Think about the last 3 pieces of content you created. Did they have a common theme, or advance a common story? Or were they distinct "one-offs", unrelated to each other? Maybe they were the result of a looming content calendar that just needed to be filled... When it comes to content, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its...
Alignment between your marketing and sales departments doesn’t happen overnight. For example, when a B2B prospect visits your website, they most likely need to be connected to an account manager and salesperson that can address their specific needs and questions. A B2C prospect, however, is much more likely to explore your website and fill out an inquiry form all on...
The hotel app worked like a charm. Not only was I able to choose my room, I bypassed registration and used a digital key to open the door. Excited about this experience, I shared it on Twitter tagging a couple of CX experts, one of whom said, "love that too but at Doubletree, it's worth stopping at the front desk...
With the average tenure for corporate CMOs clocking in at just over 4 years, marketing professionals in these roles don't have a lot of time to make their mark. The result is a fast-paced, competitive and demanding work environment that requires a very particular set of skills (to paraphrase Liam Neeson). However, many of these same skills can be effectively...
Data. It might not yet be the king of the marketing realm, yet some in the industry already treat it as an established monarch. Well, not according to Greg Welch, the highly respected search consultant at Spencer Stuart. Welch believes that CMOs may have swung too far to the data/performance side of their jobs at the risk of forgetting their role...
Groucho Marx once famously quipped, "If you've heard this story before, don't stop me, because I'd like to hear it again.” Unfortunately, many story-obsessed brands seem to agree that telling the same story over and over again, with only the names changed, will surely result in a good ending. In fact, if a brand repeatedly tells the same story, audiences may...
We're hearing a lot about AI these days and increasingly it's being incorporated into various marketing technology platforms as well. This week, I had the good fortune of receiving a demo from an up-and-coming social media management platform that incorporated a subtle, yet very effective AI application in its offerings. In a nutshell, the demonstrator selected a long-form article from the company...
The stats are undeniable—few of us like going it alone, at least when it comes to buying stuff in unfamiliar categories. On the consumer side, the Spiegel Research Center reports that nearly 95% of shoppers read online reviews before buying. And on the business-to-business front, a G2 Crowd and Heinz Marketing study showed that 92% of buyers are more likely...
Ad agencies are notoriously poor at applying their craft to their own brands, but martech companies don't have that problem. Marketo and Hubspot are masters of inbound marketing, in which brands draw potential customers to them with tactics such as content marketing and search optimization. Salesforce is really good at using Salesforce to sell itself. And Demandbase, a leader in...
While Gens Y & Z are famously prone to FOMO, my unscientific survey of hundreds of CMOs suggests many suffer from FOFB, "fear of falling behind." This fear manifests itself in positive ways like intense curiosity, networking with peers and continuous learning. On the flip side, it can also lead to embracing robotic technologies (i.e. bots, programmatic, AI, phone trees,...