The Marketing Automation Alert

Today is the polar opposite of yesterday: heavy and insightful reading. It leads off with what we think is the best summary of the role content marketing plays in the B2B marketing and sales process (from Aberdeen). We’ve also included what we think may be a great measurement of market share by MAP vendor: not by revenue or by units, but by web site usage. Combine this with a free eBook, an infographic on social CTA’s, and an updated social media design blueprint, and we’d say you’ve got some excellent content to review.

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Featured Marketing Automation Article

Content Marketing is the Alchemy of Intent | Research with Results: a blog from the Aberdeen Group

http://sco.lt/5HbJzd

From blogs.aberdeen.com - Today, 8:48 AM

Key excerpt (with our bold)...

This means that the part of the mission that used to belong almost exclusively to sales is now shared between marketing and sales, with more and more of the responsibility shifted to marketing. That mission is to shape the buyer’s vision.

Beyond the intuitively clear sense of what a buyer’s vision is, it’s created by a set of assumptions about both the challenge the prospect is trying to solve and the critical capabilities that are necessary to solve that challenge. There are sales methodologies built around shaping the buyer’s journey. But if the bulk of the decision journey doesn’t happen with sales, then sales has a narrower than ever window in which to do this hard work.  

This is largely what content marketing is all about — vision shaping through information. It’s for this reason that I call content marketing “the alchemy of intent”. A big part of vision shaping is framing the challenge or even identifying a challenge the prospect didn’t know they had, a “latent need” in the vernacular. Content marketing is about using various media to turn both latent and blatant need into an intent to buy, transforming it into a sellable need.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Without a doubt the most insightful bit of writing we've seen in quite a long time. Nailed it. This is EXACTLY the role of content marketing vis-a-vis the sales process, and anything less than that for the B2B marketer is irresponsible.

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Future Of Digital Marketing - Futurelab

http://sco.lt/6CrtU9

From www.slideshare.net - Today, 9:09 AM

A talk given at the Future Of Digital Marketing conference in London June 2013

Important excerpt...

One of the reasons that 70,20,10 is so broadly applicable as a model is because new things rarely kill old things, we need to embed dgitally native practices like optimisation and amplification into our businesses, but we also need to leave room for continuous innovation. The three horizons model enables a portfolio approach to innovation, mixing incremental with the radical. Horizon 1 focuses on innovations that improve your current operations, or focus on existing markets or technology, and so are incremental. 70% of resource might be applied here. Horizon 2 concentrates on extending your current competencies into related markets, or existing technologies and markets that you don't currently serve/use. This might be your 20%. Horizon 3 is about innovations that will change the nature of your industry, or seed options for the future. This is the 10%.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

The post (in the link below) provides the color to each slide, so you'll want to review the deck with the post. 70-20-10 is about right.

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The Smart Guide To Lead Generation [FREE Ebook] - Hubspot via Unbounce

http://sco.lt/7eUjo1

From unbounce.com - Today, 8:52 AM

So what goes into a best-of-class lead generation engine? Learn the 30 greatest lead generation tips, tricks, and ideas - Download the free ebook now.

Excerpt...

There can be a lot of moving parts in any lead generation campaign and often times it’s difficult to know which parts need fine tuning. In this guide, we expose the top 30 techniques marketers should utilize to increase leads and revenue. These tactics have been tested over the past 7 years and have been used by 8,000+ Hubspot customers to generate more than 9.8 million leads.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

I know we've seen this before, but if you haven't, boom there it is. And it's priced right.

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Transforming Lead Scoring with Big Data - CRM Magazine

http://sco.lt/77QkCX

From www.destinationcrm.com - Today, 7:47 AM

Combine prospects' behavioral and social scores for accurate sales predictions.

Excerpt...

But wait, there's a caveat. The data is unstructured.

This is where a new breed of big data analytic tools comes into play. Advanced technologies use natural language processing, Web mining, and machine learning to structure the unstructured (i.e., turn the mountains of information in the social Web into data that is clean and actionable). With these new tools, companies can take lead scoring to the next level by fusing demographic, firmographic, and behavioral scores with a new type of score—the social score.

Social score is best used against an ideal buyer profile that takes into account all possible digital footprints. For example, a company might find that the ideal buyer for one of its products is a person who takes an interest in cloud computing, attends a Gartner or Forrester IT conference, follows certain industry analysts, and has knowledge about VMware and Amazon cloud. Matching new leads with this ideal buyer profile will provide a strong indicator about the buyer's relevancy, regardless of the information he or she provides.

