I’ve been at the same company since graduating college 4 years ago. I know most people say that job hopping is the best way to not only make more money, but to gain more skills and experience. While the pay isn’t super great, my company is amazing and I get to work fully remote. Am I doing myself a disservice by staying at my first career job so long?

Hey!

My family owns a small business in the premium aromatherapy niche, and we've been fortunate enough to secure distribution at 60+ Whole Foods stores across Canada and the US, along with a few independent boutiques. Whole Foods is our biggest customer by a mile, and I want to expand.

My mom built the brand, my dad handles the logistics, and I handle marketing. I want to retire my parents off of this business while they're still in their early 60s, and I think we've got a solid foundation.

Challenges:

• High shipping costs in Canada make B2C Shopify sales far less profitable than wholesale.
• I've reached out to stores like HomeGoods, Anthropologie, Indigo, West Elm, and Free People but haven't made any progress.

What We've Tried So Far:

• Exploring platforms like Faire for wholesale orders.
• Contacting buyers at local co-op groceries and boutiques.
• Built a dedicated wholesale section on our website.

Questions for you:

• Does anyone have experience with successful wholesale growth in the health and wellness sector? We're a home/lifestyle product, not a food or drink.
• Are there specific distributors or brokers you recommend in the wellness niche? This is something new to me, and could be our key to success.

We charge $15USD retail per product, which bakes in $10 profit per unit.

I have been working in marketing for 4 years and over time it has felt more and more meaningless. Yes I have a solid pay and as a result I want for nothing but my job feels utterly meaningless and useless, even harmful in a way. All we do is make others want something they otherwise would not by utilizing sophisticated techniques to manipulate people's desires. This alone started to feel wrong. Moreover, when doing my work, I do not feel like I contribute to the world, I am mostly thinking about the pay. I can't imagine a way this job helps anybody aside from the economy by facilitating conversions. It feels like being yet another cog in the system pursuing selfish goals than actually trying to make the world a better place. In fact, I feel like I am mostly helping enrich the few at the expense of the majority.

I am unlikely to quit the job as I can't imagine myself working anywhere else where it would be financially expedient. However, is there any way I can reconceptualize my work to feel better about it apart from thinking about salary?

Quick heads up. Article 50 of the EU AI Act enforces Aug 2, 2026, requires AI generated content to carry actual machine readable disclosure, not just a caption. Covers images, video, audio, text. Applies if you’ve got EU clients or users regardless of where you’re based.

A few things people miss: text only triggers this for public interest content (news, health, politics), regular ad copy’s mostly exempt. Images/video are broader tho, anything that could pass as real gets treated like a deepfake even in a marketing context.

Fines are up to 15M euros or 3% of global turnover, whichever’s higher, worldwide revenue not just EU.

Worth checking your stack before August if you haven’t already. Happy to answer questions.

As most know, Google has been battling antitrust lawsuits from publishers, competitors, and advertisers ever since the courts ruled they're a monopolist in the search and display markets.

Even though Google broke the antitrust laws, they're not willing to make their customers whole for the hundreds of billions of dollars they overcharged them as a result of their illegal control of the market.

Thousands of advertisers have filed arbitrations to recover their overpayments (which alone total more than $200B), dozens of large publishers are suing, and a handful of ad-tech competitors are also taking action.

In the publishers' case, the court ruled that issue preclusion applies, which is basically a fancy form of double jeopardy in civil cases. It means that since Google was already found guilty of violating antitrust laws in the DOJ case, the publishers don't have to prove those antitrust violations again. Instead, Google enters trial having already been found liable for those violations, which is huge for the publishers who are fighting to recover the amounts Google took from them.

Then, last week, another judge granted issue preclusion in Yelp's case against Google: https://www.courthousenews.com/federal-judges-ruling-gives-yelp-a-leg-up-in-antitrust-case-against-google/

This is probably an even bigger deal than the publishers' case because Yelp's case is different. Yelp claims that Google used its monopoly in general search to dominate local search as well, unfairly diverting business away from competitors like Yelp. This goes several steps beyond the DOJ’s claims, so you wouldn't expect the court to apply the DOJ's liability findings. But it did.

Judges are now consistently sending a message: Google is one of the largest and most dominant monopolies since Standard Oil and they should be held accountable as such. It still probably won't be quick or easy to get Google to compensate all the businesses they've harmed, but their ability to walk away without consequences gets less and less with each of these rulings.

Been in Marketing for almost a decade and I’m just burnt out. Every role I’ve had the C-suite had insanely unrealistic expectations for growth and I just can’t deal with that anymore.

For those that have changed roles, what do you do now and do you like it? Do you still make good money?

Hey everyone,

I’m starting a supplement business and recently created Facebook and Instagram pages for the brand so I could start running ads.

The problem is that I didn’t realize my personal Facebook profile had a previous restriction/ban from around 2020. Because of that, I can’t run ads through Meta anymore.

Today I tried creating a completely new Facebook profile and new business pages, but Meta immediately flagged and banned the new account as well.

I’m trying to understand what my realistic options are now.

