Product Documents

Posted on behalf of our LaunchPoint Partner Spiceworks.

By: Renata Bell Posted: February 15, 2016 | Digital Marketing As the primaries heat up, politicians are leveraging digital marketing and social media to capture the hearts (and votes) of U.S. voters.Having a strong digital presence is now table stakes for political candidates. Whether 50 years ago or today, there are 3 things successful political campaigns have been able to learn from marketers: be targeted, be efficient, and be clear with your message across all channels or be lost in the cacophony of the elections. So, let’s take a look at how political candidates, over time, have adapted to incorporate digital marketing into their campaigns to effectively communicate their message. When Digital Marketing Meets Politics What does this look like in practice? Let’s answer that question by taking a look at how political candidates have structured and used their websites and how that has evolved to mirror marketing best practices. Then, we’ll look at how candidates have adapted their strategies to take their message to social media platforms. The Website In 1996, just five years after the first website was built, Bill Clinton and Al Gore took advantage of the web to promote their campaign. These running-mates launched their own site, which is still up today, stating their tagline and offering additional resources. At the time, presidential campaigns had little insight into who would come to their website. With no data to back up their actions and no measures to test by, their website laid out everything—from debate information to biographies to downloadable bumper stickers—in hard-to-navigate columns. By the 2000 and 2004 elections, websites were much more robust with new modules, calendars, newsletters, and lots of content. While these new capabilities were great and candidates seemed to embrace them, the sites suffered from looking cluttered and lacked a clear call-to-action. In the two examples below from the Bush/Cheney website in 2000 and then again in 2004, you can see the evolution of call-to-action and site organization. A marked departure from the clutter of the earlier websites, Barack Obama’s 2007 website harnessed the power of a clear message and call-to-action. Taking a page from the marketing playbook, instead of overwhelming his readers with more information, he created a clear message and call-to-action (join the team), with a more organized display for additional information. Overall, you can see a drastic shift in the site design to be less cluttered and provide clear visuals. In fact, Obama’s website was launched by Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook, who created it with the intention of being a networking site where volunteers could create groups, plan events, raise funds, and connect with each other. Look how far it’s come today: Digital Marketing is a Cornerstone for the Modern Campaign Not only did website capabilities advance as time progressed, but so did the different web properties to help candidates reach a broader audience—namely social media. The 2008 campaign year was an unprecedented turning point in which candidates embraced social media. This was especially true of the Obama campaign, which harnessed the power of social media and digital marketing to connect with his supporters on a new level. As Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post said, “Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee.” Obama also leveraged YouTube like never before. The campaign’s official channel was collectively watched for 14.5 million hours, as reported by political consultant Joe Trippi. And from Obama’s success, a lesson emerged that political candidates from any party, running for any office (from local mayor all the way to president), will not soon forget—candidates need to be everywhere their audiences are if they want their message to reach beyond their base of voters. As for the current presidential candidates, almost all of the candidate sites today echo a similar format: clear message, clear call-to-action, neat navigation, and a giant email signup (plus links to social media sites). The emphasis on digital spending, social media, and other online paid ads is only going to increase as the election gets closer. Already, some candidates are changing their strategy to focus their spending specifically on digital marketing channels. Consider how presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has mixed traditional avenue with digital. She spent early on and often on traditional methods—$12 million on television, $6 million on direct mail, and set aside about $6 million for digital advertising. She has leveraged the most diverse and unique channels to interact with her followers: Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope, Snapchat, even a Spotify list with Clinton’s curated music including Katy Perry and JLo. Does listening to Clinton’s playlist sway more people to vote for her? I don’t think so, but it’s just one piece of the cross-channel puzzle. In fact, on hillaryclinton.com she has 14 or so webtrackers, including Optimizely, Facebook Custom Audiences, and Google Adwords. In contrast, Donald Trump has only 3 (Facebook Custom Audience, Google Analytics and Google Dynamic Remarketing). However, Trump hasn’t turned his back on digital marketing and social media. His website, like the other candidates, is simple above the fold and then below it invites visitors to sign up for SMS alerts, watch his YouTube videos, and participate with the campaign on social media. Trump Website: Above the fold Trump Website: Below the fold Among his Republican candidate primary competition, Trump seems to be using social media most effectively, although he is arguably one of the loudest (albeit THE most controversial) social media contributors. Which makes sense: small statements can travel far at the speed of light with social media. Stats released by Twitter after a GOP debate Take a look at another candidate, Bernie Sanders. He has spent more money than any other politician before on digital marketing: a whopping $10 million, while he has spent minimal funds on traditional avenues such as television and direct mail (Bush spent $35 million on television ads alone). Digital marketing has been at the heart of his marketing strategy, and that appears to have started to pay off with the target demographic of the millennial generation. After the Feb. 1 Iowa caucus, some 84% of voters ages 18-29 voted for Sanders. While millennials are an incredibly loyal generation, they also see through political pomp and want nothing to do with political campaigns from the past. Being able to interact with candidates on their own terms, on their own channels, is incredibly important to them. It won’t be surprising to see the rest of the presidential candidates start to pay more attention to digital marketing channels as the need to appeal to different, segmented groups grows more pressing. One thing’s for sure, while smart political campaigns are certainly applying marketing best practices—targeted and clear messages—undoubtedly, they could get even more personal and create more tailored message to followers that care about certain issues more than others. Do you think having more curated and personalized content from your representatives would be helpful? Let me know in the comments section below.

Chandar Pattabhiram I was helping my daughter with her middle school math assignment this week when the proverbial light bulb in my head went off. Working through the various geometric patterns and equations, I realized that these same symbols and formulas also offer useful metaphors to frame the challenges that tomorrow’s marketer faces in the digital age. Let’s take a closer look. From Cones to Circles B2B marketers have spent decades obsessing about the marketing funnel, focusing on how to cast the widest net at the top. But in this new era of marketing, the modern marketer has stopped viewing the customer journey in terms of a funnel and instead thinks about it as part of a virtuous circle. In addition to finding ways to acquire customers faster, tomorrow’s marketer is thinking about customer retention and advocacy and in this way, she’s forging lasting, personalized relationships with buyers. The fact is that customers nowadays have many choices and very low switching costs. For this reason, it’s critical that marketers pay close attention to the quality of their customer interactions. Marketers who listen and then engage with their customers will see their efforts pay back in the form of brand advocates who tell others about their positive brand experiences. But for those marketers still stuck in the funnel, please beware. There will soon come a time when your customers replace your brand with one that knows them and markets to them based on their interests and past experiences.  E = MC2 By the time a prospective customer engages with a brand today, they have most of their research already complete. That’s what makes understanding your buyers so important. Tomorrow’s marketer is listening across all digital channels to understand who their customers are, what they care about and how they like to communicate. Tomorrow’s marketer builds long-term relationships using Engagement = Meaningful [Communication] times Continuous Context. When I say Meaningful, I’m referring to the fact that every interaction is relevant and meaningful and builds upon the previous one. Continuous Context embraces the notion that each interaction becomes part of a continuous thread, where brands listen and learn from previous interactions and then communicate with buyers in ways that are always contextual. So together, E=MC2 speaks to a personalized way that marketers engage with every individual. For example, when I log into Netflix, the movie recommendations that I see are based on who I am as well as my previous online behavior. My wife and I recently watched a romantic comedy so the next time I log on to Netflix, I’ll see new movie recommendations based on my previous selection. Netflix learns more about me at every stage of our relationship and their recommendations evolve based on each interaction I have with the brand. It’s a lesson every marketer should take to heart. There’s little that’s meaningful or continuous about mass marketing. The Shifting Curve of Customer Spend Historically, marketers have done very little to drive retention since customer behavior was relatively easy to predict. While the self-directed journey renders that notion obsolete, we still see 85% of marketing spend go to acquisition even though it’s more expensive to acquire a customer than to keep one. Tomorrow’s marketer is focused more on building relationships and engaging her customers in personalized, relevant ways. She’s recognized that it’s much more cost-effective to build brand loyalty and advocacy with current customers than it is to find new ones. S = T/S (Success equals Time over Specialization) The most successful marketing tells a story and creates an emotional connection with people. However, tomorrow’s marketer isn’t a specialist. This is contrary to what we commonly believed, but specialization is no longer the ticket to success. Our CMO Sanjay Dholakia, writes eloquently about the need for more latter-day DaVinci’s in marketing. Sanjay nails it. We need more multi-talented generalists who can comfortably handle myriad challenges from creative and brand design to product marketing and demand generation – and beyond. In other words, both art AND science. These are the kind of marketers who will flourish in tomorrow’s world. Convergence, Not Divergence For the longest time, there’s been a divergence in the best practices in B2B and B2C marketing. Each specialized in what it did best and perish the thought that they might ever learn from the other. B2B and B2C marketing best practices are equal sides on an isosceles triangle and they are rapidly converging.  We’re at the point where enterprise marketers can benefit by learning the personalization techniques developed by consumer marketers. And consumer marketers can learn to build long-term relationships by tapping into the nurturing techniques perfected by enterprise marketers. When it comes to the buyer journey, B2B and B2C cannot exist as different silos. Customers don't care about the old distinctions and definitions. Whether they're buying jewelry or mainframes, they expect to be engaged on a personal level and on their own terms. It’s not about B2B or B2C – it’s about B2H (Business to Human). Tomorrow’s marketer sees that convergence and aptly applies lessons from both sides to build lasting relationships with her customers.      So here we go – five mathematical symbols and formulas that will shape the success of tomorrow’s marketer in the digital age. Count on it.

