eCommerce Marketing Advice from Top Industry Experts [INFOGRAPHIC]

Check out this infographic loaded with tips and tricks on how to identify your niche, build your product, create content that your customers love and utilize social media to grow your eCommerce business.

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Marketing Automation Best Practices: Advanced Level

The last in a three-part series, this post details marketing automation best practices for those with an advanced knowledge of the subject area.

Disclaimer: This article is not for the beginner; it is specifically written for those who have already been using marketing automation for some time, and are very proficient. The techniques I will be going over will not work unless you have a solid foundation in your marketing acumen.

If you are at the advanced level, some of the main items you may struggle with are taking advantage of advanced marketing techniques, and combining them with your data from your marketing automation tool. These techniques include account-based marketing, retargeting, and social media interactions. Here are some of the best practices for marketing automation when working with advanced campaigns.

Marketing Automation Best Practices for Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing and marketing automation are a key combination for many businesses selling B2B. The key here is not to look at these solutions as separate tools, but as a combination approach. Consider these best practices for your account-based marketing programs using your marketing automation tool.

The Difference Between Truth and Facts Is Vocabulary

In order to satisfy insights consumers, shift your vocabulary and draw them into the conversation with you.

A year and a half ago, I wrote "It's Not an Exact Science" for ClickZ. For those of you who want the "too long; didn't read" version, it goes like this: Get comfortable with fuzzy numbers.

The Internet may be the most measured, but not the most measurable.

• Direct mail is much more measurable 
• Direct sales is much more measurable
• Telemarketing is much more measurable 
• Infomercials are much more measurable

We thought:

• Advertising clicks delineate impression impact
• Search keywords reveal actual intent
• On-site behavior exposes individual desires
• Social media sentiment delivers exact brand sentiment

We were wrong.

Advertising and marketing are not exact sciences. Humans are not rational. Analysts are not accountants; we are statisticians. We deal in probabilities and likelihoods. We create models and "All models are wrong, but some are useful." 

Knowledge, cognition, ingenuity, creativity, and inspiration will always be in demand.

This article came back to me as I was contemplating the next step: So what can an analyst do about it? How do you change your behavior in order to make other people more understanding that we do not deal in facts? We actually do not know how many people actually showed up on our website or Facebook page and never will.

Our job is to get others to understand that we deal in probabilities and not facts. We are not Sergeant Joe Friday from Dragnet. ("Just the facts, ma'am.")

To do that, we need to change how we present insights to insights consumers. We should not offer proof. We should not try to win them over to the obvious by displaying the awesomeness of our logic. Instead, bring them along gently.

Insights consumers are pressed for time. They want answers. When we start to explain the unreliability of the data and the importance of the sample size, we lose them. That's when they tell you to just give them the data and they'll figure it out.

But we know these decision-makers are so thirsty for knowledge they will disregard our educated approach.

"Conducting data analysis is like drinking a fine wine. It is important to swirl and sniff the wine, to unpack the complex bouquet and to appreciate the experience. Gulping the wine doesn't work." - Daniel B. Wright

So here's my advice: Shift your vocabulary and draw them into the conversation. This second step is critical because they know more about their domain than the analyst. The analyst may know more about the data, but this is where correlation and statistical anomalies meet experience, gut feel, and common sense. Analysts do sometimes come to a conclusion based on the data that is simply a coincidence using a model that was not as useful as hoped.

The domain expert can look at a perfectly logical revelation and counter it with:

• "Of course movies starting with the letter A are more popular - we list them alphabetically."
• "Of course online sales took a jump the week in that region - there was a five-day blizzard."
• "Of course we sold more low-end laptops that day - our competitor's website was down."

Once you have a clearer understanding of their expertise, shift your vocabulary. Mimic the argot of the weather prognosticator who talks about a chance of showers. Use the vernacular or the gambler running the odds. Follow the lead of doctors who talk about relative health risks.

Don't let the business side of the house even think that you are giving them the absolute correct answer to a formula. Frame your insights in the language of probability:

• The data suggests...
• It seems more likely...
• One could conclude ...
• Based on the data, it feels like...
• If I were placing bets after seeing this ...

Image Source: Math Is Fun

And then, draw them into the supposition process.

• Doesn't that seem logical?
• Does that meet or challenge your thoughts?
• Do you think it means this or that?

It shouldn't take long to get them to see you as an advisor and not a report writer. And remember, the longer they refuse to listen to your informed opinion based on the data, the more likely they probably are to face a higher risk of losing their jobs.

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Organic Facebook Reach Throttle: The Good News for Brands

If you know what organic Facebook Reach is, you’ve probably already heard that Facebook is throttling the results for brands.  This doesn’t mean that they’re turning it off entirely, but if this Valleywag article is to be believed, your brand’s content will now only reach 1-2% of your followers.  (If you want to know more about Reach or why our Swedish Facebook expert thinks it’s the most important metric on Facebook, the hyperlinked article will help you out.)

