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With the shift of the digital marketing industry from SEO to inbound marketing, crafting an effective earned media campaign is more important than ever. But there’s much more to earned media than planting articles all over the Internet – it takes time, research and finesse. For brands who want to realize effective ROI, earned media can be the most efficient and cost-savvy way to reach their target audiences. I’ve been working on this guide from Digital Relevance, which covers earned media from an inbound marketing perspective, and gives marketers the tools and resources they need to craft an effective campaign especially for their target audiences, no matter where they hang out on the Internet....
The newest research says 80% of marketers aren't planning to use Daily Deal sites in their upcoming campaigns Social Media Examiner has just released its annual Social Media Marketing report. It reveals some interesting data about this year’s social media marketing trends. The entire report is available for download here, but I’d like to highlight some of the report’s most surprising and significant points. In a survey of 3,025 marketers, the study determined the following: - The use of social bookmarking sites has plummeted from 26% of respondents in 2011 to just 10% in 2013. De.licio.us, DIGG, Friendfeed, etc., are rapidly falling in favor where marketers are concerned. (According to ebizMBA, the most popular bookmarking sites are currently Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and StumbleUpon.) - Forums (24% in 2011; 16% this year) and geo-location services such as Foursquare (17% in 2011; 11% this year) are also in decline. - Respondents with more than 5 years experience are far more likely to use LinkedIn LNKD - 1.43% than the average respondent (92% vs. 70%)....
Social media can be one of the most successful channels for B2B lead generation, but many companies still jump into a social network to have a presence for presence sake. If your company is on a social network, there must be a purpose behind being there. For B2B marketers, that purpose is most likely creating demand that will drive leads and sales. Depending on your marketplace, a focus on social demand generation could require being on just a few or a number of social media sites. Either way, you’ll have to go in with a plan to make sure each of those networks produces results. Here are six important ways your company can build a social media machine that generates leads while having some fun...
The buzz around startup culture lately is all about “minimum viable product.” It’s the idea of creating a product as quickly as possible — in its most minimum viable form — so you can then make it better by adapting it to what your customers really... What if we could pinpoint the metrics that provide the biggest bang for our buck in terms of telling us whether our efforts are paying off while taking the least amount of time to measure? Focusing only on what matters (and nothing more) could satisfy the ROI demons, keep bosses and clients happy, and give social media marketers more time to do what we’re supposed to be doing: engaging and connecting with our communities. So, whether you’re still struggling to measure social media effectiveness or simply want to declutter your measurement efforts, Here’s your minimalist guide to social media metrics....
While digital gives you the opportunity to reach out to millions with a single click, it also poses a problem: if not monitored properly, it will not be as effective as face-to-face communication. As consumers become more familiar with digital technology, businesses are evolving their marketing strategies to meet expectations. Websites and applications are now considered an essential part of a brand’s presence. The digital age is making it possible for brands to connect with their clients all over the world and reach out effectively to their specific target audiences. However, with so much reach, it is easy to get befuddled and make mistakes while communicating to your audiences digitally. Here’s our list of top six rules that your marketing team should know about....
For any successful organization that relies on the Internet for leads and sales, marketing automation stands to increase efficiencies and revenues. Here's a look at marketing automation: the primary elements, core benefits, and opportunities. ...Among the growing number of marketing agencies and "experts" who produce such varied results under such varied budgets – it's no wonder why marketing is frequently perceived by business owners as a cost center instead of a profit center. Marketing automation helps fix this – and although there are many marketing automation platform providers (Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, etc.), the platform as a concept is now also emerging as a popular investment for numerous companies worldwide. The Elements of Marketing Automation The 10 primary elements of marketing automation include...
Inspired by a reader's question, CMI takes a closer look at challenges B2B marketers face at both small and enterprise businesses. Check out our 9 ideas for solving some of the biggest content challenges... ... Andy’s question inspired us to take a closer look at some of the content marketing challenges faced by North American B2B marketers who work at small businesses (companies with 10 – 99 employees), as compared to their peers at enterprise organizations (companies with more than 1,000 employees). We’ll also share some insights on ways content marketers can address these issues — regardless of the size of the organization they work for. In general, both groups are similarly challenged with producing the kind of content that engages — and it is the top challenge for enterprise companies. In a way, I think it’s encouraging to see this as a top challenge, as it shows that marketers are focusing on the value of quality over quantity. And, there is good reason why engaging content matters: Customers and prospects who engage with content are more likely to reach out or initiate a relationship with your organization....
Small businesses prefer to conduct their marketing efforts on social networking sites over location-based marketing, according to a May 8 article by Fox News. Given the word-of-mouth nature and sharing features of sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest, 97 percent of business owners said that they use these platforms to promote their businesses. Only 17 percent of businesses say they utilize location-based ads, such as Foursquare, in promoting their products and services. Additionally, 66 percent of small business owners are optimizing their website for mobile platforms, reflecting an evolving use of the web and social sites. Just 34 percent of business owners say they have no desire to use social media in the future. Many believe that they don’t have a demand from customers to utilize such platforms.... Most important, 61 percent of small business got no return on investment...
