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The last 48 hours of my life were total madness. This is what I did.
Since I’m involved with startups on a daily basis, working on product development and (business) strategy, I’ve always been keeping lists of interesting tools and resources that could be interesting to use. Thinking of something I could create, I thought it would be fun to build a simple and useful site that could help makers find resources and tools while building their startup.
The first thing I did was writing down all categories I could think of that would suit a startup’s needs. I ended up with 50, and made a huge Excel sheet where I entered all the stuff I’d already saved. From there on I started collecting more resources and filling up the empty spaces....
Forget metrics and marketing objectives. Ask yourself what business challenges the marketing team is accountable for solving. Then, set the content performance indicators based on the ultimate results you want to bring to the table. Not every type of content will resonate with all audiences at any stage in their buying journey. That’s why you need a strategy.
As you approach content marketing, set your priorities before you decide on formats or frequency. Ask yourself questions like: - Do we need to build more brand awareness, because buyers don’t even know who we are?
- Do we need to get more traffic to our website?
- Do we need to do a better job of engaging online visitors?
- Do we need more email subscribers, and more contact names for sales?
- Do we need to do a better job of nurturing our leads, or cross-selling products to our customers?...
Now that the buzz and media frenzy about the demise of RadioShack and the analysis of why by Wall Street and other experts is beginning to subside, another consideration should be examined. What happens to brands that do not remain relevant, stop innovating and sit on their hind quarters? Well in short, they RadioShack….
In a global world, brands need to speak a lot of different customers’ languages. And, as mobile, social and software increasingly break down traditional communications borders to transform how brands communicate with consumers, marketing leaders are facing new strategic challenges as they look to develop global marketing fluency....
A much-ballyhooed Gallup study uncovered some ugly “truths” about social media, including a reputed inability to influence purchasing decisions. According to the study, 62 percent of Americans say Facebook, Twitter and their ilk have no influence on whether they purchase a product.
Although asking consumers to accurately recount the advertising methods that ultimately drove them to purchase is likely a fool’s errand, many marketers who have attempted to correlate standard social metrics to sales and other conversions have struggled to make a connection.
As a result, in many marketing shops the number of likes, shares and retweets a brand receives daily is lessening in importance. But that doesn’t mean social media offers nothing of value — advanced marketers are leveraging social data for reasons beyond direct marketing tactics....
Big Data holds the potentially to describe target customers with an accuracy and level of detail unfathomable only a decade ago. While old-school marketing efforts were limited to things like tracking returns on direct mail campaigns, or number of subscribers to newsletters, modern marketers can have data on people’s exercise habits, digital clicking behavior, time spent on various sites, purchasing history, personal preferences based on social media postings, time awake, time spent in the car, caloric intake, and almost anything else you can imagine.
So it makes sense that marketers would be chomping at the Big Data bit.
But how should marketers leverage this new quantified customer landscape in the best way?
So how are we to respond? I believe that no matter what your business is, you need to become the CEO of a software company. Software must be your differentiator. Software must be your competitive advantage. Software must be integrated, ingested, and ingrained in every aspect of your offering. Software must become your foundation so that you’re freed to build the rest of your offering, rather than constantly defending against new challenges posed by voracious software.
Whether you’re starting a social media marketing plan from scratch or redefining an existing social media strategy, we’ve found that taking a moment to reflect on some key questions can be a really valuable exercise.
These Big Important questions—capital “B,” capital “I”—can help point you down the best path with your social media efforts and ensure that the time you spend is aimed at the right places and toward your top goals.
I’ve listed here 25 of the questions that I’ve found most helpful when coming up with social media strategies for my personal brand and for sharing with Buffer. Plus, I’m happy to share how I think about answering these questions as well. It’d be great to hear your thoughts and experience on the topic, too!...
Each year we see continuous change and growth in the digital arena. As such there is a regular flow of new digital insights and information to keep on top of - a consuming task for any business leader. Last year we released Five digital strategy reports you should read from 2013. Given the great feedback, we've once again selected four reports released in 2014 that provide valuable insights to business leaders looking to build or improve their digital strategy....
A new year has started, and it’s the best time to review past performances and set fresh goals.We have to set team objectives, set marketing budgets and create a plan to conquer the world. Is there a simple and effective way to do this?Let me try to answer this question with the 80-20 Principle....
What are your digital marketing goals for the months ahead?
If you’re looking to increase your content’s social shares (as so many of us are), we’ve got some amazing new research to share on how to create an ideal outreach strategy for your industry.
BuzzStream and Fractl have collaborated to give you a jumpstart on optimizing your outreach for social traction. We analyzed 220 high- and low-engagement websites from 11 major verticals that produce content.
The result? A roadmap for planning for social success with your outreach strategy....
When I went rock climbing for the first time, I had no idea what I was doing. My friends and I were complete newbies about ropes and rappelling and every other bit of jargon and technique that goes with climbing.
Developing a social marketing plan is sort of like rock climbing. Here's a basic checklist to help you get started....
I’ve found that many brands pay for content and software and then realize they don’t know what to do with it. And that’s OK. Content Marketing is still relatively new to many of us and we’re here to help.
I have also seen many ominous signs from brands that showed they just weren’t ready for content marketing. And that’s OK too. Content marketing is a strategic solution to a strategic problem. Content should be an asset inside your company. One that provides a real and measurable ROI. Content is not a cost. And we are here to help show you how.
We created this document, and these 21 questions, to help facilitate the discussion and guide the journey towards a documented content marketing strategy....
