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Talent Recruiting Brand Strategy

3 actionable insights with... Fiverr CMO Gali Arnon

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By Kenneth Hein, US Editor

September 7, 2021 | 7 min read

The Drum’s 3 Actionable Insights series asks top industry leaders to share their thoughts about the actions our readers should take immediately. Fiverr Chief marketer Gali Arnon shares her thoughts as the leading marketplace for freelancers readies its next marketing campaign.

Fiverr CMO Gali Arnon

Fiverr CMO Arnon: ‘Marketing needs to be bigger than just making money’

The great resignation. The big quit. Whatever you call it, the job market has changed, and Fiverr is prepping its new messaging to reflect the elasticity that many business will need. The looming campaign comes after a variety of new innovations for the platform, including a new subscription service called Seller Plus. It offers advanced support, faster payment and other tools. Then there is Fiverr Business, which offers flat rates for corporate customers. Plus Salesforce and Wix are now conducting training for Fiverr freelancers. Amid all of the changes, here is what Fiverr is focusing on, as well as what chief marketer Gali Anon sees as the key trends driving all of marketing at the moment.

1. You must empower your community

It all starts with listening to your customers. We are a two-sided marketplace. We have to understand both freelancers’ and businesses’ needs and motivations. For us, it can’t just be about a brand conveying its messages to its customers. It has to be much more like a relationship. I know it sounds like a cliché, but for us it’s the reality. Because when you manage this two-sided relationship, when you build your products, marketing campaigns and tools around the needs of your community, customers feel like they are part of something bigger.

There is a sense of belonging to a movement, to something that is really changing the world. And then you create a level of loyalty and brand ambassadors that you would never create in any other way. It also has implications because it means that you are giving control, sometimes of your marketing messages, to your consumers. You understand that you are letting go of part of the control over what you convey. The upside is that you create a group of people who will be your biggest brand evangelists.

We use our actual community members to create our website, our out-of-home, voiceover artists, animation, graphic design... we held more than 300 events last year alone, that our buyers and sellers were hosting. It’s all part of the relationship.

Consumers are extremely fickle and everything they say about a brand can be heard and amplified to the extent that they can kill a brand if they don’t like it. The rules have changed. That’s why building a community and empowering it to be the essence of your brand is the most important tip I can provide today.

2. Don’t copy – create something original and new

We are currently working on new angles and new directions for our marketing. My team brought me a few ideas and I needed to provide feedback. The way I think about it is: ‘What creative direction can be unique only to Fiverr?’ This means it could never be used for any other brand. We are asking ourselves: ‘How can we create a voice that is unique to us, that cannot be heard from anyone else?’ Then we started talking about Fiverr and the future of work and all the innovative kind of new products that we’re releasing. The core is being a disruptive and innovative company.

A good example was our Superbowl spot, because there were no celebrities in it. There were just real small businesses and real people. [Leveraging the Four Seasons Total Landscaping] was a cultural moment, but it was a real thing. Those kind of bold, funny unique angles is what I look for now. It's okay to be inspired by the things other brands are doing. There’s a lot of creativity out there, but I’m looking for the spark. I’m looking for this something that no one else will be able to do.

3. Not being purpose-driven is no longer an option

Customers are longing to find meaning and purpose in things they purchase or the way they buy it – especially after the last two years with everything that’s happening around the world. With the global climate crisis, with Covid, with Black Lives Matter, there’s so much going on that brands cannot afford to put out an empty statement as their purpose and then do some small gestures.

Take Pride Month, for example. Everyone is changing their brand colors to the flag, right? You saw it everywhere. What does it mean? Does it mean anything to you? Is it a real commitment? That used to be enough five years ago. It’s just not enough anymore.

Brands need to take a stand, sometimes even if it’s a political stance. People may hate it or love it, but brands need to take a stand. They need to bring their purpose, or bigger meaning, to life. It’s not enough just to sell products. It’s important for your employees too because they want to know that they work in a place that has some true, positive social impact.

Our purpose is bigger than anything we do. Fiverr is opening up opportunities to anyone in the world to sell the same way. People from 160 countries, from different life circumstances, backgrounds, gender or sexual orientations are all the same on our platform. They are being judged only on skill and talent.

The amount of stories we have about the way we’ve changed people’s lives for people with disabilities, the fact that women are making more money on our platform than men... all those stories are stories that our marketing needs to bring to life. It’s something I want to scream to the world. You have to be something bigger than just sales and revenue goals. If you’re doing something good, and you are changing people’s lives for the better, they will be talking about and expanding your brand. Eventually you’re going to be a more successful brand, and a company, if you’re doing something positive.

You can check out more of our 3 Actionable Insights series here, and don’t forget to sign up for The Drum’s daily US newsletter here.

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