsements are 4× more influential than company-made ones.

💰 Getting buyer groups confident to buy

- “Marketing is an unfair game — the brands that spend more, win.”

- Companies are 20× more likely to be chosen when everyone in the buyer group knows them — not just the experts. Think: HR, legal, procurement.

- On a vendor shortlist, buyers have five jobs to be done. Only two relate to product. The top job: “Can I defend this decision?”. Number two: "Felt confident it would do the job"

- Winning the game is moving from being the biggest or cheapest → to being the most liked and recommended.

📈 Measurement

- The typical B2B buying journey is 211 days (Dreamdata).

- 70% of that happens outside the sales pipeline.

- Only 60 days sit inside the sales process.

- Big thing to note: this completely shifts how we think about “sales cycle length.”

🎥 Making video work harder

- Creative quality drives performance.

- 73% of video completions come down to the creative.

- 49% of engagements depend on it.

Five proven levers:

- Cultural coding - shared references that make a brand culturally relevant & instantly relatable - (Pop-culture references: +41% engagement, Memes: +111% engagement)

- Human stories - (Highly emotive creative: +102% CTR, People-led stories: +65% engagement)

- Attention hacking - story structuring to not waste time - (Mobile-first, bold visuals: +15% engagement, Dynamic text: +14% engagement)

- Expert takes (Featuring exec experts: +53% engagement, Experts on stage: +70% engagement)

- Inspiring imagination (31–60s brand films: +67% engagement, Strong inspirational message: +36% engagement)

There was loads more, but this felt like the most useful chunk. Hope it’s helpful.

P.S. Great to bump into Rachael Higgins and Matt Swain too.

Co-Founder of The Marketing Meetup | Co-Host of ‘Your CMO Mentor’ | The Marketing Academy Alumni

Fiona Bradley

FB Comms

My mission is to help business' and brands realise their goals through marketing, acting as an extension of your team.
We use insight-led marketing strategies to create relevant content that reaches the right customer at the right time with the right message! We'll run your organic social channels, paid social ads, personal brand, Google Shopping campaigns and nail your copywriting.

Founder & Director

The After Work Club

Bringing you the best in networking events in the north, as an advisory committee member I'll be working with the After Work Club Team to offer inclusive, fun and diverse networking opportunities for professionals in Leeds.

Committee Member

Durham University Business School

Running seminars for the Marketing Masters students of Durham University.

Guest Lecturer

The Loyalty People

Contracted via FB Comms as an extension of The Loyalty People's marketing team, currently running their email and social media marketing.
Working with a sustainability and technology start-up client, I'm running their Marketing and PR both to end consumers and prospective business partners.
I created the content, build and launch of 'The Loyalty Community'.

Marketing Communications Manager

GetWelp

I co-founded the GetWelp app as the marketing and sales arm, I aligned the branding and messaging to the offering, positioning ourselves as the certified leaders in dog training and development.
Our mission is to make dogs and owners happy by providing a tech solution, connecting owners with industry leading behavioural experts in minutes.

Welcome to Yorkshire

As a freelance extension of the Welcome To Yorkshire team I worked to streamline their digital activity, ensuring content reflects the organisation whilst promoting tourism across Yorkshire! Covering all paid ad activity and account managing commercial campaigns.

Digital Marketing Consultant

Digital Velocity Limited

Managing client relationships and providing best in class full e-commerce marketing and sales support. I create and manage website content, social media, email, SEO and banner marketing. Also owning full service omni-channel marketing accounts.
My client base ranges from construction and insurance to charities and online clothing retailers. 
No digital development request is too big.

Digital Account Manager

Precima

Running targeted marketing campaigns for the worlds biggest FMCG suppliers across multiple channels within Morrison’s through the More Card loyalty scheme. Managing accounts from initial introductions to reporting and annual planning to achieve objectives.
I was contracted to scale up the supplier program as Marketing Coordinator and successfully grew the £12k/year program to turn over £517k of revenue in 2018.

Marketing Coordinator

Working in the Supplier Marketing team, running targeted marketing campaigns through the Morrisons More card scheme via their channels - Catalina, Email and Direct Mail. I took the suppliers brand objective to decipher the correct targeting to achieve this, including supporting NPD launch, brand penetration, in category and out of category acquisition, frequency and loyalty building. Using customer selection algorithms and in-depth data analysis in the personalisation of offers ensured high redemption rates.

