Friday News Round-Up: Banning PhotoShop Abuse, Panic Buying and More Visibility for Paid Tweets
Here’s this week’s round-up of news stories marketers shouldn’t miss because they offer key information or lessons that multi-channel distributed marketing organizations should take to heart. World News Affects Consumer Behavior Quickly: Two stories from the world of insurance point up how rapidly things can change for marketers. One story looks at changes in the way Americans buy life insurance – and the other points out that the looming default on the U.S. debt has customers of financial planners concerned about the default’s impact on their own investments. The lesson for marketers: Keeping a close eye on your own industry is Read More
2012 Budget Survey: Part 2 Results
In Monday’s post, we focused on the communications channels marketers plan to budget for in 2012. Today, we are including two tables from the second part of the survey which looks at some additional data on spending plans from the 190 marketers who participated in our survey. The two tables included here are simple, and don’t seem to require much in the way of explanation. They cover budget allocation by program, and budget allocation by resource. Methodology: The Distributed Marketing Blog’s marketing budget survey included responses from 190 marketing managers, directors, vice presidents or CMO’s; about half (48%) come from small and Read More
2012 Budget Survey Results: Spending Plans Shift toward Social, Mobile
According to a new survey conducted July 5-20, 2011, spending plans for 2012 are shifting towards social and mobile marketing communications channels, as marketers at large and small businesses begin the process of preparing their budgets for the coming year. Survey responses highlighted below focus on marketing objectives, spending priorities, and spending plans. The first table shows the split between large enterprises and smaller companies, but the other two tables show overall marketing budget plans across the board. Which of the following business objectives are the most important when setting your 2012 marketing budget? Which of the following marketing communications channels are Read More
News Round-Up: The $4 Million Tweet, and Led Zeppelin’s Compliance Lesson
Here’s this week’s round-up of news stories marketers shouldn’t miss because they offer key information or lessons that multi-channel distributed marketing organizations should take to heart. Knowing How Regulators Define Actions is Half the Battle: Chad Bockius of Socialware was featured in an article this week that looks at how regulators define certain marketing activities. This blog has written about the importance of understanding regulatory definitions before, but as usual Chad’s explanations are clear, precise, and important. (For more of his insights on marketing and compliance in a regulated environment, check out the presentation from a recent webinar that featured Distribion, Socialware, and Read More
Why Channel Agnostic Marketing Works
No matter what industry you work in, your target audience is probably channel agnostic. That is, they don’t put their faith in any single channel — online, offline, mobile, social. Instead, they put their faith in human interactions that are relevant, accessible when they want information, and positive. That’s the conclusion that Ian Michiels, chairman of the research advisory board at Gleanster and director of the Marketsphere Marketing group, reported in a recent webinar titled: Connectivity: The Secret to Success in Distributed Marketing Environments. Edgar Rodriguez, executive vice president of marketing and sales at Distribion, echoed the Gleanster research with Read More
Ready Access to Marketing Collateral Predicts Sales Success
Although 2011 has been a good year compared to the last two, most sales and marketing organizations still face many challenges including the lingering economic downturn, a hyper competitive business landscape, and rising customer expectations. Add in the complexity that comes with multi-channel communications and complying with burgeoning regulatory requirements, and it’s easy to see why a formal marketing strategy isn’t a luxury. The Aberdeen Group wrote it its report Sales & Marketing Alignment: Collaboration + Cooperation = Peak Performance that common goal identification, defined responsibilities, and established workflows for sales and marketing are essential for competitive survival. During the planning and Read More
News roundup: Social and Digital Media’s Split Personality On Display
Here’s this week’s round-up of news stories marketers shouldn’t miss because they offer key information or lessons that multi-channel distributed marketing organizations should take to heart. All five of the selected articles demonstrate the deep divides in how companies are addressing social media — and point up why integrating the medium’s “split personality” is likely to be a key challenge for marketers as the social network grows and evolves. “Blame Grandpa” Defense Strategy Originated Online – A jury consultant working for Florida murder defendant Casey Anthony has reported that the controversial defense strategy which blamed Caylee Anthony’s grandfather originated with social Read More
Drawing the Line Online: Recorded Webinar & Presentation
This morning’s webinar with Distribion, Socialware, and LIMRA went beautifully! If you missed it, you can download the presentation here, and view the recorded webinar here. There were so many questions that panelists Chad Bockius, Edgar Rodriguez, and Stephen Selby didn’t get to all of them, so the organizers are preparing a downloadable Q&A for those that weren’t answered during the webcast. A link will be posted here as soon as that is available. Registration is now available for the next webinar in the 5-part series the three organizations are sponsoring. Reaching Your Audience Effectively: The 5W’s of Digital & Read More
Last Call: Register Now for Tomorrow’s Webinar on Social Media Compliance
Drawing the Line Online: Personal vs. Professional Speech is shaping up to be the hottest webinar of the summer with practical advice and clear explanations that will help anyone who works in a regulated industry harness the growing power of social media — without regulatory compliance headaches. The session starts tomorrow, Thursday – July 14, 2011 – at 11 a.m. Central Daylight Time. Registration is free, but space is limited and we’re rapidly approaching our cut-off. Reserve your space now by clicking here. Who should attend: Marketing, compliance, HR, legal, and PR executives in Financial Services, Insurance, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Hospitality or Casino Read More
Making the Case for 2012 Marketing Budgets
The year is half over, and that means it’s time for many of us to start building the business case for 2012 marketing spending. If you want to get management approval to buy a technology solution for your multi-channel marketing organization, start by looking at the purchase from your CEO or CFO’s perspective. Nothing you can say will make a CEO or CFO happier than hearing about the areas in the marketing process where you can reduce program costs while increasing ROI. So structure your business case in language that makes sense to your audience. Start by showing them just how Read More