MARKETO IN THE NEWS Marketo and Wunderman Alliance Offers Brands Insight-Driven Engagement The Drum (UK) Following our global press release, The Drum – the UK's most-read media and marketing website and magazine – wrote the news of our strategic alliance with Wunderman. The publication is also aimed at the media, marketing and advertising community across the UK and North America. Additional pick-up: AdExchanger (U.S.), Mobile Marketing Magazine (U.K.), CMO (AUS) Jason Hoffman joins Marketo as company's first CSO CSO Online The marketing automation company has centralized leadership around security and risk management into one organization, led by Hoffman. ·       Press Release: Jason Hoffman, Security Industry Veteran, Joins Marketo as Chief Security Officer Boardlist Wants to Be the LinkedIn For Female Director Candidates Fortune Marketo was included in a press release announcing the founding of Boardlist, which invites industry leaders, CEOs and board members globally to address gender imbalance by connecting highly qualified women with private and public boards ·       Additional pick-up: FierceCIO, The Next Web, Cracking The Code: CMOs, Measurement, and Metrics (translated) LEAD digital (Germany) This online (and print) magazine for digital and online marketing professionals published Sanjay’s byline. It has been shortened slightly but has been localized close to the original version. 2016 Digital Trends (attached) Internet World Business (Germany) Statement by Liz Smyth, Area Vice President Marketing EMEA, in a slideshow on digital trends. Liz states marketers need to focus on “H2H” – meaning Marketers should differentiate less between B2B and B2C. The focus for 2016 will be on the people - regular human beings - who determine business purchases for their organizations and companies. MORE AND MORE MARKETERS DISCOVER SNAPCHAT FOR THEMSELVES (Translated) Agitano (Germany) The publication picked up our Snapchat infographic. What your desk says about you (Translated - attached) Business Punk (Germany) This business-lifestyle magazine – picked up the English  infographic “What your desk says about you” by Marketo. Ad Blockers Are An “Immoral, Mendacious Coven Of Techie Wannabes” Says IAB Chief. They Are Also Right Which-50 (AUS) You have to wonder if Rothenberg and the members he represents would consider Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce, Marketo and sundry others to be an “immoral, mendacious coven of techie wannabes” because, ultimately, that’s where the bulk of the marketing budget will be spent IoT Tech Expo Announces 2016 World Series with Germany and North America Dates Confirmed Press Release A recent study from Marketo* showed 41% of respondents in Germany cited the IoT as a trend which they thought would have the biggest impact on marketing by 2020. Utilizing Digital Marketing Techniques Via the Cloud CloudTweaks As evidenced in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, the top tools take into account today’s not-so-secret weapon: Cloud. Digital marketing in the cloud promises all of the essential digital marketing tools, but with the flexibility and speed to ensure to-the-minute solutions are always available and personally customizable. Though Adobe, Marketo, Oracle, and Salesforce dominate, competition in the sector is stiff, fortuitously guaranteeing today’s digital marketers user-friendly, cost-effective, and cutting-edge possibilities. Tremendous Results Lead to Expansion of Apogee Interactive’s Solution Press Release Another study from Marketo and Clearfit found that emails that used video for a direct call-to-action had a 53 percent higher click-to-open rate over emails without an obvious mention of video content,” said Erin Puryear, manager of Member of Energy Innovation Planning Customers Frustrated with Brands that Fail to Personalize Loyalty360 according to a Marketo study, over 78% of consumers will only engage offers if they have been personalized to their previous engagements with your brand. Study: What Top CMOs Are Betting Their Careers On Forbes Evolve conducted a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) benchmark survey with Marketo, a marketing automation platform solution provider, to understand what marketing tactics, budgets and methodologies the highest and lowest performing companies were using and compared them to the success of their revenue goals. 5 Questions That Will Kickstart Your Social Media Plan SitePoint One guideline that can help you plan your content is Marketo’s 411 rule, which means post four educational or entertaining post for every soft promotion (e.g. events) and hard promotion (e.g. demos, products, etc). Basically, it means gain the trust of your audience by providing value. GetRank Q1 2016 for Marketing Automation GetApp GetRank is GetApp’s quarterly ranking of the top 25 Marketing Automation apps based in the cloud. Each app is scored using five criteria, each worth 20 points, for a total possible score out of 100: User Reviews, Integrations, Mobile Apps, Media Presence, and Security.Marketo came in fourth behind HubSpot, Infusionsoft, and Salesforce. App Marketers: Let’s Talk About The Word Engagement ARC Marketing automation engine Marketo* stated in 2014 that we are now in the era of engagement marketing. In a blog post, Marketo defined the seven principles of engagement marketing (see right). The principles are pretty straightforward: talk to people wherever they are basically all the time to get them to achieve a measurable goal for the company. Mobile, local, and content are the fundamental pillars of SEO Puro Marketing Cites our analysis with eMarketer that it doesn't matter that display ad spending will overtake advertising investment in search results. CUSTOMERS & PARTNERS IN THE NEWS LinkedIn to shut down B2B ad platform 'Lead Accelerator' CMS Wire LinkedIn admitted it failed to accurately forecast the resources required to scale the B2B ad targeting platform it acquired from Bizo in 2014. It plans to terminate the offering. As a result, it will take a $50 million hit in forecasted revenues Jive Hits Back At Social Networking Rivals In the Workplace Fortune The company credited with pioneering “social business” software—a sort of social network for employees—has overhauled its flagship products. The goal is to make its software seem more “consumer-like,” a transformation influenced by mobile apps and social networks that people use in their personal lives. Interview with Robert Nendza, VP Marketing - LeadPages MarTech Advisor While he does not mention Marketo, the VP of marketing at our partner LeadPages did a Q&A with the Editor of MTA. BrightFunnel announces account-based marketing analytics tool Marketing Dive BrightFunnel added an account-based analytics marketing (ABM) tool to its multi-touch attribution platform for B2B marketers. The tool offers marketers a number of features including engagement tracking, performance measurement of channels and campaigns, and the ability to run A/B testing. BrightFunnel says ABM practitioners SevOne and Cloudera already use the new tool. MasterCard Uses a Command Center to Track Its Marketing Spend Fortune At the company’s headquarters, product managers gaze at a 40-foot display that broadcasts feeds, visualizations, and performance metrics for more than 60 markets. When they want to dive deeper into the data, they retreat to Insights Alley, a clutch of casual lounges with 55-inch touch screens. And when they want to watch narratives unfold, they visit the Real-Time Marketing Lab, where eight more displays—nearly an entire wall’s worth—highlight trending stories from services like NewsWhip’s Spike and analysis from sources such as Prime Research. Software from fast-rising startups Percolate and Domo powers the system. Building a Demand Generation Machine Customer Think An interview with Lisa Hatheway, Senior Director Global Marketing & Demand Generation at Aerohive, a Marketo customer. She gives us a nice shoutout. Google's Search Guru To Step Down Fortune After 15 years helping run Google’s crown jewel search engine, senior vice president and software engineer Amit Singhal said in a blog post on Wednesday that he will leave the company on Feb. 26 to pursue philanthropy. Kahuna Launches Events for Digital Marketers CMS Wire In January, Kahuna, a communication automation platform, announced a public event series featuring leaders and workshops in digital marketing topics. The series debuted with a lecture and discussion by Geoffrey Moore at Kahuna’s Redwood City, Calif. headquarters. Fortune Exclusive: Kahuna CEO Steps Down Fortune Seven months after raising $45 million, Adam Marchick steps back. Adam Marchick has stepped down as CEO of Kahuna Inc., the mobile marketing automation company he co-founded four years ago, Fortune has learned. He will transition into an interim chairman role, and at least temporarily lead product.Board member Charles Hudson, managing partner of Precursor Ventures, will serve as interim CEO as the search proceeds for a full-time replacement. New Facebook Study: Marketers Must Make Smartphone Shopping Easier Forbes According to new research to be released Feb. 4 by Facebook, consumers still don’t really like the whole experience. Although some 45 percent of shopping “journeys” involve a mobile device–57 percent for millennials–about 70 percent of consumers said the Web and app experiences and the transaction experience all can stand improvement. Google And Samsung At War Over Ads Forbes Samsung launched an Ad Blocker for its phones on the Google Play store called Adblock Fast earlier this week. Google has since pulled the app, claiming that it’s in breach of the developer agreement. Leadspace Announces High-Profile Hires To Continue Leadership in B2B Predictive Analytics Press Release Travis Kaufman joins Leadspace as Vice President of Product Management. While at Marketo, Travis shaped the direction of B2B marketing technology, including building technology partner ecosystem LaunchPoint, and leading product and partner strategy for Ad Bridge. INDUSTRY NEWS ClickZ’s guide to the best and worst mobile ad formats ClickZ The first thing you need to know is a common misconception: that mobile ads aren’t simply desktop display ads resized to fit the smaller screen. Martin Doettling, chief marketing officer at Swrve, says that the experience is totally different and therefore, the ads must be, too. The EU Data Deal Deadline Has Passed. Here's What Comes Next Fortune Europe’s data protection authorities said they would wait until the start of February to start cracking down on companies that still rely on Safe Harbor as the legal basis for their EU-U.S. transfers. They will meet Tuesday and Wednesday to decide what to do next, so technically the commission and the U.S. negotiators have until then to pull something out of the hat. Snapchat is building an ad technology platform Digiday Snapchat is working on a crucial part of its growing digital ad business: an application programming interface (API) that would let partners start buying ads with more precision and frequency, according to multiple sources. Search engine marketing saw a 75% drop in growth rate in Q4: Adobe study Marketing Dive The Adobe Digital Index (ADI) “Q4 2015 Digital Advertising Report” found overall search engine marketing growth is down to 3% compared to 12% in 2014. Meanwhile, global growth is down 75% year-over-year. Per Adobe, the drop can be pinned in part on advertisers spending on mobile search. Users more likely to 'skip' TV ads than mobile: Yahoo study Marketing Dive Research from Yahoo found that mobile devices best TV across a range of soft attention metrics such as getting distracted and multi-tasking while engaged with the medium. Though the study pointed out that ad budgets are still skewed toward TV at 40.5% and digital (including mobile) only at 33.8%, the study also found that 47.3% of consumer's time was spent on mobile devices, while only 36% of time was spent on TV. Surge in Marketing Automation Deals Reflects Marketers' Business Needs ExhangeWire Around three-in-ten ad tech/martech deals in Q4 2015 involved ad platforms, rising significantly from the previous quarter, where such deals only accounted for 7% of all transactions. How the IoT Will Shake Up Sales and Marketing CMSWire Device proliferation is taking place at a brisk pace — according to Gartner, 6.4 billion devices that can send data via the Internet are already in use, and by 2020 that number will explode to 20.8 billion. Vendors are already taking steps to connect their software to those devices, combining the recent advances in analytics with the data sources to make analytics exponentially more powerful. Despite the revenue hit, only 4% of publishers actively fight ad blocking tech Marketing Dive Ad blocking technology impacts marketers, ad tech firms and publishers, but publishers’ revenue is directly affected with every ad that goes unserved. This makes research from MediaRadar that found only 4% of large digital publishers are actively battling ad-blocking software use somewhat surprising. New ANA Study Reveals 50% Of Brands Turn To Startups For Social Media And Content MediaPost In yet another indication of ad agencies' waning dominance as providers of a brand's marketing needs, a new study from the Association of National Advertisers found a hefty percentage of brands turn to startups for social media and content development and management. Affiliate marketing expected to hit $6.8B over next 5 years: Study Marketing Dive Research on affiliate marketing conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Rakuten Marketing found a robust affiliate marketplace expected to grow to $6.8 billion over the next five years. Over 80% of advertisers and 84% of publishers have reported running an affiliate program. Looks Like Data Will Keep Flowing From the EU to the U.S. After All Fortune The European Union and United States have struck a last-minute deal on keeping transatlantic data flowing — and it should mean tough new obligations for both American companies and intelligence services. The CMO of the Future Direct Marketing News Interesting article in DM News about the CMO of the future. Thought it worth sharing as it validates many of the points we make about the evolution of the marketing org from cost center to revenue driver and the need for DaVincis (not specialists), among other things. Why the future of Super Bowl marketing goes beyond TV Marketing Dive In the age of smartphones, tablets and multi-screen viewing, arguably, a successful Super Bowl campaign will take an omni-channel approach and will be peppered with agility. A recent study found approximately one-third of marketers are expected to advertise online, specifically on Snapchat. How tech decisions impact data-driven marketing – and help win market share Marketing Dive Kate Atty, director of marketing for Persio, told Marketing Dive that the company's research has found that there are three ways for harnessing data and tech, and for amassing market share: simple integrations with vendors, better access to data, and ability to connect data across channels. The top result marketers look at when measuring engagement Marketing Dive Some 38% of marketing executives look at revenue metrics to assess their companies’ success in customer engagement, according to a new report from CMO Council. Campaign metrics such as clicks, conversions, shares and traffic came in second, with 30% of marketing executives using them as the primary measurement of engagement. While executives use service metrics less frequently, a separate survey reports that 89% of consumers say that good service makes them feel more positive about brands. 6 Big Stats That Show Which Super Bowl Ads Really Resonated AdWeek 'Puppymonkeybaby' and constipation spots created chatter. The brand winners and losers of Super Bowl 50 Digiday Brands were out in full force hoping to capture the attention of a highly-engaged second screen audience that spent just about as much time checking Twitter, Facebook or Instagram — but mostly Twitter — as watching the somewhat lackluster game.

