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Social Media Marketing On Steroids

The CMO Council recently reported that seventy-nine percent of marketers are expected to implement some form of social media technology platform this year —from community building (30 percent), social monitoring and data mining (30 percent), and social media tracking and analytics (19 percent) to automation platforms that will help take the next leap in optimizing social engagements and relationships.

The Power of Digital Marketing

You might think digital marketing is already “mainstream,” but the bulk of marketing budgets still goes toward offline activities such as trade shows, radio, TV, and direct mail. According to a research study conducted in Australia and New Zealand, around 61% of marketing budgets is still spent on offline activities.

Email Marketing: Timing is Everything

Remember the days before the Do Not Call list? We all had landlines that rang at home, and since this was before the days of caller ID, you never knew if the person calling was a friend with an emergency or a telemarketer calling to sell you magazine subscriptions, “limited-edition” commemorative coins, or something else you didn’t need. Often, telemarketers struck as you were sitting down to a family dinner after a long day at work. Do you remember how annoyed you felt that the caller was intruding on your family time? How effective do you think those calls were overall?

TMI: Too Much Information

A few weeks ago, we posted a series about predictions in the marketing industry for 2014. The insights came from industry blogs and people calling themselves (or introduced as) experts in the field. Yesterday, I found an interesting flip side to those posts: The results of a comprehensive survey by StrongView of marketing leaders’ actual plans for 2014 (and the accompanying infographic).

Do You Accept this Challenge?

Over the past few weeks, we’ve posted a survey of past (and current) predictions about the future of the marketing industry. Along with those predictions of trends in the industry, many of the sources I surveyed also pointed out what they think the big challenges of 2014 will be. Whether or not they end up being 100% accurate, it’s helpful to at least consider how your company will handle the complex realities that arise as technology advances.

Toast to the Future: Part 3

Happy New Year! As you’re recovering from your epic New Year’s Eve, planning your marketing strategies for 2014 probably isn’t your first choice in recuperating activities. Unfortunately, time marches on – which means you’d better start reading up.

Toast to the Future Part 2

It’s that time of year again. Websites are posting lists of all kinds – from silly, entertainment-centric round-ups to more serious, business-minded tallies. It’s also the time for marketing blogs post their industry forecasts for the next year.

In Part I of this post, I surveyed past predictions that marketing news sources made in 2010 and 2011. While most of these were unsurprising, a few were notably on-target. Today I’ll cover predictions made for 2012 and 2013.