Marketing Assistant

My Sight Nottinghamshire

Volunteering to better the lives of those with sight loss

MyGuide and Marketing Assistant

Bosch Automotive Aftermarket NA

Liaising with suppliers and customers to support the planning, scheduling and delivery of training courses.   
Allocating all course resources such as trainers, training vehicles, engine rigs, training equipment and course literature.   
Coordinating logistical requirements for regional training across the nation.   
Raising customer invoices for individual course bookings with SAP. 
General administration and updating of systems associated with delegates, courses and course bookings to reflect accurate training records.   
Issuing of pre and post course correspondence to course delegates.   
Management of all events running at the Bosch Service Training Centre, including the organisation of catering, meeting booking requests and reception duties.

Technical Training Coordinator (Placement Year)

Content master, business owner, comedian, slow runner, bendy yogi, and writer. 😎

Straight-talking no-fluff marketing. 🤟

I run a Leeds-city centre-based boutique Content Marketing Agency with a sense of humour. Our mission is to create killer content with service that slaps. Not in the way that hurts. 

More than anything, we value fun: marketing can be boring. We want clients to enjoy working with us and to enjoy the work we do! Learning: continual training and development means we’re on top of trends. Creativity: coming up with new ways of doing things and not being afraid to express those ideas.

I’ve run campaigns for clients including the NHS, Rolex, Morrisons, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Mars, Nestle, Welcome to Yorkshire, County Golf, PepsiCo, Rimmel and many more.

🏆 Young Digital Marketer of the Year 2021 - Northern Digital Awards
🏆 Freelancer of the year 2021 and 2022 - Uk Dev Awards
🏆 All Round Hero - UK Dev Awards
🏆 Rising Star 2022 - EU Content Awards
🏆 Social Media Businesswoman of the Year 
🏆 Advertising Businesswoman of the Year 
🏆 Digital Agency Owner of The Year 2023
🏆 Startup of The Year 2024 - EU Content Awards

Qualified coach for the Horse Riding for the Disabled Association, running marathons to raise funds to hang onto our ponies.

Book in a 1-2-1 training session or introduction call to kickstart your marketing at: fbcomms.co.uk/contact-page/

My mission is to help business' and brands realise their goals through marketing, acting as an extension of your team.
I'm passionate about digital marketing and comms, using insight-led marketing strategy to create relevant content that reaches the right customer at the right time with the right message!
Working with a team of the best freelancers in their field we cover the breadth of digital marketing from auditing to web management, branding, strategy, graphic design, email marketing and content creation.

After writing 1,000+ posts for clients (seriously), these are the 7 engagement strategies that truly work ↓

❌ Stop thinking the job of 'posting' finish when you hit the button.
✅ Start actively managing them AFTER they're live.

Yep, once upon a time even I used to hit 'post' and pray, thinking my job was done once the content went live.

That's where the real work begins.

The viral posts we've had this year? 
They all had one thing in common:
we were glued to the comments section, replying to every single person who engaged, resharing, and keeping the conversations going.

Content that converts:
👉 Has actionable takeaways people actually save
👉 Starts with a visual hook/ killer opening line
👉 Gets responses within the first 10 mins
👉 Provides value they can use immediately
👉 Sparks convos in the comments
👉 Makes people tag their pals
👉 Gets reshared to stories

The best-performing posts are conversation starters that we nurture into proper engagement goldmines.

Which is ultimately how you build a community that actually converts.

👋 I'm Agency Owner Fiona.
➕ Follow me for daily marketing, social, content, leadership life hacks, and pictures of my orange cat.

Fiona Darley (Prev. Bradley)

Social That Sells | Founder @ FB Comms 👩🏼‍💻 | Keynote Speaker | PPC, Paid Social Media Management, Ads, & Content

I've got the sweetest Black Friday deal going for anyone sh*t hot at paid social and performance marketing ↓

I’m a bottleneck in the business.

Yes, I love ads.

But I can only strategise and proof so many.

We’re gunna be doing even more incredible content and putting the big bucks behind it in 2026.

The paid side is getting real busy and we’re looking to bring in someone senior to take the lead on setting strategies, budgets, and growing our clients’ businesses even further alongside our social media managers and creative lead.

This is full-time, permenant, LEEDS based role.