Posted: Monday, February 8, 2016 Author: Daniel Kushner Social media marketing, for B2B companies, often means one thing: generating new leads. But what do you do with these leads? At some point, you’ll want them to visit your website and other web properties, where they can be exposed to more of your content, become a captive audience, and enter your sales funnel. The trick is, your social marketing should ensure this happens. Just because you’re finding prospects on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter doesn’t mean they’ll seriously consider your products and services unless they’re directed to do so. With a shrewd social media management strategy, you can create an experience for your followers that naturally funnels them towards what you have to offer, ultimately increasing your web traffic. Web traffic is a key metric factoring into social ROI—in fact, Shareaholic reports that social media drives nearly a third of all traffic to websites—and all signs indicate it’s an increasing trend. Thus, social traffic is something that B2B marketers need to get right. Here are 3 ways you can increase web traffic via your social marketing efforts: 1. Make your web properties social media-ready Chances are you already have a web presence. And if you do, you have some copy throughout your site that was created to introduce prospects to your products and pre-sell them on the benefits. You’ve also probably created a fair amount of material for your company blog. But none of these things should exist in a vacuum. Even with careful SEO optimization, you still need to build awareness of your presence on the web, and social media is often the perfect means to that end. A plethora of potential buyers interact every day on social channels, and the companies that are engaging them are drawing them to their websites. So, why not you? This can include your company, as well. But first, your web presence must be social media-ready. Here are some ways to make that happen: Use social sharing buttons on your blog content. These buttons allow your readers to share your content with a simple click to their social network of choice. The result? Your prospect’s network will see your content and might be curious enough to click through. Include calls-to-action for your blog readers to share your content. Blog readers can very easily skip over the social sharing buttons, so it’s up to you to make it clear that sharing should happen. Some plugins, for example, encourage your readers to “Tweet this,” to share your content and increase your visibility on Twitter. Also consider plugins that incorporate pop-ups or fly-overs encouraging shares. Allow blog comments—and be responsive. Some company blogs still make the mistake of not allowing comments. While it can be a little bit of a hassle to deal with spammers, you want to invite prospects to respond to your content as part of an evolving relationship. Once your readers are engaged and they notice you responding back in turn, they are much more likely to become loyal followers and share your posts with their peers and colleagues on LinkedIn, Twitter, and other outlets. Link naturally to your social profiles and/or discussion groups in your content. If you happen to have ongoing, natural discussions with customers and prospects via social channels, there will be opportunities to subtly build some buzz about it in your blog posts. When and where appropriate, mention that you have private discussion groups on the likes of LinkedIn or Google+, or link to a high-performing social post. Share social links everywhere. Social links aren’t just for your blog posts. Let your customers and prospects know, in every piece of content they encounter, that you have a social presence. You can do so with links next to videos, in email newsletters, in infographics, and other pieces of content. Remember, the more engaged social followers you have, the more roads you’re building back to your content. Determine from the start that all your web properties will connect with your social presence, with full integration across outlets. Not only do prospects want and expectthis, but it leverages whatever traction you have on social and places it within an ecosystem that funnels prospects toward your website. 2. Gear your social posts towards increasing web traffic Once you have infused your website with your social profiles, it’s time to take the next step: look at your social posts themselves, and making sure they’re primed to bring your followers to your site.Of course, you want to achieve a balance between active participation and the “hosting” of your brand’s presence on each network, while steadily drawing your followers into your sales funnel via your website. Nonetheless, here are some tips for making sure your social posts are pushing traffic your way: In native social posts, direct social traffic towards gated content. Your in-depth material, whether it’s ebooks, white papers, or informative research reports, is what will get your followers to invest more in your brand and think of you as an industry leader. And how can they get to this content? Via a social post that takes them to your landing pages. Review your social media calendar and make it a point to incorporate posts specifically targeting gated content. You might even take the bold step of creating content that can onlybe accessed via social—look at your customer profiles and best-performing social outlets for engagement and conversion rates, and consider whether it’s worth it. Use keywords. The use of keywords and phrases in your social content can help interested prospects find you when they use the search functions of those networks (not to mention the peripheral SEO benefits), which can lead to increases in social traffic. On Facebook, you can search for specific industry-relevant phrases to see which ones are the most popular, revealing both which keywords you might want to use in your content and prospective customers to connect with. For Twitter, sites like hashtags.org let you qualify hashtags by popularity, so you know exactly which relevant hashtags are getting the most traction. Use advertising. Social media ads are an immediate way to get traffic to your website. If you’re looking to jumpstart social traffic from a particular outlet, create an image-based post that catches your prospects’ attention with a relevant headline. 3. Optimize your website and social strategy based on your results After implementing the above, you now have a website that’s connected in every way to your social profiles—your leads can’t miss it if they tried. And, you have some results on social media posts that are specifically engineered to drive leads to your site. Now, it’s time to optimize on both fronts.First, you’ll want to revisit your website to make sure it’s doing its job in converting prospects into interested, qualified leads and then customers. Using your website analytics, consider your highest-performing blog posts and highest traffic webpages for indications on which content comes out on top, and focus future writing efforts on creating more of the same type of content. In addition, it’s always smart to conduct A/B testing on your web copy, specific elements of your landing pages, and other aspects of your site to make sure every detail is as efficient as a conversion-driver should be.When it comes to evaluating social media ROI, there are three (among many) useful metrics to take note of: Social traffic: Plain and simple, your social traffic numbers tell you which social posts are driving the most traffic to your website, and how much. Click-through rate: This tells you which posts garner the most clicks. Are some underperforming, contrary to expectations? It might be worth tweaking your headline text, adding an engaging image, or changing some other element to pique your followers’ interest. Conversions: Every good marketer knows how much a lead is worth to them. By tracking conversions from social, marketers can determine how many leads, and how much money, social media is generating for them. A highly effective social media analytics tool (especially one that “talks” to your marketing automation platform) is your perfect companion in assessing the impact of your social media initiatives on web traffic. Increasing social traffic = proof of social media promise Increase the amount of qualified, targeted web traffic, and you’ll score brownie points for an effective digital marketing initiative. But if you can demonstrate that the traffic is coming in from social, you can equip yourself with solid evidence that social media marketing is worthwhile. Leads will convert to customers, and company sales will rise. And with enough marketing “elbow grease,” social traffic can become a self-sustaining driver of growth for your brand.

At Marketo, we are celebrating a week of love through Feb 12 as we prepare for Valentine’s Day! Here's how it works: Not registered for Summit yet!? To show our love to you and the Marketing Nation, we're offering $100 off of a full pass to Summit. Use the code GETTHELOVE to get your discount - but hurry the code expires on 2/15!  And the best part is, if you register for the marketing conference of the year during the week of love, we’ll donate an additional $100 to help support tomorrow’s marketer. Already registered!? Since you'll be attending the marketing conference of the year, we want to help you spread the love to your friends by giving them $100 off of a full pass to Summit. Send the code SHARETHELOVE to your friends now (but hurry - the code expires on 2/15)!  If your friend registers for Summit, we’ll donate an additional $100 to help support tomorrow’s marketer. We’ve partnered with Junior Achievement and College Track and are excited to donate to empowering students. Celebrate Valentine's Day by participating in Purple Select! Whether you celebrate Singles Awareness or Valentine's Day, join us in Purple Select this week to celebrate the holiday together. There will be a little extra love, fun, and prizes so you won't want to miss out! Marketo created the Purple Select advocate program specifically for standout members of the Marketing Nation. We want to reward our customers and partners for their personal achievements, company successes, and spreading the Purple love! JOIN PURPLE SELECT​

Author: Koustubha Deshpande These are exciting times in the mobile app industry. Marketers have never had such an abundance of data and insights available to them–mountains of information to help support strategy and deliver success. But, in spite of this, one of the most common mistakes mobile app marketers make is that they treat their users as numbers or installs, rather than people. Increasingly, we’re hearing marketing experts talk about the importance of having a 360-degree view of your user base. What does this mean, and why is it important? What is a 360-degree view? Of course, the term takes its name from the number of degrees in a circle, and, in essence, refers to utilizing a broad, complete, and “all-around” view. It’s a panoramic view as opposed to the traditional narrow approach of sampling select data, such as downloads and uninstalls. In mobile marketing terms, a 360-degree view is all about understanding the people using your app. How do they use it? When are they most active? Why do they use it or, in other words, what value are they looking for from your app? How often do they use it? And, when users delete your app, what is the trigger? By gaining a nuanced view of your user base, you can effectively tailor your efforts throughout every stage of your relationship with them for maximum success in user acquisition, engagement, and retention. This helps you stay away from guesswork and pursue the tactics that work best for your specific user base. To channel the spirit of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for a moment, a 360-degree view can help you manage each phase of your app’s performance–the past, the present, and the future: Past: Understand historical trends By better understanding the journey your users undertook when they first found your app, you can establish which techniques really work and adjust your user acquisition strategy accordingly. For example, if a high number of users found out about your app via social media, you could allocate more funds to run paid campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, scaling back on other tactics that don’t quite work as well. Equally, if you can ascertain what keywords those top-of-funnel app users are searching for and what visuals capture their attention, you can optimize your App Store presence by incorporating high-performing keywords and switching out your creatives. Try out different icons, preview modes, videos, and screenshots of your app. Understanding your users’ pain points, motivations, and their unique journey gives you power to replicate the stuff that works and, ultimately, acquire new, highly-engaged users. Present: Build a relationship first Once users have downloaded your app, don’t market to them immediately. Build your cohorts to understand how they really use it. For instance, for an e-commerce app, are they comparing products found via the direct catalog or search feature? Profile your users and their usage patterns. Once you understand your users’ habits and usage patterns, you can incentivize them to share your app, rate it, or upgrade their membership. Some apps have a free version with limited capabilities and a paid version with the full set. These types of questions are the nuts and bolts of your app’s engagement metrics, but, without scratching the surface first, you’ll always be relying on guesswork. You need to first understand your users and their behaviors, thenmarket to them. Future: Predict and personalize Crucially, taking an interest in the behavioral patterns of users who churn gives you the power to intervene beforehand and stop other users from doing the same. Take a look at metrics like the drop-off rate from app install to sign-up, time spent in the mobile application, push notification opt-in rate, and the number of new vs returning users per day. If users are churning on the second or third day after you send an onboarding push notification, you may need to revise your messaging or delivery time, or fine-tune your targeting. Whether it’s through push notifications or personalized emails, you can reach out andengage these users as soon as you identify when they’re at risk of leaving. Take it full circle As in any industry, the better you understand your customers, the better you can anticipate and respond to their needs. A 360-degree view of your mobile app users gives you the best possible chance of delivering what they want, when they want it and, ultimately, will drive your app to be as profitable and successful as it can be. What other tips do you have for incorporating a 360-degree view of your mobile app users? I’d love to hear them in the comments below!

