Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Many CMOs see their digital future, but still struggle to make the case across the executive ranks....

 

... Digital CMOs also think beyond digital marketing. They look for opportunities to create digital experiences and revenue streams enabled by the nexus of forces, which is Gartner's description of the convergence and mutual reinforcement of social, mobile, cloud and rich information. The collision of these factors unlocks opportunities to reach and engage with consumers across the physical and virtual worlds, drawing them closer with targeted, contextually relevant experiences and offers. Further, it can allow brands to redefine how value is created and delivered — the way Apple has with music, Amazon has with IT infrastructure, and Netflix has with movies.

 

Last year, Gartner predicted that by 2017, the CMO's technology budget will exceed the CIO's. Why? Because more often than not, it's the CMO who is expected to drive this digital transformation, which is deeply dependent on technology. Is the average CMO ready to step up to this challenge?...

Studies show that brands must craft custom blog content that is scaled to mobile devices.

 

Most organizations already implementing content marketing campaigns have their editorial calendars and ideas put into place for the first quarter of 2013, but certain trends might guide game plans for the remainder of the year.

 

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 43 percent of B2C brands and 33 percent of B2B organizations already distribute mobile content to reach prospective and current customers. Brands aren’t just developing mobile applications to engage with internet users, they’re optimizing branded content and social media content for smaller screens.

Media has already gone through a significant transition over the past few years, with technology shaping the way people around the world access timely content. According toeMarketer, publishers have been tasked with creating custom content for smaller screens, which puts additional pressure on brands to embrace and immerse themselves in content creation for the internet.

 

According to a report from Alliance for Audited Media, 2013 will be the first year where nearly 100 percent of publishers will format their content for mobile devices....

So, when is the best time to post? And is it the same for every social network?

RadiumOne’s Po.st examined the social sharing data from more than 10,000 publishers, reaching four main conclusions:

1. There are two peak sharing times during the day – 10 a.m. through noon and 8 p.m. through 10 p.m.
2. If you’re looking for clicks, the worst time to share an article is between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
3. Sharing and clickbacks remain consistent from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
4. The hours between noon and 2 p.m. see the most shares with the highest clickback rates

The study also revealed a disconnect between the best times to post to each social network, which are as follows:

Twitter: 1 p.m.
Facebook: 5 p.m.
Pinterest: 11 p.m.
Google+: 10 a.m....

There’s significant momentum for publishers toward increasing the production of video content, on account of both the strength of video as a medium for storytelling and high video CPMs as advertisers begin to move their TV spends online (see the Chicago Tribune’s coverage for one example). An increase in video content across the board, of course, means that it’s all the more important that we have a sense of which parts of our audience we can hope to reach with video. To that end, below is a brief survey of the state of online audiences and their consumption of video.

This infographic details the prevailing trends for for effective online marketing, with some strong numbers to support each channel. It is interesting to note that 89% of marketers say that they are maintaining or increasing their budgets that focus on these trends. Perhaps this is because inbound marketing costs 61% LESS per lead than traditional, outbound marketing....