An interview with Rand Fishkin, Founder of SparkToro, and previously co-founder of Moz
1. Tell us about yourself.
I'm the co-founder of SparkToro and, prior to that, Moz and Inbound.org. I've been a marketer and an entrepreneur for my entire career -- the last 17 years -- and have made a lot of mistakes from which I hope others can learn :-)
2. Did you choose to become a marketer?
Not entirely. I fell into marketing after entering the tech world as a web designer, but I love the combination of technical and creative processes required to succeed, and truly enjoy the people in the marketing world.
3. What do you think one should do to align their marketing goals with their business goals?
Tie marketing goals explicitly and directly to specific business goals, then show (as best you're able), how metrics improvements in marketing correlate (or cause) improvements in the business goal.
4. Your views on why MVPs (Minimum Viable Product) may not be ideal:
My basic contention is that many customers and amplifiers of your business and work will likely judge your product on their initial experience. If you release something that's barely viable but doesn't truly astound and impress, you're likely to burn the opportunity to re-earn that customer's business in the future. Worse, if that person might have been an amplifier of your company or a promoter of your product/service, you've lost the opportunity to reach their audience with a message of endorsement.
5. What would be some of the biggest challenges in marketing in the next few years?
The major web properties are all moving to a model of sharing out less traffic and keeping more for themselves. That makes many web marketing activities much more difficult, and mean that fewer people and organizations will benefit from the popularity that Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. have achieved. Rather than spreading the wealth of traffic and linking across the web, we're seeing consolidation and closing of gates to keep people on their platforms.
6. What's your favourite ad? Why?
A favourite ad is far too difficult, but I really enjoyed this concept from Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m89djlGgzIQ
7. Are there any marketing gurus you've been inspired by?
Hmm... Not sure they'd call themselves "gurus," but a few folks that have certainly inspired and impressed me lately include Purna Virji, Emily Grossman, Tara Reed, Everette Taylor, Camille Ricketts,
8. What do you think is the most senseless marketing campaign? Why?
Hard to name just one, but I think politics is an area where a ton of marketing activity, advertising spend, and media effort of all kinds is placed, but with a very low return on investment. At most, 2-3% of the electorate seem to ever shift their votes in the United States, yet fewer than 40% of eligible voters even bother to cast ballots. Clearly, it's a field with perverse incentives, incredibly illogical thinking, and horrific bias of all kinds, yet I can't help but feel that most of the marketing dollars spent are done senselessly, too.
9. What's your favorite social media platform? why?
I still love Twitter. It's a wonderful place to engage with people and organizations, to form connections, to get help with problems, to socialize around professional, political, and interest-based issues. If the platform could work to solve its horrifying abuse and harassment problems, I think it would have a very bright future indeed.
10. What phone app do you use most?
Gmail :-) But right behind that is probably Twitter, Pocket, Lyft, Reddit, Fitbit, and Instagram
11. What do you do when you have free time?
My wife and I socialize a lot! We have so many wonderful friends in Seattle and the cities we frequently visit that our calendar is often booked up for months in advance. I love seeing people, eating good food, sharing stories, and being supportive however we can.
12. Is there a software product you love?
Many! I'm a big fan of Excel and Powerpoint -- still gold standards for much of the work I do. Google Drive has also proved invaluable, and for my new company, a few others like Gusto, Typeform, Docusign, and Carta have been invaluable.
13. What productivity hacks do you use?
I try to run 100% of my communication through just two channels -- my calendar and my email. If it's not in those two, it doesn't exist for me (or, at least, I don't prioritize it). That helps me stay mostly on top of everything I need to get in a day without falling too far behind.
Access your files securely from anywhere
Centralize Knowledge. Transform Learning.
All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.
New to Zoho Recruit?
Zoho Developer Community
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources
New to Zoho Survey?
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Bigin?
