Turning Google Analytics Data into Dollars and Sense
Since its release in November 2005, Google Analytics (GA) has continually provided marketing teams with a wide range of data to help them understand just how users interact online with their business. GA now offers everything from real-time analytics, multi-channel funnels to social media and mobile tracking. More often than not, marketers approach the Vertical Nerve Analytics team and just want to know, “What terms, numbers and metrics should I really focus on?” Although the answer varies from business to business, these are some of our top tips for success in Google Analytics. Regular Account Auditing When was the last Read More
Four Signs You Need Marketing Automation
Marketing is a complex process that relies on many systems, people, and resources to function smoothly. If one part of the system breaks down, it creates a bottleneck that slows down the whole process. Add in the layers of complexity that come with a multi-channel distributed marketing environment, and the results can be a maze that is hard to navigate and costly to manage. Often, marketing automation is the cure. But how do you know if your marketing processes need a marketing automation fix? Marketing automation may be the cure for what ails your marketing operation if more than two Read More
5 Easy Pieces of Content Marketing Advice
After a recent article on content and influencer marketing, a reader asked for a set of rules they could follow to create their own successful influencer or content marketing campaign, so here they are. These five easy pieces of content marketing advice work whether you apply them to content published in a blog or on a website, to your social media campaigns, or to your email marketing. In fact, we think they’ll work with almost any marketing initiative. Some of them might seem obvious, but you won’t have to look farther than any search engine to find examples of marketers Read More
DAM It All: Automating Content Marketing
Content marketing – that is drawing prospective customers to your site with well-written, valuable audio, video, text or images – is all about delivering the right message to the right customer at the right time, and in the right way. Your marketing content is as much a strategic asset as any other intellectual property your company owns. So it makes sense to treat it like the valuable asset that it is. That’s what digital asset management is all about. A DAM system allows digital asset management through a web-based platform that can be accessed by authorized users. Sometimes called a marketing Read More
Go Google Yourself!
Once upon a time, in the days before social media became ubiquitous, entering your own name into a Google search window was a guilty pleasure called “vanity surfing” or “ego searching”. Everyone did it, but no one talked about it. Today, it’s a requirement for anyone who needs a job, a credit card, or even a potential mate. That’s because if you don’t check out your own online reputation, it’s a dead certainty that other people will. And if you don’t know what’s out there, you don’t have a prayer of correcting a problem that can ruin your reputation for years Read More
12 B2B Ideas for QR Codes
When Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave developed quick response codes in 1994, few realized how powerful a marketing tool they could be. In the last two years QR codes have taken on a life of their own, with B2C marketing usage taking off thanks to smartphones. QR codes have proven to effectively link the offline world to the online universe. But is there a place for these treasure troves of information in B2B marketing? You bet! Here are some actionable B2B ideas on how to use QR codes to attract prospects to your business: Business cards are the simplest means of Read More
Reducing Bounce Rates for Websites & Blogs
Bounce rate is the measurement for the number of visitors who leave a website or blog within seconds of their arrival. I like to call it the “THAT isn’t what I wanted” metric. Sometimes the bounce rate is a problem – and sometimes it isn’t. You can find the bounce rate easily for any webpage or blog that has Google Analytics installed; the graphic below shows what a typical Google Analytics bounce rate table looks like. For instance, blogs can often have a higher bounce rate than other websites because people come to read a particular short post – and Read More
Influence Marketing Tips from Hobbiton & Hogwarts
Most marketers would agree that finding and persuading the individuals who shape markets is critical. Word of mouse — the online buzz that comes when key influencers are tweeting, chatting, and posting about a product – is often the difference between an industry leading brand and a laggard. If you’re looking for a bit of magic to boost results in your 2012 marketing efforts, you might want to follow the lead of magic makers like J.K. Rowling and Peter Jackson, who ignored traditional media in favor of wooing and winning the hearts of social media and Internet influencers. Author J.K. Rowling Read More
Content Marketing Increases Despite Skeptics
Digital lead generation through content marketing was once viewed as an expensive and unproven technique. As recently as 2010, surveys showed that up to a third of executives were unsure that the strategies were worth their time according to a recent article by Nicholas Kinports. That’s not far from the results that we got when we surveyed 190 U.S. and Canadian marketers with the title CMO, Vice President, Sr. Vice President, or Director of Marketing several months ago. In our survey, 45% of the marketers surveyed said that they used content marketing as a lead generation tool, but 55% did Read More
5 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid
If there are any marketers out there who don’t have social media marketing on their 2012 marketing plan, they’re a definite minority. Nearly everyone agrees that it’s among the most cost-effective tools available to us. But there are five common social media mistakes that can be quite costly – so make sure that you plan now to avoid them in 2012. Posting sporadically or inconsistently. Social media, like blogging, is a marathon – not a sprint. Even if your very first blog post or tweet gets tons of clicks, there’s no guarantee that the next one will do the same. Measurable Read More
