Presented by

Tomorrow is World Snorkeling Day, Reader! There’s a whole new world waiting to be discovered under the water’s surface… Take a look!

In today’s edition:

• 💡Today's Tip of the Day is for sharing AI assistants

• 🦋 Becoming more than ‘just’ a marketing person

• OpenAI tests SearchGPT

• Google releases Gemini 1.5 Flash model

• Reddit launches new Lead Gen Ads

• 🗞️ Additional industry news from Facebook and more

Want to streamline your team’s workflows? Wish more people could use your AI assistants? 

Curate an AI Role Library

First, create a teams account for your AI tool. On ChatGPT, this currently costs $30 per month per user.

Next, set up a Google Sheet with columns for AI assistant role titles and URLs.

Enter the details for all your AI assistants and personalities so that everyone can quickly find and use them.

Today's tip is provided with insights from Brian Piper, a featured guest on the AI Explored podcast.

Discover What Your Marketing is Missing, Reader!

If you're looking to learn the latest strategies from marketing pros, Social Media Marketing World is the place for you. Unlike other marketing conferences, it offers three days of high-quality training you won't find anywhere else.   

"I have been to conferences where I only heard things I already knew. I learned so many new concepts at Social Media Marketing World," said Martha Cromar.

I’m ready to discover more.

How to Become an Indispensable Marketing Partner

Whether you're a marketing consultant or an agency owner, you may think of yourself as just a vendor providing services. But what if you could become an indispensable partner instead of a person filling a narrow role? 

Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, you can become a trusted advisor and connector that helps your clients find the right professionals to fill their needs for core services you don't offer. This approach allows you to solve challenges without developing every capability in-house.

For example, suppose the business you work for or a client needs campaign managers but isn't sure about hiring full-time employees. In that case, you can step in to find and contract campaign managers, handle time tracking and invoicing, and even manage potential culture clashes. This solution allows the client to test the waters before committing to full-time hires, and you've helped them do that.

By positioning your agency as a connector and resource hub, you can provide more value to clients while growing your own business. This approach allows you to go beyond your core services and build stronger, more resilient client partnerships. It's a strategy to help your agency thrive, even in uncertain economic times.

How to Make the Transition

First, make a list of your professional networks and industry groups. This could include LinkedIn connections, professional associations, and local business groups.

Now, think about what types of marketing professionals you know best (writers, designers, strategists, etc.). You should also listen carefully to client challenges, even those unrelated to your services. Pay attention to recurring themes or pain points where you might know someone who can resolve or alleviate them.

When you're ready to help a client fill an open role, start with the areas where you're most comfortable and have the strongest connections. This might be creative professionals if you're a content-focused agency or data analysts if you specialize in marketing analytics.

Finally, speak up and tell clients about your ability to connect them with other resources. Be transparent during this process. While it was acceptable for agencies to white-label services without disclosing it, today's approach involves being open about partnerships and connections.

Working with Contract Solutions Partners

First, it's important to be clear about when you're simply making a referral vs when you're offering ongoing management and support. 

When you are ready to hire a contractor for a client, be sure to have the contractor sign a non-disclosure agreement to protect your pricing. This ensures they don't discuss rates directly with clients.

To make it worthwhile for clients to continue working through your agency, instead of hiring the talent you bring on to help them, offer additional value by managing the back-end work like payroll and reporting. 

Finally, charge a markup or placement fee for your connection services. Be transparent about this fee and ensure it reflects the value you're providing.

Tips to Build Your Professional Talent Network Strategically

To build a valuable network, spend 20 minutes each day engaging on LinkedIn. This could involve commenting on your peers’ and colleagues’ posts, sharing insights, or reaching out to new connections. Look for secondary and tertiary connections—people recommended by those you already know. These can often lead to worthwhile relationships.

To connect with a wider circle of people who can help your clients, consider joining professional associations and groups related to your industry. Attend industry events and conferences to make in-person connections with people you are considering as recommended solutions partners.

Pro Tip: Keep a spreadsheet of freelancers and contractors you can call on for various projects so you can quickly assemble teams for client needs.

Today's advice is provided with insights from Beth Newton, a featured guest on the Marketing Agency Show.

Your Weekly Cup of Social Media News 

Social media marketing is constantly changing. What works today may not work next week. Fortunately, the Social Media Marketing Talk Show can help.

Each week, host Jerry Potter covers the latest news across all of the social platforms. Tune in and find out what's happening now in social marketing. You'll gain insights you can put to work right away to improve your social media marketing. 

I’m ready for the latest social media news.

Google Upgrades Gemini: Google has upgraded its Gemini AI chatbot with the 1.5 Flash model, promising faster responses and improved content processing. The update enhances quality, latency, reasoning, and image understanding while quadrupling the context window to 32K tokens. Available now on no-cost web and mobile versions, Gemini also adds related content links for fact-seeking prompts. Source: The Verge

OpenAI Tests SearchGPT: OpenAI has unveiled SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine prototype that summarizes and organizes web information. Initially available to 10K testers, it allows follow-up questions and provides clear source attribution. Developed in collaboration with news partners, SearchGPT aims to eventually integrate with ChatGPT. The prototype addresses concerns about content usage by allowing publishers to manage their appearance in search results. Source: OpenAI

Facebook’s ‘Pin Comments’ for Reels: Facebook users can now pin comments to Facebook Reels. This feature is currently only available on iOS devices. Source: Radu Oncescu via Threads

Meta to be Fined by the EU: The European Commission is set to impose its first antitrust fine on Meta in the coming weeks. The fine relates to Meta linking Facebook Marketplace with its main social network, which the European Union watchdog claims gives Marketplace an unfair advantage. The company also faces separate charges for allegedly violating new EU tech rules with its advertising model. Source: Reuters

Reddit Blocks Bing Search: Reddit has updated its robots.txt file, blocking Bing and other search engines from crawling its site. Microsoft confirmed that Bing has stopped indexing Reddit content as a result. Google remains unaffected, but most other crawlers and AI tools are now blocked. Reddit is using IP detection to display different robots.txt versions to search engines versus human users, significantly impacting the visibility of Reddit content on non-Google search platforms. Source: Search Engine Land

Reddit’s New Lead Gen Ads: Reddit has launched Lead Generation Ads, now in public beta globally. This new format, integrated with Zapier, allows advertisers to collect leads directly on Reddit without users leaving the platform. The Zapier integration enables direct lead transfer to CRMs and automates lead management processes. Source: Reddit Business

Did You Know?

If you enjoy iced tea but don’t like it watered down with melting ice, you can use frozen cubes of tea instead of water. You’re welcome.