Combining the behavioral score, which indicates a person's level of awareness and interest with the social score, which indicates a person's true relevancy to the business, produces an extremely accurate prediction of one's likelihood of making a purchase.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Social scoring is just one aspect of the profile that leads to predictive analytics, but the degree to which it is inaccurate makes us pause. Not everyone tweets about everything in their lives, professional or personal. It's a helpful additive, but not a panacea.

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Four ways to automate your social marketing - Econsultancy

http://sco.lt/8tUht3

From econsultancy.com - Today, 7:33 AM

In today’s social orientated marketing landscape most business have taken the leap of faith into social marketing. If you are one of these business you know how time consuming and resource intensive social marketing can be.

Condensed...

1. Use smart scheduling for maximum engagement

Using a service like Swayy or Buffer will increase your productivity, allowing you to share more quality content each week which will result in more engagement and more fans and followers.

2. Spread the workload among your staff

Designate time slots to each individual and spread the workload among your entire team. The more your team gets involved with your social marketing the more likely they are to feel connected to your brand and be able to provide important insights on how you can improve your business.

3. Be aggressive with social buttons

Automate the growth of your social communities by placing social buttons linked to your social profiles within emails, newsletters, and other marketing material.

4. Open your blog up to guest bloggers

If you plan to publish two posts a week (the minimum in my opinion) then choose one of these slots and open it up to guest bloggers from your niche. Every niche has many bloggers and these bloggers are always looking for guest blogging opportunities.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Simple, basic advice. Social Marketing 101. Regarding #1: know which time segments are most effective through your analytics.

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Marketing Automation technologies Web Usage Statistics - BuiltWith.com

http://sco.lt/8vXSMr

From trends.builtwith.com - Today, 6:31 AM

Usage Statistics for Marketing Automation technologies

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Loose definition of MA, but fascinating nevertheless. An indicator of market share? Click through for the very revealing table.

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[INFOGRAPHIC] Days and Times With Highest Online Ad Click-Through Rates - Profs

http://sco.lt/83kTDd

From www.marketingprofs.com - Today, 6:27 AM

iNeoMarketing's insight:

1) Source is Infolink, so it's display advertising CTRs

2) Majority of sample sites are B2C

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[Infographic] Social Calls-to-Action Work | Dan Zarrella

http://sco.lt/561bHN

From danzarrella.com - Today, 6:11 AM

For more social media data like this, check out my latest book The Science of Marketing now! Traditional marketers and sales people have known for years

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The Ridiculously Exhaustive Social Media Dimensions Blueprint [INFOGRAPHIC] - TentSocial

http://sco.lt/773u4n

From tentsocial.com - Today, 6:08 AM

Social Media Design Infographic: All the dimensions, for all of the social media platforms, all in one place.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Updated on May 15, 2013.

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[INFOGRAPHIC] The State of Digital Marketing for SMBs | Vocus

http://sco.lt/5IELs9

From visual.ly - Today, 6:00 AM

The 2013 Inc. Digital Marketing Survey results, by Vocus and Inc. Magazine.

So what goes into a best-of-class lead generation engine? Learn the 30 greatest lead generation tips, tricks, and ideas - Download the free ebook now.

Excerpt...

There can be a lot of moving parts in any lead generation campaign and often times it’s difficult to know which parts need fine tuning. In this guide, we expose the top 30 techniques marketers should utilize to increase leads and revenue. These tactics have been tested over the past 7 years and have been used by 8,000+ Hubspot customers to generate more than 9.8 million leads.

In today’s social orientated marketing landscape most business have taken the leap of faith into social marketing. If you are one of these business you know how time consuming and resource intensive social marketing can be.

Condensed...

1. Use smart scheduling for maximum engagement

Using a service like Swayy or Buffer will increase your productivity, allowing you to share more quality content each week which will result in more engagement and more fans and followers.

2. Spread the workload among your staff

Designate time slots to each individual and spread the workload among your entire team. The more your team gets involved with your social marketing the more likely they are to feel connected to your brand and be able to provide important insights on how you can improve your business.

3. Be aggressive with social buttons

Automate the growth of your social communities by placing social buttons linked to your social profiles within emails, newsletters, and other marketing material.

