Chart of the Day: Do you need a separate, defined digital marketing plan or should it be integrated with your marketing strategy?
In 2017 you will often hear that we live and work in a post-digital world. That is to say since consumers naturally use a mix of traditional and digital media, as businesses, we shouldn't treat digital media and communications separately from other media and they should be integrated.
'Post-digital' is a compelling idea and I certainly believe that integration of digital activities into all marketing activities is essential, but what is the reality in businesses?
Our recently published research report Managing Digital Marketing in 2017 in collaboration with Technology for Marketing 2017 (where we'll be exhibiting and I'll be speaking on the 27th and 28th of September), shows an interesting pattern of how businesses manage digital marketing through a planned approach:
The green sector…
Chart of the day: Research reports are king! Research reports are the content type that generates the highest conversion rate when used for lead generation
Research reports, video and social media content all provide a high conversion rate.
Reports are viewed as quality content and lead to the highest conversion rates when compared with other types of content. They are helping brands to establish their integrity and credibility.
The report also found:
Over half (56%) use a mix of in-house resources and agency/ third party resources to produce their content for lead generation
Just under half (49%) report that conversions are increasing marginally
Almost 6 in 10 (57%) say that content download forms generate leads with the highest conversion rates, this is followed by webinar registration (42%).
The key takeaway: Research reports and content downloads are performing best for conversion rates. These methods are worth…
Chart of the Day: Only 2% of respondents will invest more than $5 million in the next 12 months - Part 7 of 10
So far in this 10 part series, breaking down Hubspot's State of Inbound 2017 report, we have looked at:
Top business priorities
Inbound marketing - what are your priorities and challenges?
Telesales remains a successful channel for sales representatives
Are marketing models and strategies even effective?
Is your marketing and sales SLA alignment positive?
Is marketing a top source of leads for sales?
For the 7th installment, it's time to see how much money respondents are willing to invest into their marketing efforts in the next 12 months.
Only 2% of respondents said they are willing/ or are going to invest a whopping $5 Million into their marketing efforts. Although a low percentage, this will be reflective…
Tips on how to create a non-profit marketing plan with limited funds
Non-profit organizations face one of the biggest digital marketing challenges of all: having limited funds or no money at all. Nonprofit organizations have to operate and thrive in marketing their cause without spending a substantial amount of money. This is difficult because bigger organizations have the funds to spend on online advertizing.
You can develop a marketing plan that helps navigate the unique challenges of nonprofits, and keep the nonprofit’s budget, objectives, strategy and other important considerations in perspective.
Creating a Nonprofit Marketing Plan
Objectives
What will the proposed marketing efforts achieve? Objectives can include big-picture goals such as educating the public about core issues and connecting with public figures or politicians.
Make your objectives as concrete as possible, for example:
Grow your list of email subscribers
Increase membership by 25% amount
Promote X, Y or Z service
Make sure your list of objectives is in…
10+ sites that are useful for keeping up-to-date with marketing, which do you prefer?
Staying up-to-date and constantly learning is vital in marketing, particularly since so many of the digital marketing platforms like Facebook, Google and LinkedIn are moving targets, with updates every week it seems.
There is always a new update, a new tool to use or a new way of innovating your marketing practices. It begs the question of where is the best place to stay up-to-date, where do you find out about the latest changes to social media platforms or Google algorithms.
At the same time, we need to review new communications strategies, for example, those made possible by inbound and content marketing, marketing automation and artificial intelligence and machine learning.
What sites do you use to keep your marketing knowledge up-to-date?
Regular readers of Smart Insights will know that we look to alert readers to the biggest changes which could benefit your…
Use our RACE framework to discover your ability to Plan, Reach, Act, Convert and Engage
Two years ago we launched our free interactive marketing benchmarking tool to help members rate their 'digital readiness' for digital marketing as a whole and for the key channels like Search, Social media and Email marketing.
Well, it's proved popular since it helps members score where they are now and then gives recommendations of how to improve in the future - to take their skills or marketing results to the next level.
So in our recent UX members refresh - we have made it more prominent and put all the benchmarking tools in place. We also renamed it to 'capability grader'.
Introducing our upgraded, free interactive tool!
I'm also writing this post to let members know about a simplification to the most popular digital strategy grader which you may want to try - it's here (available if you're signed in):
…
Internal links are important for ranking high on search engines
As a lanky teenager, basketball was always my sport of choice at school; I scored three pointers for fun, towering above my classmates to effortlessly send the ball sailing into the net. (Or at least that’s how I like to remember the pinnacle of my sporting achievements.)
Now, as a seasoned SEO professional, I’m reminded of my days shooting hoops when I come across websites that neglect to build internal links. It may sound a strange analogy, but hear me out.
Placing an internal link from one page to another is like a free throw, a simple chance to score points unopposed. Links give you a chance to direct website visitors to related content, while, in the background, they also point search engine bots in the direction of your most important pages,…
How to engage your audience with a customer-focused relationship
It seems to be a trend in the world of digital marketing: Brands are leaning heavily on their product instead of their customers. Coca-Cola recently rebranded its Coke Zero product to Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, abandoning advertisements about the experiences of people drinking its beverages in favor of a product-oriented focus on ingredients and taste.
Coca-Cola believes this product-centered approach will drive sales and create a loyal culture of followers, but this mindset runs counter to human behavior. An overemphasis on the bells and whistles of a product might work in some industries, but people are far more likely — to the tune of a jaw-dropping 269 percent, according to one study — to do business with companies that take their needs into account.
Think about the last time you tried to buy a car.…
A study from market research company Forrester found that more marketers are focusing on performance-based marketing. Performance marketing is “the new normal,” according to Forrester. Performance advertising is a competitive differentiator today; it will be table stakes tomorrow.
What is performance marketing? Performance marketing uses clearly defined and measurable business objectives as the basis of payment or optimization. This includes cost-per-action (CPA) models, such as affiliate marketing, and programmatic ads that optimize based on real-time performance metrics.
How Performance Marketing Works
The Basics
The CPA model of payment is critical to understanding how performance marketing works. Advertisers and marketing companies are paid only when a specific action, such as a sale, lead or click, is completed.
This model is what separates performance marketing from other forms of advertising. In traditional advertising, fees are paid up front and do not depend on the success of the ads. Advertisers in performance marketing only pay for successful…
How can you improve your account based marketing efforts? Good data.
By now, anyone in business knows that data matters just as much as the technology that uses it. In fact, you could argue that — much like the fuel that runs an engine — the two are completely dependent upon each other.
You can create the most efficient engine on the planet, but it’ll be worthless until you fill it with the right fuel to get those pistons moving. That’s the relationship between data and account-based marketing: Data informs and fuels whatever direction an ABM initiative takes.
Still, most companies attempt to understand the technology instead of the data. Those that are fluent in both can better equip themselves to thrive and reap a competitive advantage. Gaining that edge won’t be easy. In fact, Experian’s 2017 Global Data Management Benchmark Report states that poor data quality plagues 94 percent of U.S.…
