What can an ancient text do to help your digital marketing?

Sun Tzu's The Art of War is a widely studied piece of literature, so communicating its principles from reading it feels a little like learning to drive a car by watching a movie with a car chase in it. What I'd immediately remembered (from reading it 9-10 years ago) was that the book itself is short and powerful. Each chapter layers onto what was taught in an earlier chapter. Despite the title indicating otherwise, it's part science and part philosophy; it centres around the idea of winning without conflict, by competing based on position, not through 'warfare'. This is immediately powerful and relevant to marketers with experience in brand or marketing strategy. I think that you can summarise the whole book (very crudely) with two questions: How do I use information that is available to…

Making people click through your ad is just a small part of the whole marketing process, you also need a great landing page to get them to convert

Paid campaigns are considered to be the best choice if you want to drive quick results, as they really do get those results. However, paid ads aren't all about simply bidding on the right keywords. There are some other things you need to. Making people click through your ad is just a small part of the whole marketing process. The next thing they face is your landing page – a web page you should create for the purposes of your advertising campaign. The effectiveness of this page will influence whether or not you achieve your business goal. Quality landing page creation doesn’t require titanic efforts but it does need some research. The approaches you have to use will depend on your target audience and the…

Now is the time to consider 2020's key digital marketing trends and how you can apply them to your marketing strategy

Whatever marketing results you achieved in 2019, you want to improve on them in 2020. To do this, you need to create a digital marketing strategy that will guide your marketing efforts this year. As you already know, marketing trends get outdated fast. Effective marketing strategies five years ago might be recipes for failure today. Therefore, you need to consider the key trends in 2020 and apply them to your digital marketing strategy. This way, you can stay ahead of your competitors and capture more leads and customers. [si_guide_block id="148741" title="Download our Free Resource – Future of marketing report" description="This report highlights five core drivers of future marketing success needed in the omnichannel marketing world."/] Without further ado, here are six key trends in 2020 and how you can apply them…

A marketing operations model integrates people, process and technology across the ecosystem, enabling the marketing organization to deliver the right message.

I’ve been working in the Marketing Operations field for almost 15 years now, helping CMOs build operating models to allow their teams, agencies, and martech vendors to work in a coordinated way, leveraging technology and data, complying with policies, and operating within efficient and effective standards. The motivation for implementing these marketing operating models is simple and best stated by Michael Porter: “While Strategy is the differentiator for creating competitive advantage, operational efficiency is a prerequisite”. Indeed, such a model integrates people, process and technology across the ecosystem, enabling the marketing organization to deliver the right message to the intended audience in a multi-channel world. It provides a common framework to deliver the marketing vision and strategy, by breaking down the silos – across departments, functions, business units and geographies. …

Choosing a new (or right) content management system and digital commerce platform sits at the forefront of a company’s digital transformation strategy and, ultimately, success

The term "re-platforming" typically is not a simple process of migration from one type of vendor to another – it is typically a chance for a brand to re-imagine their entire digital experience and take a critical look at long-term goals. Some industry experts say a CMS only lasts a company five years, which should line up perfectly with the ebb and flow of your organization’s changing mission objectives and directional shifts. Such a large organizational undertaking as moving to a new platform will come with a cost (in time, money and effort) and focus – why not take complete advantage and have a critical look at what the present goals of your company are? As an organization, Episerver ends up facilitating many of these future-setting conversations with…

... and what they might mean for 2020

Seasoned visitors to the Smart Insights blog will no doubt agree that there’s an abundance of, well, smart insights to take in on a daily basis. With digital and marketing constantly evolving, marketers have to work hard to keep up with the rapid pace of change and Smart Insights plays this role perfectly, providing up-to-date guidance, tips and advice on a huge range of topics. There’s a handy function on the Smart Insights blog that lets visitors sort posts by both recency and popularity. But rather than talk about what others have found most interesting in 2019, I thought I’d outline some of the insights that have educated and inspired me this year and how they’re likely to influence my thinking further in 2020. [si_blog_banner_cta]

Stories and stats that stood out in 2019

Looking back over the last twelve months, I was surprised by the breadth of…

Chart of the Day: The Role Various Types of Media Play in People's Lives

When it comes to media intake we have a plethora of types that are at our disposal. These different types are used by people in different ways and often serve different purposes for our expectations. We take a look at how this translates when asked: "Thinking about the five types of media, select the one that best fits each description below." At first, glance, when you look at the chart there is a clear winner…

Understand marketing management team strategies that will set you apart from the competition

If you’re planning a business campaign or venture, you need to form a killer marketing management team. It will ensure enhanced visibility of your brand and a higher potential for your business or company.

Creating Killer Marketing management strategies with your team

Here are five killer marketing management team strategies that you should implement:

1: Prioritise a content strategy

If you want to promote your company or products, it’s essential to prioritize online content. Having good content sets your website apart from your competitors and delivers the correct message to your customers. Content marketing includes creating and sharing information such as blog posts, news, videos, white papers, infographics, how-to guides, case studies and photos and is one of the best ways to market your website and your business or products. If you have great visuals, videos,…

How frequently are people shopping these days? Which channels do they prefer? What’s their motivation? These are all shifting variables – challenges for retailers who are trying hard to stay relevant and competitive in this consumer-driven world. To gain insight into these changing trends, we surveyed consumers in the US and the UK about their shopping preferences. See what we learned and how it can help you get the right message in front of the right customer at the right time.…

Whether you outsource a deep learning solution to a vendor or bring that expertise in-house, here’s what marketers need to do to make deep learning work.

Technology continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible for marketers. While most marketing executives understand that software can drive growth, not everyone is familiar with the underlying technologies that power the latest tools. That’s okay because your job is to put software to work, not put it together. But a basic understanding of how some of these tools work can allow you to make better decisions about where to invest your budget. With that in mind, let’s take a look at one technology that is typically accompanied by a lot of hype but little clarity: deep learning. [si_blog_banner_cta]

Making sense of deep learning

Modern marketing teams are concentrated on full-funnel engagements and want to track every interaction prospects have with their company through the website, content, events, and…