To put it simply, Facebook Reach is the same thing as “impressions” in a traditional media source.  It’s the number of people exposed to your content – and it’s how you get Engagement (and on Facebook, Engagement’s by-product is word-of-mouth marketing).  In the past, Reach was earned media: we were able to get those eyeballs in the Newsfeeds of the folks who Liked us on Facebook, simply by posting content on our own owned media (our Page).  And the more people who engaged with the content, the more other folks saw it – not just through the shares and their specific activity feeds (which is more earned media for us, i.e. the holy grail of social media marketing), but because Facebook Story Bumping rewards content marketing engagement by keeping popular content up at the top of relevant user Newsfeeds.

1) Pay for placement.

2) Engage good influencers, and they will share your content.

And the truth of the matter is that both of these tactics force us to be better at content marketing.

And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Organic Facebook Reach – It Ain’t Free Anymore

This is what everyone is moaning about: yep, Facebook wants us to pay for real estate that we used to get for free.  And, to be fair to the brands here, Facebook has put on a real dog and pony show over the past several years to convince companies that building up their followers is a great idea and that the big payoff is the earned media that we were getting in those Newsfeeds.

That being the case, Facebook has somewhat pulled the rug out from under the brands.  This could have been handled better from a communications standpoint.

The reality, though, is that all free rides are bound to end.  Facebook is a business, and it’s going to monetize wherever it can.  The big question that brands are going to have to ask themselves now is whether or not they’ve seen enough evidence that Facebook as a marketing channel is actually worth a spend; Facebook, obviously, feels that its value has been proven.

Now, whether that $200 was worth 4500 to reach is up to them to decide; this was an awareness campaign and their metrics are up to them.  Doing a spend on Promoted Posts is advertising, friends, and while we have more tracking on this spend as compared to a billboard campaign, unless you’re actually prompting a click you’re taking a leap of faith that brand awareness is a worthy endeavor.  (The social marketing ROI post explains that, too.)

ut there is a truth that we marketers who are bummed out by this change  need to admit to ourselves:

Marketers know from experience that people don’t value free things as much as they should.

And this includes us.  So, perhaps – if we’re really honest with ourselves – we’ve been a little more lax than we need to be in our own content marketing strategy.  After all, until now we could just throw up pictures of cats (um – those actually work – keep doing that) and any other thing we so chose, and if it didn’t work – *shrug.*  Facebook was great for content experimentation for that reason.  Now, we’re going to have to consider where we’re putting a spend – and that means we’ll have to start to ask ourselves questions like “Is this post worth paying money to promote?”

And, if the answer is no, perhaps the next question we should be asking ourselves is, “Then is it worth the disruption to someone’s activity feed in the first place?”

Now, perhaps I’m just overly optimistic to think that better content will come out of this change, but hey: I’m an upbeat girl.

Influencer Marketing is the New Organic Facebook Reach

In the last few months, we’ve been talking a lot about influencer marketing – and our earned social media article is now the underscore to the article you’re reading.   Now that Facebook Reach is primarily a paid advertising channel, influencer marketing becomes more important than ever: your Page’s content may not show up in your followers’ Newsfeed without your dollars, but an actual person’s content will still show up to their followers, even if it’s yours.

Using influencers in lieu of paid placement isn’t a bad thing: people are much more likely to pay attention to something that’s shared by an actual person in their network anyway, and social media marketing is a discipline that’s best done by real people acting like real people.  That being said, it is of course more work to build up a personal network of influencers and lobby for spend dollars and really track that spend and make sure that the content you’re putting out there is actually worth (1) money, or (2) an influencer’s time…

And all of that should lead to better content marketing.  And better content is never a bad thing.

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Nielsen: TV and Online Advertising Will Merge by 2020

TV and online advertising remain separate for now, but the increasing digital viewing, technological innovation, and new measurement capabilities are driving the two divided structures toward integration, according to Nielsen and Simulmedia.

A recent report, "The Data-Driven Future of Video Advertising," by the two companies reveals that in the past seven years, video advertising has become a significant component of online advertising and is expected to garner more than $5.72 billion ad spend in the U.S. this year. And TV companies are looking to become key players in the future of video advertising.

Meanwhile, TV as an ad platform started absorbing many characteristics of online advertising, particularly its rich data and audience metrics, while online advertising needs resonance and reaction measurements in TV advertising to go beyond reach-based advertising mechanisms, the report says.