So we’re looking for someone who gets:
✅ How to sell on social
✅ Creative that converts
✅ Tracking, pixels, API, and attribution

The day-to-day?
10% Client management and meetings
10% Content briefing to the creative lead and minor content edits
50% Ad build and management
20% Strategy creation and research
10% Paid community management
5% Reporting

The salary?
Starting salary £35k-45k, experience-based.
(No, I’d never hide what we’re offering, it saves everyone a headache if we’re not aligned).

The requirements?
 ↪ Min 4 years experience in brand/social, 2+ of those in paid.
↪ Managed multiple campaigns, ads, and channels at once.
↪ No need to Google what CPM CPC CPA CPL or rough averages.
↪ Set up ad accounts and conversion funnels across platforms.
↪ Proven ROAS across industries.
↪ A blooming good eye for ads content and paid partnerships.

The clients?
From B2B education to B2C luxury US accessories, it’s pretty varied.

The platforms?
We’ve currently got ads live across LinkedIn, TikTok Shop, Meta, Pinterest, Reddit and YouTube.

The benefits?
🏢 Hybrid working (from home in the UK and our office in Leeds)
💻 Latest Apple technology
🌴 28 days annual leave (inclusive of public holidays)
🎁 Birthday leave
💪 Gym membership
🌎 Overseas Working Policy
🧑‍🎓 £1000 yearly budget for education, growth and training
🪄 Regular team and company socials

Looking for a Jan 26 start!

PLEASE TAG/SEND TO YOUR TOP PAID SOCIAL PALS
 Full job spec linked in the comments

And I’ll send a voicenote back crying if recruiters, freelancers, anyone who can’t actually get to Leeds city centre 2-3x a week drop CV’s into my inbox.

Apply on LinkedIn or tell me why I should hire you with a case study to social@fbcomms.co.uk

#hiring #paidsocial #performancemarketing

AppsFlyer invited me to the Fall Release last week, which meant:
#1 - I got to see Tobacco Dock in the daylight for the first time in my life
#2 - I ended up in a room with 150 app marketing leaders 
#3 - I’ve got a sweet new beanie, bumbag, and Gameboy
#4 - If I launch another app (not to toot my own horn but over 10 app-store listings have my fingerprints all over them) I’ll be giving Appsflyer a bell

They announced their shift from MMP to Modern Marketing Cloud and unveiled eight new products focused on measurement, AI automation, and data collaboration.

I’m deep in the attribution trenches daily.
The fight for ‘who’s the sale was’ might finally be over.

8 products.
1 goal.
= clarity

- Cleaner signals
- More automation
- Less manual faff
- Smarter decisions
- Fewer spreadsheets so gross they’d make accounts cry

If you work in apps, this is the stuff you’ll want to keep an eye on.
The product updates are all linked HERE: https://shorturl.at/2AuBr

I will only ever promote stuff I’d buy myself.
That’s after buying my house from Instagram.


Let me explain…
I don’t believe marketing should trick people.
I believe ads should help people find what they genuinely want or need.
My house purchase is Exhibit A.
(Right product, right message, right place).

How we operate-
We work with brands that add something useful to someone’s life
We promote products we know we can create fans for because it’s actually great
We partner with founders who are good humans

I’ve turned down or broken up with clients for:
Unethical manufacturing → no
Environmental damage → no
Abusive communication with my team → instant exit
Sweat shop glamorising slogans → not on my fitbit (soz actual watch wearers)


We work with creators who change lives
Systems that save people time
Brands that bring joy comfort convenience or confidence
It is a roster I am genuinely proud to stand behind


Good marketing only works when the product is something you’d happily put in your own basket and can talk about passionately.

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Mapping out your January 2026 content and ads plans? Kick off with these 5 🔑 themes your audience will actually care about:

1. New Year Reset - but not cringe

Skip 'new year, new me'. Focus on:
- Practical productivity hacks that actually work
- Small habit changes, big impact
- Real stories
- BTS 2026 plans

2. Financial Fresh Start

Everyone's bare skint after Christmas, so give 'em value:
- Budget-friendly alternatives to your premium product/service
- Free resources/templates
- Adding extra value over cutting your margins
- Cost-saving tips in your industry

3. Skills & Learning

January's when people are motivated to finally upskill:
- Quick tutorial content
- Industry trend predictions
- Tool recommendations/reviews
- 'What I wish I knew when starting X' posts

4. Community Building

People are lonely after the holidays so gear up yer engagement:
- UGC, EGC, and CCG campaigns
- Q&a/AMA sessions and live chats
- Customer spotlights
- Team intros and personality posts

5. Seasonal Relevance

Work with January's natural energy:
- Dry Jan/Veganuary
- Winter wellness/industry tips 
- Planning and goal-setting frameworks
- Fresh start success stories

For ads:
1. Target the 'planning mindset' because people are researching solutions for the year ahead rather than December's impulse buying.
2. Focus big time on lead magnets, free trials, and educational content that builds trust with new connections before someone's ready to drop their cash.

