5 Things You Need to Know About Twitter #Hashtags
Nearly every marketer uses Twitter – and the vast majority of us also use Twitter hashtags – the letters that follow the pound or number sign (#) in a tweet. But here are five things you might not know about using Twitter hashtags that could help you boost your Twitter results dramatically. For example, did you know that Twitter didn’t invent hashtags? Users invented Twitter hashtags. Google employee Chris Messina is credited as the “hashtag Godfather” for an August, 2007 tweet in which he suggested using the pound sign as a way to organize groups on Twitter. His original idea was that like Read More
Using Marketing Automation for Channel Engagement
When people talk about marketing communications, it’s usually in the context of selling products and services to customers. But an increasing number of top-performing companies are using marketing communication solutions as a secret weapon to help them sell through wholesalers, channel partners, independent or captive sales teams, dealers, brokers, and other kinds of resellers. Think about it. What would it mean to your business if you had a marketing communications solution that was automated and optimized for communications with and through your sales channel? One that could educate, train, inform, motivate, and persuade them to use your marketing collateral, campaigns, and email Read More
Social Marketing or Marketing on Social Networks?
Does your company practice social media marketing, or do you use social networks for marketing? There is a difference. The first – social media marketing – requires a strategy specific to social channels, and content tailored to those platforms. The second – marketing on social networks – is simply distributing traditional marketing messages through social media. Social media marketing works. Marketing on social networks doesn’t. Social media marketing is a true two-way conversation between a company and its customers, prospective customers, and the world at large. Marketing through social networks “pushes” company offerings to anyone who can hear them. This includes tactics Read More
Five Rules of Content Marketing
Content marketing works. That simple premise is why more and more marketers are making content marketing a core part of their lead generation strategies. One of the reasons that they work is that providing high-quality content helps build trust and rapport with prospects and customers, making it easier for them to make an eventual purchasing or renewal decision. It’s not a new idea. Early in my career, I worked at Shell Oil Company in Houston, where the “Come to Shell for Answers” booklets were a primary part of our marketing communications budget. Back then, we called it thought leadership marketing, Read More
4 Top Strategies to Drive Revenue & Cut Costs
If you’re like most marketers, chances are you have a clear mandate to drive more revenue while lowering your cost per lead. How do you do that? Sure, everyone knows that online marketing (social, email, digital, search, content) can be less expensive than traditional marketing communications channels, but online marketing costs are rising, too. In fact, if you work in some industries — like insurance, financial services, health care, the legal profession, or high technology — the costs for the most popular keywords used in search marketing are increasing so rapidly that even big brands are feeling the squeeze. Take Read More
Optimize Customer Engagement via Data & Technology
Forrester Research Analyst Ellen Carney teamed up with KBM Group’s Lindsey Resnick last week for a webinar titled, “Marketing Life Insurance in a Customer-Driven Environment: Optimize Customer Engagement via Data & Technology.” Don’t let the long title fool you: it was one of the most important webinars we’ve seen this year in terms of providing great data that marketers need right now. You can view the entire webinar online by clicking here, but here are a few of the highlights that we thought would be of special interest to marketers. Consumer Experience Emerges as a Key Revenue Driver Ellen Carney presented quite Read More