By: Jamie Lewis Posted: February 2, 2016 | Marketing Metrics While it may seem like there is a new marketing channel available almost every day (I’m devising my smart fridge strategy as we speak), email marketing, when done right, is still one of the most profitable acquisition and lead retention channels available. To clarify, by “done right” I mean permission-based email marketing with content that is personalized, relevant, timely, and highly optimized. And if you don’t have a great email program like this already, then you’re leaving tremendous value on the table. Be data-cated So how can you craft a slammin’ email channel to drive value to your stakeholders? The answer is actually quite mundane: you need to have the right set of metrics to analyze your email marketing channel and optimize it to stardom. This set of metrics is called your key performance indicators (KPIs) and should be very closely tied to your organization’s primary business goals. In fact, they will be a direct measure of how well you are achieving those goals. Traditionally, email analytics has been hard because all of your demographic data, open rates, etc. resided in your email service provider (ESP) database, while all of your web traffic and conversion data was being tracked by your content management system (CMS) and/or Google Analytics. This was a problem because unifying your end-to-end data is really hard, not to mention time consuming. Nowadays, this problem is being solved by the adoption of marketing automation platforms that unify email and conversion data in an end-to-end fashion. Now let’s talk data. When choosing KPIs that help measure your business goals, it is important that you follow these three rules: keep them very simple, produce them in a timely manner, and make sure they are useful. In other words, make it so that people can view your KPIs, quickly understand what they mean, and then take action on them immediately. This is critical because in today’s world we all need to act fast! There are three categories of data you will analyze when it comes to optimizing your email marketing channel. When creating your KPIs, you need to always be thinking about these things: 1. Engagement Engagement is a category that encompasses email campaign metrics and reveals how your emails are resonating with your target list. It measures things such as: how many emails were sent, who you sent them to, and what the result was. Here are some great KPIs that help measure the business goal of driving deeper engagement within my list: Delivery rate: (# of emails – bounce backs)/ (# of emails) – measures the quality of your lead list. Open rate: (# opened/# emails delivered) – represents the success of your “from” field and subject line. Subscriber retention rate: (# subscribers – # bounces – # unsubscribes)/# subscribers) – measures how well you are targeting your database and if you are delighting them. Click to delivery rate: # of clicks/# of emails delivered – helps you understand the mailing list quality and email content relevance. 2. Behavior Behavior is a measure of what happens after the viewer clicks a link on the email. It answers: what do they do on my site, how well they engage, and do they buy? Here are some great KPIs to measure the business goals of deeper engagement on my website, elevated content consumption, and an increase in Sales Qualified Leads : Bounce rate: (# of clicks to the website with a single page view / # visits) – a great measure of the alignment between email and landing page. Depth of visit: (% of email campaign visits that last longer than xx pages) – especially important for non-ecommerce. Actions completed: (% of visits that took the call-to-action on the landing page) 3. Outcome Outcome is a measure of the goals, conversions, and revenue you drove through your email channel. Tracking all of these conversions and attributing it back to your email programs is critically important. Here is my list of outcome KPIs that measure the business goal of increasing total revenue: Macro conversion rate: (revenue producing conversions / visits) – How successful are you at targeting your audience with the right message at the right time. Avg. revenue per email sent: (total revenue / # of emails sent) – Use this to measure how clean your list is. Profitability: (rev generated – cost – cost of goods sold) / # emails sent) – the “Holy Grail” of KPIs One last thing to note is that there is no one size fits all when it comes to email KPIs, you must be willing to experiment with your campaigns and how you analyze them and change your approach accordingly. Nor is it always possible to track all of these metrics all the time. I find that choosing one from each group may be sufficient. For example, if I wanted to keep it simple I would choose “click to delivery rate” for engagement, “bounce rate” for behavior, and “profitability” for outcome as my top three and go from there. Metrics are critical for building success and identifying what works and what doesn’t. With the right ones in place, you can realize the full potential of your email channel. What KPIs are you currently tracking for your email programs? Share them in the comments below!

MARKETO IN THE NEWS The 7 best marketing automation features in Marketo CIO This very positive article includes a few paragraphs providing an overview of Marketo, including a mention of our 10-year anniversary, before highlighting our ‘mobile tools,’ the Marketing Nation, and other features.  The section on ‘Marketing Nation’, #5, is a great summary and key differentiator. The story features comments from Marketo customers including our friend Jennifer Clegg at CA Technologies and partner Justin Gray at LeadMD. ·       The article was also syndicated in MIS Asia. 4 key marketing automation features Marketo lacks CIO The second article focused on features that customers would like to see Marketo improve. Unfortunately, the title was written by an editor and not the journalist who had written the article. One of the improvements has actually been nullified as we have since added that feature in a new release. Expect all of our competitors to receive the same dual-article coverage. ·       The article was also syndicated in ComputerWorld Singapore. Ten Years of Marketo CMS Critic This piece states that with clients like Intel and Acquia, Marketo has grown into one of the most trusted marketing automation systems on the market. The 4 marketing (r) evolutions expected in 2016 gpomag.fr (France) We’ve had some more coverage on our ‘predictions for 2016’ piece, making this 16 pieces of coverage on this in France in total. The most recent piece has been published in, the online version of GPO (Gérer, Prévoir, Optimiser), which is an enterprise publication focused on management, HR, marketing, finance, etc. Snackable Content: Shorter content for smaller attention spans Online Marketing (Germany) Infographic What Your Desk Says About You Grazia (France) Additional infographic pick-up in a well-known French fashion magazine, as well as rhperformances.fr.Rhperformances.fr is a French consulting and recruitment agency specialized in HR. CUSTOMERS & PARTNERS IN THE NEWS Marketing, Change and Higher Ed Inside Higher Ed The head of content strategy from Marketo partner Fathom calls out our recent Mashable “Ask the CMO” series in his byline in this top education trade. As he points out, the industry trends that the CMO of Georgetown Business School highlighted in her interview all have to do with personalization. Do People Actually Watch Marketing Videos? Canadian Startup Vidyard Can Tell Fortune On Tuesday, Vidyard disclosed another $35 million in venture funding led by Battery Ventures to drive adoption. So far, the six-year-old Kitchener, Ontario, company has signed close to 1,000 businesses as customers—including companies like Citibank, LinkedIn, and TD Ameritrade—said co-founder and CEO Michael Litt. The New Reach Of Beacons: Broadway, Rite-Aid, Sales Terminals MediaPost This piece talks about our beacon partner Gimbal and upcoming beacon partner Footmarks. Theaters are being outfitted with Gimbal beacons and other location-based technology with Urban Airship’s mobile engagement platform. Audiences can receive messages when they are in the theater, before the show, during intermission and after the show ends. How to Get the Most Out of Summit 2016 MudTime Marketing Joe Reitz, Marketo Champion, wrote this great blog for newbies wondering how to get the most out of Summit. Survey Finds Extremely Poor Sales Lead Follow Up Across Nine Industries Press Release Conversica compared best-practice research with real-world execution and found that in many cases even direct website inquiries-presumably the hottest of prospects-were being ignored. The good news is that several companies showed outstanding lead follow-up practices and earned the top A grade, including Salesforce,Marketo, Zend Technologies, Anderson Subaru of Pensacola, Florida and Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa. Microsoft adds new capabilities on Office 365 to tap enterprises Financial Express Microsoft is rolling out new technology that applies machine learning to the way people work to empower individual to work more effectively. The new Microsoft Office 365 comes with, Skype for Business that enables communication-powered productivity. With Power BI content packs for popular services such as Salesforce, QuickBooks Online, Marketo employees can begin visualizing the data in just minutes. 5 Ways B2B Sales and Marketing will evolve in 2016 MarTech Advisor Sean Zinsmeister, Senior Director of Product Marketing at partner Infer, points out the key changes he expects – from ABM becoming ubiquitous to predictive getting smarter and some others. Talking DoubleDutch about event marketing Diginomica Lawrence Coburn, CEO DoubleDutch says that to date, DoubleDutch is recording 68% adoption which means that a person signs up and does something with the app. Coburn thinks there’s much more that can be done that in turn will drive further adoption but, more important, value back to event attendees and organizers. INDUSTRY NEWS Collaboration to be Key As CMOs Start to Outspend CIOs MarTech Advisor According to a report, digital marketing budgets are set to increase by eight percent during 2015. This shows that marketing has a growing influence on technology spending, with Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) slated to outspend Chief Information Officers (CIOs) by 2017. Marcoms and ad tech merger activity: 2015 round-up MediaIntel Last year's ad tech mergers and acquisitions trends suggest that the market is unlikely to slow down in 2016. New Report: Marketing Automation Held Back By Budget, Data Management, And Lack of Time Marketing Land Based on survey responses from 400 U.S.-based marketing and sales professionals, the report from India-based IT/data management shop Openprise indicates that ease-of-use and quality of tools aren't the biggest obstacles. Profitability in a time of diaspora Channelnomics Forrester discusses the challenges partners face when it comes to the ease of doing business with vendors. The Fourth Industrial Revolution Might Cost You Your Job MediaPost This very anti-automation piece blames this “fourth industrial revolution” for killing job growth in Art, Design, Sports and Media. IAB Launches Data Center of Excellence to Ensure ‘Big Data’ Meets Its Promise for Marketers and Commitments to Consumers Press Release The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the launch of the IAB Data Center of Excellence, a new independently funded unit within IAB, founded to expand existing IAB resources and drive the “data agenda” for the digital media, marketing, and advertising industry. The Data Center’s mission will be to help advertisers and marketers operationalize their data assets while maintaining quality, transparency, accountability, and consumer protection. Why the ad industry will never win the war on ad blockers CIO The head of the Interactive Advertising Bureau came out swinging against ad blockers last week. Instead of even attempting to fairly distribute blame for the chaotic state of the ad industry, the executive pointed his finger everywhere else but at IAB members. Internet advertising industry chief: Adblock Plus is an 'unethical, immoral, mendacious coven of techie wannabes' Business Insider President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Randall Rothenberg used the opening keynote speech at the IAB summit to accuse Adblock Plus of being an "unethical, immoral, mendacious coven of techie wannabes" and an "old-fashioned extortion racket."

