Natalia Selby tells how to assess whether your marketing is really working well for your business; she describes three simple strategies for checking and calculating campaign performance to ensure best use of budget and highest eventual ROI.
Should performance-based marketing agencies replace traditional agency models and what impact might this have on the industry? Agencies have usually been paid no matter the success or failure of their campaign. But Inbal Lavi argues that this should now shift to a results-based process, claiming that this will lead to better aligned interests between brand, marketer and creative agency, higher margins and a higher ROI.
Are marketers equipped and resourced to deal with major challenges ahead? How will the marketing landscape pan out this year? What’s at the top of a marketer’s wishlist for 2018? What did they get right last year and can build on in the months ahead? Robert Howells checks out the major annual research report from Winterberry (hindsight and predictions) and compares it with comments from Marketo’s community of marketing practitioners. Here’s what he found:
If you visit a website on your mobile phone and it doesn’t render correctly, it’s iritating – right? And it happens more than you think, as responsive web design on mobiles isn’t easy – even in today’s tech-driven world. So what should brands do to ensure the user experience isn’t spoilt by poor website performance? Eran Kinsbruner details a four-step strategy.
The incoming GDPR means the acquisition and use of personal data must be transparent and explicit. But how will that affect email marketing and what should email marketers do to stay within the law? Darine Fayed explains how the new data regulation will work and why GDPR & email will, actually, result in better quality communications going forward.
In this digital age, modern buyers have often already made their decision before they reach the salesperson. How do companies stay ahead of that trend? Marketers will need to be more involved post-sale, AI-powered solutions must gain traction, marketing content should improve and the traditional B2B salesperson must change, says Andy MacMillan – citing this year as the tipping point in the digitisation of B2B customer relationships.
Zheng Zhang explores the evolution of the ad tech ecosystem and outlines key features of this programmatic era. He highlights the challenges many advertisers currently face when aiming to achieve secure and efficient ‘easy advertising’ and advises that specific, emerging technologies can be leveraged, to advance solutions and diversify the user experience in a highly saturated market.
Digital innovation has led to countless changes in our modern world but, sometimes, accepting the challenge of change can be difficult. Authors Alison and Scott Stratten warn entrepreneurs and marketers not to be over-enthusiastic when it comes to harnessing the latest technology, because not everyone is quite ready to wholeheartedly embrace this ‘age of disruption’. The Strattens’ message is to look before you leap: analyse your data carefully, focus on loyalty and know your market first.
Marketing automation is being used increasingly to allow the social media team to focus on the quality of the marketing creative, targeted at the right audience, says Jeremy Wood, who champions end-to-end management as the ideal social ladder to reach the dizzy heights of customer engagement and insight.
Ramp up your professional performance and avoid the business ‘groove or grave’ by taking some tips from motivational speaker and business growth expert Royston Guest – who recommends you set the bar at around 100ft high!