Archive for January, 2011
I am reading a fascinating book The Chocolate Wars by Diana Cadbury, a direct descendant of the founders of a famous chocolate company bearing that same eponymous name.
The book traces the history of the chocolate industry and the prosperous rise of many Quaker families and their ethical approach to business, guided by their own rule of law based on honesty, integrity and good governance. Interestingly, in the 19th century, Quakers were banned from Oxford and Cambridge, which were the only
January 27, 2011
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I’ve been to three customer sites in the last week or so to discuss marketing challenges posed by social media.
What has been obvious is the variety of job titles I’ve met with, that in 17+ years of traditional marketing and PR I wouldn’t have necessarily come across. At least, not in the same room, nor at the same time.
Meetings have involved operations, product development, customer service and community managers. All have a role to play in social media, all can benefit, but al
January 25, 2011
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2010 has been a year where, if not widespread, adoption of marketing automation began to accelerate. Many enterprise organisations we talk to have begun to deploy global rollouts or at least have purchased trials or pilot systems.
However there is certainly a 'dipping our toe in the water' feel to many organisations’ approach, and initial benefits seem to be focused around operational efficiencies, such as deploying the numerous email communications around a webinar series. Both Act-On an
January 17, 2011
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No - it’s not that I’m tired of IT managers, more that they just might be tired of us marketers.
A recent analysis of a client’s campaigns showed that 90% of activity was focused at one job title: the IT manager within its target industry sectors. Now, the IT manager is obviously a key prospect of technology service providers when it comes to marketing, but the default for technology marketers seems to be to target the generic IT manager. Equally, similar can be said for C-level, where
January 11, 2011
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Increasing the number of sales-ready leads should be the top priority for all marketers, but unfortunately many leads generated from digital marketing or a company’s website will not be ready to talk to a sales person.
Most website visitors will simply have arrived to start gathering more information and enhance their understanding, so to even define them as leads could be over-exaggerating their status.
Our surveys show 45% of potential prospects go astray when marketing departments pa
January 6, 2011
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For those of you reviewing 2011 plans right now, we asked a few senior marketing directors “what are your marketing considerations for 2011”?
Unusually no single answer was the same, a PR person’s nightmare, so we won’t even try to spin the answers. Rather, here are just a choice excerpts to provide some insight to areas of focus next year:
“If you don’t know your customers and prospects, their interests, pain points and needs – how can you build a professional relationship w
January 4, 2011
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