How to keep your marketing job and stay competitive as traditional jobs disappear and Artificial Intelligence erodes demand for some marketing skills but increases the demand for others
When robots named Pepper are taking orders at Pizza Hut, it’s safe to say that we’re entering the era of automation. Traditional jobs are being automated out of existence on a daily basis. And it’s happening in every industry, from healthcare to marketing.
Yet most marketers aren’t concerned about becoming irrelevant in the near future. This is short-sighted; acknowledging that many marketing jobs aren’t going to be around in another 10–20 years is the first step to staying competitive in an uncertain future.
How many jobs are disappearing?
In 2015 alone, nearly 2.4 million U.S. jobs were outsourced to other countries. And nearly every major American company has been accused of outsourcing or automating their jobs overseas.
By some estimates, artificial intelligence will cause the…
We are in the age of the smart customer
Customer experience is defined as the sum total of conscious events, as a coordinated series of interactions between a customer and a brand to accomplish anything. Above all words - a customer experience is defined by the customer, for the customer, at each touch-point, each time. — Esteban Kolsky, Gartner.
The Age of the Customer is not just a passing fad; it certainly isn’t just this year’s marketing buzzword. The phrase, coined by Forrester back in 2011, refers to the massive power shift since the digital revolution exploded into our lives, and refers to how technology, social media, and mobile information exchange are affecting customer service, product development and marketing. It alludes to the fact that 40% of customers have a high willingness and ability to shift their spend. In particular, it refers to this period now in which businesses will be…
Chart of the Day: The Fashion and Sports Industries are getting the most out of the Instagram community
Instagram's popularity seems never ending, and every time a new feature is released the opportunities for brands to reach audiences keep growing. In the last year, Instagram has introduced us to Stories, Instagram Live, Stickers, Mulitple photos and video in one post and much more. While the top followed accounts are dominated by celebrity accounts with Selena Gomez leading the way (if you discount the official Instagram account) top B2C/retail brands have been able to capitalise on this too.
If you are new to Instagram or even if you're not The Rock's account is a personal favourite, it really shows how a personality has used the platform to promote himself as a brand.
In todays chart of the day, I ranked the 10 most followed brands on Instagram excluding celebrities.
At the top of the…
How you can significantly increase the ROI of your marketing videos
“Did you see that video everyone is talking about?!” You probably hear this at least once a week. People these days are just as crazy about online video as they were about moving pictures in the days of the silent silver screen, and streaming video is only getting more popular. You still have time to get ahead of the curve — and your competitors — but you need a game plan.
If you aren’t sure whether online video content is a priority for your marketing needs, you should know that 64 percent of consumers are more likely to pull the trigger on a purchase after watching a video about the product. Video is already a vital piece of any digital marketing campaign, and yet many businesses focus on the wrong elements because they don’t have a video marketing strategy in…
Chart of the Day: Predictive Analytics Users Get Better Results
Predictive Analytics isn't a new marketing technique, but interest in it has increased with the hype around using Artificial Intelligence for Marketing. This typically involves using Machine Learning, a key AI technique for marketing, by analysis of historical results of campaigns to inform future targeting and creative.
In this research, analysts Aberdeen Group review the impact of Predictive analytics on different ROI metrics as presented in the chart below.
But, before we take a look at the results, what is predictive analytics? Aberdeen define predictive analytics as:
'A technology allowing firms to analyze structured and unstructured data, be it captured in the past or in real time. Such analysis reveals key trends and correlations while also predicting the likelihood of things such as customer churn'.
This is a broad definition since most marketing applications focus on analysis…
The major updates from the 8 digital platforms that matter, that's Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest and Twitter
Scarcely a day goes by without a new announcement from a social network or search engine which could theoretically have some impact on digital marketing. This leads marketers to spend vast amounts of time searching for and checking the latest updates, and then trying to work out if they will mean they need to change how they conduct their marketing.
That is why we've done the hard work of tracking, researching and assessing the marketing implications of the 17 most important updates so far this year from the major platforms that digital marketers use to promote their business. Now you can see at a glance what changes there have been this year, and click through to an article on each change to get analysis of the implications of the change. Well be updating the…
Creating a Bigger and Better Blog for 2017
It’s no secret that the most, if not all, profitable niches in online marketing are already highly saturated. If you think you have an idea for a new blog topic, there are probably a thousand blogs that already published the same post. And in time, there'll be more content than humans can consume – resulting in “Content Shock."
Remember that the fundamental law of supply and demand affects everything. The price for any commodity falls when supply exceeds demand. But when it comes to content marketing, you end up paying your audience to consume your content because there’s no price for them to begin with.
In addition to time, thriving bloggers now need to invest in tools and resources that help with content creation. It’s also common for bloggers to bribe their audience into subscribing with free eBooks, discount coupons, and free trial periods.
Whether…
Chart of the Day: What challenges you when it comes to email marketing? Part 4 of 4.
For email marketers, there will always be aspects of email marketing that are a challenge. This is the fourth of my four part series pertaining to issues faced in email marketing.
Previous problems discussed during the course of the series:
Targeting & Segmenting
Subscriber list growth
Tracking results
Main email marketing goal.
The final point we want to discuss is "what is your main email marketing goal"? We need a end result to strive towards and this is best to decide in the very beginning of the campaigns. In the chart it shows brand-building (47%) and lead generation (42%) are very close. While lead nurturing (11%) is far down the priority list. When you are deciding on what to use as your goal, remember that it is specific to your company.
…
How brands can use a Digital Marketing Centre of Excellence to improve their results from digital
Since digital marketing is so complex and changes so fasts, many businesses can be left floundering in their use of digital marketing if they don't have the right investment in digital marketing skills and best practices. It's challenging since 'change is constant', audiences move to new channels, platforms change their algorithms and consumers start using ad-blocking tech or become 'banner blind'. Because of the pace of change, many brands lack experience in dealing with the kinds of problems posed by digital marketing in 2017.
This often leads to disappointing results from digital marketing, which can then create a suspicion of digital and a failure to properly invest in the new emerging technologies and channels which will be powering growth in the years ahead.
These challenges have led to many brands utilizing a Digital Center/Centre of Excellence in order to…
Take note of these 5 tips for keeping your campaigns relevant to newer generations
A lot has been said about millennials. You know who I mean, you’ll have seen the definition a million times: those born between 1985 and 2000, the youngest of whom will not know what the back of a stamp tastes like, the generation for whom everything is Google'able and for whom there’s no lack of answers for life’s mysteries, big and small.
What makes this generation particularly interesting for marketing professionals is that, thanks to social media and cookies, this generation is easier to read, understand and know than generations past and, not only that, but they’ve been shown to be a more loyal group than their ancestors but, what about millennials and email? Is email still relevant?
Millennials and email
At Benchmark Email, we are particularly interested in…