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One of my favorite books of all time is David McRaney’s You Are Not So Smart in which he highlights the ways in which we’re deluded into thinking we are rationale individuals and yet we all fall prey to the whims of psychology. The same is true for marketing psychology and I felt compelled to put this guide together on nine ways marketers can use it to influence consumer behaviour....
There’s more to a perfect pricing strategy than economics alone. Alongside input costs, demand, and industry competition, there’s another factor determining the success of your pricing: psychology.
Psychology and marketing go hand in hand. Today, I’m taking a quick look at four psychological principles behind successful pricing strategies. By combining these psychological quirks with a bit of customer insight, adjusting your pricing strategy by as little as a few cents could massively improve your sales....
Think about all the different reasons you can provide value for your consumer base. If you can use those reasons to build a unique and inviting story, you’ll have built a strong brand and satisfied group of customers. Here are some examples of TED talks that exemplified this ability, and have something to teach all of us as marketers:
We tapped the Economist Intelligence Unit to survey almost 500 high-level marketing executives from around the world to get a real sense of what’s on all of your minds.
The results are insightful, encouraging, and exciting. Why? Because when you step back and look at the overall big picture, it tells me that, more than ever, marketing is in charge and the future is really, really bright for marketers everywhere. We are at the center of business and if we make the right investments we are going to find ourselves setting strategy, driving revenue, and shaping the future of our own organizations. A real “Marketing First” world.
I would strongly recommend you read the report in its entirety. There is a ton of insight in here. But let me give you a few of my highlights....
Personalization and mobile were among the fastest growing trends; however, the most successful digital marketers are planning to invest more of their efforts in email marketing. The top marketers also consider marketing automation software a more important part of executing their strategies than the average marketer.
In fact, according to the report, the most successful digital marketers depend heavily on technology and see it as “extremely important” to their marketing strategies. The dependence on technology is underscored by the need for efficiency, with nearly 90 percent of top marketers believe automation is the future of the industry....
“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” – Michael Porter
More than anything else, this quote has been in my mind lately. I think all of us content marketers need to be mindful of this.
As many of you know, I’ve been working with the team on my latest book Content Inc., which will be released at Content Marketing World 2015 in September. In the book, I’m working on dissecting the business models of enormously successful entrepreneurs who grew an audience through content before launching a product (my initial Content Inc. podcast is now available).
At this point, I’m not going to get specific about the individual companies (I’ll leave that for the book and podcast), but we’ve discovered something interesting. In almost all cases, these successful content marketing-driven companies put all their energy into one channel. It was just a blog, just a series of videos, or just a podcast. Then, after many months and years of success, they began to diversify the content offerings. There’s something about building a loyal audience on one channel before giving them additional options....
Hey there, marketer. I’m curious … what’s really going on in that day-to-day work life of yours?
When you say you’re working from home, are you actually being productive? When you have a deadline, do you wait until the last minute? What are you actually doing on LinkedIn? It's time to speak the truth.
Below are 15 graphs and charts showing how we really spend our days....
The leaky bucket theory suggests that companies are always losing customers, so to maintain share, you have to win an equal number of new customers to keep the bucket full, so to speak. To grow share, you have to be especially good at new customer acquisition, or you have to slow the leak.
The idea of plugging the leak became popular with theorists who sold the idea to practical marketers, who believed, without any evidence, that retention is cheaper than acquisition. The most extreme, and fanciful, example was from a 1990 Harvard Business Review article, “Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services,” which alleged that the leak could be plugged for huge gains in profitability. Again, there was no empirical evidence...
As CMI research shows, marketers with a documented content marketing strategy are more effective than those who don’t have a written strategy. Yet, only 27% of B2C and 48% of B2B marketers have developed a plan.
If you lack a written strategy, a one-page plan is a great place to begin. If you have a detailed strategy but struggle to gain traction, boiling it down to one page will make it easier. A one-page strategy can help you:
- Crystalize your content marketing strategy
- Gain stronger buy-in more quickly from executives or clients
- Keep content producers strategically aligned...
This week, I want to share a recent conversation with Marc Mathieu, SVP of Marketing at Unilever. He explains that while marketing used to be about creating a myth and selling, it’s now about finding a truth and sharing it. And to that I say amen. Technology, Marc explains (and as we all know), has changed the way people communicate, making it more open and real-time. Thus, the onus is on us to understand and embed it into our marketing strategies and approach. A few of other things that really resonated with me
For those of you just joining us (and perhaps still devising your New Year’s resolutions), welcome. I encourage you to check out my post kicking off this series. The posts are focused on conversations that The Economist Intelligence Unit has had with six marketing visionaries, folks like Seth Godin and Aditya Joshi, who discuss the next era of marketing.
During a recent conversation with the EIU, John Hagel, co-chairman of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge, shared his “formula” for marketing success in the future. Here are some of his key points that resonated with me
You know how the song goes - "There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and researching out in the show." At least, that is how we (and most marketers) sing it.
Salesforce's 2014 research revealed more than a few shining lights of marketing insights. The below infographic illustrates some of the standouts. - 86 percent of senior-level marketers agree that it's very important to create a cohesive customer journey. But only 29 percent companies rate themselves as effective at creating a cohesive customer journey. - 53 percent of CMOs say return-on-investment (ROI) is the most important metric they use to measure success.Take a look at this infographic for more insights....
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This is a superb story about marketing a start up, lessons and a blueprint to follow for success. Highly recommended for startups, PR and marketing pros. 10/10