Strategy

As marketers, we go into each cycle with entirely new goals and KPIs in mind. These are marketing buzzwords that everyone recognizes but do we actually know the difference, and more importantly, the purpose behind each of them? In today’s blog, we will explore goals versus KPIs and break down what each of these terms truly means.     What Are Goals and How Are They Measured? It’s pretty easy to picture what a goal is when asked. Often, we think of the personal or professional ones we make at the […]

Companies have multiple priorities to manage whether it’s employee satisfaction, product development, or logistics. Another priority most companies will agree on is the customer. The customer is what keeps a business running and it’s important that they are well taken care of otherwise they’ll start going to your competitors. That’s where customer journey maps come in to play to help you understand your customer and discover solutions to your sales and marketing funnel.    What is the Customer Journey? The customer journey is the winding road a customer takes from […]

Marketing was obviously at the forefront of everything we did and thought about this year. After all, we’re a company that eats, sleeps, and breathes digital marketing. There’s an endless list of marketing feats, advances, and ideas we covered in our regular emsights posts, created specifically to help digital marketers stay on top of the good and the bad. We’ve touched on a variety of topics this year from changes in Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) to data to new generation marketing channels like podcasting, SMS, etc. It would take […]

Data is crucial to what we do. After all, how can we best design experiences for our customers if we have no idea what’s working well and what’s failing? Beyond these big picture ideas, data and customer journey analytics do a whole lot of work in providing us with information on specific touchpoints that contribute to the overall success of our business.     When it comes to powering your strategies, data will become a key informer for effectively optimizing customer experiences.     Data Journey Map A customer’s data […]

Online media has turned the world of sales and marketing on its head. Today, many consumers actively dislike being sold to. Instead, they prefer to do their own research by following brands on social media, subscribing to email newsletters, reading blog posts, and scrutinizing user-generated reviews. This doesn’t mean the role of the sales professional is redundant. It does mean, however, sales professionals have to be able to identify the signals that someone is ready to buy. They then need to engage their prospects with the right offer at the […]

The past few years have been a whirlwind for everyone, and marketing was no different. This was a time of endless adapting and pivoting in order to figure out how to navigate a sales journey in a COVID and semi post-COVID world. If there’s one thing that is for certain, it’s that consumer habits are continuing to change and it’s our job to keep up. One of the best ways to do so is to use previous holiday seasons to inform us of future strategies.    Holiday Marketing Plan: 2020 […]

You don’t need to be a data scientist to understand the concept of zero-party data. According to Forrester Research, who coined the term, it’s essentially the information that your clients intentionally and proactively share with you. For example, this could be information relating to product interest or purchase intentions.     Zero-party data is created every time a customer clicks on an email or social media campaign, visits a website, engages in an online chat, or picks up the phone and calls your organization. Therefore, it is a valuable resource to […]

The mathematician and data science entrepreneur Clive Humby coined the phrase, “Data is the new oil,” but it took a marketer to really put that statement into a context we can all understand. Marketing expert, Michael Palmer, wrote in a blog expanding on Humby’s quote, “Data is just like crude. It’s valuable, but if unrefined, it cannot really be used. It has to be changed into gas, plastic, chemicals, etc., to create a valuable entity that drives profitable activity; so must data be broken down, analyzed for it to have […]

Variety is the spice of life. And yet, as marketers, it’s so easy to get stuck in a rut and stick with what we know.     As a company with its roots firmly planted in the realm of email marketing and marketing automation, we’re not about to suggest you abandon your old but profitable email habits. We are, however, thoroughly recommending that you complement your existing strategies with something a little, dare I say it, modern.    We already know that blogging and social media are perfect bedfellows for your […]

Regardless of your organization’s marketing budget, there is one thing that marketers are never short of—data. Every customer touchpoint creates a constant flow of valuable data. However, in an age when data has been referred to as the “new oil,” much of this data remains untapped. This is a shame because what you can do with that data is nothing short of transformational.    Big data is changing the world.    You might already be aware of the stories about how political organizations around the world (sometimes illicitly) used data […]

Dynamic content has been so seamlessly incorporated into our everyday lives that we don’t really notice it’s happening. In fact, we’re more likely to notice when something isn’t optimized for our personal lifestyle and needs. Why is that?     Marketers understand the power of personalization and technology has given us unique ways to keep up with the evolving expectations of consumers. Because of this, consumers come across all kinds of platforms that already have their browsing behaviors in mind and ready. Searching for the next show to binge? Netflix has […]

Every relationship starts when two strangers connect for the first time and engage in conversation. In online marketing, that conversation typically begins on a website product page or landing page after a potential customer has conducted a specific search on Google (other search engines are available) or clicked on a link on a piece of content or social network.     From that initial click, marketers can learn a lot about their potential customer’s buying habits. In the seconds it takes to leap from a search engine to a website, we […]

If you’re a marketer, you’ve probably spent years honing your skills in copywriting, design, marketing tech, ad platforms and the rest of the skills that come with the territory. On top of that, you’ve developed an extensive understanding of your business’s industry—the products, the services, the needs of your consumers, and the intricacies of the environments that surround them all. These are the things that come natural to us because they’re the world we live in every day. And when these two worlds meet, the results can be amazing—detail-rich whitepapers, […]

As another “interesting” year comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to take stock of the last 12 months and start looking at how your business can optimize your marketing activities in the year ahead.   We throw the word “optimization” around quite a bit in the marketing world—but in 2022, optimization will be more important than ever. This is because, if you haven’t noticed, the world has changed quite a lot over the last couple of years.   The global pandemic has acted as an incredible accelerant in […]