4. Open your blog up to guest bloggers

If you plan to publish two posts a week (the minimum in my opinion) then choose one of these slots and open it up to guest bloggers from your niche. Every niche has many bloggers and these bloggers are always looking for guest blogging opportunities.

A fairly light day today: interesting but nothing earth shattering. There’s an interesting observation of the value of personalization (is the shine fading?), a sensible take on structuring the content marketing process, and a great article that covers how you should write your headlines to maximize your SERP. Throw in a few infographics, and your cranium just grew a tad.

Receive a daily summary of The Marketing Automation Alert directly to your inbox. Subscribe here (your privacy is protected). If you find this valuable, please share by using the links below:

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Featured Marketing Automation Article

Marketers Undervalue Email, Overvalue Personalization - Profs

http://sco.lt/83P4bJ

From www.marketingprofs.com - Today, 4:05 PM

Email Marketing - Gaps exist in digital marketers’ perceptions of how consumers want to engage with brands, what influences their purchase decisions, and how they view privacy, according to a recent report ...

Pertinent excerpt...

Customization Over Personalization

• Consumers surveyed said the volume of personalized marketing messages they receive has increased over the past five years. 
• The majority (63%) said personalization is now so common that they have grown numb to it, and 33% of consumers cited superficial personalization as one of their top annoyances. 
• Only 14% of consumers said they are more likely to read personally addressed messages, yet personalization remains the second most popular marketing strategy of the executives surveyed. 
• Though consumers are put off by superficial personalization, they do appreciate customized product recommendations. 

iNeoMarketing's insight:

We know that this is a B2C oriented study, but an interesting proposition for the B2B marketing community. Studies still point to the efficacy of personalization over a control group, but perhaps we may be looking at a retreat.

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A Strategic Map of Content Marketing Technologies - CMI

http://sco.lt/6tXl0T

From contentmarketinginstitute.com - Today, 3:47 PM

Condensed...

• The Create, Edit, and Manage stage included all of the modern web content management systems (WCMS) and blogging solutions, along with file-sharing technologies such as Dropbox, Box, etc.
• The Aggregate, Curate, and Optimize stage included classic content optimization, testing, and personalization tools such as Adobe Test & Target, Optimost, and Monetate.
• The Promote, Converse, and Listen stage included social channels, as well as enterprise listening tools such as Radian6 and Attensity.
• The Measure, Analyze, and Learn stage included many web analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Webtrends, and Adobe SiteCatalyst.

We then took the newer technology solutions, mapped them into the overlap areas, and grouped them as follows:

• Content collaboration tools — where Create, Edit, and Manage overlaps with Aggregate, Curate, and Optimize. These tools facilitate content editorial work flow, empower the enterprise to manage teams (either external or internal), and enable collaboration on content for content marketing purposes.
• Curation and conversation tools — where Aggregate, Curate, and Optimize overlaps with Promote, Converse, and Listen. These tools help to promote, publish, and aggregate content in meaningful ways; in many cases, they also help manage the content optimization process by using social signals, and can even facilitate some level of unified content conversation.
• Social content analytics tools — where Promote, Converse, and Listen meets Measure, Analyze, and Learn. These tools help to maintain relevance in conversation, while also providing insight into what we should be talking about — from specific niche social channel analytics, to semantic processing of social media conversations.
• Engagement automation tools — where Measure, Analyze, and Learn comes back around to overlap with Create, Edit, and Manage. Beyond classic marketing automation, many of these tools not only have the ability to manage some form of content, but they can do so from the point of view of helping the marketer “optimize” content for engagement and conversion purposes.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

We're starting see more and more theoretical models that reflect the marketing technology marketplace: from the LUMAscape to last week's Stack to this. Getting a grip on the framework is important inasmuch as it allows you to benchmark yourself against what is available in the marketplace, and how to best use these tools.

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4 Steps to Social Selling - Pardot

http://sco.lt/8gtBpJ

From www.pardot.com - Today, 2:42 PM

Digest...

Step 1. Get Your Reps on Social Media.

Make sure that they have accounts set up on all of the major social sites that your prospects actively use, whether that’s Twitter, LinkedIn, or another site. Encourage them to share content and start actively participating in conversations surrounding your brand, product, and industry.

Step 2. Set Up a Social Media Monitoring Tool.

