Have you heard of the Great Vowel Shift? It was a monumental phonological development, which took place between the 14th and the 16th centuries and shaped Modern English pronunciation into what it is today.

A similar tectonic transformation is happening now in the world of digital marketing. With the exponential rise of social media channels and online consumer engagement, it is getting increasingly difficult to reach consumers and increase ROI through traditional advertising.

For the full story please visit the Marketing Blogged website.

Photo by Bull3t Hughes

Bookmark It

It is the yin and yang of marketing. One of the raging debates in the field is that of the relative importance of the big-ideas creative versus the data analyst and technician. Which is more important? The ideas and content creator, or the supreme analyst of data used to maximise the success of the brand and marketing campaign? It’s a tough call. There have been murmurings that the balance of power has changed and shifted in favour of the analyst. Is this the case? And what are the merits of both camps?

It is interesting to read a recent article about the CEO of a technology business that creates products for marketers. In a world where interaction with consumers via the medium of social media is increasingly important, the CEO acknowledged the importance of converting customers by the clever and strategic use of marketing data and the increasingly detailed analysis of online media usage. However, the CEO also pointed out that no matter how clever the analysts’ strategies, the customer would always first and foremost be attracted to a company or product by content-led information. There is an emotional connection with a particular brand creates a relationship and this essential element should not be underplayed.

Creating leads and building up a rapport with and the trust of the customer base is one of the first steps in successful marketing. This is at the heart of the creative’s approach – they come up with ideas and ways of presenting a brand that will hook an audience. The look and feel of a brand is essential and unless the creative creates this initial buzz or interest, a consumer will be unlikely to be drawn to a company for its services or products. All the data analysts in the world cannot convert leads to sales when there are no leads.

It has also been noted that the changing face of social media in marketing takes account of this emotional or ‘creative’ pull on a consumer. For instance, studies have reported that a video clip can be more successful in attracting customers with an emotional draw on popular sites such as You Tube. Without an attention-grabbing creative hook, what else will draw the customer in and create leads?

Of course, the creative is not going to single-handedly cater for all aspects of the marketing strategy either. There is a definite need for the data analyst.

It would be naïve to downplay the importance of social media in marketing strategies and this importance grows more significant every day. Marketing through mobile, video and social-network channels is at the heart of many consumer purchasing decisions.

In order to maximise success in selling to this market, it is also essential to have someone on the marketing team with analytical skills who can understand the data to improve the campaign and branding or the initial big idea. A company must be able to assess user-experience research and how to boost conversions to sales. It must understand which KPIs are important and also how to maximise the use of this understanding. The rules of the game need to be understood too. Google has famously updated its algorithm and it is essential that this is taken into account so that high search-engine rankings can be achieved. It’s critical that keyword density and other SEO tactics are implemented effectively.

As with much in life, the yin and yang has to work to complement each other. A holistic approach to fulfilling a customer’s needs is the only approach that will succeed. However, for the budding marketer who wants to shine brightly, it would be sound advice to try to learn a little about the strategies and interests of both the creative and the analyst to add the most value to your input and ideas in marketing terms.

Photo by Studio Roosegaarde Traboe

Bookmark It

When it comes to choosing the right candidate for a marketing position, getting the right mix of technical skills and creativity is a must. Being a marketer can often mean being a jack of all trades, so having a good mix of abilities can be extremely beneficial. There is also the fact that marketing continues to be a profession that is always evolving, with new tools and techniques being used every day. When choosing a candidate, look for someone who is willing to embrace these changes and use them to the company’s advantage.

As with most potential employees, your marketing candidate will need to show good interpersonal, organisation and IT skills. Whether you are looking for a lone marketer or a new member of the marketing team, the likelihood is that they will need to work with others on a continuous basis. Good oral and written communication skills are also critical, as your candidate will be representing your company both internally and externally every day. Your potential recruit is likely to not only have to produce creative, exciting copy for your various campaigns and projects, but also be able to write clear, succinct reports in support of their work.

As well as this, your recruit will need to be able to show the ability to work in a team, using networking, influencing and negotiation skills. The job will be to present your business message in the most effective way possible and that will often mean getting buy-in from other teams or getting their involvement in new business projects. Being able to work across departments is therefore very important. Making good links with other professionals, such as journalists from the local press or your own sector can help your business in a great number of ways.

Read more »

Bookmark It

7th March 2012, Royal Scots Club, Edinburgh.

