Naeem Alvi-Assinder

Content leaders 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 just want to be heard… 40% of content leaders agree: Content isn’t given enough voice within their org. Whether it’s a lack of alignment, not having a seat at the executive table, or no strategic direction, our survey revealed that the #1 thing content leaders want is more internal buy-in and more ownership over content strategy and narrative. It’s especially tough right now. Old content marketing playbooks are no longer driving results and executives are placing extra scrutiny on every dollar spent on content. But for content marketing to work in this new world, we can’t look for quick tactical fixes or jump at each new optimization technique with no overarching strategy. We need a deeper rethink and realignment about how content works within organizations. And, with that, content leaders need to take a more strategic role in shaping the company-wide narrative and content strategy. That starts with content leaders going back to the fundamentals and taking ownership over the very foundation of content marketing. Not the tactics or channels or individual blog posts—the foundation. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘗𝘖𝘝 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦? Strategic content leadership in 2025 places the content leader as the master of this narrative and the chief strategist shaping how that story is told across marketing, growth, demand, brand, and beyond. It’s not something that happens overnight. But the first step is clear: Zoom out from the day-to-day content requests. Establish a guiding principle that will anchor your content strategy and works as an umbrella for all the ways content is deployed across your org. Start by defining your Definitive POV. ---- Last month, we collected input from over 50 content leaders from companies ranging from 5 to 5,000 employees. And we heard these same problems over and over again. After countless conversations, one thing is clear: Content teams need a new North Star. So next month, we're opening up the conversion. Kristen Rocco and I are hosting a live webinar: Content in Crisis: How Content Marketing Became So Unsustainable (and How We Can Fix It). We'll unpack the findings from our research, the big challenges content teams are facing, and how we can navigate the new world in a smarter, more strategic way. Join us: YesOptimist.com/Crisis

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What happens when you test behavioural science ideas in the real world? In our latest episode, MichaelAaron Flicker and I sit down with Gareth Harvey - Director of Consumer Psychology at Decide. We talk about: 🛒 Why lab results can over-promise (and what marketers can do instead) 🎶 How music, smell, and store layout can nudge customers to spend more 💡 Why “Buy One Get One Free” might not work for indulgent products 🐾 What vets and vodka brands can learn about message timing and order 🎧 Links to Spotify etc in the comments or just search for Behavioral Science for Brands

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Here's a thought...stop treating CRM as a project 🚫 It’s not a one-off implementation 🚫 It’s not just a sales tool 🚫 It’s not IT’s responsibility alone (and please don’t give it to IT - story for another day) Your CRM should be a core function in an organisation – just like finance or operations. When CRM is treated as a function (not a tool or product): 📌 Processes evolve around the customer 📌 Teams align (goodbye, silos) 📌 Growth becomes predictable and scalable CRM isn’t something you ‘finish’ or a 'tool' people use – it’s something you embed into the daily rhythm of any business Is your CRM treated as a tool… or as a core function?

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I love seeing ‘Reach PLC’ publications on competitors’ backlink profiles. The temptation for any kind of PR to aim for the biggest, national news outlets is understandable – but sometimes wrong. A bigger audience or higher DR publisher may look better for the ‘numbers’, but if you’re running a campaign related to a specific industry, it’s landing the campaign in that industry's largest specialist publications that will not only expose the brand to a more targeted audience, but also more positively impact SEO performance. Where your campaign is sent is as much a part of the process as ideation or data gathering – if you’re not showing it to the right target audience where it will have an impact, you’ve been largely wasting your time. Big names look good on a report, but if you’re working within a more niche industry, ‘big’ is relative.

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Still pumping out over-designed content and white papers that cost a lot of time and money and don't deliver? That is why your marketing is falling - and here's what you need to do instead 👇 Let me get brutally honest for a sec... Your brand doesn’t need another polished white paper that no one reads. Or another perfect graphic that gets three likes. Or another lifeless post that sounds like a robot wrote it. What your audience actually wants? Real humans. Real stories. Real value!! That’s why People-Powered Marketing is your unfair advantage. Because people trust PEOPLE more than brands - especially now that AI is pumping out more generic content from every single person on here than ever. So if you want to stop wasting budget and start driving real engagement, here’s what you need to do: ✅ Show faces, not logos - get your team, clients and partners on camera sharing stories, tips and valuable experiences. ✅ Hook in the first 3 seconds - if you don’t grab attention immediately, you’ve already lost. ✅ Chat like a human - and ditch the corporate waffle - write and speak like you actually talk - just like I am doing here! ✅ Keep it simple - stop over-engineering. No one’s got time for a 78-slide deck with jargon. A punchy 30-90 second clip will land better every time. ✅ Prioritise EGC (Employee-Generated Content) - your people are your brand’s biggest asset. Their voices build trust faster than any ad!!! ✅ Give all the value upfront - don’t bait-and-switch. Frontload your insights so people actually remember (and share!) your content. ✅ Stay authentic - in a world of deepfakes and AI clones, being real (and YOU) is your single biggest differentiator. ✅ Use 15+ line breaks - yes, really. Posts with punchy, spaced-out lines are proven to perform better on LinkedIn’s feed - just like this! ✅ Post between 7:30-9:30am or Sunday evenings - that’s when your audience is most active (according to the latest UK LinkedIn engagement data we’ve been using). Because here’s the truth... In 2025, if you want attention, trust, and actual sales opportunities... You need to show up as a human. You and your people are the shortcut to cut-through. So stop over-designing, over-editing and overthinking. Start sharing your people’s stories - and do it with genuine human insights. That’s People Powered Marketing. And that’s how you win the trust you need to attract and convert your next new client or customer. So, what’s stopping you from putting your people front and centre right now?👇

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What DOES a dream job in Marketing look like? Agency-side, Client-side, large organisation or a start-up? How do you get that dream job? How do you know you're making the right decisions to be successful at what you do? The Marketing career landscape looks a lot different now, compared to when I graduated University. Today, there are more specialisations that are careers in their own right. And even if you have found that specialisation and been working in it for the last few years - things are changing at such a rapid rate the future may look very different. In the latest episode of Canned: The Marketing Podcast, Ben van Rooy and I share our thoughts about marketing careers - we share our own journeys and some tips on where to spend time and energy when building your career. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iheart radio, YouTube and Podbean Canned the Marketing Podcast Human Digital Cue Marketing Partners Ltd #marketingpodcast #careers #marketing

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The best way to avoid getting your outbound email flagged as spam is to avoid it being spam in the first place. It should be something people want to reply to because it's genuinely useful for them. It's easy to get lost in the technical details of outbound but there are some simple things you can do to avoid triggering spam filters. In this video I've outlined why you shouldn't use HTML, link tracking and open tracking (with a very rare exception) and what language to hastily avoid. #outboundmarketing

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