However, Nielsen points out that the huge demand for multi-screen video campaigns and the need for new measurement capabilities do not necessarily indicate an immediate and full convergence of TV and online advertising, due to several reasons, including:

• TV consumption maintains supremacy. According to Nielsen, 283 million Americans spend an average of more than 146 hours watching TV per month, compared to 150 million watching video on the Internet. 
• Collecting accurate data about consumption habits of TV is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and expensive, while online video content is much easier to measure.
• Trust and human relationships are important in the process of buying and selling TV advertising, as most senior TV media buyers have known each other and been working together for decades. However, this human factor is not a consideration in online advertising transactions, because online advertising can be bought and sold through programmatic ad-buying platforms.
• Although some traditionally TV-focused agencies incorporate digital video content in their advertising purchases, online video advertising is usually bought by digital agencies that purchase online display ads, social media programs, and search advertising - they are different from traditional TV buying.

So just how quickly will the two separate structures converge? Nielsen and Simulmedia make a prediction as shown in the infographic below:

You can download the full report from Nielsen to see more findings.

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Where Is Content Marketing Headed in 2014? [INFOGRAPHIC]

As the year 2013 comes to an end, marketing experts and internet professionals are taking a look forward to what the marketing terrain will be like in the year 2014, especially in the area of content marketing.

2013 has experienced a lot of innovative changes as far as marketing is concerned. There were a whole lot of new tools and conventions to deal with. But in all of these content marketing stood out! Today, content marketing is not just a buzz word but something that every business now takes as a MUST.

For example, in a recent survey conducted by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute, it was revealed that 93% B2B organizations now use content-based tactics for their marketing campaigns while 73% indicated they now produce more content than the previous year!

These are not mean figures. They are definitely an indication of what to expect in content marketing trends for 2014. The following infographic from Uberflip gives a concise view of what the trends will be like in content marketing in 2014.

So, whether you are a B2B or B2C business and you are among those who intent drive out-standing results for your content marketing spend in  2014 then you need to study this infographic very carefully because you will definitely get something from it!

Enjoy!

So, how are you preparing to make good use of what the experts say about the content marketing in 2014?

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5 Content Marketing Myths That Need to Die

In 2013 content marketing has finally progressed from a buzzword to a legitimate mainstream marketing strategy, and we can expect more such validation in 2014. If you're a brand thinking about investing in content marketing, don't fall for any of these content marketing misconceptions.

Myth 1: Content Marketing is Easy (Compared to Other Forms of Promotion)

Content marketing relies on the Know-Like-Trust factor, and as anyone who's ever been in any kind of relationship will attest, building trust is never easy. It takes a lifetime to build and a moment's carelessness to destroy.

While consumer relationships with brands may not always be this intense, building trust is usually an incremental process. Each piece of content you create adds another layer to the KLT pyramid.

In fact, advertising is much easier in the sense that campaigns are created, run their duration, and results are measured. In content marketing, though, you're essentially creating a lifetime campaign for however long your business will function and as such there's no end date, although there are plenty of milestones for measurement.

Trust, once lost, is much harder and painstaking to regain. Just ask British Petroleum.

On the flip side, content marketing proves again and again that companies who provide transparency and authenticity, both crucial factors for trust-building, may find a more forgiving consumer base when things go awry. Just ask Buffer.

No, content marketing isn't easy, but it is ever-so-rewarding!

Myth 2: Content Marketing Doesn't Take Much Time

"Lack of time" is cited as the top challenge facing B2B marketers, according to the 2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends report. And it's true. Let's briefly go through some of the processes involved in content marketing.

• Content strategy development: This could include keyword analysis, market research, SEO, website audit, content audit, resources audit, and more. 
• Constant content creation: This is time-intensive, thought-intensive and labor-intensive. 
• Content distribution and promotion: This includes heavyweight time investments such as social media marketing, email marketing, and search marketing. 
• Content performance measurement: This includes analyzing content marketing output against success metrics.

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6 Important Mobile App Features for Your Business

From small businesses to large scale corporate companies, Mobile has become the latest frontier. Entrepreneurs now seem to delve more into building a mobile application for their business instead of investing in a mobile friendly version of their website.

The mobile app world offers countless applications, but generating an application that actually adds value to your business is the major challenge. Some applications actually facilitate in creating great revenue for their businesses. Here are 6 important mobile application features that every business must consider.

1 – Social Integration

Integrating social media sharing has become a necessity for every mobile application. The crowd over social media will share almost everything they feel passionate about. Use Facebook or any other social media platform to allow your user to sign up, like, comment or share posts about various events, making it simple for the users to remain engaged with your application.

2 – Allow Customization

Make sure that the users feel safe and comfortable using your app. Allow them to customize the app the way they like it, by choosing colors, fonts and most importantly if it happens to be a social application, allow them to get a strong hand on the privacy settings. This way it gives users the opportunity to alter the application to the way they like it.

Does social media drive ROI? Many brands are still plagued by this question.

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