Originally published on Econsultancy.com By Jack Simpson @ Econsultancy Sounds like a buzzword, but actually makes a lot of sense. Data visualization is the art of presenting often complex datasets in a visually engaging way. 
The hope is that presenting data in this way will make it more engaging and easier to understand, so it’s particularly helpful in terms of speaking to clients or internal stakeholders.  With this in mind, I’ve brought together 14 of my favourite data visualization examples from across the web. Why is data visualization important? In his 2010 TED talk, David McCandless argued that sight has by far the fastest and biggest bandwidth of any of the five senses. About 80% of the information we take in is by eye, he said. Students get very excited – and policy-makers and the corporate sector – when they can see the data. Researchers Emre Soyer and Robin Hogarth conducted a study in which three groups of economists were asked the same question concerning a dataset, and the results seem to support McCandless's claim: One group was given the data and a standard statistical analysis of the data; 72% of these economists got the answer wrong. Another group was given the data, the statistical analysis, and a graph; still 61% of these economists got the answer wrong. A third group was given only the graph, and only 3% got the answer wrong. The above results suggest that the visualized data on its own, without the accompanying analysis, was actually the most powerful format. But let me take my own advice and provide some visual examples... The internet in real time Slightly terrifying, this one, but it’s a goodie. A real-time visualization of data from all the biggest sites on the internet. Even if you work in digital, prepare to be amazed. Battle of the internet giants By the same people as the internet in real time site above, this one shows you how much money all the big boys in digital are making. In real time. Excuse me while I have a cry. The one million tweet map This is a good one for checking out geographical data for Twitter. It uses a clustering engine to visualize how people are tweeting about specific topics around the world. In the image below the keyword was ‘Terry Wogan’. Tweetping Live display of people tweeting across the world, but it leaves the ‘pings’ in place so the longer you watch the map the clearer the geographical trends become. Listen to Wikipedia Perhaps my favourite example on this list: a live visual and musical representation of Wikipedia edits. Bells indicate additions and string plucks indicate subtractions, and the pitch changes according to the size of the edit (the larger the edit, the deeper the note). Green circles show edits from unregistered contributors and purple circles mark edits performed by automated bots. 
It’s strangely addictive, so click that link only if you’re prepared to spend your entire day watching and listening to dots. You have been warned. Google Trends We’ve written about Google Trends plenty of times on this blog, but this little bit of data visualization is wonderfully Google-like in its simplicity. It fills the screen with live trends and when you click on the text you’re taken to a Google SERP for that keyword. Earth wind map You don’t need to be a geography buff to appreciate this. A live visualization of wind around the world: direction, speed, and so on. You can drag the globe around and zoom in on specific points for greater detail. Just awesome. NOAA weatherView More weather visualization, except this one allows you to see representations of various types of weather data such as temperature, precipitation, pressure and so on. Every noise at once A scattergraph plot of almost any musical genre you can think of. When you click on any of the text you get a 30-second clip of a song in that genre. Its creator – Glenn McDonald of Spotify-acquired Echo Nest – explains the organisation of the genres as follows: Down is more organic, up is more mechanical and electric; left is denser and more atmospheric, right is spikier and bouncier. No Homophobia This site provides live visualization of all the homophobic language being used on Twitter, including live tweets containing homophobic keywords. Digital attack map This shows you where DDoS attacks are happening around the world, which is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. Not sure if I completely understand it, but damn if it doesn’t look and sound cool. Flight misery map A handy one for any travellers. Hover over an airport and get a neat little visualization of all outbound flights and their status. Green means good and red means bad. Can’t ask for simpler than that. Spotify musical map An interactive map that shows what music people are listening to in towns and cities across the world. London is mostly big on grime right now, apparently. World population Ridiculously simple but still kind of mesmerising, this site shows the world population increasing in real time. Click ‘watch as we increase’ to see the little stickmen appear in real time.  

By: Kylie Ora Lobell Posted: February 1, 2016 | Content Marketing Great content should be at the core of your marketing initiatives, but to produce this content, you need to hire talented creators. If you own a small to medium-sized business, you may not have the budget to take on a staff of full-time writers, photographers, videographers, graphic designers, or developers. This is where freelance employees come into play. With freelancers, you can save money on operational costs since you don’t need to provide benefits or workspace. Plus, you can pick and choose whom you want on your content creation team from a pool of freelancers around the world. By not depending on local workers, you’re able to put together a diverse team from a variety of backgrounds and niches. However, if you’re going to be integrating a number of different freelancers into your company, you need the right tools to manage them efficiently. These are five types of tools that you can utilize to ensure that your content marketing campaigns stay organized and drive results: 1. Finding freelancers Doing a Google search or finding referrals for freelancers is a time-consuming process. Instead, you can look at job boards where top talent congregates. One example is the Upwork platform, which gives you the opportunity to find freelancers for every type of content creation. There are more than 10 million independent workers from over 180 countries on the site. Once hired, you can message back and forth with your freelancers, create milestones they have to meet, and pay them through the site. Another site for finding workers is MediaBistro, where you can either post jobs or browse through the talent on the site. All freelancers list their resumes, samples, and experience, which means you can vet them before making contact. To find freelance bloggers specifically, try ProBlogger, where you can list your jobs and gain access to bloggers who are actively looking to be hired. 2.Blogging Without a solid content management system in place, you’ll have a difficult time overseeing all your freelancers and their work. Going back and forth through emails and Google docs won’t cut it. Instead, you need to find a blogging platform that works for you and your team. WordPress is a classic choice for content creation. Aside from being free, it includes a variety of plugins that optimize your blog for SEO and promotional purposes. All your freelance writers have to do is log into your website’s WordPress account, copy and paste in their work, and fill in all the correct SEO information through the Yoast SEO plugin. Then, the post will show up in your queue. Once it’s submitted, you and your editors can go in, edit the piece, and hit publish. This way, your writers don’t need to email you their work, which ends up making more work for you because you have to manually load it in. Also, it’s much easier to organize all the work your freelancers have completed. An alternative to WordPress is Google’s Blogger, which is also a free and simple to use platform. It contains gadgets as opposed to WordPress’ widgets, and includes Google integrations like AdSense and Analytics, allowing you to easily monetize your company blog and monitor traffic. 3. Invoicing and tracking hours Working with so many freelancers can become complicated, and it’s important for you to evaluate how much money is being spent vs. how much is being generated through your efforts. Without a centralized platform, you’re going to be lost. One option is Due.com, which can assist you with the logistical side of overseeing your freelancers and their pay. This platform has time tracking and invoice tools that allow you to view how many hours your freelancers are working and what invoices you need to take care of. It also generates detailed reports so you know where you are in terms of your finances. Another platform for managing freelancers financially is Zenefits, which gives you peace of mind that your independent contractors are being paid on time. You can input how much time freelancers spent working and make sure they’re receiving their benefits (if you provide any for them). If you’re running a small operation, Zenefits eliminates the need for hiring HR talent. 4. Managing projects If you have multiple freelancers working on one project and there are many different elements to keep track of, you need a project management system. BaseCamp is a popular choice for project management. Through this tool, you and your team can upload files and store your collective to-do lists. It shows who worked on which project and when. Whenever a project is updated, those that are involved are sent emails so they can go in and complete their assigned tasks. You might also want to try Smartsheet, which is customizable project management software used by companies like Hilton, Groupon, and Netflix. It’s a great option if your business is utilizing spreadsheets in order to complete projects. Another option is Zoho Projects (pictured below), which comes with a timeline that’s similar to a social media feed. You can quickly scroll through it and see where you’re at with tasks. You can also integrate it with Dropbox and use it on your Android or iPhone. 5. Tracking blog posts and progress If a project management system is too complicated for what you want to do, you can work on a free or low cost tool that is strictly used to oversee your blog. Trello is a simple tool if you’re just getting started with freelancers. It’s also perfect for small teams. All you do is create boards for your freelancers and then make individual cards to ensure that each project is progressing. This platform lets you drag and drop files and include pictures and links, so it’s easy to use even for those who aren’t technologically savvy. You might also want to look into BamBam!, a platform that includes milestones and newsfeeds for your projects and is free for 10 users or less. If you’re a startup but you want project management that’s suitable for the corporate world, BamBam! may be the right choice for you. Of course, there are more robust content platforms that integrate with your marketing automation platform and offer two or more of these capabilities with one piece of software. These platforms often are an investment worth making because they will scale and grow with your business. Freelancers can greatly enhance your content creation campaigns. Once you have the best tools in your back pocket to manage them, you’ll be on your way to coming up with successful ideas that produce a huge ROI for your company. What other tools do you use to manage your freelance team of content creators? Let me know in the comments section below.

this is an example doc used in this post that shows how to create successful nurture programs Lead Nurture: Email Content (EXAMPLE) Drop Date: MM/DD/YYYY Reviewers: Final Approval: Overview Purpose: Audience: Hypothesis: Success Metric: Overall Messaging: General Information From Name Optimizely TEST From Email email@optimizelytest.com Reply Email email@optimizelytest.com Tracking Link ?utm_source=x&utm_medium=x&utm_campaign=x&utm_content=x http:// CTA link http:// Emails Email 1 subject_line preheader_text email_header_1 email_body_1 cta_text email_body_2 Email 2 subject_line preheader_text email_header_1 email_body_1 cta_text email_body_2 Email 3 subject_line preheader_text email_header_1 email_body_1 cta_text email_body_2 Email 4 subject_line preheader_text email_header_1 email_body_1 cta_text email_body_2

this is an example doc used in this post that shows how to create successful nurture programs Lead Nurture: Tradeshow Prospects (EXAMPLE) Overview 4 touch email campaign for new tradeshow leads, to encourage product adoption. Hypothesis By sending a 4 touch email nurture to our tradeshow leads, they will be more likely to create an account than if they weren’t sent it. By staying top of mind after the tradeshow is over, leads will be curious to explore what Optimizely can offer. Baseline Conversion Out of all tradeshow leads created last year (10,000), 20% of them created an account (2000). Goal Increase create account conversion by 15% (2300 leads for current year) Baseline conversion = 20% (2000 leads) Audience New leads coming from tradeshows. (target audience around 10k leads for this year). Content Cadence: 1x week over 30 days Email Content​ Notes

