Nine in 10 Marketers Use Facebook — Why?
A new study reported in the Social Media Examiner reported that in April, 2011, nine of every 10 corporate marketers said that they used Facebook. That’s 92%, if you like statistics as a percentage of the total. Twitter and LinkedIn rank #2 and #3 on the marketing social media usage charts. That’s not surprising. How many of those marketers have incorporated social media into their overall marketing plans? What percentage actively monitorthe return on their social media investment with something other than the “3F’s” (friends, fans, followers)? One thing that is important in looking at social media is the demographics of those friends, Read More
Rules of the Road for Digital and Social Media in Regulated Industries
Anyone who works in insurance, financial services or any other regulated industry already knows that the rules and regulations seem to get more complex every year. So just what are the rules of the road for using the power of digital (web, email, mobile) and social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) to reach prospects and customers? It’s not always easy to understand the overlapping maze of regulations, leaving many sales and marketing professionals to wonder about how to speed up the process of using technology to drive sales without running into compliance nightmares along the way. A free webinar on May 19, sponsored by Read More
Distributed Marketing Platforms are a “Must Have” for Sales Success
When IBM announced its purchase of Unica last year for $480 million, the company’s press release said that the enterprise marketing management software market was worth $2.5 billion and doubling in size on an annual basis. Why is the market for distributed marketing platforms growing so rapidly as overall marketing budgets are still recovering from the recession? Because technology helps marketers win the race to provide sales with the tools they need to win business. It’s really that simple. Just one in three large companies (with revenue over $5 billion) reported in an IDC survey that they had completed their Read More
Personalized Selling 101
Selling is about people. One person offers something of value – a product, a service, an idea or promise. Others want what the first person is offering enough to trade something of value to get it – time, money, or attention. The better the two people understand each other, the more likely it is that the sale will happen. According to a 2010 Kelsey Group survey that’s why 97% of us research products and services online before buying them locally. In the insurance industry, most companies have two kinds of representatives who sell their products: employed or “captive” insurance agents, Read More