Communications planning is a critical part of marketing and when carried out effectively can lead to meeting your organisation’s business objectives in a cost effective fashion.

Speaker: Philip Jones has over 25 years’ experience in marketing, including a career at Scottish Television. He is a founding member of Spirit Media.

For more information please visit their website.

Bookmark It

28th February 2012, Warwick Road, London.

TFM&A – the event for multi-channel marketing – will take place alongside brand new event Direct Marketing Expo, and also see the return of specialist event Online Advertising and Affiliate Expo. Bringing a keynote line-up of the most influential brands and pioneers in marketing today, nine themed seminar theatres, plus 250 leading suppliers of tomorrow’s technology, numerous opportunities to network and many interactive and exciting features, it’s where 11,000 of your fellow marketers will be gathering.

For more information please visit the TFM&A wesbite

Bookmark It

Brands looking to use their print and digital customer publications to reach a worldwide audience must strike a balance between cost and country-specific marketing messages.

Many brands have launched customer magazines in the UK to increase awareness of products and services, boost loyalty, and ultimately, to improve sales. But now the likes of Ikea, WeightWatchers and Land Rover are looking at opportunities to take this content overseas.

For the full story please visit the Marketing Week website.

Bookmark It

Successful marketing strategies in 2012 will need to be thought through carefully. The developing nature of social media, the decline of traditional marketing as an effective method of reaching customers and the increasing sophistication of ways to communicate with consumers mean that marketing needs to keep pace in order to thrive. What are the predictions for trends in 2012?

1. Out with the old. It is becoming accepted that the old-fashioned outbound marketing methods are less and less effective. Spam and cold-calling are often treated with suspicion or disregarded by customers. The world of social media has a very different face and the power of the individual is growing. If consumers are to be reached effectively, marketing strategies need to take into account the new rules of engagement.

2. User-generated marketing is one of the new buzzwords. Over the last year, customers have become more and more powerful by writing reviews or sharing experiences using social media. There are many examples of such videos on YouTube or comments and discussion on one of the social-networking sites. A key to the marketing response to this tendency is to strategize to influence and trigger users to generate positive content about products and services. For instance, some companies such as Klout are rewarding targeted ‘influencers’ to promote their brand with incentives and other ‘carrots’. It’s worth thinking through a coherent strategy to use this tool successfully.

3. One size does not fit all. In the past, marketing has often focused on a couple of approaches to reach their audience and target market. However, one of the key (and potentially lucrative) characteristics of today’s market is the ever-growing spectrum of marketing channels. To keep up with competitors, marketing experts will need to streamline their presence over the variety of channels to create a persuasive brand experience.

4. One thing that many of the marketing commentators agree upon is the explosion in the use of the mobile as a marketing tool. Almost all consumers now have access to a mobile phone and they can make purchasing decisions and browse shopping opportunities on it. Since the number of people who own and use a mobile, smart phone or tablet is skyrocketing, the savvy marketer will make the most of this phenomenon.

5. Video is also a key marketing tool for the current market place. There has been research into its efficacy and the reports are that those businesses who appeal to potential customers with a video clip have had impressive rates of conversion. The video appeals to emotions and websites such as YouTube are becoming increasingly popular. The design of the sites is also becoming more user friendly to facilitate this sort of promotion.

6. It is a tried and tested technique, but even before the explosion of social media, one of the most persuasive ways of enticing a potential customer to try your goods or services was to let a satisfied customer do the work. A testimonial or recommendation from a third party works wonders. Coupled with the increasingly vocal voice of the consumer on a variety of online media, a canny marketing strategy can use this to good effect. Those who can manipulate and capture consumer recommendations are on to a good thing.

7. This leads to another perceived trend in the market place – the personalisation of marketing to a consumer. There are more and more niche and specific online communities and this can be used to the advantage of a marketing expert. These communities will have a character and specific requirements which tailored marketing strategies can take advantage of to generate business.
8. As well as tailoring to specific consumer groups, there has also been the observation that the nature of social media is such that brands are targeting a global market. There are suggestions that marketing will start to take this into account in 2012. Rather than focusing on, for example, the American market, companies will increasingly turn their attention to the wider global audience to capture their attention and interest as well.

9. Given the essential nature of social media, companies will also have to take particular note of the technical side of their business. Of course, in the past there has been much attention directed towards Google’s algorithm, famously updated last year, but it is also necessary to pay attention to the feedback about brands on social media, such as how often the brand is referred to on Twitter and other sites.

