Interactive News

If you look at the pros and cons of various content types, you’ll notice that there is no tool that gives you immediacy, sharability, searchability and trackability all at once. A completely capable content type would provide all of these attributes and more:

It would be up-to-date, like a live webinar It would be multisensory, like a video It would be navigable, like a white paper or e-book It would be actionable and trackable, like a landing page It would be interactive, like a website It would be sharable, like a social update It would be deeply engaging, like a video game It would be searchable and discoverable, like a blog It would be simple to follow, like a slideshow

Via digitalassetman

As the pace of technological and social evolution continues to gain momentum, brands are being faced with new and diverse marketing challenges on an annual basis. Each new year seems to bring a series of innovative trends, which dictate the way in which brands must target consumers and reach out them effectively. Your own firm’s ability to comprehend these and react to them in real time will help to determine its success, especially in an increasingly restricted economy.

 

The Top 3 Trends for 2013

 

The economy is certainly a determining factor in deciding in the top 3 marketing trends of 2013, while social and technological developments will also prove pivotal. Consider the following: 

 

The Diminishing Capacity of Human Capital: While the employment market continues to suffer from diminished job creation, there is also a concern that the current generation of job seekers lack the requisite skills to thrive. With youth unemployment also high in advanced economies such as the U.S. and the UK, and ageing populations prominent in nations like Pakistan and Mexico, companies must make plans for sourcing and retaining marketing talent in the future. The Integration of Traditional and Digital Marketing Methods: While this has already become a prominent feature of promotional campaigns as of 2011, it is set to become even more popular over the next 12 to 18 months. Social media day meet ups are the perfect embodiment of this ethos, where remote networking and physical interaction is combined to maximise the client or consumer experience. Expect to see far more of these and similar activities in 2013, across a diversity of different industries and platforms. The Geographical Power Shift: While nations such as the U.S., UK and Australia have been historically renowned as having extremely powerful consumer bases, there has been a sizeable shift in power since the recent global recession. China, Russia and Brazil all have emerging economies that have begun to dominate he manufacturing industry, while their consumers are also benefitting from increased productivity. Your business may consider developing a stronger presence within these markets, so that you can promote your product or service to a wider product range.

 

The Bottom Line: Marketing as an Evolutionary Practice

These trends will impact heavily upon the marketing philosophy of businesses across the globe, as external factors continue to influence the behaviour of consumers. With this in mind, it is clear that marketing should be considered as an evolutionary tool, and one that must be used creatively to achieve the best possible business results.

 

Via Tocquigny, digitalassetman

I define Social SEO as the ability social media has to help your SEO efforts by creating shareable, optimized, high quality content. Social Media and SEO need more things that tie them together.

 

"The fellas at SEOMoz conducted their own Social SEO study which said: While all three networks did have a positive correlation, the strength of the relationship was strongest for LinkedIn. So, while LinkedIn may be the least obvious choice for sharing activity, it is still incredibly important for marketers also interested in SEO performance".

 

Read More: http://socialmediatoday.com/socialmarvels/721931/learn-accept-and-enforce-social-seo-shareable-content

Via Antonino Militello

From The Article: "Both the Panda and Penguin updates contained very clear messages for marketers: stop focusing on technology and tricks and start focusing on people. If your website appeals to people, it will appeal to Google's algorithms too.

 

But the Panda and Penguin messages go deeper. With them, the search engines are openly acknowledging that a website isn't the only place on the Web that a brand needs to maintain a strong presence.

 

The interactive exchanges that people have with each other and with the brand--online--are happening in the social media channel, and the search engines are placing an increasing importance on how these conversations influence their views on brands and how their websites should rank.

 

This means that a brand can no longer rely on a well-optimized website to earn Google's attention. A brand must be a conversationalist, going where the people are and engaging them in discussion, and by doing that earn a wonderful reputation.

 

Smart brands are doing this by fully leveraging each social channels particular properties".

 

Full Article Here: http://www.fastcompany.com/3000283/seo-isnt-what-you-think-it

Via Antonino Militello

Engagement marketing refers to the marketing strategy of directly involving the customers in a relationship with the brand.

