
Interesting: Billboards Being Used More
Interesting article on how billboards are being leveraged more right now. Good read. The suggestion is that online is quite noisy now, and billboards aren't used as much as they used to.... "Billboards — yes, billboards — are having a heyday in a digital world" A couple of snippets from the article. Definitely read the whole piece. Worldwide ad spend on so-called “out-of-home” advertising is expected to reach $38 billion this year, up 3 percent since last year and 35 percent

The Email From Line
Email inboxes are a coveted space to be in, but just landing there doesn't ensure eyeballs - only increases the open and CTR potential. As such, marketers think a lot about every facet of emails, including the "from" field. I've read lots of data that encourages putting a person's name in the from line. For example, instead of an email coming into your inbox "from" Acme Inc., it's "from" "Colin Snow," with other clues that Colin's connection to Acme Inc. As any person (in mar

The Importance of Listening to Customers
The last three organizations I've worked for have all struggled with customer disenchantment. Shortly after being sold to, there was a period when a new customer went through a "this is what I signed up for?" I've witnessed this across three different industries - B2C and B2B, and they each had a version of customer success / customer service, but honestly there was very little genuine customer empathy at the highest levels. If only more CEOs and C-suite execs not just read t

Facebook Usage Trending Down
I've been bearish on the proportion of marketing dollars and time focused on Facebook. Of course, every specific demographic is different - B2B vs. consumer products, teens vs. parents. Still with the same pot of resources, I would not put more toward Facebook, but divert some of those to other areas. Nielsen just released yoy figures: https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2018/09/the-amount-of-time-people-are-spending-on-facebook-is-dropping.html "'Overall, including Face

Evolving Beyond Personas
Persona-building is a common practice today, but maybe it's not the best practice. The practice of persona-building is creating a fictional, but accurate representation, of your customer types. You give the "person" a name fitting of their generation and background. You assign them an age, education level. You describe their challenges and what motivates them, etc. And voila you have a character built out that should inform your marketing. For example, “Michael is 21 and sing

2018 Marketing is Centered in Measurable Lead Engagement
If you aren't measuring and evaluating Marketing Qualified Leads, Sales Qualified Leads and your pipeline, then your marketing is not operating at the speed of 2018. Recently, I spoke with a CMO who is selling B2B, and said, "MQLs just aren't for our industry." This individual is at the end of their career, and there is no question that this person has risen to the top due to strong success that brought in dollars, but to simply try to repeat what worked in years past today i

“The Marketing Funnel is Dead”
“The Marketing Funnel is Dead.” That’s the big declaration today’s marketing industry guiding lights are declaring at HubSpot’s Inbound 2018, including the CEO of HubSpot, among others. No one is saying that the customer journey is no longer relevant – just that the cliché model and image of a large number of cold leads that funnel down to the end point of “customer” isn’t reflective of reality. It’s more cyclical in nature than funnel-like with and end-point. Firstly, being

Observations from Inbound18
I'm thrilled to be attending HubSpot's Inbound 2018. When I worked with Marketo, I wanted to go to their annual conference - The Marketing Nation Conference, but maternity leave put that on hold at the time. So, I feel like at long last, I finally arrived and it has not disappointed. I have been to TONS of conferences throughout my tenure as a marketer - many in the capacity of trying to reach prospects and customers and fewer focused on my own trade. It's energizing to go to