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It is not so much a revolution but a rapid evolution and digital transformation. The growth of digital media, the convergence of paid, owned and earned media practices and the rapid growth and adoption of mobile and video have fueled change in the way we work in 2013. If you add to this equation the technological changes and innovation and the catalyst that is social media and content marketing it becomes apparent that dealing and adapting to change is a digital marketing necessity rather than the option that it used to be.
Augmented reality (AR), which overlays text, images, or video over physical objects, is one of those technologies that gets marketers really excited. In recent years, it's been used to create engaging advertising campaigns by brands as diverse as DreamWorks, Bloomingdale's, and Elizabeth Arden. But despite the pizzazz of AR-powered creative, it's still a novelty and marketers aren't entirely sure how it translates into ROI.
In 2012 smartphone users downloaded about 45 billion apps, which doubled compared to the previous year. There are more than 7 billion people on Earth, which makes on average 6,4 app downloads per person. This is a fast growing business with no doubt. By 2016 the number of app downloads is predicted to grow up to 300 billion or at least 10x the amount of 2011 year downloads. At the same time the demand for paid apps has decreased by one %.
In 2012, the Encyclopedia Britannica – the go-to source for information for more than 200 years – announced it would no longer print its pricey reference books. It makes sense – why pay nearly $1,400 for a set of books when Google is free? Technology has changed the way we access information, including how we respond to advertising and marketing. We can record our favorite TV shows and skip through commercials. We can install pop-up blockers to keep pesky ads from annoying us while we’re online. And many people can’t even recall a time when they answered a “land line” and took a survey about their product preferences. Unlike the leather-bound reference books of yore, marketing departments are still relevant. But in order to be successful, they need to learn how to transition to inbound marketing.
If you look through the tech section of any newspaper, or spend any amount of time online, you are almost certainly familiar with the expression “augmented reality.” Used in everything from military exercises to sportscasts on national television, augmented reality (AR) applications have quickly become part of our everyday lives. But what exactly is augmented reality? In simple terms, it’s a view of the real world that has been enhanced by computer-generated graphics, text or sound. While we may not be familiar with the definition of AR, we are certainly familiar with some its applications. That yellow first down marker we see during televised football games is a classic and enduring example of AR. So is the data that is superimposed on the visor of a fighter pilot as he gazes out of his cockpit window. But while these are two of the better known AR applications, they have recently been joined by thousands of others. Faster processing speeds and better data delivery networks have combined to bring AR to every aspect of our daily existence. Here are just 5 areas where AR is leaving its mark:
The World Wide Web and permission based inbound marketing continues to revolutionize the marketplace and you can only ignore it at your own peril. It is pretty obvious that people are more and more averse to being interrupted by some marketing message and this will tend to annoy them rather than put them in the right mood to buy from you.
Local SEO is probably one of the toughest on-line marketing strategies to implement. This is partly because of Google’s strict local algorithm, which takes into account several factors. Long gone are the days where you could build a large amount of links and expect your local business to rank on the first page. Link building is one of multiple factors that Google takes into consideration when placing you on the coveted first page of a local search result (7 Pack). The purpose of this article is to provide readers with quick action steps on how to place your local business at the top of the local SERPS (search engine results page).
Today’s blog post comes courtesy of Jonathan Dempster, a digital strategist based in Leeds, UK. He is focused on providing marketers the tools to justify their marketing spend by understanding the customer journey from online to offline channels. Inbound marketing, especially for B2B companies, is difficult to get right. With so many online social outlets, content strategies, and performance metrics, knowing where to begin is a significant challenge. It is important to get the basics right. Once you have a manageable campaign, you can begin to piece together the parts of your marketing puzzle. A well developed marketing strategy enables you to more effectively drive inbound leads to your website. Here are four tips that can get you started.
. There is a continuing disconnect with people’s personal use of the internet and how they then apply digital marketing to promote their business. The company CEO will use Google for researching and buying a new car but when it comes to optimizing his web site for ranking high in Google he struggles to see the value and perceives that building a website is all he needs to do to be “found online” and generate mountains of cash. Read more here...
