Digital lead generation through content marketing was once viewed as an expensive and unproven technique. As recently as 2010, surveys showed that up to a third of executives were unsure that the strategies were worth their time according to a recent article by Nicholas Kinports. That’s not far from the results that we got when […]
Multi-Channel Marketing.
5 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid
If there are any marketers out there who don’t have social media marketing on their 2012 marketing plan, they’re a definite minority. Nearly everyone agrees that it’s among the most cost-effective tools available to us. But there are five common social media mistakes that can be quite costly – so make sure that you plan […]
17 Fun Freebies that Build Thought Leadership
If you’re a smart marketer, you know that the easiest sale of all is a sale to someone who already knows, likes and trusts you. One of the best ways to create loyalty long before a customer buys from you and position yourself as a thought leader is to offer a valuable freebie that ties into […]
Do U Txt? No? U Will Soon!
Marketers: Do U Txt? If you don’t use SMS — those 160-character messages exchanged on mobile phones — for your marketing now, you probably will before the year 2014. That’s the prediction from market research giant Gartner, which believes t hat global mobile or smart phone access to the Internet will surpass computer access by that […]
The Distributed Marketing Circle of Life
Recently, I heard a very smart marketer say that his job wouldn’t be tenable without his “circle of life” – a web of vendors and services he relies on to manage, integrate and optimize campaigns. He’s not alone. Forrester, Gartner, and IDC all predict that marketing automation will continue to be a top investment priority […]
Search Marketing in Google’s New World
Early in 2011, marketers got a wake-up call in the form of something called The Panda Algorithm Update. What’s a Panda algorithm, and why was it a wake-up call for marketers? The Panda algorithm is one of Google’s top-secret formulas for determining page rank — that is, where a particular web page will show up […]
6 Sources for Legal, Low-cost or Free Images
This image shows two weeks of post headlines & illustrations from this blog. The free or low-cost sources the images, clockwise from upper left, are: a photo of the editor’s grandson that she took, a chart from a survey we conducted created in Excel, a licensed cartoon ($12), a free cartoon, a scanner image of […]
Corporate Holiday Gift Etiquette
Guest post by Kevin Wessner, Senior Vice President, MarketingFX A gift basket that can be shared may be a good option when budgets are tight. I’ve been in the business of supplying promotional items to corporations for many years, and every year, I get questions like these about this time of year: I want to send […]
Baiting Your Hook for Retweets
Any avid fisherman will tell you that to catch anything, you need the right bait. Twitter is a lot like fishing: to get noticed by the mass of fish swimming by in the Twitter stream, you need the right bait. Step one is deciding what you want to catch. Are you angling for retweets, clicks, […]
Why Marketing Automation Matters for 2012
By Edgar Rodriguez, EVP Marketing, Distribion, Inc. Marketing automation isn’t a new idea. Software platforms that enable marketing and sales departments to increase lead conversion by leveraging captured data to automate and streamline communications and audience segmentation have been around in various forms for almost two decades. Distributed marketing platforms are a bit newer – […]
How to Create Contagious Content
Earlier today, Distributed Marketing Blog Editor Deb McAlister-Holland joined MyPRGenie for a session on the tips and techniques that marketers can use to help content “go viral” – even without a video. It was a huge success, attended by a wide range of PR people, marketers and bloggers who want to be heard and draw traffic […]
1950’s Rules to Drive Customer Engagement Now
Legendary radio personality Paul Harvey formulated three rules of audience engagement back in the 1950’s – and those decades-old rules can help marketers jump-start social media and email marketing efforts today. His 1-2-3 approach to audience engagement is particularly applicable to social media and email marketing, even though he formulated them decades before either one […]