For small and medium businesses, engagement marketing is especially important, as so much of their business comes from repeat customers and word-of-mouth referrals.

 

The new book, written by Constant Contact CEO Gail F. Goodman, centres around the Engagement Marketing Cycle, a three-step approach to driving word-of-mouth referrals and turning them into socially visible, public endorsements that bring new customers to a SME’s door:

 

In Chapter 1 of Gail outlines The Engagement Marketing Cycle.

What is the Engagement Marketing Cycle? It's 3 steps to help you get repeat business.

 The steps are: 

1. Provide a WOW! Experience - When  a customer walks into your business, make that an experience one they'll remember. 

2. Entice people to keep in touch - Keep the experience going even after they've left your business. 

3. Engage people through content that inspires sharing - Once you've created the relationship, make sure you nurture it.

“SMEs are customer-centric by their very nature and many see the majority of their revenue come from repeat sales. For them, Engagement Marketing is simply growing the 99% of their business that comes from repeat sales and word-of-mouth referrals – and when done properly, this can be a huge source of new customers.” Tamsin Fox-Davies

Based on her book this Infographic explains why engagement marketing is important, and how social media tools can make it easier.

 

Download The Engagement Marketing Cycle. Chapter 1. http://bit.ly/RvGR37

Source. http://bit.ly/PW02RY

Via maxOz, digitalassetman

"First, to answer the question in the title: Yes, if you are not seeing a tangible and measurable impact of your spend and efforts in Social Media and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it’s definitely your fault.

 

We can’t very well blame the whole of the internet or the poor response of our potential customers now, can we? If you’re not pro-actively involved with creating and optimizing content on your website or participating in social media, please refer to the rest of my blog posts, this one isn’t for you.

 

Read More at: http://noteasytoforget.com/not-making-money-from-your-social-media-and-seo-effortsis-it-your-fault/

Via Antonino Militello

"It’s an ongoing struggle for businesses to figure out how to get the most out of their marketing budgets. While email has proven time and time again to be an incredibly effective channel, there’s still a lot of question as to how to maximize ROI in channels like search and social. Here, you’ll find a look at what seems to be working for a great deal of B2B businesses.

 

Webmarketing123 has put out some interesting survey results for its State of Digital Marketing 2012 report. It looks at B2B vs. B2C marketing efforts in terms of SEO, PPC and social media. We’ll focus on the B2B side of things here. Among other things, it looks specifically at the satisfaction levels of in-house/agency search marketing and social media efforts, as well as how much money businesses are putting into different social networks, and how much they’re getting back.

 

The survey included companies like Sony, Olympus, Phillips, IBM, Hitatchi, Cisco, Agilent, Microsoft, Citrix, Medtronic, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Blue Shield, ADP, Pitney Bowes, Monster.com, Angie’s List, GE, John Deere, Aramark, Thomson Reuters, Federal Express, Bose, and Nestlé. In all, over 500 marketing professionals from the U.S. responded to the survey.

 

The main B2B takeaways appear to be that lead generation is the top objective among brands, and SEO is found to be twice as effective as either PPC or social media marketing. This is quite interesting, considering that it is getting harder and harder to get on the first page of Google results.

 

Of course, there are some major brands that took this survey, and they likely don’t struggle with rankings as much as some smaller businesses".

 

Read More: http://www.webpronews.com/heres-whats-working-for-b2b-businesses-in-search-and-social-2012-08

Via Antonino Militello

We just released an infographic about the rise of content curation as a content marketing tactic.

Via digitalassetman

Every company has a definition of their market and every company also identifies certain segments in that market; even if it’s in someone’s head. But it’s becoming painfully clear that the old and convenient ways of doing this are ineffective and significantly limit the potential of your business. All we need to do is look at the results and we can see that both dollars and efforts are wasted in the more traditional ways of viewing and getting to the market. They simply don’t work if your goal is to create enduring value for your customers.

 

As new channels – such as social media – emerge, marketers flock to them in droves, hoping this new access point will drive more valuable outcomes for their businesses, or their careers. Unfortunately, one-size-fits-all doesn’t work any better in social media than it did in email, print or another other media you can think of. In fact, one-size-fits-none!

 

Continue Reading... 

Via Tocquigny, digitalassetman