The easiest way for your sales reps to stay updated on what’s going on in their social media networks is through a social media monitoring tool like HootSuite, TweetDeck, or CoTweet. Using one of these tools, have them set up filters to track mentions of your product or service, your company name, and any (or all) of your competitors.

Step 3. Have Them Monitor Applicable LinkedIn Groups.

Many prospects take to LinkedIn when they want to have discussions about products or services, especially in B2B.

Step 4. Have a Process In Place for Social Media Leads.

Having a process in place ensures that your sales reps know just what to do when they find a lead on Twitter or LinkedIn, and can act as quickly as possible.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Social selling 101, but it you haven't taken the course, this is a good first read. For more relevant articles, search our Filter for "social selling."

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Marketo launches content-distribution| BtoB Magazine

From www.btobonline.com - Today, 1:29 PM

Excerpt...

Marketing automation company Marketo Inc. has introduced a service that serves up content or messages to website visitors based on the content they've previously seen.

Marketo's Customer Engagement engine triggers the delivery of content, email messages or offers to viewers after analyzing their online behaviors. The tool also identifies which messages achieve positive engagement, Marketo said in a statement.

Marketing automation company Marketo Inc. has introduced a service that serves up content or messages to website visitors based on the content they've previously seen.

Marketo's Customer Engagement engine triggers the delivery of content, email messages or offers to viewers after analyzing their online behaviors. The tool also identifies which messages achieve positive engagement, Marketo said in a statement.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

FYI...

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28 Marketing Automation Stats that Matter | Fathom

http://sco.lt/5uEOuX

From www.fathomdelivers.com - Today, 3:39 PM

Learn more marketing automation facts and statistics that can help you develop a business case for marketing automation.

Key excerpt...

Marketing automation is a fairly new tool, and the understanding of its many parts can still be a challenge for its users. Adding the fuel to keep the marketing automation platform used to its full potential, however, provides a different challenge for marketers – lead generation, content and process.

1. 25% of marketers who are not using their marketing automation platform at its fullest potential. (Forrester)
2. 76% of CMOs list high-end lead generation as their biggest challenge. (Marketing Sherpa)
3. 64% of CMOs have either an informal or no process to manage their marketing automation. (The Annuitas Group)

iNeoMarketing's insight:

We wanted to scoop those stats that struck us as pertinent, and these three are warnings as to the importance of continued process improvement for your MA.

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Marketo launches content-distribution| BtoB Magazine

http://sco.lt/8WSQnR

From www.btobonline.com - Today, 1:29 PM

Excerpt...

Marketing automation company Marketo Inc. has introduced a service that serves up content or messages to website visitors based on the content they've previously seen.

Marketo's Customer Engagement engine triggers the delivery of content, email messages or offers to viewers after analyzing their online behaviors. The tool also identifies which messages achieve positive engagement, Marketo said in a statement.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

FYI...

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Marketers are killing their SEO content with bad headlines - Brafton

http://sco.lt/87C8Dh

From www.brafton.com - Today, 1:20 PM

Marketers can increase their content writing's viral potential by including certain verbs, perspectives and details in their headlines.

Summarized...

According to a recent Startup Moon study, after reading through more than 100 blogs and reviewing content analytics data, [it was] determined a number of common traits found in widely shared blog content headlines.

1. Powerful (and dark) verbs

Surprisingly, websites’ most successful news content often feature somewhat morbid headlines that use words like ‘kill,’ ‘fear,’ ‘dark,’ ‘war’ and ‘bleeding.’ For instance, the title “Big data is dead. What’s next?” was the most shared post in VentureBeat’s Data/Cloud section, the study found.

2. Say what’s missing

Online content is more likely to go viral when titles use words such as “not” and “without,” the study revealed. The top shared post on GigaOm’s Cloud page was called “Cloud adoption: it’s not about the price, stupid.” Therefore, marketers are advised to position stories about what’s not happening – rather than what is – when appropriate.

3. Specificity

Online articles might have more viral potential when they use powerful language, but marketers shouldn’t include buzzworthy terms at the risk of losing accuracy. Headlines are shared more often when they include specific qualifiers, like the number of examples coming. According to Startup Moon’s analysis – titles with higher numbers perform even better, so marketers shouldn’t be afraid to go all out with their lists.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Fascinating findings, and absolutely actionable information. Make your changes accordingly.