Full-service restaurant operators are aware that societal and technological changes are affecting the way people communicate and interact. We’ve become more visual than we have ever been before, helped along by sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. That’s why deploying digital signage (DS) to help evolve your restaurant’s brand and tell a visual story about who you are and how and what you serve makes sense. It’s not only a smart move; it brings you closer to the way people communicate with each other today.
.Marketers are not typical consumers: They're more likely than other online consumers to explore new digital environments, own a smartphone, and use various digital media frequently. Consequently, marketers can lose touch with the people they're trying to reach, according to a study by ExactTarget. Below, additional findings from ExactTarget's new "Subscribers, Fans, and Followers" study titled "Marketers From Mars," which polled online consumers and marketers about their use of digital media.
While the concept of steering marketing communications towards a small number of influential networkers was suggested as far back as the 1950s, it has been in the age of Web 2.0 that it has truly taken flight. As social networks continued to grow rapidly, so has interest in influence. Global companies are realising the importance of targeting high profile bloggers, journalists and celebrities, and have increasingly sought to reach out to these influencers for endorsement and to drive word-of-mouth about the brand. But FMCG brands like Snickers can easily identify popular celebrity bloggers, businesses in other fields can have a harder task to find relevant influencers. To cater for this, a new wave of influencer scoring, based on social media analytics, has emerged, most notably Klout, Kred and PeerIndex.
Mobile phones and particularly the increasing adoption of smartphones, continue to change how people receive information, consume content and engage with others. To take advantage of the opportunities presented by these mobile devices and their expanded functionality and create an effective mobile marketing strategy, marketers must understand how consumers use them and what the implications are for content marketing, promotions, communications and purchase channels. Here are twenty-five charts of the latest research sourced from a variety of organizations to enable you to better understand how the mobile landscape has evolved so you can incorporate these changes into your marketing plans.
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One of the greatest aspects of being a marketer is that, in most professions, sitting around the office thinking up bad puns, penning snarky double entendres, or storyboarding cat videos would be considered goofing off. In marketing, that’s called “work.” There are three kinds of marketing data analysts: those who can count and those who can’t. If a book about failures doesn’t sell, is it a success? I once saw a subliminal advertising executive, but only for a second.
What does it mean that some people, instead of just saying “by the way,” use its acronym “btw” (which actually takes fewer syllables than saying the entire phrase, fyi)? Some may say that it’s sad evidence that our language is being polluted, while others may say it’s just a reflection of modern times. Which ever side of the language debate you’re on, there’s no denying that the Internet has changed how we speak and talk. Here are a few things that have happened to the English language, thanks to the wonder of the world wide web.
The world of professional services is relationship based. It always has been and it always will be. Clients work with firms that they know well and that they trust, and this is precisely why cold calling has such a low percentage success rate. The challenge with this notion is that you are limited to your network. Firms that rely on referral leads can only grow so quickly because one can only develop so many personal relationships. Fortunately, because of the Internet, there is another way to meet new prospects and build trust.
Every day we hear more experts preaching the gospel of podcasting as a content marketing tool. It’s a very enticing sermon. We get to have our own cute little pre-recorded radio show our audience can listen to when they’re working out or driving in the car. But how is a podcast supposed to help grow our business? In theory, podcasts create brand fanatics, people who are deeply invested in who we are as people and as business professionals. This is essence of long-form content marketing. Every minute that a customer or prospect listens to us speak with authority we’re establishing ourselves as a thought-leader. Conceptually the more time our audience spends with our content the more authority we have as content marketers. According to Google Analytics the average visitor to my website stays for two minutes and seven seconds. According to Stitcher {popular alternative to iTunes} the average podcast listener stays for twenty two minutes. If you believe the concept that the time our audience spends in front of our content builds authority then by these statistics I would have to produce 11 blog posts to equal just one podcast. Podcasts place the ideas and expertise that establish us as an authority in front of our audience for a longer period of time per interaction. From a business content marketing strategy, this is why we podcast.
