Marketing Insights Blog | CRM, Content & Digital Strategy - LIZ BAKER F IDM

Budget Reallocation in Q4: Shift Spend from Low-Yield to Compounding Assets

31/10/2025

Why Q4 Budgets Matter

The final quarter often determines whether yearly targets are achieved or missed. Marketers face two challenges: proving ROI on spend already committed and deciding where to invest remaining budget.

Too often, budgets get burned on short-term, low-yield activity designed to tick boxes rather than generate sustainable growth.

A smarter approach is to reallocate towards compounding assets that continue to deliver value beyond the current reporting cycle.

Search Evolution: Social Search, Voice Search

29/10/2025

Search behaviour is changing at speed. For years, marketers focused almost exclusively on traditional search engines, optimising websites for keywords and backlinks.

Today, the landscape is shifting as consumers move towards social platforms and voice assistants for answers.

Both social search and voice search are shaping how brands are found and trusted, and neither can be ignored.

Operational Freeze Dates: Protect Sites, Campaigns and Data Through December

27/10/2025

December is often the busiest month of the year for businesses.

Marketing teams are under pressure to deliver results, IT departments are keeping systems stable, and agencies are managing high volumes of work for multiple clients.

To reduce risk during this critical period, many organisations implement an operational freeze.

Share of Search vs Share of Voice: Which Signal Guides Planning Better?

24/10/2025

When marketers sit down to plan budgets, campaigns, and quarterly targets, two metrics often appear at the centre of the debate: Share of Voice (SOV) and Share of Search (SOS).

Both promise insight into brand presence, yet they measure different behaviours.

Understanding which signal guides planning more effectively depends on your objectives, your industry, and how you measure success.

Zero-Party Data Playbook: Value Exchange Ideas That Actually Convert

22/10/2025

Why zero-party data matters

Marketers have been talking about first-party data for years. Yet the shift towards zero-party data is transforming how businesses build trust and relevance.

Zero-party data is information that customers choose to share with you, such as their preferences, intentions, or feedback.

Unlike inferred data, it’s volunteered. That makes it both more accurate and more respectful of privacy expectations.

In an age of cookie deprecation and stricter data laws, businesses that excel at value exchange will win. Customers no longer accept being tracked silently. They want clear reasons to share, and they expect something in return.

Attribution Without Tears: Choose a Model That Fits Your Sales Cycle

20/10/2025

Attribution modelling often feels like a puzzle with too many missing pieces. Marketing leaders know they must prove impact, yet the path from first click to signed contract rarely follows a straight line.

With multiple touchpoints across channels, understanding which interactions actually influence conversion is essential.

The challenge lies in choosing an attribution model that reflects your business reality, not just industry best practice.

Social Commerce & Shoppable Content: Where Browsing Meets Buying

17/10/2025

The boundary between content, social engagement and purchase is fading fast.

Social commerce, fuelled by shoppable content, has moved from being an experiment in influencer-driven retail to a mainstream strategy for both B2C and B2B.

Customers no longer want to click away to a separate store. They expect the ability to browse, consider and complete a purchase within the same platform.

Generative AI for Storytelling & Content Automation

15/10/2025

Every day this past week, I have seen ads for Generative AI courses and how they are going to change your life as a Marketer.

If you want to shine in using AI, then you need to understand what you are asking your AI to do and start to treat it like your new best colleague (my ChatGPT has told me it's called Lex).

The landscape of storytelling has always shifted with technology. From the printing press to the rise of social media, every era has brought tools that changed how we communicate.

Generative AI is the next chapter. More than a novelty, it is transforming how businesses create, adapt, and scale stories for diverse audiences.

AEO, GEO, SEO: When Discoverability Beats Rankings for Revenue Outcomes

13/10/2025

Search marketing has long been framed as a battle for rankings. For years, success was measured by climbing to the first page of Google results and defending that position at all costs.

Yet as I explored in my earlier blog on SEO, AEO, and GEO, visibility is no longer about a single list of highlighted blue links. The way people search, the devices they use, and the context in which they expect answers have changed.

What matters now is not simply being first, but being found in the moments that lead to action. That’s where discoverability, powered by Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), starts to outweigh rankings in delivering revenue outcomes.

Content runway for January: Build the first six weeks now, avoid the scramble

10/10/2025

Starting the year without panic

January often feels like a sprint before you’ve even laced up your shoes. Teams return from the holidays to full inboxes, new priorities, and deadlines already looming. Content creation is one of the first areas to suffer. Without a plan, the scramble begins, ideas get rushed, deadlines slip, and quality dips.

A content runway changes that. By preparing six weeks of content before January begins, you create space to focus on refinement, measurement, and meaningful engagement rather than firefighting.

Q4 Momentum Check: Align Objectives, Budgets and KPIs Before Year End

8/10/2025

The final quarter of the year is always a test of balance.

On one hand, there is the pressure of year-end reporting, budget utilisation and performance reviews. On the other hand, there is the opportunity to close the year with impact and set a stronger trajectory for the one ahead.

A well-timed Q4 momentum check allows you to pause, realign and ensure resources are focused where they will deliver the most value.

This is not simply a tidy-up exercise. It is about sharpening objectives, making smart use of budgets and checking that KPIs reflect business priorities.

Done well, it gives confidence to leadership teams and clarity to marketing departments, ensuring everyone finishes the year aligned.

From SEO to AEO and GEO: What Every Marketeer Needs to Know

6/10/2025

Search has never stood still. Over the years, the way we look for information has shifted from keyword-heavy queries to natural conversations with devices and, more recently, AI-powered responses.

For marketeers, this shift raises a new challenge: understanding how SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) fit together.

Each plays a different role, yet all influence how your brand shows up when customers are searching.

A/B Testing vs Incremental Testing: What’s the Difference and When to Use Each?

3/10/2025

When you’re optimising campaigns, customer journeys, or product experiences, testing is your best friend.

Recently, I wrote about A/B testing: what it is, why it matters, and how to use it. That post covered how to compare two versions of a page, email, or campaign element to see which performs better.

But A/B testing isn’t the only option. Incremental testing offers an alternative approach to measuring impact, particularly when assessing the incremental lift from a change, rather than a direct side-by-side comparison.
Let’s explore the differences, pros and cons, and where each approach shines.

Does NLP Still Have a Place at Work?

1/10/2025

I became an NLP Practitioner over 20 years ago. It was a time when Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) was not only popular but considered essential for anyone in leadership, coaching or sales. It opened up a different way of looking at people, one rooted in curiosity rather than assumption, in modelling rather than managing.

Back then, I used it to improve communication, defuse tension and even navigate my own inner saboteur. These days, NLP isn’t mentioned very often in leadership development programmes or team workshops. You’re far more likely to see references to coaching theory, behavioural science or psychological safety.

But quietly, behind the curtain, many of those newer frameworks still owe a debt to the principles NLP introduced. While some of its language may feel dated, and a few of its techniques overly rehearsed, the core thinking remains sound—and perhaps even more necessary now than it was then.