As the SEO landscape continues to change in 2013, many tactics that had previously been low cost, easy to implement and effective are becoming less and less effective. For this reason, a lot of small businesses are struggling to choose the right areas of focus to get quality results from SEO on a limited budget. The truth is that things like comprehensive content marketing plans can be very expensive to execute, and for many small businesses a hefty monthly retainer to “do SEO right” might not be a legitimate possibility. So what can a small business that’s on a budget do to improve their search rankings without exposing themselves to a high level of short term risk?...
Paid, earned, and owned media. The phrase may be a marketing workhorse, but with the explosion of digital channels and new technologies, “paid, earned, and owned” is a lot less useful as a way of looking at media strategy and spend than it used to be. As the lines between the three categories of media have eroded beyond recognition, marketers need to rethink how they spend marketing dollars, staff teams, drive strategy, and collaborate with agencies. According to an Altimeter Group report, The Converged Media Imperative, agencies and brands need help (a lot of help) understanding and navigating the new landscape....
With a defined social media strategy in place, marketers can rock social media in 30 minutes a day. Sound too good to be true? It is actually possible if your daily use of social media is built upon a well-developed social media strategy. But, a strong social media strategy does not mean that your brand has to be on every single social media channel out there. Instead, focus on the social media channels that the majority of your customers frequent. The infographic below explains how having an over-arching social media strategy in place can save you time and make you a more effective social media strategist....
Clearly everyone wants to be successful on the social web and Internet. And, of course, they, want that success to be fast, simple, effortless and using a special trick you download from the Internet.... ... This is the answer to those who ask how to quickly be successful on the social web and in social networks overnight: - Help out a lot. Helping out isn’t taking advantage of a situation. - Share large amounts of useful and valuable content. Sharing doesn’t mean your own content. - Make it visual: use photos and videos. Remember they must be useful and valuable. - Say what you think. Be yourself. Use your own voice. - Just accept that many people won’t like you. That will help you focus on those who do. - Decide what it is you want to do and do it. - If you have something to say, say it....
The catch phrase of 2013 seems to be “Big Data” – the concept of how massive amounts of strategic data collection (can you say “google”), analysis and targeting can generate huge ROI for businesses. I’ve written how I believe technology for marketers has finally caught up (technology-wise and cost-effectiveness) to where “lazy marketing” is no longer a valid excuse. Do you know which of your marketing channels are bringing in the most customers? In today’s multi-channel world, it can be tough to tell. Generating engaging content marketing media is already tough enough – we need tools and processes to know what’s working and what’s not in order to maximize ROI. Savvy marketers know and use closed-loop analytics tools to measure, analyze, and act on the performance of all the elements of their marketing, from blogs to social media, landing pages to leads, and calls-to-action to email marketing and more. Take a look at the infographic/study below, conducted by the gurus at SEOmoz. The standout takeaway: “….lastly, it turns out that 60.2% of marketers are looking for analysis options, as well as other analytics options, in their social media management tools”. This comes as no surprise. When savvy social media marketers are communicating their messages online, they want to know exactly how those efforts are benefiting them by analyzing whether each social strategy is connecting to their end goal: revenue….” …and how do your social media channels stack up against your blogs, videos email touches and landing pages?...
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Marketing your blog doesn't happen by accident. It involves implementing tactics one at a time. ...You spent time agonizing over the headline, the introduction is a sizzler and the structure is written for web skimming readers. Nothing happens. The visitors don’t show.... Dream shattered? No, it’s just time to roll up the sleeves and build traffic one marketing tactic at a time. It will involve some social media marketing, old fashioned blogger networking and also understanding the nuances of Google. You don’t need to do all of them but just start. Pick three to five marketing methods from this article that catch your attention and work on those. Here are 50 ways of promoting your articles on your blog...
With talks of the new Google Penguin update and how social media can help stabilize and improve a site’s performance online, site owners are increasingly focusing on social media marketing campaigns. The question is – how do you really know how effective your campaigns are, and how can you determine ROI? Of course, the ultimate way to track the effectiveness of your social SEO campaign is increased revenue, but there are other forms of tracking that can be beneficial as well. After all, not everything you do is going to generate an instant increase in revenue. In this article I will discuss how to track the effects of your social seo efforts, and the best methods and tools to add to your toolbox....
In preparing a presentation for last week’s Interactivity Digital conference in Miami, I was struck by a realization: I’ve been working with landing pages for seven years now.... Seven years ago, my company launched its first prototype of a landing page management platform. At the time, landing pages were extremely nascent, only used by a handful of pioneering digital marketers. So many times I had to answer the question, “What’s a landing page?” Now, they’re nearly ubiquitous. The disciplines of conversion rate optimization and post-click marketing have matured into a rich subfield within digital marketing. It’s been inspiring to see how much what-happens-after-the-click has improved in this time. So, on this occasion of my seventh anniversary of “converting” to this line of work, I thought I would step back and share the seven biggest lessons that I’ve learned over the years....