Social media is no longer a reminder or subsidiary medium. To understand and invest in this medium, marketer need to have a strategy in place, risk appetite in case of failure and a measurement system which is in sync with the brand objective. Dos and don’ts of social media have been chalked out quite a lot of times. However, experts express that to make the medium a permanent part of the media mix without risking RoI, there are a few business rules that they can keep in mind.
I have returned from the fiery abyss of writing my first eBook and uploading it on Kindle, and I bring you this message: It’s not that bad. But why write and publish an eBook? If you’re an online marketer, entrepreneur, writer, blogger, or maybe a chef, what’s the point? Here’s what I’ve found: It’s time to prove your authority. You have an incredible, life-changing idea? You won’t find a better time for your words to spread like wildfire to inspire and empower, if executed correctly.eReaders nearly doubled from December 2011 to January 2012. 1 in 4 Americans are now using some kind of tablet (iPad, Nook, Kindle) that is capable of reading eBooks (The Kindle reading app is also available on nearly every smartphone, more on this below).If you already have an established platform — or want to build one — this eBook will fortify all your other online marketing efforts. The opportunities to grow and expand your business or ideas through publishing an eBook are limitless. With a insightful, compelling eBook, your words can instill valuable wisdom, actions, stories and ideas that can build trust and relationships with your audience. If you follow the seven steps below, you’ll never have to read another article on publishing to Amazon’s Kindle platform ever again. Let’s get started …
So why should a small business either develop or strengthen its presence online? Clearly the world of technology, digital marketing and social media is having a significant impact on how we behave socially, act as consumers and how we do business so it could be fair to say that any business that does not adapt to the new era of marketing and communications is in danger of losing out. However, it may be prudent not to blinker your vision and miss out on any traditional media that your customers and prospects use and what currently works. It could be that a blended strategy of traditional and digital marketing can still yield returns for your business. Here are 10 suggested benefits of Digital Marketing v. Traditional Marketing:
Most of us who are content creators love to write. And we are pretty good at organizing and layout out content in ways that are useful and helpful to our customers. But as good as we may be at creating digital content, many of us are weak when it comes to marketing what we’ve created. It’s just not what we like to do. We create our stuff, we say a little prayer, and hope that the sales roll in. Need I say that weakness in marketing is a problem if you want to create income from your digital content? One of my first coaches, Ali Brown, set me straight by saying early on “if you refuse to become just as great at marketing as you are at your craft, your business will fail. Learn to love it.” That strong statement made me blink back then. I’m a good student, and in the years since then I’ve come to realize that half the battle of marketing is building into your product certain components that actually help you to market. Here are 3 ways to make your marketing easy when you’re ready to launch your digital content into the world:
Although digital marketing is considered to be a relatively new industry, many of the theories underlying it have been around for almost 90 years and are still generating sales for some of the web’s biggest brands. In 1923, Claude C Hopkins wrote Scientific Advertising, one of the most valued resources in the advertising industry. Hopkins pioneered split testing of his ads and defined a set of principles which, when applied to digital marketing can increase both traffic and conversions. This article will give you some great insight and practicle ideas which you can put into practice straight away. Enjoy... .
Integrated digital marketers (IDMs) rely heavily on data analytics to track campaign performance over website, social, and mobile channels. To ensure each initiative is achieving the desired effect, they may track various performance management metrics, including website bounce rates; keyword performance rankings; eMail open rates; landing page conversions; visitor-to-lead, lead-to-customer, and customer retention ratios; and ad click-through-rates and costs-per-impression. Striving for perfection, IDMs rely heavily on user data to compare marketing initiatives with real-world results. In other words, they keep their EAR to the ground. Here are three ways to do the same: .
Last month, this author wrote about "How to Tell if Your Agency Sucks at Digital" and tips for selecting an agency that actually knows digital and can demonstrate their knowledge about it. Here he focuses on digital strategy and ensuring that the marketing tactics to be deployed are the right ones and will work in a unified manner to drive optimal impact on business objectives.
Today Holiday Inn, official hotel provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, unveils the world’s first Augmented Reality Hotel which features a host of Britain’s top athletes. Hotel guests can use their smartphones or tablets to see London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic stars in virtual action in the reception, corridors and bedrooms of the Holiday Inn London Kensington Forum.
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