The Streaming Victor, Spotify

Thomas Krol — Mon, 02 May 2022 13:37:34 +0000

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I’m excited. I’m off to a conference this week and going to see how ‘back to normal’ things are in the B2B event world. I’ll report back next week, but it seems the tables have turned.

In the meantime, give this song by R.E.M. a listen as we see what the experts are saying this week.

Blame the HubSpot Data

I’ve been keeping an eye on the HubSpot data the past few months, and I’m disappointed that it hasn’t been updated since February! Why? No idea. This data has been an important part of many marketers’ planning process since the pandemic hit! I hope they continue to update the stats – as I think this aggregate data is invaluable and can really help us spot trends!

So far this year, we’ve seen:

Deals Closed took a dip early Q1, but increased again mid-quarter. I’d be interested to see which has continued: the up or the up-and-down?
Sales Email Sends continue to steadily increase, but Responses are still hovering below the pre-COVID benchmark.
Sales Calls and Conversations took an end-of-year drop (not that surprising), but have been working back up since.

What other trends are you seeing? Are you pining for the updates from HubSpot like me – or are you in the It’s not my thing so let it go camp?

Spotify Bangs Out Impressive Numbers

Whatever happened to #deletespotify?

Netflix stock tanked after the company revealed that it had lost subscribers for the first time. And some were predicting bad things for Spotify when it announced its financial results last week. Well – looks like the opposite happened. It seems Spotify was able to roll right over the Joe Rogan controversy on their ascent to top global streaming audio platform.

Spotify reported that it now has 422 million monthly active users (up 19% from a year ago) and 182 million people (up 15%) paying for the premium service. In Q1, Spotify added 16 million listeners – but only 2 million subscribers in the same period. Spotify blames that on the “wind-down of [their] Russian operations,” which resulted in 1.5 million disconnects.

Revenue was US$2.82 billion (up 24% year-over-year) thanks to increases of 23% in subscription revenue and 31% in ad revenue. There are also 4 million podcasts available on the platform, which is up from 3.6 million at the end of 2021.

And things look good for the future. Spotify believes it will have 428 million monthly users by the end of June.

Is this a platform you can leverage in your B2B efforts? According to Forrester Research, many marketers stuck with Spotify through all the turmoil. With this much reach and growth – I’d love to hear some of your strategies for leveraging streaming platforms for your marketing efforts.

Maybe it’s not your thing, or maybe you know it all too well. Either way, platforms like Spotify are on the up and up, and worth at least some consideration for your own marketing efforts.

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

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Don’t Let Prospects Smell Your Fear

Thomas Krol — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 14:38:59 +0000

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I was at an event recently (that’s right, a live event!), and I got to hang out with some old friends. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. This time of year makes me nostalgic, while also looking to the future. How are you using your past to help your teams hit your year-end goals? Where ya going ’til tomorrow?

Last week marked 29 years since Stone Temple Pilots released their debut album Core. Wow – where did the time go? Give this great acoustic version of Plush a listen as we see what the experts are saying this week (or if you prefer, listen to the original).

Bees and dogs smell fear…

…and so do your prospects! So be prepared!

Are your sales teams prepared and efficiently following up with their leads? I’ve said this a million times in the past – a lead is not a deal!

I recently had the opportunity to interview Marlene Keay – an expert in demand gen who I am grateful to have on my management team – to discuss the most effective ways to follow up on B2B leads (it’s not easy). But if you do the right things, you’ll find that you can improve conversion rates and lead velocity. Check out the recording here.

And speaking of lead follow-up – here is some other great content from our friends at VanillaSoft. When it comes to optimal lead follow-up, it’s all about speed, cadence, aptitude and messaging! More details here.

Music Updates – Would You Even Care?

There have been some interesting updates in the music business this week, so here are some quick tidbits from Motive Unknown related to past topics I’ve discussed here…

Making a sustainable living from streaming – As we’ve discussed before, it’s tough. 99%+ of artists just CAN’T make a sustainable living on streaming services.
TikTok is evolving into a very different streaming giant – Many artists are using TikTok to get noticed by big record labels. They’ll often post a snippet of an idea to test fan reaction before recording a full version. And you can have few followers and still do well!
Twitter’s upcoming NFT integration for profile images – Twitter will start to facilitate a more direct connection for users to show off their digital artwork on the platform… would YOU even care?

As usual, I’m curious to see how these changes in the music industry and the B2C space will pan out in the B2B world. We’ve got time to wait for tomorrow… but these changes can come pretty quick, so best be prepared!