  When people buy from a business, they are doing much more than exchanging cash for a product or a service. Instead, consumers increasingly want to buy from people they identify with, who share the same values, and who they actually like.   Purpose-driven marketing campaigns create the opportunity for organizations to show support for the communities which they serve. These campaigns could be anything from supporting a local school’s sports team to raising cash for a specific charity, or even endorsing a political ideology or movement. In doing so, […]

by Ken Magill for emfluence   The idea behind BIMI, or Brand Indicators for Message Identification, is pretty simple: An organization buttons up its email security. Then the organization can have its logo displayed in the avatar box next to the from line on mobile inboxes or in the messages in web browsers in participating email inbox providers.   (Google)   What is BIMI? BIMI’s aim is to drive the adoption of DMARC, the scheme under which domain owners authenticate their servers using the SPF and DKIM standards, and then […]

As we return to in-person events, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed, and maybe even a bit rusty when it comes to your event marketing strategy. Like most companies, you’ve probably seen a decrease in your inbound lead volume due to the pandemic and are wondering how to get the most out of upcoming tradeshows and other events. Adding digital marketing to your traditional tradeshow marketing channels can help you expand your reach at your next event and find new prospects within your target markets. The below guide is […]

Whether you use social media or not, there’s a good chance your target audience does and would be delighted to see you slide into their view. But don’t just go posting away here, there and everywhere. Learning where, when and how often to post can be the difference in being annoying or showing up at the right time and place. Before determining the frequency, you’ll need to identify the location or the social media platform on which your audience will most likely interact. And, to do this, you’ll need to […]

The phrase “above the fold” originates from newspapers. It refers to all content literally above the folded line on the front page. It’s the most visible content and is meant to capture people’s attention so they’ll grab the paper off the stand for further reading.     In the digital media world, its meaning has extended to include the area of content that’s readily visible and therefore the most important for inviting your viewer to digest more of your ad, web page, email, etc.   Why Should I Care About […]

During the midst of the Coronavirus, we gave ideas on how to improve your analytics data with 40+ items to audit in your Google Analytics account. Today we want to discuss Google Analytics updates that were officially released on October 2020.  Google Analytics has proved to be a great tool for data-driven marketers. Since a major update is only introduced every few years, new releases are eagerly awaited to understand new techniques that may be possible in the coming months after release.     Why the Big Fuss about Google […]

Part 1: Content Strategy  It’s time to rethink your entire marketing and advertising strategy. No, really, it is. iOS 14 promises to curtail Facebook and other platforms’ long-standing (arguably uncouth, depending on whom you ask) data practices. Google Chrome, the most widely used internet browser by FAR, is moving to block third–party cookies, and the world is in the throes of a global pandemic that has upended marketing, advertising and general business “conventional wisdom” as a whole. With so much in flux, it’s time to get back to the basics. It’s time to stop working […]

Marketers are always talking about content—how important it is for driving leads, building brand identity, developing loyal audiences, and more. However, there’s one question every marketer must answer when it comes time for them to develop content for their own brands or clients: how much content do I really need? The short answer is that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. There are, however, a few guidelines you can use to determine the amount of content that’s right for you and your business, and they come in two flavors: audience analysis and […]

In Summer 2020, with the killing of George Floyd and the soul searching many of us found ourselves doing, many brands began increasing their focus on diversity and inclusion. Seemingly overnight the imagery used in social and display ads became more African American, Asian, or Hispanic (if not also more female). Even the cynics among us would have to recognize, though, that this trend should continue and should be taken seriously.   Digital advertising provides an array of options for promoting inclusion, along with an assortment of hazards to navigate. […]

Since the early 2000’s, social media has been a phenomenon that has been a major driving force for the rapid growth of internet adoption in the United States and around the world. As more people have flocked to social media, brands have constantly struggled with how to engage their customers without pushing them away. In this blog post, I will cover some high-level points on how to get started (or improve) your business’s utilization and engagement on social media. In future blog posts, we will cover more specific planning tools […]

Pandemic. Protests. Election. Insurrection. Impeachment. Platforms v. Publishers.   It’s hard to believe that these and other major societal and social shifts happened in the last year alone. If you are a business owner or an individual responsible for the operations and image of a company trying to adapt to these changes, it’s been a herculean effort to even keep the doors open up to this point with so many external factors weighing upon us.   Whether it’s local business owners trying to keep their teams and businesses afloat amid […]

Pivot is an understatement for 2020. Marketers and consumers were forced to change behaviors in dramatic and unexpected ways. People are resilient, though, and marketers proved again their ability to adapt and thrive in an everchanging landscapes. While vaccines are on the horizon, a return to pre-pandemic behavior probably isn’t likely for a while. What changes should we expect to continue into 2021?   Virtual Events Turns out there is still value in virtual conferences. High quality live and on-demand content still managed to draw crowds. Virtual conferences eliminated the […]

Consider the various ways you generate leads – inquiry forms on your website, webinar registrations, tradeshow events, outbound prospecting, etc. As diverse as the opportunities are for lead gen efforts, so too are the need states of the leads themselves.   Ideally, lead states should guide follow-up attempts. For example, someone at a tradeshow who’s interested in a product demo may be expecting a call soon, whereas someone who just attended a webinar is looking for nothing more than the educational opportunity you provided. How and when you follow up […]