Your digital footprint is huge. Okay, well, truthfully, I don’t know what size it is. But here’s what I do know: your digital footprint has a huge effect on your online marketing. But seriously ladies and gentlemen, we have one humdinger of a topic, which in my biased opinion, has yet to inspire a truly helpful online article. So, here and now, I set out to offer you the ultimate list of easy and effective ways to enlarge your digital footprint, increase your findability factor (otherwise known as search results), and drive traffic to your website. We begin with the easy ones. The following four ideas—and the ideas within the ideas—are absolute musts....
Even the most social-savvy business owners can get caught up in the numbers game: counting and recounting likes, followers, fans, retweets, shares. Not to say those numbers don't correlate to how well your business connects with customers online, but 100 shares doesn't necessarily mean 100 sales — and it certainly doesn't measure the potential value of those 100 shares. For example, were any of the 100 fans sharing that post actually influencers? Did the fans in question sign up for your list, or share and forget? Are your likes and follows actually impacting your sales? Many business owners wouldn't know how to start answering those questions....
Traditional or “outbound” advertising is all about framing a message, which is packaged and sent to a wide audience, hoping to capture the attention of the smaller audience being targeted. The nuances of how a campaign is run on social media are far different from traditional marketing. The focus and goal of various businesses is also unique – companies may want to sell their products, get referrals, gain exposure, service customers, and become the industry “expert,” and so on. However, no matter what the original goal, ultimately, the Page will take on a life of its own, as user’s define how they wish to interact with the page and, ultimately, with the company. So while it is important to define a strategy prior to beginning any marketing campaign, the Page’s administrator must be flexible enough to tailor the content to the audience. This is the only way that Social Media Marketing will truly work as it should. Following are some examples to illustrate how Pages are being used...
Whether it’s your website, blog, brochure, newsletter, Facebook page, press release or newspaper ad, nobody reads your content because they’re simply enamored with your business. Why? Because nobody cares about your business. Don’t take it personally. And please, stop scowling at me because I’m sure it’s not the first time you’ve heard this. People read your marketing content because they’re looking for answers to questions. The first of these questions is usually, “What can your business do for me?”...
Are you trying to figure out how to use mobile marketing to grow your sales and revenues? Here are five mobile ad campaigns you can use for inspiration. 1. Heineken Hits the Back of the Net with Dual Screen Game In 2011, UEFA Champion’s League sponsor Heineken introduced an innovative ‘dual screen’ app that let fans interact via their smartphones as games were taking place....
After defining social selling, I realized I needed to take a step back and define what is a social business?... What is a Social Business? A social business places equal value on the needs of its customers, employees, partners and shareholders. This is not all that different from the concept behind one of the first posts I wrote 3 years ago this month. In that post, I talked about a book called “The Service Profit Chain” that inspired a lot of my early professional thoughts on marketing strategy. The basic theory presented in the book was that happier employees generate more customers who create more profit for the business. Makes sense, right? Yet in the race to quarterly profits, many businesses still struggle with the concept. More recently I talked about the many reasons why social business is important and I presented my own roadmap to become a social business including the need to define a social strategy that empowers social employees, activates effective content strategy and addresses the issue of culture....
Social networking websites like Facebook and Google use personal data and account information to provide relevant advertisements in turn for better services for their users. That same need for personalization in mobile experiences has now arrived, but few companies are are delivering on customers expectations. With mobile driving news consumption and responsive websites becoming more prevalent this infographic helps show marketers how to make mobile experiences more personalized. The age of big data has raised customer expectations when it comes to the relevance and personalization of marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, according to a new report from Econsultancy, few marketers are delivering on those expectations of website personalization, especially on mobile. However, mobile marketing platforms have the ability to deliver personalized experience well beyond the web and directly in a customer's pocket. This infographic provides insight into the current state of personalization and how marketers can start delivering tailored campaigns on mobile....
What is social selling and how do you become great at it? Here are my 5 steps to social selling success by combining content and connections. Social selling is a hot buzzword being thrown around today. What is social selling and how do tomorrow’s top sales people use social selling to become top performers? Social selling is not just about starting the sales process with social tools like Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter. Social selling is about sales people building a strong personal brand. It is about understanding the role of content and how content can be used to tell a powerful and emotional story. And it is about growing your social connections....
Social Media's ROI can be tracked with these 7 metrics. However, measurement is more than just results. It must tie back to your objectives.... For years now you’ve heard everywhere that you can’t measure Social Media ROI (return on investment). I’m not sure if it’s been an excuse to discount Social Media’s value or a fear of adapting to a new marketing model. Perhaps a little bit of both. Marketing Charts recently outlined on a new report by the Platt Retail Institute, conducted in association with the American Marketing Association comparing marketers’ rankings of various channels’ budget allocations against the channels’ perceived importance and ROI. The study reveals that of the 11 channels identified, Social Media marketing ranks 4th in both current importance and ROI but ranks only 6th in budget allocation. Scott Monty of Ford Social explained in his blog that “The study reveals there’s a mismatch between marketing budget and effectiveness in key areas. Two are mass media and customer support, which are being overspent on versus their return on investment. Alternatively, email and social are being underspent on while they have a more effective ROI.”...
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This is a really helpful look at the return on investment from inbound marketing and how to get better results.