How to build the right marketing technology stack for your business
It's now a lot more common to talk about choosing 'martech stacks' and rightly so, given the impact that technology, data and insight can have on marketing today. The popularity of the concept of a martech stack has grown out of the categorisation of marketing technology based on Scott Brinker’s Martech landscape and others such as our Digital Tools wheel.
Businesses have always considered their portfolio of business IT applications for operations such as finance, logistics and marketing, but traditionally, they have been controlled by IT teams who have managed a limited number of ‘enterprise resource planning’ systems such as SAP. With the growth in cloud based SaaS, it has become far easier for individual departments and, in particular, marketing, who need to manage many digital marketing channels like search and social media marketing, to deploy their own solutions.
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Demand remains strong for digital marketers though the supply of candidates will be tight
The proliferation of digital tools, social media, and mobile have created a world of two-way communication with buyers that’s here to stay. To keep up, companies are seeking out marketers with digital expertise at an increasing rate, according to a recent study from McKinley Marketing Partners.
The study, which surveyed over 300 marketers, reveals a healthy job market for the marketing industry overall, 19 percent growth over last year. Additionally, 44 percent of those surveyed plan to hire more marketers this year compared to only 28 percent last year.
Digital marketing continues to dominate with a projected 56 percent of hires requiring some degree of digital experience. Interestingly, 48 percent of requests for marketing talent received by McKinley Marketing Partners in 2016 required digital skills, and that figure is already on the rise this year. Creative services (35 percent)…
Are Spotify and Valve models to be followed or impossible to replicate?
We live in an age of Digital Disruption. The biggest transport provider (Uber) owns no cars, the biggest accommodation provider (Airbnb) owns no rooms, the biggest content provider (Facebook) creates no content. These new businesses have brought with them radically different models of organisational structure which was part of the reason they were able to do better than anyone before in their respective industries. Many of what were once new and exciting little start-ups, involving young folks tinkering in their garages are now massive businesses with more conventional corporate structures. Google and Apple are now two of the Worlds largest companies, and have all of the usual trappings of corporate hierarchy, like Presidents, CEOs, and managers of all different types.
But there are some companies which have retained their start-up culture and really do have radically different structures, which most marketers would…
How you can develop a brand which lets you stand out from the competition
A business can have the best product or service in the world and offer it at the best price and still fail. Why is that? Because they fail to differentiate themselves from the competition and show a clear and compelling reason why potential clients should do business with them.
The key is creating a solid differentiation strategy that will set you apart in the marketplace and show prospects why it’d be foolish to go anywhere else.
Business differentiation is the process of making your firm stand out in a crowded field of me-too competitors and a differentiation strategy is the guidebook for how to do it. As a digital marketer, you can do this efficiently and cost-effectively using a variety of digital tools. This blog post will show you how.
Developing and implementing a differentiation strategy is a five-step process…
Chart of the day: The majority of marketers say their content marketing strategy is effective and say their strategy is more effective than the previous year - but they also expect to produce more content next year than they are currently
The study showed that over 7 in 10 prioritised content delivery and distribution over the quality of content but 7 in 10 also focus on creating content with their audience in mind, rather than the brand. This highlights the pressure to deliver relevant content but produce as much content as possible and distribute it effectively, even if it means compromising on quality.
This is often a false economy. With so much content now available competition is extreme. Only by producing exceptional content can you cut through the noise.
The study also found that 7 in 10 marketers expect to produce more content next year…
What is headless CMS and how can it benefit marketers?
It’s a question that you may have either been asked or have asked yourself in the last few months—"what exactly is headless CMS and why should marketers care?" It's unproven. It's not ready to use. It's too technical. It's only for developers. All common concerns that I have heard to date. But that's not the whole story. The CMS marketplace is moving on and it’s important to understand how.
The Stuff of Nightmares
For many marketers technical advancements are a nightmare. Having to learn new technologies, keep up with the times, and figure out how to utilise them to their full potential—it's all very scary. But headless CMS doesn't need to invoke sleepless nights thinking of the four horsemen of the apocalypse approaching. The headless CMS architecture is still developing and as it evolves, it will become a useful tool for both developers and marketers…
Major 2017 SEO trends to get to grips with this year
Competition – it motivates all of us to become better at what we do. Marketers are no different, especially when they have to stay on top of the SEO game. They research the latest SEO trends; they use the best SEO tools out there. The problem is, unlike a sports competition, the goal posts for SEO are always changing. This, of course, makes the game more interesting, but also pretty frustrating for those trying to “keep up.” Looking ahead to 2017, these are some SEO trends that marketers might want to keep an eye on.
1. Dense Content Will Rise
Initially, content was provided in short little chunks – rather fluffy chunks, actually – and the same fluff was just repeated everywhere. When this ultimately proved ineffective for SEO purposes, marketers began to create volumes of lengthy content – the longer…
The top strategies for retail brands looking to compete online with the digital natives and pureplays
Last year Accenture’s Love Index report discovered that 4 out of the top 5 most loved brands were Digitally Native Vertical Brand (DNVB). These are 'online pureplays' brands which are born from, and function solely in the digital landscape like Netflix and Amazon. But surprisingly, the fifth company to have made that list was Walmart due to the digital experiences that it was creating.
There’s a lot of emphasis on creating digital experiences and equally a lot of news around brick-and-mortar having hit a glass ceiling; It’s this dynamic that led the Huffington Post to recently report that nobody knows what’s going on with online shopping. We beg to differ. You do know what’s going on, the difficulties for a multichannel brand is knowing how to execute efficiently and track accurately.
If you can relate to…
Chart of the Day: How to not get lost in your customer's inbox
Subject lines are important to email marketing, but they are a complete pain in the arse. (And don't get me started on pre-headers!)
I spend a good portion of my time toiling with subject lines. Testing how they look in email clients, making sure I don't include any spam words and working on the actual copy. A common practise email marketers use, is to include a promotion in the subject line, but does it have any effect? That's what the below chart discusses.
If we look at the average for all the offers compared to no offer at all, it's clear to see that the subject lines with no offer work better with the Click-to-Open (CTO) of 9.4% compared to 7%! This disproves what email marketers have done for years. But if we think about it, it's not surprising.…
Martech tools aren't just for marketers, sales needs them too
The much-talked about disconnect between sales and marketing departments (and likewise professionals) needs to be put to bed. If you pardon the (intentional!) pun: they always have been, and always will be perfect bed companions. Let’s boil this down: the purpose of your marketing department has always been to drive sales, and connect with and engage customers with your brand.
As such, sales and marketing have always been closely linked. Nevertheless, in many businesses, they are remaining distinctly separate, often operating in silos. This approach is in direct opposition to the way modern business works. Instead, marketing and sales should come together to help join the dots between the target audience and the brand itself.
Modern technology is an integral tool in not just connecting those dots between the brand and prospects or customers, but also between the two departments. Silo-based business models…