Topic Participants
Anjanaa Santhanam
Sticky Posts
10 simple e-commerce marketing tips to boost sales
Congratulations! You've finally set up that e-commerce store you've been thinking about for a long time. Hopefully it wasn't too difficult. Even if it was, the effort will be totally worth it when you start seeing some orders come through. Now that the store is live, let's take a look at some marketing tips you can apply for sales growth. 1. Avoid cart abandonment If you've ever shopped online, you might have added a product to the cart but then decided not to purchase it. This is known as cart abandonment.Marketing in a post COVID-19 world!
Consumers across countries are increasingly spending more time on a wide variety of digital activities, right from online grocery shopping, to video conferencing, to tele-medicine. There is a good chance that you performed one or more of the following activities during this lockdown, thanks to COVID 19: Cooked a meal Made a TikTok Video Signed up for a remote learning session Consulted a doctor online (or ordered medicines online) Shopped for groceries online A study by Hunter, a food and beverageInbound Marketing 101: The Foundational Blocks of Inbound Marketing Strategy
According to a behaviour survey, 68% of the buyers use sources such as blogs to evaluate the product even before considering it. Before buying a product, we do a lot of research to learn more about the product through communities, blogs, social media,How Zylker doubled their webinar registrations!
Webinars are good educational resources to gather qualified leads for your product. But what if your visitors are dropping off from your webinar landing page without signing up? What more could you do to convert visitors into registrants? This is theThe ideology behind why features tell, but benefits sell
Do you think there's any truth to this? Do features only tell, and benefits sell? Well, let's see why we should focus on benefits rather than features as the great marketing wizards, David Ogilvy and Steve Jobs proved to be the best examples leveraging
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
Zoho CRM Plus Resources
Zoho Books Resources
Zoho Subscriptions Resources
Zoho Projects Resources
Zoho Sprints Resources
Qntrl Resources
Zoho Creator Resources
Zoho CRM Resources
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
Zoho Show Resources
Get Started. Write Away!
Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.
Zoho CRM コンテンツ
-
オンラインヘルプ
-
Webセミナー
-
機能活用動画
-
よくある質問
-
Ebook
-
-
Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho サービスのWebセミナー
その他のサービス コンテンツ
Nederlandse Hulpbronnen
ご検討中の方
Recent Topics
Is it possible to update multiple work items at once?
Hi, Is it possible to update the statuses/release tags of multiple work items at once? I came across this thread that says it's not possible at the moment, but it was related to the Sprints mobile app. Does this feature not exist in the website as well?See Every IM Conversation as It Happens
Instant messaging moves fast. Customers expect quick replies and smooth conversations across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and live chat. But without real-time visibility, small issues become big problems. A session stays open longer than expected. ADealing With One-Time Customers on Zoho Books
Hello there! I am trying to figure out a way to handle One-Time customers without having to create multiple accounts for every single one on Zoho Books. I understand that I can create a placeholder account called "Walk-In Customer", for example, but ISelected date present employees roster
=CHOOSECOLS(FILTER(A2:E5;(INDEX(C2:E5;0;MATCH(VALUE(B8);INDEX(VALUE(C1:E1));0))<>"OFF")*(INDEX(C2:E5;0;MATCH(VALUE(B8);INDEX(VALUE(C1:E1));0))<>"EL"));1;2;2+MATCH(VALUE(B8);INDEX(VALUE(C1:E1));0)) This way sheet looks lFSM integration with Books
Hi, I have spent a few months working with FSM and have come across a critical gap in the functionality, which I find almost shocking....either that, or I am an idiot. The lack of bi-directional sync between Books and FSM on Sales Orders/ Work OrdersRelease Notes | January 2026
We have rolled out a set of powerful new enhancements across Zoho Vertical Studio that bring several long-awaited capabilities to your applications. These updates focus on deeper customization, smarter automation, better reporting, and improved usabilityCan Zia summarize fields?
