B2B Marketing, Digital Media and Marketing Strategy
Online Marketers are Creepy, but they don’t have to be! Last week, I shared the results of an informal survey about banner ads promoting a site or product you recently viewed. More than 90% of the people I spoke with had a distinctly negative view of these ads and the few that liked them were marketers.
However, retargeting does not need to make online marketers creepy. Here are 7 points to keep retargeting from turning you into a creepy marketer. [Read more…]
Google makes approximately 500 search algorithm changes a year. Looked at another way, Google averages two algorithm changes every business day. Wow.
Many of these changes, like the well publicized rounds of Google’s Panda updates, are designed to remove ways companies have found to game Google’s search results. So how do you keep up with all the changes Google makes?
Focus on the one thing Google is focused on. [Read more…]
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…]
The current trend in digital media is to move online advertising to trading desks, ad exchanges or real time bidding platforms. These platforms provide access to enormous pools of advertising inventory and allow media buyers to cherry pick their exact target audience, based on a wide range of audience data available for targeting.
However, for enterprise B2B marketers, these approaches are not mature enough to broadly support demand generation marketing. The challenges these platforms continue to face are access to sufficient high quality inventory and access to data appropriate for targeting company sizes and roles.
Published market research differs on the relative importance on audience and context, however the research I have seen does not align with the typical B2B marketing audience experience.
The problem: consuming traditional B2B content used for demand generation requires a significant time commitment. Taking the time to dive into a whitepaper or watch a webcast imposes a major time requirement. [Read more…]
Plans are carefully laid. The creative is impactful. The content is compelling. The media surrounds your audience. Search, social and email are integrated in support of the overarching program. But the results are not there.
Your plan is the result of your passion. When someone says it isn’t performing, it is nearly a personal affront, but it shouldn’t be. Doing something that doesn’t work is learning. Continuing to do something that doesn’t work is lunacy.
Let’s skip past setting goals and establishing your metrics. If you are still struggling with this, there are numerous good articles available. When should you optimize your campaign? When are you certain that making a change is better than waiting it out? [Read more…]
KMart’s CMO made waves recently by saying TV, and other traditional channels, are easier to measure than social media.
Social media proponents responded, defending social media’s measurability and highlight the data social media provides. My favorite was this tweet from Jay Baer (who I have a tremendous amount of respect for and I don’t disagree with lightly).
http://twitter.com/#!/jaybaer/status/93742009034084352
The problem is, most social media measurement is myopic. [Read more…]
This is my opinion about the recent IAB, ANA and 4A’s principles for online measurement. If you don’t like rants, or think the advertising associations can do no wrong, stop reading and go back to Lycos. Otherwise, read on and share your reactions in the comments below.
The IAB, ANA and 4A’s recently outlined five measurement principles as part of Making Measurement Make Sense. The objectives, outlined below, are admirable:
The problem is, as someone that has spent the last ten years (gulp) in this industry, the principles and their intended impact are mostly nonsense. [Read more…]
If B2B marketing isn’t dead, it is changing very quickly. But the real change isn’t the marketing, it is how marketing has evolved in response to the evolving buyer.
The biggest factor driving the changes in today’s buyers is the accessibility of information technology has enabled. This change has turned demand creation upside down. In the past, your prospect held the budget cards and you held the information cards. Through the sales and negotiation dance, the cards were slowly revealed one at a time, with you and your prospect jockeying for advantage through the entire process. [Read more…]
Jay Baer proposed in a blog post on Monday that Facebook for Business is Email Marketing 2.0, and that email can then be used to value marketing efforts on Facebook. It is an excellent approach, and I think most comments missed the point. Facebook marketing and email marketing are both about developing an audience that allows you to engage over time.
The most important part of the heading isn’t Facebook, it is Email 2.0. Both Facebook and email are used by companies to distribute information. But email marketing is a one-way blast channel.
Email Marketing 2.0 should look vastly different from today’s email marketing. With all due respect to the email providers integrating social sharing into email, that does not make email marketing a platform for sharing and discussing. It continues to be a one-way channel, at times simply promoting discussion or sharing elsewhere.
Ahh, brand. You want a strong brand, right? A strong brand opens doors for sales. It puts your company on the short list.