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What Is Responsive Web Design and Why You Need It [Infographic] - QuantumCloud

http://sco.lt/5OQmFF

From infographicjournal.com - Today, 12:30 PM

As of middle of 2013 the number of mobile device users accessing the internet has surpassed the number of desktop computer users. It is estimated that a whopping 119 billion USD will be spent via mobile eCommerce by year 2015.

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Drowning in Data [Infographic] - Evzdrop

http://sco.lt/7Dgj8z

From www.marketingprofs.com - Today, 12:28 PM

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40% of CMOs feel unprepared | Marketing Mag

http://sco.lt/5AjdDd

From visual.ly - Today, 12:15 PM

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[INFOGRAPHIC] Is Social Media Turning Us Into Psychopaths? - WhoIsHostingThis

http://sco.lt/60xp9V

From www.whoishostingthis.com - Today, 12:12 PM

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Kind of bizarre. More confusion for the human race, and justification for getting off the grid.

The whole team is taking Wednesday through Friday off for a well-deserved break, so we will not be publishing The Marketing Automation Alert for the rest of the week.

We'll catch up with you on Monday. Thanks!!!!!!!!

Combine prospects' behavioral and social scores for accurate sales predictions.

Excerpt...

But wait, there's a caveat. The data is unstructured.

This is where a new breed of big data analytic tools comes into play. Advanced technologies use natural language processing, Web mining, and machine learning to structure the unstructured (i.e., turn the mountains of information in the social Web into data that is clean and actionable). With these new tools, companies can take lead scoring to the next level by fusing demographic, firmographic, and behavioral scores with a new type of score—the social score.

Social score is best used against an ideal buyer profile that takes into account all possible digital footprints. For example, a company might find that the ideal buyer for one of its products is a person who takes an interest in cloud computing, attends a Gartner or Forrester IT conference, follows certain industry analysts, and has knowledge about VMware and Amazon cloud. Matching new leads with this ideal buyer profile will provide a strong indicator about the buyer's relevancy, regardless of the information he or she provides.

Combining the behavioral score, which indicates a person's level of awareness and interest with the social score, which indicates a person's true relevancy to the business, produces an extremely accurate prediction of one's likelihood of making a purchase.

Excerpt...

Yet again we’re leaving you this week with great marketing technology content to build your gray matter. Here’s what we’ve got for you: an overview of InterestBase (talk about a missing piece to the B2B marketing puzzle), a guide to Link Building (free), a Gartner E-commerce Magic Quadrant report (free), and the release of Twitter Analytics from Twitter (again, FREE). We throw in some Big Data posts, some landing page posts, and viola, you’re a smarter marketer. Chill out this weekend.

Receive a daily summary of The Marketing Automation Alert directly to your inbox. Subscribe here (your privacy is protected). If you find this valuable, please share by using the links below:

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Featured Marketing Automation Article

Marketing Automation's Missing Link: Getting Higher Conversions Using Customer Intelligence - Forbes

http://sco.lt/5RP38z

From www.youtube.com - Today, 8:16 AM

Key excerpt...

Tomorrow’s Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are Eloqua, Marketo and Salesforce power users today.  The era of the digital marketer hasn’t just arrived, it’s rapidly accelerated past marketing strategies and methods that have proven marginally effective and lacking in analytical precision and measurement.

What’s fueling this marketing revolution are the insights gained from Big Data, predictive analytics, and natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, providing marketers valuable insights into how they can increase conversion rates. They’re also finding out more about who their prospective customers are through the use of personas.  I’ve been tracking Mintigo and their InterestBase platform, and the following video explains the benefits of this platform:

iNeoMarketing's insight:

It's not often we get excited about a product offering, but we are with this one. Even if you're not in the market, it's a must see video (2 minutes) and then a click through to interestbase.com. It may be the solution for the B2B Marketer to leverage data for lead generation.

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Martec's Law: Technology changes exponentially, organizations change logarithmically - Chief Marketing Technologist

http://sco.lt/5X0cxl

From chiefmartec.com - Today, 8:05 AM

I believe these two things are true: Technology is changing very rapidly, and those changes seem to be accelerating. Changing an organization — how it thinks and behaves — is still hard and slow.

Key excerpt...

The great management dilemma of the 21st century is the relationship between these two curves: technology is changing faster than organizations can absorb change.