A great use case of AI for me would be summarizing company descriptions. We often get long winded descriptions from databases or scraping websites, then reduce them to a couple of sentences stating what a company actually does. Is there any way withinDynamic Field Folders in OneDrive
Hi, With the 2 options today we have either a Dynamic Parent Folder and lots of attachments all in that one folder with only the ability to set the file name (Which is also not incremented so if I upload 5 photos to one field they are all named the sameProduct Request: Send email to Secondary email
Guys, we should be able to send the campaign to the secondary email too. Is this on the plans for Zoho Campaign? It looks like I can map the secondary email from the CRM to the Campaigs, but can not send the message.Introducing WhatsApp integration and quick editing capabilities in Zoho Sign
Hi there, Zoho Sign already helps users collect signatures via email and SMS, and we're happy to announce that you can now send documents and authenticate recipients right through WhatsApp. Some of the key benefits include: Communication with recipientsDepositing funds to account
Hello, I have been using Quickbooks for many years but am considering moving to Zoho Books so I am currently running through various workflows and am working on the Invoicing aspect. In QB, the process is to create an invoice, receive payment and thenFranchise
Is there a solution of how to organize global franchise organisations?Can multiple agents be assigned to one ticket on purpose?
Is it possible to assign one ticket to two or more agents at a time? I would like the option to have multiple people working on one ticket so that the same ticket is viewable for those agents on their list of pending tickets. Is something like this currentlyRecording overpayment?
So a customer just overpaid me and how do I record this? I can't enter an amount that is higher than the invoice amount. Eg. Invoice is $195 and he sent $200. He's a reccuring customer so is there a way to record so that he has a $5 advance for future invoice?Holidays
Hi; For defining Holidays, you need to add logic to handle the year as well as the month & day. We need to be able to enter Holidays for the next year. I need to add a holiday for January 2, 2017, but I can't until January 1st, which is a Sunday and weComposite Product (kit) - Dynamic Pricing
I am setting up Composite Products for item kits that I sell. I also sell the items from the kit individually. Problem is when pricing changes on an individual part, the Composite Product price does not change meaning when the cost of item # 2 in theUrgent: Slow Loading Issue on Zoho Commerce Website
Dear Zoho Support Team, I am experiencing slow loading times on my Zoho Commerce website, which is affecting its performance and user experience. The issue persists across different devices and networks. Could you please investigate this matter and provideNeed help with importing expenses
I'm using the template downloaded from the application. When I try to import my expenses, I get the message: Duplicate entry in the Expense Date column. Ensure it contains unique values. None of the rows will import. There are duplicate dates, but theySuper Admin Logging in as another User
How can a Super Admin login as another user. For example, I have a sales rep that is having issues with their Accounts and I want to view their Zoho Account with out having to do a GTM and sharing screens. Moderation Update (8th Aug 2025): We are workingClient Portal ZOHO ONE
Dear Zoho one is fantastic option for companies but it seems to me that it is still an aggregation of aps let me explain I have zoho books with client portal so client access their invoice then I have zoho project with client portal so they can access their project but not their invoice without another URL another LOGIN Are you planning in creating a beautiful UI portal for client so we can control access to client in one location to multiple aps at least unify project and invoice aps that wouldSearch not working!
I have items in my notebook tagged but when I search for a tag nothing comes up! Any fix for this?ERROR CODE :550 - 550 5.1.1 Invalid email recipients
This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. mustafa.ashraf@techlink-eg.net, ERROR CODE :550 - 550 5.1.1 Invalid email recipientsWhat's New in Zoho POS - February 2026
Hello everyone, Welcome to Zoho POS’s monthly updates, where we share our latest feature updates, enhancements, events, and more. Let’s take a look at how February went. Purchase and sell items on different units We have introduced a unit conversion functionalityCan i integrate bigin with google voice?