Content-wise:
Batch create around these themes but keep it authentic. Your audience can smell manufactured motivation from miles away.

PRO TIP:
Start planning your Valentine's Day campaigns NOW so you're not ending up with a rubbish AI generated campaign, same as your other 50 competitors the week before.

January's mint because people actually want to engage with helpful content. 

Don't waste it on generic motivational quotes when you could be solving real problems and building PROPER audience connections.
Plus, it's just dead nice to be nice.

"I don’t know where to even flippin’ start Fiona!" 
YOU ARE NOT ALONE. 

We all get stuck on our socials sometimes.

I hear it weekly.
Usually from a founder who has spent three months posting carousels that take them an hour each, two weeks watching Reels about how to make Reels, and £89 on some random LinkedIn influencer's course.

Lucky for you, there is a much easier way to figure out exactly where your social strategy is falling apart, AND which part needs your attention first in 2026.

Takes less time than the kettle to boil.

INTRODUCING

👉 The Social Media Scorecard 👈

→ 17 quick questions
→ Identify your gaps
→ Identify your strengths
→ Check if you're on track to scale
→ Immediate results
→ Oh yeah, IT IS FREE 

Stop guessing.
Start getting traction.

There's no point pouring your heart into content that's not converting.
Find out WHY.

If you're ready to identify the exact gaps stopping you from hitting your goals next year, take the scorecard and get your personalised breakdown in two minutes flat.

Your boss will thank you. (Or, the reflection in the mirror at least)

👇 Check out the link below.

ok but what happens when your ad spend ramps up just as everyone else hits pause for the holidays? (you're gunna need to save this one)

Here's how last December went ads-wise-
Record-breaking performance across the board.

Sure, some campaigns naturally slow down based on industry seasonality.
The real winners for 2026 are the brands doubling down right now.

Here's what we're seeing work pretty flipping well:

Lower Competition = Lower CPCs

When your competitors rein back their budgets (horse girl joke), your cost per click drops significantly.

→ Saw 30-40% cheaper clicks in some sectors
→ Higher impression share, same spend
→ Better ad placement opportunities on feed/stories

Algorithms reward consistency, and December's the month to capitalise on that.

Audience Attention = Peak

People are scrolling MORE during the xmas holidays, not less.

→ More time consuming content
→ Higher engagement rates across all platforms (except LinkedIn)
→ Decision-making happens faster with gift deadlines

We're tracking engagement rates 25% higher than November averages this week already.

Q1 Prep Starts Now

The brands smashing January targets started their campaigns before.

→ Lookalike audiences built from festive shoppers
→ Pixel data collection during high-traffic periods
→ Creative testing whilst competition is low

January's success stories are written in December's data. Make sure you're collecting it.

Budget Reallocation Opportunities

others pause, we redistribute.

→ Test new audiences with lower entry costs
→ Shift spend from underperformers to winners
→ Scale successful campaigns without budget caps

We've seen 60% better ROAS on reallocated budgets compared to standard periods.

2026 Head Start

Brands maintaining momentum through December position themselves as market leaders.

→ Brand awareness compounds without loadsa social noise
→ Market/feed share increases
→ Customer acquisition costs stay low

The data doesn't lie: 
December spenders become January winners.

Sure, some industries naturally slow down, and we adjust accordingly. But the brands treating December as preparation month rather than pause month?
They're the ones we'll be celebrating come February and will be sending us valentine's gift baskets.

Want a hand?
You know where to find us.

p.s. we're growing our paid social team, if you're a paid media and performance marketing leader, we wanna hear from ya.

taplio

The Battle

Joe Glover

Fiona Bradley

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJoe Glover's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreFiona Bradley's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Joe Glover

Fiona Bradley

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Joe Glover's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreFiona Bradley's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJoe Glover's LinkedIn Performance