B2B Marketing, Digital Media and Marketing Strategy
In B2B marketing, bad data represents a huge lost opportunity. According to SiriusDecisions, companies with the best quality data drive 70% more revenue through marketing programs than those with simply average data quality.
Despite the cost of bad data, the practice of the average marketer guarantees bad data, and it may be getting worse each year. With a growing body of research showing current marketing practices are consistently delivering bad data, it is time for change. [Read more…]
According to research from the Content Marketing Institute, B2B marketers are now spending 26% of their budget on content marketing.
What happens when someone downloads or accesses some of the highest value and most in-depth content marketers are offering? Today, many large B2B marketers are putting a stop to the conversation and cutting off prospects ability to continue finding additional information when potential customers get to their best content. [Read more…]
Some days it seems online marketing revolves around cookies, those small text files stored in your browser that may be automatically deleted by browsers or routinely deleted by individuals.
Cookies are used (among other things) for measuring performance, targeting advertising and personalizing sites. But how reliable are cookies and more importantly, how does that impact our data and decisions?
As a way to identify an individual, third party cookies are unreliable. However, most advertising applications for cookies assume they are used to identify a person consistently over time. [Read more…]
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…]
I have had it with “research” about the content formats B2B buyers prefer at each stage of the buyers journey. Multiple B2B publishers are pedaling this misinformation and as B2B marketers struggle with content marketing, it is diverting their focus.
Here is one example from TechTarget:
eBooks are earlier than white papers which are earlier than virtual trade shows? Yeah, right. Instead of focusing on content formats by stage, marketers need to [Read more…]
Of course not! As B2B marketers, focusing on your audience is absolutely critical.
However, you must look forward, at where your audience will be. Research and observation tell you where your audience has been and what they have been interested in. But what will they be interested in and using in 6, 12 or 24 months?
If you are focused on what your B2B target audience has done in the past or is doing today, you will miss new opportunities like the Internet (2000), Twitter (2009) or Pinterest (2011) to connect with your audience. [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…]
Mobile devices are expected to be the primary mode of internet access in the next three years. This is worth saying again: Your company’s digital experience will be primarily via mobile devices.
The current response from marketing falls woefully short of where they need to be in a few short months.
Discussions of mobile marketing quickly turn to apps, mobile sites and how to make content mobile-friendly. Even when embraced, this response is eerily similar to early websites, which extended brochures to the web by merely converting to HTML and adding hyperlinks. [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).
CMO at KMART says TV is easier to track than social. I disagree. If you can't track social, you need to try harder. http://ar.gy/Uj2
— Jay Baer (@jaybaer) July 20, 2011
The problem is, most social media measurement is myopic. [Read more…]
As LinkedIn share buttons pop up across the web and share counts climb, it appears LinkedIn is quickly becoming a major platform for sharing articles and links. I fell for it, the numbers on the share buttons fooled me two months ago when I wrote Which Social Network is Right for B2B Marketing.
The truth is, LinkedIn isn’t where we share. With LinkedIn’s valuation soaring like its the next Fortune 500, you have to ask, if we are not sharing on LinkedIn, is LinkedIn really a major social platform? Or is it a great platform for business connections and profiles. [Read more…]