I make all my calling through google voice to seprate my personal line from business. I want to log my calls with customers automatically but i domt see anywhere where i can do that. Any help? Im pretty sure i wont be able to. SadPOP/SMTP access authentication failed
I am unable to log setup outlook for my zoho mail account. I am using these settings poppro.zoho.com port 995 SSL smtp.zoho.com port 587(tls)/465(ssl) username/password works on mail.zoho.com but not with POP access. Can you help?Our Review Of Zoho CRM after 60 Days
The purpose of this is to just share with Zoho why I love their product, but ultimately why I could not choose Zoho CRM for our next CRM. About two months ago we begun a CRM exploration process for our financial planning firm, based in Texas. We alreadyError AS101 when adding new email alias
Hi, I am trying to add apple@(mydomain).com The error AS101 is shown while I try to add the alias.Enhancement in Zoho CRM: Control who gets to participate in a forecast by customizing the user hierarchy
Include only users from the sales function; exclude the rest Dear Customers, We hope you're well! We started this year with a series of exciting enhancements to Zoho CRM and to this list, we are thrilled to add an enhancement to forecasting. Let's talkThis domain is not allowed to add. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details
I am trying to setup the free version of Zoho Mail. When I tried to add my domain, theselfreunion.com I got the error message that is the subject of this Topic. I've read your other community forum topics, and this is NOT a free domain. So what is thePossible to generate/download Quote PDF using REST API?
See title. Is there any way after a quote has been created to export to a PDF using a specified template and then download it? Seems like something that should be doable. Is this not supported in the API v2.0?Allow Admin to Configure Report > More Options Button
As an Admin, I want to configure the options of the Report > More Options button to improve UX and reduce Developer overhead. See attached screenshot. Original question posted here: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/modify-standard-repGenerate a link for Zoho Sign we can copy and use in a separate email
Please consider adding functionality that would all a user to copy a reminder link so that we can include it in a personalized email instead of sending a Zoho reminder. Or, allow us to customize the reminder email. Use Case: We have clients we need toMultiple Zoho One accounts
Hello. I'm searching for a solution to run multiple organizations under 1 Zoho One account or have a different Zoho One account for each organization and still be able to easily login to each. Currently Zoho One doesn't allow the same email address toManage Every Customer Conversation from Every Channel inside Zoho SalesIQ
Your customers message you from everywhere. But are you really able to track, manage, and follow through on every conversation, without missing anything? With interactions coming in from websites, mobile apps, and messaging platforms like WhatsApp andYou cannot send this campaign as there is no contact in the selected mailing list.
We have synced contact lists and sent campaigns just fine prior to today. Now no matter what list I upload when I go to send the campaign it gives an error "You cannot send this campaign as there is no contact in the selected mailing list." And now itCustom view inconsistencies
Why is "is not" missing from criteria, along with other comparison operators ??? It makes it almost impossible to build required custom views, I don't want "void" invoices listed & why on earth would "Void" invoices be showing when the criteria includesPivot Report Formula - using a today() variable
Is it possible for me to use a value of today() in a formula on a pivot table? I'm trying to identify where the end date of a project is greater than the current date if("10. Projects (Zoho Projects).End Date" > today(), 'Yes', 'No') I get the error thatCannot connect IMAP to outlook
Hello I have followed the instructions to connect my zoho account to Outlook IMAP but get this message: Session Id: bba118fb-151c-824f-9512-3ad1e91b109d Timestamp: 1708976566964 Error code: INVALIDCREDENTIALS INTERACTIONREQUIRED I'm using the exact configerationDepartment Overview by Modified Time
We are trying to create visuals to show the work our agents do in Zoho Desk. Using Zoho Analytics how can we create a Department Overview per modified time and not ticket created time? In order for us to get an accurate view of the work our agents areWhere is the settings option in zoho writer?
hi, my zoho writer on windows has menu fonts too large. where do i find the settings to change this option? my screen resolution is correct and other apps/softwares in windows have no issues. regardsNext Page