Enjoy these tips

MARKETO IN THE NEWS Mass marketing to engagement marketing is required (translated) Advertimes (Japan) This article resulted from an interview our Japan team secured for Phil. In the piece, Phil highlihgts that the expansion of digital has changed the relationship with customers and introduces the concept of "Engagement Marketing." Visa Inc. Appoints Lynne Biggar as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Press Release Marketo board member Lynne Biggar will join the company as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, effective February 1. She will also serve as a member of the company’s Executive Committee and Operating Committee. Ms. Biggar joins Visa from Time Inc. where she was the Executive Vice President, Consumer Marketing & Revenue. Digital Marketing’s New Future, According to Marketo’s CMO MSN Sanjay’s “Ask the CMO” Q&A was picked up by MSN video. What Does Your Desk Say About You? The State Of Your Workspace Might Reveal More Than You Think — INFOGRAPHIC Bustle Additional pick-up of the Marketo-generated infographic. CUSTOMERS & PARTNERS IN THE NEWS How a small design tweak got millions more people to use one of Facebook's products Business Insider Facebook has long been the social login leader, according to Gigya data, but the company recently made a small design tweak that hugely boosted its number of new logins. Facebook’s Deb Liu, VP of Platform, says that simplifying permissions, changing the look and feel of login dialogs, and advances on the review side led to a "significantly improved" click-through-rate for logins last year. Facebook gives brands more ways to convince you to sign up for news VentureBeat Facebook’s lead ads are getting an update. The company announced that several changes are coming to the ad format that lets people easily sign up for more information around a specific campaign. Starting today, advertisers can tweak their ads so that they’re more contextual, both with a new information card and images, thanks to the new carousel format. Marketo is listed as a key partner. How marketers are using Facebook's direct messaging apps Marketing Dive Even though Facebook Messenger and Facebook--owned WhatsApp don’t allow for third-party advertising, brands are making use of the direct-message apps for marketing. Interview with Alicianne Rand, VP Marketing - NewsCred MarTech Advisor This Marketo partner highlights Marketo as a key component of its news stack, saying that its connection with Salesforce CRM has given NewsCred the ability to understand exactly what content is influencing prospects, customer upsells, and revenue. The company’s end goal (today and going into 2016) is to produce more of the stuff that works -- not just the content that drives top-line growth, but also content that helps them close deals. #FlipMyFunnel #ABM Innovators: Featured Speaker Q&A with Adam New-Waterson Customer Think LeanData’s CMO – who spoke at RKO – spotlights Marketo as one of the primary tools that has helped the company implement and execute ABM. INDUSTRY NEWS 12 questions to ask marketing automation vendors (before you buy) CMO (AU) This widely syndicated piece (first appeared on CIO.com) recommends what you should ask vendors when building your marketing technology stack. CES 2016 Ends with Critical Takeaways for the Marketing and Ad Tech Sectors MarTech Advisor The Consumer Electronics Show, also known as CES, has offered some major insights about the future of marketing and advertising technology. With more than 170,000 attendees from various industries, the event brought forth some ground-breaking innovations in IoT, computing technologies, programmatic advertising, virtual reality, and more. Brave: New Ad Blocking Browser Promises More Privacy & Faster Page Loading Marketing Land Brave speeds up page loading by blocking ads and tracking technologies: cookies, pixels, fingerprinting and scripts.  It will have ads, just not those that “target ads based on browser-side intent signals phrased in a standard vocabulary, and without a persistent user ID or highly re-identifiable cookie.” In this way, Brave seeks to strike a balance between publishers, marketers and privacy. Predictive analytics drives almost 3 times B2B revenue growth: Study Marketing Dive In a new study,  78% of respondents reporting marketing's role has expanded from demand generation to also include deal acceleration. 10 trends in B2B marketing - In with the old, out with the new? The Drum The evolving B2B marketing trends reveal that tried and true strategies like email campaigns are back in vogue while the term ‘digital advertising’ is outdated. With content marketing, marketing automation, paid amplification and mobile optimization seen as emerging trends, ad blocking and BOT- fraud will increasingly pose challenges to B2B marketers. Here are ten B2B marketing trends to be on the look out for. Adware shunned from online advertisers’ leadership bash ITProPortal Adware, the online advertising blocking company, says that it has been uninvited from an advertising industry confab after the Interactive Advertising Bureau withdrew its approval for Adware to attend the Annual Leadership bash in California this weekend. Why Cross-Device Programmatic Advertising Is Ready to Take Off in 2016 Ad Week Consumers increasingly get their content across smartphones, laptops and desktops, so brands are eager to run campaigns that reach consumers on every one of those screens. With technology catching up to demand, marketers are predicting that 2016 will be cross-device programmatic's great leap forward. The era of targeting only to a particular device appears to be on the way out. Medical publishers eye new ad viewability rules Medical Marketing & Media A group of medical publishers will attempt to develop a new industry standard for digital advertising viewability, a much debated topic that has vexed the broader advertising industry. Viewability—how long is long enough for a user to have viewed a digital ad successfully—has cropped up in recent years as one of the more challenging media issues, and one that needs to be addressed as the business of digital advertising matures. In healthcare, experts say, it's no different. Building the marketing technology stack Diginomica This piece from Diginomica urges marketers to focus on the customer, use data effectively, and produce content that will actually move the needle. Ad tech M&A continues to rise as investors continue to pummel stock prices The Drum Ad tech acquisitions surged between Q3 and Q4 last year, with such providers accounting for almost a third of all M&A deals in all of the ad tech/martech sector during the final quarter of last year, according to a study from Results International. Intent-driven marketing: how hard is it really? AdNews Massive amounts of intent data are available to marketers, and now is the time to lean on this information to improve business outcomes. This piece explores type of experience can consumers can expect from intent-driven marketing. Which Brands Are Creating the Future of Digital Marketing? Content Standard At CES 2016 earlier this month, one of the big storylines among leading enterprises was the aggressive efforts to invest in artificial intelligence. Those efforts have been characterized as an innovative move, yet also something of a gamble, since the exact uses and value of AI remain unclear. But marketers are certain AI has a place in digital marketing‘s future, and those forward-thinking experts see plenty of value in the AI infrastructures those brands are looking to build. Deutsch Vets Open Creative Agency With Investment Arm Advertising Age Adland vets Mike Duda and Brent Vartan have opened an agency called Bullish Inc. and they want to have skin in the game with every client. Within the agency, which will focus on brand strategy and creative execution, each account will operate on a pay-for-performance compensation model. For some clients, that could mean a bonus based on meeting key performance indicators, such as sales, brand shift and advocacy. For others, it may mean a return on taking equity in the client's business. Snapchat's the most popular social platform for new ad campaigns: Study Marketing Dive According to eMarketer, a Cowen and Company survey of senior U.S. ad buyers on what social media platform they expected to begin advertising on in 2016 for the first time shows Snapchat led the list at 22%, trailed significantly by Instagram and Pinterest at 12%. In research from last September, RBC Capital Markets and Advertising Age found that Instagram was the leading social media platform for interest in allocating ad budgets this year at 72%. That survey had Snapchat in third place at 36%. MARKETING AUTOMATION HINDERED BY CLASSIC DATA ISSUES; OPENPRISE'S 2016 MARTECH DATA REPORT REVEALS Press Release Openprise, a data automation SaaS company, issued its inaugural 2016 MarTech Data Report today. Based on an online survey that gathered insights from more than 400 U.S. sales and marketing professionals, the report examines trends in data management and marketing automation, as well as 2016 MarTech priorities and challenges. How Data-Enhanced Storytelling Is Rapidly Reshaping Both Content and Advertising Ad Week In its inaugural gathering Thursday, Digital Storytelling, a newly sanctioned event of the Sundance Film Festival, ambitiously set out to better link brand marketers with digital content creators as well as discuss how return on investment on that content will grow and evolve beyond interruptive advertising models.

By: Chris Gillespie Posted: January 25, 2016 | Sales Have you ever photocopied a piece of paper so many times that the copies faded and became hard to read? This is called a transcription error, and it happens when little mistakes add up over time to make a big difference. This also happens in sales when you repeat your pitch over and over again until small details get lost, the delivery gets muddied, and your pitch loses its edge and effectiveness. Once a quarter, it’s important to reset your habits to make sure that you’re not falling victim to this process. Essentially, you need to get back to the basics and start fresh. A big part of this refresh involves motivating yourself. Do you remember the bright and shiny optimism that you felt when you first started your job? How absolutely certain you were about your product? How you looked up to the more tenured salespeople and picked their brains to find out what they were doing differently? To dial in on this energy, you need to do assess yourself to determine what you’re doing well and poorly. So use this checklist to see how you stack up. If you start to feel a little inadequate, that’s great! You’ve identified the key areas that you need to work on, and there’s reassurance in knowing exactly what you need to do. And if you’re not selling more than you want to be (who is, really?), then this gives you a clear path forward to start the quarter with a crisp, clean page. Goals 1. Are my goals written down and up-to-date? Goals change over time, so it’s a good idea to revisit them. Keeping them consistent is good so you can track your progress, but it’s okay to tweak them occasionally. People learn as they go, and you shouldn’t stick to anything that doesn’t still make sense. Write your goals down, keep them visible, and share them with peers to hold yourself accountable. Don’t have any goals written down from last quarter? There’s never a better time to start than now. Sample goals: Achieve a 35% closed-won opportunity conversion by April 1 Hit 110% of year-to-date plan by April 1 Generate 3 new outbound sales opportunities each month, 9 per quarter this year 2. Am I on-track with my goals? Did I reach them? If not, where can I improve? Keep yourself honest. Many people set goals, but very few people keep them (just look at gym attendance in January versus February). Make sure your goals are SMART (simple, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound). This is a great article if you’re interested in the specifics on goal setting. Process 3. Am I following a template for discovery calls, or have I gotten lazy and just started winging it? What about my emails? This is where those nasty transcription errors start slipping in. I’ve found that over time, I may forget to do basic things like set agendas for my discovery calls, and then run into issues where we don’t cover the right topics in order (or at all). If your company doesn’t have a defined template, try your hand at making one. Consolidating your tried-and-true best practices into a template can be a great team exercise. 4. Did I refresh my prospecting emails and content links? The content that you share with your prospects can become stale, and links can get broken or outdated. Make sure that you’re not sending around any whitepapers from 2011 or videos that don’t work. This is a great time to check-in with the marketing team to see what new and exciting content you can share. 5. Am I still looking for leads in the same places? It might just be part of the nature of being a salesperson, but there’s a certain sense of fear that comes over you when you feel like you’ve run out of leads. Either you’re account-based and telling your boss “I need the Glengarry leads!” or you’re territory-based and you’re convinced that you’ve already sold to every single company in the state of New Jersey. Whether you’re a small start-up or large enterprise, you’re probably wrong. The total addressable market of territories—even mid-sized companies—is tens of thousands of leads. What’s really happened is that you’ve “photocopied” the same prospecting idea so many times that it’s become a blank piece of paper. So get a new piece of paper!Refresh your approach by having someone else take a look at what you’ve done and poke holes in it. Have you tried looking at the competitors of companies you’ve sold to? Have you tried looking at companies that your current customers have previously worked for? I promise you, the issue is not in the number of leads available, but your mindset. If you are able to shift it, you’ll magically start seeing new lists and thinking up new sources.Here’s a good exercise to help you find your focus: List off all of the deals that you won in the last quarter. Did the majority of your deals come from one vertical, region, or account? If there’s a noticeable trend, prioritize your efforts in the new quarter on that. And don’t forget to ask your now happy customers for referrals! 6. Am I utilizing all of my tools? Are you utilizing all of your sales channels or have you defaulted to just sending emails when you could be calling? If it’s the latter, create a goal for yourself to rectify that. A successful rep uses every available channel, so optimize your outbound prospecting strategy.Don’t forget about the tools that your company provides that you may not be taking advantage of. Some examples include data sources, partner co-selling, and email marketing tools. If none of these exist, be an innovator and start doing your own. Find a list of partners and start building a relationship with them to see if you can pass each other leads or help each other close deals.And there are personal skills and tools—what about your company’s learning-reimbursement program? Most companies will pay you to take classes in related areas that can either deepen your current skills or prepare you for your next role. Sales Skills 7. Am I selling to the best of my ability? Your selling skill is another place where transcription errors come into play, so have your colleagues listen to one of your cold calls and provide honest feedback. As salespeople, we may stop doing things by the book over time, including important parts of a call like up-front contracts, agendas, and staying on client’s calendars. Identify which fundamentals you need to touch up on, and nothing helps you do this faster than an impartial outside perspective.If you’re truly interested in improving, show your colleagues your worst calls. Don’t be shy, your colleagues feedback can only help you and will encourage a supportive relationship. Only sharing the best ones is like inviting guests in through the back door because the front of the house is on fire. 8. What are the top skills that I need to work on? As a salesperson, you’re probably well aware of your strengths and use these to your advantage whenever you can. But it’s just as important to identify your weaknesses and improve on them so that you can truly become invincible.To identify the skills you need to work on, draw a table with two columns like I’ve done for myself below. In the left column, list off all of your lost opportunities, and then in the right column, list all of the reasons why they didn’t close. Which ones occurred the most? Other examples: Not qualified properly Didn’t build a relationship Competitor told a better story Pricing Next to each reason, list the frequency, and then come up with ways to improve. Team Building 9. Did I make time for my team outside of work? Team building is crucial to building and developing relationships with your peers, but when things get busy, group activities are typically the first thing on the chopping block. Change this by getting lunch with your team and making time outside of work to catch up with them. Strong team ties can help you close deals. 10. Did I get to know people outside of my department? It’s extremely important for your success in sales to be aligned with departments beyond your own; you never know when you’re going to have to approach engineering or support with a question. By building these relationships early, you can avoid bothering them at the eleventh hour of your deal cycle when you’re completely frantic and begging for help. Tackle all of these one-by-one to set yourself up for a fantastic quarter. Remember, no matter how good of a salesperson you are, all skills are perishable and fade over time. If you’ve just been photocopying the same pitch over and over for too many months now, it’s guaranteed to missing some key details. Do yourself a favor and turn over a new page. ­ What other things should be on this checklist? Let me know in the comments below!

