Marketing in Real Life

There are lots of great articles about how to be a "modern" marketer and even more about how to hire one.  The challenge is that everyone looking for a great job thinks they fit the bill and are eager to spout off catch phrases like Inbound Marketing, Demand Generation, and Content Marketing to impress the uninitiated. While lots of executives at companies of all sizes understand that the marketing landscape is changing, many of them don’t know exactly what they need or what they are looking for. So, how do you know if you or your interviewee fit the bill?     1.      The modern marketer looks at the whole funnel, not just the top of it.   They know the numbers and see acquisition, conversion and retention as their job (note the eMarketer data showing a focus on lead generation).  They think about lead quality not jut lead volume.  And they see working cross-functionally as a blessing, not a hassle. 2. ...

Remember 6 weeks ago when everyone was up in arms about Facebook’s Timeline being forced on brand pages?  Well, the conversion date came and went and anyone not obsessed with social media marketing didn’t seem to notice.   That’s because even with Timeline  in place (which I like), the average Facebook user doesn’t go to Pages, they spend their time in their own newsfeed.  In the end, all that matters is the content you are posting and whether it is relevant and engaging for your audience.  Which of course is nothing new and has nothing to do with Timeline.   Check out some recent research I helped out with below to see why people like your Page in the first place.

In today’s edition of eMarketer there is an article stating that most business to business referrals from social sites are uninterested in products and services. The article, however, goes on to state that visitors from Facebook were most likely to check out a company’s “about” page or blog posts. As a B2B services marketer those are exactly the desired effects of social media that feed our sales process. While it would be great if potential clients saw something we posted on Twitter , LinkedIn , or Facebook and rushed to buy a project from my firm, the reality is that our sales process is not short or direct. Our value proposition is made up of the smarts, personalities, and creativity of our people and our sales cycle can take months (and occasionally years.) Barring the rare immediate project opportunity, our goal is to drive prospects to the elements of our site that let us different ourselves – the blog, the about us, the leadership team, etc. and encourage prospects to contact ...

We obviously have a bit of bias on the topic, but over at eMarketer, their CEO Geoff Ramsey makes a nice case for why now is not the time to be cutting research budgets and that they should be evaluated indpendantly from advertising budgets. He cites three reasons why you might want to put yourself in the “increase” (or at least “maintain”) market research camp: With the economy clouding the future, why throw away your flashlight when it could shine on intriguing consumer insights, hot technology trends and market opportunities? Market research can help you preserve budgets, projects and even people. Prepare for better times ahead. Take a read by following the link below and feel free to post your thoughts. http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007001