That is the crux of technology management. We can’t adopt all technological changes, but we can consciously choose some. Great technology management is choosing which changes to absorb — ideally those that are best aligned with the organization’s overall strategy.

In the graph, it’s intentionally deciding what’s in (the red shaded area) and what’s out (the blue shaded area).

We also need to recognize how entwined organizational change is in technology strategy. It’s not enough to decide which technological changes to embrace or to deal with the technical implementations of those choices. To succeed, technology management must explicitly address how those technologies will be absorbed into the operations and the culture of the organization. It must proactively coach, coax, nurture, educate, train, elevate, and inspire the people who will wield that technology.

In no context is this more true than marketing and marketing technology.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Pick ur poison. The question is how to quantify Scott Brinker's seminal chart. If this can be quantified, then Moore's Law needs to move over and make room. Regardless, as marketers, we can't do it all, and we need to make those choices that fit best with the corporate mandate.

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8 Steps To Effective Content for Social Media - B2B Marketing Insider

http://sco.lt/4qzziD

From www.slideshare.net - Today, 7:59 AM

Summary...

8 Steps To Effective Content For Social Media

1. Listen first
2. Stop creating crap
3. Engage your audience
4. Find your voice
5. Be helpful
6. Find your Rhythm: (the 4-1-1 rule of social sharing)
7. Reject excuses for not using any social channels
8. Be entertaining, if you can

iNeoMarketing's insight:

It starts with slide 18, and more of a background deck to the presentation, so you may want to click through on the links above to fully understand the snippet.

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Marketing Automation: The Need for a Behavior-Based Program - Profs

http://sco.lt/6RvTaj

From www.marketingprofs.com - Today, 7:35 AM

Condensed...

Here are a few steps in the journey toward a buyer-centric automation strategy, which I like to call "behavioral marketing automation."

Segmenting, and Sending Messages, Based on Behavior: The first step of behavioral marketing automation is to determine which target audiences exhibit similar characteristics. Upon identifying clusters, you can send those groups relevant messages based on shared characteristics. Harnessing other factors related to context, like timeframe, can also boost the marketing relevance of your messages.

Driving Immediate Behavioral Messages: Once you've established your initial segments and clusters, you're ready to take things to the next level: letting contact behaviors take the wheel on an ongoing basis.

Why Behavioral Marketing, in the First Place? Sending individualized, targeted messages can seem like a daunting task, but with the Web tracking capabilities of modern marketing automation, this strategy has never been easier to execute. Moreover, why would you want to miss an opportunity to provide potential buyers with what they want, precisely when they want it?

iNeoMarketing's insight:

The author of the post is an evangelist for Silverpop, and Silverpop has announced behavioral marketing features as a part of its MAP (see http://sco.lt/4llWvx). This feature makes tremendous sense, and we encourage you to read David Raab's post to learn more: http://sco.lt/7rO4iP.

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FREE: The Advanced Guide to Link Building - QuickSprout

From www.quicksprout.com - Today, 7:05 AM

Introduction...

When I published The Advanced Guide to SEO to help people take their SEO game to another level, I was overwhelmed by the response. Soon after launching that guide, I realized that the most important and challenging aspect of SEO -- link building -- lacked an updated, in-depth guide. Not anymore. Here you'll find a link building resource overflowing with value and depth. In other words, I'm holding nothing back. From guest posting to PR funneling, you'll learn how to execute every effective link building technique on the planet.

If your site was hit by Panda or Penguin and you need a primer on contemporary link building, this is for you. If you're fed up with hearing about press releases and social bookmarks, then this guide is for you. If you're looking for exact sources where you can score backlinks today, then you'll love this guide. Whether you run a niche affiliate site or a Fortune 500 ecommerce giant, you'll definitely learn something new that you can use to grow your business.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Well, we now have our weekend reading. You do as well. Must review as a part of your post Penguin 2.0 strategy.

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SlideShare: The stealth b-to-b social site | BtoB Magazine

http://sco.lt/7zaIQT

From www.btobonline.com - Today, 7:09 AM

Excerpt...

B2b marketers using social media seek out channels dedicated solely to business, where potential buyers came for serious content—not dancing cats. According to Kelly Services' Todd Wheatland, SlideShare is such a platform. Wheatland, VP-head of thought leadership and marketing at the staffing company's outsourcing and consulting group, is a SlideShare believer.  “Think of SlideShare as YouTube for presentations and documents,” Wheatland said. “The six most-used tags for content on SlideShare are business, statistics, social media, market, research and trends. Just think about how that probably compares to other channels.”

iNeoMarketing's insight:

SlideShare NEEDS TO BE AN INTEGRAL PART OF YOUR CONTENT DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY! There: we said it...again.