By Sanjay Dholakia We’ve reached the last installment of our “Ask the CMO: Lessons Learned” series with Mashable. What an incredible collection of reflections and insights from so many accomplished CMOs! For the final post, I had the honor of sitting down with Mashable to reflect on my own lessons learned and where I see our great profession headed. I hope you’ve enjoyed following this series as much as I have and are inspired to dive headfirst into this Next Era of marketing. And don’t worry—there will be plenty more “Ask the CMO” stories with great marketers in the coming weeks, so stay tuned! The following interview originally appeared on Mashable. The scene: A smoke-filled room clamors with anger, frustration and optimism as men in earth-tone suits and skinny wool ties debate—from art to copy to product placement—the best ways to sell dishwasher fluid. At long last, they agree, clink their glasses of brandy and set a plan in motion for six months down the road. That's marketing in a nutshell, right? A closed-door, one-size-fits-all operation that moves at the speed of molasses. Well, let's just say that picture is a little outdated. And not just because of the outfits. Today, technology plays a massive role in marketing strategy and execution: Automation has turned guesswork into a precise science and months of planning into nanoseconds. Companies like Marketo are leading the way in marketing automation technology, pushing boundaries and helping CMOs everywhere embrace the future. Of course, this is pretty complex stuff. So we had a chat with Marketo CMO, Sanjay Dholakia, to put the current state of marketing—and the future—into perspective. Q&A with Marketo CMO Sanjay Dholakia 1. If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self that pertains to your career in marketing, what would it be? The path to success is embracing your unique skill set. Don't get hung up on being something that you think others want you to be. In my early professional years in the strategy consulting world, I believed that I needed to prove how smart and analytical I was. I vividly remember standing around with some partners during my time at McKinsey and hearing one partner observe to another, "Sanjay should be in sales and marketing." There I was trying to be this strategy guy, so I took it as a grave insult! But the truth is that he was just recognizing my unique strengths. If I had it all to do over again, I would still love strategy, but I would also focus on my natural talents and passion. 2. What's the most unexpectedly important skill from your past that you've found plays into your success? (For example, maybe a high school job taught you about the importance of teamwork.) Humility. I learned early on what it means to be on a team. When I was very young, I fancied myself a fairly good baseball player. I was in a friend's neighborhood playing in the sandlot, and I was barking instructions and orders and coaching tips to my team. I will never forget this—the mom of one of the kids on the team was watching us and yelled from her front door, "Hey, why don't you let Mr. Know-It-All do it?" We lost the game, and I went home and talked to my mom about it. She said, "Live life by the real estate theory." She didn't mean location. What said was, "You should always buy the ugly house on block, because if you surround yourself with prettier houses, your stock will rise. If you buy the prettiest house, you've already set the market ceiling. Always try to surround yourself with better, smarter people than you, and you will do great." Ever since, I've sought out environments and places in which I would be the dumb guy in the room. In order to build teams, I actively seek out people who are better than me in every dimension I can find. Throwback: I learned very young that surrounding himself with a great team leads to championships. 3. You're the barber's barber. What's it like being the CMO of a company dedicated to helping CMOs and marketers? I've held a number of incredible positions in my lifetime—CEO, GM of a public company, strategy consultant. I've said it on stage in a room of thousands of people, and I've said it in an interview to an audience of one: I consider this role to be the great privilege of my career. I feel this way for two main reasons. First, I love that I get to interact and learn from smart marketers around the world every day. Having an ability to translate that back directly into my day job is a gift. The second piece is that we are at a fortuitous moment in the world of marketing—we refer to it as the era of engagement marketing. Marketing has changed more in the last five years than it has in the last 500, and will change more in the next five years than we have seen to-date. The opportunity to be here in this moment in time working with smart marketers around the world to shape that change is a gift. 4. Marketo has ties to Madison Avenue, but is very much a Silicon Valley company—what are the misconceptions around marketing automation, and what are the three biggest trends you're seeing in the space? One misconception is that marketing automation is a thing strictly for B2B marketers. Another is that marketing automation is an acquisition-focused tool, designed to acquire "leads." It's really much bigger than that. In terms of trends, I believe this is the year that marketing automation goes completely mainstream—it's something for every organization. Our clients include schools, like George Washington University, and nonprofits, like OxFam. We have financial services clients like Charles Schwab and manufacturing companies like GE. We have sports teams, like the Portland Trail Blazers, or health and lifestyle apps, like Under Armour's MyFitnessPal. Every type of organization, marketer and industry—regardless of profile—needs this capability. This trend of marketing automation is growing up beyond the acquisition side of world to truly becoming the brain center or nervous system for all customer engagement across the entire customer lifecycle—retention, loyalty, advocacy, etc. Marketing automation is becoming the new advertising. Marketers are starting to figure out how to connect the art of paid advertising to the science of engagement marketing—the collision of advertising technology and marketing technology—which is creating this ability to get down to real individual levels of communication with customers. That is what’s making all the difference. 5. What's the most important thing for Marketo to communicate in its own marketing? How do you ensure the company stays above the "noise" from competitors/startups? Great question. Marketers are being given more and more responsibility and taking on more and more in their organizations, which is something we refer to as a "Marketing First world." So, first off, it's essential that Marketo really stays true to our very unique position in the market, which is that we are the only real Marketing First company. The only thing we do is think about marketers and their success, and our ability to stay true to that brand and emphasize that is unique. The second thing is really practicing what we preach, namely around the concept of engagement marketing that I mentioned before, which is the belief that the only way to successfully market is to build individualized relationships with people based on relevant and helpful content and ongoing interaction. All the other approaches are just noise. This approach will lead to people inviting marketing messages into the conversation and relationship as opposed to ignoring us. We're not trying to shout at people through billboards at the Chicago O'Hare Airport; that's not the foundation of a trust-based relationship. And third, it's necessary for us to develop and focus on a community of really smart marketers around the world, which is something we refer to as the Marketing Nation. Creating this community will further cement Marketo's position above the fray or noise, so long as it's the club that people want to be a part of because that's where they can interact with other smart people. It's the same type of value-add and trust that I mentioned in my last point. 6. One thing that appears to be unique to Marketo is the "Marketing Nation." Can you talk a little about what that is? In my travels as the barber's barber, what I've come to learn—and this may be shocking coming from the CMO of a software company—is that marketers don't care about the technology. What they really care about is being successful. They want to grow their careers and personal skill sets and brands. Marketo wants to continue to set the tech standard from an innovation standpoint—and we will—but we also want to create the definitive community literally and figuratively, physically and virtually where smart marketers come together to learn and shape the future of the industry. It's not the Marketo Nation—it really is the Marketing Nation. It's all about creating success for marketers across all the dimensions they desire, regardless of the tools they're using. Sure, if we help to build it and fuel it, there's an advantage that accrues for Marketo, but we're really doing it because we truly believe in this seismic shift that's happening in marketing and truly want to be part of this community that's helping drive success for marketers. It is a core part of our brand. We are for marketers by marketers. 7. Describe how technology is changing the backend of marketing. Do you feel like a modern CMO has to be equal parts CCO and CTO? As I think about it, the answer is probably "yes," with some nuances. It makes me think of my favorite quip about the "genius of 'and' versus the tyranny of 'or.'" People ask, "Is marketing art, or is it science?" The answer is really just "yes." Marketing will always be about art and creativity—that is what makes marketing great marketing. But because of this new digital, social world and access to technology and data, we're able to engage with customers on the personal levels that we've all aspired to reach. These CMOs have to be agile at least in the concepts of technology and analytical skill sets. They don't need to be able to do everything but have to be able to understand how these things contribute to moving their business and creating leverage. I talk about the new prototype for the CMO as a Da Vinci—they must be both a scientist and an artist. 8. Likewise, it's not just about the CMO—it's about his or her team as well. What skills do you look for at the non-executive level? Gosh, there are a myriad of skills that a marketing organization has to have. One of the things I often say is that there is no single marketing function. The reality is that inside of marketing there is an ever-growing number of disciplines, from creative and brand design to product marketing to demand generation to customer marketing to communications, etc. My cop out answer is that you're probably looking for people with all of these functional capabilities. But, more importantly, in this new world new era of engagement marketing, the skills I look for are marketers who understand how to create relationships with customers and partners as conversations—just like real relationships. The best marketers have storytelling capabilities. The ability to engage people with compelling stories and content is another critical piece. Regardless of where you sit, marketing is a team sport. Period—full stop. The ability to collaborate is imperative. We have to build relationships with people regardless of what channel they're on. It's a single conversation, and marketers likely have to collaborate with other marketers to have that conversation. It's about raw, intellectual curiosity. We need marketers who are going to be innovative because they are constantly looking to learn and try new things. 9. Ad blocking has become the newest disruptor in the marketing technology industry. What advice or reassurances do you have for marketers as they tackle this challenge? The concept of ad blocking has been around for a long time. Why? People don't like ads, and if they can find ways around them, they will use them. Why do you think the DVR became popular? People by and large don't want to see ads. If I'm browsing the web, I don't have a huge interest in seeing ads. We as marketers have to assume this trend is inexorable. Advertising as we know it has shifted toward a need for engagement marketing. The way around it is by permission, where people allow you into their lives and look forward to hearing from you because you are a trusted person who provides them with relevant and useful information. That's why we're seeing a collision of advertising technology and marketing technology. 10. Looking into the future, what do you think will be the CMO's most valuable resource in 15 years? Well, Marketo, of course, haha! Too much?

