In the world of B2B management, there are numerous head scratching efforts going on as we peer ahead into 2012 and beyond. Primarily, it has to do with how to get from here to there. One of the issues faced by B2B companies with the high degree of uncertainty, global economic turbulence, and a rapidly changing buyer driven and social world is figuring out where the from here to there actually leads to.
Recent buyer and management interviews tell me a lot of head scratching continues to go on. Plenty of internal angst and debate is taking place on how to get from here to there, what is needed, what should be done, and what a lot of people think. The what to do aspects of internal planning usually center on strategy and tactical questions such as:
How do we grow revenues?
What can we do to generate more leads?
How do we expand business with existing customers?
What type of content will drive more traffic to our web site?
Should we get more active with social media?
Do we need to improve our product quality and offering?
Should we boost marketing and sales budgets?
Do we need to hire more people?
What should our pricing... Read more
Tags: buyer experience, buyer insight, buyer persona, buyer research, buyergraphics, buyerology, content marketing, marketing, qualitative research, socialmedia, Targeting, trends
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Search, Social Media, Targeting, Websites | No Comments »
You know what you are doing with your social media marketing. I know you know what you are doing. Even though the senior management at your organization knows you know what you are doing, too, there is often a disconnect between the way a digital marketer talks about success and the way the board views the success of the business.
The goal of this article is to make your job a little easier by helping you frame your digital marketing successes in a way that even the most skeptical CFO would want to support you.
First, a disclaimer: this is not to say in any way that senior executives don’t get new trends or digital marketing. Remember how GM’s Bob Lutz was a trailblazer in corporate blogging way back in 2004? Or what Tony Hsieh of Zappo’s is doing on Twitter? Though for every Bob Lutz or Tony Hsieh, there are those that do not inherently understand the value of your digital marketing. For instance, unless you are calculating the value of a Facebook fan, sometimes saying you got a large percent increase in fans from one quarter to another is not enough to illustrate your marketing accomplishments. The problem is in... Read more
Tags: digital, Digital Marketing, marketing, metrics, online marketing, reporting analytics, social marketing, Strategy, Targeting
Posted in Opinions, Social Media, Targeting, Web Analytics | 1 Comment »
Posted by
Tom Edwards on February 9th, 2012 at 11:50 am
We have all dealt with "YAN" in one form or another over the past few years. YAN stands for Yet Another Network login. This stems from brands using proprietary authentication methods vs. leveraging Open Authorization (OAuth) such as Facebook's Graph API (OAuth 2.0). To put it simply, brands like to use their own username & passwords vs. allowing a user to login with their Facebook or Twitter ID's.
YAN is an even bigger issue when combined with the fact that 88% of online buyers had at some point intentionally left registration information blank or used incorrect information when signing up for a new account, up 12% from 2010. Also, the expectation of consumers for brands to support Social Sign-On has increased significantly as eMarketer and Janrain recently reported that consumer desire for Social Sign-On has increased to 77% of US Online Buyers in 2011.
The importance of leveraging a single sign on authentication platform that is socially enabled becomes the key to unlocking a brands social CRM strategy. The reason for this is that Social Sign-On can lower the barrier of entry for a user, increase validity of data via the users social graph as well as increase stay rates.
According to recent... Read more
Tags: Benefits of Facebook Open Graph, Benefits of OAuth, Benefits of SSO, BlackFin360, Facebook Open Graph, nike, The Marketing Arm, TheBlackFin, Tom Edwards
Posted in Emerging Platforms, Social Media, Targeting, Word of Mouth | No Comments »
The line between "earned" media and "paid" media continues to blur in the world of news, and it has become even more crucial for PR pros to establish relationships with media contacts that uphold the tradition of evaluating content for news’ sake.
As any PR pro who has attempted to make media calls in a foreign country knows all too well, there exists a culture of pay-to-play. “You want some editorial coverage in my publication? Sure. Our ad deadlines are at the end of the month. What will you be purchasing…” It’s on the surface and it’s expected. In the U.S., there has always been a fine line between editorial coverage and advertising but most media outlets here have upheld the integrity of PR as a "price-less" mechanism for sharing the news society needs and values. However, as times have changed and advertising revenues have dipped, there has been more pressure on everyone to sell.
As more outlets have shifted towards pay-to-play placements, it has become even more crucial for PR pros to establish relationships with media contacts that uphold the tradition of evaluating content for news’ sake. In addition to fostering true collaborative connections, communications professionals must mine and evaluate opportunities... Read more
Tags: news media, pay to play, PR, public relations, relationship management
Posted in Targeting, Word of Mouth | No Comments »
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