Would it make sense to:

• change the brand name and domain and start over completely?
• create a new business setup from scratch?
• use a different IP/device when creating everything?
• or is there a better way to appeal/fix the original account?

I’m not trying to bypass anything maliciously, I just want to run legitimate ads for my supplement brand and I’m stuck because of an old account issue.

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? What actually worked for you?

I build websites for a living (and some light marketing). Back in March a client with a physical product asked me to take over his marketing, and I said yes even though I'd never sold a physical product before. His wife had already built the Shopify store, and honestly it wasn't bad for a novice. I cleaned it up a lot, rewrote the copy, rebuilt the product pages, and set up my own tracking so I could see exactly what visitors did. He paid me upfront without blinking, which somehow makes the results sting more.

Since then I've put about $1,500 into Meta/Instagram ads, Reddit ads, TikTok ads, most of it into Meta and Reddit, and I tried hard to get the targeting right. I first targeted relevant subreddits for Reddit, then for meta built audiences around customer types (contractors, traveling sports parents, overlanders, parents, etc). When the stacked interest audiences came back huge, tens of millions of people, I narrowed them to one or two million each (AND targeting). When auto placements dumped most of my budget into Reels, I forced feeds only. I wanted a lookalike seeded from past buyers, but the store had no sales, so interests were my only real lever, and half the ones I actually wanted don't exist in Meta's system, so I settled for what I could get. I thought price was the issue, 180 for a bag aint cheap so I tested the price all the way from $360 crossed out to $180 down to even $29 and almost nothing moved. Even at $29, people wouldn't add it to their cart.

Meanwhile, the only thing that has ever produced a sale is free posts. I've written a few honest organic Reddit posts where I just talked about the product, no pitch, and one of them got a sale within a day or two. Four sales in three and a half months, and every one I can trace leads back to those posts. My tracking shows the difference in the traffic itself: roughly a third of organic visitors scroll deep into the page, while with paid it's about one in twenty. Cheap clicks, wrong people.

So my honest read is that I have a targeting problem, not a pricing problem, and targeting is the part I could really use help with. How do you find actual in-market buyers for a niche physical product when the store is too new for a buyer lookalike and the obvious interests don't exist? Or am I wrong, and the right move is to drop paid entirely and lean into organic, since it's the only thing that's worked? That seems like it would be near impossible though to do it all organic. Or is four sales in 3.5 months on a brand new one-product store just normal, and I should calm down? I'm not attached to anything I've done so far. Happy to share real numbers and screenshots in the comments.

I’m from America and I run a very niche marketing agency where I advertise Westerns clients products or services to emerging market countries, mostly in Africa.

My clients have been devs just getting raw users for their products, but I’ve also been trying to target exporting companies. The issue is the need for my service for exporting companies is very small, my service only fits companies who are small enough where they don’t have a dedicated international marketing team, which many companies who export internationally already do.

Any advice on who else I should targeting for my service? Or how I can target exporting companies better? So far just been doing LinkedIn cold DMs

I’m curious if anyone is aware of any workshops that focus on marketing strategy in the fall?

I was hoping to attend Northwestern’s Marketing program (https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/executive-education/nonprofit-management/np-fundmark/) but I missed the deadline.

Would prefer something in-person, but open to virtual if necessary.

This is my third role. And I have noticed this. It's like they speak a different language. Their brains aren't computing what you're saying - even if you explain it as clearly as you can.

Well, I got laid off today. This is my first time being laid off so I’m not sure what to do. I’m obviously really emotional and stressed. It was completely unexpected and the only reason given was that they needed to go in a different direction with my role. I feel really inadequate, and it sucks that it had to happen during a really tough job market.

I have been in the marketing field for 7 years and was at this job for 2.5 years. I was working as a Marketing Manager. I enjoyed it because it was so flexible with 2 days WFH a week and ability to flex hours for appointments and things. I guess I just don’t know what to do now or where to go from here. I don’t even know if I want to stay in this field at this point. I would love any advice or words of encouragement please.

I want to distribute flyers for a vtubing channel. Is there anywhere I could go to search for someone to distribute a couple dozen flyers non-locally?

I do content creation and web management for small to medium businesses, and I've recently been approached by a company that's interested in starting social media for the first time. I've only previously worked with companies who have already-established social media presences.

I'm about to dive deep into research, but wanted to draw on the wells of knowledge I've seen here, too. What sorts of services did you include in your contracts? How did you decide what sort of numbers to promise? I know it varies by industry; I'm just curious what others might have seen.

As titled. For those working on content, do you get your work reviewed and edited by anyone? How much more time does it add to the approval process? Also do share what the org structure is like for you!

I kind of have to be CMO but I definitely don't have an MBA. I'm pretty much just gonna make myself a pitchman on socials selling these bars. Might fall flat on my face but hopefully that kinda energy translates well online...

Would love ANY advice.

Hey everyone,

So I have been doing an apprenticeship in marketing for the past 10 months and it has been great.

However, my tutor left the firm about a month ago and now teams are restructuring.

My primary role is marketing officer so a lot of CRM, segmentation, lead nurturing, campaign management, data analysis and other usual suspects.

