Digital budgets increase in 2016
Good news for digital marketers where they can make the business case for more investment in digital media and technology! Over half of digital marketing departments will see growing budgets this year. Some 55% of organisations will be either increasing both their digital budget along with the overall spend or shifting existing budget to digital, leaving digital with more to play with. Only 11% are decreasing digital budgets, and less than a third are just keeping it the same.
Provided you can prove ROI and justify digital spending, your budget should be fairly safe. The all important analytics will prove crucial here. Make sure to have data to hand to prove things like how much value your customer acquisition strategy is generating when you compare acquisition costs to customer lifetime value. If you're lucky you'll be in the half of digital marketers who see their budget increased…
How marketers can use a range of skills to boost their careers
As digital marketing (and marketing in general) continues to evolve, so does the thinking associated with what makes a modern marketer. There have been numerous posts about T-shaped marketing, the Pi-shaped marketer, growth hacking and even ninja rockstars! (see more silly digital marketing job titles)
Whilst I’m conscious that there are already plenty of marketing buzzwords around, I nevertheless thought it worth exploring another concept: the full-stack marketer.
However, I’d like to use this post to look at the full-stack marketer not as another piece of marketing jargon but more as a mind-set or working philosophy. I don’t believe the full-stack marketer is a substitute for growth hacking, T-shaped or Pi-shaped marketing. Instead, all this thinking should be considered with the same objective in mind: to give marketers a framework and opportunity to grow and develop.
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5 reasons to develop a Skunkworks
As organisations embark on the journey to digital transformation, they may find their organisational structures limit innovation if they are more akin to a company geared to compete and survive in the industrial revolution era.
The problem of digital silos
A common problem in many larger organisations is that given the importance of digital marketing, digital skills are centralised in one or more locations, so creating digital silos. So pockets of digital knowledge become dispersed internally rather than creating a joined up structure with different marketing teams working on marketing activities which integrate digital marketing.
In the long-term, integrating your digital marketing team is an essential requirement for organisations wanting ro re-invent their proposition to a changing digital world, being led by disruptive digital technology and new ways to reach new audiences and new channels.
But at the same time, businesses need to stay agile and review the latest…
Growth Hacker Marketing Report by Ryan Holiday - Book Review covering 4 key areas of focus for Growth Hacking
A little while back Dave Chaffey asked in a Smart Insights post, "What can businesses learn from growth hacking". This post introduced the Growth Hacking approach and how it originated in startup online businesses and explained how more traditional businesses are creating growth hacking roles to support conversion optimisation.
In this post, I'm adding more depth through a review of a Growth Hacking book I've been taking a look at recently. In Growth Hacker Marketing, Ryan Holiday explains more on this new approach which is being applied from the in the marketing departments of the smallest businesses to the largest blue-chip organisations. It prompts questions about how traditional marketing departments operate. According to Google Trends, the rise in searches associated with this new skillset is on the rise, could…
How to use Growth Hacking to get real results
The growth hacking approach (also referred to as ‘agile marketing’ and ‘growth marketing’) has generated a lot of excitement as a dynamic approach to boost awareness, lead generation and conversion.
Sean Ellis, a marketer and entrepreneur who has worked for companies such as Dropbox and Eventbrite, devised the term ‘Growth Hacking’ in 2010. Originating from Silicon Valley, growth hacking has successfully been used to build high-growth companies such as Hotmail, PayPal, Twitter, Airbnb, Instagram and Uber. Ellis says:
“Startups live and die by their ability to drive customer acquisition growth…[they] are under extreme resource constraints and need to figure out how to break through the noise to let their target customers know they have a superior solution for a critical problem…the best growth hacks take advantage of the unique opportunities available in a connected world where digital experiences can spread rapidly.”
Growth hacking is…
Does your business need a Head of Growth Hacking?
Have you noticed the emergence of the term “growth hacking” for describing a marketing approach. I did and dismissed it as a fad most relevant for SaaS (Software as a Service) / single product startup businesses. But recently, I’ve noticed some new job descriptions in this area which prompted me to take another look. In particular, I noticed that The Guardian is currently advertising for a Head of Growth Hacking...
“The Guardian is committed to a “digital-first” strategy and in order to support this, we are seeking a Head of Growth Hacking to manage a virtual, cross functional team focused on GNM’s growth hacking plan. This role is responsible for finding innovative ways to accelerate adoption, use, and retention to drive up audiences to the Guardian’s digital product portfolio”.
There are other jobs available too in UK-based startups such as Gumtree, MyBuilder and…
Top sources for comparing marketing software providers
As digital marketing has involved from being a niche activity to one at the core of most marketing plans, so too has the market for software design evolved to help digital marketing get the best results. From publishing tools, CMS, Social listening and content personalisation tools, there are loads of tools within each category, and it can be tricky to know which one will be right for your business.
Just in case your not fully aware of the daunting size of the scale of the problem of selecting digital marketing software, this infographic from Scott Brinker does a good job of highlighting the massive variety of marketing technology available today. You won't be able to see without clicking for an enlarged version, but there are more than 3000 tools in the infographic! Hardly simple!
So…
Latest report on marketing hiring from McKinley Marketing Partners shows strong demand for digital skills
We hear from plenty of thought leaders that we are now in a 'post-digital' age, that we shouldn't be siloing digital and so digital is a pointless term. Whilst we agree digital should permeate the entire organisation and marketing department, rather than being a 'silo', that doesn't mean the word digital is irrelevant. In fact, specifically digital skills are in demand like never before, and this is highly apparent in the latest hiring trends.
Looking back at the data from 2015, we can see that digital marketers are highly sought after, being the most hired type of marketing professional in 2015. Of the companies surveyed 39% hired a new digital marketer, whilst only 1 in four hired a new project manager. This is interesting as in 2014 project manager was in the top three most hired positions in…
Our look at the latest trends in digital media and technology and how they will impact marketing in 2016
At the start of each year, there is always a lot of interest in predictions for the year ahead and the latest marketing trends."What's Hot?" and "What's Next?" are always the most common questions when I give webinars and talks!
What are the latest digital marketing trends for 2017?
I originally wrote this post in early 2016 and, as you'll know, the digital marketing world moves fast, so in a new post, I have recommendations on key trends for 2017. Hopefully, you'll find different ideas there. This post looks at integration and the challenges of digital transformation, the new post looks at 5 different types of trends each business should consider and specific trends that should change your approach.
Digital Marketing trends for 2017 : 8 megatrends affecting every business
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What are employers looking for from digital marketers?
A 2016 marketing salary survey from Marketing Week is interesting reading since it sheds light on some of the issues marketers face in their roles, and highlights issues that are important for managers and HR departments to consider if they want to hang on to their marketing talent. It also highlights the demand for keeping digital skills up to date with the latest marketing trends, and a general willingness among marketers to invest their time and effort into developing their skills, which is always great to see.
The survey uses results from 4,300 marketing professionals. So although there may be some selection bias in the sample, it is plenty for inferring trends in the industry.
At Smart Insights, we're keen to support the development of digital skills as shown by our Managing Digital Skills survey. So, for us, a key finding was that only 16%…