10. There is expected to be a much closer relationship between social media and corporate marketing strategies. The plan must be to engage and target the social-media market. Consumers’ voices are becoming more prominent and they have also been described as having more clout in determining product or service value. As such, online interaction with consumers is essential to generate the marketing buzz which, in a perfect world, would go viral.

Bookmark It

In one respect, data is similar to air. It’s hardly noticed, until there’s a problem with it.

There are many reasons for this, one of which is that it’s of vital importance to any organisation is often underestimated or misunderstood. Consider this: Walter Wriston, the then chairman of Citigroup, once said, “Information about money has become almost as important as money itself”. Bob Crandall, the CEO of American Airlines, said that if he had to choose between the airline and Sabre (American Airline’s booking system), he’d choose Sabre. So what is it that made two hard-nosed businessmen in effect state that information about their business was as important as what most people would consider to be the business itself?

It’s often said that knowledge is power, yet knowledge is derived from information. Imagine how difficult it would be to manage an organisation if you had no information about it. Information in turn is derived from data, the raw material of the knowledge economy. Data in and of itself is not the crucial element, however. What is crucial is the knowledge an organisation has of all the elements (customers, products, suppliers, contracts, stock levels, personnel, etc) it has to deal with in order to achieve its objectives. Data provides the facts that need to be known in order to deal with these elements effectively. Good-quality data is the foundation stone on which effective control of an organisation is built.

Data is a key asset yet its importance and significance is rarely appreciated. An organisation’s finances are invariably centrally managed and controlled. Imagine saying to the Chief Accountant that money should just be distributed to spending departments and they should be left to sort things out. It’s hard to imagine a more incendiary statement. Yet isn’t that generally the way an organisation’s data is managed? It’s kept in small pockets with little concerted effort made to keep it up to date and accurate, let alone coordinated as an organisational asset.

Imagine what it could be like if the data was maintained and managed as a central pool, with all parts of the organisation being able to see all the information they needed in order to achieve their objectives. They all see the same things and so there are no cross-departmental arguments as to which items of data are accurate. Even if data items were found to be inaccurate, they would only need to be changed in one place, once. Just how effective would such an organisation be? How much more synergy would it have? How much more knowledge growth could it achieve? How much better would it be in achieving its objectives?

It’s often assumed that the data an individual department collects and uses is its own property and none of anyone else’s business. However, if the department is part of the organisation as a whole, its data belongs to everyone within it and should be known and visible to all relevant parties. The department is really only what is referred to as a `data steward’.

Data Management is a growing sector. Unfortunately, it’s too often thought of as being “something to do with IT” and regarded with indifference, as not being relevant to the mainstream, or with horror as being too technical. But it’s important to think of IT as just an enabler for an organisation and not a black-box bolted on to it. The key question to be asked of IT is: “How will this help set and achieve the organisation’s objectives?” In the case of data, the answer is, “It can impair or improve the organisation’s effectiveness at all levels, depending on how badly or well you manage it”. It is important, though, to ensure that data isn’t fragmented and distributed for an individual IT project’s convenience.

One of the key elements in Data Management is Data Quality. There are many aspects to it, some of which are:

Integrity
Can the data be trusted? Can we safely make decisions based on it? Even apparently trivial pieces of erroneous data can have a large impact if tens or hundreds of decisions are informed by it on a daily basis.

Consistency
Is the data consistent for all of its users around the organisation? Just how much do you enjoy going to meetings with Accounts to thrash out discrepancies between your data and theirs? How often have you mused on how much better it would be if you could spend the time on more productive activities?

Appropriateness
Is the data available to a department useful and relevant to them as it stands? How much effort does its staff have to expend to trawl through data acquired by other departments in order to obtain information that is useful to them? What data do they need that isn’t available to them?

Timeliness
How much data is collected by an organisation too late to grasp a lucrative opportunity? Just how cost effective could it be to actively and even aggressively acquire such data, even if it meant setting up a separate unit to do so?
For the marketing professional, some statistics worth considering are that 35% of customer data becomes outdated each year. Some 30% of managers change their jobs each year. 32% of B2B emails are sent to non-existent email addresses. Over five million employees and business details change every year. How seriously could these facts affect how your organisation operates?

Stock Image

Bookmark It