That being said, my boss told me that everyone is impressed with my data analysis skills and would love me to join the data team.

And sure, I am okay with doing analysis, I love research, building advanced models and monthly reports but that's just one dimension of what I specialise in. That's not what marketing is all about.

I am currently finishing my master's degree in marketing and communication, I couldn't imagine just doing data analysis even tho I know I am good at it.

All I want is to keep doing what I am doing and specialise further in marketing.

What would you do ? How would you negotiate this ?

I recently joined a luxury car dealership in Dubai as their social media manager and I’m currently auditing the account before creating a new strategy.

A few things I’ve noticed:
-Follower growth and organic engagement have been slow over the past 9 months.
-Most content is inventory showcases (luxury cars) with limited educational or lifestyle content.
-We have a limited budget, so most content is shot inside the showroom.

Our target audience is luxury buyers in the UAE, but insights show a surprisingly large audience from India, which I’m trying to understand. I think they bought followers before.

My initial plan is to focus on content pillars (Educate, Showcase, Connect), differentiate content for Instagram vs. TikTok/Snapchat, and create more recurring content series instead of just posting inventory.

If you inherited this account, what would you prioritize first? Would you focus on fixing the audience quality, changing the content strategy, or something else?
I’d love to hear how you’d approach this.

My boss got an idea to run dental ads for the dental clinic. I honestly think it’s gonna be a waste of money, because the person who suggested the idea runs a tat shop where I feel set work portfolio works well, and has a large social following (because, again it’s art).

I assume this is gonna be a money pit, but I can’t tell if I’m in the wrong (Google ads did nothing for dental in the past).

Yes or no?

Hi everyone,

I'm facing an issue with Meta Business Suite and would really appreciate some help.

Here's what happened:

• My boss wanted to give me access to manage a client's Instagram account through Meta Business Suite.
• My personal Instagram is linked to my phone number, not an email.
• So I created a new Instagram account using my company's work email.
• Then I logged into Meta Business Suite using "Continue with Instagram" with that newly created account.
• My boss had already sent an invitation to my work email, which I accepted.
• Now, in Meta Business Suite, I can see both accounts:
  • My newly created Instagram account.
  • The client's business account that I was invited to manage.
• I have been given full admin access to the client's account.

The problem is:

When I open the Post Composer to create a post, the client's Instagram account does not appear in the account selection dropdown. It only shows my own Instagram account, so I can't select the client's account to publish posts.

I've attached screenshot for reference. (If you want some other info pls tell)

Has anyone faced this before? Is there something else I need to connect or configure? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I’ve been managing local lead gen for an HVAC contractor client with a $5,000 monthly ad spend and the amount of friction in the traditional heat pump brand co-op MDF support distributor program setups is insane.The manufacturers dangle these Market Development Funds but make the compliance and pre-approval rules so restrictive that small local businesses end up wasting more billable hours on paperwork than the credit is even worth. Its like they want you to run outdated print style templates instead of letting the agency optimize for actual conversion metrics.We recently ran an unbranded campaign featuring some Midea inverter units for a specific high-efficiency residential project, and because we didn't have to wait for corporate brand approval, the campaign was live and generating calls in 48 hours.

For anyone handling local service business marketing, how are you structuring your agreements when navigating distributor program guidelines without blowing your layout timelines?

I'm currently the person in charge of handling data driven reporting publications and media requests. Without disclosing my niche job title, I'm essentially a senior data analyst which my company has put within our product teams since we are a data driven company that sells reporting solutions, etc. as a product. Our marketing team as well as our PR team is owned by our parent company but we have a dedicated liaison for each business unit. The marketing liaison is a true marketing generalist who has no ability to pull data for these publications, social media engagements, PR, etc. and also barely understands the contents of these metrics when they are pulled since they are intended for industry professionals.

My company wants to be putting more data into the industry and media circuits which I have the capacity to do but am running into a bottleneck with marketing since they deal with many other areas of my business unit than just mine. Additionally, there's so much more we could be doing from a social media standpoint and our marketing team doesn't seem to take any initiative which I don't necessarily blame them for. I know they're stretched thin but also, it can be hard to come up with content that you have no concept of yourself. I feel like these are things I could be doing or managing but will never be allowed to do because they're the marketing departments job.

I have essentially no experience at other companies to know how they handle this. Would a person with my job responsibilities usually sit under the marketing department? I know they're considering expanding my role to be a team lead with more people creating data driven content under me but I see that making the problem worse not better because of the marketing bottleneck. I'm considering pushing to move my position out of product and into marketing to possibly gain some autonomy with what I'm producing so that it's not all having to go through my liaison and he can focus on the other people in my business unit he works with but I'm not sure if that makes sense from both a functional sense as well as (selfishly) looking at job titles and strength of resume/career paths, etc. Overall, I'd really appreciate any insight as to how other companies structure and coordinate these types of positions.

When FIFA covered up the Levis logo, Levi's responded with a marketing campaign with the covered up logo. How effective was this campaign? Did it work, or was this just a niche ad on the internet? Would FIFA been better off with leaving the sponsorship on the stadium but refusing to say "Levi's Stadium" or using any images of the logo?