10+ sites that are useful for keeping up-to-date with marketing, which do you prefer?

Staying up-to-date and constantly learning is vital in marketing, particularly since so many of the digital marketing platforms like Facebook, Google and LinkedIn are moving targets, with updates every week it seems. There is always a new update, a new tool to use or a new way of innovating your marketing practices. It begs the question of where is the best place to stay up-to-date, where do you find out about the latest changes to social media platforms or Google algorithms. At the same time, we need to review new communications strategies, for example, those made possible by inbound and content marketing, marketing automation and artificial intelligence and machine learning.

What sites do you use to keep your marketing knowledge up-to-date?

Regular readers of Smart Insights will know that we look to alert readers to the biggest changes which could benefit your…

Use our RACE framework to discover your ability to Plan, Reach, Act, Convert and Engage

Two years ago we launched our free interactive marketing benchmarking tool to help members rate their 'digital readiness' for digital marketing as a whole and for the key channels like Search, Social media and Email marketing. Well, it's proved popular since it helps members score where they are now and then gives recommendations of how to improve in the future - to take their skills or marketing results to the next level. So in our recent UX members refresh - we have made it more prominent and put all the benchmarking tools in place.  We also renamed it to 'capability grader'.

Introducing our upgraded, free interactive tool!

I'm also writing this post to let members know about a simplification to the most popular digital strategy grader which you may want to try - it's here (available if you're signed in): …

Internal links are important for ranking high on search engines

As a lanky teenager, basketball was always my sport of choice at school; I scored three pointers for fun, towering above my classmates to effortlessly send the ball sailing into the net. (Or at least that’s how I like to remember the pinnacle of my sporting achievements.) Now, as a seasoned SEO professional, I’m reminded of my days shooting hoops when I come across websites that neglect to build internal links. It may sound a strange analogy, but hear me out. Placing an internal link from one page to another is like a free throw, a simple chance to score points unopposed. Links give you a chance to direct website visitors to related content, while, in the background, they also point search engine bots in the direction of your most important pages,…

How to engage your audience with a customer-focused relationship

It seems to be a trend in the world of digital marketing: Brands are leaning heavily on their product instead of their customers. Coca-Cola recently rebranded its Coke Zero product to Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, abandoning advertisements about the experiences of people drinking its beverages in favor of a product-oriented focus on ingredients and taste. Coca-Cola believes this product-centered approach will drive sales and create a loyal culture of followers, but this mindset runs counter to human behavior. An overemphasis on the bells and whistles of a product might work in some industries, but people are far more likely — to the tune of a jaw-dropping 269 percent, according to one study — to do business with companies that take their needs into account. Think about the last time you tried to buy a car.…

A study from market research company Forrester found that more marketers are focusing on performance-based marketing. Performance marketing is “the new normal,” according to Forrester. Performance advertising is a competitive differentiator today; it will be table stakes tomorrow. What is performance marketing? Performance marketing uses clearly defined and measurable business objectives as the basis of payment or optimization. This includes cost-per-action (CPA) models, such as affiliate marketing, and programmatic ads that optimize based on real-time performance metrics.

How Performance Marketing Works

The Basics

The CPA model of payment is critical to understanding how performance marketing works. Advertisers and marketing companies are paid only when a specific action, such as a sale, lead or click, is completed. This model is what separates performance marketing from other forms of advertising. In traditional advertising, fees are paid up front and do not depend on the success of the ads. Advertisers in performance marketing only pay for successful…

How can you improve your account based marketing efforts? Good data.

By now, anyone in business knows that data matters just as much as the technology that uses it. In fact, you could argue that — much like the fuel that runs an engine — the two are completely dependent upon each other. You can create the most efficient engine on the planet, but it’ll be worthless until you fill it with the right fuel to get those pistons moving. That’s the relationship between data and account-based marketing: Data informs and fuels whatever direction an ABM initiative takes. Still, most companies attempt to understand the technology instead of the data. Those that are fluent in both can better equip themselves to thrive and reap a competitive advantage. Gaining that edge won’t be easy. In fact, Experian’s 2017 Global Data Management Benchmark Report states that poor data quality plagues 94 percent of U.S.…

Chart of the Day: 21% of respondents characterize Sales and marketings relationship as either misaligned or 'don't know' - part 5 of 10.

For a working, thriving business you need a working and thriving team. If your teams aren't happy and working together, it's going to lead to a very disjointed business. Both teams need to work in sync to run smoothly and reach business goals.

How would you characterize your company's Sales and Marketing relationship?

Only 22% of respondents believe their company's Sales and Marketing relationship is 'tightly aligned' and have a service level agreement (SLA) in place, whilst almost half (44%) say they are generally aligned.

How would you characterize your company's Sales and Marketing relationship? (by seniority)

It is interesting to note that when this question is dived…

Chart of the day: Global cart abandonment rates have increased 1.3% (up on the previous quarter) to 76.9%.

The latest installment of The Remarketing Report (Q2 2017) by SaleCycle has found that in this quarter the average conversion rate is 3.29%. Cart abandonment has increased, more people than ever are abandoning their purchases online - the question is, why? Firstly, it's a modest increase of 1.3%, but there is unlikely to be a single major factor and more a combination of things at work. Marketers may not be taking full advantage of retargeting, cart abandonment emails and other methods used to bring customers back and encourage purchase completion? Most likely, marketers are not taking full advantage of the opportunities out there. Perhaps platforms which provide these services are more complicated than expected, expensive, or marketing managers may not have the skills within their teams to set up and manage these activities. In previous research conducted…

Offline in an Online world - making DM work

DM is certainly not dead. Research amongst cross-channel marketers undertaken by the DMA and sponsored by Ricoh UK shows that over 70% of respondents are using mail as it's proving to be effective and giving ROI. According to Gareth Parker, Strategic Marketing Manager at Ricoh UK, 'In order to create cost effective DM campaigns that will engage target audiences, marketeers need to look to create direct mail packages. Effective campaigns encompass digital and print - and when print comes in to play, so do things like paper stock and image quality. With testing now part of the psyche of every marketeer, and KPIs a major concern, technologies such as Clickable Paper can help demonstrate ROI on the print segment and generate a fast return.' Their Infographic publishes some of the findings from this research and the…

How to use digital to boost revenue from your franchise

A franchise business is like a tree – the tree trunk is the parent company, and each branch coming out from the tree is a franchised location. Each franchise is unique, and just like the branches of a tree all have the ability to absorb enough sunlight without competing with each other, each branch of the company is in a unique position to market their location without competing with the other locations. Because search engines like Google favor local businesses in terms of providing relevant results to users based on their zip code (thanks to personalized search), it’s much easier for franchise owners to reach their local market without having to compete with their corporate parent.

Why own a franchise?

Owning a franchise can be a great path to financial independence for those who want to start a business, and the benefits are…