Digital marketing systems, CRM roll-out and Big Data project failure rates exceed 50%
Long ago, before the World Wide Web (yes such a time does exist, it was in the late 1980s, early 1990s), I worked as an IT project manager managing teams building marketing systems for clients and packaged solutions used worldwide. So IT project failure is still 'close to my heart', particularly since now with my focus on digital marketing we hear that many project failures occur raising questions about the Return on Marketing Technology (RoMT). For example, you hear shocking statistics like these bandied about:
63% of CRM initiatives fail
70% of Marketing Automation projects fail (actually a bogus statistic)
84% of digital transformation projects end in failure
They're certainly shocking and raise HUGE questions about the way marketing technology is procured and implemented today. Yet we need to be careful about their validity. As Venture Beat…
Knowledge base software options to consider
A several years ago, knowledge base software wasn’t as accessible and easy to use as it is today. Nowadays, there are many SaaS providers, and these tools are far more sophisticated than before, and optimized to perfectly meet the demands of any line of work. So, if you are a rookie entrepreneur who wants to optimize his business and boost its efficiency, then you should consider implementing a knowledge base.
The following article will serve as a guide, and show you which aspects of knowledge base software you need to consider before getting one. It will also list some of the quality knowledge base tools for beginners and point out their strong points.
What do you need?
Since there are various types of knowledge base software or SaaS providers, you need to go after those that are specifically tailored for your needs. Most of these are…
Which digital marketing activities you should keep in-house or outsource?
The companies that continue to move to a more integrated digital model while managing their Digital Transformation process, may be left wondering which activities are best to be outsourced and which are preferable to keep in-house. It is very common for companies to outsource at least part of their digital capability, but this is likely to affect how well they can move to an integrated model. But what are the particular disciplines most suited to outsourcing and what is preferable to keep in-house?
The ‘Slow Burners’ vs. Campaign Based
When we think of digital marketing activities, there are many that need to be managed, but let’s consider the following eight key disciplines covering paid-owned and earned media and managing the customer experience should sit within an organisation:
1. Email marketing
2. Social Media
3. Paid Search
4. SEO
5. Display advertising and retargeting
6.…
Simon Swan interviews Digital Marketing consultant David Sayce
One thing remains consistent for the role of the digital marketer, whether client side, agency or as a consultant – disruption. The need to embrace change, continuous learning and help mentor and coach colleagues and businesses to digital best practice are the skills needed to help develop your career. There are a number of factors why pursuing a career in digital is a good choice, take a look at this article in The Drum which highlighted the UK is facing a major digital skills gap.
I caught up with digital marketing consultant, David Sayce to question him on some real life questions as to the role of the digital marketer and how this has changed. We discuss a number of areas including the key challenges for businesses and what they need to be doing to retain digital marketing staff, the advice David would offer brands…
The current state of the digital marketing skills landscape.
The results from our survey of over 700 marketing professionals are in! The responses have allowed us to develop a picture of the current state of digital marketing skills. They come from across the UK and US, but were predominantly from UK marketers, so help us to accurately understand the digital skills landscape of the UK marketing industry in 2016.
Marketers tend to fancy themselves as fairly skilled in strategy, content marketing and social media marketing. Although interestingly no one area had over 50% ranking themselves as skilled or highly skilled, and a considerable 38% also said they wanted to improve their strategy and planning skills. This was the skill marketers were most likely to say they wanted to improve.
At the other end of the spectrum, there is a real shortage of more technical expertise like coding, mobile marketing and graphic design. A…
Helpful tips for jobseekers looking to break into tech
The future of the tech industry is as promising as ever—and it bodes well for today's job seekers. In 2015, the United States created roughly 6.5 million jobs in the tech industry. Recruiters predict that IT jobs will continue to grow by up to 22% through the year 2020.
While Silicon Valley in California is considered as the home of the main tech startups, other cities like NYC also have a consistently growing tech industry. In fact, New York outpaced Silicon Valley regarding growth with a 33% increase in tech jobs since 2009.
Source: Business Insider
Despite the ongoing rise of tech jobs, millennials and members of the “Gen Z” are faced with one dilemma—competition.
Tech startups know that, if they want to keep up with today’s level of competition, they…
Digital trumps offline when it comes to return on investment
A survey of 200 US retail marketing executives with the power to make budget allocation decisions shows their views of whether digital or offline channels give greater ROI. Over three quarters reported that digital channels gave them better ROI in 2016 than offline channels.
This is good news for digital marketers who can show their strategies and tactics are paying off, at least in the context of US retail. It's also good for those pushing their company to engage in a meaningful digital transformation program. This can be a useful top-level piece of evidence to build the case for greater spending on digital.
Source: Retailmenot
Sample: 200 US retail marketers
Date: July 2016
…
Which marketing skills are most sought after by CMOs?
This week, we're launching a survey on Digital Marketing Skills - we'd appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to give your personal views on digital skills development and you'll receive a free copy of the report.
We've designed the research to be quick to complete, but useful and the survey should take less than 3 minutes.
If you complete the survey you will get a copy of the report recommendations with advice to develop your career in marketing.
Take our skills survey.
Since we're covering demand for skills for digital media and technology, I thought it would be interesting to look at the demand for the broader marketing skills-set. Recruitment specialists Spencer-Stuart have recently published their 2016 CMO Summit Survey Marketing Skills…
2016. A Bot Odyssey
Bots are the marketing equivalent of drones, but a couple of years behind. A few years ago no one had heard of them and they didn't really work very well (except the sinister military sort), but now everyone and their mum seems to have a drone, and the media is a buzz with ways drones could transform different industries.
All the big movers and shakers in the industry are agreed that bots will be the next big thing (we've had content marketing, marketing automation, big data, now bots are the buzzword of choice). MIT technology review told us that the bots are coming back in April, whilst in the same month Facebook opened up its messenger platform for people to build Bots. The little chart of the left shows interest in messenger bots recently according to Google trends.
Are bots…
How to structure your thinking when planning for the future
You can't predict the future. I don't care how smart you are, how prestigious the Univeristy you got your MBA from is, or what your horoscope said. The top economists never saw the 2008 financial crisis coming. The top political commentators didn't think Donald Trump would win the Republican nomination. Even the pollsters couldn't get the result of the 2015 UK general election right, and they were only having to predict what would happen the next day.
So given that you aren't going to be able to work out what will happen in future, you shouldn't base your business planning on a single scenario, which we can broadly define as 'business as usual'. Instead, you should plan for multiple scenarios, which will allow you be more responsive to future changes that will impact your business.
But how do you know what scenarios to plan…