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Marketers, Seeing A Changing Landscape, Recognize Need For Data Analysis Skills - Marketing Charts

http://sco.lt/5E4B4z

From www.marketingcharts.com - Today, 6:58 AM

Excerpt...

Whereas 5 years ago, marketers needed media planning and buying skills and the ability to implement overall campaign strategy (including timing and targeting) to be successful, the most important skills today are very different, according to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Lyris. Attributing the largest drivers of change to a digital environment that requires much more agility and speed (58% selecting as one of top 2) and a much more knowledgeable customer (40%), respondents indicated that the most necessary skill today is the ability to use data analysis to extract predictive findings from big data (40% selecting as one of top 3).

Tied for second place: the ability to generate insights about the drivers of consumer behavior from multiple data sources (32%). Indeed, a significant proportion of marketers believe that harnessing complex data sets has become a critical success factor.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Does not differentiate between B2B and B2C, but you get the point.

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FREE: Gartner Magic Quadrant for E-commerce 2013 | Building Keystones

http://sco.lt/7IMrs9

From www.buildingkeystones.com - Today, 7:01 AM

Building Keystones and cleverbridge are pleased to offer our readers complimentary access to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for E-commerce.

Excerpt...

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for E-commerce helps software companies understand the different solutions available to fulfill their e-commerce needs. It identifies vendors of e-commerce platforms as leaders, challengers, visionaries or niche players. These designations are based on those companies’ “completeness of vision” and “ability to execute.”

iNeoMarketing's insight:

If you're contemplating incorporating E-commerce into your B2B go-to-market so as to expand market reach, this is a must download.

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Big Data or Big Insights? - ClickZ

http://sco.lt/8F7pnV

From www.clickz.com - Today, 6:54 AM

It's time to understand how the various data are going to help support your various marketing objectives.

Key excerpt...

One of the challenges I have with the notion of the data scientist is that the position is portrayed as some kind of analytical superhero. Someone who can write code to extract data from humongous databases, use complex statistical and algorithmic processes to create amazing insights from that data, and then present them to the business in a way that they understand using the very best in data visualization. Undoubtedly these people do exist, but there aren't going to be enough of them to go around. Organizations are going to have to figure out how they get all those things done, and it's more likely than not to be a multi-disciplinary approach. People who manage the data integrity of the business, people who are skilled in the art and science of analytics, and people who can consult with the business to create the insights.

Delivering actionable insights is the point, and that leads me back to the title. One of the things I worry a bit about with big data is that it feels a bit like a solution looking for a problem. There is the danger that organizations become obsessed with gearing up for big data and leave behind the opportunities that already exist on the table. Most organizations already have enough data that they're not leveraging, let alone needing more. What's needed is more focus on what insights are needed to solve the problems that the companies face. As Rufus Pollock, founder and co-director of the Open Knowledge Foundation in the U.K. puts it, "The real opportunity is not big data, but small data. Size in itself doesn't matter - what matters is having the data, of whatever size, that helps us solve a problem or address the question we have."

iNeoMarketing's insight:

This is an opinion piece, but a good one, and we think we caught the main points with the aforementioned scoop. Couple of things: 1) Data Scientists will be a relatively rarity. We think that to accomplish what is needed, you'll need individuals with strong quantitative backgrounds who can be creative with raw data; 2) Big Data in the world of B2B ain't that big, so it's ideal for small data initiatives.

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Twitalytics Arrive: Official Twitter Analytics Released To The Public - MarketingLand

http://sco.lt/5e6sGP

From marketingland.com - Today, 6:31 AM

The dive into user data that all Twitter users have been clamoring for has finally arrived. Found hidden within the Twitter Ads dropdown, the official analytics tools show data on specific Tweets and follower info – no ad spend required.

Digest...

To access official Twitter analytics follow these steps:

1. Head to Ads.Twitter.com and log-in.
2. Click on the analytics button in the top navigation. You can choose from “Timeline Activity” and “Followers”

The data that is available is broken down by Tweet and by Followers:

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Sure enough: THERE'S YOUR DATA!! And it's available to non-advertisers and advertisers alike! A must review!!!!

