Do you recognise these 5 Marketing Sins?

It’s that time of year again, and I’m not referring to some of us heading towards winter. We’re reviewing the results of this year's marketing efforts, rueing some decisions and celebrating others. We’re also looking to next year and asking “where do we go from here”? Dependent on this years results you're possibly busy justifying, arguing, rejoicing and, if you’re smart, we’re planning what’s next.

Are you about to screw it up?

The next three months is when, we’d suggest, you’re most likely to screw up next years marketing, and it'll be down to what you don't do. A marketing screw up will most likely be down to one or more of five dynamics - we call them The Sins. Unfortunately they tend to fall into each other and accelerate, like the proverbial plug-hole. The good news is that, it's all fixable with some…

5 Ways to Utilize Facebook Posts for Content Marketing

Content marketing is all about creating relevant and compelling content in order to change or enhance consumer behavior that’s favorable to you. And where else to better utilize this strategy than in a billion-people social hub that is Facebook? So read carefully and jot down these important tips that will surely help your brand with content marketing.

Tips on using Facebook for your content marketing strategy

1. Content creation through Social Listening.

Probably the greatest thing about Facebook from a marketer’s perspective is that you don’t have to guess what your consumers are thinking since they’re going to post it anyway. So this is the best time to listen. Tip: Find out how people relate to your brand, how they see it and use it on a daily basis, etc. by searching hashtags:

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New new customer acquisition reports give quicker, more useful reports

Value: [rating=4]

Recommended link: Google Analytics blog - Act, Empower, Access

It’s now over two years since Google last made a major update to its interface and report when it launched (version 5) in Beta as described in Dan Barker’s post. Since then, there have been regular updates and we have highlighted the most important in our Google Analytics updates channel. This new update is one of the more significant and useful - definitely worth an alert.

Google always has interesting announcements on major updates at its annual partners conference. This year, it’s focusing less on new technology as it did with last year’s announcements about Universal Analytics. Rather it’s tackling the “elephant in the room” for analytics which is the relative lack of use of analytics…

How B2B companies are using content marketing to drive engagement, trust and transaction

In my recent post on making the case for inbound marketing, I talked about how the need for information has led to the emergence of new approaches to the promotion of credibility and experience through content marketing. Interest in content marketing shows no signs of abating, but many companies still seem to find it difficult to review the impact. In a recent B2B content marketing benchmark survey, B2B Marketing found that although 56% of respondents saw content marketing as having an impact on sales, there were more concerning undertones: 15% saw little or no increase whilst 29% simply could not quantify the impact of content marketing on their business 46% found demonstrating content marketing return on investment a key challenge Finding good relevant B2B examples online often proves challenging because although everyone is talking about doing it, there are hardly any examples…

A smart technique for online lead generation

Envisage entering the office after a relaxing weekend to find the information of several piping hot leads sitting on your desk - Sounds too good to be true? Think again. Historically sales and marketing teams have relied purely on avenues such as a trade shows to make their mark. Online marketing gave new options, but there are many competing, often laborious forms to capture vital prospect information. Online Lead Generation, and in particular web-based lead scoring, is a newer approach to these traditional ways, making it possible to obtain viable business opportunities. Potentially it can create a cost-effective platform which requires less marketing spend as every potential lead is captured and even identified by company. We will give a briefing about these techniques in the next free Smart Insights webcast with this post introducing the approach - please register here. …

Ideya's new report shows the why, what and how of selecting social listening tools

Investment in social media monitoring (SMM) requires careful consideration since it is a long-term and potentially costly commitment. Understanding of the key SMM concepts, benefits and possible applications is of utmost importance. In order to realize the long-term value of SMM, SMM needs to become part of the business strategy and well-integrated with the business processes.

Only by having a clear understanding of how SMM supports your business, you can transition from experimental, tactical to a more strategic use of SMM.

There are many social media monitoring and management tools on the market and making an educated choice about which SMM tools can best address company's needs and justify social media investment, has become a challenging task for organizations as social media technology business has branched out into a diverse set of technologies, data types and countless vendors confusing…