Posted: Friday, January 22, 2016 Author: Amber Tiffany The most personal conversations happen offline. While a personalized digital experience is certainly enticing and powerful, to really get to know a prospect—their interests, burning questions, and biggest challenges—you talk to them. And what better way to talk to someone than over the phone, where chances for misinterpretation are greatly reduced. I’m sure any sales rep will back me up on this one. Dial in on call intelligence Phone conversations are not only personal, but they’re also one of the most common interactions people have with a business. In fact, nearly three times as many people choose to call a business instead of filling out a form, according to Invoca’s State of the Mobile Experience report. And BIA/Kelsey reports that from 2014-2019, mobile calls to businesses will more than double, reaching an astounding 162 billion. This sharp rise in call volume makes sense when you think about how many people engage on mobile devices today. While digital marketers are certainly able to gather data on mobile engagement, many have little insight into what conversations are going on over the phone, and as a result, their personalization is suffering. Without visibility into these offline conversations, marketers are personalizing their website with the wrong messages or sending follow-up emails that have nothing to do with their prospect’s latest conversation with their company. The missing link is call intelligence. Call intelligence gives marketers visibility into the conversations that customers and prospects are having over the phone. With these insights, marketers not only get to understand customers on a new level, but their personalization is based off the entire omni-channel journey. Here are four ways call intelligence can help marketers personalize more holistically—based on both online and offline conversations: 1. Fix out-of-touch nurturing Lead nurturing is a great way to educate your prospects and keep them engaged with your business. Let’s say a prospect calls your business because they want to find out what differentiates you from your competition. Your sales rep has the perfect answers and makes the competition look pitiful. Well done! However, without personalization, nurturing can come across more like spam than a thoughtful way to educate and engage your prospects. If your marketing automation system didn’t get the memo about offline conversations because you didn’t have a way to share that information, like call intelligence technology, your leads remain in the same generic, top-of-funnel nurturing track. The next thing you know, your leads get an email talking about irrelevant use cases. Too bad you didn’t send them your new buyer guide complete with competitive advantages instead! With the right tools, you can automatically sync call data with your marketing automation, which helps you make sure prospects are dropped into the right nurturing tracks and your follow-up message are relevant. 2. Retarget with the right information Retargeting can re-engage a prospect with a personalized ad. For example, after having an in-depth conversation with one of your sales reps at a tradeshow, your prospect may do a quick Google search for your company and your targeted ad pops up. From there they click on it and head to your landing page. Instead of filling out a form, they want to talk through some question now, so they do what a lot of motivated buyers do—pick up the phone to learn more and get ready to make a purchase. Whoohoo! But if you’re retargeting based on an incomplete picture, you could be sending a dangerous message. If your retargeting platform is out of the loop, completely oblivious to the offline conversation (or other online conversations), it’ll think it’s time to retarget this “unconverted” visitor with a discount offer. The result is an annoyed customer who is now angry that they were about to pay full price. This is a terrible, impersonal customer experience, but unfortunately it happens all the time. 3. Do Web Personalization right Web personalization tools empower marketers to create digital experiences uniquely tailored to each visitor by showing them content and creating an experience based on their needs and preferences, as indicated by their previous activity. Sounds cool, right? For personalization to be truly effective, it has to take the entire omni-channel customer journey into account. If it doesn’t, you could be “personalizing” in the wrong direction. For instance, if you know someone is likely to call your business, why not personalize your website with your phone number and click-to-call buttons for your mobile visitors? Likewise, if a prospect has already called your company, their next visit to your website needs to reflect the conversation. Integrating call intelligence with your web personalization efforts empowers you to show web visitors content related to the product they mentioned over the phone and encourages them to the next step in the journey. 4. Get your sales reps in the loop Personalized marketing doesn’t stop after the digital journey, or at least it shouldn’t. If a sales rep answers the phone and goes through a generic list of questions followed by the boilerplate pitch, the personalized experience is shattered. The trick is to give your sales rep access to real-time information on the caller and their engagement history. Tools like call intelligence, combined with the power of your marketing automation platform, provide demographic data that allow you to share which campaigns and content a prospect has interacted with. The best part? The sale rep can access this data in real-time. This level of insight helps reps customize the conversation. As a marketer, you’ve helped create a seamless omni-channel experience. It’s easy to get lost in the digital realm, but remember that just as it’s important to explore new channels, it’s critical to go back to your roots and dial in on the basics. Use customer conversations, both online and offline, to personalize for your customer’s entire journey. Each conversation has valuable insights that can be used across channels and touchpoints to make your audience feel that they are valued and heard. If you don’t know what’s going on over the phone, you’re probably put your foot in your mouth more often that you’d like. What steps have you taken to ensure a consistent omni-channel experience for your customer? Share your experience in the comments section below!

Here's a list of topic we would like to offered in the Nation Talks area. Feel free to add and suggest. Marketing (General Digital Marketing) Product (Marketo) Solutions (Marketo's) Lead Generation, Scoring and Nurturing Marketing Automation Marketing Operations Team (Needed) Data (Data Quality, Data Enrichment/Enhancement) Digital Advertising (Done, but could use more) Display Ads Analytics Mobile Social Email SEO and SEM A/B Testing (Completed) Content Events & Webinars Configuration: CRM Integration / List Importn Email Deliverability/Set Up Creative Templates First Email Sent Marketing Automation Strategy Design Migration from Existing Solutions Sales Insigh Configuration & Training Segmentation Reports Revenue Cycle Set Up Marketo Moments Calendar Email Marketing Lead Management (Scoring & Life Cycle, etc.) Content Design & Management Customer Base Marketing Mobile Marketing What topics are missing?​

MARKETO IN THE NEWS ‘Big four marketing cloud vendors top Gartner’s digital marketing hubs list’ CMO Australia Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce and Marketo are leading the way for digital marketing platform capabilities, but there are plenty of challengers. Ad tech companies MediaMath, Krux, Turn, DataXu, Rocket Fuel, Neustar and IgnitionOne were pegged as visionaries, but as a whole were dinged because of their lack of execution channels beyond paid media. [if !supportLists]·       [endif]Additional coverage: AdExchanger, Cloud Tweaks, Which-50 Marketo's CMO on the new future of digital marketing Mashable The final installment of our “Ask the CMO” series features Sanjay’s take on the future of marketing and how lessons he learned growing up apply to his role today. User review-based report shows marketing automation favourites CMO Australia According to the new 2016 Marketing Automation Software Grid from US-based business software review platform, G2 Crowd, vendors leading the field for their strong customer satisfaction scores and market presence were HubSpot, Pardot (Salesforce), Marketo, Act-On, Oracle Eloqua and iContact Pro. Of these, HubSpot earned the highest overall satisfaction score as well as the highest overall market presence score. Demand Gen Report Releases Third Annual Marketing Automation Outlook Guide Press Release A special report produced by this B2B marketing publication queries 20 marketing automation and martech experts to uncover 2016 emerging trends and themes. Marketing’s Heidi Bullock is featured as one of the experts. 7 Marketing Trends for 2016 MediaMath Blog The partner team’s Mike Stocker blogged for MediaMath, sharing a few marketing predictions for the year ahead. The 4 (r)evolutions that will shape marketing in 2016 (Translated) ITRNews.com (France) Conor’s piece from last week was picked up in 10 additional online publications. [if !supportLists]·       [endif]itrmanager.com, itrmobiles.com, itrinnovation.com, itrgames.com, itrsoftware.com, infodsi.com, itchannel.info, tendancesit.com, lavienumerique.com What does your desk look like? MBA Channel Additional pick-up of our infographic on what your desk says about the type of worker you are. CUSTOMERS & PARTNERS IN THE NEWS Inside General Electric’s media machine Boston Globe In recent years, GE has moved swiftly and aggressively into emerging media platforms, pumping out gigabytes of original content intended to brush the dust off its 124-year-old brand and prime a new generation of customers and employees. Ironically, HubSpot’s head of content is quoted, lauding GE’s approach. Interview with Justin Gray, CEO - LeadMD MarTech Advisor The CEO of partner LeadMD gives an overview of his career path and how he created a company out of building technology stacks centered around Marketo. Justin likes to say he was our “first paying customer.” C3 Energy Releases Customer Analytics Applications TD World C3 Energy has released the next generation of its C3 Customer Analytics application suite with significant enhancements that advance interactions between utilities and energy retailers across residential, commercial, and large enterprise customers. This also features C3’s pre-built integration with Marketo, which puts messages, alerts, and notifications linked to predictive analytics in the hands of the end customer, as controlled by the utility or retailer. This makes it even easier to seamlessly deliver relevant information to the right customer on the right device at the right time. The Morning Download: Microsoft Cuts Azure Cloud Prices in Battle with Amazon WSJ Microsoft Corp. has cut prices for its Azure cloud services, keeping pace with reductions by Amazon Web Services, which it has pledged to match. The company announced price reductions up to 17% on the latest version of the popular Azure D-series virtual machines. Google Display Rebounds, Outpacing Facebook in Growth from Thanksgiving Through End-of-Year, U.S. Paid Search Impressions See Impressive Rebound EconoTimes IgnitionOne, a global marketing cloud leader, today released its Q4 2015 Digital Marketing Report, demonstrating continuing trends in digital advertising metrics. Of the findings. Google’s shift to shopping ads in a carousel format has led to an overall increase in impressions. INDUSTRY NEWS Forrester: Advocate Marketing Technology Key To Customer Engagement Customer Think Today’s leading B2B technology companies have one thing in common: they’re successfully engaging their customer advocates to build their brands and drive revenue (on both the retention and acquisition fronts). According to a new report from Forrester’s Vice President and Principal Analyst Laura Ramos, formal advocate marketing programs “have a measurable, positive effect on your business, and fostering advocates is essential to becoming customer-obsessed.” The report quotes Merissa Hamilton, formerly of our Customer Marketing team. Four Predictions for Email Marketing That Won’t Come True in 2016 EConsultancy The author predicts that automated campaigns will still miss the mark on not “annoying” consumers, that last-click email attribution will still be used as a metric, companies won’t take data security seriously, and that innovation will be limited. How the Obama Administration Uses Marketing Automation WishPond The author of this piece uncovers that Obama has been using marketing automation since he was elected. Based on voter activities, the President’s campaign is able to send targeted messages and calls-to-action. Malvertising: Three Things You Need To Know Forbes Brian O'Kelley, cofounder and CEO of adtech company AppNexus breaks down ad fraud. 3 CMO trends for 2016 show how ‘digital disruption’ is evolving IT Business CA This piece focuses on Google algorithms, omni-channel, and streamlined marketing automation as top marketing drivers for 2016. Bringing Data and Analytics to the Water Cooler: How the Workplace Is Far More Data Savvy Today The Drum With more organizations relying on employees understanding changes, trends and intelligence in data-driven marketing, a study produced by software company Tableau has predicted  sharing data that is centralized, clean, and fast as the best way to bring data intelligence into the everyday conversation. Where’s B2B Marketing Headed for This Year MarTech Advisor Dennis Syracuse, CMO & GM at Madison Logic, presents an infographic on what industry leaders foresee for B2B marketers in 2016 – rise of cross-channel approach and predictive data being just two key insights