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12 essential PPC landing page success factors

http://sco.lt/6arqBl

From econsultancy.com - Today, 6:22 AM

Landing pages are an integral part of paid search. Effective pages mean you convert more visitors to the outcomes you need and in quality-score based search engines they make your ad more competitive.

Summarized...

I'm referring to PPC landing pages here, as some of these tips are taken from our PPC Best Practice Guide, but many of these factors apply equally to email and other landing pages...

1. Deliver relevance

2. Integrate with referral source(s)

3. Provide sufficient detail to support the response decision

4. Start the user on their journey

5: Use the right page length

6: Use meaningful graphics

7: Remove menu options?

8: Remember the non-responders

9: Consider landing page longevity

10: Reinforcing credibility 

11: Make it mobile-friendly

12: Try It! Measure It! Tweak It!

13: Page load speed

iNeoMarketing's insight:

A good list of tips. Suggest you start with Unbounce (use our Filter and search Unbounce) for effective landing page tips, and work this list into what you find. Unbounce is the clear authority.

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5 Awesome Landing Page Strategies for Higher Conversions - OMI

http://sco.lt/7qZX2v

From www.onlinemarketinginstitute.org - Today, 6:27 AM

Learn 5 proven ways to improve your landing pages and increase your conversion rates. Your ROI will never be the same.

Condensed...

Below are 5 ways to drive awesome response rates with great post-click marketing experiences.

1. The Segmented Experience: Unlike traditional landing page optimization, which usually focuses on testing and optimizing page elements, segment optimization focuses on identifying who your audience is, then optimizes unique visitor experiences

2. The All-Mighty Microsite

3. Social Login

4. Progressive Conversion

5. Device Optimization

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Again, start with scoops from Unbounce and proceed from there. Be careful with #2 for the reasons found here: http://sco.lt/7M2sXx

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Keyword Methodology: How to Jumpstart Your SEO Strategy - Profs

http://sco.lt/8i9Jqb

From www.marketingprofs.com - Today, 6:17 AM

Search Engine Marketing - You know the importance of SEO, but building a program can be overwhelming. If the thought of SEO makes your head hurt, here's a tried and tested guide...

Condensed...

If the thought of SEO makes your head hurt, here's a tried and tested step-by-step guide on how to create and execute a killer SEO keyword strategy.

Methodology to Find New Keywords

Using Google's Keyword Tool, you can experiment with finding keywords in two ways:

1. Keywords that are relevant to your product offering or service
2. Keywords used to find direct and indirect competitors of yours

Determining Your Target Keywords

Once you feel satisfied with your master list, go through it and narrow it down. Choose keywords with the best search volume, relevancy to your product and branding, and minimal competitiveness; also ensure that you don't choose keywords that are too similar to each other.

The Process of Placing Specific Keywords on Website Pages

When your keyword list is finalized, the next step is to place the new keywords into your website pages.

Create an Excel document where you can track which keywords you want to place on each page. Ensure that the top ranking keywords are placed on the most visited pages (as determined by Google Analytics) or on pages that will drive conversions; this is the most logical way to drive up your SEO. You should also make sure that the keywords are logically matched with the website page.

iNeoMarketing's insight:

Our summary does not do this post justice. You really need to click through and read the details to fully understand and follow each step. A wonderful guide to help you in your SEO Keyword identification process.

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Marketing Technology Insights: Most Comprehensive, Easy-To-Use CMS Comparison Tool Ever!

http://sco.lt/89nr6n

From www.marketingtechnologyinsights.com - Today, 6:11 AM

What if you could generate a CMS comparison that actually gave you the information you needed to eliminate the choices?

Digest...

The CMS Matrix: It's an incredibly nifty CMS comparison tool - but it's not just any tool. It has tons of information on each CMS, and my favorite thing about it is the conversation it stirs between marketing, IT, and the executives.

CMS Matrix is great because it(s):

• Updates regularly
• Has every CMS ever (just about).
• Comprehensive color-coding makes it easy to spot differences.
• Makes the process of elimination even easier - especially when certain specs are deal-breakers.
• Search for a CMS with drop-down/user-generated specs.
• Focus on certain attributes within table (Hide/Show Stickies feature).

iNeoMarketing's insight:

And it is great. Just click through and see how the comparisons are made. Sort by most compared as well.