The Golden Rule for Marketing

Golden RuleMarketers are looking for a way to get attention, to get their message across and ultimately to get an advantage over their competitors.

Marketing has become a bad word to many. As a marketer you may even cringe in certain settings when you are asked what you do. Unfortunately, you know the feelings toward marketing is sometimes justified. Even some of the best brands fall for the worst marketing tactics at times. [Read more…]

The Real Reasons Programmatic Ad Buys Fail in B2B Marketing

Fail Road SignProgrammatic buying, driven by real-time bidding (RTB), is the fastest growing segment of digital marketing today. But it isn’t ready yet for today’s enterprise B2B marketer.

Time and time again, B2B marketers fall prey to a wonderful sounding sales pitch for their demand generation plan that goes something like this:

“We use 100’s of data points and sophisticated technology that optimizes every single impression in your campaign. Through our connections to every major exchange, we evaluate billions of impressions across millions of sites every day to find the exact audience and inventory you need at a fraction of the cost you would otherwise pay.”

Wow, sign me up, right? Cost-effective, constantly optimized, highly targeted. Get this program live, I’m taking a vacation!

And then you see the results. [Read more…]

6 Best Tactics for B2B Lead Generation

Fireworks and Ferris WheelYou need to generate leads, right? If you are a B2B marketer, particularly one focused on making a complex sale in a large enterprise, the answer is almost certainly a resounding yes.

The B2B lead generation landscape has changed tremendously in the last decade. Today, B2B lead generation relies heavily on digital marketing and this list reflects that switch.

To make this list, tactics must be cost effective, measurable and scalable. In addition, they need to offer sufficient targeting for the broader marketing efforts of many mid-sized or large enterprise marketers. [Read more…]

Outbound Marketing for Modern B2B Marketers

Inbound MarketingInbound marketing may be the hot topic for B2B marketers today, but today’s big B2B inbound marketers are all active outbound marketers as well.

So how do you pair your outbound marketing activity with your inbound marketing?

Here are six ways outbound marketing can support and scale your inbound marketing efforts and some of the channels that are appropriate for each one. [Read more…]

Everyone Hates Your Most Effective Online Ads

Angry LadyBanner ads work. Banner ads don’t work. Banner ads are just wallpaper.

It doesn’t matter what your opinion is of banner ads, someone out there has a study that will agree with your position.

However, as online publishers develop new “higher impact” online ads, recently published results should serve as a warning to both publishers and advertisers::

Don’t allow ads to come between your audience and the content they are looking for. [Read more…]

Banners Don’t Drive Leads in B2B Marketing

Wrong WayIf your goal is to deliver leads that you can tie back directly to your marketing investment, do not make banners the core of your enterprise B2B marketing program. Period.

Lead generation is still one of the top objectives of enterprise B2B marketers and many B2B publishers continue to propose banners as a way to deliver leads.

Publishers that continue to do this are doing a disservice to marketers that don’t know better and are losing the respect of those that do.

Banners don’t drive leads. Remember that. [Read more…]

An Inconvenient Truth: Your Advertising is Invisible

A growing portion of online advertising is purchased through DSPs and ad networks, and with literally millions of sites that sell ads through these channels, online advertisers cannot rely on knowing every site their ads are on.

With this has come a new wave of quality control issues for online advertisers. According to recent research from ComScore, 31% of banner ads don’t ever have the chance to be seen.

So how many banners really go unseen? Here is a summary of 2011 online advertising in the US, based on data from ComScore: [Read more…]

Online Marketers are Creepy

A creepy alligator has been stalking me. Yes, an alligator. Ads for HostGator, perpetually offering 20% off, have been on nearly every site I visit. Unfortunately for HostGator, I already chose a hosting provider, and now, I’m tired of HostGator’s advertising and their alligator mascot.

Retargeting ads are inexpensive and for online direct marketers, they usually perform very well on click rate, conversion rate and cost per conversion metrics. However, like companies that once used telemarketing during the dinner hour, some companies are focusing on measurement and forget about their audience. [Read more…]