Today I read a piece in Ad Age where the CMO of a major restaurant chain said, “In the past, over 80% of the marketing plan would be executed the way you originally planned. Now, it’s like 20%,” so you better be agile.” I have to say – I completely disagree with this point-of-view and …
Inbound Marketing is overly focused on winning page one SERP (Search Engine Results Page) on Google and to a lesser extent Bing. Inbound Marketers preach that if your company can rank your website for your keywords, then leads, conversions and sales will follow. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t really want you to rank organically and that creates …
Everywhere you look marketers, digital marketing consultants and thought leaders are chiming off about big data. Just yesterday I read this post extolling the virtues of data-based marketing in place of empathy-based marketing. In it the author says, and I quote, “And if you are not using data as the primary source of strategy development… you …
It seems like not a week goes by that someone doesn’t post this question or an organization publishes research answering this question. It’s a smart email marketing question but please don’t believe the answers you see. Here’s why. There is no single, best day, best week, best month, best hour or best minute to send …
For now, let me just say that a strategic inflection point is a time in the life of the business when its fundamentals are about to change. They are full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting new technology or fighting the competition as you used to may be insufficient. – …
The first step in developing a Propinquity Marketing Strategy is defining your key Propinquity Points. The technique varies by category, industry and prospect but here is a repeatable four-step process that can serve as your starting point. It’s the same process I use with my clients and we find it to be an excellent jumping off …
According to a 2012 Edison Research Study on the Podcast Listener awareness of podcasting has grown 105% since 2006 and the percentage of people indicating they have listened to an audio podcast has grown 163%. But access to a growing audience isn’t the only reason to consider adding podcasting to your social selling toolkit. Here are three key …
You know what’s wrong with experts? They don’t know what they don’t know…. and they’re scared to find out. Experts abhor failure. They can’t help themselves. If you or I fail at something, it’s a setback. But if an expert fails, it’s a massive chink in their expert armor. And with each and every failure, they …
Studies show that self-educating buyers regularly download white papers and eBooks as part of their pre-purchase research. They’ll gladly trade an email address for good information that helps them make a buying decision or just makes them smarter. But far too many companies today are making a huge mistake with their white papers and ebooks. …
Edison Research just released another great study — Moms and Media 2013. There is a ton of good information in the report including key statistics showing that moms are increasingly digital, social and mobile. And as they adopt smartphones, all three of those variables increase in importance. The Social Mom According to Edison, 93% of …
Three years and two weeks ago I called my wife to tell her I would become unemployed on May 1, 2010. I had accomplished my three year goal at the agency I was working at and it was time to move on to a new challenge — namely to return to a life of leisure …
This post is a reprint of a post I wrote after returning from my first overseas trip in 2010 to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, where I conducted a series of social media workshops. If you want to read the entire series (this is the third and final post) I’ve included links to view the original …
Can’t see the audio player? No problem, click here to download the entire interview with Tom Martin from SoloPR LIVE from Atlanta! After Tom’s exciting presentation on Painless Prospecting at the #SoloPR Summit in Atlanta, he sat down for a podcast chat with Marketing From The Street hosts, Todd Schnick and Todd Youngblood. The guys …
The single most important thing to think about when crafting your website or blog — is not how beautiful it is but how well it functions as a lead generation machine. Probably the single biggest mistake companies and people make when crafting a website is that they focus entirely too much on the physical beauty …
Since the mid-2000’s, full-service ad agencies have been vacillating between keeping a wary eye on their new digital agency brethren and full sprints to catch up and surpass them. Why? Because research like the 2013 RSW/US Agency-Marketer Business Report showed (and continues to show) that clients intend to keep shifting more dollars to digital marketing and social …
Is your company using blogger outreach to help spread your marketing messages online? It seems many brands today are looking for a better way to build blogger relations campaigns but still struggle. So today I want to show you a short-cut to reaching even the biggest bloggers. The Biggest Blogger Outreach Challenges To be fair, some …
Unfortunately too many companies most often reward digital marketing agencies for our execution of campaigns. But at our core, agencies are thinkers and our greatest value to clients is our ability to think not execute. But it seems like not a week goes by that I’m not involved in a conversation with a colleague, prospect …
In an age of Internet connected televisions and broadband powered tablets and smartphones, has the television industry finally lost it’s grip on its coveted lock on the creation and distribution of unique serialized video content? Is The Web Poised To Become The 5th Network? Back in the 90’s a new kid joined the block as …
Hang on boys and girls, there’s a new buzzword in town — Native Advertising. Are you familiar with the term? If not, don’t worry. According to our survey fielded yesterday via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ you’re not alone. In fact, based on our results, I think it is safe to say we can all …
Every year we see the same “Biggest Trends for XXXX Year” for marketing, technology, and especially social media. In 2011, I interviewed 52 social media thought leaders to see what they thought was “NEXT”. So, as 2012 has closed, let’s see how accurate they were. Social Media Predictions for 2012 I went back through all …
I’ve been seeing a lot of folks asking for help, statistics, or strategies to help them convince their boss or their new boss or their company that social media marketing efforts have value and should be invested in going forward. Far too often those questions are met with a familiar people lamenting the need “in …
Want to know the one thing you can do right now to improve your marketing – especially the integration of your digital and traditional marketing? I bet you would. But before I tell you, consider this. What is your biggest challenge when you’re crafting your digital marketing strategy? I’ll tell you the one I’ve been …
Have you noticed an uptick in the number of social media consultants and social brands launching Podcasts? I have… which got me to thinking, are we seeing a resurgence in Podcasting? Will 2013 be the year of the Podcast? Should your company be considering a podcast as part of your overall digital marketing strategy? That’s …
While social media platforms are great for connecting, I’d argue they’re even more powerful and valuable as consumer marketing research tools. In fact, a few years ago, we actually uncovered a potential client’s #3 hurdle to purchase with a simple Twitter survey. Oh, and until we showed them our informal Twitter survey, they had NEVER …
Should we be on [insert name of new or hot social network here]? This is easily the most common question our digital strategy clients pose to us. Unfortunately, the answer is always the same — it depends. In the case of popular photo sites Instagram versus Pinterest, the data is pretty clear around which social …
There is a perfect storm brewing in the journalism and advertising world. A storm that is fundamentally altering how and where consumers interact with information and news. On Wednesday, December 5th, we’re going to talk about it in a FREE LIVE WEBINAR and you’re invited to register! This storm is driven by four key media, …
The law of propinquity states that the greater physical (or psychological) proximity between people, the greater the chance that they will form friendships or romantic relationships. It was first theorized by psychologists Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter, and Kurt Back in what came to be called the Westgate studies conducted at MIT (1950). There are …
Have you ever wished someone would just give you directions for how to go from wanting to leverage social media for your business-to-consumer (B2C) brand to actually leveraging social media for your brand? Do you feel like you know what you hope to accomplish but just don’t know how to begin a social media strategy …
A few years ago I participated in a panel at BlogWorld Expo in Vegas. I had the pleasure of serving on a panel with a few outstanding travel marketers, Doug Anweiler, Leanne Jakubowski and Mike Taylor where we tried to help travel bloggers understand how to better work with brands and the agencies that represent brands. As part of …
Is mobile a 1st screen, 2nd screen or 3rd screen in your marketing strategy? What should it be? If you agree with author Chuck Martin, it’s the Third Screen — also the title of his book. If you favor my friend Tom Webster’s view it’s the First Screen and another well thought of thinker, Chris …